Bread Baking

 Please accept my apology in advance. Can you really apologize for something before you do it?  :)  I have a tendency to think everyone should like the same things I like and I know that isn't true so if you have zero interest in making bread - don't waste your time. This post is solely me trying to convince everyone to make bread.

First, if you've never made bread, you probably think it's hard. It is NOT! There is a bit of a learning curve but once you learn what your dough should feel like, it's so easy. 

I have two stories for you that I hope will get at least those of you who have been thinking about making bread to do it.

First, when our area was waiting for the snow to arrive, all the usual suspects disappeared from the grocery store. No bread, no bottled water, no hot dogs . . really, it's the same thing whether it's a snow storm in the north or a hurricane in the areas that get those. As you might guess, we did not go to the store for supplies but there was much complaining and serious panic about no bread in the stores. I kept thinking . . it's flour, water and yeast or starter! Many recipes require oil. It can butter, olive oil, canola oil, shortening . . oil . . most any oil and if we're talking about no food in the house and you're snowed it . . ANY oil will do.

Second, I feel like I'm a decent experienced bread maker. This morning I needed to make baguette type rolls and I had a million things going on in the kitchen. The recipe called for 1 kg of flour. I should have known that was not a project for the Kitchen Aid so don't ask me why I used that mixer. It ended up ok. 

The next thing I did - totally forgot to add the salt. I always put everything in little prep bowls. It was there . . I just didn't dump it into the mix. I already had the dough out of the mixer and into the bowl to rise. In fact, I had already washed the mixer bowl and had to mess it up again. I put the dough back in the mixer bowl, added the salt, kneaded it a bit more with the mixer. Dumped it onto the counter to do a bit of hand kneading and realized it was way too dry. I had measured everything but sometimes, the exact same weight of water and flour creates a dough that needs more water or more flour. I poured a bit of water in and it was too wet. Dang it! How many times can I screw this up.

I dumped it onto the countertop, kneaded in a bit more flour and let it rise.

You can see the dough in the background. It was seriously needing attention.

I wanted fairly skinny baguette type rolls so I divided the dough into 12 pieces that were about 160 grams each.

I shaped those and let them rise on the counter.

They rose and baked up perfectly and were some of the best rolls I've made in a long time and yet, I messed up in so many ways!

This made 12 buns. Vince and I split one for dinner and had a sandwich and a salad.

Is that not a gorgeous salad? It's just lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers along with fried chicken "nuggets". I coated the chicken pieces in cornstarch, fried them in palm fruit shortening, then drizzled Frank's Hot Wing Sauce over them, added them to the salad, along with blue cheese dressing. Yum!

This is the recipe I use for rolls. I can make dinner rolls, larger or small or medium baguettes, hamburger buns, hot dog buns . . most anything. You could even use this recipe to make cinnamon rolls. We used one roll tonight, I kept out three more for sandwiches tomorrow and into the next week. I stuck the rest of them, still on the tray in the freezer. In the morning I'll take them out and vacuum seal them and put them back in the freezer. I like to keep baguettes for sandwiches, hamburger buns and a variety of rolls (sizes and added herbs) in the freezer. We were out of baguettes and we're out of hamburger buns so maybe in the next day or so, I'll make more of those. We use them for sloppy joes too.

Really, please think about learning to make bread if you aren't already a confident bread maker. You don't have to make all your own bread but if you have flour, salt, water, oil, sugar (or not) and yeast, you can make bread and if you divide a large recipe in half and it's a failure, you can usually turn it into croutons or bread crumbs so all isn't lost. Each time you make bread, you will get better at it. Having the knowledge to make bread can keep you from worrying if there is a time when you can't get the food you need.

Yeast keeps well in the freezer. The yeast I'm using is some I bought when I got here in 2020 and kept in the freezer. I figured I needed enough for myself and for Chad but, thankfully, yeast has not been in short supply. If there ever is a time when there's no power, and you have a gas stove, there are breads that can be cooked in a skillet - tortillas, English muffins, biscuits and I would imagine with a bit of patience, a small loaf of bread (mini loaf pans) could be baked on top of the stove in a Dutch oven.

As always, if you have questions, while I don't know everything about breadmaking, I'm glad to help out any way I can.

Butter Testing

This morning I cooked breakfast. At our Azure pickup Thursday, we got three different brands of butter so I wanted to have a taste test. 

The third one is not shown. It was Kerrygold. I was using it to cook the eggs and we started taste testing with that one before I took the picture. Sorry!  

I got the first three in the Azure order and the other two I already had in the fridge.

