Amish Baking

I have been really enjoying baking from a family cookbook that my Amish cousins gave us for Christmas last year.  They make everything from scratch, so I am able to use the organic flour that is not enriched and it is so much better for all of us without the artificial vitamins added to it.  The recipes are so simple and so good.  Here are a few pictures of what I have made so far.

Corn bread

Pizza with Rich's homemade pepperoni sausage

Apple pie with a crumb topping.

The pie and the corn bread turned out so good that I baked another bunch of muffins and a pie and took it over to Rich's folks house for Sunday dinner.

This is how I make our cinnamon raisin bread.

 

My bread has a yellow color because I add turmeric to the dough.  I found out that turmeric makes the vitamin B and iron that is naturally in flour more bio available.  Between the turmeric and the bread starter I use, with all the probiotics in it, makes a wonderful and healthy bread.

 

This loaf turned out perfect!  We love to make French toast out of it.

 

This are my new chocolate chip cookies I made.  I put the recipe together myself.  I am using Sorghum flour in my pancakes and cookies now.  It is a gluten free flour.  I had to change the regular chocolate chip cookie recipe as with sorghum, it needs more body to the recipe or it will make the cookies super thin and crisp.  Here is the recipe:

 

2 1/2 cups sorguhm flour, 1/4 cup ground flax seed, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsps baking powder, 3/4 cup brown sugar, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/2 cup butter- softened, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of sourdough starter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1- 12 oz package of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and set aside. Combine brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter and vanilla and beat until creamy. Add eggs and starter and mix well. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by spoonfuls on cookie sheet with parchment paper. Bake 8 - 10 minutes.

 

 

Some Healthy Recipes. the MTHFR connection

Last year I found out that I have a MTHFR gene mutation that makes it hard for me to metabolize artificial B9, which is folic acid.  The natural form is called folate and can be found in many foods.  The problem is that almost all store bought foods with grain in it is fortified.  In the 1940s the government thought it would be a good idea to fortify flour as most of the nutrients were taken out in the refining process.  They were trying to keep the general public from getting anemic and protect unborn children as women need a lot more folate with they are pregnant.  If you are low in folate, more birth defects occur.  What the government did not know back then, that about 50 percent of the population had a gene defect that produced an enzyme that could not process the artificial folate (folic acid) very well.  What happens is that it stays in your blood stream and ends up blocking the folate receptors in the cells, so not only can the body not metabolize it, it makes it even more difficult to get the natural folate in the food.  So over time as a person ages they struggle with being anemic, having low energy,  more susceptible to infection and toxic.  The metabolizing of folate not only gives you energy but it also helps your body to detoxify.  I now know why my mom died at 58.  It was due to complications that arose from this genetic mutation.  At the time it was a mystery to mom's doctors but through the advancement of gene mapping, they have discovered this.

 

Well all that to say, I have been removing all fortified foods from our diet.  We had been taking steps towards this for a number of years and we didn't even know the importance of it until recently.  We make all our bread products (bread, pizza dough, tortillas, etc) with organic flour.  The beauty of organic products in the store, is they do not fortify the wheat with artificial vitamins.  We also eat only organic cold cereals, noodles, and crackers.  It is amazing everything that is fortified.  I also found out the starter we use, makes the natural iron that is in the flour more easy to digest. 

 

My health has been pretty good most of my life.  Now I have even more energy, sleep better and feel stronger.  I get all my vitamins from my food.  Awhile back I stopped taking all vitamin supplements that had the artificial vitamins in it.  I do take a garlic supplement, that I have taken for years.  Come to find out garlic helps you metabolize B vitamins.  I also take a Methyl B12 which is a natural, bioavailable form.

 

With our diet change I have been doing some yummy recipes to help boost our folate and vitamin C intake.  I add turmeric to our bread recipes.  Turmeric is high in B vitamins and helps with inflammation in the body.  I also juice 4 stalks of celery, 3 carrots and a half an apple every night and drink it.  I can't wait until we get our raised bed garden going and grow all these things ourselves.

 

Well here is the first recipe.  We have a nice amount of strawberry plants.  So I made a strawberry sauce to go on our French toast and pancakes. 

 

Homemade Strawberry Sauce

An easy recipe for Homemade Strawberry Sauce that you can use for pancakes or over ice cream! It freezes well too!

