Cranberry Almond granola

It was last August when I decided that I was giving up processed foods.  While it has been an easy change for me, its been more difficult on my kids. One of the things they like dislike the most is that I won't purchase store bought cereal anymore. I never did by much of the sweetened cereals but even cheerios and wheaties are now just an occasional purchase.

So, I learned to make granola and it really is easy and tastes so much better then store bought.

This recipe is for Cranberry Almond Granola - I have found that you can take the same recipe and switch out the cranberries for other dried fruit and same with the nuts. I love that it has wheat germ and flax seeds in it for added nutritional value.  I  always double the recipe!

3 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup flax seed

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 c. slivered or sliced almonds

1 cup dried cranberries

1/4 olive oil

1/4 cup honey

1/3 brown sugar. ( I think its plenty sweet - especially if adding sweetened dried cranberries you may want to cut this back.)
2 tablespoons water

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

2. Combine oats, wheat germ, flax seeds, cinnamon, almonds in large bowl

3. Combine vegetable oil, brown sugar, honey and water in small saucepan and heat till sugar is melted, remove from heat and stir in almond extract

4. Add the honey mixture to the dry ingredients and stir until all the oats are evenly coated. Transfer wet granola to a large roaster or 2 large cookie sheets.

5. Cook for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes - after 45 minutes stir in your cranberries and cook with the granola for the last 15 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving. Store in air tight container.

Yummy on top of yogurt, with milk or just by the handful!!

Bakery organization

Sometimes I really miss the kitchen in my old house. It was the first  only kitchen I have had that I actually had empty cupboards even after everything was put away.

There are more cupboards and counter space on the other side.

But - alas, this beautiful kitchen belongs to some other lucky woman now.

Its not that I don't like my new kitchen- I do. I actually like it alot- but ever since we moved here 2 years ago I've been struggling with keeping it organized and finding a place for everything.

I FINALLY order and received my new wondermill grinder this winter. (which I will review on a different day) Something I've been wanting to do for a long time is to grind my own flour.

I have a lovely little pantry/laundry room right off the kitchen. So, finding a place to put my grinder where it would be convenient was the next challenge.

Sadly, this is where it ended up.

Our favorite kind of bread is Hallelujah Bread. Which has 7 different grains in it.

I also keep those on the shelves in the pantry.

Why do I suddenly feel like I've just bared it all?

On bread baking day- I need to remove from the pantry- 5 grains, flour, molasses, oil, honey and now my grinder and wheat berries, among other things.

I thrive on simplicity and saving time. I was thinking maybe a microwave or utility cart would work to put everything on and then I could wheel it in and out of the pantry. Found this one on wal-mart.com

however - it was too deep- I wouldn't be able to open the door on my dryer very far.

Then I came across this

And I found it, in all places - our basement. My mother had picked it up at a garage sale for me awhile back. Great find but I never had found a good use for it until today.

And- I have room left over! The only grains I don't have on it are the flax meal, bran and yeast which I store in the fridge.

It fits exactly right in the corner of my pantry and has wheels so I can just wheel it out into the kitchen when I bake bread and wheel it back again when I'm done at the end of the day.

Happy Baking!!

~ Kathy



Fall in love with pears!

Its been a crazy fall. Can it really be the 17th today? This weekend has gone by so fast. Everyone I know is fighting colds and allergies. The dust in the air is thick from the corn and beans being combined. It doesn't help any. Our youngest has been fighting a bad cold and wakes during the night with a coughing fit that lasts about an hour. The sun doesn't want to shine until after 7am and it makes it very difficult to pull ourselves out of bed. But winter will soon be upon us and there is so much to get done before that happens. Thank goodness the weather remains beautiful and that helps our motivation level.

This weekend I spent catching up on my canning. If you couldn't have guessed from the title of my post, I've been canning pears - all weekend. Yesterday I canned two batches of regular pears and today, I canned cinnamon pears.

We put in 2 pears trees at home here last year. These pears however were from another farm. The tree was absolutely loaded this year. I wish I had time to do more...but I think this is gonna have to do.

I start by making a syrup for the fruit. I like to make an extra light syrup so I taste more fruit then I do sugar. 1 cup sugar per 1 quart of water. For cinnamon pears I add 2 sticks of cinnamon(per quart of syrup) and a couple drops of red food coloring.

