Make Your Own Instant Oatmeal

OK, I found an awesome idea on Endless Crafting, one of the many blogs I follow.  This fits so well with my whole homemade is best ideal that I just have to share it - Homemade Instant Oatmeal.  Natalie's recipe is simple and I can't believe it's never occurred to me to do this before.  This would certainly be less expensive than the prepackaged instant as well. 

I love oatmeal in the morning.  My kids and husband do not, but I keep hoping the kids will come around.  Mornings are generally pretty busy with getting ready for school etc. so instant oatmeal is very convenient.  Quaker's Maple & Brown Sugar is my preferred flavor and is what I currently have in the cupboard.  A quick look at the ingredients tells me that Quaker is the least offensive of the major brands for instant oatmeal. 

However, it still has artificial flavors and caramel color.  I generally like to avoid the artificial stuff when I can.  It also lists salt and guar gum.  I don't have anything against salt or guar gum per say; both are natural ingredients.  However, there is more of each of these per package than there is oat flour.  This just seems wrong.  I suspect that the guar gum is used as a thickening agent and it must cheaper than oat flour because they use more of it.  Call me odd, but I think I would rather be eating oats in my oat meal instead of crushed guar beans. 

As soon as I use up the stuff in my cabinet, I'll be giving Natalie's Homemade Instant Oatmeal a try.  I am not sure why the powdered milk is in there, except perhaps to make it a 'just add water item'.  Perhaps I can leave the powdered milk out and just use regular milk to make it instead.

Mama Hynek's Game Chili

It's that time of year again.  Hubby and FIL have been on their annual water fowl hunt and I now have fresh goose and duck in the freezer.  I did something a little different this year; I put part of these birds through the meat grinder and divided them into 1 pound packages.  So now I have 5 pounds of ground goose and 5 pounds of ground duck in the freezer in addition to 2 whole geese and 7 mostly whole mallards. 

In the past, I have always put the meat through the grinder on an as needed basis, which is a bit of a hassle if you have to let it thaw first.  It was not as convenient to use said water fowl meat as a substitute in recipes that call for ground beef.  Wait!  Before roll your eyes and make that 'yuck' face, let me assure you that it tastes just fine and the consistency/texture in the recipe is no different.  Goose and duck meat are a fatty dark meat with a nice robust flavor that works well in recipes like lasagna, spaghetti, and chili.  I even took some of the goose and made them into hamburger patties last week.  They tasted great to Hubby and I and the kids ate them without comment.   

I will make one comment with regard to ducks - their flavor varies greatly with species or perhaps the diets of said species.  Mud hens taste like mud and I don't recommend them.  Mallards, on the other hand, are quite yummy and I highly recommend them.

At the beginning of each hunting season, I rummage around in the deep freeze to locate those packages of frozen game meat that always seems to fall the the back bottom corner, hidden under the frozen veggies, where time and freezer burn would eventually make them inedible if I didn't do such periodic rummaging.  I managed to dig out the remaining 3 pounds of goose meat from last year which I wanted to use up before we added the newly harvested water fowl to the freezer. 

The best way to use up three pounds of meat that I know of is to make chili.  So I ground up what was left of last year's goose and got out my huge stock pot (not merely large but huge!).  I don't normally follow a recipe when I make chili but in the interest of refining my process, I wrote down what I did this time.  If you're interested, here it is. 

I warn you in advance this makes a lot of chili!  I always freeze the majority of it in 1 quart containers so I can pull them out as needed.  This batch made enough to feed a family of four for two suppers and freeze 7 quarts. 

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Mama Hynek's Game Chili

3 lbs ground goose, duck, or venison (or some combination thereof)
4 tbs olive oil
1 16-oz bag pinto beans
1 16-oz bag black beans
1 16-oz bag kidney beans
10 cups water
2 medium onions, chopped
4 6-oz cans tomato paste
4 4-oz cans diced green chilies
1/2 tbs garlic powder
1/2 tbs cumin
6 tbs chili powder
1 tbs Morton's Nature's Seasons Blend (this is a salt, pepper, etc. spice blend)
1 tbs oregano

Soak beans overnight in water with 3 tbs of baking soda dissolved in it.  Rinse well and repeat for two more nights. Pour out the soak water.  (Believe me you don't want to cook with it.  Just as FYI - most people soak their beans for one night but I have found that soaking for three nights with baking soda does a much better job of reducing gas issues.)

