Home Made Vanilla Extract

and..........ready set GO! It's that time of year, let the 

gift making commence. This is some Vanilla Extract

I put together 2+ years ago. (it got forgotten)

I used 1 liter/33 oz  Cheap Vodka and 3 Vanilla beans

I found these cute 8.5 oz flasks on Amazon and

the bottle filled 4. I am keeping 1 and 3 are 

Christmas presents :) bet ya'll wish you were on my list! lol

Whole Wheat Bread with Flaxseed

2 TBS. yeast
2-1/2 cups warm water
4 TBS. honey
2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup oil
1/4 - 1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/4 - 1/2 cup whole flaxseed
6+ cups whole wheat flour

mix warm water, tsp. honey and yeast. Let set for 10 min or so. Add oil, honey and salt then add 3 cups of flour, I mix well for about 5 minutes, then add the flax, mix well for a few more minutes ( I find that all this extra mixing/strengthening the gluten holds the bread together better ) the flax tends to make the finished bread fall apart when you slice it. Add more flour and knead 10 min. I let my dough rise for 1 hour, punch it down and rise for 1 more hour. Place in loaf pans and let rise (about 30 min). Bake 350 for 35 minutes. makes 2 loaves. I usually double this recipe for 4 loaves and freeze it. This is the staple bread in our house, once I started adding the flax seed the family would not let me make bread any other way. I think you could add it to any bread recipe, It will just use a little less flour.

Food Freak

I think there are a few people who think I have lost my marbles because I have stopped making my cookie trays and started finding healthier alternatives. This year I made jam and bread (whole wheat with flax and local wildflower honey). Click Here to see the vast array of sweets from Christmas pasts. But.... My marbles are all there, well at least all the ones I started out with anyways. I remember a few years ago (before I got serious about eating better) coming across people who were strict with thier diet and anal about what they would put in thier body..........I believe my reaction was something like P-f-f-t *food freaks*. Well I have willingly signed on to that bandwagon.

A Mighty Muffin

It is a mighty muffin indeed that has my husband requesting it and bragging about it! In my pursuit of all things healthy I decided to buy some Millet. I found this muffin recipe on Allrecipes.com and gave it a try, despite the snickers from certain members of my family who doubted that I could make bird food taste good.............. Well no one is laughing now, their faces are too full of muffins.

2-1/4 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup millet
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk (I use skim milk w/ 1 tsp. vinegar)
1 egg
1/2 cup oil ( I use applesauce)
1/2 cup honey

bake in greased muffin pans at 400 degrees for 15 minutes

Whole Wheat Crackers

Somehow I thought this would be harder than it was. I dreaded trying to make my own crackers thinking that there was some hidden complication or reason not to. This recipe is so easy to make, granted it takes a little time and patients to roll out the dough between the waxed paper, but very much worth it. I was willing to follow the recipe and add butter, but did not have any. So I used applesauce instead and added a Tbsp. of Olivio. When the first batch was done, I called out my taste testers and they emptied the pan. I had to use force to keep them away from the rest so that I had some to go with dinner, which was homemade chicken noodle soup. I made some plain (with a little salt) and sprinkled some with caraway seeds and basil. All were delicious.

Re-inventing the Christmas Cookie

This is experiment #1 in re-inventing Christmas cookies at my home this year. I used my Grandmothers basic cut-out cookie recipe and substituted Whole Wheat flour for the White and I substituted half of the butter that it called for with applesauce. The dough and the cookie had the same flavor as the "untouched" recipe just more texture, well worth the convertion. The thought of bringing any of that evil white refined sugar into the house did not appeal to me so I decided to try a differant kind of "frosting". I pureed frozen cherries in my blender with a small amount of the slightly lesser evil brown sugar and smoothed it on my creation, grated a little Chocolate on top and Wa-La. Okay, so it doesnt taste completely like the old Christmas cookie Grandma used to make, but since Grandpa died of an artery clogging stroke and Grandma's in the nursing home with alzhiemers, maybe it is okay to rethink how we feed our families. I think Grandma would approve! Change is never easy.....but I am willing to try. P.S. the family loves the cookies.

Whole Wheat Bread

It not very often that I get excited about my "Baking Day" this time I could not wait. I went to the Amish store and got my first 50 lb. bag of Prarie Gold whole wheat berries. I had an audience for the grinding process. Everyone including me wanted to see if my Thriftily found Grainmaster would put on a good show ...and it did. I put my wheat berries in a large plastic tub, and the kids couldnt help but to sink their hands deep into the pile as I would ask them to scoop some out. It just feels so good, so natural, so raw, so right. After I ground the wheat I couldnt help but to feel it myself, it felt warm and alive and the bread that it produced was a testament to that. It rose higher and tasted fresher........

Favorite Cookbooks

These are two of my favorite cookbooks. The Ideals whole grain cookbook was my Grandmothers and I use it for alot of my basic "sweet tooth" recipes. My chocolate chip recipe below is from this book. It is packed with great recipes as well as poetry and proverbs!
The " 500 fat free recipes" I borrowed from the local library and could not give it up so I bought one used on Amazon.com The recipes are delicious!

