Homemade Honey Whole Wheat Bread

About three years ago, my friend Jenny Hardy taught me how to make bread. For reals. You know, the kind you feel good about feeding your kids? No preservative-filled, store-bought white trash. Plus, it's soft, smooth, and sweet. Nothing like what most people think of when they imagine whole wheat bread. I make a batch of bread at least once a week for my family. I can count on one hand the loaves of store-bought bread my family has eaten in the last three years. It's that good.

A little teaser:

Can you smell that goodness? Aaaaaaah.

Now to introduce you to the cast of characters:

Bosch mixer (a must - worth every penny); dough enhancer; vital wheat gluten (gluten flour);
freshly ground wheat (hard white wheat in my case); yeast; honey; canola oil; two eggs; salt;
small loaf pans (Norpro shown).
And yes, that's my creepy son peeking out behind the canola oil.
I didn't know he was there until I had the picture downloaded and on the computer. Sorry. 

To begin, put 4 cups of wheat flour in your mixer. Add 2 T. yeast and 2 T. dough enhancer. Add 1/3 c. gluten flour and mix a bit. (If you do use white flour for at least 1/3 of the flour in this recipe, you can leave out the gluten flour.)

Add 4 1/2 cups of warm water. Let yeast activate for a few minutes until it looks something like this foamy stuff:

Now add your two eggs, 2/3 cup of canola oil, and 2/3 cup of honey. (tip: use the same measuring cup for the honey and oil, but use it for the oil first. It'll allow the honey to slide right out with no sticky mess to clean up.)

Mix this together, and while it is mixing, add your 1 1/2 T. salt. (I think kosher salt makes a completely different flavor to the bread. Almost a sweet bread.)

Now add the rest of your flour (about 6-8 cups) slowly until the dough begins to clear the sides of the bowl. Keep it mixing/kneading on speed 1 or 2 for 10 minutes.

See how it's just beginning to clear the sides of the bowl? That's perfect.  Don't add more flour.
I promise it'll look better in a few minutes.

This is how it'll look about 4 minutes in.

This is how it'll look at the end of the 10 minutes.
Oh, the aroma!

While your mixer is doing all the hard work, preheat your oven to 175. This will help your bread rise quicker. I also use this time to put the ingredients away and psychologically tie the smell that is wafting to some quality mom time with my kids. I'm so evil.

Prep your loaf pans with cooking spray and set them out.
Put about 1/4 cup of canola oil right on your counter top. Spread it around and leave your hands oil-y. This will help you get the dough out of the mixer more easily.

Dump the dough onto your counter and divide it into the number of loaves you'll make (5 smaller loaves in my case).

 Shape into loaves and put them into your prepared pans. (Isn't that just pretty?)

Place all five loaves into your preheated oven, and then turn it off. Yes, off. Set your timer for 25 minutes. This will let your loaves rise in a warm oven.

Wait until they double in size (about 25 minutes).

Keep your bread in the oven. Set your oven to 350, and set your timer again, this time for 20 minutes. (My oven beeps to say it's heated to 350 about ten minutes into my new timer setting.)

Have a food thermometer ready at the end of your 20 minute baking time. Stick it into your largest loaf and wait until it reads 180-185 degrees. Watch closely. Pull loaves out when it reads 180 degrees.

 Wait about 10-15 minutes, then turn out onto a clean towel. Grab a good bread knife, and watch it disappear! Enjoy!

Want a printable recipe? Email me at kristiaskew@gmail.com

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

My friend Lindsay Stobbe sent me this recipe, and of course I don't remember the cook book it came out of, but oh my. It's divine. Our new favorite!

Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas

1/2 c. honey
1/4 c. lime juice (I used the juice from 3 limes)
1 T. chili powder (I only used about 1 t.)
1/2 t. garlic powder (ick. I used real garlic.)
1 1/2 lbs. chicken, cooked and shredded (To cook and shred my chicken, I put them in my Crock Pot and cooked on low with some chicken broth.)

Mix first 4 ingredients and marinate chicken for at least 30 minutes

2 (10 oz) cans green enchilada sauce
1 c. half and half (but why not just use heavy whipping cream? Mmm. . . )
flour tortillas
colby jack cheese

Mix enchilada sauce with half and half. Put a bit in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Wrap tortillas with marinated chicken and some cheese. Roll and place seam side down in pan. Pour remaining sauce over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes.

I promise you'll love these.

Christmas Soups - 2010

I used three recipes for my Soup Extravaganza this Christmas:

Cream of Broccoli Soup (Jen Smith)

6 c. chicken broth
1 c. chopped onion
2 tsp. salt
1 large head broccoli, chopped
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 c. butter (yes, that's three cubes)
2 qt. half and half (or use a mixture of half and half and milk)
1 (8oz.) jar of Cheese Whiz

Combine broth, onions, salt, and broccoli. Cook until broccoli is tender. In separate pot make sauce - melt butter, add flour and blend into a paste. Add milk all at once, stir constantly until thick (when it bubbles). Stir in Cheese Whiz. Add to undrained broccoli.



