Honey "Wheat" Sunflower Seed Bread

This bread is delicious and is so simple especially if you have a bread-maker; the recipe makes 2 loaves and freezes just fine.  I found the recipe on Allrecipes at: Honey Wheat Sunflower Bread Recipe

These are the Ingredients I used:

2 cups warm water (120-130 degrees)

4 3/4 cup flour, divided 

2 (.25 oz) packages yeast (or 4 1/2 tsp)

1 tbsp sugar

1 cup oatmeal

1/3 cup dry milk powder (I used plain powdered coffee creamer)

1/4 cup butter, melted

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp salt

1/2 - 1 cup sunflower seeds

Process:

1. Combine everything in your bread-maker and set to a dough setting 

OR if you don't have a bread-maker...

Mix together water and 2 cups of flour, yeast and sugar, beat on low for 3 minutes.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 30 minutes.  Stir in the remaining 2 3/4 cup flour, oats, milk powder, butter, honey and salt, mix well. Stir in sunflower seeds.  Turn onto a floured surface and knead for about 6-8 minutes.  Shape into a ball, place in a oiled bowl, turn once, cover and allow to rise till doubled, about 30-45 minutes.  Punch down and divide in half, cover and let rise 10 minutes.  

2. Shape into 2 loaves and place in 2 greased loaf pans.  Cover and let rise for about 30 minutes.

3. Bake at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes; if the loaves seem to be getting too dark cover with foil for the last 15 minutes of baking.

4. Remove loaves from pans and cool on wire racks.

Canning Barbecue Sauce

I have always wanted to try canning my own sauces.  This is a good recipe; I think it almost tastes like a peach barbecue sauce ... I know this sounds weird, but it does.  The recipe is from Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving and can also be found on their website at: http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipe.aspx?r=138

Makes about 3 (16 oz) pints {I ended up with 4 1/2 pint jars}

Ingredients:
20 cups chopped cored peeled tomatoes (about 21 medium) {I only peeled about 2/3 of the tomatoes; I figure you have to run it all through a sieve anyway!}

2 cups finely chopped onions (about 3 to 4 medium)
3 cloves garlic, chopped {I used garlic powder}
1 Tbsp hot pepper flakes
1 Tbsp celery seeds
1-1/2 cups lightly packed brown sugar
1 cup white vinegar
1/3 cup lemon juice
2 Tbsp salt
1-1/2 Tbsp ground mace or nutmeg
1 Tbsp dry mustard
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:
1. COMBINE tomatoes, onions, garlic, hot pepper flakes and celery seeds in a large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring constantly. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently until vegetables are soft, about 30 minutes.

Everything in the pan, ready to go!

2. TRANSFER mixture, working in batches, to a sieve placed over a glass or stainless steel bowl and press with the back of a spoon to extract all the liquid and pulp. This can also be done using a food mill. Discard solids.

Ready to reduce!

3. RETURN liquid and pulp to saucepan. Add brown sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, salt, mace, mustard, ginger and cinnamon. Return to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until mixture is thickened to the consistency of a thin commercial barbecue sauce, about 30 minutes.
4. PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
5. LADLE hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
6. PROCESS jars in a boiling water canner for 20 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

The Chickens

I have always thought it was SO COOL how people have free-range chickens just walking around their yard; and I have always wanted that for myself!

Well, this is the first year that I have had the opportunity and the space to have my own "flock" of birds.  I have been so thrilled with them; they are awesome to watch and its amazing how they have their own personalities and habits.

We've had our birds since April of this year and we started out with 6 Red Sex-link chickens and 6 Buff Orpington chickens.

Little Miss J with one of our little Buff Orpingtons.

Red Sex-links laying

When we got our chickens I knew I would need to provide them with some sort of nesting box; luckily I had some time to figure out what I needed and wanted.  Through research I discovered that I could just use plastic dish pans.  I when to the local dollar store and bought 12 of these and we used one screw through the bottom to attach them to the nesting shelf so that they don't push them off.  They work great, they are easy to clean out and its easy to see into them.  The girls seem happy and they tend to like the same box on the same day and sometimes for a week or two.

