Man, oh man. I just love homemade granola! I’m not sure who invented it, but God bless you brother! I love the crunchiness of it. I like how it has just e.  Let me show you how to make your own granola and you’ll never look back!
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You Cut Me Deep
Knives can make or break your experience in the kitchen. If you have a great knife, you won’t dread the chore of chopping vegetables or meat. A great knife will slice through your vegetables as though they were butter. It took me a while to figure out that I needed to quit using cheap, dull knives. When I changed this part of my cooking, my world came alive! Please, in the name of all that is good and holy, DO NOT use a dull knife. It will make you want to cuss and lose your religion. However, when you have a good, sharp knife you will sing songs of praise. “When I die, hallelujah I’ll take my knife! I’ll fly away.”
Here are my favorite knives. I use each of them regularly, and I consider them essential in my kitchen. However, I know of some cooks who only have one knife and use it for everything. I like variety. It’s the spice of life, along with cumin. [Read more…]
Roasted Green Beans
Ahhhhh, fall. It brings an abundance of fresh produce. I love green beans! I could be happy with an entire pot of green beans all to myself. Sometimes I’m not very good at sharing. Taste of Home put out a recipe for how to roast green beans in the oven, so I decided to try it. I’m always looking for a different way to prepare things, especially when we have an abundance. These were so good that Barry and I ate the entire batch….which was supposed to be enough for 6 people. Oops. We were popping them like M&Ms. I think it was a contest to see who could eat more. [Read more…]
Strawberry Rhubarb Jam
It’s not too hard to make your own strawberry rhubarb jam. It’s even easier to eat your own jam…super easy, especially if there are biscuits just lying around with nothing else to do with their leftover life. They’re just begging you to make jam…come on, you know you want to.
[Read more…]Yeast Bread Pizza Crust
**We now use our Nutrimill to grind our wheat. See recipe edits below.**
The final yeast bread I’ll cover is pizza crust. No, there is no throwing in the air involved…..unless you want to throw it in the air. I’m afraid to do that because my dog, Dottie, is a little too quick. Dottie would be having pizza for dinner and we’d be having sandwiches. It really is very easy to make your own pizza dough and it tastes sooooooooooooooooooo good. It’s also a really good air freshener for the house. [Read more…]
Kitchen Aid Mixer Bread
There are some of you out there who aren’t weird like me. You don’t enjoy kneading bread. This recipe is for you! I got this recipe from my friend, Angela. Angela is a super-mom. She can do anything. This is how she makes her bread, and I have to admit – it’s nice. It lets you do other things in the kitchen while the mixer is doing all the work! Too bad I can’t hire the mixer to dust my house. It makes nice, big loaves that are great for sandwiches. Because of how it’s made, a lot of people just call this “Kitchen Aid Bread”, so let’s learn how to mix it up! (see what I did there?)
[Read more…]Yeast Bread #3 Italian Breadsticks
**We now use our Nutrimill to grind our wheat.**
There are so many fun things you can do with bread dough! Man, the possibilities are endless! Let’s explore the world of breadsticks today. These are delicious! They make the house smell like Olive Garden. They make your hips expand involuntarily. But man oh man, are they worth it. Let’s bake!
We’ll need yeast, warm water, sugar, salt, oil, Parmesan cheese, garlic powder, bread flour, egg white, water, and sesame seed (poppy seeds or coarse salt can be used instead). You could use fresh Parmesan if you had it but I only had the canned stuff. The fresh version is expensive for my blood, so it’s an occasional treat. [Read more…]
Yeast Bread Dinner Rolls
Do you want to make people come running to your dinner table? Bake these. You’ll have neighbors lining up at the door begging to come in. “Stop letting your dog poop in my yard and we’ll talk.” See, it makes a great bargaining chip. They’re not hard to make. They take a little time but they are soooooooooooooooooooo worth it.
To make these rolls you need all-purpose flour, yeast, milk, sugar, butter Crisco, salt, and eggs. There aren’t any fancy ingredients here. This is good home cooking. Nothing crazy. I save that for the weekend.
In a large mixing bowl, mix your yeast and flour. Yeast looks so cool. I love yeast. Stacy loves yeast! [Read more…]
Yeast Bread #1 Light Bread
This begins my 5 day series on yeast breads. Today we’ll cover Light Bread. Why is it called that? I guess because it’s light in color……or light in texture. Who knows? All I know is that my mama calls it Light Bread, so I call it that. It’s delicious, so who cares what it’s called. You can call it Dirt Bread for all I care as long as I get to eat it with butter.
This recipe doesn’t take complicated ingredients. You’ll need bread flour, salt, yeast, warm water, sugar, and shortening. Yes, bread flour. Don’t substitute this time. [Read more…]
Quick Breads #5 Skillet Cornbread
Before I found this recipe from Pioneer Woman, I wasn’t the type of person that would get overly excited about cornbread. Now, however, I have seen the light! This is the way cornbread should be – moist on the inside and nice and crispy on the outside. What really makes GOOD cornbread is a cast iron skillet. That combined with the stove-top method of this recipe results in a cornbread that will make your eyes roll back in your head. A cast iron skillet is the only way to go if you want awesome cornbread. Otherwise, just settle for mediocrity. [Read more…]