In huge stock pot, put olive oil in the bottom.  Add ground game meat and brown it completely.  Add onion.  Add soaked beans and water.  Cover and bring to a boil.  Add tomato paste, green chilies, and spices. Stir well, cover, and bring to a boil again.  Reduce heat and simmer for at least 4 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.  Serve over rice and garnish with cheddar cheese, if desired.

Fast & Easy Fry Bread Donuts

I picked up a Cool Daddy Fryer several weeks ago and have been experimenting with different recipes.  I know fried foods are among the root of dietary evils, especially for anyone trying to lose weight; but I have children now.  Mommies have to be able to make homemade french fries on occasion.  In addition, I have a extremely fond memories of my mom's homemade donuts and banana fritters and I would love for my boys to have similar memories. 

So upon being roused from bed at 6AM this fine Sunday morning by my energetic 3-year old, I decided to surf the Internet for a fast donut recipe, something that did not require 3 hours of rising time.  After a quick Google search, I found "Donut Recipe #2: Fast and Easy Donuts" on Squidoo.com.  I had not seen a donut batter recipe devoid of sugar before.  In fact, this is really more of a fry bread recipe (check out "Cookin' with Three Sisters" for some traditional fry bread recipes).   But as far as breakfast fare goes, I find the lack of sugar to be a big plus rather than a negative. 

This makes a little bit denser, more bread-like donut than what traditional donut recipes. I enjoyed them and, more importantly, my kids and hubby liked them. 

Of course, I have already tinkered with the recipe linked above because it is in my nature to do so and will most likely continue to make small adjustments which I will note here in the future.

Note:  I use canola oil in my deep fryer out of deference to our HDL/LDL ratios. 

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Fast & Easy Fry Bread Donuts

6 eggs

6 tbsp Oil

2 cup milk

2 tbsp ground flax seed meal

1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

8 tsp baking powder

7 cup flour

toppings - confectioner's sugar and/or cinnamon & sugar and/or honey

1) Using an electric mixer with a dough hook, combine the liquids and stir until well blended.  Add dry ingredients a little at a time mixing at low speed.  Stop the mixer and scrap the sides of the bowl to ensure good mixing.  Then mix at medium speed for 1 minute.

2) You may drop spoonfuls into hot oil and deep fry.

OR
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board.  Use just enough flour to prevent sticking.  Roll out 1/2 inch thick and cut into shapes.  The less you work the dough the better.

3) Deep fry (375F oil at least) until golden. Roll them in confectioner's sugar or cinnamon sugar mixture when cooked, if desired.  Also good drizzled with honey.

Home Canning - Corn!

'Tis the season in Iowa, sweet corn season that is. While I am not a huge fan of corn or corn products (e.g. corn syrup, corn sweetners, etc.), I do find the occasional ear of sweet corn satisifying. In July and August every year, we are inundated with sweet corn. The grocery stores start having 5 ears/$1 or better sales; road side stands go up all over the place; and, farmers sell the stuff from their homes via child-made signs at the main blacktop which point down gravel county roads. This is the time of year when my mother-in-law calls and says, "Cousin Jim's corn is ready. How many dozen you want?" Two weeks later she calls again saying, "The Tomash's corn is ready. How many dozen you want?" We've lived in Iowa for 7 years now and I have never met any member of the Tomash family but I can tell you that they have green thumbs for growing excellent sweet corn because it is perfection every year.

In the past, I have always been cautious with how many I buy at one time. My fridge gets pretty crowded and I just don't have the space for more than 1 dozen ears. I have always thought how nice it would be to have Cousin Jim's or the Tomash's corn in the winter as well. Last year I tried blanching and freezing some, which works fine but the process takes up a lot of freezer space, which is a premium commodity for us. So this year I decided to can it.

I received a pressure canner for Christmas last year but I had not had occassion to use it until now. I got 3 dozen ears from the Tomash's this year and canned it - 11 pints. I have never pressure canned before. Like my mom, I have only water bath canned; but you can't do that safely with low-acid foods, i.e., most vegetables. For low-acid foods, a pressure canner is necessary to get things hot enough to destroy the nasty microorganisms that would otherwise thrive. Mom always blanched and froze her garden veggies. I remember her saying she was too leery of botulism to try pressure canning; but then she never had a freezer that was packed full with hubby hunted meat, fowl, and fish, so processing and storage space in the freezer was never a big issue for her.

