Slow Food: Yeast Bread

One of my most favorite things in the whole world is baking homemade bread. It is heavenly. And the smell leaves my house smelling simply amazing. It's one of the few things in this life that I am actually really good at. But it wasn't always that way.

I remember shortly after Mr. Right and I married deciding to try my hand at yeast bread. I knew nothing on the subject. Seriously. Growing up in the south, I could make a great pan of cornbread or homemade biscuits, but this was altogether different. I cannot even tell you how many loaves came out of the oven overcooked or under-cooked and doughy in the middle, or just went straight in the trash before ever even making it to the oven! But that smell..... It just kept calling to me! And I kept coming back over and over and over again to give it another try.

And then one day, it finally happened! All the recipes and instructions I had read finally made sense (mainly because I "accidentally" got it right, so I could actually see what they were talking about), and the perfect loaf of bread emerged from my oven! It was a happy day!

It took me several YEARS to actually get this bread making thing right. And even still, sometimes I still don't hit the mark with perfection. But most days, I can turn out a pretty amazing batch of homemade bread. I finally found a recipe in a cookbook that I actually LOVE, so it's the one I stick with now. I know it's good.

Several friends have asked for my bread recipe, so today I wanted to share it with all of you lovely readers. It's not a secret recipe. It came out of an Amish cookbook I bought on a trip with Mr. Right to Eureka Springs, AR several years ago. I love sharing it! Really though, most people just don't want to spend the 4+ hours it takes to make it. But if you want to try your hand at it, I encourage you to go for it! I promise, you will be glad you did!




First, you start with a great bowl! My mom bought me this lovely piece from a local antique shop a few years back. She knows I love antique dishes. It takes me back to a slower time. And really, they just had great patterns on their dishes back then!!

In a separate bowl or Pyrex measurer, you'll need 1C lukewarm water, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, and 2 Tbsp yeast. 

Tip #1: Lukewarm water means warm bathwater temperature. Nice and warm, but not hot at all. Better to be too cool than too hot, because you will kill your yeast. You'll know it's dead if it doesn't start getting bubbly within a few minutes. 

Tip #2: I am currently using Platinum brand yeast, but only because it is what was on sale at my grocery store. Any good active-dry yeast will work great. Each packet contains 1 Tbsp, so you'll need 2 packets for this recipe. (I made half a recipe, so the pictures will reflect this.)

The warm water wakes up your yeast, and the brown sugar feeds it. It causes the yeast to then give off gasses which make it bubbly. This is what makes your bread rise and causes it to be nice and fluffy. So give your yeast/sugar mix at least 5 min to start getting nice and foamy. It should look like this.

While you're waiting on the yeast to rise, grab your lovely bowl again and start mixing up your dough. You'll need 1C sugar, 1Tbsp salt, and 1/2C oil. Give it a good stir with a whisk. Then add a quart of lukewarm water and stir it all together well. Add in 4 cups of plain flour (NOT self-rising!) and mix well. 

At this point, your yeast should be ready. Pour it into your lovely bowl and mix it in with the flour mixture. 

Add 3 more cups of plain flour to this bubbly mixture. 

You should be noticing that the dough is super sticky and you can't really mix it anymore with that whisk. Ditch the whisk and start using your hands. This is the fun part, people, so get your hands in there and get mixing! 

Keep adding flour, about 1C at a time, and mixing well. There really is no specific amount of flour to use. It depends on several things, like the weather. Seriously. So don't freak out over that fact. Just keep mixing in flour until your dough isn't sticky anymore, your fingers are relatively clean, and the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl easily. You are going for a dough that isn't sticky and is resembling of a rubber band. Trust me, you'll know it when you get there! 

And no worries if you don't add enough flour. Your bread will just have a few more holes in it. Or if you add too much flour, it will be a little more dense. But it will still be edible! Just make notes for the next time you bake bread and adjust accordingly. 

