Life is Busy...

Hope to be back soon!

Today, November 4, 2010

16 years ago my precious Granny went home to Heaven after a 20 month -couragous battle with cancer.
She was 76 years young.
I miss her greatly.

Today, November 1, 2010

Happy 16th Birthday

to my

Special Blessing

I LOVE YOU!!!

Applesauce Cake (Another Laura Ingalls Wilder recipe)

1/2 C Butter
1 C Sugar (I use sucanat)
1 Egg
1 3/4 C Flour (I use fresh milled)
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1 tsp Baking Soda
1 C Applesauce

Preheat oven to 350*
Grease and flour 9" Tube pan.

Cream Butter and Sugar.
Beat in Egg.
Sift Flour and Spices.
Mix Baking Soda with Applesauce.
Add these alternately to the Butter mixture and stir until combined.
Put into prepared pan and bake 40-50 minutes.
Cool on wire rack.

(I like to add raisins and nuts)

Camping

Friends made last minute 1 night camping reservations at Indian Springs. (approx. 45 minutes away from home)

My sister and I were not prepared to campout, but we made sure the rest of the family was.
We made lots of food, packed up the essentials, and spent the day to enjoy the gorgeous Indian Summer weather, and help get everyone settled.
They went fishing and paddle boating, and we all walked along, and in, the river. The water was low, so we were able to walk on the riverbed rocks.

Then back to the camp to eat supper ... Grilled Burritos, Chili, and campfire roasted Chicken Wings.

We Momma's headed home around 7:30pm.
Then we went back at 7:30am with hot coffee and muffins.
They went fishing, again.
Then we packed up.
Everyone had a great time!!!

My nephew found they had a guest under their tent.

A SCORPION!

Better under the tent than in the tent.

Laura's Gingerbread

Laura Ingalls Wilder Gingerbread


Preheat oven to 350*

1 C Brown Sugar
1/2 C Shortening (I use butter)
1 C Molasses
2 t Baking Soda
1 C Boiling Water
3 C Flour (I use fresh milled)
1 t each Ground Ginger, Ground Cinnamon, Ground Nutmeg, Ground Cloves, Allspice
1/2 t Salt

Blend Sugar and Shortening.

Mix in Molasses.
Add Baking Soda to Boiling Water and mix well.
Combine and sift Flour and Spices.
Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Pour into a greased 9×9 baking pan.
Bake approx 45 minutes.


Laura said to serve warm or at room temperature with applesauce or slightly sweetened whipped cream. I also read in another article that she was quoted to say: "Chocolate frosting just adds to the goodness."

My favorite time of the year

Happy Fall Ya'll

Banana Nut Bread (Easy Recipe)

1/2 C Butter, softend
1 C Honey Crystals (or sugar)
2 Eggs
3 Bananas, mashed
1/2 C Chopped Pecans
2 C Fresh Milled Flour (Hard Red or White)
1 1/2 t Baking Soda
2 t Baking Powder
1/2 t Salt

Preheat oven to 350*
Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs and beat well.
Add bananas.
Sift together Flour, BS, BP and salt. Add nuts to flour mixture to coat.
Add to rest of ingredients.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan(s) or bundt pan and bake approx 45 +/- minutes.
Yummy!!!

Good Things

I watched my new DVD, *Homestead Blessings: The Art Of Bread Making*

Oh, the yummy goodness!

I will be updating each time I try one of their recipes.

Hey Michele (in WV)...they have a pizza dough recipe on there, too. Check it out, it seems really easy to do.

It's Here!

So excited!!!

My FREE copy of *Homestead Blessings: The Art Of Bread Making* was in my mailbox today.

FREE??? Yes, FREE!

Back in June, one of the homeschool websites that I subscribe to had a giveaway ... and they gave a copy to ME.

Well, I'm off to watch it.

Have a great evening!

Coffee Cake

Coffee Cake

1 1/2 C Fresh Milled Flour
3/4 C Honey Crystals (or sugar)
2 1/2 t Baking Powder
3/4 t Salt
1/4 C Butter
3/4 C Milk
1 Egg

Topping
2/3 C Molasses Crystals (or brown sugar)
1/2 C Fresh Milled Flour
1 t Cinnamon
6 T Butter

Preheat oven to 375*
Blend COFFEE CAKE ingredients.
Beat vigorously for 30 seconds.
Spread into a prepared (greased) square cake pan.
Mix together TOPPING ingredients until crumbly.
Sprinkle over batter.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.
Serve warm.
ENJOY!!!

Frugal Shopping Adventures

I get real excited when I find rare, great deals at the local grocery store.
In the big store, I mostly shop in the small section of Natural and Organic stuff.

First, I check in the *Manager's Special's* box. This box holds products that are marked down in price for one reason or another.
I've found:
Organic Broth for .99 - $1.25 ... reg. $3 - $4
Organic Cereals for $1.25 ... reg. $4 +

And on the shelves I've come across...
Organic Butter for $.99 ... reg. $4+ I bought all six of them :)
Organic Yogurt for $.99 - $1.25 ... reg. $3+
Organic Milk for $.99 - $1.49 ... reg. $3+ for 1/2 gallon.

Just wanted to share a few of the great bargins I've found in the past few weeks.

Easy PoundCake

1/2 C Butter
2 1/2 C Honey Crystal (or sugar)
5 Eggs
3 C Fresh Milled Flour (Hard White or Red)
1/2 t Salt
1 C Milk
2 T Lemon Extract OR Vanilla Extract

DO NOT PREHEAT OVEN
Cream butter and honey crystals/sugar.