I elected to can the corn cream style. My theory behind this decision being that cream style preparation harvests more corn off each ear than simply cutting it, so you get more serving for the same number of ears. I am all for maximizing production. So following the directions in the Ball Blue Book of Preserving and using a Lee Corn Cutter Tool, I set to work. It took about 5 hours start to finish.

Here is the nutshell version of the process. First scrape/cut/milk the the corn off the cob using the corn cutter. Be careful of your hand placement as the scraper and shedders are hard on the fingers and knuckles. Capture everything in a large bowl. Be sure to hold your off-hand behind the cutter as a back stop to the juices that shoot out, so that they drip down into the capture bowl instead of coating the kitchen wall. Add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 1/4 cups boiling water for every pint of corn. Bring to boil for 3 minutes and then ladle into prepared/sanitized hot pint jars, leaving 1-inch head space. Cap and then process for 85 minutes at 10 pounds pressure in a pressure canner. Be sure to follow the manufacturer's directions for using your pressure canner.

Being a chemical engineer, I am very leery of heating a closed system, even one with a pressure gauge and and relief valve. So, I banned the kids out of the kitchen kept an eagle eye on the pressure gauge. Everythng worked out of course but you never know. Anyway, I am up for round two; some time this week, I'll be picking up another 4 dozen ears from a road side stand and try canning them as cut corn.

Fruit Salad

I thought that I had posted this recipe already but evidently I was wrong; so here it is.

I picked this recipe up in a snail mail recipe swap several years ago from a friend of a friend whose name I don't know. The recipe is simply titled "Fruit Salad from McGraw-Hill". Beyond this, I have no idea which McGraw-Hill book this might be from or who came up with the recipe. What I do know is that this recipe makes a huge salad. Even a half recipe is plenty to take to a potluck. I also know that this salad gets rave reviews at every potluck to which I have taken it and people constantly ask me for the recipe. So I thought I might post it here to save time and effort in sharing.

I would love to know from which cookbook this recipe originated. If anyone out there has such information, please let me know ASAP so I can edit this post to more thoroughly credit the author/editor/publisher.

Note this is the full recipe, as I received it. I always make a half recipe. I also do a lot of substituting. I have never made this salad the same way twice.

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Fruit Salad from McGraw-Hill

2 cans peach pie filling
4 to 5 bananas, sliced
3 large cans Mandarin oranges, drained
3 large cans chunk pineapple, drained
1 bunch seedless red grapes, halved
2 bags frozen strawberries, quartered
2 boxes sugar-free strawberry jello, not diluted

Cut frozen strawberries into bowl. Mix in peach pie filling. Wash, slice grapes, and add. Mix in drained oranges and pineapple. Sprinkle both boxes of jello over the fruit mixture and stir until uniform. Add sliced bananas right before serving.

Best if refrigerated over night.
Will last 1 week in the fridge.
May use cherry pie filling, or 1 can cherry pie filling and 1 can peach pie filling.

Blogger's note: I like using 1 can cherry pie filling and 1 can sliced peaches, drained when I make a half recipe.

Tuna Burgers

I am always looking for a way to get my hubby to eat fish without making that face he makes or mumbling things like, "now that I am 40 I don't get to eat good food any more, only things that are good for me." The man likes fishing but not eating fish-go figure. So as I quest to find a way to fix the beautiful, hubby-caught Northern Pike that perpetually graces our family freezer, I try to mix it up with the few fish recipes that I know he likes. These involve tuna and his favorite by far is Tuna Burger.

The tuna burger recipe I started with is not the recipe that I make today. The original recipe, "Tangy Tuna Burgers", is found on page 125 of Where's Dad Now That I Need Him? by B.R. Frandsen, K.J. Frandsen, and K.P. Frandsen. However, over the years, I have modified this recipe enough that the version I make is uniquely mine.

These are good on or off a hamburger bun, with catsup, and with mustard. We like them garnished like a hamburger with lettuce, tomato, pickle and cheese. I would not say that this is a healthy recipe due to the fat content per serving, but it is certainly tasty.

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Mama Hynek's Tuna Burgers

2 - 4.5 oz. cans of water packed tuna, drained
2 eggs
2 celery stalks, diced small
1/4 cup onion, minced
1/3 cup dill relish
2/3 cup mayonnaise
1 1/2 tubes of Ritz crackers, crushed into fine crumbs

Stir until mixture is uniform. Form into patties and fry in a lightly oiled skillet over medium heat until each side is brown. Serve and garnish as you would a hamburger. Makes six patties.