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup orange juice
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 3 Tablespoons corn starch
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a saucepan, over medium heat, combine the strawberries, 1/4 cup water, orange juice and sugar. Stirring gently, bring to a boil.
2. In a small bowl, combine together the cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water. Gently stir the cornstarch mixture into the strawberries without mashing the berries too much.
3. Simmer until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon; around three to four minutes.
4. Remove from heat and stir in the almond extract and cinnamon.
5. If the sauce gets too thick, you can thin it out with more water.  

I found out that avocadoes are a super food, very high in folate, Vit C, Vit A and magnesium and lots of other things.  So I slice a piece of our homemade bread, put Rich's homemade Ranch dressing made with Greek Yogurt, slice an avocado on it, place a slice of swiss cheese on top and then broil it.  So yummy!

 

We will have so much fun when we start making our own cheese to put on top.  I am so glad Rich loves to cook and create things.  It has made a huge difference in our health as we age!

Sakura

Mary had this beautiful piano piece called Sakura, which is Japanese for Cherry Blossom.  It got us interested in the tradition of viewing and celebrating the beautiful cherry blossoms in Japan.  It has been a tradition for hundreds of years in Japan.  They have pic-nics and sometimes weddings under the blooming Cherry trees.  The piece that Mary is playing is a very common song heard by most Japanese people when they are children.

Here is the link: https://youtu.be/kI70EmrK4UA

We saw some beautiful pictures of the cherry trees in Japan on the internet and it inspired Mary to make a painting of a cherry blossom path.  She had so much fun painting it and I just loved how it turned out.

 

For Sunday dinner Rich made pink rice, a traditional dish eaten during the cherry blossom time.  He made up his own recipe.  We had it a long with salmon patties and beets.

 

 

Here is his recipe:

 

Sakura Rice

 

2 cups uncooked white rice

Juice from one large can of salmon

Juice from cooked red beets

Juice from sauteed celery, white onion, garlic and mushrooms

 

Combine all juices to make 4 cups of liquid in all.  Simmer liquid and add rice.  Simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Take off heat and let stand for 15 minutes.  Serve using an ice cream scoop with some flakes of salmon on top or wasabi.

 

We serve this dish when we make salmon patties for the traditional Sakura (Cherry Blossom season) and Mary plays the beautiful theme music on the piano.

 

Cherry Blossom in Japan

Sunflower Cookies

Mary and I finally got around to making the sunflower cookies that we had said we were going to make on the post at the beginning of this month.  We have been enjoying our sunflowers so much!  Here is a photo collage of our lovelies this year.  We grew a dozen of them.  We just love seeing them peek over our fence as we drive up our drive way when we come home!

 

 

 

I made the cookie dough the night before and put in the fridge over night.  I had never used this recipe before.  I was so pleased how it turned out.  It was easy to work with, kept the cookie shape when baked and was very tender to eat.  I plan on using this recipe for our Christmas cookies too!.  I put yellow food coloring in it, to make the sunflower pedals.

 

 

 

Mary had so much fun rolling out the dough and cutting them out.

 

They came out so pretty right out of the oven.  We dipped the centers in chocolate frosting and used chocolate chips for the seeds.

 

 

They turned out so pretty and Mary had a blast.  She did most of the decorating.

So happy with her sunflower cookie garden.  The recipe made a lot.  So we had plenty to share with friends and family.  Rich also took a plate of them to work and shared them with his co-workers.

 

Here is the recipe we used that came with the cookie cutter set.

Origami and Dumplings

 

In January we took Mary to see this movie in the theater.  We have the first two movies and enjoy them very much.  A lot of really cute humor.  A good family movie for us as we enjoy them as much as Mary does.  The DVD came out just recently so we got it for Mary.  She got fascinated with Chinese dumplings that the Panda loves and then in the extra features they had instructions on how to make a paper panda.  They had a pattern you could print and Mary wanted us all to make one.  So we did as we watched the instruction video.  Here is the finished product.  She had  so much fun!

 

 

 

Next she wanted to try making some Chinese Dumplings.  So we went to the store and bought Won Ton wrappers and followed the recipe on the back and made a soup with them they were delicious.  We boiled them in chicken broth.  We also tried the peach dessert filling.  They were great with ice cream.

