Bread: Naan

Hello!

I thought I would share with you our naan bread.  I enjoy bread baking, but often run out of time to let a dough fully rise twice and bake.  This bread does rise once (though I am going to play and see if it is necessary), but it has no second rise and cooks on a griddle.

I used this recipe.   It calls for greek yogurt which gives the bread a wonderful texture and rich flavor. the bread, especially buttered and lightly sprinkled with salt, tastes like a cross between homemade white bread and pretzels.

After the dough has risen once, the recipe says to divide it into 8 pieces.  Truthfully that makes HUGE pieces naan.  I would recommend at least 12-16 pieces.  I did not make mine perfect--I love the rustic look of the bread.

Butter and salt (or whatever seasoning you like--cumin might go well with a curry dish, or garlic with a roast) both sides and put the naan on a griddle (I have a large one for making lots of pancakes at a time and it still took me two batches to cook all these!).   It takes only a minute or three per side, especially if you had rolled them flatter (no smaller than 1/4 inch.  Mine were closer to 1/2 inch thick)

Look at those beautiful bubbles forming!  The first side will not have the gorgeous brown bubbles, but the second side should.

A close up...see that wonderful butter and kosher salt?  I am starving already!

This recipe makes a STACK of naan.  These are thick, hearty but not heavy flat breads.  They are also Precious' favorite and a great bread to make on a cold morning or with a stew :)  I could see these also being phenomenal with added sugar and perhaps cinnamon in the dough.  Or maybe some berries or apples in the dough.  And with syrup. 

A note about butter:  I had gotten a brick of Kerrygold butter.  I am not sure if you have tried it, but it has an odd margarine flavor.  In fact, if someone had given me a taste test, I would have said it was Parkay! It is supposed to be from grass fed cows, but truly it tastes more margaine than "grass fed".  It might be my taste buds, but I think from now on I will stick with regular butter.  I used the Kerrygold exclusively with the first batch, but ran out and had to add some regular butter.  It tasted better.  Actually, one of my next projects is homemade cultured butter--I will let you know how that goes--it is supposed to be amazing!

My Indoor Winter Garden

Good morning my sweet friend!

I never had a green thumb at all.  Though I post photos on here of lush landscapes, that is all the Lord not me....I get involved in too many projects to always remember to water faithfully (which is actually a benefit if you grow orchids in moss).   Truly.  I am not a natural gardener, but there is a tender little place in my heart that is often touched beyond reason by a growing thing.

For example, when we were in Alaska, I kept a little gardenia by my computer.  You know, my dear friend, that winter and dark are hard on me, and finding a gardenia in a local nursery was a Godsend.

One day I had been in town and my son told me on the phone that my gardenia had bloomed.  I was pleased and thanked him for the information.  When I came home, I took one look at that flower and burst into tears.  SOBBING tears, shuddering, gasping, choking tears.  Everyone was surprised, including me! :)  Even then the rational part of my brain was thinking "What on EARTH??" while my heart broke wide in two and out flowed salt water down my cheeks.

Grandmother's roses, a "first-real-dance" carnation, a magnolia tree that delighted at a relative's house....all these are little growing parts of our souls. There is something about nature that we crave, that we need.  Indeed when I look at all those beautiful homes in Veranda or Southern Living or when I watch tv, my eye is drawn to the windows and what plants are growing outside, if it is summer or spring or winter.

One thing I love to have inside my house is what I call my Winter Garden.   I stash interesting plants here and there, tender trees that cannot survive the cold, such as my plumeria, some begonias that I have been growing through winters, etc.

They are all kind of leggy and scrawny and "more-or-less greenish", but they make me happy...

ESPECIALLY when one of them starts to bear fruit, like my Meyer Lemon!

I am not sure if the fruit will survive, but the joy of seeing a plant actually GROW is tremendously exciting to me :)  It makes me want to be a better gardener and thankful to the Lord for an indoor summer :)

Cake Plate Treat "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?"

Good morning sweet one!

It is a very cold 6F this morning!  Ice is forming on the pond, and we are in for several more days of very cold weather!

In fact, yesterday it even SNOWED!  Not enough to make snowmen out of, just flurries, so I thought I would make snowmen for today's Cake Plate Treat from a pin I found on Pinterest :)

These are easy enough to do, but I will be honest, they turned out to be a little trouble.  The donuts I bought were the Hostess brand, but seemed too dry and brittle for this (you can see how they are starting to crack).  These snowmen won't stand--the donuts won't bear the weight.  This would be best if they were laid out flat on a cookie sheet then CAREFULLY transferred to a plate.  It looks as if you are supposed to eat them off of the stick, but they will fall apart.