Great-Grandma Bryan's Pumpkin Bread

Mom had this recipe in her "green box" and I got a copy when I left home to go to college in 1990. The "green box" is the recipe box where Mom keeps what I have always referred to as her 'man-catcher' recipes. These are the recipes that Daddy has rated as an 8.5 or better on a 10 point scale (10 being so mind numbly tasty that it's practically addictive). I never knew the story behind it until my grandmother (paternal) asked where I had gotten her mother's Pumpkin Bread recipe.

Evidently, Mom became Great-Grandma Bryan's pen pal right around the time that Daddy popped the question. During the course of their correspondence, they swapped a bunch of recipes, including this Pumpkin Bread recipe. My grandmother had always thought that her mother kept this recipe as one of her 'trade secrets' and was irked that Great-Grandma had shared it with Mom, especially since Grandmother herself did not have a copy. Evidently Grandmother's disappointment was quite tangible, so Mom checked with Great-Grandma to make sure it was OK with her to share the recipe. Great-Grandma assured Mom that it was (evidently she did not have any 'secret' recipes). However, Grandmother was still irked about the whole thing, even years later, when she happened to be reminded of it.

Anyway, as it is one of my husband's favorites, I thought I would share. I realize that posting this recipe like this might have rankled Grandmother (God, rest her), but I don't have any 'secret' recipes either. I am hoping that my cousins (who read my blog on occasion) will take the opportunity to print a copy for themselves. Thus, it will have been 'handed down' to them as well.


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Great-Grandma Bryan's Pumpkin Bread


⅔ cup Shortening (I use Butter)
2 ⅔ cup Sugar
4 Eggs
16 oz Pumpkin Puree’ (1 can)
⅔ cup Water
3 ⅓ cup Flour
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 ½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Cinnamon, ground
1 tsp Cloves, ground
⅔ cup Nuts (I use Chopped Walnuts)
⅔ cup Raisins

Preheat oven to 350F. Mix ingredients. Grease two loaf pans and split the batter between them. Bake for 65-75 minutes, or until done.

Grandmother Nina's Meat 'n Potatos n' Carrots

In talking with my cousins, all of us now adults with kids of our own, I have discovered that we all have fond memories of our Grandmother Nina's Meat 'n Potatoes 'n Carrots recipe. She used to make this for us frequently, probably because we used to ask her to make it rather frequently. There is not much to the recipe. The secret to the flavor of this dish is in the seasoning. Any other seasoning blend does not have the flavor that my cousins and I remember so fondly.

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Grandmother Nina's Meat 'n Potatoes 'n Carrots

1 lb Ground beef
1 lb Baby carrots
4-5 Potatoes, cubed
1 Onion, coarsely chopped
1 tsp Morton Nature's Seasons Seasoning Blend (add more to taste if desired)

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef in enough olive oil to prevent sticking. Add remaining ingredients, cover, and cook over Medium-Low heat until potatoes are cooked. Stir frequently to prevent sticking. Should feed 6 easily.

Zucchini Cheese Casserole

I always have a dilemma of what to do with all of the zucchini I harvest from my garden every year. Usually I end up blanching, shredding, and freezing a good portion of it for bread making later in the year. My husband loves zucchini bread but, to be honest, I am getting a little tired of it. So, after perusing my mom's recipe box and reviewing some online recipe sites, I decided to experiment and came up with the recipe below.

There are quite literally hundreds of similar casserole recipes on the internet and I am not making any unique claims to this one. It went over very well with my family the first time I made it. Hopefully, it will go over well with yours.

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Zucchini Cheese Casserole

4 cups Zucchini, grated
1 lb Ground Meat (Venison, Beef, Turkey, Chicken, Buffalo, Duck, or Goose)
1 cup Cheddar Cheese, grated
1 tsp Sea Salt
1/2 tsp Black Pepper, ground
3 Eggs, beaten
1 Medium Onion, chopped
1 cup Cracker Crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesian Cheese, grated

Brown the meat in a skillet. Combine the zucchini, browned ground meat, onion, eggs, and cheddar cheese in a big bowl an mix well. Put in a well buttered casserole dish. Sprinkle Parmesian Cheese on top. Then sprinkle cracker crumbs on top. Bake for 1 hour at 350 F degrees. Serves 6.

