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Thursday, June 19, 2008
7:59:04 AM EDT
Feeling Hopeful
A Blessing in Disguise
Hubby came to the rescue last night. He put a photo gallery thingy on a website he had made for me years ago. So now I can fix the pictures and they should stay fixed.
Even better is that it's faster and easier to use for me that Shutterfly was.
And an extra plus... now when you click on a picture, it takes you to the photo gallery and you can see the rest of the pics (including the ones I didn't post) and you can see a bigger version of any of them for more detail. (Look at the top-right above the picture to choose other sizes.)
And I don't have to do anything different than I did before.
I have a couple of the recipes fixed up and I'll be fixing the rest of the photos as soon as I can.
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Wednesday, June 18, 2008
5:26:58 PM EDT
Pic problems
Shutterfly has really sucked lately, it shrinks all the pics down!...I will be redoing all my pictures yet again! I am sick of having to fix the pictures every time i go on. I will use photobucket from now on. The pics will be fixed this week sometime on this journal. Please come back and check then! My apologies!
Written by breakaway1968
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Thursday, April 3, 2008
10:43:00 PM EDT
Bourbon Chicken
This recipe is a wonderful! This has been posted in my other journal but wanted to add it here as well.
You Need:
1
1/2 lbs chicken thighs/legs or both, cut into bite-size pieces * U can
use breast for this too but the darker meat taste much better in this
dish.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ginger (fresh or dry)
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup apple juice..we used pineapple juice
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1 16 oz bag of broccoli Cole Slaw
1 small can of water chestnuts.
Marinate the chicken thighs for 12-24 hours in Terriaki sauce in a gal size bag.
Cook
chicken thighs for 2-3 hours at 350 in the same sauce or until
tender...let cool and take meat off bones and chop into small pieces. Set aside.
Get rice cooker out and rice started OR follow box rice directions if using reg rice and not the rice cooker. (see bottom of entry for pics)
Put your bag of veggies in steamer along with the can of water chestnuts. Start steaming on high.
Heat these ingredients in large skillet:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ginger (fresh or dry)
3/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup apple juice..we used pineapple juice
1/3 cup light brown sugar
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup light soy sauce
Stir all this until well dissolved.
Add chicken, heating over medium Heat (should be a hard boil) for about 15-20 min.
The finished chicken mixture:
Serve over hot rice and ENJOY.
This
won't look like it would be enough liquid but you don't need much at
all! It's very tasty over the rice and has plenty of flavor without a
lot of liquid.
There was no veggies in this original recipe so we got the pre-bagged veggie mix. It's made by Mann's sunny shores
and is called Broccoli Cole Slaw (I added this to the directions) and
it has hearts of broccoli, carrots, and red cabbage all in the bag
ready to be steamed.
It goes perfect with this!! We also add a can of
water chestnuts after browning them a bit. Delicious!! If you can't
find that bag mix then I would just steam some broccoli and water
chestnuts and maybe some shredded carrots. This dish really needs the
veggies to be a balanced meal and for the taste as well. Let me know
if you make it and how you likedit.
We
also have the Rice cooker purchased from Wal-mart for under 20
bucks...it does a FABULOUS job at cooking rice. Perfect every time!
We use three of the cups that come with the cooker and it's perfect for
this meal. All you do is add the rice, put water to the number mark on
side...3 for 3 cups, 4 for four cuts etc...and then turn it
on...simple!
If you start the rice, start the veggies in a
steamer, and start the main dish simmering all at the same time it will
be done at the same time. I had everything ready the night before and
just threw it all together in the morning...or whenever you want to eat
it.
Written by breakaway1968
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Monday, March 31, 2008
Friday, March 7, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
9:31:26 PM EST
Homemade Bread
This is made with a Kitchen Aid Mixer but you can do it by hand too :) First I will start with the ingredients to make 2 loaves of bread. Just cut in half to make only one.
