Break out the shot glasses!

Autumn is my favorite.  The oranges, the reds, the spots of purple.  It's all so beautiful.  I stopped at my favorite farm stand today hosted by Zach's Farm in York.  They have the second tastiest corn (second only to my family's farm) and the most reasonable priced pumpkins.  At 50cents a pound they were 49cents cheaper than the guy on the other side of town.  I got two oranges and two whites, as well as three little white ones, a yellow and green one, and a white and orange one.  They had a really nice selection!  Since my pink and red mums came back from last year, I figured the front garden needed some love so it could shine.  So, I pulled out all the dead sunflowers and beheaded them so I can have seeds to next year.  Dead headed all the daisies, and pulled out all the cunning grass.  The pumpkins now live in the garden amount the fall dirt.  They are beautiful! It's also nice way to decorate on a budget.  I got all the following items for $30 today.  I plan on cooking the pumpkins for pie and breads!

Zach's also had some glads!  And boy was I.....happy.  For a dollar none the less!  Had to grab them.

I also had to get a bunch of sweet red chilis!  For five bucks!  I cut off all the leafy stems with scissors.  Can you believe it, $5.00!  I've already used three for a beef stew I've made that's cooking in the crock pot.  Then I'm going to pick a few more, dice them up and freeze them in with some chicken.  And dry the rest.  I can use the dry chili's for red sauce, toss in with stir-fry, or bottle them for holiday  gifts.  They are being hung from my kitchen ceiling in front of the chimney and make a beautiful, natural decoration.

I also found a bunch of tall sunflowers.  As I picked out my bunch I noticed this beautiful redish, purple bushy flower out in their garden and asked about where I could buy it.  She told me that it's pick your own for 50cents a stem!  She armed me with clippers and out to the field I went.  I was giggling a bit because I felt like a kid in  candy store.  Only, this was much healthier.  Of course I had to pick the zinnias that were in the next row, also 50cents a stem.  When I got home I made three bouquets from the $2.00 it cost me to walk to the field and pick and choose what I wanted.

Time to break out your old shot glasses!  I've found that using those little keepsakes are perfect for tiny bouquets!  The one above is from the bottom part of the stem that I torn off so the big guns could fit into the vase.  And it's sitting in a tall tequila shot glass I got when I went to Vegas four years ago.  This amazing flower is actually a grain.  And it's called Amaranthus.  Google it.  It has a variety of uses, none of which I'll be using it for.

Here is a photo of the bouquet my neighbor made from a Corazon shot glass.  Hm, we like tequila...

So cute, right?

I had to buy this magazine at the grocery store yesterday.  Not only was it awesome on the inside, but the cover was very inspiring.  Those beauties are pumpkins covered in paper.  I want to make some of these with the Halloween paper I bought designed by Martha Stewart.  It's big paper that you can find in the scrap booking section of any craft store and it's just the coolest.  Pictures of my creations to follow soon...

Happy autumnal decorating!

I picked up some King Arthur Bread Flour with all intentions of making break for dinner.  When I got home and learned that you had to make a starter and let it rest overnight, my motivation flew out the window because I have the patience of a four year old.  A few days ago I had a hankering for carbohydrates and off to the kitchen I went to commence bread making. This will make a chewy but crusty loaf!
I started by gathering my ingredients.

All you need to do is add water.  I also added cheese to the inside this bread to make it super delicious!
Start with, you guessed it - the starter:
1 and 1/4 cups of unbleached bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast
1/2 cup cool water

I mixed all these things together with a salad fork in a huge bowl.  I added a bit more water because it was so dry it wouldn't come together.  Then I covered the bowl with a tea-towel and set on top of our fridge for 24hours.













24 hours later, as you can see below - it expanded.  It's also kind of bubbly.

Then I made the actual dough.
Add to the starter:
1 and 1/4 cups of WARM water
3 and 1/2 cups of unbleached bread flour
1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

If you have bread maker, you probably wouldn't be reading my blog!  So wash those hands, and start smushing everything together!  I used my finger tips and knuckles to really push it all together.