Once you get all your flour mixed in, you'll need to give your bowl a good oiling. Super simple! Just lift your dough with one hand, and pour in some vegetable oil using the other. A couple of tablespoons is enough. Lay your dough back into the bowl and give it a good turn. Keep turning it over until it's coated with oil all over. This keeps it from sticking to the bowl or the covering you put on it while it's rising. 

Put a wet towel or some plastic wrap over the top, and set this baby aside to rise in a nice, warm place. I usually move mine to my laundry room, since it's usually quite a bit warmer in there than the rest of my house. But really, just leaving it on your counter will do fine. 

Let it rise for a few hours until it is doubled in size. It should be trying to grow out of the top of the bowl. At this point, give it a good punching down several times. Set it aside again for a second rise. 

When it has doubled in size for the second time, take off the covering and punch it down one last time. Using a sharp knife (or your hands to pull the dough apart), cut it in 5-6 equal pieces. (This recipe makes 5-6 loaves of bread!) Put the dough in loaf pans that have been sprayed with Pam. Cover them and let them rise until they are peeking over the tops of the pans. 

Side note: If you don't have 5-6 loaf pans (I don't!), you can also bake in batches or use a 9X13 pan to make rolls! 

When your dough has risen to the tops of the pans, start heating your oven to 350 degrees. After it's preheated, bake the loaves for 30-35min. 

Something to remember - the tops will be brown before it's actually finished cooking. I like to bake at least one loaf in a glass pan, because I can see the bottom. When the bottom is nice and brown, THEN it is ready! If you take it out too soon, the middle will be doughy. Trust me, you don't want this! Here is what your finished product should look like!

As soon as I take my bread out of the oven, I slather it with melted butter. REAL butter! And lots of it! The warm bread just sucks it right up, and it is just fantastic! You will definitely want to cut a slice immediately to eat. Be prepared to share with the others in your household, though, because the smell while this is baking will be calling to them! 

This recipe makes 5-6 loaves of bread. Sometimes I make the whole recipe, and sometimes I cut it in half. Most of the time, I give at least one loaf away. This beautiful loaf pictured above was a gift to a sweet friend at church. I have used this bread as thank-you gifts for any number of things. Or "just-because" gifts, because really, it's fun to just give a gift for no reason at all! 

This is one of my favorite slow foods ever! I hope you'll give it a try, and then come back and let me know how it turned out! And if you have any questions or problems with your bread making endeavors, I'd be happy to help you out. Bread making really is an art, and I absolutely LOVE seeing people try their hand at it! 

Slow Food: Cold Brew Coffee

Slow foods are becoming a bit of an obsession to me these days. I just love taking my time making a meal (or putting it in my crockpot and letting it do the long work for me), thinking about my family who will eat this slow food, and imagining the great conversations and memories we will make while eating said food. It makes me happy.

A few days ago, my world was forever changed. In the most amazing way ever!! I discovered another slow food, which actually isn't "food" at all. I stumbled upon cold-brew coffee. OH MY WORD! Why didn't someone tell me about this many years earlier! I am a serious coffee lover, and this slow way of making it has just increased that love exponentially! 

It all started last weekend when we decided to go camping. In July. Crazy hot!! I MUST have my coffee in the morning, but with the ridiculous heat in the Deep South these days, I just couldn't imagine myself brewing a cup of hot coffee and sitting outside in the heat to drink it. So I purchased a $5 bottle of cold coffee to bring along. By the time we got back home from the state park, the jug of coffee was gone and I was left thinking about having a nice cup of hot coffee the next morning in my kitchen. Still hot. Still a no-go! I needed more cold coffee!! Like, for the rest of the summer!

My original plan was to make several pots of coffee, let them cool down, and stick them in the fridge to pour over ice the next morning. But after doing some checking around, I learned the fine art of cold-brew coffee! It takes a full 24 hours to make, so don't think you're going to whip this out before heading out to work. Plan ahead. Believe me, it's totally worth it! Especially since it didn't heat up my kitchen to make it! The taste is smooth and less acidic, and it's just plain awesome. Here is the step-by-step so you can make your own slow coffee. You are welcome. 

