I love this white bred recipe! I make this bread all the time for ourselves and as gifts for family and friends. This bread does slice well for sandwiches, but I really enjoy it as is, with butter, or as french toast. Sweet but not too sweet, this bread is a real treat. This recipe makes 2 loafs, and this bread is good frozen for 6 months.
1. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, water, yeast, sugar and oil. Stir until a smooth supple ball forms, dough will be sticky. Coat bowl and dough lightly with oil, then let rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
2. Grease the bread pans. Punch down dough and divide in half. Form into a loaf shape and place into the pan. Heat oven to 350 F, and let bread rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour until loaf is 3/4 up the pan. Bake for 30 minutes, and let cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
Starting my garden is always something I get super excited for and plan for months. If you would like to see my last post about what I planned to do in the garden this year, you can check it out here. I have only made a few alterations at this point, so that post is still mostly accurate. I’ve also gone through and made a calendar of when to start seeds, when to plant things outside, and when to pull plants for the next crop to come in. I live in zone 6A, so March is about as early as I can start planting.
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I guess the first thing I’ll do is go through my timeline a bit. The first thing I did this year was start growing a sweet potato. I bought an organic sweet potato at the store about three weeks ago, covered it half way with water and now have is half submerged on the top of a mason jar. Within about 10 days, roots began to grow, and now at about 20 days, I’m beginning to get my first sprout off the top. I would like to get at least 6 slips, but I’d be even happier with 9 to 10. Sweet potatoes get planted after all my chance of frost is gone, so I still have until early June for more growth.
Next, I started some broccoli seeds. I kept them moist, and within 2 days, most of my seeds had sprouted. I started my broccoli seeds about 2 weeks ago, and they should be ready to transplant out the first weekend of April. These seedlings are now about 1 inch tall and are starting to form their fist set of true leaves.
This weekend was very busy. Friday we bought four 2″ by 10″ by 8′ to make another raised bed. With that we bought six 2″ by 2″ by 8′ boards to make two trellis, six bags of Black Kow Manure, and one 3 cubic foot bag of peat moss. Saturday morning we assembled the raised bed, and went to get 7 full wheelbarrow loads of dirt. We filled the bed half way with dirt before we dug a trench to bury hay down the length of the bed. We then covered the hay, added a bit more dirt, then added half the manure and peat moss and mixed the top layer all together leaving the hay untouched.
The hay we pulled from the covering the garlic and is used as a way to help regulate moisture in the bed and hopefully help keep it from drying out too much. Once the bed was filled and mixed, we added the remaining manure and peat moss to the remaining dirt. We also had some chicken waste and bedding, so we mixed it all together in the bed of a truck before filling the wheelbarrow and then filling the fabric pots. That was the last thing we did in the garden on Saturday.
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Sunday, I planted some daffodils in the garden along the garage, and I added some mulch to the tulips I planted near my old raised beds. I’m glad to see they were coming up. I planted a horseradish crown in the fabric pot by itself, and I checked my garlic. I was very very happy to see that all my garlic did come up and that two cloves even split so I should be getting about 37 cloves of garlic this summer! After that, I checked my potatoes, and I planted 4 rows of peas. I then made two trellis out of 2″ by 2″ boards and attached them to the bed between each set of pea plants.
What’s left for March? Still lots! Today I will be going out to add some spinach in between the peas and soon to be broccoli. Next weekend, I should get to plant my potatoes. I have 13 potatoes that should be good enough to plant, so I will be planting them between 3 fabric pots. At that time, I will also be able to start my peppers and tomato plants. I also only have about a week to figure out how I’m going to make the trellis roping. I’m going to be looking for some 100% cotton string/yarn, then I need to decide between nails, brad nails, screws, staples, etc. for attaching the string.
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Overall my plans haven’t changed too much. We decided to place the new bed to be towards the front of the peach tree, and we decided on only one bed instead of two. The larger beds are a bit harder to work around, but I also didn’t want to have to play with spacing two beds and limiting lumber use is also important to me. Also, we decided to do only one fabric pot of sweet potatoes and three for normal potatoes. I wasn’t expecting so many potatoes to be good to plant, but we eat them enough that we found it justified to plant as many potatoes as we have. We’ll also try planting some sweet potatoes in the ground and see how that goes. Finally, I also managed to get my hands on a good large chunk of horseradish root I found on Etsy from Daylilynursery.
