Oatmeal Bread

Adapted from Oatmeal Refrigerator Bread,

Bake Your Own Bread by Floss & Stan Dworkin

Step 1

1½ cups (120 g dry)	Whole grain rolled oats or steel cut oats (groats)
1½ cups	Boiling water

Mix the boiling water with the oats, you may want to allow extra time for the groats to absorb the water. Stir the oats and water to mix the oats and water.

Step 2

1/3 cup	Vegetable oil, corn oil or olive oil recommended
1/3 cup	Honey

In a one cup measure, Pyrex preferred, add oil first and then the honey. This will prevent the honey from sticking to the measuring cup. Add to mixture and stir well.

Step 3

2 TBS	Dry active yeast
1 TBS	Sea salt
1 cup	Yogurt or buttermilk

Measure the yogurt or buttermilk and add to mixture, then the sea salt and yeast. If the potency of yeast is questionable, add an extra tablespoon of the dry active yeast.

At this point, I would wait a bit to see if the yeast is working by generating a sponge, air bubbles rising to the surface showing the yeast are actively growing and multiplying. If the yeast is not active, you can add more yeast to the mixture and repeat this process of verifying that a sponge is developing. Be sure to add good active yeast the second time around. Once we know that the yeast is performing as desired we can move onto the next step.

Step 4

4 cups

Unbleached bread flour

Add 2 cups bread flour and mix until all the flour is absorbed into the dough. Then add 2 more cups of bread flour to the dough and mix into the dough. Use bread flour if possible, has higher levels of glutton for bread making.

Step 5

¼ cup	Raw wheat germ
2 TBS	Vital wheat glutton

Add the raw wheat germ and vital wheat glutton to the dough. Mix the additions into the dough.

Step 6

1 – 1½ cups

Unbleached bread flour

Dust kneading board with flour, dump dough out of bowl onto board. Work additional flour into dough until the dough stops sticking, a ½ cup of flour at a time, but no more than 1½ cups of flour. Then knead for 10 more minutes.

Step 7

Divide the dough into two equal sections. Shape the dough into loaf shapes and insert into greased 5” x 8” loaf pans. Set in warm place to rise and cover with towel.

When sufficiently risen, 1 – 2” above top edge of bread pan, place in cold oven, set oven temperature to 325 – 350 F, 163 – 177C. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes or more. Test for doneness with an instant thermometer. Temperature should read 190 – 200F, 88 – 93C.

Cool bread on wire rack.

Mexican Black Bean and Corn Chowder

Mexican Black Bean and Corn Chowder

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 2 – 3 cloves garlic chopped

• 1 teaspoon cumin

• ½ teaspoon dried oregano

• 1 cup frozen corn

• 1 cup vegetable or chicken broth

• 1 can (15 ounce) black beans drained

• 1 cup cooked rice

• 1 can (10 ounce) diced tomatoes with green chiles

• 1 can (4 ounce) diced green chiles mild

Heat oil in a 3 quart pan, add onion, garlic. Saute until onions are translucent, add cumin and oregano, saute for another minute or so. Add rest of ingredients and bring to a boil. Adjust seasoning if desired. Serve with lime slices, taco chips and/or monterey jack/cheddar cheese.

Chinese Spicy Chicken Soup

• 6 Cups Chicken or Vegetable Broth
• 1/2 Onion Chopped
• 2 Carrots Chopped
• 2 Stalks Celery Chopped
• 2 Leaves Chinese Cabbage Chopped
• 2 Stalks Bok Choy Chopped
• 1 1/2 Cups Noodles
• 1 Tsp Hot Chili Sauce
• 1 Tsp Light Soy Sauce
• 1 Tsp Sesame Oil
• 1/2 Inch Piece of Ginger Chopped
• 1/2 Tsp Turmeric
  

In a 2 quart or larger pot, heat the broth to boiling. Add all ingredients except noodles. Cook for several minutes, bringing broth to a boil. Add noodles, simmer for 5 minutes or till the noodles are cooked. Remove from heat and serve.

Pan Fried Chicken Breast Slices

Ok, what are chicken slices? Slice the chicken breast 1/8 to 3/16th inch thick or less than 0.4 centimeters thick, by carefully holding your hand on top of the skinless boneless chicken breast and carefully with a sharp carving knife slice across the chicken breast making as big a slice as possible as thin as possible without cutting your hand. I like to use an old fashioned steel knife, the kind that turn black. The stainless steel knives lose their edge too fast and have to be sharpened by a tool sharpener. The old steel knifes can be sharpened by a rail. At least this has been my experience with knives.

Once you have your slices cut, heat some olive oil in your cast iron frying pan. Cast iron holds the heat and gives a nice browned look to the chicken slices. Before the slices go in the pan I coat one side of the slices with lemon pepper, thyme, granulated onion and granulated garlic.

When the pan is heated for frying, a low temp is all that is required, place the chicken in the pan seasoned side down. While the chicken is cooking season the top side of the chicken so they will be ready to flip when the bottom sides are cooked. These cook quickly, so be ready to flip.

When they are done, move them to a serving plate draining any excess fat from the meat. These slices can now make a wonderful tasting sandwich or can be served as part of a full course meal.

Meterranean Pasta Salad

I wanted this salad to be high on fruits and vegetables and is actually meatless, although you could easily add pan fried chicken strips. The fruits and veggies can be changed as desired.

• 12 oz. box of Vegetable Trio Rotini, Rotini Tricolore
• 1 large cucumber, peeled, chopped into bite sized pieces
• 1 or 2 tomatoes chopped
• 6 to 8 eggs boiled, peeled and chopped
• 1/2 cup or more mayonnaise
  
• 1/2 cup sliced black olives
• 3 or 4 green onions chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon thyme
  
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• salt and pepper
  

Cook pasta according to package directions, strain and cool. When cooled add some mayonnaise to prevent the pasta sticking to each other. Add all the other ingredients, making sure they are well mixed in.