 

 

  Here is the recipe that we used:

She also found an Origami book in the school room I had bought a while back but she was too young to do it.  Now she is the perfect age.  She read the instructions on her own and made the penguin, cat and dog.  Today I seen a video on You Tube on how to make flower bowls out of napkins and you can fill with candy and other goodies for a party.  She loved watching that one and I helped her make the blue one.  She reminds me so much of me when I was a kid.  I had a little friend in grade school and her mom was Japanese.  She taught me how to make a paper crane.  The bug bit and I made a lot of different things and had so much fun! 

 

 

Here is the You Tube Link to the video and instructions on how to make the flower bowl.  https://youtu.be/2yta73liD7k

 

Fireworks and Fruit Pizza

We had a fun 4th.  Mary made Mac a patriotic hat as you can tell he is thrilled to wear it. lol!  I made a fruit pizza to serve for dessert at our get together.  I thought I would include the recipe.  I think it will be a keeper at our house.

 

Pizza Crust
1 pkg of Rapid Rise Yeast
4 cups of flour
1/4 cup ground flax seed
1 Tbls of sugar
1 tsp of salt
1/4 cup shredded parmesean cheese
3 Tbls of olive oil
1 cup of warm water
1 cup of sourdough starter

Mix in the dough cycle of your bread maker and put in a bowl, cover with foil and set in the fridge over night.  Roll out the dough the next day, place on your pizza pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.  Lightly butter the top when it is warm out of the over and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  This makes 2 small pizzas or one large pizza.

Cream Cheese Spread
2 pkg softened cream cheese
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat ingredients until fluffy and spread on cooled pizza crust.  Use your favorite fresh fruit to put on top.  Then sprinkle top with cinnamon sugar.

After our chili dogs and fruit pizza for dessert, we played a game of Yahtzee and finally it was dark enough to light our fireworks.  We had a blessed day!

An Old Fashioned Treat

Rich has been trying his hand at homemade sourdough doughnuts. He made cinnamon ones a few weeks ago for our Sunday fellowship and this last Sunday he wanted to try his favorite apple fritters.  We just got a can of the cherry and apple pie filling but you can use fresh fruit and chop it up.  The fryer is so hot it will cook the fruit no problem.  He found a wonderful dough recipe on the internet that we make up the night before and put it in the fridge until the next morning.  We use sugar to sweeten it, but you can use honey too.  We deep fry them in sunflower oil as it can take the high temps and is delicious!  Here are the pics.  After he rolls out the dough, he puts the fruit on it, he sprinkles it with flour, rolls it up and chops it up into small pieces, then pats it up into small round mounds and then deep fries on each side until golden brown and then we glaze them with a powdered sugar glaze.  They are so yummy, fresh made still warm out of the fryer.

 

 

Apple and cherry fritters ready for the deep fryer.

 

Mary was happy to see all those fritters.  Yes that is our sewing machine on the table, with a sewing project draped over it.  I am going to be sewing some fun summer dresses real soon.  She is growing so fast and we just love cool summer dresses.

 

 

Cinnamon Sugar Sourdough Doughnuts

 

Sourdough starter gives these doughnuts an extra depth of flavor and balances with the baking powder that makes it somewhere between cake doughnuts and yeast ones.

 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sourdough

2 tablespoons sunflower oil

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 egg

2 cups flour ( I usually need 1/3 to 1/2 cup more to make the dough manageable)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup buttermilk

 

Instructions:

1. Prepare a pot or deep fryer for frying

2. Line a tray with paper towels and set aside, you will use this for draining doughnuts.

3. Heat oil to 360 degrees

4. Sift the flour, baking powder and baking soda

5. In a bowl mix the sourdough starter, oil, buttermilk and egg.

6. Add the sugar, cinnamon and salt to the dry ingredients and then add them to the wet ingredients.

7. Bring dough together gently with your hands.  Sprinkle some flour onto a work surface and turn dough on to it.  Knead it gently about 3 times to help bring the dough together.  (we put it in the fridge until morning)

8. Roll out to a thickness of 2 centimeters.

9. Fry until golden brown.

10. Drain on paper towel.  Toss with vanilla sugar and cinnamon sugar to coat or top with your favorite topping.