First things first. Start off with a great coffee! Don't skimp on this one, or you're not going to be as happy with the results. With this much time and waiting, you really want it to be amazing with the first sip! Seattle's Best (#4, organic, and fair-trade) has become my favorite coffee as of late. It's a really fine ground, so you get more of the good flavor out of it than, say, a course ground coffee. If you've never tried this stuff, head to your nearest WalMart and pick up a bag for about $5.50. 

Dump all 12oz (the WHOLE bag!), into a large container where you plan to brew it. Seriously, the biggest container I have is my crockpot. So that's what we're going with. It doesn't really require anything special, so just use what you've got. Look at all that loveliness..,,.,

Add to the grounds COLD water (or room temperature). The ratio is 1 cup of water for 2oz of coffee. So if you want to make more (why not!) or less (seriously, why would you do that?), just adjust the amounts. For my 12oz bag, I added 6 cups of room temperature filtered water. Give it a stir to make sure all the grounds are nice and covered with water. At this point, it just looks amazing. And it has a slight chocolate smell, which is really just a bonus! 

Put the lid on your container and sit it in a place where you can leave it for about 24 hours. I did, in passing, give it a stir a few times in that 24 hours, just to make sure it was brewing nicely and to smell it!  

After 24 hours, strain off the coffee. I did this with a strainer lined with a thin flour sack towel. You can get this at WalMart for $1, and it is perfect for letting the good stuff through and getting out the grounds. Pour it all into a large tea pitcher or other storage container, and pop it in the fridge. After you pour a tall glass for yourself, of course! 

To make it sweet, add sweetened condensed milk to your taste. It's already liquid, so it mixes in with the cold coffee much easier than sugar. Add a splash of milk (as much as you'd like), a couple of ice cubes (or you can leave them out), and a straw. Grab a good book, find a quiet place to relax for a few minutes, and go enjoy your cold brew coffee! It is so worth the wait! 

Self-Love (or Being Kind to Yourself)

Self-love. It sounds so absolutely contrary to everything I have ever thought or felt as a mom. Or as a person, for that matter. It sounds so... selfish. I mean, we're taught to be humble and think of others first, right? Never expect anything in return, but just give 'til it hurts. Give to our families, our friends, our churches, our organizations, our jobs - to everybody.

But lately, as I have begun to slow my pace of life more and more, I am beginning to rethink what that means. Really, self-love is nothing more than being kind to YOU! Doing things that rejuvenate you and make you happy, so you can turn around and give it back to those around you!

Self-love means I can:

1. Send my kids to do something else while I spend 30 min reading my Bible every day - and not feel guilty about it!

2. Send my kids away for 30 minutes while I close my door and exercise every day - and not feel guilty about it!

3. Take a break from everything when I am sick and just be ok with laying on the couch until I feel better.

4. Not push myself beyond what I can physically do just because someone else thinks I should.

5. Not compare myself to others around me. Because God has given each of us different strengths and weaknesses, and when I compare, I'm really just setting myself up for unnecessary disappointment.

6. Spend time doing something I love several times a week, like gardening, painting/crafting, blogging, or reading a book.

7. Check out books on my library card that are meant for ME, instead of just children's books for my kids - and then read them!

8. Spend money on myself for things that I need, like shoes or clothes, instead of always pushing that to the back-burner in order to buy things for my kids. (Hey, kids are expensive!)

9. Take a nap when I need one!

10. Offer myself grace when I screw up. (If we can offer it to people around us, why can't we give that same grace to ourselves?)

Self-love isn't selfish at all. It's an act of kindness to yourself. And believe me, sister (or brother, if you're a guy reading this), if you don't offer yourself some love, you will eventually be so tapped out that you won't have anything left to give. It's not about being wrapped up in your own world and never thinking of others, but a way to refuel and regroup so you can get back out there and pour that love back out to the world around you.

