Angel's basic wheat bread

Here is my favorite bread recipe, developed after years of trial and error:

This is not a perfect bread recipe! I will post more pictures next time I make this. Here it is:

This version had chopped spinach

1 1/2 cups oatmeal
2 1/2 cups hot water
2 1/2 tsp instant yeast
3 T butter or coconut oil
2 tsp molasses (to taste)
1 cup warm milk
3/4 cup flaxseed meal
2 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour
White flour--add until your bread can be kneaded (about 4-6 cups)

Add hot water to oatmeal and butter and let soften in a large bowl. (I heat up the teakettle and pour it in the bowl.  But you have to let it cool until you can tolerate handling it.  Don't burn yourself)  

Separately, heat the milk to approx 110 degrees  (or whatever your pkg instructions say to activate the yeast. I heat the milk in the microwave for about 1 1/2 minutes.  It should be just a bit too hot to comfortably dip your finger in. Careful--if it's too hot, you will kill the yeast!)

Add the yeast and molasses to the warm milk (You're feeding the yeast with the molasses.  Yeast needs a sugar to "bloom.")

When the oatmeal is cool enough (around 110), add the milk mixture, flaxseed meal, salt, whole wheat flour, and 1/2 cup of white flour. Knead until smooth--about 5 minutes--adding white flour as you go. This dough is sticky and the white flour is necessary for handling.  It helps to coat your hands with it first.

Allow to raise to double.  Punch down.  (If you have time, let it rise in the bowl again.  Develops the gluten more and helps with final texture.)

Let dough rest on the counter for 5 minutes (this allows the gluten strands to relax).  Shape into a loaf and  place in greased loaf pan. Or, make it round and bake on a parchment-lined sheet.
 Allow shaped dough to rise to double.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Gently slit the top 2 or 3 times. (1/4 in deep.  Very gentle swipe across the top with a sharp knife, or you will deflate your raised bread.  Swipe, don't press down.)  This will allow steam to escape.
Bake approx 1 hr or until the sides of the loaf are browned and sound hollow when tapped.

After bread is cool, wrap airtight.  This bread has no preservatives, so it will only last a few days.


Let's experiment together!

Young Living

Recently I became a distributor for Young Living essential oils.  They go nicely with my lifestyle and philosophy.  I an hoping to use them to assist my family in dealing with allergies, GI disturbance, mood, ADD, and immunity.  I'm also going to use the Purification blend to try to get rid of some persistent odors in the home.

Two nights ago my 2 yr-old boy Vincent's head was so incredibly stuffed up.  He was mouth breathing and snoring, and his ear was red.  So, along with elevating his head and letting him breathe in steamy shower air, I rubbed "Breathe-again" blend under his nose, rubbed diluted Thieves (antimicrobial) blend on his outer ear, and R.C. (immunity) on the bottoms of his feet.  I also rubbed R.C. on the bottoms of everyone else's feet (except Dad who is a skeptic).  I diffused Thieves in the air--smells like cloves and cinnamon!  It's my new go-to.
An hour after these interventions he was sleeping restfully and breathing through his nose.

Will let you know how it goes.
Comment below or email me @ mastuempy@hotmail.com if you want to try any samples or order product!  We will experiment together--

www.youngliving.com

My first fleece--sheep to sweater

For some years I have had an mild obsession with wool.  In my subconscious is a pastoral picture of a hobby farm with a big old white farmhouse and wrap-around deck.  There are lovely tended flower beds, a productive weed-free vegetable garden, cats, an Airedale terrier, a chicken coop, and a small barn containing one or two . . . sheep. Sheep . . . are . . . stupid (Babe.  Do you hear the mice?)  I know this is a fairy dream so it will stay in my subconscious and the internet.  For now.  Small farms involve lots of manual labor, cleaning of poo, and minimal profit (Hence the word hobby). You have to be able to fix your own tractor.  You have to have basic veterinary skills.  It's not a picnic, in real life.  See the excellent blog www.sheepnotes.blogspot.com by Joan Ellison of Pelican Rapids, MN.

Right now I live in a 1950's rambler in a suburb.  I have four children ages 11, 10, 5, and 2 that ensure my garden is not weeded (NO picture provided).  I have a 3-legged beagle who is not very smart.  My flowerbeds are pretty, but "scruffy." The chickens may happen if I can talk the DH into it. I work 3/4 time as a nurse.  Ironically, I do clean up a lot of poo.

So, I buy my wool from other people.  My knitting friends introduced me to the Shepherd's Harvest Festival in Lake Elmo, MN about 6 years ago.  It is a fiber FEAST.  If you can make it next spring, you must.  Even if you aren't a crafter.  They have one whole building for demos of spinning, weaving, carding, blending, knitting etc.  Outside they have demos of sheepherding, sheep shearing, AND bunny races.  You can get lefse, a gyro, a buffalo burger, or a walking taco.  They also have two large buildings full of every type of fiber or gizmo that may go with it, including goat, sheep, rabbit, and buffalo fiber, spinning wheels, drop spindles, needles, yarn, handmade baskets, pottery, soap, honey, and all kinds of hand-knit or crocheted or felted objects.

As you may expect, I saw real hippies there!

So about 6 years ago when I was there, I got a drop spindle and some roving.  Roving is "a long and narrow bundle of fiber. Rovings are produced during the process of making spun yarn from wool fleece, raw cotton, or other fibres."  (Wikipedia.) 

I was able to make and process my first handspun yarn! I'll explain more about that later in this series. I also learned to call my drop spindle my "drop-and-swear spindle."  My guide was "Spin to Knit--The Knitter's Guide to Making Yarn" by Shannon Okey.