½ C low fat milk
3 T sugar + (1 t (use during bloom))
2 t salt
2 T butter/margarine
1 T olive oil (any brand/type)
2 packets active dry yeast (use during bloom)
1½ C hot tap water + (½ C (use during bloom))
5-6 cups bread flour Or regular flour with gluten mixed in.
First you need to "Bloom" the yeast. Chlorine-treated water (like in most larger cities) can be bad for yeast. If tap water doesn't work, pick up a couple of cheap gallons of water at your local grocery store.
Warm your mixing bowl by running it under hot tap water. Then add ½ C warm water (105-110 degrees; too hot and you'll kill the yeast), 2 packets active dry yeast, and 1 t sugar. Whisk until there are no large chunks. You will see little beady looking things... that's ok.
Let this mixture sit for about 10 min or until it has almost doubled. While the yeast blooms you can get your other ingredients measured out.
Here is a before and after shot of the above mixture:(below)
AFTER: (below)
Here is a little better picture (below) to show how foamy it got. It should almost double in size and be pretty foamy.
Now that you have got your bloom started you have a little time to get your other ingredients together. Start by getting a small bowl (I use old yogurt or applesauce cups that I wash out.) ADD 3 T of sugar and 2 t salt in your little bowl... set this aside. Get 3½ to 4 cups flour in a cup or bowl ready and set this aside. See below:
Next get your wet ingredients ready. I use a 2 cup glass measuring cup which is just right. Measure out 1½ C hot tap water, 2 T softened butter, ½ C milk and 1 T olive oil to your measuring cup. See picture below: Set this asideNOTE: we added the olive oil after playing with the recipe a little and we really liked the difference over just adding 3 T of butter which what the original recipe called for.
Now you have all the ingredients ready to go into your bloomed yeast.
When your yeast is ready, attach your bowl to your mixer. Add your milk-water-butter-oil mixture along with your sugar & salt mixture and your 3-4 cups of flour to the bowl with the bloomed yeast. Start the mixer on speed 2 and let it mix a min. Here is what it will look like once mixed:
Next start adding add another cup and mixing it in thoroughly before adding more.
When your dough starts to "clean" the sides and bottom of the bowl it is almost ready to knead. It's important that you add small amounts of flour at a time (1/2 cup at a time) because things like temperature, humidity, age of theflour, etc. will change how much flour you actually need.
This may take up to 5-6 cups of flour or more total. See the pictures and video towards the end of the entry for tips on how to tell when you've added enough flour:
This is still way to sticky. It should feel a bit like the sticky part of a post-it note, not like this: (below)
Your dough will start climbing the dough hook as it gets thicker... when it does start cleaning the sides of the bowl it is getting really close. If the dough keeps trying to climb over the top of the hook you probably haven't added enough flour yet.
Until you have enough flour in the mix, however, you will have to be careful not to let the dough wrap itself around the mixing arm. We've found that the best way to stop it is to lift the mixer part way out sothe dough works itself down on the hook.
If you don't watch it close enough you could end up having the dough get into the mixing arm spring and pin. Then you have THIS happen (below)! If this does happen then you just need to pull the greased dough off and throw it out.
The dough needs just a little more flour...after you take the greased part off that is ;) If you notice the sides of the bowl are not "clean" yet. In the video below the dough is ready...sides of the bowl are pretty "clean" looking now.
After enough flour is mixed in and the dough is clinging to the hook, cleaning the sides of the bowl, and not sticking to the bottom it's time to knead it. Knead for 2 minutes on speed 2 (or 10 minutes by hand.)
After this is done, remove the dough hook, pat the dough down in your mixing bowl. Then put it inside your oven with a pan of hot tap water on the bottom shelf to rise for one hour or until double in size.
We got the trick of using a pan of hot tap water in the oven from Good Eats. It lets you skip oiling the dough or covering the pan. It also gives it a perfect environment (warm and humid) forthe dough to rise. Usually takes about 40 min this way vs. an hour or more the other way. What I usually do is turn on the oven for about 3 min to get it warm while I get my pan full of hot water in.
While waiting for the first rise get your bread pans ready. I spray mine with cooking spray and add a little yellow corn meal to the bottom.