1. Sierra Nevada VAT cultured European butter, salted (82% butter fat)
2. Minerva Dairy Amish Butter, Sea Salt  (85% butter fat)
3. Mother's Choice rBST free, salted (78.57% butter fat)
4. Kerrigold Grass-Fed, Salted (82% butter fat)
5.  Countryside Sweet Creamery Butter (Aldi) (80% butter fat)

The list above is in the order of our favorites.

The butterfat numbers mostly came from the internet so take those numbers with a grain of salt.

Up until a couple of years ago, I used whatever butter was on sale and, while I will admit some taste better than others, we never had a problem eating any of the butter and for what I use butter for, whether it's cookies, biscuits, buttering toast  .  . I've never had failures that I blamed on the butter and I can't say the "quality" of butter I use has made much difference in the foods I cook but lately I've been paying more attention to the butter I buy and trying to use butter that is made from milk from cows without added hormones, that have not been vaccinated with any mRNA vaccines. This is not meant to start a debate or say one something is wrong or not . . we all have to make our own decisions.

There's also the issue of which cows produce A1 or A2. That's enough for me to want butter from a Jersey cow. The only butter that Azure sells that is from a Jersey cow is the Rumiano and it is very hard to get - always out of stock. They get it in and sell out almost immediately.

We will use all the butter we have here, even those that didn't have as much flavor (in our opinions) as the others. I will watch Azure Standard's sales and stock up if I see it on sale.

For now, I've vacuum sealed it with enough for a week or so in each vacuum sealed bags, then put those in ziplock bags and they're in the freezer. 

You might notice a bowl of bread dough in the back that's about to escape its container. The next post will be about making bread.

Speaking of breakfast, check out these layers on the biscuits this morning.

I love . . really love biscuits!

Another Jackpot Day in Town

 It was a week yesterday since I had left the house. Vince went to town for something on Thursday. Then Friday evening the snow began and it was just yesterday that our road was plowed and Vince finished shoveling the driveway. A friend asked where was our tractor . . Vince sold it when he left Texas. Not much need for a tractor on one acre in town. We're not really in town but it seems like town - we have neighbors. People probably already think we're crazy but they would have for sure if we had a tractor.

Yesterday afternoon Vince asked if I wanted to go out and see how the roads were. Nope . . don't need to do that. I had planned to go stitch with Debbie today but then last night the weather lady said we would possibly have frozen fog early this morning that would make the roads slick in patches so I decided not to risk it. That gave me some brownie points with Vince, which I always seem to need <G> because he thinks I have no self control when it comes to going to stitch with Debbie. He thinks I should stay home if it MIGHT rain or that I should leave 2 hours before dark just to be sure I get home by dark and it's only 50 minutes from my house to where we stitch. So, I proved to him that I can make good choices.  :)

About noon, Vince asked if I wanted to go to town. The roads were pretty much safe, though school was canceled again today. I think early this morning, when the buses would have been out, the roads were icy from the melting snow having frozen overnight but by noon, the sun was shining and everything not in the shade was melting nicely so I told him if I could go to Hobby Lobby and order some frames, I would be happy to go to town.

We first went to Hobby Lobby - Vince dropped me off and he went to Walmart which is real close. He needed a couple of new sweatshirts and he got those.

I found all three frames that I needed and I was pretty quick about it. 

 First was Christmas in my Heart. These are just pictures from their computer/camera. When I first saw the one at the top right, before it was next to the piece, I thought that might be what I chose. Then I saw the red one (top left) and knew that was it but when I saw the green one on the bottom right (sorry it's so blown out), that was the one I wanted. It kinda looks like old barn wood but it's green so it goes well with the trees.

Next was this piece by Teresa Kogut. I'm not sure of the name of the chart - maybe Hope Never Ends.

This frame actually looks very nice. The background in the scroll area has a greenish tint and it goes well with the leaves. I think this is the same frame or very similar that I used for my dad's memorial stitch.

When we started pulling out the frame samples, I told the lady that I wanted to stay away from gold frames and black frames because those are the ones I use so much but when she put that one next to the Hope Never Fails piece, I knew that was it. Our Hobby Lobby doesn't have a huge selection but it has enough for me to be happy with what I find there and they get in new pieces and take out older pieces pretty often.

Yep, same frame I think. Dad's may be more gold and the new one may have more greenish tint but it also may just be the light. Hard to believe it's been over a year since my dad passed away! 

Last project to be framed was Mary Bovee.

