Bread making - oops!

I went to make bread this morning, and found out, too late, that I didn't actually have enough white flour. Oops!

So, instead of tossing the whole thing, I decided to improvise. I took the last of our oatmeal and ran in through the blender to make oat flour, then added a little extra whole wheat flour as well.

Our Daily Bread - recipe

I'm not sure when or how it happened, but sometime during moving to New Hampshire, the decision was made that I would try making our bread instead of buying it. I've tried a few recipes, both white bread and whole wheat, along with the rye bread and oatmeal bread that I made in England. The white bread didn't taste as good as I would have liked, the whole wheat was too hard, and the rye and oat didn't necessarily have the right texture for sandwiches either.

Then I found a recipe for a wheat bread using both white and wheat flour that came out amazing! It was theoretically supposed to make three loaves of bread, but it really only makes two. Still, it's a fairly easy recipe that produces a good flavor and texture to use for sandwiches. I'm starting to play with variations on it as well, and I'll post those as I find them.

Adventures in Abelskievers!

One of my fondest memories of my maternal grandmother from growing up was her making abelskievers on Saturday mornings during her visits, and my brothers and I eating them as fast as they came out of the pan. For those who don't know what Abelskievers are, they are "golf-ball pancakes" - a danish(?) pasty apparently served mostly on holidays. To me, though, they're mostly a wonderful memory of Mamu.

Fear

This morning, I started crying in bed, which seriously disturbed my husband. I told him the tears were a good thing, and he said "ok, but you're going to have to explain that one."

My hands hurt. The pain wasn't what made me cry, though, it was what the pain signified.

Creamy potato, bacon, (leek, celery, chicken) soup.

Tonight I decided to make potato soup for supper. We'd had a really good potato soup in Virginia a year or so ago, and I kinda remembered the recipe...well, not really, but I remembered some of the ingredients. Anyway, the soup I made turned out really well, even if it wasn't quite what I started trying to make.

Here's the recipe for what I did make, so hopefully I can someday make it again.

4 medium russet potatoes, peeled and sliced
3 small to medium red potatoes, sliced
1/2 cup of chopped leek (from the white part)
1/2 cup chopped leek greens
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup celery, chopped
1/2 pound good, thick-cut bacon, cut into bits

1/2 package chive and onion cream cheese
bit of milk

garlic
paprika
salt
pepper


Put the russet potatoes in a stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover. Cook until the potatoes are mush. Add garlic, leek greens, and cream of chicken soup. Remove from heat and leave covered.

Cook bacon bits until crispy, reserving the bacon grease. Set bacon aside. Saute the white part of the leeks and the celery in the bacon grease and add to cooked potatoes.

Toss the red potatoes in a bit of bacon grease and roast in the oven until slightly crispy.

While the potatoes are roasting, add a bit of milk to the stockpot (to thin the soup a bit) and turn the heat on low. Add salt, pepper, and paprika (to taste), along with the bacon. Just before serving, add the cream cheese, stirring until melted, and the roasted potatoes.


VERY filling...and very tasty.

Making scones part 2 - basic variations

In the previous note, I explained how to make basic British scones. Basic scones are great, and are a wonderful carrier to get clotted cream and jam to your mouth. After making the basics, though, I started playing with some variations. An advantage I've found to variations is that some of the are great stand-alone flavors, and don't need the extra condiments.

I'll start with the easiest variations, then work my way up to some of the more complex ones that I've done. Hopefully you'll be able to see the progression and figure out some new and different flavors of your own.

More scone variations - Chocolate!

 The last two notes I explained how to make scones, and gave some easy variations. Making scones with a chocolate base is a bit trickier, and can take a bit more fiddling to get them right. I'm still working on perfecting them, so can't give anything resembling measurements yet. They're something I'm still making by look and feel.