Baking with Hannah

During the Christmas Holiday my 17 year old grand daughter Hannah came over and spent a couple of days.  She wanted to bake when she was here so the first day we made 2 loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, 2 loaves of cinnamon bread, 1 ham and cheese braid and 1 turkey and cheese braid using the left over meat from Christmas day.  Everything was absolutely delicious.  The next day we baked a batch of Cool Whip cookies.  I sent her home with the cookies, 1 cinnamon bread and 1 cinnamon raisin bread.  We had a lot of fun baking and look forward to her wanting to come and bake again with this old lady. 

Hannah

Back, Turkey and Cheese Braid; Front, Ham and Cheese Braid.

Ham and Cheese Braid.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread.

Cinnamon Bread.

Chicken Broth and Chicken Canning Day

Up early to can the 3 hens we dressed out Saturday.  I got 4 pints of chicken, 7 quarts and 5 pints of chicken broth.
We won't be doing chickens again for a couple of weeks because we will be going on a road trip starting Wednesday and returning the first of next week.  We will be going up to the Amish communities in Wisconsin and just driving some of the scenic roads.  We try to keep off of main roads and travel the side roads.  We always pick up a map of the scenic highways after we cross the state line and plan our route then.

Rhubarb Cobbler and Rhubarb Pies

This morning I pulled up a lot of rhubarb so I could make some desserts for tomorrow.  I sat outside and prepared the rhubarb and enjoyed the beautiful weather we are having.  I made up a big pan of rhubarb cobbler and made 3 rhubarb pies.  I baked one and froze the other 2 for another time.  I also baked sub buns and a loaf of bread for tomorrow.  I made 12 huge buns and 1 loaf of bread and I had flour everywhere and a huge amount of dirty dishes.
We are having make your own sub sandwiches, tuna salad, lettuce salad, Greek pasta salad, fresh green beans, chips and rhubarb cobbler and pie.  I have 7 different kinds of lunch meat and 4 kinds of cheese to make our sandwiches so we will have a nice variety to choose from.  I wanted to have a cold meal that was easy to do so no one had to be over a hot grill or stove plus I love salads.

Weekend in Review

Friday was hand doctor day and am now brace free.  I start therapy tomorrow morning at 8; what the heck was I thinking when I made an 8 AM doctor appointment.  The thumb hurts some when I try to use it but use it as much as I can.  The doctor said she didn't think I was going to be one of those people who would take a long time to get back to normal.  I guess she saw that I am a on the go type of person and little keeps me down.

Brandon came Friday night and went home last night after supper.  Saturday we went down to shop at the Amish bakery/bulk food store and picked up 50 lbs of flour as I was almost out.  I also picked up some cheese and ham for Renee.  We then went over to the dairy and got a couple gallons of fresh milk.  One gallon Ron took to work this morning for someone and the other gallon I am going to skim the cream off the top and then freeze the cream and milk so I have it for cooking.   We do not drink milk and use it to cook with only.  I have never liked milk and Ron doesn't drink it.
Also Saturday I needed to get some fresh straw put in the chicken coop and saw on my favorite Craigslist that someone had 4 bales of it free. The place was only 10 minutes from our house so we went and picked it up, that saved $20.  With the straw was some stalks of corn and we had to take that too.  After unloading the straw and putting one bale in the coop and the other 3 in the storage shed Brandon took the corn stalks and built the chickens a chicken tee-pee.  He first removed the corn from the stocks and feed it to the chickens and took some home for his chickens.
Ron has started on the turkey coop, we need to get them in their own coop and run by this spring.  We will do a little at a time as I find free or really cheep items to use.  We already have the 6' high chicken wire (free), brand new and very heavy duty.  If we get close to the time we need the coop and run done and are short on materials I have some money put aside from the garage sale we had this fall and will use it.
Yesterday Brandon and I made brownies, he has been wanting to make some so we made the time to do it. I have brownie mix from scratch that I keep mixed up and stored in the spare fridge.  We made a pan and he wanted to make coffee brownies so he added some instant coffee packets that he brought from home and it is very good.  We also made a pan without coffee for Ron.  Now I need to look the recipe up and make some more mix as I am now out.  For those that also want the recipe it is here on the blog, just search using the keyword brownies.