After many years of yearning, I was finally able to purchase my own spinning wheel.  It's a New Zealand made "Wendy" traditional wheel.

 I got it very used for $250, which is the cheapest price I have ever seen.  I am going to do a whole separate post about how we met . . . I floated away from Shepherd's Harvest on a cloud of endorphins. I also picked up a dirt cheap and dirty dirty stinky year old fleece for $10!!!

I had to wash it five times before it stopped stinking, and there is still vm (vegetable matter) in it.  A bit.  There will be a whole post or three about processing the wool, from fleece to finished product.

Left:  clean wool  Right:  Carded wool ready to spin

Finished yarn--2 ply Worsted, 10 wpi (wraps per inch)

 Some people no doubt wonder why in heaven I would want to deal with a stinky raw fleece, take the time to pick it and card it, and manually spin it.  Why?  There are sweaters at Target.

There is something valuable about using your hands to do a task.  It's about being connected with the world.  When I spin I am repeating an action done for thousands of years by thousands of women.  It makes me feel I am a part of humanity.  It's about remembering who I am in this world.  It's about preserving an ancient art.  It's a reminder that just because a machine can do it, that doesn't mean a machine should do it.  It's the same way I feel when I work in my garden, or knead bread dough, or stir a pot of homemade soup on the stove, or hold my sleeping child.  I think the word I am looking for is being human.

The more we have machines do for us, the fewer manual skills we have.  I love machines, don't doubt me.  Espresso machines especially. I'm not going radical purist either.  I've read Isaac Asimov and it's entertaining fiction, folks.   Still, wouldn't it be prudent of us to retain these skills somewhere besides a museum?  Part of this is a whole movement now, right, the "whole foods" movement?  Eat local foods, know your farmer, know where your food came from?  I guess I feel better knowing where my sweater came from too.

When I spin or dig in the dirt or knead dough, I am centered.  I am not distracted by tv, or internet (ironic for a blogger), or my smart phone.  I feel serene and I can hear my own thoughts and feel my spirit expanding. Verses I learned years ago flow into my head with surprising clarity. That's when I can hear God talking the best . . . Romans 12 says "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind . . . then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--His good, pleasing, and perfect will."  The renewing of your mind. Not the distracting of your mind.  Why are we always seeking to be distracted?  What are we afraid of?  If we quiet all those distracting noises, we might be able to hear our own inmost thoughts.  We might hear God's Spirit calling us.   A sweet sweet sound.

People say all the time that they feel lost and have no direction.  When I take the time to clear my mind, and bury myself in this kind of work, my mind is clear enough to hear and communicate with my God.  And, I can hear His direction through His word and His soft touch on my heart.  It's a kind of prayer. I come away feeling satisfied and nourished, body and soul. When I spin, I'm not looking for zen.  I'm looking for God.

Minneapolis Farmer's Market

I went to the Minneapolis farmer's market last weekend.  I overdid it a bit.

I came home with purple and Yukon Gold potatoes, beets, purple onions, leeks (!!) zucchini (because mine are a dud this year) dill, taragon, peas, cottage bacon, and pork sticks!  And fresh cut flowers.

I got the dill by accident.  I didn't look at it closely and thought I was buying tarragon.  I tried to verify what it was with the sweet little Hmong lady running the stall, but she spoke no English.  Plus I was distracted by my four children making all sorts of commotion.  So I bought it, and later thought, "I don't want to make pickles.  What do I do with this?"

I looked online for recipes.  It seems a lot of people cook beets with dill in a cream sauce.  But I remember seeing someone on the Food Network make them with basalmic vinegar.  So, I held up the dill next to the mouth of the basalmic vinegar bottle, and took a sniff.  Smells ok. (Galaxy Quest ***).

I sliced the beets, red and Yukon Gold potatoes, and purple onion into uniform-sized pieces.  I lined a sheet pan with foil and tossed 'em on there.  I coarsely chopped the dill and tossed it on along with kosher salt, coarsely ground pepper, and garlic powder (pure laziness).  Then I drizzled the lot with olive oil, basalmic vinegar, and Honey!  Lastly, I took a couple pieces of the cottage bacon and snugged 'em in among the veg. Then I put them in the oven at about 425 degrees to roast.

Went for a walk (because in MN, you store every drop on sunshine you can get to last through March) and when I came home the house smelled like grandma's house!  Unfortunately, the DH did not take the pan out as promptly as I had hoped, so the veg pieces were a bit more chewy than I had hoped.  Some a bit charred, in fact,  But it was MAD DELICIOUS!

I was determined to remember to cook all the stuff I bought before it turned to a slimy mess in my crisper.  So, today I took more of the delectable little potatoes, red and gold, added the coarsely chopped leeks (!!!!!) and coarsely chopped dill too, thin sliced some garlic, added kosher salt and coarsely ground pepper, and put it in the crock pot on high with about a cup of water.

RIGHT?

Then I will be taking a whole chicken, rubbing it with salt and pepper, and stuffing the cavity with lemon wedges and tarragon.  I will lay lemon slices and tarragon leaves on the outside of the chicken.  I will finish it with fresh Italian parsley.  We will also have fresh green beans from the garden, steamed.  My family will rise and call me blessed.
Pictures at 11.

Here is the "before" picture.  I will let you know how it goes.

Love these lttle coin purses!  They came together so easily.  What a great way to express yourself. Definitely have to get an etsy page.

My new obsession is needlefelting.  Made these boot-toppers with a needlefelted embellishment today and I am in love.  Thinking of putting them on Etsy.  I wonder who might be interested?