Our Budding Artist

Mary has really been having fun with art lately.  When she was a little younger she only wanted to paint and use the color red.  She did some really awesome paintings in red but now she is branching out into other mediums and is having a blast.  Here is some of her artwork and pictures of her working on them.

When she hung this picture over her bed, she said it would be like a window to the outside.

To Remember

A dear friend contacted us and wanted to buy one of our lamps.  She is a person who has struggled with a lot of pain in her body over the years and many surgeries.  She had a very bad part of her back that was causing her excruciating pain.  After searching she found a doctor who said he could help her with surgery but it would be a very delicate and risky procedure.  She had the surgery done and it was successful and she has healed up and went through therapy and now is pain free after all these years!  She has given God all the glory for this as He is our healer and the doctors can do a lot but not everything.  So she wanted to have a lamp made with a scripture from the book of Luke where Jesus healed a woman who was bent over and could not straighten up to remind her of the Lord's healing touch in her life.  Rich gladly accepted and made this beautiful lamp for her.  I was just so blessed by this, realizing that our lamps are useful but also a wonderful way to remember something and share it with others!

  

Sourdough Lovin'

A few years ago Rich got a book from his mom about Alaskan Sourdough. He decided a couple of weeks ago to make a sourdough starter. It turned out great! He has made cinnamon rolls, buns and flap jacks. The dough takes longer to rise but the bread tastes so much better and is a lot softer that using regular yeast. Our little dog, Mackie, really likes it too. He is not usually a big bread eater but he ate a lot more of this bread. Rich said he had read in the book that sometimes people fed their sled dogs the bread when they were low on food as it has more protein in it than regular bread. So, I looked up the nutritional value of sourdough and I found out some very interesting things.  Here is a little bit of the article.

It said: 

Very basic sourdough bread that had once been fermented for a healthy 8 hours or more is not to be found anywhere except in ones own kitchen today. In commercial bread yeast levels are dramatically increased, accelerates and proving agents introduced including bromide, a known thyroid poison that was insanely substituted for iodine in the US. Fast-made bread is one of the most destructive implementations into the modern diet. It has become normal fare. Poorly-prepared and poorly-digested wheat is the chief contributor to the current plague of “gluten-intolerance,” obesity, diabetes, Candida diseases and many allergenic conditions all of which contribute to the conditions that cause cancer.

Only when wheat gluten is properly fermented is it healthy for human consumption. When not it is potentially one of the most highly allergenic foods we eat. It is similar to the controversy with soy which also can only be considered a health food if it is fermented long enough. Correctly fermented wheat contains 18 amino acids (proteins), complex carbohydrate (a super efficient source of energy), B vitamins, iron, zinc, selenium and magnesium, and maltase.

The article is long.  If you would like to read more you can go here.  Sourdough has natural occurring bacteria that helps promote digestion and has many benefits to your health.

Well now here are the pictures of the things Rich has made.  A picture of the book cover on Alaskan Sourdough and a recipe for the starter.

 

For more amazing recipes you can go to Foodie Friday Here.

December Memories

I finally have gotten around to putting all our December photos together in a slide show.  I try and make a slide show each holiday so we can remember what we did.  I burn them onto disc and then every once in a while we pull out the discs and have a family movie night and watch a bunch of them and enjoy remembering all the fun we had and see how much Mary has grown.  My husband's parents had a bunch of movies that they made of Rich and his sister put on to disc and we have fun watching them too.  It is so fun to see what Rich was like as a little kid and see how Mary looks like him.

 

Here is our month of December in photos:
 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Here is the link to the video: http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=11dcdc7450efde7645ea07b&skin_id=1604&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Beautiful Buns

My husband made some beautiful buns yesterday for lunch. We had salmon burgers and he made some wonderful refrigerator dough the night before. He had used the dough for cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast and now he was trying some different ways to use it. So he made the dough, refrigerated it over night and then rolled it out to 1/2 inch and cut it with a large biscuit cutter and then let them rise to double their size and bake.  (He also made the pea salad and I will share that on another post later)

 

The buns turned out so yummy.  So tender and fresh!  The best bun I have ever had for a sandwich.  Here is the recipe:

 

Overnight Rolls
Ingredients need to be room temperature
Combine:
2 1/2 teaspoons of granulated yeast
2 teaspoons of sugar
in a 1/4 cup of 85 to 100 degree water.
Permit these ingredients to stand until dissolved, about 10 minutes. 

Scald: 1 cup milk
Add and stir until melted
7 tablespoons vegetable shortening or butter
Cool. Combine and beat well:
7 tablespoons sugar
4 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon salt
Stir in the milk mixture and cool to 85*
stir in the yeast mixture and:
4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
Beat the dough about 5 minutes. Place in a foil-covered bowl in the refrigerator over night.

Spray pan with cooking sprayRoll dough out to 1/2" thickness and cute with a large biscuit cutter. Place rolls on cookie sheet. Let them rise in a warm place for 1/2 hour. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 18 minutes or until golden brown.

 

I am linking with Foodie Friday you can go here for more wonderful recipes.