Big Brood

This is such a simple recipe and always turns out great!  It is adapted from a recipe I found in a magazine.  I can never seem to leave a recipe alone!

6 3/4 tsp yeast

5 cups warm water

2/3 cup honey plus 1 T.

2/3 cup vegetable or canola oil

2 tsp sea salt

6 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup wheat germ

4-6 cups bread flour

Disolve yeast in 3/4 cup warm water with the 1 Tablespoon honey.  Let sit about 10 minutes until foamy.   Add with remaining ingredients into mixer ( I have to split this into 2 batches in my kitchen aide mixer).  Add enough flour until it forms into a soft ball, it will be slightly sticky.  Knead for 6-8 minutes in mixer or by hand.  Place in a large bowl coated with oil, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.  Punch dough down.  Shape into 4 loaves.  This is where you can get creative.  We will often make 2 into cinnamon sugar loaves by rolling out and spreading with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and rolling up jelly roll style.  I also have added raisins at this point to the dough.

Place 1/4 of dough into each bread pan or shaped onto a baking sheet.  Cover and let rise until nearly doubled, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.  If you are unsure if the loaf is done, remove from the pan and tap the bottom.  You should here a hollow sound.   Remove from pans and let cool on wire racks.

I couldn’t find my camera for a couple of weeks :)  and I have been meaning to post a picture of the cloth napkins I made.  I have about 20 napkins right now with hopes to double that.  I am really enjoying the beauty cloth napkins adds to a simple dinner!  Have a blessed St. Valentines Day.

In a hope to get our school days started on schedule I have been trying to make a huge batch of something every weekend to feed the ever hungry goslings.  Lately it has been my new favorite bread recipe.  It makes 4 loaves.  I have been making 1 loaf into raisin bread (to satisfy my finicky pregnant stomach), 1 cinnamon sugar and 2 regular.  This particular recipe makes great toast.  But this weekend I made a family favorite,  gingerbread waffles.  I found this recipe here several months ago and it joined our breakfast rotation.  I forgot how much this recipe actually makes and did my normal thing and doubled it.  YIKES!  I didn’t get all the waffles made and frozen as hoped last night!  I guess one morning this week will be fresh waffles.  Note to self: one batch is plenty for our crowd!

Have you noticed a trend in my posts.  Seems they all revolve around food!  I guess not much else is going on in my first trimester mind besides getting everyone fed, clothed, educated and loved.  I am looking forward to feeling better and getting the goslings out for some fun field trips.

Have a blessed day!

I just retrieved our last butternut squash from this past summers garden from our basement and made one of my favorite recipes. Thank you Heather for sharing this great recipe!

You can get the recipes at myrecipes.com under beef and butternut squash chili.  YUM!

Well we finally spilled the “beans” to all our family so we thought it was time to share with everyone else.  Pa goose, Ma goose and all the goslings are overjoyed to share that we are expecting another little gosling in late August! 

We lost our little John Mary last August so this is a wonderful gift and reminder that God is ever present and working in our lives!