French Bread

We are so lucky as a family to have so many good friends. Luckier still, to have those friends going through the same life stages as we are. Now that the weather is getting nicer my hostess bug is starting to itch. I have always loved having friends over, as much as I like going other places for dinner. I think this itch has gotten stronger since becoming a stay at home Mom. While it is the best job in the world, I do lack in adult interaction. I do belong to a couple of parent's groups and have play dates that give me the conversation binges I need during the week, but there is something about having a reason to wash the floors, scrub the sink, and make lots of good food that would be way too much for my husband and I alone. Being able to entertain people, make new recipes, and chat about baby sleep and poop to other parents is priceless.

This past weekend we had two dinners at our house, and took a trip to Homer Lake with John's boss and his family to check out the "natural play area" there. I have an abundance of goat cheese from our local goat farm, as well as some walnuts and local honey. So I decided to make an appetizer of crostini with goat cheese, walnuts and honey. For this, I needed french bread. At one point I may have bought a loaf from the store. Well, what fun is that? So here is my new awesome french bread recipe, as well as my crostini and a fabulous muffaletta sandwich recipe that we took for our family picnic. \

This bread is my own creation. I'm very proud of it!

This is the water, yeast, honey, and vinegar mixture. I mixed it all in the bowl of my stand mixer, and after the yeast was able to proof for 5 minutes or so, I added the rest of my ingredients, which were salt, olive oil, and flour. The amounts of each are listed in the recipe below.

I love a good rise in my dough! Look at how high and bubbly it is!

I made 4 smallish loaves out of this recipe.

Never a bad moment for practicing our letters in the flour on the table.

Here are my fancy slits in the bread. After your oven is preheated to 350 degrees, and the bread has had a chance to rise again, I give them a spritz with water - this will help the crust form that nice "french bread" appearance.

All baked up! Aren't they pretty?

I tried to slice the loaf pretty thin for my crostini. You can see the whole grain goodness on the inside. This bread is also tasty with a slather of butter or some olive oil and parmesan cheese.

Whole Wheat French Bread

2 1/2 cups warm water
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 packets active dry yeast
1 Tbsp salt
1/3 cup olive oil
6-7 cups flour - I used a mixture of whole wheat and white whole wheat flours - about half and half

Combine the warm water, honey, and vinegar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment. Add the yeast and let if proof for about 5 minutes. Then add the salt and olive oil. Mix in 6 cups of flour - I used 3 cups whole wheat flour and 3 cups white whole wheat flour. Add in enough additional flour until the dough is no longer sticking to the sides of the bowl as it kneads. A wet dough is better than a dry dough, so be careful. This dough does best if it is a little sticky. Let the dough hook do its thing for about 5-6 minutes. Then remove the hook and cover with a little oil and seran wrap, and let rise for about an hour. One great thing about summer time is that I don't have to search everywhere for a warm place!

After an hour, punch down the dough and separate it into 4 sections. Roll each section into your desired shape. You can also make 3 larger loaves, 2 really large loaves, or even 2 sandwich loaves. Make slits about an inch deep. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Let rise for another half hour or so, covered with a tea towel. Spritz with water and bake for about half an hour, or until nice and brown on top.

Goat Cheese, Toasted Walnut, and Honey Crostini

1 french baguette, sliced thinly
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Goat cheese - about 4-5 ounces
1/2 cup whole walnuts, toasted (toss with oil, sprinkle with salt, and bake 5-7 minutes)
Honey to drizzle

With a pastry brush, brush olive oil on each side of bread slices to cover the surface. The extra virgin olive oil on the bread gives these a lot of flavor, so don't be skimpy. Toast the crostini in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes. Flip, and bake another 5 minutes or so, or until each side is nicely toasted. Let cool slightly. Spread with goat cheese and then add 2-3 pieces of toasted walnut. Drizzle them all with a generous amount of honey.

Griesbaum Muffaletta

One loaf French Bread
1/2 cup green olives
1/3 cup black olives
1/2 an onion
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
Venison summer sausage, sliced thinly (or traditionally can use salami and other lunch meats
Provolone cheese
Roasted red peppers

Split french bread in half lengthwise and dig out some of the middle. Save this for other uses, like making bread crumbs (or, like me, spread soft butter on it and eat it all while making the sandwich). Combine olives, onion, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper in food processor and process until a chunky paste is made. Spread this on both sides of the baguette. Then layer sausage, provolone cheese, red peppers, and another layer of sausage. As you can see, I was generous with my fillings. Wrap tightly and place in fridge for at least 6 hours (Mine sat over night). Cut into 4 pieces and serve.

