Posted on

Randomness

My goal is one blog post a week, on Tuesdays. And this Tuesday morning I’m squeezing in a post before we head out the door for preschool, sewing class, and errands.

After making breakfast for the kids, I have about two minutes to write a blog post before it’s time to get them dressed and head out the door. I am really looking forward to summer when the only think on our schedule is a trip to the pool!

The other day a friend gave me a couple bags of Amish Friendship Bread Starter, so, yesterday we were baking – also yesterday my husband was home sick, and we had ballet lessons and grocery shopping. Anyways, back to the baking. So, Amish Friendship Bread makes great bread and muffins, but it does not make great pizza crust. I tried a pizza last night for dinner, and while the crust turned out great, it was too sweet. It would have been perfect for a dessert pizza, but with cheese and pepperoni on it, it was pretty bad. Well, I thought it was pretty bad. The kids loved it – I don’t know what wrong with them!

I did save myself another starter and in 10 days I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that I’m going to try. Since the dough is sweet, they should be pretty tasty!

Yeast is such an interesting thing. One person starts a bag, lets it sit for a while then shares part of it with someone else, who can then just add sugar, flour, and milk, and the yeast keeps producing. No need to add more yeast. It’s amazing how it keeps going and going and going.

Posted on

Kroger Skillet Meals

Thanks to Bzzagent I got to try Kroger skillet meals, Kroger frozen garlic bread, and Kroger salad kits for free.

I loved the garlic bread. Actually, everyone loved the garlic bread. I’ve bought several packages since trying it and it always gets eaten. Quick and easy to make. Goes great with pretty much any meal!

The salad kits are great too. You get a salad with dressing and toppings in just the time it takes you to pour everything in the salad bowl. No chopping and slicing.

Combine these with the skillet meals and you have a very fast dinner. (cooks up in under 10 minutes, which is nice because with 3 little kids I never have enough time to make supper). I tried the shrimp skillet meal and wasn’t impressed with it. It tasted great but there just wasn’t 4 servings in the bag. With the garlic bread and salad we almost had a complete meal, I think the skillet meal would have been enough if it was just me eating instead of me, husband, and kids.

I almost made it for guests but I decided to try it first, and I’m glad I did.

Now, the skillet meal tasted great and it was super easy to make, so I would have no problem serving it to guests (it had lots of nice vegetables in it too), just know that the serving size is small so you either need to get double what you think you need for your main course, serve it for lunch instead of dinner, or serve this as a side.

All in all, a tasty product, I’ll just have to buy two next time.

Posted on

Barley Bread

My 4yr old has been begging me for weeks to make her some barley bread. I think in Sunday School they heard the story of the feeding of the 5,000 and the little boy with the loaves had barley bread. My 4yr old definitely thought there must be something special about barley bread!

So, I found some barley in the cupboard the other day and decided to give barley bread a try. Luckily I have a wheat grinder so turning barley into barley flour was noisy but pretty easy.

Next, I had to find a recipe that only contained ingredients that I have on hand. Fortunately, that wasn’t too hard and this is what I tried:

Ingredients (Makes 1 Loaf)
  • 3 cups barley flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus extra for skillet
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk

    • Directions


    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 9 inch cast iron skillet with some vegetable oil and place in oven while preheating. (Why a cast iron skillet? It is the secret to a perfect crust.) If you don’t have a cast iron skillet then grease an 8 inch square pan and set-aside (not in oven).

    In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix thoroughly.

    In a separate, smaller bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium-low speed, mix together the sugar, 1/4 cup oil, eggs, and milk. Slowly add the egg-mixture to the flour mixture until everything is just moistened.

    Pour batter into the cast iron skillet or prepared pan and bake 30 – 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (internal temperature 190 degrees F. Cut into squares and serve warm.

    As you can see, it turned out light, fluffy, and crumbly, just like a cake. The barley was surprisingly mild tasting and my kids and I loved it!

    I’ll definitely be making this recipe again.