What does self-love look like to you? Think about what makes you happy, and go make some time to do that today!

Slow Foods - Burgundy Beef Stew

Cooking does not actually excite me. I generally prefer to cook sweets or desserts rather than a meal. Mainly, I guess, due to the fact that everyone is hungry and I don't have it ready yet and I feel rushed to get it all on the table. And by the time I do, I've usually rushed so much that I am a little irritated, and I all but dare anybody to say anything negative about the meal. (There is always one brave soul at my table that feels it's ok to voice their dislike of what is in front of them.)

But since I have begun to slow down my pace of life, I am finding a new joy in slow foods. Foods that are prepared slowly and take a really long time to cook. It makes you more intentional about the whole process. For starters, if you want to make slow food, you absolutely MUST plan ahead and start your supper meal in the morning. Because it can't be thrown together at the last minute. And then there is the fact that, once it's cooking, you smell it all day and anticipate the slow time around the table with family or friends just enjoying it all. No rushing allowed. Yes, it takes a little prep work, but it is so very worth it! 

Yesterday was Sunday. Normally, we'd be at church. But after the busy week of kids camp we all had, we just needed to slow down and enjoy a quiet day at home. It was a perfect day for slow cooking. So follow along and imagine the amazing smells coming from my kitchen and let your mouth salivate!

I picked up this cookbook on the sale rack at our local bookstore for $5. SCORE! It has some really great recipes in it that I've already tried (mainly the dessert section), but there was one I was saving for a special day. It's called Burgundy Beef Stew. And yesterday was that day! My smiley girl wanted to help, so yay for that! I love that she wants to cook! (Trying to work myself out of a job here!)

First, you start with a big, black, cast iron dutch oven. If you don't have one, no worries! Any large cooking pot with a lid will work fine. But if you do have one of these babies, the smell and taste are even better, more rustic. 

Start with some BACON! We fried up 5 slices that my lovely assistant cut into small pieces. But if you want to add more, go for it! Bacon makes everything better! Fry it up nice and crisp, and then take it out of your pan and move it to a bowl for later use. Leave the bacon fat in the skillet. 

After you take out the bacon, add 2 Tablespoons of butter to the bacon fat and let it melt and sizzle and smell amazing. 

I washed and took the stems off of a whole package of portobello mushrooms. These are so much meatier and more flavorful than regular button mushrooms. 

The recipe called for pearl onions, but I don't really love those and didn't have any on hand anyways. So I chopped up a yellow onion in chunks to replace those. Also, we peeled and chopped 2 carrots. 

Throw the 'shrooms in the pot of fat and butter, and cook them for about 3 min. Then toss in the carrots and onions and cook for another 7 min. 

 After the veggies have cooked, take them out and add them to the bowl of bacon for later. Throw another 2 Tablespoons of butter in the skillet and let it melt and sizzle. 

At this point, my sweet girl learned how to cut about 4lbs of beef (roast, actually) into cubes. I was busy trying to make sure she didn't cut her finger off with the gigantic knife I gave her, and thus forgot to take a picture. My bad. Just know, it was a fabulous mound of beef chunks, a carnivores dream come true!

We wanted to sear the meat before really getting it going. So I dumped all the chunks in the hot butter and fat, and we "fried" the meat quickly. Searing it first gives each bite a nice brown crunchiness that you don't get from just simmering it. It only took about 5 extra minutes (because you want to brown it quickly on high!), and it was absolutely worth the extra time!

After searing, sweet girl added 2 Tablespoons of flour and stirred it in. This makes a delicious gravy-like liquid all over your meat. 

We poured in a whole bottle of dry red wine (we used pinot noir), and it turned the pot of liquid a beautiful purply color. BEST*SMELL*EVER! 

Toss in some fresh chopped garlic (or some from a jar if you don't have fresh) and some beef broth. 