This frame is shiny black. I knew that was the one when I first saw it but we tried several others just in case but went back to this one. The lady, who did an excellent job helping and was so sweet, said they should be in the week of February 10. As we put each stitched piece down, I looked over the samples. I told her I had an idea but wanted to see what she chose before I said what I liked and on two of them, the first one she picked was the one I had in my head. On the Christmas piece, she didn't pick the yellow one first but she picked the green one first. I wanted to try the red one so we did but when she put the green one down, I knew that was it. I went ahead and got the foam core so I can get them laced and ready to pop into the frames. These will be on a basement wall without much sunlight and no cooking fumes/grease so I didn't get glass for them.

Hobby Lobby had their in stock (not custom type) frames half off. I found this one that I thought might fit the snowman.

It's a little bit tall so I will add a few extra snowflakes around his head and bottom and make it fit perfectly.

The back can easily be slipped off and the piece removed so I'm thinking I could have a Santa, something patriotic, or something for spring or fall and pop those in and out. I decided for $8, I would order a few extras in case I want to paint some other colors. This one is 5" x 7" thought the actual opening is about 5" x 6". They also had 8" x 10" for $14 so I ordered a couple of those. 

Last, they had these. Obviously, they're 4" x 4" and will be great for some Christmas ornaments or any small round piece. Again, the back side is easily removed so I could use the frames for other pieces if I wanted to.

Since I already have these and know the sizes of them, when I start to stitch a small, I can stitch it on larger or smaller count to get a good fit.

Next, we went by Natural Grocer. How lucky were we that they had everything in stock!

We got a gallon of milk, two quarts of chocolate milk, two quarts of buttermilk, 2 - 32 oz. containers of Nancy's yogurt. We got parsnips, poblano peppers, a head of purple cabbage and three protein bars. That's all the groceries we need for the next week or so.

We stopped on the way home, filled the car up with gas and went home.

I'm going to stitch, hopefully, the rest of the evening. I really want to get that snowman finished so I can put him in the frame and display him while there's still snow on the ground!

Christmas in my Heart 1843

Chart: Christmas in my Heart 1843 by Samplers Not Forgotten
Linen: 40 count Tropical Stitches Biscotti
Stitched 1 over 2
Floss: Colour & Cotton (colors used are listed below)
Date Started: 1/1/26
Date Finished: 1/23/26

My Color Substitions:

Called for:            Colour & Cotton Colors Used:

Barn Grey               Winterland
Cranberry                Merlot
Grecian Gold           Curry
Onxy                        Featherweight
Pecan Pie                 Murky
Piney Woods            Seaweed
Eggshell                   Shortbread (Limited Edition)
Honeycomb              King's Signet 

  

          

Keep Christmas in my Heart - Finish #1 for 2026

 The "Blessing Sampler" that isn't really a sampler is finished! Started January 1 and finished January 23.

I think it turned out very pretty and I love it! I changed all the colors. The floss is all Colour & Cotton. One of my goals this year is for all the new starts, to try to change the colors and use a conversion I come up with. If there's something I want to stitch and I love the called for colors, I will use it but I want to play more with using what I want to use.

Tomorrow I will search through frames I have here and see if I can find one and, if so, get this piece framed. Even though it's Christmas, I think I may keep it up all year because who doesn't need to be reminded to keep Christ and the spirit of giving in our hearts all year?

There is something to be said for starting a project and sticking with it all the way to the end. I would like to become a monogamous stitcher but I'm not sure I have it in me. My plan for 2026 was to work on WIPS and I had planned to grab the first one that had all the "parts" together and that would be Noel Sampler BUT . . we have this much anticipated, much talked about snow storm starting any minute now (the weatherman says it's been snowing for a while but because the atmosphere is so dry, the snow isn't hitting the ground - he said something like that), I decided I wanted to stitch something snow related  . . something small.

I chose Wynter Snowman Pinkeep by AsberysEchoes on Etsy.

If I finish him and we still have snow on the ground, I'm going to stitch Square Snowman Pinkeep so they can be friends and live in my winter dough bowl. As much trouble as it is to get the dogs to go out with the snow out there, I sure would like for it to stick around long enough for me to get both of these stitched and I could end January with THREE finishes. Who am I kidding?  :)

Snow and Ice

 For a few days, it looked like this snow/ice storm was going to miss us completely. Our local weather guy, who is great, kept saying he couldn't really give us a definite forecast because the storm was looking like it was going to go south of us, with the northern line being just south of Missouri into Arkansas but he said over and over again . . if the storm ended up just a tiny bit north, we could have a lot of snow.

Yep, as of tonight, it looks like we're going to get a lot of of snow. I'm not complaining because I love snow but it surely looks like a lot of people are going to have serious problems due to ice.

Chad left a little over a week ago to go up north a bit to work and they're leaving there and headed down to central Arkansas to help down there. I'm glad he will be helping others but when there's a bad storm, they sometimes are stuck sleeping in their trucks. If there's no power, that means hotels don't have heat or hot water, warm food is hard to find . . this mom worries about her young man!