Hearty Granola

I try to get all of my baking done in one day. And granola is on my list. This recipe is a little chewy, I am sure that it would taste better with some extra suger and butter, but I am trying to keep these to a minimal. In July of this year my husband faced the dilema of High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, and was diagnosed as Pre- diabetic. Instead of putting him on more medicines, and because he is only 40 I decided to make some drastic changes in our diet. We were already eating pretty healthy, but obviously something more needed to be done. So I have systematically eliminated all of the unhealthy stuff from my home and my recipes. Is it worth it? You bet. At my husbands last Dr. appointment they were amazed at his improvements, his triglycerides went down - to the point that they took him off of the medicine, his blood pressure has gone down, and his cholesterol looked great. The granola must be good, as I am constantly making more.......... here is my recipe. I do change and tweek it depending on what is on hand.

Hearty Granola

1/2 - cup raisins
1/4 - cup chopped dates
1/4 - cup dried chopped
1/4 - cup dried cranberries
1/4 - cup dried apples
1/2 - cup sliced/flaked almonds
1/2 - cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 - cup non-fat dried milk
2 - TBSP. shredded unsweetend coconut
3 - cups rolled oats
1+1/2 - cups unsweeted puffed rice cereal
4 - TBSP. honey
1 - tsp. cinnamon or more
1 - cup hot water
1/4 - cup ground flax seed

Mix together the honey and hot water then add raisins and dates. While these are soaking mix together all other ingredients. Slowly pour water mixure in with the other ingredients while stirring. Mix well. I use my dehydrator for about 6 hours, but you can do it in the oven at 25o for about an hour. use as a snack or with milk

Healthy Substitutes

I use bananas and applesauce as a substitute for butter, margerine or oil in recipes. I make the applesuace with no added suger and freeze it in muffin tins. I buy the banana on sale in the reduces section and freeze them. The bananas do leave a strong flavor in whatever you cook, so just make sure it is a compatable flavor, like chocolate brownies. Yum

Polka Dot Cupcakes

My daughter has a thing for Polka Dots. Not wanting to dissapoint her I explored "simple"ways to put them on cup cakes. Merckens wafers and chocolate chips turned upside down worked great. Hooray for Simple!

Home made rolls

Ahhh......there is nothing like the smell of homemade breads. I was having a groggy March day. You know..... the its been to cold for too long, with not enough sunshine. Its days like this that living down south sounds good. I decided to make some rolls a. because I am too cheep to go and buy some b. because my family will love me for it. and c. because there is something primitive and rewarding about making bread :) little things in live bring me great joy! This time I added some fresh garlic cloves and dried basil (I wish it was fresh from the garden) . below is the reciped, I clipped it from my favoritecooking magazine "Taste of Home" they turn out great everytime.

Valentine's Spaghetti

Awww....can you feel the love ;) I thought it would be nice to make something special for Valentine's dinner. But it does fall on a thursday, which is the end of my grocery shopping week. Basically that means there is not much left in the house, (well.. thats what the Hubby and Kids would say) but I made do with what I had. Actually I think it turned out great. I made the heart shaped meatloafs out of scraps from the fridge.. peppers, what was left of the green onion, and a few other things. I also made some of my fabulous rolls with garlic and basil. I thought the kids would complain about the spinach, but they thought it looked so beautiful they at it all.

Peppermint Dessert Coffee

I have a great recipe for Peppermint Dessert Coffee that comes in handy for thank-you gifts during the holidays. 3 heaping tsps. of this mixure in 6oz of hot water is delicious.

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup powdered creamer
1/4 cup instant coffee
2 Tblsp Cocoa powder
4-6 crushed peppermint candies

Christmas Cookies

It is hard to run away from the memories of Christmas past. It means that I have to be the one to carry on the tradition of making all of the cookies. I don't remember a time when my Mom or my Grandmother did not make these Chocolate nut drop cookies for the Holidays. That was the only time of the year that we had them, it made it even more special. I'm not sure when I picked up this torch to carry, but it is alot of work. My family ( as well as other benefitiaries) assures me it is well worth it
These are my husbands Christmas memories, they are his Grandmothers Date Nut Drop cookies. These are the cookies that have to be hidden. My kids have developed a fondness for them as well.
I make 5 or 6 different kinds of cookies each year (my children will love me for this someday when they have to make them all,to settle thier hunger for Christmas pasts!) I make Chocolate Nut Drops, Date Nut Drops, Grandma's Suger Cookies, Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies, Buck-eyes, and Pinwheel cookies. When all of the baking is done, I package them up and send them out to family members who don't cook, or as a thank-you to special people in out lives. Then the feast begins. My family goes on an all out cookie and milk binge. I takes me 2 days to make them and they would eat them all in one day if I let them.
These are the "Buck-eyes" that have become one of our favorites for Christmas. They are peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate. By the way I am sick of cookies, and cannot wait to start taking off some Christmas pounds. And the reason I do this all in the first place is...?
oh yes, Christmas memories. Funny I don't remember all the extra weight when I was a kid!