I'm all about giveaways, although I've never one! However, I really like the products from Emergency Essentials so I thought I'd post their current giveaway....
Many of you may have seen or taken our quizzes on Water Storage and Emergency Preparedness that we've posted previously. For this giveaway, we have a new quiz on Food Storage. The winner will receive a Mexican Food Combo. This new combo is now on sale through the end of June for only $59.99 ($72.25 value).
The Mexican Food Combo includes a great variety of foods to use in your recipes for Mexican dishes, including:
Taco Mix Textured Vegetable Protein: This flavorful meat substitute is easy to prepare and provides the same taste and texture as real meat.
White Rice: This staple can be eaten by itself, used as a side dish, or used as an ingredient in your favorite burrito or enchilada recipe.
Dehydrated Refried Beans: All you need to make these tasty Refried Beans is boiling water. The Refried Beans are very healthy and high in protein with no added lard or fat.
Freeze-Dried Super Sweet Corn: This vegetable is an excellent choice for an instant side dish or for an easy snack. The colorful kernels are light and crispy and packed with sweetness.
Black Beans: These Black Beans are a good source of fiber and protein. They can be used to make delicious soups and salads.
Dehydrated Chopped Onions: Add the taste of onions to your stews, casseroles, and Mexican food dishes without the tears. These chopped onions are great to add to your food storage or to use everyday in your favorite recipes.
The aroma of freshly baked bread just sends my head spinning! There's nothing like a hot loaf of bread just out of the oven.
I've been on a quest to find a tasty recipe for italian bread. The first recipe I tried came from a friend, Kari, when I tried it at her house-delicious! The recipe comes from the blog, "The Sisters Cafe" and you can find the link here: http://www.thesisterscafe.com/2008/03/macaroni-grill-bread.html
Bread from Macaroni Grill(This is a recipe intended to approximate that awesome chewy bread that they bring out at the Macaroni Grill. The kind you dip into the olive oil, balsamic vinegar and cracked garlic.)
1 Tbsp. Dry Yeast
1 Tbsp. Sugar 1 cup warm water (105 – 115 degrees)
2 ½ cups white flour, divided
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. rosemary, chopped, (I used about a tablespoon of dried rosemary and it worked great.)
1 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
Coarsely ground salt
Put the yeast, water and sugar into a blender. Mix it until it is frothy.Turn the oven onto 200°. (You just need to warm it up; you’re not baking yet.)
To the mixing bowl of yeast mixture, add two cups of the flour, salt, and half of your chopped rosemary. Keep the other half cup of flour close at hand. Knead the dough for a few minutes. Add the rest of the flour as needed to get the dough to the right consistency (soft and stretchy without being overly sticky).Turn the oven off
Lift the dough out of the mixing bowl. Add the olive oil to a bowl and swirl it around. Roll the dough in the olive oil so it is well coated and let it sit in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and place it in the oven (the oven should be off by now, if you missed that step). Leave the door cracked so it isn’t too hot in there.Let the dough rise for about an hour. It should be approximately doubled in size. Punch the dough down and knead it again. Divide it into two equal sized lumps and let it sit for about 5-10 minutes.( I just made one big loaf–but I am thinking it would have been easier to cut–not smash so much if the loaf was smaller–so I think I will follow these directions next time)
Prepare your baking pan. I use a ceramic stone, but a cookie sheet will work. If the surface is not naturally non-stick, spray it with the cooking spray, or use parchment paper. Shape the dough into two oval-shaped loaves and arrange on the pan. Melt the butter or margarine. Use a brush to paint the surface of the loaves with butter. Use all of the butter. The loaves will be quite saturated when you’re done. Take the rest of the chopped rosemary and sprinkle it over the loaves. Pat it down gently to set it into the dough. Return the loaves to the oven. Don’t turn it on yet. Let the dough rise again, for about 45 minutes. Remove the loaves and preheat the oven to 450°. Sprinkle a little bit of coarse(kosher salt is perfect) salt over the loaves. Return the dough to the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes until light brown.Makes two loaves. Best enjoyed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and garlic.
I loved the rosemary in this bread, though I'm not usually a rosemary fan. It seems to give it just the right amount of flavor. I also loved that it didn't take too much time to make this recipe. My only complaints are that the recipe called for a lot of butter (the couple times I've made this there has been no way that I could drizzle that much butter on top-I usually used 1/2 the amount), and that the loaf isn't crusty. I don't know, maybe it's me, but I love a crusty loaf.
