Tips:

Instead of tips today I added a couple of extra recipes at the bottom for you to use with all the cabbage which has been on sale this week.

Menu:

Mushroom Barley Soup*
Ninety Minute Rolls*
Brownie/Banana Delight*

Recipes:

Mushroom Barley Soup

1-1 1/2 lbs. beef chuck, cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup celery, sliced
1 cup carrots, diced
1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 can (14-1/2 oz. or 2 cups) beef broth
1 can (14-1/2 oz. or 2 cups) chicken broth
2 cups of water
1/2 cup pearl barley
Salt and Pepper to taste 

Combine all but salt in a large pan and simmer a couple of hours or until meat and barley are tender. Salt to taste.

Ninety Minute Rolls

2 – 2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 pkg. or 1 Tbsp. yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. margarine

Mix 3/4 cup flour, sugar, yeast, and salt. Heat milk, water and margarine until very warm (120° – 130°). Add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Add 1/4 cup flour. Beat 2 minutes on high. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Knead 2-3 minutes. Place in a greased bowl. Let rise 15 minutes. Divide dough into 12 pieces and shape into balls. Place in an 8 inch round cake pan. Let rise 15 minutes. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes. Makes 12 rolls.

Brownie/Banana Delight

1 pkg. brownie mix
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup peanuts, chopped
3 medium bananas
1 2/3 cups milk
2 pkgs. (5 oz.) vanilla instant pudding
1 (8 oz.) carton frozen whipped topping

Mix brownie mix according to package directions, adding 1/2 cup of chocolate chips to it. Pour in a 9×13 pan greased pan. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes, until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool. Slice bananas and lay on top of brownies in a single layer. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of chips and 1/4 cup peanuts. Mix milk and pudding mix on low speed for 2 minutes. Fold in whipped topping and spread over bananas. Sprinkle with remaining chips and peanuts.

Sauerkraut Soup

From: Chris H.

1 pound smoked Polish sausage cut into 1/2-inch pieces
5 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 medium onions chopped
2 carrots cut into 1/4 inch slices
3 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) chicken broth
1 can (32 ounces) sauerkraut, rinsed and drained
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste

In a large saucepan, combine sausage, potatoes, onions, carrots and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Add sauerkraut and tomato paste. Mix well. Return to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer another 30 minutes. If a thinner soup is desired, add water or more chicken broth.

Hawaiian Cole Slaw

4 cup cabbage, shredded
1 (8 oz.) can pineapple, crushed, drained
1/4 each raisins, coconut, nuts
3/4 cup your favorite coleslaw dressing

Mix and serve.

Greek Slaw

1/2 cup pecans*
4 cups coleslaw, chopped
1/2 cup carrots, grated or shredded
1 1/2 cups red grapes
1/4 cup feta cheese

Dressing:

1/2 cup mayo
1/2 cup Ranch dressing
1 Tbsp. sugar

In large bowl, mix dressing ingredients. Toss in slaw ingredients on top of it and mix well. Serve immediately or cover and chill.

Photo By: Veganbaking.net

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A Different and Delicious Twist on Cinnamon Rolls

From: Sue

Regarding your cinnamon roll recipe made with the "Ninety Minute Rolls" dough – here’s a tip when you use the dough for cinnamon rolls:

Use peanut butter (smooth or chunky) instead of margarine to spread over the dough. Be generous! It makes a wonderful nutty flavor. If you make an icing from powdered sugar to drizzle over the top, use a drop of vanilla flavoring and a drop of almond flavoring in the icing. You will think these came from the gourmet bakery. Yum yum!

Ok, I’m not so sure about this one but it just sounded too interesting for me not to post it. What can I say I’m pregnant! hehehe

(Note: We aren’t announcing anything.. This was originally posted in 2009.)

      -Tawra

Photo by: whitneyinchicago

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I tried this recipe before we went wheat free.  It was really great! Hubby said it was the best homemade bread he had ever had. I don’t have a bread machine but I did knead it in my Kitchen Aid mixer. I just dissolved the yeast and sugar in the warm water, added the margarine and added everything else with the flour last.

We toasted it in the toaster for breakfast and it was delicious! Enjoy!

