Pita bread results

Continuation of the pita pockets from this great recipe site ...

They turned out super! Soft and substantial, big enough to make a real sandwich and hearty enough (hardy?) to not fall apart when you stuff them. I do have to tell you I thought of the people in Colorado's "balloon" stunt when I saw them baking in the oven though. LOL! Maybe they should be called space ship pitas?

This is a keeper recipe and did take more steps than the first one I tried that the dogs enjoyed. Now I know, right? You do 2 risings just like making loaf yeast breads.

They bake on metal cooling racks which I use for cookies and such.

You grab them out of the oven (they only bake for 5 minutes!) and throw into a damp cloth until cool. This keeps them soft. Then I put them in a recycled bread sack and store them in the fridge. I'm having one for lunch today and it's delicious. Wayyyy better than store-bought.

They flatten out after you bag them up, by the way.

So, got a question for you. Have any of you read The Sheepfarmer's Daughter by E. Moon? I heard it's good but I'd like a recommendation before I start hunting it down.

Think I'll tell you more about the Flickr picture editor next time. I need to get to the rest of this day. Trying to stick to more of a schedule for myself. I love working at home but it's easy for the day to be dawdled away on "diversions"....you know how it goes.

Happy trails until next time.

Time marches on....

Howdy friends. Time does heal us up pretty well, ya know. I am feeling good and getting my mojo back. We got through the holidays and now it's time to forge on. Don't get me wrong, it's important to take some time to mourn our losses but I'm not much of a pitty-party kind of girl so it's time to continue on the trail I'm blazing. Time marches on and we need to spend it wisely.

So, along with probably half of the world I am "turning over a new leaf" for 2010. Not only did I turn 50 on the 1st...yikes! That along with the loss of my mom made me feel that a double-take of my life was necessary. So, I have been reading lots, evaluating priorities and sticking to new schedules I've created and getting organized and....yes....I'm on a diet. Several reasons, health, feeling good, getting my fat behind on my new horse, Molly, in the spring, and now...cancer. All studies reveal obesity is a contributor to the cancer equation and with my family history, it's more of a reality for me than a "someday" type of thing. Ouch. So, time to get a few pounds off and keep them off.

Goodness but dieting is a chore...I know, you're not supposed to call it a diet. It's a WAY OF LIFE from now on. Just drag me behind on a car on a gravel road, why don't you? Ha ha. It's that much fun.

Both DH and I are following the eating plan in The Belly Fat Cure. It's basically the same thing as other low carbohydrate diets you've seen out there. No sugar and not too many carbs although this has enough to keep me satisfied. There are some great simple recipes in the book too. Right now I'm raising pita pocket bread in preparation for baking. The pizzas in the book using these for crusts are great. I am having a hard time finding them at any grocery store in town, the whole wheat, no sugar variety....so I found this recipe here and so far, so good. First recipe I tried yesterday....well, let's just say the dogs are STILL chewing on them! Ha.

So, they are rising now under this towel. I'll post how they bake up tomorrow along with some some fun I've been having playing with pictures on Flickr. You can edit your pics and frame them and put captions and text, etc. In this edit mode it uses another program. Again, manana.

Happy trails until then.

Baking on the Back Burner

Sorry no recipe postings for Day 4, 5, and 6....my mom did pass away on Saturday evening and it has taken the mojo right out of me. On Saturday DH and I spent the day with her and from all appearances and the Hospice nurse's comments, time was close and she was right. Four hours after we headed back home mom peacefully left that cancerous broken body behind and headed up to greener pastures. We shall meet again in heaven but for now I am trying to get my groove back and my sister-in-law said I could do what Stella did but DH probably wouldn't approve. I've not seen the movie but now I'm curious about it. Probably not an option.

I did make caramels on Friday, 2 batches in fact. The first batch I overcooked and it turned out between the consistency of very chewy caramels and hard candy...teeth breakers if you start biting them. I switched to a new recipe and tried second-guessing my candy thermometer and they did come out better but a teensy bit on the soft side. Kind of drove me nuts so I decided not to post either recipe. I had the fail-success scenario making them last year as well. Need a new candy thermometer it seems!

Last night I made another batch of peanut butter balls...the first one was GONE! They are just too good. I took some up to dad on Saturday and he raved over them so I made some more and maybe they will last until I see him in a few days to share some more.

Still haven't gotten a tree. Did a bit of online shopping in protest but I cannot get motivated to get sewing so I have no choice but to purchase a few things. As I said...I have no motivation other than to work, make peanut butter balls and do a bit of knitting on this crazy cool felted purse pattern that I'll show you when it's done.

And it's colder than a witch's......well you know! It's too cold for men nor beast. Crazy when 32 degrees is downright "balmy" and we're looking forward to those temps to return on the weekend according to the weather man.

