cranberry nut bread~

The fall season is here in full bloom ~ the air is crisp ~ the green leaves are turning to their brilliant colors of red, orange and gold.  It puts me into the mode of a chipmunk... harvest and store away for the winter months to come.  

Besides all my canning of veggies and fruits ~ I like to make bread.  It's so nice on a cold wintry day to be able to go and pull a loaf of bread from the freezer for a quick dessert in the hubby's lunch box or an afternoon snack when the grandloves are here after school.  

Yesterday I made up four loaves of Cranberry Nut Bread.  (recipe below x's 4) This bread is full of fresh chopped cranberries with chopped walnuts and the tangy taste of orange.   It's a very pretty bread ~ looks great served on a special tray at Christmas time with it's festive colors. 

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CRANBERRY NUT BREAD

350°  50 minutes  1 loaf

Ingredients:

2 Cups Flour

3/4 Cup Sugar

3/4 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 Cup chopped fresh cranberries

1/2 Cup chopped walnuts

1 whole Egg

2 Tblsp. vegetable oil

3/4 Cup orange juice

1 Tblsp. orange zest

Step By Step

1.  Preheat oven.  Grease and flour a 9x5 loaf pan.

2.  In a large mixing bowl combine all the dry ingredients... flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda

3.  In a blender give the cranberries a quick pulse to chop.

4.  Add the chopped cranberries, walnuts, egg, oil, orange juice and orange zest to the dry mixture.

Mix well.  Pour into loaf pan and bake 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Cool in the loaf pan 10 minutes before removing from pan on to a wire rack.  Cool completely before slicing.

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Good news on the home front ~ my printer is working again! Yeah!!  I bought a new printer last May and had to change out my cartridges for the first time about 2 weeks ago.  I couldn't get the darn ink cartridges to snap in right... it was so frustrating.  I even went to the support web site for advice... but they never got back to me.  So... yesterday I call the store where I bought the printer and told them the problem.  Of course, I couldn't find the receipt or the original box for the printer... but the store said to bring it in anyways and they could scan the sku's and find out if I had any kind of warranty on it yet.

Well... as my luck would have it... the warranty had expired.  Now here I am with a brand new printer that I can't get the ink cartridge to work in.  bummer...  I was ready to pitch the whole thing in the dumpster.  Then... my daughter says she'll take a look at it.  Within 2 seconds she had the cartridges in and had it working!!  What the heck!!!...  here all along... me the dumb blonde... yep... I'm calling myself that... was trying to put the ink cartridge in the wrong way... like I did on my old printer.  I felt about 2 inches high.  Thank you Staci for bringing sanity back to me... I really thought I was losing it when it came to this... my brain just did not register what I was doing wrong.  Ahh... the joys of getting old and taking too many prescription pills.

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I had a nice surprise visit this morning from my nephew Nate and his little guy Sean.  I told him to wave at the camera so I could show him to his G'ma Cher and G'pa Thom ... once I bribed him with fruit rings and an old toy truck from the toy box ... I got the shot.  lol  Sean says HI

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Until next time...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel

brrrr~

Brrr...

It's a cold and rainy day here in northern Wisconsin.  When I woke up this morning at 5:00 a.m. the thermometer reading was at 44°F.  I'm so glad I got the lawn mowed yesterday; because the way the rain is coming down now; and by the looks of the next few days forecast ~ there isn't going to be any outside work done for awhile.

I did manage to get my carrots canned and the last of the beets pickled yesterday; so that's two more things I can cross off the 'to do' before the end of September list.  I was only a day off ~ so that's not too bad.

My pantry is over flowing with fresh fruits and veggies all canned or frozen.  I love it!  So far this year I have put up: swiss chard, snow peas, carrots, green beans, yellow beans, rhubarb, zucchini, tomatoes, salsa, tomato juice, stewed tomatoes, dill pickles, pickled beets, applesauce, sweet corn, pickle relish, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, beet greens, honey mushrooms, beets, sauerkraut, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, caramel apple jelly, raspberry jam, strawberry jam, peach apple jam, strawberry rhubarb jam, spaghetti sauce, canned potatoes and cranberries. 

I know I'm missing stuff here; but my brain just hit the wall and went on a freeze... and I'm not even eating ice cream.

Plus: our homemade bacon, salt pork, bratwurst, liver sausage, hot dogs, breakfast sausage patties, breakfast links, keilbasa, smoked salmon, canned salmon, pickled fish, pickled beef heart, pickled turkey gizzards, partridge, turkey, chicken, beef and pork.

