Category: Recipes

Bread

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Story at the bottom.

Ingredients:

  • 2 T yeast
  • 6.5 C warm water (less than original recipe) Do not use tap water, get purified or bottled water. Tap water kills yeast.
  • 1/4 C sugar
  • 1 T salt
  • 3 T lard
  • 9-10 C flour
  • Butter or Margarine
  • Spray oil

Method:

Dissolve yeast in all the water. Stir in sugar, salt, lard and 5 cups of the flour. I throw it in my large mixer. Add in enough flour while it is mixing to make a smooth dough. Run for 5-10 minutes.

Remove dough in the bowl from the mixer and spray down dough. Turn the dough in the bowl, and spray the bottom of the dough as well. Cover with a damp towel or saran wrap and put the whole contraption in a cold oven with the light on.

About an hour later… Spray 2 loaf pans with oil, pull dough from the bowl and punch down. Cut in half and roll out on floured or oiled board. Roll up into loaves and put in bread pans with the seam side down. Slash the tops of the loaves with your sharpest knife and cover with your towel again.

Another hour later, remove loaves from the oven gently. Pre-heat oven to 425* for the baking process. Once the oven is piping hot, remove the towel, and put the loaves in the oven again. 35 very long minutes later remove loaves from the oven, brush down with butter.

Now for the hardest part. Let that stuff sit. Give it minimum 20 minutes. Preferably another hour. It’s going to be ruthlessly hard. But you will be rewarded.

Variations:

You can add in cinnamon and brown sugar when you are rolling the dough into loaves. You can also add walnuts at the same time as a crumbly mixture.

Another addition you can try… Garlic in the same manner as above with parmesan cheese. Just be careful, you don’t want to overwhelm the flavor of the bread.

Other ideas and variations can be a marmalade mix spread over the rolled out dough. You can also mix herbs with the dry ingredients. Make this your own.

Original source: Betty Crocker’s 1968? Note, this has been altered from the original.

Now the story:

Dad claimed to be allergic to the preservatives in store bought bread. We noticed he felt better when I made homemade bread one day. Actually, the old fart conned me into doing it.

He liked it so much he bought me a kitchen aide mixer so I would bake for him often. Take care my friends. Hugs huge ones. -L

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Meatloaf

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“For this recipe you will need.”

  • Leftover bread you have allowed to dry out, or just toast it. Blitz in a food processor.
  • Green pepper. About 1/2 of a pepper chopped finely.
  • Onion. 1/2 large onion chopped to the same size as the pepper.
  • Mushrooms, 6-8 ounces, as above
  • Salt and pepper.. about a T or so of salt, 1/2 T of pepper.
  • 3 Cloves garlic- minced is good enough
  • 2-3 labs ground beef- about a medium lean grade. Don’t use the leanest, it gets too dry.
  • Other spices I now add…. I use hot sauce in the current recipe. I also toss in whichever savory spices that hit my fancy. Play with it. Mrs Dash blends and other blends are awesome in this.
  • Substitutions: I currently use a mix of ground turkey sausage and ground pork. Much cheaper than beef. There are no eggs in this recipe because Mama needs to pay property taxes in a few months.

How to do this:

Okie dokie. Mix the veggies + blitzed bread with the spices, toss it like a demented salad. Throw the ground meat in with everything, and mush it together like mixing playdough colors together. Don’t over mix, you don’t want it tougher than a defiant 15 year old kid.

Okay, I used to use a smaller roasting pan for this, but now prefer cast iron. I put the meat in the pan, and fry it a little on the bottom on the stove top before I whack it in the oven. I lid the thing, and put it in a 400* oven while it is pre-heating.

It is almost done when the internal temp is 165*. Cook uncovered, in the oven. But shut that heat off for it to settle down a little. Serve within an hour with mashed taters and gravy.

Notes:

I left the eggs out intentionally. I’m not going to mortgage the house for them. I also lefft off the ketchup from the top. It didn’t seem to need it. This is excellent served in sandwhiches the next couple of days with some horseradish sauce.

Mashed potatoes and gravy

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Ingredients: Mashed Taters

  • 5 or 6 microwaved spuds, you can peel them if you want. I certainly don’t.
  • 1 C plain yogurt
  • Ranch powder (the kind used to make ranch dressing at home. Hidden valley is the brand I used for this) 1 handful.
  • 1 T or so salt, pepper, and even other spices that make you happy.
  • Milk

Method:

Zap those spuds until soft and throw them in the work bowl of the mixer. You may have to cut them into quarters. I then add the yogurt, spices, ranch powder and enough milk to make them fluffy. Mix till smooth. May need to add a little more milk. That’s why I don’t put a measurement in there.

Serve with gravy as below. Note: If you don’t skin the spuds, the peels will wrap around the beater. I just stir those back in.

Gravy Ingredients:

  • Minced onion
  • Flour
  • Butter
  • Milk
  • Salt & Pepper

The method to this madness:

I start by mushing the flour and butter in cereal bowl. I keep it wrapped and in the fridge or freezer. It works great as a thickener, it’s some french thingy I learned from Glen and Friends cooking, but I can’t remember the name of it.

I sweat the onion with salt & pepper, and sometimes like them a little brown. This is done over a very low and slow heat in good cast iron. When ready, add the milk and then the butter/flour mixture once the milk and onions are simmering.

How much to add? It depends on how much you are making. The butter/flour premix is so forgiving, and doesn’t lump! Cook and stir in the usual manner until nice, thick and pretty.

Substitutions:

Mashed taters: Cream cheese instead of yogurt. Hint, it’s evil and noms.

Gravy: Broth, or water and a boullion cube thing. Can also use mushrooms instead of onions. It just depends on what you are serving it with.

I like this on its own, or served with the meatloaf. Hugs!

Mushroom Burgers and Baked Taters

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Ingredients:

  • Butter
  • Medium or Large Potato
  • Horseradish Sauce
  • Salt
  • Mushrooms- Sliced fresh
  • Onions, sliced finely
  • Lean ground beef
  • Pepper
  • Garlic Salt
  • Hot Sauce to taste
  • Swiss Cheese

Method

Steam potato in microwave until soft. While the potato is cooking, sweat the onions in a griddle or cast iron pan. Sprinkle seasonings to taste on the onions while they are cooking.

Make a meat patty with the ground beef, add seasonings to the meat as your form it. Move the onion to the cool side of the griddle, and fry the burger + the mushrooms. Cover with a good lid.

When you flip the burger, cover it with the mushrooms, cheese and onions and replace the lid.

When the spud is ready, slice it down the middle, add butter and hot sauce. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and parika.

Slice the bread, heat for 15 seconds in the microwave. Smear a little horseradish sauce on the bread, top with the burger and some extra cheese. If adding mustard, or other condiments go for it.

Enjoy. Can be served along side a very hot bowl of soup or stew on the coldest nights.

The story:

I’d serve these on cold winter nights after a hard day shoveling snow or chopping wood. Dad loved these and was really appreciative.

Thank You for your time. -L