I'm not expecting us to lose power but if I'm quiet for a few days, you'll know we did lose power. If you hear anything about Joplin in the news, that will pretty much mean we're affected too.

We have food, generators, gas stove, a gas "safe for indoor use" heater - but we do have carbon monoxide detectors, water for brushing teeth and drinking, as well as water for flushing toilets, for heating on the stove and bathing.

I'm going to get a pot of vegetable soup simmering today. We have the bread I made earlier this week. I'm going to make white sandwich bread tomorrow and I took frozen cinnamon rolls out of the freezer last night, put them in the fridge and will bake those tomorrow. Always nice to have something yummy.

Yesterday I charged all the small battery packs I have for running tablets so I can use Markup so I can stitch; I charged a couple of lights I can use with the magnifying light, though I doubt I will try to keep the light part of it operating.

I think we're good and ready for whatever comes out way. If you're one who prays, please pray for those who are going to be affected by this storm and pray for those who are leaving their families behind to go to the areas hit the hardest and help with whatever they can do - power, medical, food trucks, etc.

Baking With Fresh Milled Flour

 For anyone who has tried or is planning to try milling wheat to make flour, I read a post on Facebook this morning that I wish I had read when I first started with milling. If you're on Facebook and if you're interested, look for Two Paws Farmhouse. The post starts off "If you're new to fresh milled flour . . "

Everything mentioned in that post are things that gave me trouble. So many people buy mills, and mixers and grain (LOTS of grain!) <G> and give up before they "get it". It's very different from making bread with store bought flour. 

When I first started, it was in in 2004 and I don't even remember why I thought that was a good idea but there weren't nearly the resources that we have today. I seriously almost gave up. My bread was crumbly and sometimes just . . not good!

I'm so glad I stuck with it.

Looking back, my biggest problems after having made bread for so many years were (1) to add so much more water/liquid because the dough needed more hydration (2) deal with the stickiness of the wet dough.

The early struggles were so worth it but it would have been nice to have had the resources available that we have today.

I don't want to turn anyone off from doing this but two things I wish I had known . . two things that had more to do with spending more $$ and not with my bread baking abilities:

    1. Buy the best mill you can afford. On one hand, I understand why I bought a less expensive mill. It's a BIG investment and I didn't know if it was something I was going to stick with nor did I know if Vince would love the bread. I started out with the Family Grain Mill. It isn't nearly as easy to use nor does it grind the flour as fine. A coarser flour and going to create a coarser texture. It is NOT impossible to get a great loaf of bread with a less expensive mill but it's so much easier with a mill that has more options. In 2015 I bought the KoMo Fidibus Classic. You know how much I've used that mill and I've never had a problem with it. In 2024 I bought new stone burrs just in case I ever needed them. Chad has this same mill so I bought two sets and am glad I did. I paid $45 per set and now, they're $89/set.

Pleasant Hill Grain has a very informative "buying guide" everyone should read before deciding to buy a mill.

    2. The mixer. A Kitchen Aid or other heavy duty mixer will work . . for a while. Not something you need to buy right away. But, this dough has to knead for 10 - 15 minutes. It's a thick, heavy dough. I knew it wasn't going to last and I wanted to keep it for all the other things I mix so I researched and thought about it and researched more and ended up getting the Bosch Universal Plus. A lot of people use the Ankarsrum and love it too. There are newer brands on the market and most of them cost less but I don't know much about those.

I bought the mixer in 2012, have used it a lot and have not had any problems with it. I do have the plastic bowl and will probably upgrade to the stainless bowl if ever I catch them in stock.

The last of my sage advice <G> is: The mills are hard to get. There's a long wait list. From what I've heard, the date they tell you often gets pushed back. These KoMo mills are made in Austria and I don't think they're mass produced as are many of the "things" we are used to buying.

And, when I bought my mills and mixer, there were no wait lists. If you want one, get on that list and get the one you want. I have a friend who did her research, ordered a KoMo, got frustrated that the wait time kept getting extended; cancelled her order and planned to order something else; went back and ordered the KoMo and I think she got frustrated and cancelled again but ended up re-ordering it and eventually got it.

I am passionate about the quality and supposed health benefits of whole wheat bread made from fresh milled flour. I think EVERYONE should do it so I'm not going to apologize for this very long post. I figure anyone not interested never got past the first sentence.

As always, if you want a mill and have questions or if you want to try making bread from fresh milled flour, which you will also see as FMF, and you have questions, I'm always willing to share what I can to help.