Chocolate Bread

Hi, my name is Jenni and I am a chocoholic. Mentally, I can hear the rest of you saying "Hi, Jenni." I suspect a majority of Americans, perhaps humans world-wide, are also chocoholics whether they admit it or not. I have no intention of ever becoming a 'recovering' chocoholic why the heck would I ever want to recover from chocolaty goodness. Besides, there are plenty of studies out there indicating that chocolate has several beneficial health effects. Oh yeah, I am going to cling to that concept as long as possible.

So for all those chocoholics out there trying to feed their addiction on a daily basis, what could be more wonderful than Chocolate Bread. It makes wonderful toast and is divine for making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Your kid can be the envy of everyone in school when he breaks out his brown bag lunch.

I found this recipe in an issue of Cooking Light Magazine roughly 14 years ago. All I did at the time was tear the page out of the magazine so I have no idea which issue, only that it was on page 136 and that the article appears to have been written by Ann Taylor, a Cooking Light copy editor.

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Cooking Light's Chocolate Bread

1 cup Warm Water
1 Large Egg
1 tbs Butter, softened
1 tsp Salt
1/3 cup Sugar
1 tbs Flax Seed Meal (optional - I add this to all my bread recipes)
3 cups Bread Flour
1/4 cup Dutch Process Cocoa
4 ounces Bittersweet Chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tsp Bread Machine Yeast

Place ingredients in order listed into the bread machine baking pan. Bake using a Sweet Bread baking cycle.

Do not use with timer setting as the egg will not keep well at room temperature.

Homemade Meat Broth

Most people these days throw away the turkey carcass and ham bone remains of their Thanksgiving and Christmas meals. I put them in a ziplock bag and stick them in the freezer until I have a chance to turn them into broth. A good meat broth is the key to making any good soup or stew as well as a few other things. It's also a good way to save money by getting the last little bit of goody out of your bones and turkey/chicken/ham remnants. I also never buy bouillon.

This is a very easy process but it is a long process spanning two or three days during which time you will need stove space and refrigerator space. The longer you cook the bones and meat, the better the broth will be and the more nutrients will be released from the bones/marrow and into the broth. I am describe the process that I use below. If you do not wish to cook your stock as long as I do, please cook it for at least 6 hours.

You can keep your meat types segregated, if you wish, and make only chicken broth, or only ham broth, for example. There may be some cases where this is desired for specific taste or religious purposes. You certainly would not want to entertain a Jewish or a Muslim friend with homemade soup that included broth made from ham bones. However, most of the time, I toss all my saved bones and carcasses into a single pot and the flavor tastes just fine for me and my family.

This process works for wild game remnants as well. We eat a lot of venison, goose, pheasant, and duck. These all cook down into broth very nicely.

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The Midwest Texan's Homemade Meat Broth

1. Place left over carcass(es) into a large stock pot. You may need to break large carcass(es) into smaller pieces for a good fit. The number/amount of carcasses depends on the size of stock pot and the amount of space in your freezer for broth storage.

2. Add enough water to cover all of the bones/meat.

3. If you wish you may add any or all of the following optional ingredients to suite your taste:
1 bay leaf
2 celery stalks, with leaves
1 onion, cut up into about 12 chunks
1 tsp thyme
1 tbs parsley

4. Cover and bring a boil stirring occasionally. Then reduce heat, leave covered, and simmer for 24 hours. Do not leave on the stove over night or if you are away from your home. Simply place the stock pot into the refrigerator before you go to bed. The next morning, place it back on the stove, bring it to a boil then reduce the heat and return it to simmering.

5. As it simmers, add water as needed to keep the liquid level above the level of the bones/meat. Stir occasionally.

6. Once simmering is complete, turn off the stove and allow the stock pot to cool at room temperature until you are able to handle the bones inside.

7. Now for the messy part of the process, so roll up your sleeves. Remove and throw away all of the bones, cartilage, and bay leaf. Remove and reserve all of the meat for use in soups or other recipes. Remove and either throw away the vegetables or reserve them for use in soups. You can also puree the vegetables and add the puree back into the finished broth at the end of this process. I use a colander and bowl large enough to capture the liquids to facilitate this step.

8. Optional step: Once the bones and other solids have been removed, you may wish to strain the liquids through several layers of cheese cloth to clarify it. Some chefs believe that stock or broth should be nice and clear. I, however, am not one of them; so I never do this.

