Home Joys

Book Review - Danny, the Workhorse

2012-02-24T07:19:00.000-05:00

Every child enjoys a good horse story, especially when the horse loves chewy oatmeal cookies and hates to work!

Danny the Workhorse is a beautiful hard cover book, illustrated with water colors. It tells the story of the large work horses at Pleasant Valley Farm. My children loved the story of how Farmer Don and Missus Dora encouraged Danny to enjoy his work.

I hope the author, Helga Moser, shares more stories from her childhood on a Wisconsin farm and continues the Pleasant Valley Farm series.

I received a free copy of Danny the Workhorse from Christian Light Publications. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

What we did with all that Chicken

2012-02-23T16:03:00.000-05:00

Kelly asked what we did with the case of chicken that I struggled to purchase last week.

Some of it was marinated and frozen for quick meals of grilled chicken. But the majority was turned into chicken marsala, added to a plateful of garlic smashed potatoes and roasted green beans, and served at a sweetheart dinner last Saturday.

I've wanted to host a sweetheart dinner for the couples at our church. With our home addition, we now have the space.

I knew the task was too big for just Ed and I. We asked another couple to join us in hosting the meal and they graciously agreed. Regina is one of those who can make food look too good to eat. Our husbands both are comfortable in the kitchen and we joke about starting Gina and Gina's Catering.

Besides our chicken entree, we served salad, bread (of course) with dipping oil, Russian creme and two kinds of cake.

My brother and sister provided us with violin music with our dinner.

A crackling fire was the perfect accompaniment. My feet were weary by the end of the evening but a project tackled with my sweetheart and joined with good friends is time well spent.

Wild Yeast Hearth Bread

2012-02-21T15:09:00.000-05:00

This bread is not a soft sandwich type bread like most of the other sourdough bread recipes I've shared. This is a hearth style bread that has the crispy crust and chewy crumb that is perfect with a bowl of soup!

I started using this recipe with mostly white flour and only a little whole wheat flour. The above picture shows this bread. But gradually I've been using more and more whole wheat flour until now I'm using all whole wheat. The photo below is 100% whole wheat. The crust is not as crispy when using whole wheat, neither do I get as large of holes in the interior, but we still love it. If you choose to use all or some white flour, you will probably need slightly more flour.

Wild Yeast Hearth Bread

6 cup whole wheat flour (or white if you prefer)
2 1/2 cup water
1 1/4 cup active starter
1 T honey
3 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients except salt just until combined. Allow dough to rest for 30 minutes.

Add salt and mix on low or medium speed for 5 minutes.

Transfer to oiled bowl. Allow to rise for 3 hours. During rise, at each hour, stretch and fold the dough.

After rise, turn onto counter and divide into loaves. Make two large or four small loaves. Shape into round or oblong loaves and allow to rise for 2-3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees. Slash loaves, mist with water, place in oven, turn heat down to 450 degrees, and bake for about 30 minutes. The crust should be a deep brown.

For even better crust and oven spring, cover loaf with roasting pan lid for the first 12 minutes of baking time to add humidity.

If you wish, you may allow the shaped dough to rise for about 1 1/2 hours and then refrigerate for 2 hours or up until a day. Bake directly out of the refrigerator with no warm up time needed.

I like to form the dough into a round loaf and place it seam side up in a VERY well greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. When taking out of the fridge, the dough will be risen to fill the bowl. Turn out of bowl onto a baking sheet, score and bake immediately. This gives a lovely golden blistered crust.

I like the refrigerator method especially when we are having guests. It is nice to have all the prep work done the day before but still have fresh hot bread out of the oven.

To find more sourdough information and recipes, check out the sourdough page.