BUT they sure are cute (when they aren't falling apart! :) ).  And even broken donuts are fabulous!

I couldn't even get a good photo, but at least you get the general idea.  This is one Pinterest project that needs tweaking :)  Perhaps a different brand of donut would be better.  Maybe next time.  Or perhaps I will get the chocolate ones (I like those better anyway) and make "Mudmen" :)

Gleaning Blessings From The Fields

^" When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.  When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.  When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow." Deuteronomy 24:19-22New International Version (NIV)

My dear friend, I wanted to tell you about a wonderful group we have started working with.  It is the Society of St Andrew. (this is their fb page of our local group).  It is a group that goes to local farmers' fields and gathers the gleanings to take to the soup kitchens and children's homes, etc to help feed the poor and struggling.

Sometimes we are out in the field, but also sometimes the farmers have already harvested and bring the culls to a place where the SSA volunteers can sort through and bag the perfectly edible food.

Farmers have a lot of excess because grocery stores will only accept the most "perfect" looking fruits and vegetables and have strict guidelines.  One store will reject the ENTIRE shipment from a farmer if they open the first box and see one sweet potato that is too long, too short, too thin, or crooked.  

We are not just gleaning blessings of food for the poor, but are also gleaning blessings for ourselves as well:  fresh air, honest labor, the joy of doing unto others. 

The Boy and I are having tremendous fun with this!  Harvesting is always my favorite part of gardening, so this is right up my alley.  The Boy seems to enjoy the manual labor on behalf of another (and he gets out of schoolwork for the day ;) ).  The poor get food.  The farmers have a place to take their excess (and probably get to write it off) and we get to honor the Lord.  It is a win-win-win!

Yesterday we were going to go two places:  Huntsville and Cullman, but the Huntsville field took more time than we thought, so we will get to Cullman another time.  The lady who runs it here is such a ray of sunshine!  So sweet and friendly!

I love working alongside my son, of course, but also people from all walks of life--some struggling, some successful, young, old, black, white....all of us working together to bring food to the hungry.  It's like a preview of heaven (though heaven won't have hungry people, but it WILL have joyful people who come together, and the evil human biases of age, race, color, etc will be gone forever!)

If you are interested, here is the web page for the Society of St Andrew 
(This is different than the fb link I posted above :) )

This is a GREAT opportunity for Scouts, homeschoolers, children to learn about charity, for retired folk...for everyone!  I cannot encourage it enough :)

Love, Steph

Wheat!!

Good morning my sweet friend!

We have exciting news:  our wheat has sprouted!!  If you remember, a while ago I mentioned how we wanted to try to grow our own wheat.  We had such a grand time growing, drying, and grinding our own corn that I wanted to try our own wheat as well.

The Wonder Sweetie had tilled up a patch of ground by the greenhouse where we plan to plant our corn next spring, so he put another plot right beside it for the wheat.

In our area we plant winter wheat.  I cannot tell you what a blessing it is, my dear one, to drive through the area in winter, when the leaves are gone and the grass is brown, and come upon a field that is covered in a bright, spring-green haze!  It is like a promise of summer in the middle of winter and lends such a beauty and brings lightness to the heart when the cold gets heavy.

We wanted to try to grow heritage strains of wheat, but since this is our first effort and we were not sure what we were doing, we decided to go with wheat that a local feed store offers.  We are saving our little packets of heritage wheat for spring planting, God willing.

Last week TWS and I went out looking to see if our wheat had sprouted.  We tried to compare the corn bed with the wheat bed, but both had some green grass and weeds sprouting and it was hard to see if the wheat had come up.

Yesterday, though, I wandered to the bed and it was very obvious that the wheat bed had sprouted!

Now we just hope and pray that the wheat has established enough roots for vernalization.  The wheat sprouts, then requires cold to kill it back so that it will produce reliably when the weather warms.  We are expecting 60 straight hours of below freezing starting tomorrow, and even when that breaks, I believe there is another cold snap on its heels, so hopefully it will be cold enough for vernalization but not kill the wheat completely.

TWS got a scythe for Christmas--can't wait for him to be able to use it!

We also scattered wheat in the hay field just to see what would happen.

I hope you have a lovely day :)  Let's chat soon!

Love, Steph