9. Cover the strained broth and place in the refrigerator over night. The next morning any fat should be congealed on the top of the broth. Remove and throw away the congealed fat. Add the pureed stock vegetables back into the broth, if desired and mix well.

10. Store your broth in the freezer in any containers/amounts you wish. Or, use it immediately to make soup.

Tip: I like to freeze my excess broth in ice cube trays. Once the cubes are frozen you can pop them out of the tray and keep them in a ziplock in the freezer. Each cube is roughly 2 to 3 tablespoons or equivalent to 1 bouillon cube.

Spinach-Apple Salad with Maple-Bacon Vinaigrette

This is one of my favorite salads of all time. It is what my husband and I refer to as "stupid good." I clipped it out of the newspaper a few years ago. The newspaper cites the September 2007 issue of Cooking Light Magazine as it's source. My only complaint with this salad is that it's leftovers do not keep well in the fridge. The rule of thumb with this one is make only what you need.

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Spinach-Apple Salad with Maple-Bacon Vinaigrette

1 tbs Maple Syrup
1 tsp Red Wine Vinegar (I use Balsamic Vinegar instead)
1/4 tsp Dijon Mustard
1 tbs Extra-Virgin Olive Oil (I use Flax Oil instead)
1 tbs Fresh Chives, chopped
1/4 tsp Salt (I use Sea Salt)
1/4 tsp Black Pepper, ground
2 slices Center-Cut Bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 1/2 cups Apple, julienne-cut (about 1 apple)
1/4 cup Red Onion, cut in thin vertical slices
6 oz Fresh Baby Spinach

In a small bowl, whisk together syrup, vinegar, oil, and mustard until well blended. Add chives, salt, pepper, and bacon. Stir well.

In a large bowl, combine apple, onion, and spinach. Drizzle with the vinaigrette mixture, then toss to coat. Serve immediately.

Makes ~6 servings.

Hawaiian Bread

My Grandmother got a loaf of king's Hawaiian bread to serve with Thanksgiving dinner one year when I was a kid and I have loved Hawaiian bread ever since. Of course, the goal of every culinary engineer, both professional and amateur, is to come up with a recipe that improves upon what's already available.

I found a decent Hawaiian bread recipe on the internet about 18 years ago; obviously, by now, I have no idea of which website or the copyright status of the original recipe. However, most bread recipes are pretty similar and I have tinkered with this one enough during the last 1.8 decades that I am confident in referring to it as a Midwest Texan original.

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Hawaiian Bread

8 ounces 100% Pineapple Juice

3/4 tsp Salt

2 tbs Butter, melted

1 Large Egg

3 tbs Sugar

2 tbs Flax Seed Meal

3 cups Bread Flour

1 1/2 tsp Bread Machine Yeast

Place ingredients into the bread machine baking pan in the order listed (i.e., wet things first then dry ingredients with the yeast being last). Use a Regular-Light setting to cook.

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This makes a small loaf but the flavor and texture are nice. I am working on modifying it so that I get a large loaf. I'll update this post with modifications as I work them out.

Do not use the timer setting on your bread machine for this one. I am pretty sure that the egg won't keep too well at room temperature.

Oatmeal Bread

Here is the second standard bread that I like to make regularly. It is probably better nutritionally than the Country White Bread recipe is because of the oats and honey. This one rises nicely and makes a good sized loaf that will last my family two or three days, unless someone is on a bread binge. This recipe also comes out of the the booklet that came with my bread machine (Breadmaker Guide & Cookbook, Regal KitchenPro Collection Model #'s K6742 and K6743, page 30). I have made a couple of small modifications based on using the recipe and for personal taste.

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Oatmeal Bread

9 to 11 ounces Water
1 1/2 tsp Salt
2 tbs Honey
1 1/2 tbs Butter, melted
2/3 cup Old Fashioned Rolled Oats
2 tbs Flax Seed Meal (optional)
3 1/4 cups Bread Flour
2 tsp Bread Machine Yeast

Place ingredients into the bread machine baking pan in the order listed (i.e., wet things first then dry ingredients with the yeast being last). Use a Large-Light or Large-Dark setting to cook.

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If your machine does not have a Large Loaf setting try it on a regular setting to see how it works. If you have trouble getting it to work out for you, let me know and I can send you the small loaf version of the recipe.

This recipe will work with a timer setting, if your machine is so equipped.

Also, pay attention to and regulate the moisture content via the amount of water you use. In the winter time, when humidity is nonexistent, I use every bit of 11 ounces. However, in the summer, when its 80% humidity I only use 9 or 10 ounces.