This is double in size and ready for the next Knead: If it happens to raise a little higher that's ok too.
Stick this back in on the mixer and Knead again for 2 min on speed 2 (or 10 minutes by hand.) We have found that if the dough is sticking to the hook again then there was not enough flour added before. You will get a feel for what it should look like after a few times making the bread. It should come right out of the bowl with not to much effort and not a lot of sticking.
After kneading, rub a little flour on your cutting board (so the dough won't stick.) Take the dough out and set it on your cutting board and try to even it out a bit.
Split your dough in half:
Put one half back in the bowl. Then flatten the other half out just using your hands. You want a slab like the one in the next picture with one end wider than the other.
The wide end should be just slightly wider thanyour bread loaf pan.
Now roll it up starting at the small end and stop with the seam under the loaf:
Tuck each end under so no seams/edges are visible and put into pan:
Now put both loaves in the oven again with a fresh pan of hot tap water for another 40 min or until it looks about like this:
Once the loaves are almost ready take them out and preheat your oven to 400 degrees. (Don't forget to take out the pan of water.)
Once it's preheated put the loaves back in and let bake for 17-20 min. After 18 (for our stove) minutes at 400 degrees this is what you get:
Remove from the bread pans immediately and place on a cooling rack.
Once the loaves have cooled, slice for convenience. (Hubby does a pretty good job without a cutting guide but I think that will still be one of my anniversary presents for him.)
The bread will actually stay a bit fresher for a little longer if you just cut it as needed, but we haven't had a loaf last long enough to matter. Besides, if it starts to get a little stale, it makes the absolutely best French toast I have had in my entire life! (Watch for that recipe - coming soon.)
Now I want to share a little information
about Yeast. If you are just going to use the packets, the rest of this entry doesn't matter, otherwise, read on:
You can buy yeast in a few different
quantities around our area. So far we've
found:
| Package | Cost | Loaves | Cost/Loaf |
|---|
| Packets | 3-pack
for about $2 | 3 | $0.67 | | Jar | 4
oz for over $6 | 16 | $0.38 | Bulk Instant Yeast
(At SamsClub)
| 2
lbs for under $4.50 | 160 | $0.03 |
Instant dry yeast does not need to be bloomed and you need 20% less than active dry yeast.
The packets
are nice because it's easy to always get the right amount of yeast in
each batch. Just use one packet per loaf.
But Cory figured out that the
packets would more than double the cost per loaf. Sure we're only
talking about 64 cents, but we are averaging aloaf a day between our
family and his parent's. That meant an extra $200 or so a year just so
we wouldn't have to measure.From
Cory:
It wasn't as straight forward to switch from the packets
as we thought. On the jar, it said to use 2½ tsp per loaf. But it
also says that the measurement is only approximate because yeast is
measured by weight not volume. After 6 loaves, we had already used
wellover ½ of the jar so we had to figure out how much we REALLY needed
for a loaf. We hardly wanted to have to weigh out the
yeast every time we made bread. Besides, we're talking only ¼ oz
portions and kitchen scales rarely are that accurate.
If you want to
try bulk yeast you can measure out 4 or 8 portions (1 or 2 oz) worth
of yeast and then divide to find out how many tsp you
need. Since our
scale had a grams setting, I used that for a bit more accuracy.
According to a metric conversion website, there are 28.3495 grams in an
oz.
I put a small plastic cup on the scale and zeroed it out. Then I
measured out 14 grams of yeast, one tsp at a time. 14 grams is close enough to ½ oz for our needs. It came
out to 3½ tsp for 14 grams (or 1¾ tsp per loaf.)
We want to be fairly close but
don't need to get obsessed about it. After all, the number of yeast
cells actually in the bread when it's baked probably varies more due to
difference in room temperature, water quality, water temperature, etc. for each batch than the little we might be off when weighing/measuring. We haven't cracked open the vacuum packed bag of instant dry yeast yet. Measuring that stuff should be interesting. It is supposed to be used at 1/5 oz per loaf.
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