Best Ever Homemade Ketchup

• 12 oz can of tomato paste
• 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup tap water
• 4 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon powdered garlic
  
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

I have revised the recipe and at the same time doubled it. I think the new version is a bit less aromatic and more to what I think ketchup should taste like. I am not duplicating Heinz here, but going a step better with no high fructose corn syrup.

In a small bowl mix all the ingredients together except the tomato paste, after everything else is mixed, add the tomato paste and mix well. The 1/2 cup of water gives a very thick ketchup, I prefer to use 2/3 cup of water to make it more flowable. In fact you might want to go a bit higher to 3/4 cup of water.

I looked all over the net and found this recipe, it came from Hillbilly Housewife. I think it was a very good recipe, so I started with that as my base recipe and have altered it to more of my taste preference. The onion and garlic powder are now parts of my recipe, you may use either powdered or granulated. If you use the salt version of either onion or garlic, do not add the extra salt. I have reduced the salt a bit, so it is now low-salt.

I put it in one of those upside down ketchup jars using a funnel and a bamboo skewer to help it through the small hole in the bottle. I found I could have doubled the recipe, so decided to make another batch.

One important point I want to make, is that you are using real sugar instead of that high fructose corn syrup junk. One big healthful benefit. Your ketchup should be refrigerated as no anti-spoilage ingredient was added, except maybe the vinegar and the storage bottle was not sterile, although I rinsed mine with hot water, which was ok, but still not a sterile environment.

Cantaloupe & Strawberries

Not sure if this is a salad or appetizer or what. But this is really good for a snack or a party or just for desert.

First I take a melon, Honeydew can be used in addition to or as a replacement to the Cantaloupe melon. I prefer the Cantaloupe melon. I cut the melon in half and then each half into four pieces. I only use one half of the melon at a time, but if you did the whole melon you would have eight pieces. Then carefully cut the melon off the rind and then into small bite size pieces.

Next I cut strawberries lengthwise into 4 pieces for each strawberry. When you have a good amount cut up, I lightly toss the ingredients with some sugar. The sugar helps to draw out the juices and will sweeten any sour pieces. You are the judge on how much sugar to use. I do not recommend using artificial sugars here. Artificial sugar should only be used by those who must restrict there intake of sugar per appropriate medical instructions.

I would let the melon and strawberries rest for an hour or so, so that the flavors can mingle and your dish is ready to eat.

Fried Rice

Now that fall is here, we want to cook warm dishes for the cool fall days. Fried Rice can be cooked up ahead of time and just reheated later or eaten as a cooked dish.

First I organize everything I need to make this dish, the veggies, rice, ham, eggs and the condiments. And of course the rice. So now we can get started.

• 1/2 medium Onion peeled and coarsely chopped
• 1/4 or 1/3 Green Pepper, coarsely chopped
• 4 or 5 Mushrooms sliced
• 1/4 cup shredded Carrots
• 1 slice Ham chopped (optional)
• Dry Sherry
• Oyster Sauce
• Soy Sauce, low salt if possible
• 2 - 4 cups cooked Rice
• 1 - 2 eggs lightly scrambled
• Peanut Oil

Ok, lets get stated here, first cut, slice and dice whatever ingredients your going to use. Next we get out our wok, a real steel one and not an electric one or non-stick one, you know the kind that has been used for thousands of years in China. We are cooking a Chinese dish, so lets be traditional. You can now obtain a wok with a flat bottom so it will work on most any stove. I have 2 woks, one is 10 inches across and is a perfect size for fried rice. My other one is 14 inches across and is better suited for making the whole meal. Ok, so today we will use whatever you have handy, don't tell me you have broken tradition.

So we start by heating the wok on your gas stove. What!!! You have only electric, things are not what they should be, but electric will be acceptable. Tradition has gone out the window. We will continue heating our wok. Take a droplet of water and drop it in our wok, if the water beads up and sissles then we have the right temperature. Add a tablespoon or so of peanut oil. We use peanut oil, because it is tradition and it can stand the high heat. Tradition has been restored. Add the scrambled eggs and swirl them around so that they are shredded and use your bamboo utensils to shred the eggs, when cooked, remove the eggs from the wok and set to one side. Next add onion and ham, cook until the onions are translucent. Now is a good time to add a little sherry. If the wok is too hot, turn the flame down a bit. If you are using an electric stove or wok, your on your own here. When the onion and ham are done, you are ready to add the other ingredients. You may want to use other meats other than ham, but if the meat is raw, uncooked, then you have to be sure it is cooked before moving on. Other meat choices might be beef, chicken or pork.

When we are ready to move on, we add the peppers, carrots and mushrooms. When I chop the veggies I put them in a pan of their own, so when I reach this stage I grab the bowl I want and in everything goes. Add a little soy sauce and oyster sauce, being careful not to over salt with the soy sauce and maybe a touch more sherry. When alcohol is added in the cooking stage the alcohol burns off and the flavor stays, so after this point you would not add any more sherry. Either put away the bottle or pour yourself a glass of sherry.

When all the veggies look done to you add the rice and the eggs that were set aside. Rice is usually sticky so if the clumps of rice do not break up easily add a little soy sauce or water or chicken stock. You could make chicken stock from bullion cubes, but again another salty ingredient. You need enough liquid in the pan to get everything to mix together as you are stir frying the rice. So when you have everything mixed to your satisfaction, you are ready to sit down and enjoy your creation.

You may of noticed, some ingredients did not have amounts next to them, that is so you can be creative when you wok. It's fun to wok.