Bread

Schlotsky’s Bread
This is more like pancake batter… but it will make a great bread
INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup warm water
2 tablespoon white sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cup warm water
½ to ¾ cups powdered milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons white cornmeal (yellow will work but I like the white)

DIRECTIONS
In a small bowl stir together the ½ cup warm water, sugar, and yeast. Stir to dissolve and set aside.
In a large bowl dissolve baking soda with the 1 1/4 cup warm water. Add the powdered milk ,salt and one cup of the whole flour. Beat with a wire whisk until smooth. Beat in yeast mixture and remaining flour.
Batter should be thick, sticky, and smooth.
Prepare 2 10 inch cast iron pans with non-stick spray. Dust pans with cornmeal. Place 1/2 batter in each pan. Batter will spread during rising time. Spray top of batter with non-stick cooking spray. Cover and let rise for one hour.
Spray top of bread with non-stick cooking spray a 2nd time just before baking .
Bake in a preheated 375 degree for 20 minutes.
Allow to cool for an hour before slicing.

Note Schlotsky’s toasts the bread and cheese them make the sandwich.

Cullen's Bread

Asparagus, Ham and Cheese Quiche

Our Sunday drive

We decided to take a little "drive" around after the bad weather and here are some pics of what we saw. Here is a tree blown over in a field...there were about 5 of them all in one area from the storm (leftover Ike).
We has a lot of rain in a short amount of time and there were several roads with water over them...this pic shows one...and the rain had stopped several hours by this time.
I took this pic as we were driving...I was happy it showed, cause we were actually moving quite fast. It was a beautiful site with the sun peaking through the clouds... When my dd was about 3 or 4 years old, and it had been raining...and we saw a similar view as this, she told me that "that was God peeking down from heaven, checking on us." Every time I see the suns rays shining through like this, it reminds me of that. It is funny what little kids say.
This big hornets nest was hanging from a limb over the road. We stopped to take a picture, but didn't stay long, lol. It was a big one, that is for sure, but we are not very close it it.

Missouri Winds...Leftovers from Ike

Well, even thought we are in Missouri, we had some pretty strong straight line winds here from the left overs of hurrican Ike... No real damage to us at all, but grandma has a very large oak tree go over with the winds. The over saturation of the ground, from all of the excess rains didn't hurt the matter either. The pic is of my dd and dogs sitting on the "tree".
This is dd again, climbing up in the tree...
Here is a pic of the roots that were pulled up when the tree with over...you can see the water on the ground...it quit raining many hours before this pic was taken...but the ground was just so saturated.

Muskrat minding his own business

We were out for a drive to pick up some apples from a small orchard about 25 miles away when we saw a busy muskrat on the side of the road, close to a pond...he was really cute. My dd said that he looks a lot like a beaver, but with a rats tail...
Cullen took the picture, but it was the only one we captured.

Peaches anyone?

I canned a few peaches this year and well here they are. The peaches that I used, were so juicy that I did not add anything to them...I just sliced them right into the jars, pressed them in and they made their own juice and all... It was amazing. I love to use these canned peaches for a peach cobbler, or peach cake when we are in the middle of winter and just craving some summer, yumm!