Once it was all nice and smooth and mixed together, I put the tea towel over it, put back on top of the fridge and let it rise some more for about two hours it doubled in size.
Then I got out my biggest cookie sheet, sprinkled some flour on  it and plopped the blob onto it.
I spritzed it with some water and started flattening it out to fit the pan.  It sort of looked like I was making a pizza.  Then I spread out about 1 and 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese.  You could also brush some garlic oil* on it first (yum!).

*Garlic oil:  EVOO in a pan, add minced garlic and heat till the garlic sizzles.

Then I rolled the flat, cheese covered dough up into a log, seam side down on the sheet.  I pinched the edges shut. 




The tea-towel went back on, the pan went to the top of the fridge, and I waited another two hours.  It got puffy, but didn't get too much bigger.  As the two hours came to a close I turned to oven on and let it pre-heat to 425 degrees.

I sprayed a smaller cookie sheet with cooking oil and put the two loaves on it.  I pinched the edges shut and spritzed them with warm water. 













In the loaves went for 25 minutes!  If you do one loaf, try 35 mins.  And for four little loaves, maybe 20mins.
The loaf didn't come out of the over as golden brown as I wanted.  So, I could have left it for a little longer - but the outside felt crusty and it was cooked all the way through.

I took them out, let them cool, grabbed my best bread knife and "ooh'ed and aww'ed" over the cheesey goodness inside.



This bread was so delicious it was gone that day!  Of course I shared with some friends, but I know I could of polished it off myself.

I read up on the scientific basics of bread making on this site.  It was helpful - except I am not professional enough to weigh my ingredients.  Nor am I mass-producing breads (yet)......

These two loaves cost me about $1.70 to make each.  I already had salt, and spray cooking oil.  So, the investment for the yeast, flour, and cheese was about $9.00  But I can get many, many more loaves out of them. 
There are also a ba-zillion sites on how to make bread in less than four hours.  Much easier than the almost 28 hours it took me.  But, this was much less commitment in the kitchen since each step only took about 10 minutes each - then I could go do something else and come back to it.

Happy bread making!  The amount of money you'll save doing it yourself is well worth the time investment.

September already?

This picture of Lulu could sum up how I felt all day!  Happy, with a bunch of asses going in the other direction. 
The day started off with neighbor dogs barking at 5am, no biggie - I just half sleep through it.  And later this weekend, I am going to stage an intervention on those dogs and remind them that they do not need to be the neighborhood alarm system. 
Then the dogs for camp started rolling in.  I like seeing my clients in the morning.  I feel like I am starting their day with some peace of mind.  Then the electrician came and found a whole bunch of stuff that's wrong with this "money pit"  house.  Luckily we just rent this place.  If we owned this place, proper maintenance would be a priority.  But our slumlord, I mean, landlord doesn't quite grasp the concept of budgeting, priorities, or respect.  I'm pretty sure legally we've done all the right things to with hold rent, it's just a little scary to do something like that.  It might be easier to continue paying her under protest.  After the dogs were watered, had some running, and loved I walked the property to check on my produce.

Butternut squash in the making

Green peppers (finally) with swiss chard in the back

The sunflowers that survived Irene

 

Extreme close-up!!

Red beauty

I've also grown some crazy big zucchini.  I feel like I check on them, they grow to the size of my thigh overnight.  So far with that produce I've made four loaves of bread (with chocolate chips and walnuts), 24 muffins, two servings of oven baked sticks, and have FOUR quart bags of frozen slices.  The frozen slices are so big, someone might confuse them for pizza.




I also started bread today!  I'll have an update of that soon since I have to wait 24 hours for the starter to...well....start.
I plan on using the abundant amount of tomatoes I am about to get and turn them into a sauce starter.  And I'll toss some of those delicious peppers in there with it.    I'll be sure to share how to do that later this month.
Currently there is a chicken vegetable medley that I made in that mass production last week for dinner tonight.  It's so easy.  Defrost.  Cook.  Serve.  I am going to try and get into a routine of meal planning for the week.  It really goes a long way on the wallet.  And while trying to save money for a wedding and honeymoon, saving money helps!
Those asses going in the other direction?  They might not know who they are.  But, I do.  And as long as I keep a smile on my face and walk in the other direction - I'll be able to keep on keepin' on.