new blog

i decided to combine my two blogs into one, so i'm now blogging over at "the joy of becoming"!  i'll be posting recipes over there as well as updates about the cookbook!!! so hop on over!!

"ranch" dressing

i used to love putting dressing on everything.  veggies, salad, pizza... you name it.  "ranch" is chock full of a bunch of nasty stuff... but today i succeeded in making some dressing that tastes exactly the same!!!

i started with some kefir, wrapped it up in a cloth, hung it up and drained the whey out, and ended up with kefir "cheese".  (i'll talk more about this later!)

then i put it in my vita-mix, added about a cup of milk, 2 teaspoons of spike, 

a teaspoon of salt and blended it all up.

and voila!!  even my incredibly picky sister said that it tasted "just like ranch" and said she wanted to go pick some lettuce for a salad!!  enjoy!!

I'M BAAAACK!!!

well, after a very long absence from this blog... i'm back into business!! i'm going to start working on the cookbook again, and it will hopefully be out soon! i forgot how much i missed cooking!! i hurt my arm and haven't really cooked in about 4 months or so... and it feels so good to be back!!!!!!

keep your eyes out for new recipes and updates here!! here's a bit of an idea of what's coming in the next little while!!

great news!

I don't really know if anyone looks at this blog,
since I've been a big slacker lately,
but I thought I'd share some good news with those of you who still do!
Since school got out last week,
I've finally have some time to work on the cookbook!

I have done:
*all the dividers (a big deal since I'm doing this all by myself,
with the help of my amazing future graphic designer sister)
* all of the main dishes! (a big chunk!)
* tons of ideas on millions of papers!!

I'm hoping that I'll have it all typed and printed by June 1st!

I'll keep updating all of you and let you know of the release date.
You can pre-order it in a couple of weeks since I need to know
how many to have my dad print.
Well, I'm off to start on breads...
*sigh* that will an even bigger chuck than main dishes!
oh well, the end result is worth it, RIGHT?!

Here at our house, bread is a staple. we make it often and it gets eaten FAST! I'm no expert at making bread, I have SO much to learn! A couple of weeks ago I had a lesson from the BREAD DR. - my dad. he's absolutely amazing, and just by looking at a loaf of bread he can tell you what went wrong. It's surprising my bread ever turns out, I did pretty much everything wrong, but oh well, live and learn right? I learned from my mom the other day that this recipe was actually my great-grandma McKenna's recipe (just with white wheat)... isn't that neat?

Whole Grain Bread

add following ingredients in bosch mixer or bowl
6 c. hot water (we usually boil it)
2 c. normal tap water
2/3 c. olive oil
3/4 c. honey
2 T. salt
mix together

meanwhile, grind the flour... we grind 2 cups (plastic tumbler, holds about 1 1/2 cups of grain) of white wheat, 2 cups of red wheat and 1 cup of mixed grain. Make sure your grinder can hold that much, or else you might clog the grinder... I do that every couple weeks :) (for information on how to make mixed grain... go to this post)

add the freshly ground flour (should be about 12-16 cups of flour) to the water mixture and let sponge for 20-30 minutes, or until stringy when mixed

when the dough is just about right, get the yeast ready. Get 1 c. of water just right (about 120 degrees) and add 2 T. honey and 4 T. yeast. When it's nice and poofy, add to the dough mixture. let sit for about 5-10 minutes

grind the same amount you did the first time, and gradually add until no dough sticks to the side. make sure that it isn't too sticky, but it DOES have to be a little sticky... I learned that lesson the hard way ;)

let knead for about 5 minutes, cover with a wet rag and then let rise until doubled. At that point divide the dough in half and put one half back into the pan to rise again. Take the second half and divide into 4 loaves. Knead and place in liberally buttered bread pans. Let rise a second time until the dough is about 1 inch above the pan. When it gets to that point, remove the wet rag and let stand for 5 minutes.

meanwhile, preheat oven to 400. When the dough is ready, place in oven and bake at 400 for 10 minutes, this is called.... ummm, well, I'll remember sometime. After those 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 350 and bake for 21 minutes. The times may be slightly different in your oven, our oven is older than me, and the temperature is slightly off.

makes 8 delectable loaves, ENJOY!

announcing...

Happy February 3rd everyone!!

Sorry for the long absence, school and life have been super busy! I just wanted to drop a short note to tell 'ya all that I'm in the process of making a cookbook! I'll keep everyone posted on how it's coming and when you can buy one if you want! I'm trying to earn some money for a life-changing and expensive adventure I'm going to embark on in the next couple of months. Let me know if you have any brilliant ideas for me! I am so excited and hope that you are too!!

~ the assiduous chef :)

Butter Pie Crust

On Christmas Eve, we made a new crust with BUTTER! It was oh-so-good! Pumpkin pie is the family favorite, it was gone fast, which means it was pretty good!

Butter Pie Crust
2 c. flour (I used spelt flour)
1/4 t. salt
2/3 c. cold butter
4+ T. ice water (I used lots more than this, but I don't remember the exact amount)

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in cold butter with a pastry cutter or two butter knives until mixture resembles course crumbs. Sprinkle ice water over mixture. Stir with a fork until just moistened.

yum, doesn't that look delicious!?

sorry, I couldn't resist!!