Plus: the freezer has a good supply of pasties, pies, cookies, zucchini bread and banana bread.

Wow... I never realized just how much I've done myself until I started listing it here.

All I really have left to do is freeze up some squash yet and make up some pumpkin bread and cranberry nut bread.  I also want to make up a gallon or so of apple juice.  I'll also be cutting up steaks and canning up some venison come hunting season in November.

Last night we had a meal of homemade egg noodles with canned moose gravy over them.  I only have four jars of canned moose left ~ I sure wish we could afford to go to Canada and get another one.   I would rather eat moose than beef any day.  So until then... I'll be saving my last four jars and savoring the moment when we get to eat it.   I'll also be saving my pennies so we can  take another moose hunt some time in this lifetime of ours.  

There have been several sightings of moose here in our area over the last few years... also there has been the introduction of elk to our area.  Too bad there aren't enough to have a hunting season on them.  Well... I'm sure it'll never be in my lifetime.  So... in the meantime... we have to save up our money and go to Canada for the moose and Colorado for the elk.  Dear Hubby is also wanting to take a trip up north one of these years for a caribou.  I told him he can pass on that one.  I'm not a real huge fan of caribou... the few times I've eaten it.  To me it taste like lichenes ~ not that I've ever eaten lichen straight from the woods.

All in all... we really do feel blessed.  Being able to live like we do; being so self sufficient and knowing what it is that we eat ~ without all the chemicals and preservatives that are polluting our crops and being added to our foods.

If you can't garden and grow your own ~ I sure hope you support your local farmers market and eat good healthy foods.   After all... the saying is, "you are what you eat" and I'd rather be known as a big veggie with a little meat than a cream puff and taffy.

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel

artisan bread~

I have a new love in the kitchen ~ well actually it's a very old love; but I'm just beginning to really appreciate it for what it is.  What is this new love of mine?  Artisan Bread

Artisan Bread has been around since the beginning of Biblical Times and is making a huge come back in modern times.  No chemicals were added to bread back in biblical times and they still aren't added in today's modern Artisan Bread recipes.

Because there are no added chemicals; Artisan bread may not have as long a shelf life as the modern day, mass produced bread that you can buy in the store. It needs to be consumed in a few days or frozen.   Those loaves from the store may contain up to twenty ingredients, where as Artisan bread will only contain around five, depending upon the recipes... but ~ the additional ingredients of Artisan bread are usually wholesome natural ingredients; such as rye or whole wheat flour, bran, flax seed, bananas, eggs, onions, peppers, cheese, olive oils, etc... 

Here is a very easy to make Artisan Bread recipe.  I used this recipe for the photo shown of my Artisan Rye Rolls.  I substituted half of the all purpose flour with rye flour.  I also like a little sweeter taste to my bread so I added 2 Tablespoons of sugar substitute.

You can make this recipe and store it in the refrigerator up to 2 weeks.  All you have to do then for fresh dinner rolls is tear off a few chunks, shape them, let them rise and bake.

EASY ARTISAN BREAD (only 4 ingredients)

Ingredients:

3 Cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 TBLsp. yeast
1 1/2 TBLsp. salt
6 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

Step By Step:

In a large bowl add the lukewarm water.  Sprinkle the yeast on top and let sit for 2 minutes.  Add the salt and flour.

Mix well.  Cover and let rise for 2 hours.

Turn out on to a floured board.

Divide dough in half and shape into 2 loaves or divide into 16 dinner rolls.

Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.

Let rise another 1/2 hour.

Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 25 minutes.

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For a simple Focaccia use the Easy Artisan Bread recipe.  Spread the dough onto a greased jelly roll pan.  Brush with olive oil.  Top with chopped onions, black olives, chopped green peppers, dried or freshly chopped italian herbs, garlic salt, sun dried tomatoes. (the combination are limited only to your imagination) Sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese and a little grated cheddar cheese. Let it rise for another 1/2 hour. Bake. Enjoy!

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Well..

Time to go and get some work done today.  We picked everything that was left in the garden last night before the killing frost.  I have a bucket full of fresh beets  that need to get pickled and a bucket full of carrots that need to be canned.  I have a pile of onions that need to be braided and hung to dry.  Hopefully, it'll warm up enough to go outside and mow the lawn one more time yet this year.  It was pretty cold out this morning.  We had 25 degrees!! But it's suppose to get up into the 50's today.  So I better enjoy this tropical heatwave and make the most of it... because it won't be long now and we'll be belly deep in snow.

So it goes in my neck of the woods...

~mel