Pita Bread

I don't think I can say it often enough, but I love bread. I mean I really LOVE bread, all kinds too, especially if they are fresh out of the oven. I have been on this journey of making as much as I can from scratch and I have attempted many different types to satisfy my love of a good bread. Some have turned out better than others and I still need more practice to make things like hot dog and hamburger buns. For some reason, pita bread gave me some trouble the first time I tried to make it so I kept buying it from the store. Then a Greek restaurant opened up not too far from the house, and I loved eating their fresh pita bread. That spurred me to try again to make my own and I am so happy I did.

The amazing smell of bread baking always starts with the yeast proofing in a bowl.

I love getting to this stage too, my dough is getting ready to rise, I can still smell the yeast with the combination of flour and I know goodness will be happening soon!

After rising pita bread is formed into a long "snake"

then, cut into equal size pieces. I usually cut mine into 12 pieces, If you want larger pitas to make a wrap, you can cut the dough into 8 pieces. Any less and then the pitas almost get too big to work with. 

Each section is rolled into a ball and then flattened into a disk.

I bake on stoneware most all of the time and always when I am making pita bread. When baked, these puff up and turn golden and are so delicious and tender. 

And once again, I forgot to take a picture of my finished pitas! But here is a picture of a lunch a packed with my pita bread.

Here is my favorite bread book. Pretty much everything is in here and it has 500 bread recipes...I haven't made them all yet!

Peach Canning Continued

My first order of peaches I canned as peach slices and peach halves. When the second order came in, I got a little more creative. I made a peach vanilla jam, a peach rum sauce, peach  preserves, zesty peach barbecue sauce, peach butter, peach jalapeno jam and peach lemonade concentrate.

We both love peach anything so I do try and can a lot of those products. This year I went looking for some different recipes. I do think my favorite is the Peach Vanilla Jam. The added vanilla really adds a lovely smoothness to the deliciousness of those ripe peaches.

I found the recipe for the Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce in the Ball Complete Book of Home preserving and decided to make it after seeing so many people talking about it on some of the canning sites I read. The Ball book is my go-to canning resource, but they have lots of great recipes on their website too, including this one:


Zesty Peach BBQ Sauce

Makes about 8 (8 oz) half pints

Golden orange with red flecks, this barbecue sauce not only looks amazing, but tastes out of this world. Spoon some over your chicken or fish this summer!

View Half Recipe

6 cups finely chopped pitted peeled peaches (about 3 lb or 9 medium)
1 cup finely chopped seeded red bell pepper (about 1 large)
1 cup finely chopped onion (about 1 large)
3 Tbsp finely chopped garlic (about 14 cloves)
1-1/4 cups honey
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp hot pepper flakes
2 tsp dry mustard
2 tsp salt
8 (8 oz) half pint glass preserving jars with lids and bands

Directions:

1.) PREPARE boiling water canner. Heat jars and lids in simmering water until ready for use. Do not boil. Set bands aside.
2.) COMBINE all ingredients in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring frequently, until mixture thickens to the consistency of a thin commercial barbeque sauce, about 25 minutes.
3.) LADLE hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe rim. Center hot lid on jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight.
4.) PROCESS 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.

Beef Stew

I know I have been sharing a lot of canning recipes lately, but it is that time of year! I have been watching the weekly grocery store ads to see what meats are on sale and then trying to combine those sale items with in season items to plan my canning projects. I have a couple of goals in mind with this plan one of which is lowering my overall food costs. The other goal is to have a pantry full of foods that that have the convenience of processed foods, but that are better for me.

I love soups and like to have several kinds on hand. I have even been known to occasionally eat soup even for breakfast. Beef stew is a favorite and when I got my pressure cooker last fall, this was one of the first recipes I looked for. This recipe came from the Ball Book.

Lots of vegetables to chop:

I ended up with a 21 jars of soup, mostly pints, and a few quarts. I have found that the pint jars are perfect for single servings and are perfect to grab for lunches (or breakfasts) while the quarts make a great quick dinner for the both of us. I will serve with some homemade bread for a hearty dinner.

Tomato Skins

Waste not, want not, right? When I made my wing sauce last week, I had this lovely bowl of tomato skins left over and decided to dehydrate them and make tomato powder.

