Crockett's Kraut

We harvested two VERY large heads of cabbage this week and Andy (Andy Crockett King of the Urban Frontier) requested it be made into sauerkraut.  He also insisted HE make it!  I made sure to have the ingredients at home ready to go including: easy to find juniper berries, hard to find pickling salt, and five pounds of homegrown cabbage. The pickling has begun! This recipe should yield about seven pints. Did I hear you say something about a Reuben sandwich?!! 

Oh ya!

There is no excuse for my ketchup missing the mark this year! I look forward to making more soon! 

More Bread

Two more loaves I just had to try. The loaf on the left I kneaded and the loaf on the right I just wanted! Budum tsk! 

That was Andy's joke yesterday. He thought he was pretty funny with that one! 

Anyway, the loaf on the left I hand-kneaded and the loaf on the right I used the mixer's dough hook. Pretty sure I'll be using the mixer from here on out. We haven't tasted it yet, but both girls were excited about it. Evan kept calling it "actual" bread. It looks really nice, but maybe it'll just deflate like the turkey in Christmas Vacation when I cut into it!  We'll have to wait for cinnamon toast to see how it tickles their taste buds. 

Always add a pinch of love...

I've baked two loaves of bread this week, and I must be adding too much love because they have come out shaped like hearts! Andy, on the other hand, seems to think they look like butts, but I prefer to see them as hearts. ;)

Either way you choose to see them, the recipe below is the simplest recipe I've found for bread. Hands down. It's tasty, light, and does the trick. I hope you have success with it.  It takes a little bit of timing and planning because it needs to rise and rise again, but it's well worth the wait.  Bread making is a calming experience and every loaf will be unique. Send me a photo if you try it!  I want to see and show off that beautiful loaf!

Bri'Anna 

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No Knead Bread

3 c- all purpose flour

1 1/2 t- salt

1/4 t- active dry yeast

Stir together in a bowl. 

Add 1 1/2 c luke warm water. 

Mix everything together. (I usually get my hands dirty at this point because I honestly can't work a wooden spoon properly.  I don't knead it. No way! I just make sure I've scraped all the dry ingredients off the bottom of the bowl.)

Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 12-18 hours in a warm, dry place. 

After 12-18 hours your mixture will be stringy and should have had a nice first rise. 

Scrape it out onto floured parchment paper, and press it out with your hands into a nice 10x10 square-ish. (Mine usually end up in giant rectangles.) 

After it's pressed, fold the corners in to meet in the center. 

Turn it over. 

Set folded sides down onto the lightly floured parchment. 

Loosely wrap in the paper and cover with a tea towel. 

Let rise a second time for two hours. 

After 1 1/2 hours place your cast iron dutch oven with lid on in the oven and preheat to 500. That should take up the remaining 30 minutes. 

Remove your baking dish. 

Place your dough ball folded sides up into your dutch oven. 

Cover and bake 30 minutes. 

Below is my cast iron dutch oven. I LOVE IT!! Andy and the girls bought it for me for Christmas at Marshall's. I have to unscrew the plastic knob because it cannot withstand the high temperature, so I replace it with foil. No biggie. You use what you have and make it work for you. Adjust baking times or use a different baking dish if needed. Just remember that Pappy always said 205 degrees will yield the perfect loaf. 

Remove the lid. Lower the temp to 375 and bake an extra 15 minutes for a darker, crispier crust.  (My people like a softer loaf, so I'm done after 30 minutes. You'll find what suits your family.)

Again, good luck and happy baking! 

Bri'Anna 

Sourdough Slacker

I'm not going to try to catch up. I have had a few photos, but I keep forgetting to send them!  You'd think it would be a habit by now! 

Here is the first rise of the second loaf.  It's a marvel to me how yeast reacts. The dough doubled in size in 12 hours!

After the second rise....

A fantastic second loaf of sourdough! We didn't cut into this one. I sent it home with Robin to enjoy and share. We'll see what they report about taste. The first loaf was tasty!  I was proud and a little surprised that I didn't wreck it somehow. And yes, it was definitely sour!

It looks like bread!

It smells like bread! 

Can't wait to taste it! 

I'm in sourdough heaven! 

Sourdough

I'm going for it! Wish me luck!! 

Ps- I'm sorry for being a slacker. Andy has photos on his iPod. I just need to forward them to my device. We have lots of exciting things going on over here: birthday fun, bread baking, a successful rabbit escape, seed purchases, and lots of EGGS!!  With a busy home, I have been slacking on the picture taking and photo sharing. I'll try harder because. March 23rd is fast approaching!  

Caught up!

This is our compost heap. It sits directly under the rabbit hutch. The Donnas aerate the pile every day and Andy rakes it back up every evening.  It has worked out well. They're doing the tedious mixing job for us!  

This blurry photo is of our new pair of breeding does!  Hooray!  Introducing (unofficially- names are still up for discussion) LadyBird Johnson and Miss Piggy/Martha Washington!  

I was brave and decided to go for it!  I made myself a sourdough starter from scratch using Grandma Oma's recipe from her cookbook. (Her cookbook as in she wrote it. It's neat, I know!!) 

It started out well.  We were getting excited! Then.......

.....within 30 minutes it started to overflow!!!  I started to panic. 

BUT who can panic when your child begs to play with the cheesecloth covered in beginning bacteria growth and is giving you this look! 

Today and other days

Here are the finished geese decoys. I think they look GREAT! All were hand drawn, hand cut, and painted by Andy. I hope they work!

Andy's first pheasant. I'll pass along the photo of the meat when I get it. I could not believe how large and beautiful this bird was! 

This is a heron decoy Andy made to go along with the geese. Apparently, geese look for herons as a safety precaution since herons are easily frightened. The herons are sort of like a "comfort bird." He'll set this guy up and the geese in hopes of others seeking refuge nearby. 

Today/This Week

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Here is our pie!  It was made by the girls. We used the canned apple pie filling from a few months ago. I hear that it wasn't as tasty as Grandma Dora's, but it was still an apple pie!  You can never go wrong with an apple pie! 

It had a tad bit of a jelly texture. I'm not sure if it was after cooling or if it was because of the way I processed the filling. Any suggestions? 

Andy's "turkey" is stuffed and ready for the oven!

Here's the "turkey" dressed and ready to eat! Believe it or not everyone who wanted a piece was able to get one! It looked and tasted just as yummy as the real one! 

Andy has decided to make some "poor man" geese decoys out of cardboard. They're not ready just yet, but they are looking good so far!