Window On The Prairie

Ginger Ale Bread

Suzanne — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:04:01 +0000

This is a lighter version of the Ale Bread recipe I shared with you last week. Somewhere in my wanderings on the internet looking at beer bread recipes, I found one website that suggested that ginger ale could be substituted for beer. Oh yeah? I love ginger ale, always have. I lay in bed one night imagining the light sparkling flavor of ginger ale in homemade bread.

Mmm…. I just had to try it:

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

RECIPE

3 cups all purpose flour
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
12 oz can of ginger ale, at room temperature

Yield: 1 loaf

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of a loaf pan. In a medium mixing bowl, add the flour,

sugar

and baking powder.

Mix well. Add ginger ale all at once

and stir only until dry ingredients are moistened.

Spread evenly into loaf pan

and bake 30 – 40 minutes, or until golden brown.

When cool, loosen bread from sides of pan with a knife, turn out onto a cutting board and slice.

This bread has a light subtle flavor of ginger ale. The flavor and consistancy remind me of homemade shortcake. It would be scrumptious layered with strawberries and whipped cream. Deeelicious!

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Kitty On High-Alert

Suzanne — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:32:55 +0000

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Kitty: I’m on High-Alert.

Me: Oh yeah?

Me: You look kinda drowsy to me.

Kitty: No no…I’m looking out the window. I’m on guard duty.

Me: I didn’t know we needed a guard. Whatcha looking out for?

Kitty: Whatever might come…. LOOK!!

Me: What?!?

Kitty: THERE IT IS NOW!!!

Me: What? What??

Kitty: Oh, it’s gone now.

Kitty: Not to worry though. I’ll keep on the look-out for it.

Me: Oh good, I’m so relieved Kitty.
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Blueberry-Rhubarb Crisp

Suzanne — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:49:48 +0000

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This recipe is part Betty Crocker, and part panic attack.

For Valentine’s Day, I wanted to make a dessert for Harland using his favorite fruit, blueberries, so I bought a frozen bag of blueberries at the store. The next day, I paged through my Betty Crocker cookbook and found a recipe for apple crisp that said one could substitute blueberres. Perfect!, I thought. The recipe called for 4 cups blueberries, but when I measured my blueberres, I found I only had 2 cups.

That’s where the panic attack came in.

The nearest store is 7 miles away. Like Winnie-The-Pooh, I began to think, think, think. Then I noticed the recipe also said one could substitute rhubarb too. I began to dig around my freezer and, AHA!, found a bag of frozen rhubarb, 2 cups worth. And the culinary genius of Blueberries and Rhubarb was born.

I planned it all along…..uh huh.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

RECIPE

2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen and thawed and drained)
2 cups rhubarb, sliced (fresh or frozen and thawed)
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup all -purpose flour
1/2 quick cooking or old-fashioned oats
6 tablespoons butter, softened
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preaheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease square pan, 8 X 8 X 2 inches.

Arrange fruit evenly in pan. In a medium mixing bowl, mix brown sugar,

flour,

oats,

butter,

cinnamon

and nutmeg

together. Sprinkle over fruit.

Bake 30 minutes or until top is golden brown.

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Snowy Odds and Ends

Suzanne — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 14:56:43 +0000

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A few snowy images to share today:

Footprint of a passing fox

Snow collected on blades of grass

snow collected on blades of grass

a family group of trumpeter swans on a lake

Despite appearances, spring is just around the corner.

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Some sad news: Our cows are due to start calving in 3 weeks, and Harland has been busy preparing for all the new arrivals. But one of the cows decided not to wait and had her calf earlier this week. Being 3 weeks premature it was weak and small. Not having the strength to stand up and nurse from the cow, Harland fed it morning and night. It was having trouble keeping warm, so Harland put it in a calf warmer (box with heater). But yesterday morning when he went to give it the morning feeding, he found it had died in the night.

It’s a hard thing to lose a calf. There’s the financial impact of course, but it’s also just plain hard to lose a young life. We review the calf’s care and problems. Did we do enough? Should we have done something different?

Last evening I was watching the cows, among them the calf’s mother. She looked at us plaintively, and kept mooing loudly, calling to her calf. She’ll continue to do so for several days. Sad.

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Dumplings

Suzanne — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:14:13 +0000

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I’ve never made dumplings before but have wanted to. So when I got my Watkins Mill cookbook with all the old recipes, and saw one for dumplings, I had to give it a try.

First, I made a double batch of my Chicken Noodle Soup in a big stew pot, but I didn’t add the noodles that recipe calls for since I was going to add dumplings instead. You can cook dumplings in any kind of boiling broth, so I suppose these could be made with beef stew too if you like.

Anyway, first I made my chicken soup and then I added the dumplings.

DUMPLINGS RECIPE

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

2 cups all purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the flour,

baking powder,

and salt.

Then add milk all at once

and stir with a fork, just until moist. (Add more milk if needed.) Drop by tablepoonfulls into boiling broth. Cover and cook about 20 minutes. Do not lift lid until time is up or dumplings will be tough. How easy is that?

They taste like homemade pasta, rich and filling. Perfect for a cold, snowy evening meal.
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Window On The Prairie

Ginger Ale Bread

Related posts:

Kitty On High-Alert

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Blueberry-Rhubarb Crisp

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Snowy Odds and Ends

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Dumplings

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