Kristi's Sweet Chili

1 lb. ground beef
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tsp. pepper
1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1 T. olive oil
1 can (28 oz.) petite diced tomatoes - undrained
1 can (4 oz.) diced green chiles
2 cans kidney beans - rinsed and drained
1 can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 cup water
1 c. brown sugar

Preheat large pot and brown beef, bell peppers, onion, and spices together in oil. When beef is browned and veggies are tender, add remaining ingredients. Simmer 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Garnish with sour cream, cheese, onions, etc. Serves 8-10


Creamy Chicken Soup (Nicole Kunze)

1 small onion, chopped
1 T. butter
3 c. chicken broth (I use 3 cans)
4 medium carrots, chopped (I use a bag of mini carrots)
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 c. cooked and cubed chicken (I use rotisserie chicken from Costco)
2 T. fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. milk
1/4 - 1/2 c. flour
1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese - room temperature, cut into small cubes

Saute onion in butter; add broth and veggies. Bring to a boil; reduce heat, cover and simmer until veggies are tender. Add chicken, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Combine flour and milk until smooth. Add to pot of veggies. Bring to a boil, cook and stir for two minutes or until thick. Reduce heat; add cream cheese until melted.  This soup is very thick. Add milk or water if needed.

Christmas Table Runner

I just finished this table runner for our Etsy shop, and I was so pleased with how it tuned out, I had to post it here, too.

I did the quilting. The first time I dared use my free-motion foot to do any quilting. Yes, you can see some flaws, but overall I'm very pleased with how it turned out!

Showing the underneath side of the runner and the binding. So fun!

The worst picture ever. Lighting and angle are horrid, but I wanted to show the full monty.

This is my favorite view. Draped over my kitchen chair. (Please ignore my dirty grout. It needs to be cleaned again.)

See that plate? My sweet mother-in-law gave me a set of those snowflake plates. So perfect for the winter season!

Table Runner - French General in Red

I saw this fabric and had to buy yards and yards of it. OK, maybe not that much, but I bought enough of it to do a table runner for my sweet mother-in-law (to match her new awesome red wall in her kitchen) and one to sell in our shop. Here are the pictures for you all to drool over. I know, right? Who knew I could actually do this? I used Quiltsmart interfacing to do the pumpkin seeds, and appliquéd circles on to make it look like centers to flowers. I added a sashing/border, and folded the back up over the front to finish it. I even did my own machine quilting. Hooray! I love projects that end up so beautifully.

 I'm also going to be in Bountiful, Utah tomorrow (Saturday, July 31) at an  Artisan Fair trying to sell things from our shop, so if you're in the Bountiful area, come see me (and all of our cool stuff) in person.

Place Mats - Take One

My kids bug me. Really, they do. Okay, so maybe "bugs me" isn't the right term to use here, but allow me to explain. Our pre-dinnertime routine consists of the kids biting at my ankles, total chaos, prayers said in the middle of my dinnertime preparations, and then pulling chairs up to the counter and letting the kids eat at the counter. S-T-R-E-S-S. Big time. I hate it.

Well, we finally bought a table last week that actually fits our family. One that I'd like to use as a segue into a more calm and respectable dinnertime routine. One where the kids help set and clean up the table. One where we pray as a family sitting around the table, not standing in the living room amidst the chaos we call our life. One where Ed ( at 21 months) can help with something. Anything. And then it hit me. Place mats. He can put place mats on the table!

Here's what I did (in a nutshell):

* Starting with a yard each of two coordinating fabrics, cut into tops and bottoms of place mats, each measuring 18" x 13."

* Cut batting the same measurements, and place in between the top and bottom pieces of fabric.

* Pin to hold together, then sew vertical stripes 1.5" apart all the way across the place mat.

* Follow this tutorial on how to do a binding, and struggle until the last place mat to actually get it right (all except taking the time to do a blind stitch. Nah. No time for me for that one. I'm using my machine).

* Look at the finished product and smile. Big.

Now comes the hard part - teaching Ed to help when he's hungry and all he wants to do is scream at me and have me hold him. Nice. 

Photography for Sneak A' Roos

I did some trade work with a lady who lives here in Lehi. She owns Sneak A' Roos, a darling kids' boutique, mostly featuring shoes. I took new stock photos of her shoes and some creative shots for her to use on her web site and to print banners for her boutiques and shows she goes to. I thought they turned out pretty darn good for someone who barely knows how to use a camera, no? I will have more photos of fun shots coming, so stay tuned!

The above photo is her current stock photo from her web site. 

The one below is what I did with the same pair of shoes. (I know, right?)

Another stock photo of some of her soft-sole shoes.

And now presenting, my delicious children in the darling shoes she has for sale.

 I did my best to not show their faces, because, really, nobody cares how cute the kids are. It's the shoes she's selling, not my children.

This last one is  by far my favorite shot of the day. SO precious! I hope she uses this one.