Loaded up ready for the dehydrator:

After drying for several hours:

After they were thoroughly dried, I put them in a blender and pureed the dry skins. Here is the powder that I ended up with:

What to do with tomato powder? I plan to add it in my dough the next time I make pasta. I stirred in some when I made ranch dressing the other day, just for a little change. The next time I make pita bread I might try it out in there. 

I love the fact that I was able to use something that would have just been tossed in the compost bin and made something that I can use in my cooking.

Tomato skins are pretty lightweight and when I removed the trays from my dehydrator I found some dry skins that had blown off the trays! 

Grape Vines, Memories and my Weekly CSA Box

For the past two weeks in my CSA box I have received some concord grapes. There are many foods that just taste like summer to me. Ice cold watermelon takes me back to my grandparents front yard under the big tree, a perfectly ripe peach or nectarine reminds me of my Dad, pulling out his pocket knife cutting off pieces to share with me. I could go on and on describing the taste of summer and the memories that are tied to those foods.

 Nothing however takes me back to my childhood summers quicker than a perfectly ripe, perfectly purple, concord grape. 

My Great-Grandmother had a grape vine and grew these at her house. My Uncle parked his boat beside that vine and my sister and I spend hours playing in that boat every summer reaching over the side of the boat and eating grapes. The vine grew up and over a post for easier picking and my sister and I spent a lot of time playing under there too, eating grapes and enjoying the shade provided by the vine.

Even though the vine was at my Great Grandmother's house and I shared grapes with many family members, and watched my Mom make grape jelly with those grapes, that taste reminds me of my sister more than anyone else.

A couple of years ago, my sister had gotten a cutting off of the vine and planted it at her house. Last year she had a great crop and I was in town when they were ready to be picked. It was fun picking grapes with her and her son, picking grapes off a vine that dates back to our childhood and probably even before our lives even had even begun. I don't know when the vine was originally planted.

Do you have any food memories that say summer to you?

On to the CSA box! This week we received corn, tomatoes, mini peppers, squash, cucumbers, potatoes, some cilantro, an onion and more of those delicious grapes. We also got a watermelon that I forgot to include in the picture.

I have said it before, but I am so glad with my choice of CSA providers. I love the variety of foods and everything has been so tasty. One thing that I have especially enjoyed is that occasionally we get a bag with some things grouped together to make something specific. This week it was a "salsa" kit and we have everything in there to make a batch of salsa. I am a huge fan of cilantro and like lots of it in my salsa.

Have a great weekend!

Wing Sauce

Last week I found myself with quite a few tomatoes that needed to be used soon. I didn't have enough to make a batch of spaghetti sauce, so I thumbed through my Ball book looking for a recipe that called for a smaller amount of tomatoes. I found the recipe for  Chicken Wing Sauce, and it was perfect since I had all the ingredients, I had enough of the right size jars and I love chicken wings!

After simmering all the ingredients for a while, I transferred it to the blender to puree the mixture.

I always forget how hot something like this is when it goes in the blender and it splashes up and burns the palm of my hand! I was quickly reminded of why I almost always use the immersion blender and blend it in the pot. I  don't burn myself with it and there are fewer dishes to wash, and I am all about not washing  dishes.

After pureeing, it still had to cook down for another hour or so before I could can it.

The instructions in the recipe stated you could add more hot sauce if you wanted more heat. I left this one a little on the mild size since I can always add more hot sauce when I open the jars, leaving it a little milder makes it a little more versatile. 

Kip wanted to know if I was planning to make a lot of wings in the near future. Everyone else that knows how much I can always asks the same thing too--how do I use all of my canned goods? I try and can a lot of basics that I can use in different ways. There will be chicken wings in the future, but this also makes a great marinade for almost any meat. A tablespoon or so added into a salad dressing is a nice touch and it also makes a great Buffalo Chicken Dip.

For a quick dinner last night, I cooked some chicken breasts, added the wing sauce after the chicken was fully cooked and let it simmer in the sauce for a couple of minutes. I removed the sauce from the heat and sliced it pretty thin and laid it on a bed of lettuce with some blue cheese crumbles and served with bleu cheese dressing. 