For those wondering, that means I now have three types of garlic: Chesnok Red-Purple Stripe, Amish Rocamble, and Inchelium Red (softneck). I started eighteen Waltham 29 broccoli seeds. I planted a bareroot horseradish root. I planted thirty-four Golden Sweet Pea seeds. And today, I’ll be planting 1-2 rows of American spinach.
Pressure canning is seen as scary by many people who are interested in preserving their food but have never tried pressure canning. This was my first time pressure canning, but the process really isn’t worth the stress. If you follow the directions for your pressure canner, and are willing to take your time, there is really nothing to worry about. Pressure canners are designed with safety precautions anyway, so really there is nothing to fear. I’ve made these baked beans before and made a post, but at the time it was is much smaller quantities. If your don’t have a ham hock, any pork will do fine, or you can easily leave it out. I looked at many recipes for how others pressure can beans, but in the end I just used the reference time, weight, and cooking process recommended by my canner, the Presto 23 Qt pressure canner. I did my beans in two batches though all could have fit at once, and I should have just done one batch, but I wanted to be careful just in case. Just watch your canner the entire time you are canning and follow the instructions. This recipe made 19 pints of beans, with about 1 pt of left over sauce. The sauce may be a bit thin, but it’s definitely not watery and is full of flavor. These beans taste very similar to a Original Bush’s Baked Beans.
10 Cups Water (use bean water, then supplement with additional tap water as needed)
Large Stock Pot
Dutch Oven
19 Pint Jars, Cleaned and Hot
Lids and Rings
Pressure Canner and Canning Tools
Directions
1. Place the beans into the large stock pot and cover beans with 2-3 times as much water. Hydrate your beans using either the quick soak method, or the overnight soak method. For the quick soak method, bring the beans to a boil, boil for 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat, cover, and let cool for 1 hour. For the overnight method, leave the beans on the counter for 12-18 hours. Once the beans are hydrated, strain off the water, then cover the bean with 2 inches of fresh water. Heat the beans to boiling temperature (100 C or 212 F) then start a timer for 30 minutes. Once done, remove from heat.
2. Place your pressure canner over a medium heat and add the recommended amount of water. In the dutch oven, add the brown sugar and the mustard then stir together. Add the maple syrup, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, black pepper and water. Stir thoroughly and place over medium heat until the sauce begins to bubble. Place the lids in a bowl of hot water.
3. Place 1 heaping cup of par cooked beans into each hot jar. Add the diced ham hock evenly between the jars, then fill with about 1 1/4 cup sauce or until until 1 inch head space is reached. Remove any bubbles, wipe the rims, add the lids and rings to finger tight, then place into pressure canner. Heat pressure canner as instructed by the canner manufacturer to the pressure needed for your elevation. Process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 95 minutes. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for pressure releasing, place hot jars on a towel lined counter and let sit for 24 hours. The remove the rings, wipe the jars with a wet towel, label and store.
It was a year ago Saturday that I first wrote a post about being prepared. I felt the need to mention it again and the need to make another post about it as a bit of a public service announcement. My posts about anything other than food or projects don’t tend to get a lot of views, but thank you for reading and for hopefully considering preparations. I grew up as a girl scout, and that taught me a lot of basic survival skills, but more than that, I grew up in a way that has made me want to be prepared for whatever may happen. For that reason, during college I was often the “mom” of the class due to me carrying around just about anything I could need. Hungry? I had snacks. Cut? I had band-aids and a styptic pencil. Pain? I had Ibuprofen and Alieve for Migraines. Just about anything I could need I had, making my bag about 5 pounds heavier, but at least I always had a way to help the situation I was in. It wasn’t always that I would need something, but on the regular when I would need something I always had it.
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When I got married, we had many different goals for our life. When two people come together in marriage, it’s good to have common objectives and goals for the future, and that includes talking about what our priorities should be and what goals we should work towards. Of course, it was always a goal to have a garden and this blog, but I had no idea at the time the pandemic was coming. I have experienced hardship in my life while growing up, but there are many from my generation that didn’t experience any hardship. I’ve always been a bit of a hoarder when it came to making sure we had food, but the pandemic just encouraged me to go until I’m satisfied. It sounds like it’s a bad thing, and if I were stocking up when the stores were empty, then maybe I’d feel a bit more self conscious, but I’ve always been overly prepared with non-perishables and canned goods. So what were some of the biggest changes I made?