     -Tawra

From Roxie:

I confess. I cheat. I use a bread machine to do the work. I bake the bread in my oven in a regular loaf pan, usually while I am making something else for our supper. The bread machine does all of the mixing and the rising and I take the credit. This recipe makes very good rolls too. I have even used it for buns…

Everything should be at room temperature.

Farm House Bread

1 egg
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup water
3 Tbsp. butter (margarine works fine)
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. yeast
4 cups flour

Put the yeast in the bread machine first. Then add the liquids. Next, add the solid ingredients with the flour last. Push button and wait for a wonderful thing to happen. Dough forms.

After the first rise, remove the dough and form a loaf… Put it into a buttered pan and let rise again until double and bake at 375° for 25 minutes.

This makes the best toast. Honest! I like to make what my kids and husband calls skillet toast… Just butter the bread and toast it in a hot skillet…

photo by: preppybyday

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Potato Flake Starter Bread

This sourdough recipe is similar to the Amish Friendship Bread and is a really yummy starter that you feed like you do other sourdough. (For those of you who have the Dining on a Dime Cookbook, you can find this recipe on page 88.) These starters are fun to start and I have done them off and on over the years but, I must warn you, you must not become emotionally attached to them!

I’m afraid I treated mine too much like a family member. I even called him Herman. I got quite stressed if I forgot to feed him. Then, if I didn’t get a chance to bake him I felt so guilty if I had to throw part of him away. When I really couldn’t use him anymore, what was I to do with him? Should I let him die a slow death in the fridge or throw him in the trash to die an even more cruel death. I really was torn. : ) : )

Ever since I had to kill my first Herman, I haven’t had many others. It was too emotionally exhausting for me. Now you know I have gone off the deep end. : ) : ) You would be going crazy, too, if you had just spent the last four weeks putting 5,000 eyeballs into gingerbread men! : ) : )

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this Potato Flake Sourdough Starter recipe!

-Jill

This recipe can be used to make not only bread and cinnamon rolls but also dinner rolls and pizza dough.

Potato Flake Starter Bread

Starter

1 pkg. or 1 Tbsp. yeast
1 cup warm water (110°-115°)
1/2 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. instant potato flakes

To make starter:

Mix starter ingredients in a glass jar or container. Cover loosely and let stand 24 hours at room temperature. Put in the refrigerator for three to five days. On the fourth day, feed it with 1/2 cup sugar, 3 tablespoons potato flakes and 1 cup water. Stir and keep at room temperature for 24 hours. You will use 1 cup of the starter to make the bread. Store remaining starter in the refrigerator and feed every four days. (If you don’t make bread, discard 1 cup starter at each feeding.)

Bread

1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 1/2 cups warm water (110°-115°)
1 Tbsp. salt
1 cup starter
6 cups flour

To make bread:

Stir together all the ingredients except flour in a 4-quart mixing bowl. Add flour a little at a time to the other ingredients, mixing well. Knead 5 minutes. Put dough into a large, greased bowl. Turn dough to grease the top. Cover bowl with aluminum foil. Let rise at room temperature overnight for at least 8 hours. Punch dough down. Turn out onto a floured board and knead. Divide into 3 parts and shape into loaves. Put into 3 greased loaf pans*. Brush tops with oil. Cover with a paper towel and let rise 4-5 hours longer. Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes. Brush with butter and remove from pan. Cool and keep covered. Cinnamon rolls, pizza dough and rolls can also be made with this dough. Makes 3 loaves.

*If you don’t have 3 loaf pans, place in 2 pans and make the rest of the dough into rolls or cinnamon rolls.

Photo By: chatirygirl

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Bread Baking Basics

We get so many questions about how to make homemade bread, so I thought I would try to answer just a few of them today. Don’t let all this information make it seem too involved and scare you away from making bread. Once you get used to it, it really isn’t a whole lot harder than baking a cake. Just read the information and then follow the recipe step by step.

I once read a book by an older woman on how to bake a pie. She said bake one everyday for 2 weeks and at the end of that time you will know how to bake a pie. That rule applies for many things, including bread baking. Things may seem a little awkward or difficult at first, but after you have made it 14 times you will have learned what not to do and will get comfortable with it. There really was a lot of wisdom in what that older woman said.

We didn’t put my favorite recipe for homemade bread in Dining on a Dime because it isn’t quite as frugal as others, but I thought some of you might like it now. Also, I will give you my grandmother-in-law’s very frugal recipe.