Brandon's creation for the chickens.

One of the girls is climbing on the wall.

I think she is confused and wondering what the heck was some human doing in our run.

The turkeys and chickens checking out their tee-pee.  The were praying that they didn't have to share the tee-pee with some Indians and possibly be the guest of honor at their next meal.

Ron working on the turkey coop.

One of the walls started.  We had more boards to add to this wall but ran out of nails.  So far all the wood has been free.

Bread Baking Day

I haven't baked bread since July and figured it was about time I got back to doing it.  Mixed up a batch of no knead Artisan bread and mixed up a large batch of Amish white bread both were made using left over potatoes.  The Artisan bread will be put in the fridge and an amount taken out each time we want some.  It is good in the fridge for 10 days and makes about 4 loaves.
The white bread made 4 nice loaves and I will put 2 in the freezer for later.  Brandon is coming tomorrow for the weekend and he can go through a loaf in no time at all.  He is the world's pickiest eater and when he is here he either eats what we are having or find something else to eat.  He is 14 so he is able to cook something but he is also a lot lazy and won't do it himself so he for sure will be eating sandwiches with the fresh bread.
Sure wish that I had "smell-a-blog" so you could enjoy the wonderful smell, OMG it is like heaven in here.

No knead Artisan bread.

Bread made with left over potatoes.




http://homesteadrevival.blogspot.com/2012/12/barn-hop-90.html

Pie Day

I am caught up on things that need canned and got 2 loads of wash hung out so I decided to make some pies today.  I wanted to get a peach pie made and took up to the people who let me pick their trees.  The gentleman who lives there asked me the day I asked about picking the trees if I knew how to make a peach pie.  So I need to live up to my part of the bargain for picking the trees.  I've already taken him up some jelly, jam and some zucchini bread.  So later today I am taking him up a peach pie and a little apple pie.  I made 1 peach, 1 blackberry and 3 small apple pies this morning.  I had a little bit of dough left so I got a pear, peeled and cored it and sprinkled the inside of it with a little vanilla sugar. I then rolled the dough into a circle, put the pear in the middle of it and brought the sides up to enclose the pear.  I then sprinkled a little more vanilla sugar on it and baked it.  It looks like an apple dumpling.  I'll let you know how it tastes, my husband likes pears so he will be the taste tester.  The blackberry pie is my husbands favorite and it is a thank you or bribe, depending on how you look at it for helping me with the canning this weekend.
I also redid the 2 batches of the green grape jelly that did not set that Renee and I made last week.  I can already tell that it is going to jell just perfect this time.  Not sure what happened but all is well now.  I will only keep a jar of it, take a jar of it to the people who I am taking the pies to and give the rest to Renee.

L to R, pear dumpling, 3 small apple pies, blackberry pie and peach pie.  The peach  and 1 apple pie are a thank you  to the people who let us glean their threes.

Zucchini and Banana Bread Day

I had several zucchini and bananas that needed something done to them so I made breads all day today.  I ended up with 4 loaves of banana bread, 4 loaves of zucchini oatmeal bread and 12 loaves of zucchini bread and 5 small loaves of zucchini that Brandon added chocolate chips and pineapple to.  He will take them with him when he goes home tomorrow.  All the rest of the bread went into the freezer.  I was able to use all the zucchini I had and then I went out to the garden a little while ago and picked 4 more with several that will need picked by the end of the week.  I am going to use one tomorrow for supper and use it to make zucchini/potato pancakes.
Ron brought home several tomatoes that will need to be canned tomorrow, it will be enough for 2 pints.   They will have to wait until I get the yard work done.  Brandon will cut the grass while I do the weed whacking.  With both of us working on the yard it won't take long.  There is a chance of rain tomorrow afternoon so will get up early just in case we get the rain.

All the bread we made today.