Abby's Wheat Bread

OK, people, here is how I make my wheat bread. Abby taught me some new techniques and my bread turned out better than ever and yours will too!

First, this is my wheat grinder that the "kids" gave me for Christmas! I love it, you can come over and grind wheat any ole time! You can see the wheat in the top and then the wheat magically appears in the tub at the bottom. Very nice.



To the bread, here is what you'll need:



First get 5 c. of nice hot water, it should be about 105 degrees.



Dump it into your bowl. Add 2/3 c. oil.



Add 2/3 c. honey (You do the oil first so that the honey just come sliding out, sweet).



Pour in 3 T. yeast.



And give the bowl a turn, use the pulse setting. Do you love that action photo!



Next add 6 c. whole wheat, 2 T. salt, 1 1/2 T. Dough enhancer (I am still not sold on this stuff but I put it in because Abby told me to).



Now, here comes the new technique: Keep pulsing and add the flour about a cup at a time.



This was about 3 or 4 cups of flour. Keep pulsing and adding flour, it is not ready yet.



Perfect! Stop adding flour. This was about 7 more cups of flour on this day. What you want is for the dough to start to pull away from the sides of the bowl, like this:



Then you let it mix on #1 (This is using a Bosch Mixer) for about 10 min., to knead the dough.

After 10 min., put some oil on your counter, dump out your dough, it will be soft and lovely. Separate it into 5 balls like this:



Here is how I make my loaves. I flatten out my ball into a rectangle, then fold the bottom end up.



Then I fold the top end down and seal it with my little finger tips a bit, see the little holes? Their mine.



Next fold the right end over.



Then the left end over.



Turn the loaf over and round it under the sides to get the shape you want, like this:



Spray your pans with Pam, or the fancy stuff in my picture at the top and put your pretty little loaves into the pans.



Next let them rise. I turn my oven on to warm up for less than 1 min., and put my loaves in there to rise. Now the waiting game, it is hard to wait but you must for nice fluffy loaves of bread.



They're done! Once your loaves are poofing up over the edge, they are ready to bake. It can take 20 min., 30 min., 40 min, you just never know, thus the waiting game.



Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Put those loaves in and let them bake for 25 to 30 min. I really varies from oven to oven but . . . .

Tadaaaaaa. . . . . . . HOMEMADE BREAD . . . . . . Yeah!

Here is it with butter smeared across the top.



Now it is out of the pans and ready to eat!



Whole Wheat Bread:

5 c. hot water
2/3 c. oil
2/3 c. honey
3 T. yeast
12 - 14 c. whole wheat flour
2 T. salt
1 1/2 T. dough enhancer

Mix water, oil, honey and yeast. Add 6 c. of flour, the salt and dough enhancer. Mix until slightly blended, Add remaining flour until dough pulls off bowl. Then mix on low for 10 min. Shape into 5 loaves. Let raise for 20 min. Bake 350 degrees for 25 to 30 min.

Artichokes!

I went to the store and found the most beautiful artichokes! You want to look for ones that have nice close, tight leaves like the one below:



First, cut the long stem off but leave enough for it to stand up on, like this:





Get out your spices:



Rinse your artichokes and place them in a pan. Sprinkle a very generous amount of spices all over the top of the artichokes.
Put enough water in the bottom of your pan, to just come to the bottom of the artichoke



Put your lid on, get the water to a nice simmer and let them just simmer for about 2 hours or longer if needed. Leave your pan covered the whole time. To see if your artichokes are done, pull off a leaf and if the bottom meat part is nice and soft you've done it! Yahoo!!! The artichoke should be a nice dark green like this



My kids love to dip their leaves into lemon/butter and I make an aioli sauce. I just put a couple big spoonfuls of mayonnaise in a bowl, a lot of the above spices and then just mix it up. You can add lemon juice, garlic, Tabasco sauce; doesn't anything taste good with mayonnaise?

xo,
Janette

P.S. My Mom used to cook artichokes in a pressure cooker. I have a deep fear of pressure cookers but you should try it. I have cooked them in the microwave but it just wasn't the same. I like the nice slow method on the stove.

Bisquick Chicken

Dear 6 Friends,

I am back! Thanks for your calls, I am sorry I didn't know how to blog away from my own little Apple Computer. We had a great time with my Dad in Arizona. He is the best, the weather was great, it was so much fun to visit with all the family and I read the 5th book of Fablehaven. Life can't get better than that.