Honey Ice Cream

This is the great thing about my Mom. Mother's Day was just upon us, and while I should be the one showering her with presents for being the amazing mother that she is and always has been, she is sending me gifts for being the mother of her grandchildren. While I did send her a gift, flowers, and a yet-to-be-delivered package of fun things, I think she still topped me by getting me not just one present, but two, off my Amazon wish list. One was a cast iron skillet, and the other was an ice cream maker!! I must be turning into my Mother - because I spent Mother's Day showering my own kids with goodies and gifts. In the end, we just want our children to be happy. I am most certainly one proud daughter to be able to say that I am turning into my Mother.

I think I've mentioned before that I could live without ice cream. Now that I can make it myself - why would I ever want to?! Plus I'm not just making ice cream - I want to make gelato, sorbetto, freezes, fro-yo, etc. Perfect for summer. Plus the family loves frozen treats. I wanted my first recipe to be a pretty basic one just to see how the machine worked and to taste some good, pure ingredients in my ice cream. This honey ice cream recipe was perfect because not only did it use honey as the sweetener, but it also used whole vanilla beans, which I had left over from making my extract anyway. I love seeing the little black specks in the finished product - and the taste is amazing!

I think we'll be eating a lot more ice cream in the months to come. It is cool, wet, and you can make it however you want. So get ready, here I go!

Something you should know about me is I really don't like reading directions. I can usually figure things out on my own. In this case, however, that trait bit me in the behind because I was pretty gung-ho about making ice cream one day, just to discover I had to freeze the main compartment for 24 hours!! So I made my cream mixture a good day ahead of time. Oh well, I guess that gave the vanilla a good amount of time to infuse the milk and cream. So if you get an ice cream maker - wash it, and then get the main compartment in the freezer!

I used this recipe from Thank Heavens blog. I only used one vanilla bean and I didn't think the ice cream needed any additional honey on top. Then again, I like subtly sweet things.

You start by heating up the cream, milk, honey, and vanilla beans (with the seeds scraped out)

Gavyn had a blast watching the ice cream being made. He watched it the whole 25 minutes it churned. 

Then after the mixture is completely cool, you put it in the machine and let it go to work! If you just put the cream mixture in the freezer, you would basically get a cream ice cube.

 I strained the vanilla pods out - they are tough. I squished out the tiny vanilla beans though!

Here is the ice cream after churning for 25 minutes. It is now creamy, cold, and has expanded from both freezing and having some air worked into it. It smelled so good.

And here is the first taste! It is a hit all around.

Honey Ice Cream

1 vanilla bean
2 cups cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup honey

Cut the vanilla pod and scrape out the seeds  Put the seeds and the pods into a pot with the cream, milk, and honey. Heat it until it is just about to start bubbling, then take it off the heat. Let it sit for 20 minutes or so and then put it in the fridge to cool for at least 4 hours or over night. It should be completely cold! Strain out the vanilla pod. Add the mixture to your ice cream maker and churn as per the directions for your particular maker. Place in a suitable container and keep in the freezer. It is soft at first but firms up more as it freezes some more. Serve and enjoy!

Vanilla Puddin'

We have never eaten a lot of pudding in this house. It has just never really been at the top of our yummy list. I do enjoy it though - it is creamy and thick and sweet - I may have to eat it a little more often. What's more, is that you can make a lot of great desserts using pudding. A lot of trifles and layered no-bake desserts use pudding and they are all so good!

I have used boxed vanilla pudding for cookie and cake recipes before and I never will again! There is so much junk in there. I think I'll eat my pudding in its pure form as just pudding.

This recipe came out really really good. We all ate it for dessert the night I made it. Since we made it with whole milk and eggs I felt good about Gavyn getting some nutrition in his dessert. It didn't keep all that great though. It was OK the next day, and then it started to separate a little bit, and then it turned kind of runny. So this needs to be used or eaten pretty quick.

I used a Martha Stewart Pudding recipe because I really wanted to use eggs. There are plenty of recipes out there that do not use eggs though. I also played around with trying to use flour instead of cornstarch, but I knew the cornstarch would probably work better and in the end, the two probably contribute the same amount of processing into the mix.

I didn't stray from the recipe at all. As with most things, I was surprised at the ease. You basically just put all the ingredients into a pot and heat it up. You wait until it starts to bubble, and then stir it for a minute and then you are done! It has to cool completely before serving. It thickens up a little more in the fridge as it cools.

You can make all kinds of pudding by adding cocoa powder for chocolate, and different extracts for other flavors.

All the dry ingredients - I used raw sugar

Whisk in all the wet ingredients

Heat it up to a bubble

Cool and Serve!