I know adding the food coloring goes against my "all natural - no preservative" philosophy BUT

it makes such a pretty presentation and I consider cinnamon pears a treat and I didn't add that much. So, we make an exception.

After peeling the pears I drop them into a solution to keep them from darkening. The solution is 2TBSPs each of salt and vinegar to a quart of water.

After they soak in the solution for no more then 20minutes, I drain it off and rinse the fruit well.

Then I fill the jars and can as usual, using the hot syrup to cover the fruit. I use the water bath method and process pints for 20minutes, quarts for 25 minutes.

The finished jars - don't they look so pretty?

The cinnamon pears are to the left with the lovely pink blush.

Nothing goes to waste either...all the peels and cores are a real treat

For the chickens!

I also managed to find the time to make some Hot Pepper Jam

This summer was my first year making this and I love eating it with cream cheese and crackers.

Sooo Good! Now, I admit, the peppers used in this batch weren't from my garden- I bought them at the store. You see, I made a batch earlier in the summer and was anxiously waiting and anticipating while the next peppers grew in size and were ripe to pick. I knew they were there-  I saw them on the plants. I went out early that Friday morning and couldn't believe my eyes. They were gone. Yup - Plant and all. I knew what had gotten them. It was my 18 year old son. He got mower happy. - Sigh - nevertheless, I have taste tested this batch and I am happy to say- it is just as good as the first! He will however be reimbursing me for the cost of the peppers.

We also managed to get my new green house brought home and off the trailer this weekend.

Friends of ours no longer needed it and offered it to me. God has truly bless me with wonderful friends, family and life.

Well, blogger continues to freeze up on me  - so I guess that's its.

~Count your blessings!
~ Kathy

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Today was a school day.. The kids did a few subjects this morning

Anna doing "preschool"

 then about 10 o'clock

we took a short break.

When I was ready to get back to work - I found them all playing nicely TOGETHER!

Well, this just doesn't happen very often.

 So, I decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet and

make some bread.

 My family LOVES cinnamon raisin bread and I've always made it with 100% white flour.

I've made up my mind to find a wheat bread recipe that is just as good.

I found a recipe that sounded really good. It had white and wheat flour in it, as well as rolled oats. It was also sweetened with honey.  I decided to give it a try.

The first thing I noticed about the recipe was it used vegetable oil - I changed it to olive oil. The next thing I noticed was  the quantity's of the ingredients were listed in ounces-with the cup equivalents off to the side. The cup equivalent came out to 1 and 3/8 or 7/8. - Goofy - I already made a few changes there. The recipe also said to soak the raisins and oatmeal, separately - why separately??- I'm asking myself- more dishes! I knead my raisins in after the first rise anyway- that way I can make a loaf or two without raisins. So, I soaked the oatmeal and left the raisins to add later.

I didn't like that the recipes instructions said to add the ingredients all at once. I like to add my flour gradually-so the dough doesn't get to heavy.

Sooo.. There are a few modifications to make. The dough turned out well

It was soft  - but would have been quite stiff if I had added the entire amount of flour the recipe called for.

The recipe said to "Bake at 450degrees for 5 minutes, lower the temp. of your oven to 375 degrees and continue to bake for 20minutes more - turn your loaves and cook for another 15-25 minutes."

I had to run my husband to another farm so this wasn't going to work for me. I put the bread in the oven at 375 and set the timer for 40minutes and headed out the door. The buzzer had just gone off when I returned and removed the loaves.

Look good, huh? Taste good too.. My 9 year old complained

"is there wheat flour in here" "why, yes there is" was my reply- when I asked a few minutes later how he liked it he chimed " I'm cutting myself another piece" Must not have been too bad.

One other change I made to the bread- instead of mixing the cinnamon into the dough as recipe states -I rolled the dough out- spread some butter on it and then sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar. It added a little more fat and calories but not much.

Overall- the bread was very good. Its texture was near prefect. It was a little on the salty side. I think I will cut back on the salt a bit next time. I plan to make this again and make a few changes to suit my family's tastes and my needs of a healthier bread.

~Kathy