One of our ladies has been laying giant eggs.  Here is a giant
next to a normal sized egg.

And this is what we find when we crack open one of those
giant eggs ... two yolks!

Pine Cone Birds

These are really fun to do with the kids!  

Just collect the pine cones from your yard or go for a walk in a park or down the road in search for them.  

You can't really do this project in one day so plan on it taking some extra time; I found this good because then the kids could take a break and do something else for a while.

Materials:
-large pine cones
-acrylic paint (glitter paint if desired)
-googly eyes
-orange pipe-cleaners
-assorted medium to large colored feathers
-hot glue and hot glue gun

Optional Materials:
-ribbon
-string
-thin tree branch about 3 feet long
-green paper for leaves

Process:
1. Paint pine cones and allow to thoroughly dry.

2. Make beak (two pieces of pipe-cleaner about 2 1/2 inches long, folded in half like a "V") and bird feet using pipe-cleaners. 
See picture below:

3. Use hot glue gun to glue beak onto the "bottom" end of the pine cone.  Glue the feet in between the layers of the pine cone.

4. Very carefully glue on the googly eyes.

5. Choose the wing and tail feathers you will use; begin gluing on the feathers between the pine cone layers where you want them. (Tip: Glue on the largest feathers first, then the smaller feathers can be glued to the larger feathers.)

6. Glue on a string to the top of the bird if you plan to hang it.

If hanging from a branch...
7. Tie your bird or birds to the branch where you want them (I also added a bit of hot glue to the knot to make sure it wouldn't come untied.)
8. Cut some leaf shapes (Optional: I had my son draw the leaves veins on the leaves.)

 

9. Use hot glue to glue the leaves to the branch.
10. Use a long piece of ribbon tied to both ends of the branch to hang the branch from the ceiling.  (I used a screw-in cup hook to hang this from.)

Homemade Canned Ketchup

I made this recipe last Friday; this is my first summer ever canning and I have want to can so many things.  I really would like to can some tomato salsa, but I need to fulfill my curiosity of canned ketchup and barbecue sauce first.  I bought Ball's Complete Book of Home Preserving this spring and that is where I found the recipe; the recipe is also on their website:
 http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipe.aspx?r=137

Also, I halved the recipe and I ended up with about 4 1/2 pint jars.  This ketchup is delicious and my 6 year old said he loves it so much more than store bought ketchup.  It did take most of the day to make from start to finish but a lot of that time is letting it simmer and stirring occasionally.  I'll be making ketchup again next year!

Ingredients for a half recipe:

This is how I measured out 24 cups.

1 1/2 Tbsp celery seeds
2 tsp whole cloves
1 cinnamon sticks, broken into pieces
3/4 tsp whole allspice
1 1/2 cups cider vinegar
12 lb tomatoes, cored and quartered (about 36 medium, I measured out 24 cups)... NOTE:  If you peel your tomatoes they will be much easier to sieve/run through a food mill.  {Thanks Anonymous Commenter below!}
1 1/2 cups chopped onions (about 4 medium)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
3/4 cups granulated sugar
1/8 cup salt
5 (16 oz) pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Process:
1. TIE celery seeds, cloves, cinnamon sticks and allspice in a square of cheesecloth, creating a spice bag. (I just tossed all of these into the saucepan and strained them through a thin dish towel after the 25 minutes had passed.)

Seasonings steeping in the vinegar.

Straining seasonings with
towel and small colander.

2. COMBINE vinegar and spice bag in a stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Remove from heat and let stand for 25 minutes. Discard spice bag.

It was a VERY full pot and
this is the largest stainless pot I have!

The tomatoes and onions cooked for 20 minutes,
just before adding the vinegar.