Garden Update

I thought I would give you a little update of my gardening attempts. We have been lucky enough to get a lot of  rain this summer so everything is  growing pretty lush.  The flip side of that though is that not a lot of my stuff has had enough sun to ripen very much. The pictures above and below show the raised bed that Kip built me for  my birthday and the fencing that my Dad added to act as a trellis for the beans and cucumbers. 

I have tomatoes in the front of the box and they are growing very well. Actually, I don't think I have ever had such big plants. I have had to re-stake these because the stakes that I had used for the past couple of years couldn't support the plants. They were just falling over almost as soon as I would stake them.  The new ones are much longer and I used some ties to anchor them better. 

These are a small cherry tomato and the first ones are just starting to ripen.

 My cucumber plants  are still blooming.  I love the little yellow  blossoms. 

A new cucumber, just starting to grow. It is a little less than an inch long here.

I love having my morning coffee sitting outside on the back patio looking out over my garden and yard. Even though we live in a neighborhood off of a main street, the backyard is still pretty peaceful. I love watching all the birds that visit, the bees and the butterflies too.  I can't name all the birds that come by, but I do recognize that I have several different kinds. After visiting with my grandparents a couple of weeks ago, and sitting on their porch watching all the birds that come to their bird feeders, I decided to set up an area in my yard too.  

CSA Basket

Good Morning! In my CSA share this week, I received some grapes, tomatoes, cucumbers, a couple of jalapeno peppers, potatoes, purple hull peas, a long yellow pepper, squash and some beautiful  corn. I am still very happy with the decision I made in changing CSAs. Everything has been so good and I love the variety of foods that I am getting. I am not overrun with any one particular vegetable and it is  easier to incorporate all the veggies into my meal plan without feeling like we are eating the same thing every day.

I have had a pretty busy summer! I thought once my job ended that I would be sitting home bored all day but that hasn't been the case at all. The timing really worked out for me and has  allowed me to get to all of the canning projects I have wanted to do. My shelves are getting stocked for the winter and that makes me really happy. 

Have a great weekend!

Chicken Sausages

About a year ago, my friend Judy mentioned wanting to make sausage like her Dad used to make. I told her that I had the grinding and sausage stuffing attachments for my Kitchen Aid mixer and that we could do it at my house. I had these attachments, I received them as a wedding gift and they had been unused for about seven years! We had such a great time, and it was fun listening to Judy tell her daughters about making sausage with her dad while she was growing up. We have done it a couple of times now, and I am pretty confident in my Italian sausage making skills. 

I have seen a lot of recipes online for different chicken sausages and decided to try and make that on my own. I started with boneless chicken breasts and ground the meat before adding the rest of the ingredients. Once everything was mixed together, I started stuffing the mixture into the casing.

And here is my final product:

You can find the recipe that I used here. They were very good and I would make them again, but next time, I think I would increase the seasonings buy just a little bit, only because we like a little more kick. 

To serve these, I cut them into individual size pieces, sauteed some onions and peppers and served on sub rolls. Yummy!

More Peaches!

This is my second round of peached for this year. Last month I got a box of peaches and made all my jams, preserves and other things. The go-round, I bought two boxes of peaches to can as just slices and halves. Most of them are slices, but probably about a quarter of them are halves. The quart jars will probably be made into cobblers and pies with the pints will probably be eaten pretty much straight from the jar. I eat fruit with breakfast almost every day and some of these peaches on some oatmeal and a bit of brown sugar make a great breakfast. 

I got a phone call a couple of weekends ago from a couple of friends that were out looking for yard sales. One of my neighbors was having an estate sale and they were letting me know that they were parked in my driveway. I was kind of still in bed and asked her if she found canning supplies to let me know and I would run over there. After they were done shopping they let me know there were no canning jars and we visited for a while. My friend Linda asked what can of canning supplies I was looking for and I let her know that I was always on the lookout for jars. Linda loves going treasure hunting! A few days later I get another phone call from Linda letting me know that she was sitting in my driveway with a surprise. She had three reusable shopping bags stuffed with canning jars! She said that she hoped the wide mouth ones were okay because all the big jars were wide mouths. Perfect timing for my peaches! I love the wide mouths, but a lot of the stores around here haven't carried anything but wide mouth pints until this year and the wide mouth ones almost never go on sale. I was very happy to get those jars and the timing was perfect for me to can my peaches.