Bread For Two #3

My brother visited today with a photo project for me to do for him. As he entered the cabin he remarked about how good it smelled in here. I had just pulled the little bread maker pot from the oven. While he and the Mister chatted I did the photo work and then sliced the bread. The heel was cut and a dab of butter added and shared with my brother. He raved!  Well, he went home with the recipe. He thinks he'll try using it in a little cast iron pot he has. As I vary the recipe each time I make a little loaf, I gave him the one of today but explained that any additions of flavors and herbs can be changed. 

Today's Recipe:

• 1 1/2 Cups Self-Rising Flour
• 1/8 Cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 Cup Grated Parmesan/Romano Cheese
• 6 oz.  Beer (I used Michelob Ultra, my beer of choice) Any other will do.

Mix dry ingredients in separate bowl. Add beer. Mix but DON'T overmix. Spoon out into pre-greased bread baker and pop into COLD oven. Set temperature control at 350° and start timing when oven reaches that temperature. Bake about 45 minutes. Remove and cool in the pot on a rack. Spill out of the pot after about 10 minutes onto another cooling rack. Slice when almost completely cooled. 

YUM!

Mystery Item Anni's Scavenger Hunt

This is the reveal of my mystery item.

It was my very favorite kitchen ladle. A 6 oz. stainless steel tough old one and I have often wondered it was used in the food kitchen or in the autopsy room on the ship! I have no idea where or when I found it but know it's been around for many years here.

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Appled OUT! OUT!

Two years ago I said I probably would not make applesauce the next year. Then I did. And I did again this year. It is soooooo good and wears me out but I keep doing more. It is labor intensive and my energy has waned. You see, I do it the "old way."  Way back in the far corner of the under-counter cupboards I dug, and found the large old kettle and the old Foley food mill. (I do see that there are new Foley Food Mills available. Mine is REALLY OLD)

The procedure begins with cutting them in quarters, coring, and cutting into eighths and slicing. There were as many that I had stored in one of the bottom refrigerator drawers; I think about a mixed peck of both Cortlands and Macouns. I added three cups of cold water to the kettle and then cooked them down until I could mash them with the potato masher.

Then we moved to the next step of spooning the hot slush into the Foley while the mister does the grinding. When the large pyrex bowl is filled to the level of the bottom of the Foley, I dump it into my very large plastic dishpan and we start again until the kettle is empty. 

From there it is ladled into containers and set to cool before freezing. The only thing I added was a few shakes of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg. The yield is about one and one half gallons, all in small containers. Yes, we had warm applesauce at lunch.

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Quite often I'm asked why it is so pink! Well the ground up skins make it a beautiful natural pink.

OH what a cleanup too!

Almost Scary...

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Hootin' Anni's October Scavenger Hunt 2020

1 - A sign (sign of anything, any material)

2 - Think "Outside the Box" on this...something seasonal.

3 - A yellow leaf

4 - Anything of miniature (trinket, jewelry, knick-knack...anything)

5 - Pumpkin or gourd

6 - Something that is dated* (document, newspaper, screenshot, etc. *show date!)

7 - Anything that is lighted (bulb, headlight, lantern, etc.)

8 - Decorated door (entryway...doesn't have to be of the season)

9 - A printed author's name (book cover, magazine article, TV credit, etc.)

10 - Mystery item. ANYTHING...macro, close-up that will be 'unknown' to us all. We guess what it is!!

Hint: The green mat doesn't count in the clue.

 

Pie in Your Eye

I made another! The Mister was strongly hinting that he is craving more.  Well, I had a little extra energy this morning so another apple pie was made.

Come on-a my house-a, my house-a come on-a! I'm-a gonna give-a you a piece-a my pie!  eh!

Hurry!

Boo Too!

The Eyes Have It

Six Woodland Creatures
Can you see them all?

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Boo!

  The Castle  

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Bear With Me

I'm fine tuning my bread making skills. This is the 2nd one and I did a couple of things different. I used Romano cheese in place of the Parmesan, and I used oregano instead of the parsley flakes. I also added 1/4 cup of granulated sugar and 1/8 tsp. salt.  It made a much prettier loaf and the fragrance was absolutely great! 

Yesterday I used up the last two slices of the first bread by buttering each one on one side and browning them in the cast iron skillet. I then added a slice of American white cheese on each one and covered the skillet. Then I slapped them together after the cheese had melted a bit. The Mister practically begged me to make this again...so today I baked bread loaf #2. 

If you think there are too many images here, there are, but I just couldn't decide which to use so I used them all.

I LOVE my little baker and have an order in for one more!

