I'm finally posting pics of my garden... I know- it's about time! Let me tell you a few interesting things about my garden!
Paxton dumped a pack of seeds, I think, on the corner there closest to the camera in the first picture. Pretty sure I didn't plant cantaloupe there! But luckily for the seeds, the connection rounding that corner leaks a little!
I have some underground friends that like to eat tomato plants. They're probably eating my potatoes as well!
I planted BUSH beans along the fence, not knowing for sure whether bush beans would climb or not. Apparently there was ONE pole bean in that seed packet, because I have one bean plant that has climbed to the TOP of my fence!
Our family celebrates Zucchini Day OFTEN. In other words, don't forget to lock your car at church!
THIS is a picture of WHAT SUMMER tastes like! Fresh Sun-Sugar tomatoes, fresh from the garden!
Cream above ingredients together like cookie dough.
I c.milk
2 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. vanilla
Mix again.
Fill muffin tins about ½ full.
Bake at 425° for 12 minutes or until lightly brown.Dump out to cool.
Shauna Colvin’s Beehive Biscuits
2 c.flour
4 tsp.baking powder
½ tsp.cream of tarter
½ tsp.salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
Blend together with fork.Then, using a pastry blender, cut in:
½ c. shortening
Make a well. Add the following to the well:
2/3 c.milk
1large egg
Mix the liquids together in the well first, then mix into the dry ingredients just until moist.DON’T OVERMIX!Dump out onto lightly floured surface and knead lightly (basically coating with flour) SEVEN times.Roll out about ½ inch thick.Cut into circles.Place on cookie sheet with circles just barely touching each other and just barely touching sides of pan.Carefully put extra pieces back together to re-cut without overworking. Bake at 450° for 10-15 minutes, or until lightly brown.
2/3 c. oil (Shauna prefers canola oil.Vegetable oil is okay.DON’T use olive oil as it has a different flavor that many might not like.)
2/3 c. honey OR light brown sugar.(If you use the same cup to measure the honey as you did for the oil, it will be easier to pour out!)
2 TBS. salt (be sure to add flour BEFORE adding yeast so the flour can shield the yeast from the salt!)
5 ½ c. warm water (90°-100° is OPTIMAL for yeast growth.Yeast begins to die at 104°) Shauna doesn’t use a thermometer, she recommends just about the temperature you would use for making a baby bottle, maybe a touch hotter.
7 c. whole wheat flour. Mix in well!
2 TBS. instant yeast (Shauna uses Fleishman's or SAF purchased bulk)
Mix well in bread mixer.Can mix by hand, too!
ABOUT 7 c. unbleached white flour, about ½ cup at a time, allowing it to be completely mixed in well between additions.When the dough cleans the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl WELL and the dough FEELS like it is a good consistency (elastic, a little bit sticky still), enough flour has been added.If you don’t have a bread mixer, you will need to mix the 7 cups white flour in by hand, a little at a time because it will be too heavy for a hand mixer.
Knead for 7 minutes.Shauna puts the lid on her BOSCH™ and lets it knead on the 1 setting.
Turn out onto lightly floured surface for shaping.Shauna flours the surface of her hands and the surface of the dough to make it more manageable.She flattens it a little into an oval about 1 foot by 2 feet and 3-4 inches thick.She cuts it using a dough cutter into 5 visually equal portions.To shape the loaves, Shauna puts the smooth side of each portion face down, folds all the edges in a little, then rolls like a 3 inch thick burrito, placing the seam on the bottom and, again like a burrito, tucking the ends underneath.She places them in the loaf pan with the pretty side up.Then she tucks her little loaf babies in all around the edges using her fingers to help remove air bubbles and prevent cracking.
Preheat oven to 350° so it can heat while dough is rising.If using a convection oven (not Shauna’s favorite!) heat to 335° and use a bread setting if you have one.
Cover loaves with warm damp towels and allow to rise until about double, approximately 25 minutes, give or take with temperature of the room.
Bake!About 30 minutes in an electric oven, 35 minutes in gas oven, 25 minutes in convection oven.
COOL!Shauna removes her loaves from the pans and brushes them with butter for a soft crust.She places a dry towel over them while they cool.Make sure the loaves are completely cool before storing.