One big change I made was trying things I had never cooked with before. The pandemic started to become serious 8 months after I got married and moved in with my husband. My biggest changes were beans and rice. Growing up, I never had them, so even though we don’t have to rely on just beans and rice, each ingredient can contribute to a healthy diet without eating like someone who is in poverty. Another huge change was buying ingredients to bake. I had never had anything significant made from scratch at home. If it comes in a box, why go through all the effort? Well, the basic ingredients for baked goods gives you a well rounded kitchen and a blank slate for so many recipes. Further, I had never had food seasoned by anything other than salt or seasoning packets. Spices add so much life to food, and there are so many cultures you can visit though food and spices. Eating just to eat doesn’t make it an enjoyable occasion, that’s why spice is so important. Try food that is new with spices you may or may not like, even just to say you tried it!
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Those were just some of the basic changes that has helped me to grow as a home chef and as a person. Of course, we never thought we’d be in this situation, but we were glad to be partially prepared before, and thankful we needed very little during the thick of it. This time made us change our goals as a family. I discovered I had a huge love for gardening. This year was my first garden, and it was amazing. So, though we just bought this house less than 2 years ago, we do plan to eventually move to a property with more land for gardening, and maybe some small livestock.
In closing, what are somethings that are good to have on hand?
I’ve found canned meats to be helpful. I like to have a month’s worth of meat in the freezer at the beginning of each month. If you can can your own food, you definitely should, if not, know of good ways to keep what you have good in case of power outages. Fresh fruits and veggies don’t last long, but they are still necessary for a healthy diet, so having even some dehydrated fruit is good for emergencies. Flour is so versatile. Bread, cake, pizza crust, tortillas, and pasta, are a few foods to make with it. You can also use flour for thickening a sauce, coating your food for frying, and making batters. Another thing I like to have is evaporated milk. Condensed milk is sweetened while evaporated milk is just concentrated milk, all you need to do it thin it out with water, then you have a standard milk for whatever you need. Have an extra case of water in the house at all times, you never know if the well may stop working, or if the town needs to do maintenance on the water pipes. And finally, having a first aid kit is very helpful in an emergency. Though the situation may be stressful at the time, it’s nice to not have to worry about having a clean wrap because you should have one in your kit.
Thanks again for reading. I have a real passion for taking care of others and I hope this will give you inspiration for what you may need, or a glimpse into the mind of someone who likes to be prepared.
Spaghetti can be made by hand like fettuccine, however the quality of your pasta will not be as good if you don’t use a pasta maker. This was my first time using a pasta maker and it is shocking how thin you can get your dough and how uniform the pasta ends up coming out. If you would like to make spaghetti without a pasta maker, follow the directions for fettuccine however cut your dough thinner for smaller pasta. You can find these instructions here. So below I’ll be giving you instructions for how to make pasta with a pasta maker.
I did make some mistakes in this, but I have corrected them down below. My biggest mistake was not flouring my dough before I ran it through the cutting roller. The noodles immediately began to stick together and though some detached during cooking, there were still several stuck together by the time it was plated. The only other thing I changed was that I had rolled and cut the dough in halves instead of quarters. This made for a very long roll of pasta that I had to cut in half before running through the cutting roller. This recipe made 6 adult sized portions of pasta. I cooked this pasta in half batches, using half in this spaghetti dish, and using the other half in my recipe for tomorrow, ramen.
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, add flour, eggs, and oil, and mix until it becomes a shaggy dough. Switch to a dough hook, and knead the dough until it comes together. It is a drier dough that should not be sticky or wet, you may add a bit of warm water if it won’t come together. Divide the dough into quarters and wrap 3 of the sections in saran wrap.
2. Using a pasta roller, begin rolling out your pasta starting at the thickest setting. Fold the dough in half and place the ends of the dough through the roller first on the next pass. Continue to fold and roll until the dough is consistent in appearance and there are no holes in the dough. Then, begin making the dough thinner one setting at a time until the pasta is as thin as you desire. (I stopped at 5 for a standard spaghetti thickness). Dust both sides of the pasta sheet with a layer of flour, send through the cutting roller, then transfer to a clean and dry counter space. Repeat this step for remaining quarters.
3. Form pasta into nests to place in freezer bags and freeze, or place into boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes before straining. Serve as desired.
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