Here is one of my Mom's most classic recipes, Bisquick Chicken. I loved it back then and I still do now. I made it one night for my Dad, so here is what you need::



Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.

Cut up your chicken. I take a hole chicken breast and cut it into thirds. It makes nice even sized chunks that my kids like better that the whole breast. Let's me honest here, Gregg does too.




Get your box of Bisquick and search for the recipe somewhere on it. They like to move it around. One time they didn't even have it on the box! I called them up and had a chat with the head Bisquick people about that too, it was very serious. Next time I bought a box, the recipe was back on the box and the world was aligned correctly again.



Put your Bisquick, paprika, salt and pepper into a gal. zip-loc baggie.



Mix it all up until blended like this:



Add your chicken chunks and shake them up until they are all coated with the yummy Bisquick mixture. (I used to always do this for my Mom, it was my favorite job, shaking around chicken.)



Put your butter in the pan, then place it in the oven for a few minutes, just until it is melted, not burned! Many a times I have forgotten it in the oven, try to learn from me.



See the nice melted butter. My Mom used to use oil but I like butter, you choose.



My Mom would dip one side in the butter, then turn it over and dip the other side, like this:






Put it in the oven for 35 to 45 min. Don't pack your pieces too tight or they won't get crunchy and brown and that will be sad. Leave them some room to crisp up and bake.

Ta Daaa . . . . Bisquick Chicken.



My funny story: When I made this for my Dad, we sat down to eat and Livy took a bite of her chicken and said, "This is really spicy!". I took a bite and sure enough, it was spicy. I had put chili powder in the mixture instead of Paprika! It was still good but just a bit more spicy. So, read the labels or go for the element of surprise like me.

The original recipe has lots of variation you can try. My Mom swore by using the full amount of salt. I admit hers did taste really good but I just can't put that much salt in anything, I usually only use 1/2 the amount salt or less in most recipes. Call me and I'll give you my dissertation on how bad salt is for your body.

Bisquick Oven Baked Chicken

1 T. butter (I used about 4 T.)
2/3 c. Original Bisquick mix
1/2 t. paprika
1 t. salt or garlic salt
1/4 t. pepper
1 cut-up whole chicken (3 - 3 1/2 lb.)

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Melt butter in 13 x 9 inch glass baking dish in oven.

Stir together Bisquick mix, paprika, salt and pepper. Coat chicken. Place skin side down in heated pan.

Bake 35 min. Turn chicken, bake about 15 min. longer until juice of chicken is clear.

( I never turn my chicken, I just can't remember to do that. It all turns out good though.)

Chicken Burritos

This is one of my favorite dinners because everyone loves it! I always use boneless chicken thighs, they really have such a great flavor. So, I just spread out the thighs and put tons of Lawry's salt, garlic salt and pepper all over the top side of the meat. This is what really gives the meat a good flavor.





Them I get Gregg to grill it up, he slices it up into nice smaller pieces and everyone lives it. Give it a try, you won't be disappointed, I promise.



Next I make this bean dip. I don't have the exact recipe, I just add what I like so here is what you need:



Those things in the jars are my pinto and black beans that I canned. With store bought black beans, just drain them, then dump them and some refried beans into your baking dish. Use a potato masher to smash them up, no lumps, my kids don't like lumpy beans. I usually get tired of smashing and mine end up like this:






Next, add sour cream, I scooped about this much:



Blend it into your beans:



Add some salsa, the spicier the better!



Throw in a big handful of grated cheese:



Stir it all together. Sprinkle some more cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until bubbly. And here you have it. My kids eat it with tortilla chips, they put it on their burritos, they love it!



Now for your salsa. Find some hole in the wall Mexican Taco shop and try out all of their salsas. There are so many good ones out there. These are our three favorites from El Napolito here in town. They make any burrito taste fresher and spicier. So, get on out there and find some good homemade salsa. Vow never to buy some in a jar from the store again.







I don't know how to turn the pictures the right way, sorry. But they are: Roasted Salsa, Sonora Hot Salsa (it has 5 peppers in it) and Salsa Verde (my favorite). Yum!

xo,
Janette