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Cullen, the biscuit man, the biscuit man

Cullen loves the biscuit!!! especially with sausage. I told him he should start making them himself, insted of purchasing them at those drive through fast food joints... and well he did! They were delicious too, way better than the fast food ones.

Kenny's creative play!!

And so here we have it folks, Kenny and all of "his" creative playing. He decided to build and play the other day. This first pic is hard to see, but he something that extends all the way up to the top bunk of his bed. It is hard to tell from the messy room, but he was proud of it. This pic is of the "truck" he built. It was pretty good and he even too the photo of it...which is great too.

This last one is of a floor puzzel he made and i took the pic of him. Kids are so funny with their toys and I just love it when they use their creative thinking process'.

Winter Ain't good for nuthin' but Baking!

Since it has been cold and yucky out lately, I have been trying some new recipes. I have been looking for some good sweet quick bread recipes, that are easy to make, good, but not to sweet, for an everyday type of recipe. So far, I have tried 2 different ones...

The first is pictured on the left and it is a

CRACKLE POPPY BREAD
Printed from COOKS.COM
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 c. raw sesame seeds

2 tbsp. dry milk solids

2 tsp. poppy seeds

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/4 c. honey

1/4 c. orange juice

2 tbsp. unsalted sweet butter, melted

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
Combine flour, sesame seeds, dry milk, poppy seeds, baking powder and salt in medium size bowl. Mix eggs, honey, orange juice, butter and oil in small bowl. Stir egg mixture into flour mixture just until mixed. Spoon batter into 2 small buttered loaf pans or 1 large 8 x 4 x 2 1/4 inch pan. Bake on center rack until toothpick tests done, 35 to 40 minutes, 350 degree oven. Cool in pan on wire rack. Serve with orange flavored cream cheese.

This turned out just "OK" in my opinion. It is pretty "dull". I did make a couple of changes...1) i used lemon juice insted of orange juice and 2) I used all oil insted of the melted butter. I did this because I am trying to get that Loaf "that can be make form regular pantry goods" that i keep on hand at all time and we just do not always have real butter (or maybe i am to cheap to use it ) and we do not usually have orange juice on hand.

I think it needed more honey, cause it is almost "not sweet at all"... It does sound like 1/4 cup of honey is quite a bit for one loaf, but really 1/2 would be better.

Now the second loaf, pictured on the right is:

WHOLE WHEAT BUTTERMILK QUICK BREAD
Printed from COOKS.COM
2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons butter

1 egg

1 1/3 cups buttermilk

1/2 cup chopped pecans
Combine the dry ingredients. Stir in the remaining ingredients, mixing well.
Place in a well buttered loaf pan and bake at 350°F for 35 minutes or until done.
Submitted by: CM

And well, I have to say, I CHANGED it UP A LOT... here is what I did...

I used 3 c. ww flour (insted of the 2 c ww and 1 c all purpost)

I added 1/2 cup honey (and complete cut out the sugar and butter)

I used 2 eggs

I only had "regular milk" so I added 1T lemon juice to it to make "a foe buttermilk"

and I added 1 T gluten

It turned out good, bit sweet, the nuts were great, good, nice firm texture and would be great with honey butter, or cream cheese...

It was also easy to make and made only one good size regular loaf (where some recipes make several).

This recipe could be "dressed up" easily with added dried fruit too!!

you could also change the nuts to walnuts, chopped peanuts, or no nuts at all!!!

I like this recipe and will keep it in my files!