The recipe is at this link if you care to refresh your read of my first try.

New Bread Maker

 

Words and Pictures

Someone once said that writing is a great outlet. I am occasionally surprised at how my brain works. These days, I wake up in the morning or after my afternoon nap and words seem to flow. I feel a need to put them down.

Before blogging, I loved assignments in grade school when we were encouraged to write poems and stories. I  wrote a few short stories and poems and my mother saved them in a folder. I do remember when it started up again. When I was working in a cabinet manufacturing plant and using a knee operated chopper to cut wood in different lengths, words would form in my “other” mind and I would have to repeat them to myself until I arrived home to quickly put them on paper. That was in 1973 through 1980.

Now they are pushing at me again! I think the words just hide and dance in my head until I’m forced to recognize that they are there and then they must be expressed so I put them together and release them. It doesn’t seem to be a thinking process but it’s a delivery. I can go years without the words flowing, but when they do, well…

Probably this doesn’t make sense to anyone except me.

It is the same way with the photomanipulations. This one just came to me because of a granddaughter's frog photo and the season!

 

Wired

Yesterday I dug out some tiny beads that a friend gave me several years ago and I had used most of them poking pins through the holes and creating a holiday foam ball with my design. That was 2011.

Then I remembered that I had wired a very small circular embroidery hoop with wire and small nails. It was 2009 and I gave it away.

Well it seems that I've simplified my craft projects and the results are not nearly as intricate as in the past, BUT..... Today I made the last hoop for quite a long time. It is now hanging on the front porch beam so I can watch it swing in the breeze. I hope it holds together. It should - I think!

To see better detail, please click on image.

So now it's time to get back to baking and kitchen projects. 

 

Spooky Stuff

Before I wire up my last embroidery hoop I took a break and began my Halloween photomanipulations. Two so far. More to come. 

From a grandaughter's picture of a praying mantis that she saw climbing on the outside of her home, to a potter's picture of two soup bowls.  Here ya go!

Original Image

Bright and blue shadow

YUM!

Hot Pots

 

Bread in My New Pot

My new small bread baker pot was put to work today. I used 1/2 of a recipe and I must tell you it was a fun journey for me. I did the Italian version.

First of all it went into the cold oven like it was supposed to, and I had just turned on the heat when I realized I forgot the sugar! Oh well, I continued on waiting for the time to pass and pulled it out to cool. It smelled wonderful. I flipped it over onto cooling rack and it was all I could do to NOT take a bite before I took the pictures. Let me tell you - THIS IS BREAD! It's not pretty, but wow is it good! Of course it was tasted!! The omission of sugar wasn't major. We'll have it with supper, probably buttered and dipped into cream of tomato soup. Next, of course I plan to experiment with other concoctions, even pot pies, scalloped vegetables and baked apples. Oh the choices! I intend to look for more and different easy bread recipes as well. 

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RECIPE for ONE small bread baker pot.                  Enough for two people.

Bread Crock Recipe For Two

Plain Recipe Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

1/4 cup sugar

*6 oz. of soda (any kind or anything with carbonation)

Do not over mix!

*(6 oz. of lemon lime soda (which is a neutral flavor) for Italian Style Bread)

Added Ingredients for

Italian style bread:

1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder

1 1/2 teaspoon of dried parsley flakes

1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese

Do not over mix!

Remember to adjust the added ingredients

to your own taste preferences. (I did with the parm cheese!)

Instructions:

Mix ingredients in separate bowl

Grease the crock with vegetable shortening

Add mix to bread crock

Place in oven and heat to 350° F

(Do NOT pre-heat oven)

Bake 45-50 minutes or less until the top is turning brown.

Click on link below

A little background here

Quick Ride

I had the day planned for our grandson and his partner to come and strip and clean my bedroom. Major job, because neither one of us can get on our knees to do it properly and thoroughly and it really needed doing! They said they would be a little later than 10:00am to start so I decided to take an early quick ride-about on this snappy brisk morning. Donning my lambswool scarf, hand-knitted hat and gloves along with two jackets, off I went with the camera. Well, I sure was glad to return and get warmed back up. This getting old is taking some of my tuff- stuff away!  Anyway, here are my images for today. We are almost ready; just have yet to cover the air conditioner, the porch swing and the golf car. They are next in line for winter protection. 

I guess the farmer forgot to gather his pumpkins and cut down the corn!

To view image larger, please click on one

The bedroom is clean clean clean! 

Yeow ~ what a fine job they did. It wasn't easy with all my things that needed to be moved out first!  Remember that all walls here are logs! The floors are asbestos tile from the 1960's over a concrete slab.