3. COMBINE tomatoes, onions and cayenne in a clean large stainless steel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and boil gently for 20 minutes. Add infused vinegar and boil gently until vegetables are soft and mixture begins to thicken, about 30 minutes.
4. TRANSFER mixture, working in batches, to a sieve placed over a glass or stainless steel bowl and press with the back of a spoon to extract all the liquid. This can also be done using a food mill. Discard solids.
5. RETURN liquid to saucepan. Add sugar and salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and boil gently, stirring frequently, until volume is reduced by half and mixture is almost the consistency of commercial ketchup, about 45 minutes.
6. PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
7. LADLE hot ketchup into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band until fit is fingertip tight.
8. PROCESS jars in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Remove jars and cool. Check lids for seal after 24 hours. Lid should not flex up and down when center is pressed.

Paint Can Bird Houses

This is a project I did in the spring with my kids.  We had just bought our house in the winter and painted every room so we had lots of empty paint cans.

Enjoy!

Supplies:

-empty paint cans (we had used a water based paint and were able to peel the dry paint out of the cans)

-drill and 2 inch bit (for drilling the holes)

-sanding block or sandpaper

-acrylic paint

-foam and other paint brushes

-tray/paper plate or something to use as your palette

-aluminum wire, optional (aluminum won't rust and break over time)

It was an extremely windy day when we did this so that is the explanation for the bricks holding everything down.

Process:

1. Drill the bird house opening about 1 3/4 inches from the bottom of the paint can.

2. Peel out the paint if possible (this was fun for the kids).

3. Scuff up the outside of the paint can using the sanding block. (This will make the paint stick better and last longer.)

4. Paint your bird house.  (I think these would also be cute painted like a face with the opening for the mouth, we have more cans to paint; maybe I'll have to try that.)

5. Hang your bird house out in nature.  You can just hook the house on a sturdy branch or use some wire to wire it to a tree branch.

*We hung ours in early spring and by early summer there were birds nesting in every one of them!

Oatmeal Can Turned into a Headband Holder

Today, I'm working on making two headband holders for my daughter.  

Supplies needed to make one:
-empty oatmeal can
-empty large tuna can (or other can/something for the base), optional
-2 sheets of scrapbook paper in desired color/pattern
-coordinating paint to match scrapbook paper
-Mod Podge (I used glossy-lustre)
-spray or brush on paint for the tuna can base (I used white Rustoleum because that's what I had on hand)
-strong glue, you could use hot glue (I'm using  Amazing E-6000)

Process:
1. Cut scrapbook paper to fit around oatmeal can, use Mod Podge as the glue and then also apply over the top of the paper to create that glossy look.  Allow to dry completely.
2. Paint the tops of the oatmeal cans using the coordinating paint (also paint the bottoms of the oatmeal cans which is optional, but I may hang these and didn't want to see the cardboard bottoms).
3. Spray paint the outside of the tuna cans (its not nessecary to paint the inside, you won't see it)

4. Apply a good amount of glue to the top edges of the tuna can and attach it to the bottom of the oatmeal can, make sure it is centered and where you what it to be.  Allow to dry.

Enjoy!

*Here are our two competed Headband Holders; the great thing is that you can put your hair ties, clips, etc. into the container; so everything stays together!

Windmill Clothesline

Now, I have to give most of the credit for this project to my husband; he did most of the work.  I just "supervised" and gave my opinion along the way.  I love this clothesline and we were fortunate enough to have most of the materials in our woods, left by a previous owner of the property.

Easy Baked Potatoes

This is so easy and super tasty!

Ingredients:
-potatoes
-onion, halved and thin sliced
-olive oil
-salt and pepper

Process:
1. Slice potatoes almost through but leaving the bottom all connected.
2. Layer a piece of onion in each of the cuts of the potato.

3. Place potatoes in a casserole, drizzle each potato with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
4. Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 30-45 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

Optional: Serve with any toppings you might like for baked potatoes- sour cream, bacon pieces, chopped broccoli, fresh chives, etc. 

Getting Started...

I have wanted to start a blog for a long time now and today my son started first grade; so today is the day that I too will start my own adventure of becoming a "blogger".

Let the adventure begin! : )