Add eggs, one at a time.

Sift together flour and salt.

Add with milk and extract. Mix til well combined.

Pour batter into prepared bundt or tube pan and place in cold oven.

Bake for 60 – 75 minutes at 350* until tested done and golden.

Tweaked, Again...

This past weekend, I decided to, once again, tweak the bread recipe.



I replaced the water with organic lactose free milk, organic sugar for the honey (only because I am out of honey at the moment), and organic butter for the oil.



It turned out very yummy!



The one thing I am consistantly finding is that I need more flour than the original recipe calls for, otherwise the dough is very runny.



As soon as my copy of Homestead Blessings: The Art of Bread Making arrives in my mailbox, I will watch it over and over again. Maybe, just maybe, I wrote the recipe incorrectly.

New Bread Recipe

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to watch:
Homestead Blessings: The Art of Bread Making
on http://www.thehomeschoolchannel.tv/

My daughter and I tried their recipe and really like it (even though, to our taste, it needed more salt and sweetness).

So, today, I did just that. I made another loaf of their wonderful bread, tweaking the recipe by adding more salt and more sweetness. YUMMY!!!

Here is The West Ladies original Bread Recipe:

In a bowl:
2 1/2 C. Warm Water

Add:
2 C. Flour
Stir until well mixed.

Add:
1 t. Salt
1/2 C. Oil
1/2 C. Honey
Mix well.

Add:
1 T. Yeast
and mix well.

Add:
1-3 C. Flour...1 C. at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Then, knead in thta bowl til you have a soft dough.
Now place a small amount of oil in the bottom of the bowl. Leave dough in the bowl and let rise til double.

Now, punch the dough down and knead alittle on a lightly floured surface.
Place dough into 2 greased bread pans. Poke holes with a fork. Cover and let rise.
Bake at 350* for 30 minutes.

Salsa

2 Pints Roma Grape Tomatoes - Diced

1 Onion - Diced

1 Green Bell Pepper - Diced

2 Peaches - Peeled and Diced

The juice of 1 Lime

1 T Cilantro - or to taste

2 T Sugar - or to taste

1 t Salt - or to taste

You can add the hot peppers if you like it real hot!

We ate some with Organic Blue Corn Tortilla Chips. YUM!

Garden Tomato Sandwich

Nothing says it's Summertime like a good ole Tomato Sandwich.

Fresh baked bread, fresh picked tomato out of the garden and some organic mayo!

Now that is Good Eatin'!!!

Tomato and Onion Foccasia Bread

For this recipe, I tweaked our Basic Pizza Dough Recipe by adding into the flour:

Approximately 1 tsp each of Basil, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, and Italian Seasoning.

Roll the dough into a rectangle shape to approximately 1/4" thick. Lightly press tips of fingers into the dough to make dimples.

Spread dough with a mixture of heated Olive Oil, Pressed Garlic, and Basil

Place sliced tomatoes and onions on top.

Bake in a preheated 425* oven 8-15 minutes. Keep a watchful eye on it!

You can top with cheese while it is hot.

Pizza Dough

I had some ask about a recipe for Pizza Dough.



This is the basic recipe and instruction that we use.





http://www.monkeysee.com/ruthgresser



I usually tweak it in some way or other ... to our liking.

We love pizza

This is a veggie pizza that my daughter made. Delicious!

We usually make pizza once a week. 100% Organic and 100% GMO Free.

Fresh From our Garden

Our Dogs Eat Healthy, Too

We love our dogs!
Our dogs are not just dogs! They are members of our family...our pets...um, more like...our children.
We love our dogs!
We consider ourselves blessed to have them in our homes.
We strive to be good stewards of their care.
We love our dogs!
Therefore, they, too, eat healthy.
We have found a brand of food that is organic and GMO free, so goodbye Purina!
We make their treats, so goodbye Milkbones!

Did I mention that...
We love our dogs!

Birds in the Begonias

We were noticing some bird activity on our front porch.

To our excitement, we found this:




Everyday, I would go out with the camera, reach it up to the hanging basket and take a picture.

One day I picked up Little A and told him to look at the eggs. He told me he didn't see eggs, but birds.

This little one is HUNGRY!

It was really amazing to watch all this up close.

Papa and Mama Bird took very good care of their little ones. If Mama was off getting food and the babies got restless, Papa would fly in from either a close by tree or the utility wire above our driveway (where he kept vigil). He would perch himself on the basket hanger and look into the nest, checking on his little ones. He would lift his head and chirp several times, then fly away, back to the tree. A few minutes later, Mama would come and feed them.

Oh no! They are really getting to be daredevils. The one at the top left is looking out over the basket.

This past weekend, 2 1/2 weeks after they had hatched, I noticed only 3 birds in the nest. I wondered what had happend to the the other 2, hoping they were ok. Then we watched these 3 fly off into the trees.

AMAZING!

Blessings to you~

Jill (the big sister)

Welcome to our New Home

I had to change our name because Manna Milling Moms was not available.


I sure am hoping this new domain will be more user friendly to this techno-challenged person.

Not sure how to transfer all of our stuff from Homestead. I will give it a try. If it doesn't work, I guess I'll just delete it and start all over.

Thank you for stopping by.

Blessings to you~

Jill (the big sister)