Cover that baby up and let it simmer for an hour. You can stir it occasionally if you want, but it doesn't really need it. Personally, I just wanted to look at it and smell it, so I stirred it several times while it was cooking. 

After an hour, add in the bowl of bacon and veggies we took out earlier. Give it a stir, and cover it back up to cook for another hour. 

While this amazingness was cooking on my stove, sweet girl and I peeled and cooked several potatoes. And then I showed her how to make homemade mashed potatoes. They were heavenly and well worth the time. 

When everything was finished, it was time to plate it. We piled a big spoonful of potatoes in the center and loaded it up with the beef stew. This is the finished product. Yes, it was perfectly amazing! All of my family loved it! And yay for me, there is enough left over for supper tonight! Cannot wait for that!

So often, we are in such a rush with our daily lives that we don't have time to make great meals for our families. We just grab whatever is in the cabinet and throw something together. But I encourage you to slow down, build in some time, and give this recipe a try! Make it with your kids, cook it with your spouse, or just spend some quiet time in the kitchen enjoying cooking by yourself. I promise you, it will be time well spent! 

Burgundy Beef Stew

5 slices bacon, chopped
4 Tbsp unsalted butter, divided
16oz Portobello mushrooms
1 yellow onion, chunked
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3-4lbs beef, cut into cubes
2 Tbsp flour
3C dry red wine
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1C beef broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Mashed potatoes, for serving

Heat a large cast-iron dutch oven over med-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until crisp. Remove bacon pieces and set aside for later. 

Add 2 Tbsp butter to the bacon fat. Once melted, add the mushrooms and cook for 3 min. Season with salt and pepper. Add the onion and carrot and cook about 7 min more, until veggies are tender. Remove veggies from pot, and add them to the bacon pieces for later use. 

Add 2 Tbsp butter to pot and let melt. Add the beef, tossing and cooking until brown and crisp on all sides. Sprinkle the beef with 2 Tbsp of flour and cook for 3 min. Add the red wine, garlic, and beef broth. 

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 1 hour. Add bacon and veggies back to the pot, cover, and cook an additional 30 min to 1 hour. 

Serve hot over mashed potatoes. 

Reflections

This is the story of my journey to a slower pace of life. Deep within, I long for this "slowing down of time", but it always seems just out of reach. But, is it really?

Most of my adulthood has been spent in the middle of "the crazy". Running around frantically racing a clock. Making every attempt to squeeze in anything and everything that I (or someone else) deemed "necessary". And though something in my heart yearned for slower days, I believed I was doing the right things for my family, myself, and God.

Our homeschooling days were spent trying to keep up with every field trip and activity offered, so as to be sure my kids weren't "those unsocialized homeschoolers". Church began to take over every spare moment when I stepped into ministry. (I never did learn how to balance family time with ministry...) Holidays with family were spent running from one house to the next, never taking time to enjoy the moment. Vacations were packed with as many things as you could do in a day, because, of course, you have to get your monies worth and you might not ever go back to that place. Life was just plain hectic. And really, if I was honest with myself, all those things I was killing myself to do weren't even all that fun.

So for the last few years, I have taken some hard looks at what I was doing and why I was doing it. What I found was shocking! I really CAN slow down! I really CAN enjoy each moment of my life! And I really don't have to put unrealistic expectations on myself or listen to the things others put on me.

I have learned that, for everything I say yes to, I have to say no to something else. Now, when some new opportunity is presented to me, I seriously evaluate it's overall worth. And it is amazing how many things just don't rate worthy of my time.

We each have only a certain amount of time on this earth. And that time is very short. I refuse to waste it on things that don't matter. Things that zap my time. Things that leave me stressed and rushed. And I will be purposeful in searching out those things that help me slow down and savor each moment I have here. Moments with my husband, with my kids, with those people in my life that add value and meaning. And laughter! I choose to seek out laughter and things that bring me happiness and joy!

Join me on my journey as I find ways every day to slow the clock and go at a slower pace, and stop living in "the crazy".