So, I'm abandoning the Bake-A-Thon while I take an I-miss-my-mommy "breather." If you only try one of the recipes I have posted so far, please do the PB balls. I promise this is a keeper recipe if you have a family that loves PB and chocolate like I do. I'll try to get the tree up this weekend. And the beat goes on....and I'll be baaaaack and don't take any wooden nickels. : )

Baking our Way to Christmas - Day 3

Well, today friends is the most popular recipe of the Season in my house. It's PEANUT BUTTER BALL day. This is a no-bake day but you will need a double-boiler type of setup similar to this. I don't like a real double boiler but rather use a Pyrex glass bowl over a simmering small pot of water to melt the chocolate and a heat-proof spatula to keep it all tidy as possible.

But, I digress....here's the recipe. I will keep it short and sweet today as I need to get to town for a haircut and to pickup my work and make some money. Tomorrow we're making homemade caramels. They are scrumptious.

Peanut Butter Balls
1 c melted butter (do NOT substitute margarine please...these are decadent)
1-1/2 c graham cracker crumbs
1/2 c chopped nuts (I like walnuts)
1 c coconut flakes or shredded, any kind really
1 one-pound box of 10x /confectioner's sugar
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 12-ounce jar of crunchy peanut butter
Melt the following together - I would have an extra bag of chocolate chips on hand in case you're heavy-handed with the chocolate...hey, it happens!
1/2 stick of paraffin (optional)
1 12-ounce pkg of chocolate chips (again, real choc chips, semi sweet or sweeter)

I get out my food processor to crumb up the graham crackers. Then the nuts added to chop. Then I dump this into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Here is the consistency I get. Keep in mind the melted butter will setup in the recipe and you'll have a more solid "dough" once this happens.

Start melting the chocolate while you're mixing or shaping up the balls. I like 1 to 1-1/2 inch diameter balls. I shape them all and put them on a plate next to my melted chocolate and paraffin mixture. That might sound kind of weird but the paraffin makes the shine nice on them and gives them a nice smooth finish. Your choice on this....I figure if my arteries don't clog eating these babies, what's a little paraffin going to hurt? It's food grade paraffin. Lay out some wax paper to place the dipped PBB on to setup. It's a bit messy so get things setup ahead of time, not on the fly. They need to set for a while before you try to move them. Here is my total setup.

I like to use a fork to roll the balls around in the chocolate. I've tried egg dippers like one would use for Easter egg dyeing but the fork works the best. A spoon holds onto too much chocolate and you get lots of puddles at the base of the PBB's. Here they are all finished. They freeze great by the way. I will tell you right now that I'm going to have to make another batch....we dug into the freezer for some last night while watching TV...didn't hold out enough "rejects" I guess! Happy trails until next time.

Baking Our Way To Christmas - Day 1

Happy December, friends. I know I've been gone. Haven't felt like blogging but it's time to get busy and start thinking about gearing up to Christmas and share some joy with my cyber friends through some recipes and my in-person friends with the ensuing treats! With my mom's cancer at the very end stages, I have to really find motivation somehow to both blog and to gear up for Christmas.

I decided on 2 things. One is to start my Advent meditation book along with a Bible reading from the start of Advent which was last Sunday through Epiphany and gets me focused on why we make such a hullaballoo over this time of year, Jesus and his birth, right? It's a good focus of course AND.....you know, I love to bake, so it was a perfect fit when I was looking through a Country Living magazine and here was a link to a cookie recipe a day for the month of December, 25 recipes in all. They have some nice recipes although there is not nearly enough chocolate involved, so I am improvising and here on my blog I'm giving you 25 recipes for now until Christmas. I put the link for the Country Living recipes if you want to take a look but trust me....the recipes I will share are proven by the baker/goodiemaker in our family...ME! So live a little and give them a try. Maybe it's just what you need to help you get into the spirit too. I am SO NOT INTO SHOPPING except for ingredients! Remember...my first word as a baby was "cookie" so that says something, right?
But as a disclaimer, I'm not sticking to just cookies as I like to make caramels, peanut butter balls and some quick breads that are yummy too and festive to share. So, get some containers ready for the freezer as we are going to share these goodies with our friends throughout the Season.

First day recipe Vanilla Cookies

You will need a cookie press or at the very least a rolling pin and some cookie cutters for shapes.

16 Tbs. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2-1/2 cups flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In electric mixer bowl or with a hand-held mixer cream butter and sugar for a couple of minutes until very fluffy and light in color at medium speed. Scrape bowl as needed. Add the egg, vanilla, salt and beat some more. On low speed mix in flour a bit at a time until well blended.

Pack the dough into a cookie press with Christmas shaped disks and press onto an ungreased cookie sheet spacing cookies 1 inch apart. If rolling and cutting, you know what to do. Roll to about 3/8" thick and cut and put on the sheet, etc.

Bake until light golden around edges although I like my cookies slightly underbaked so they remain soft. The recipe says 10 minutes but I use convection bake on my oven and it takes about 8 minutes to get them firm enough to remove but still soft enough to enjoy. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack.

Of course, you can add in food coloring paste to make colored cookies or top before baking with colored sugars but I am putting my baked cooled cookies into the freezer to decorate with icing later. I thought we'd make an afternoon of decorating later in the month as we get closer to Christmas.

Tomorrow is another day, my friends. Get your pantry stocked for baking cause you never quite know what I'm going to throw out there! Sugary hugs to you!