Vanilla Pudding

Ingredients

• • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (if making chocolate pudding)
  • 2 1/2 cups milk
  • 4 large egg yolks
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl; set aside. In a medium saucepan, off heat, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt. If making chocolate pudding, add cocoa powder. Very gradually (a few tablespoons at a time) whisk in milk, taking care to dissolve cornstarch. Whisk in egg yolks.
2. Whisking constantly, cook over medium heat until the first large bubble forms and sputters. Reduce heat to low; still whisking, cook 1 minute. Remove from heat; immediately pour through sieve into bowl. Stir butter and vanilla into hot pudding.
3. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding (to prevent skin from forming); chill at least 3 hours and up to 3 days. Before serving, whisk pudding until smooth; divide among four serving dishes.

Vanilla extract

For a couple years of my life after college I became a pastry chef. I worked at a little bakery in downtown Champaign making cakes, cookies, and other traditional European desserts. One of my favorite jobs for sure. I love baking - I love that you can create something that not only tastes good, but is beautiful. Most importantly though, it makes people happy. I absolutely love making people happy.

There are so many wonderful things about baking. It is a science for sure - and to get something right is an amazing confidence boost. I can set aside the world and just make something. I imagine it is what an artist feels when they paint, or what a swimmer feels when they are doing laps. I relax - no matter what is going on around me. When I was little my Mom let me lick the bowl and I do the same for my kids. It is a tradition that I hope many households still hold on to.

Then there is the smell. Entering a house that has anything baking - from bread to brownies to custard - there is nothing like it. It smells like home, warmth, and comfort. It smells like Mom and Nana. It lifts the spirits. There are many things that go into that smell - the butter, the chocolate, sometimes the yeast - but nothing competes with vanilla. When I was a little girl I used to stick the vanilla extract bottle right up to my nose when my Mom would use it. Smelling it now always brings such fond memories of baking with her and being a carefree child. Olfactory glands have amazing memories - probably why I find vanilla so comforting.

Did you ever ask to try the vanilla? Surely something that smells so good must taste unbelievable. False. It's awful! It tastes almost as bad as straight vodka. Oh wait....that is exactly what it is. Alcohol. I have no issue with store-bought vanilla extract, except that the good stuff is expensive!! They want me to throw down 5 bucks for a tiny bottle of the stuff that only gets me two batches of cookies? Until now, that is exactly what I have done, because I didn't know better.

Now I know how easy it is to make my own - in large quantities! All you need is vanilla beans and vodka. I'll be honest - I bought the cheap stuff. Maybe it would be worth getting good quality vodka - but I'm trying to save money here. You just split the vanilla beans, which I ordered off Amazon (like I do everything in my life) and place it in the vodka in an appropriate container. This is what I used because it fit the vanilla beans in perfectly.

How my vanilla beans came

Split them with a sharp knife down the center

Fill with vodka!

Starting to infuse...

Ready to use!

I let my vanilla sit for over a month before using it. I just leave the vanilla beans in there - it can only get better with time. Then when I start to get low I can  just add more vodka, and more vanilla beans. I used 7-8 beans for this batch. I've been using it recently and it is everything I would want out of vanilla extract. Soon to come I'll make some vanilla pudding with it and really put it to the test!

While I was playing with vodka - I added some lemon peel to some. Bam - lemon extract. What else can I add to vodka and make magic happen?

Chi-oo poots!

That's "Chicken coops" in toddler. Actually, in Gavyn, since each toddler seems to have their own language. Our chickens have arrived! John worked hard last week getting the coops fixed up and ready for our new family members. We inherited them from some friend that are moving out East and won't be able to keep them anymore. Such a great deal for two reasons. 1) They were delivered right to our house, free of charge. 2) They are already laying eggs!

We have 10 chickens. That equals about 10 eggs a day! I am already thinking of new ways to use these nutritional powerhouses. I want to start my day with a baked egg on top of spinach and mushrooms. I want to make eggs in purgatory over polenta for dinner. I want to make lemon meringue pies for dessert. We are also going to be sharing some of our farm fresh eggs with friends and family. Everybody deserves to experience the difference between these eggs and the kind you buy at the store. They are just incredibly better. Not just tastier, but they have so much more nutrition. 

Gavyn thinks the chickens are amazing. He just wants to hang out with them. 

Grass is super fun

Watch those fingers!

Our first two eggs to have for dinner

Just can't beat it!

We have also been taking advantage of this amazing weather to work in the garden and spend lots and lots of time outside. The tulips are blooming, the garden is sprouting, and new life has come to the cow pasture! We got to see a brand new baby calf today - such a treat!

Mom, the camera again?

Walkin' with Daddy

Daddy's face is fun to touch!

Broccoli

lettuce

onions

Baby calf!