Before I share the recipe, here are some useful tips on baking bread:

*Unless the recipe states otherwise in the recipe, heat about 1/4-1/2 cup of the water to 120-130° or until it is hot when you put your finger in it but not so hot to burn. It can’t be too hot or too cold. This is one of the most important parts of making the bread. With practice and time, you will start being able to tell when you have the correct temperature.

When the water is hot enough, add part of the sugar (about 2 Tbsp.) to the water and then the yeast. You add sugar because yeast feeds on sugar. This process is called proofing. The yeast should start foaming, which tells you it’s good and also that you haven’t gotten the water too hot. If nothing happens, your yeast is dead for one reason or another so you need to get some new yeast or try it again with a different water temperature.

 It is also good to do this because proofing the yeast gives the bread a better start. So you don’t get confused, there are some recipes where you add the yeast with the flour and other ingredients and can’t proof. That’s OK because those recipes make up for it by calling for you to mix the ingredients with a mixer.

*You don’t always have to use as much yeast as the recipe calls for. For example, my original bread recipe called for 2 packages of yeast and it made 2 loaves. I have used just one package for years and it works fine. Grandma’s original recipe was doubled and made 4 loaves but still only used 1 package of yeast.

If a recipe calls for 2 packages of yeast and it makes 2 loaves of regular bread, you can usually just use 1 package to save a little. If you plan on making bread on a regular basis, you might want to buy yeast in bulk or in the jars because it is much less expensive.

*When you can, add a 1/2-1 cup of mashed potatoes to your bread recipe or, in place of regular water, use water you have used to cook your potatoes. Yeast loves potatoes and the more it eats, the bigger it grows, making the bread lighter and fluffier.

 *Never add salt with your yeast and water because the salt will kill it.

 *Have all ingredients at room temperature. Don’t forget to take the eggs out and let them warm up.

*If the recipe says to add enough flour to make a stiff dough, just add the flour until it is slightly sticky, taking that last 1/2 cup or so of flour and putting it on your kneading surface. Then knead the last of the flour into the bread. If you get to much flour in the recipe, it makes the bread tough. Beginners sometimes put in all the flour that the recipe calls for and then add more flour on the board to knead, it causing the dough to get too stiff.

 *You can’t knead bread too much. Knead until it is very smooth and elastic, usually about 10-15 minutes. I know that is a long time. That is why I don’t make bread as often since I have had CFS. I made my best bread on the days my husband would come into the kitchen, spy my dough and start pounding on it. He had more strength than I and always did a better job of kneading.

*I always roll my dough into a 14×9 rectangle then roll it jelly roll style and put it in the pan. This helps to get rid of any large air bubbles you might have in the dough that can leave large pockets and holes in your bread.

*I have tried many methods to raise bread, from putting it in a covered bowl on the stove to putting it in the car on a warm day. What I found works best for me is to heat my oven on the lowest temperature while I am mixing my dough. After about 5 minutes of heating, I turn the oven off, turn my oven light on and place the dough in my oven (not covering). It works great every time. The heat from the light seems to give it the right amount of warmth.

I also do this when I put the bread in the pans to rise. I place the dough in the oven to rise using the method I described above (reheating the oven and turning it off). Then, when it is almost double in size, I leave it where it is and turn the oven on to the temperature that the bread is supposed to bake and bake it.

*Most recipes say to let bread double in size and, to see if it is ready, press your finger into it. If the dent stays, it is ready. After you have made several loaves, you can pretty much tell when it is ready. When I use the method for raising dough I describe above, I skip this test because my bread finishes rising the last little bit while the oven is preheating.

*Most bread doughs can be frozen. Mix and knead. Shape into loaves, mini loaves or rolls, not letting it rise. Wrap very well and freeze. When you want to use it, thaw and let it rise. It will keep in the freezer about 4 weeks, but after that the yeast starts going bad.

When you freeze or in store home baked breads, be sure to wrap them well. Bread can lose its moisture. If you don’t think you will use it quickly, freeze part of the already baked bread, because it can dry out and get moldy faster than store bought bread. This is the reason our great-grandmothers came up with recipes like bread pudding and French toast.

*If your bread isn’t quite done but is getting too brown, you can tent with foil. To test whether or not it is done, thump it with your fingers and it should sound hollow.