Country White Bread

Because I make most of the bread my family eats, I have many opportunities to experiment and try new recipes. I have some fun ones - chocolate, cinnamon raisin, Hawaiian. However, when it comes to basic bread, something with a good texture for making sandwiches, I have two recipes that I have come to rely on, Country White and Oatmeal. Country White has ended up being the one I make the most often because it is super easy and rises reliably. This recipe comes right out of the the booklet that came with my bread machine (Breadmaker Guide & Cookbook, Regal KitchenPro Collection Model #'s K6742 and K6743, page 36). I have made a couple of small modifications based on using the recipe and for personal taste.

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Country White Bread

7 to 9 ounces Milk
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 Large Egg
1 1/2 tbs Butter, melted
1 tbs Sugar
2 tbs Flax Seed Meal (optional)
4 cups Bread Flour
2 tsp Bread machine Yeast

Place ingredients into the bread machine baking pan in the
order listed (i.e., wet things first then dry ingredients with the yeast
being last). Use the Sweet Bread setting.

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If your machine does not have a Sweet Bread setting, the Regular or Regular-Light setting will probably work. You'll just need to experiment a little bit to get it right.

Do not use this recipe with a timer setting, if your machine is so equipped, because you don't want the milk and egg sitting out at room temperature for an extended time.

Also, pay attention to and regulate the moisture content via the amount of milk you use. In the winter time, when humidity is nonexistent, I use every bit of 9 ounces. However, in the summer, when its 80% humidity I only use 7 or 8 ounces of milk. It will take some practice.

Potato Soup (Zupa Ziemniaczana)

What do you do when you have a bunch of potatoes that you need to use before they go bad? Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I tend to make soup.

If you ever have occasion to eat at the Kava House & Cafe in Swisher, IA, I highly recommend the Zupa (what they call their potato soup). However, in our quest to save-money-by-not-eating-out-so-much, I decided to see if I could find a recipe that came close. I pulled out an old Polish cookbook that my mom found second hand somewhere and, low and behold, there it was. After several iterations of making the recipe and lots of tweaking to suit my personal taste, I think I've come up with something that surpasses Kava House. My husband and kids all love it as well, which is all that is really important to me.

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Zupa Ziemniaczana

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 medium carrots, peeled and coarsely diced
2 celery stalks, coarsely diced
1 large leek, coarsely diced
3 qts of meat broth (see separate recipe or use 1-1/2 qts water & 2 cups broth or bouillon)
2 tbs butter
4 tbs all purpose flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 cup skim milk
2 tsp parsley
1 or 2 lbs of bulk sausage (I use venison sausage but pork works too)

Place potatoes, carrots, celery, leeks and parsley in a stock pot. Add water and broth. Cover and cook over medium heat for an hour. Once vegetables are tender, mash with a potato masher a few times just to break the potato chunks up a little finer (we are not going for the complete mashed potato thing here...just break things up a bit to improve the texture). Reduce heat and simmer for at least another 1/2 hour.

In 1/4 cup milk dissolve the flour and whisk out the lumps. Mixture will be uniform and frothy. In a saucepan, melt butter. Stir in salt and pepper. Slowly add milk/flour mixture while stirring. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture bubbles. Slowly add remaining milk while stirring. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly (or it will burn). Remove from heat and pour into broth vegetable mixture. Simmer over low heat stirring every 10 minutes or so to prevent scorching on the bottom for at least another 30 minutes.

In a skillet, cook sausage completely through. Drain and discard the fat (if any). Add cooked sausage to the stock pot.. Simmer for at least 10 more minutes, stirring once. Serve hot.

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The real key to this being an awesome soup as opposed to simply a good soup, is in how you make the broth. But I am going to save that for a different post because it is a stand alone recipe/process. [Please see the 02/25/2010 posting for Homemade Meat Broth.]

This zupa recipe freezes very well so you don't have to try and finish all of this before it goes bad. I serve it with crackers (my boys just have to have crackers) as a stand alone meal. I am still tweaking this recipe a bit every time I make it. So if I come up with a variant that works even better, I will edit this posting.

Now just to cover my butt, in case I haven't altered the original recipe enough to avoid plagerism charges, here is the bibliography info for the Polish cookbook: Marianna Olszewska Heberle. Polish Cooking. HPBooks, Inc., Tucson, AR, 1985. Page31.