Store!Shauna uses Western Family™ food and bread bags with twist-ties, even for in the freezer.Freeze bread that isn’t going to be used within 3 or 4 days.Use frozen bread within a month or so.
Notes From 7-13-2010 Breads Class Taught By Shauna Colvin
(Taken by Valerie Anderson.Blame her for the screw-ups!☺!)
Some tips on purchasing, grinding, and storing wheat.
Wheat should be stored in a cool dry place, protected from moisture and bugs.Buckets with tight sealing lids are a good plan.Make sure your wheat is pre-cleaned.Sometimes it is less expensive to purchase wheat that hasn’t been, but it is likely not a very good deal because cleaning can be a lot of trouble.Shauna prefers hard red wheat.Shauna says that Walton Feed is well priced. http://waltonfeed.com/category/38).Others have purchased from Honeyville Grains in SLC (http://www.honeyvillegrain.com/) I phoned Macey’s to get pricing from them- They currently have 5 gallon buckets for $ 17.99 or 50 lb. bags for $17.99.This is a STEAL over what it was a year ago, and might be a lot cheaper than paying freight.I have purchased white wheat at Macey’s and been very happy with cleanliness.
Shauna uses a BOSCH™ mixer, but has owned a K-Tech™ mixer in the past and really liked it as well.
Shauna uses metal bread pans that her mother gave her and LOVES them.If breaking in a new bread pan, Shauna recommends brushing it with shortening and baking it at 350° to season it, much the way you would season a Dutch-oven.Shauna DOES use regular dish soap and water when washing her bread pans.
Well this year we got our backyard done so our garden was planted a lot later than usual. It seems to be slow growing too. I love my backyard and my garden will not be as good this year but it is WELL worth it!
You really can't see the small green plants in this picture but everything is at least growing at this point. I did all of these by seed planted about a month ago. We will see how big they get! They are Cucumber, Lettuce, Marigolds, Green beans and Carrots
This box has tomatoes and peppers
Here are our raspberries that we got from the Butlers. They are doing fabulous!
We have been eating off them for a couple of days now!
Here are my strawberries (from Lois) planted about a month ago and some pumpkins.
Here's a challenge for you all! Take a photo of your vegetable or flower garden and post it here! Tell us what you planted, what has done well and what hasn't, and what you will do differently (if anything!) next year! Ready, GO!
For those of you who do not know I started a new reading blog this week called "Michelles daily reading fix " I started this blog mostly with the idea of starting an online book club. I have really missed the book club I left behind in Sandy when we moved. And when I tried to start one here people seemed really interested at first, but it sorta flopped because people said they did not have time to come to the meetings. I figured it would be easier for people to check a website and leave comments instead. I also was thinking how some people ( housewives in particular) have a difficult time having time to read with their little ones underfoot, but everyone seems to find time to get on the computer at least once a day. So I added a few extras that can help you quickly get your reading fix for the day. These include Short stories, Read a classic book a chapter a day, poems, Noteworthy news, a kids corner where there are fun things for kids and where they can submit things they have written. Recipes to share etc. I want people to submit and suggest things they like to read, want to read or have written too.
If some of you still want to get together at the end of the month and meet physically and take time to have a discussion about the monthly book picks I would totally be willing! :-)
Anyway check it out! And don't be afraid to make suggestions and let me me know if there anything I can improve or if there is something I should add to the blog.
-Michelle L.
M- Chicken, Potatoes and Carrots
T- Pasta Bake with Parmesan Toast
W- Chicken and Rice Bake
Th- Beans (possibly burritos?)
F- Homemade Pizza
S- Hamburgers
S- Roast and the works
So have any of you watched the Food Nanny on BYU TV? She has great ideas about dinner time and good recipes too. I have seen her show advertised on BYU TV and she has kind of an annoying Utah accent so it has turned me off from watching, but one day my daughter and I were watching a program and this show came on after and we were too lazy to turn the channel I guess and I was curious about what this show was all about. Anyway she showed this lady how to roast a chicken ( which I already know how to do). However, she showed a cool way to season it that I had never tried and so I tried it out and my family loved it! Mike said it was the best Chicken meal he had ever had. so I looked up her website and she has recipes and charts and ideas as to how plan meals 2 weeks at a time. Jennie I thought you might be interested in her method.
THIS is a picture of WHAT SUMMER tastes like! Fresh Sun-Sugar tomatoes,