So I searched again and found a recipe for ciabatta bread (love to get a sandwich on ciabatta bread from Panera's!). Found a video on YouTube that taught me how to make it:
LOVED this recipe!! It was so chewy inside and had the perfect crust. What blew my mind was that it only takes 4 ingredients and that you don't knead it. I thought it was so easy that I taught some 9-10 year old girls how to make it. The only drawback to this recipe is that you have to let it sit forever-well, not forever, but for 18 hours! Yes, I said, 18 hours! But that's what it takes to make the long gluten strands that give you the chewy center. Another drawback is that this recipe doesn't have as much flavor as the first one. It's great for dipping in balsamic vinegar/olive oil, but I'm not always in the mood for that. But it's still a great recipe!
So, as soon as it's cool enough to heat the oven, I'm going to attempt to combine these two recipes. I'm hoping to get the chewiness/crunchiness of the second one, but have the flavor of the first.
I bake both of these recipes, and put my loaves in the freezer for future use. It's easy to pull one out and pop it in the oven for 5-10 minutes and heat it up-makes the house smell fabulous and my family thinks that I've been slaving in the kitchen baking all day. The last time I made bread, my son was in the kitchen as soon as it came out of the oven, and he stood over it and just kept saying, "I can't control myself-I need a piece!" It was hilarious! He could down a whole loaf just by himself, if I let him!
In case you missed this on Facebook-I made these ribbons a couple weeks ago, to hold the pins that I receive each time my scout makes rank. In the past my scout would pin me on my shirt and I'd forget about it and it would end up in the wash.
They sale these online for $7, but I figured I could make them way cheaper. You can make them for less than $1! I found the instructions online, but have misplaced the link. I'm sure you can google it and find instructions. BUT, I made 12 of these to give away to friends!! So if there are any of you out there that would like one-FOR FREE, shoot me a comment or email! I'd love to send you one!! Otherwise I'll be donating them to our Primary-I think they would be great things to give to parents when their son turns 8!
It's been a grueling Spring here in Ohio! I think it was nice for about a week at the beginning, and it seems like it's been raining non-stop ever since. I'm learning very quickly that my time table is not the same as Mother Nature's. I'll learning that too much rain slows the growth of my plants and garden. It's a learning curve, non the less. But I have seen the sun (in short bursts), just long enough to get outside and get some projects done.
This is our pergola that I painted last year. We decided that it needed a removable cover. So we purchased some sun shade fabric and I made some removable panels that mount with grommets and hooks. I'm hoping that it will create enough shade that we can spend more of our summer ourdoors. One tip if you ever do a pergola, get the right paint (or should I say stain!) I asked the paint people at Home Depot what would be the best to use-they told me outdoor paint-kind of surprised me-but I figured, they are the experts! Well, it's supposed to have 8-10 year warranty-not one year later and it's peeling! ARGH!! Lesson learned-go with a stain!!
Purchased our outdoors flowers-couldn't pass up getting another hibiscus. They are so pretty!
Our garden is SLOWING coming along-too much rain just slows it down. And we have some critters that have decided to have lunch in my beds! So I've covered the beans with cheese cloth and I have a wire cage over the pepper plants.
Here's the lettuce, spinach, and cucumbers in the back. The lettuce and spinach were growing under a hoop house, but it's warm enough now that I removed it. Hope to be harvesting some lettuce soon!
These are our squash and zuchinni. Also have some loose leaf lettuce that should be harvested by the time the squash is big. One thing I learned while growing these from seed is to use a sharpie to label my popsicle sticks (that label each plant). I used a ball point pen and it actually washed off my sticks so I didn't know what was what.
These are our tomatoes and peas. The front two tomato plants we grew from seeds (started indoors). I had four growing, but two developed a fungus so I had to replace them with store bought ones. I wasn't sure if these other two were going to make it, but they are thriving now. This is the first time I've grown peas. I planted the first row and they came up great! Then we started getting all the rain, and the second row planted two weeks later never germinated. I actually planted the second set three times (with two different packages of seeds) to finally get them to grow. I'm hoping they will produce before it gets too hot for them.
Did a little work on the front yard. I decided that it's ok to have a little more color and "randomness" to my landscaping, lol. So I added some daylilies and geraniums to the perenials that I've had. I really like it.
And under the tree in front I added some phlox inbetween the hostas. Figured they might give it a little more color in early spring. I haven't had too much success with more flowery type plants surviving here because the tree hogs the water, but we'll see.