Here’s my favorite bread recipe. It is a cinnamon bread but when I want to make regular bread, I just make it into loaves without spreading the cinnamon and sugar on it. This makes 2 loaves of bread.

Jill’s Homemade Bread

6 1/2 – 7 cups unsifted flour or 1/2 wheat 1/2 white flour
6 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 pkg. yeast
1 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1/3 cup margarine
3 eggs (room temp.)

 Filling for cinnamon bread:

margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

 Mix 2 cups flour with sugar, salt and yeast. Put the milk, water and margarine in a large mixing cup and heat in the microwave to 120° or until it feels really hot when you put your finger in it. (The margarine doesn’t need to be melted.) Gradually add to the dry ingredients. Add the eggs and 1/2 cup more of flour. Stir in enough additional flour to make a stiff dough. Turn on to a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic (or you can knead it in the bowl). Place in a greased bowl (It sounds strange, but I use bacon grease), turning to grease the top. Put in warm place (like I mentioned above) and let rise until double; about 35 minutes.

Punch down and divide into 2 halves. Roll into a 14×9 rectangle. If you are making regular bread then, beginning at the 9 inch end, roll as you would a jelly roll, gently making it into a loaf. Divide and place in 2 greased 9×5 bread pans. Let rise again for about 35 minutes until double. Bake for 45-50 minutes. To see if it’s done, thump with your fingers. If it sounds hollow, it is done.

For Cinnamon Bread:

After you have rolled the dough out, spread it with a thick layer of margarine. Then sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon and roll as above. Be sure to tuck the ends under so the goodies won’t ooze out.

Grandma Suhler’s Inexpensive Homemade Bread

This is a great frugal recipe or one to use when you are short on ingredients because it doesn’t call for things like milk or eggs.

This recipe was written the way we did it years ago, with just the ingredients and minimal instructions, so I hope you can figure it out OK. As you will see this, recipe breaks most of the rules I explained above, but her bread was always great.

 You might also notice she did most of her kneading and working the bread in her bowl instead of dirtying a counter. Tawra does her bread this way and it works great every time.

1 pkg. yeast
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. shortening or margarine
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups water, very warm
Flour (about 6-7 cups)

Shift flour into the above mixture, stirring until it is too thick to stir. Then work with hands, adding flour as needed until it becomes a very stiff dough and won’t stick to your hands. Place in a greased bowl, turning to coat top and set in a warm, draft free place about 1 1/2 hours. (This is why I like my oven method for rising.)

Punch down and let rise 1/2 hour more. Make into loaves or rolls. Makes 2 loaves. Bake at 325° for 1 hour for loaves and 35 minutes for rolls. (I found 375° for 25 minutes also works for the rolls.)

photo by: Emily Carlin

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2-2 1/2 cups flour	1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt	1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. sugar	2 Tbsp. margarine
1 pkg. or 1 Tbsp. yeast

.

Mix 3/4 cup flour with sugar, yeast, and salt. Heat milk, water and margarine until very warm (120°-130°). Add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Add 1/4 cup flour. Beat 2 minutes on high. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Knead 2-3 minutes. Place in greased bowl and let rise 15 minutes. Divide dough into 12 pieces and shape into balls. Place in 8-inch round cake pan. Let rise 15 minutes. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes.

To make cinnamon rolls: Roll dough out after rising the first time and spread with 2 tablespoons margarine. Combine 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar and sprinkle on dough. Roll jelly-roll style and cut into 1 inch pieces. Place in pan and bake as usual.

From Dining on a Dime

photo by: megan.chromik

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Ninety Minute Rolls

2-2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 pkg. or 1 Tbsp. yeast
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp. margarine

Mix 3/4 cup flour with sugar, yeast, and salt. Heat milk, water and margarine until very warm (120°-130°). Add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes on medium speed. Add 1/4 cup flour. Beat 2 minutes on high. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough. Knead 2-3 minutes. Place in greased bowl and let rise 15 minutes. Divide dough into 12 pieces and shape into balls. Place in 8-inch round cake pan. Let rise 15 minutes. Bake at 375° for 20-25 minutes.

To make cinnamon rolls: Roll dough out after rising the first time and spread with 2 tablespoons margarine. Combine 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar and sprinkle on dough. Roll jelly-roll style and cut into 1 inch pieces. Place in pan and bake as usual.

From Dining On A Dime

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