Gavyn likes to do whatever Belle does

Yes, I know this is the wrong way to put the baby in the carrier. For 15 minutes though, she absolutely loves it.  I figure it is better than the way I hold her without the carrier. 

Mama Moo giving her baby kisses

Cloth towels

With all of this baking, cooking, and experimenting going on, I think I've mentioned the mess it makes. Combine that with a 2-year-old and a spitty baby and there is just always mess, everywhere. Lately, we had been going through a lot of paper towels.

It is just easy to get a nice, clean paper towel, wet it if needed, and throw it away. You don't have to worry about there being something on it from a previous clean up as with a dish towel or washcloth. When cleaning little ones hands' you want something sterile. The amount of paper towels started to bother me though. Really bother me.

So I figured the reason I don't use more washable cloths is just because they are not easily accessible in our kitchen, and when I need a paper towel I need one ASAP. I also didn't want to have dirty cloths laying around after I was done using them. So I had my problem, and just had to solve it with a few quick changes.

First, cut up a few flannel receiving blankets into 8 pieces - perfect towel shape. We have a ton of them, and they are really absorbent. I still use them as burp cloths with baby girl, but I don't go through all of them like I did with baby boy! So I had a few to spare. Then I just set them out in the kitchen where the paper towels usually go. I also placed a small basket on the floor by the door for tossing used towels. I wanted it to be really easy. So now we just take a cloth towel, use it, and toss it in the basket. They get thrown in with whatever wash I am doing that day.

We haven't used a paper towel in over a week! My next project is cloth wipes - whoa!

This is how I divided up my receiving blankets for cutting. You can also just get flannel fabric from the store - or any other absorbent material. I like the flannel because it is nice and soft on the kids' faces. I did notice some fraying so I may sew up the raw edges a bit - but I'm not doing anything fancy. I feel so accomplished!

The Cookie Project

I have a seriously mean sweet tooth. There have been times in my life that I have given up sweets completely,  and I was fine, but especially after having baby girl, I just seem to need something sweet not just for my taste buds but for my sanity. It is a little treat I give myself for going non-stop all day and my brain needs the simple sugars. Without it I get headaches and shaky and its not worth it. I realize that after giving it up for a while these symptoms go away...but I'm not passionate enough about giving up sugar to deal with these side effects.

Plus I'm busy. I'm active. I'm not worried about a little sweet here and there. Lately it has been important to me, however, to use the right kind of sweet. Something natural that offers at least some nutrition. That is where honey, maple syrup, and agave come in. I can't remember the last time I used white sugar. Maybe that is why my body seems to be just fine while still eating sweets.

So I wanted to make a cookie that I could have after a meal or for an afternoon snack that tasted good, but was nutritious. I didn't want a real oat-y, grainy full-of-fruit-and-nuts cookie. I wanted a real cookie - one that tastes almost bad for you. So I came up with these guys. I love really soft cookies, almost batter-like, and these are nice and dense and really do it for me. They are my own creation, so I kind of developed them to suit my tastes. The first time I made them I just used butter, honey, whole wheat flour, egg, and salt. I wanted to keep it simple. They were really good! This time, though, I wanted to up the nutritional profile even more.

So I used some coconut oil and some agave, and then played around with adding chia seeds for omega 3 fatty acids and then even some fruit - just because I had old apples laying around. That was just for fun though - I'd rather leave the cookie fruitless because it is supposed to be bad :). I also threw in some oats at one point and I really liked that addition because I really couldn't tell, and oats are supposed to be good for lactating women. Oh and I also added lemon extract the second time. I can't really taste it in the cookies so if I want a real lemon flavor next time I think I'll add some zest.

It is a thick dough. I didn't want them to rise in the oven so they would be nice and chewy

You press them before baking them

And baked - see they barely rise or spread

These are the experiments 

A light dusting of real powdered sugar give these healthy cookies a sinful look

100% whole grain

Yes, you can tell that they are whole grain. You can kind of tell they are healthy. The bottom line is though, after eating one of these, I don't want a cupcake, or ginormous chocolate chip cookie, or 1 lb chocolate bar. That is the key here.

The recipe - still to be changed with further experimentation

1 stick butter, softened
1/4 cup coconut oil
1/3 cup honey or agave, or a combination (I like 1/2 and 1/2)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla or lemon extract
1 egg
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup oats, optional
1 tbsp chia seeds, optional
powdered sugar, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and coconut oil until combined, then add sweetener. Add salt, extract, and egg and beat until combined. It looks funny at first but it does come together. Add in flour and then any thing else you want in there. Roll into tablespoon sized balls and flatten on the cookie sheet (I used a silicone mat on my cookie sheet). Bake for about 12-15 minutes. They should not get too much color on them. While still warm, roll in powedered sugar just to cover them. Let cool and enjoy!