Blanket for SJ's baby

Blanket for SJ's baby
Originally uploaded by LMN and Friends

It's done! This blanket took me a month of night time tv knitting & it was so much fun to knit.

Homemade Bread

I have been making my own bread in my bread machine for a couple years now. It's a fabulous recipe and works well (I'll include it here). But I lost the paddle to my bread machine the other day so I thought I'd try making bread in the oven. Here is the recipe I tried: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/fabulous-homemade-bread/Detail.aspx. I let all six loaves rise once, then I baked two and froze the other four. Somehow I messed up the final rise on the two BUT I have baked two from the frozen batch and they rose nicely and are super yummy. I would like to experiement with my recipe to make it in the oven.

The recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast (2 1/3 T)
  
• 1/4 cup bread flour
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 1/2 cups warm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 2/3 cup vegetable oil
• 10 cups bread flour

Directions

1. In the mixing bowl of an electric mixer, stir together 1/2 cup warm water, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/4 cup bread flour, and yeast. Let grow for about 5 minutes. It will bubble almost immediately.
2. Measure oats, 4 1/2 cups warm water, whole wheat flour, salt, 2/3 cup sugar, and 2/3 cup oil into the mixing bowl. Mix on low speed with a dough hook for 1 to 2 minutes. Increase speed slightly, and begin adding bread flour 1/2 to 1 cup at a time until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. Humidity determines how much flour you need before the bread pulls away from the edge of the bowl. It is normal for the dough to be sticky.
3. Place dough in an oiled bowl, and turn to coat the surface. Cover with a damp cloth. Let rise in a warm spot for 1 hour, or until doubled in size.
4. Divide dough into 6 pieces. Shape loaves, and place in greased 8 x 4 inch pans. Let rise until dough is 1 inch above rim of pans, usually 1 hour.
5. Bake at 350 degrees F ( 175 degrees C) for 35 minutes, or until tops are browned. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

My recipe:
1 1/4 c water
1/8 c oil
1/4 c honey
2 c bread flour
1 1/4 c ww flour
3/4 c mix of oats, sunflower seeds, millet, sesame seeds
1.5 t salt
scant 3 t yeast (put into little hole)
bake on ww setting.

5.11.11

5.11.11
Originally uploaded by LMN and Friends

http://healthycrush.com/veggies-with-spicy-peanut-ginger-sauce/

YUM

Mushroom rattle for Baby L 5.2011

Mushroom rattle for Brynn 5.2011
Originally uploaded by LMN and Friends

This is version two. The first wasn't quite as nice and b/c baby L was 11 days late I had time to make a 2nd a better one. This was a lot of fun to knit. I sized down the needles for the gills and stem (which is what makes #2 better)

Sloppy Lentils

This was an awesome recipe - so much better than the last sloppy lentil recipe I tried: http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/2008/05/f-n-sloppy-lentils.html

I changed it up a bit and I doubled the recipe for two families. Here is my revised version for the single recipe with my revisions in red:
3 cups water
1 cup lentils, rinsed
salt to taste
1 cup chopped onion
1 chopped green pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
15 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2-1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste (omitted)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup ketchup
1 teaspoon mustard powder (I used prepared mustard b/c I didn't have the powder)
1 tablespoon chili powder
3-5 tablespoons rapadura, molasses, or honey (I used honey)
1 Tbsp white vinegar
salt and ground black pepper to taste
4 hamburger buns, split
Combine water and lentils in a saucepan; season to taste with salt if desired. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile, cook onions with the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until the onions have softened and turned translucent, about 4 minutes. Add tomatoes, garlic, tomato paste, ketchup, mustard powder, chili powder, molasses/sweetener, vinegar, salt and pepper; blend roughly with an immersion blender simmer 5 to 10 minutes until thickened (I added it to the lentils first and then simmered)
Drain lentils and reserve cooking liquid. Stir lentils into sauce mixture, adding cooking liquid or water as needed to obtain the desired “sloppy joe” consistency. Serve on buns.
I served this with the rolls that are a few posts down.

tomato hat 5.2011

tomato hat 5.2011
Originally uploaded by LMN and Friends

This was so much fun to make! I only wish it were a bit bigger. I'm going to have to tweak the design to make matching ones for the kids this fall.

food art 5.2011

food art 5.2011
Originally uploaded by LMN and Friends

We had a little fun with our lunch the other days. The girls wanted to eat at 10:30. With a little stalling and this project we were able to hold out until 11:20.