1 2 3 4 CAKE!

When I was very small, Mama never used cake mixes. It was unheard of to find a recipe book that listed a box of cake mix as an ingredient. With just a few items from her kitchen cabinet, she could put together a cake that was light, moist, and crumbly. The layers would be separated by some muscadine jelly or blackberry jam (from the berries we gathered). On top would be a buttery vanilla icing with butter knife swirls.

She never referred to a recipe book. She told me that Home Economics was a course all of the girls took in high school to teach them the basics of nutrition and cooking. A standard cake recipe was one of the lessons and the recipe she had memorized.

Time marched on and soon Boxed Betty's ad campaign won us over. Mama added solidified vegetable oil and eggs to the mix. It didn't seem any quicker, but this was cooking at it's scientific best (we thought). Years later, when I asked her if she could recall the cake of my childhood, she had forgotten it. I WISHED I had written it down!

Well, someone DID write it down, and I've been able to find it in several places on the internet. Everything old is truly new again *smiles*

You may find you like it too, so I'll gladly share my version.

ONE * TWO * THREE * FOUR * CAKE

1 cup butter (or coconut oil)
1 cup soured milk
2 cups organic granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or lemon, almond, orange -- your preference)
3 cups cake flour (whole wheat finely milled)
4 eggs, separated

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour pan(s). I like to use parchment paper as a liner, but it isn't required.

In a large bowl, cream oil and sugar. In a separate bowl, beat egg yolks and add to creamed sugar and oil. Mix well.

Use large metal strainer to sift baking powder and flour into the egg/sugar/oil mixture. Do this a little at the time, stirring after each addition. Alternate this with adding the mil,. Again, beat well after each addition. Add extract.

In separate bowl beat egg whites. When they form stiff peaks, fold gently into cake batter. Fill pan(s) or tins and bake as follows:

If using 3, 9-inch cake pans, (or 4 8-inch pans) bake in 350 degree oven for 25 minutes.
If using 13 x 9 x 2 inch pan, bake in 350 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes.
If making cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees F for 15 to 20 minutes.

This can be served plain, with your favorite jam as a topping or with an icing of your choice.

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Make a Cake Pan Organizer

It was a gradual thing. I used to have just one cookie sheet. Then there were assorted muffin tins, pizza pans, roasting pans, cooling racks and various square pans. Over time, the roomy cupboard that was supposed to hold them all turned into some sort of black hole that held onto whatever I wanted when I tried to extract it. My kitchen helpers began to just shove stuff into there, hoping it would all sort itself out. It never did.

In a futile effort to solve the problem, I purchased a cookie sheet organizer. It looked like this ----->

I had high hopes that this solved the issue and loaded it up with several pans. All I can tell you about this gadget is that it may work for dorm rooms, single girls or show homes, but it wasn't very practical for my space. It wasn't long before the adjustable wire shelves got shoved around and came loose. My helpers were back to tossing things wherever they fit, but now they had to work around the wire tentacles of the pan "organizer." I had to fight with the wires that came loose to untangle my pans when I wanted them. This just wasn't working. Wire racks were not an option.

I did a search for how to build a cookie sheet organizer and didn't find a lot. What did catch my eye were some magazine holders for a bookshelf. If I could match the dimensions to my shelf space and build it out of sturdy wood, one of these must might work. Off to the storage area I went and found some 1 x 2's and 1/4 sheet of 1/2" ply-board.

I measured the opening to my cabinet: its height and width. Then I measured the depth. With the help of some basic math, I cut out the bottom, back, sides and dividers -- enough for five spaces. One important item to remember in this step is to allow for the width of the board so that you don't end up with something that is just 1/2" too high or wide or deep.

Back in the storage area I located some brown paint. I painted all of the pieces prior to construction. The hardest part was holding things in place while screwing it together. Pilot holes had to be drilled to prevent splitting. I toyed with the idea of making this part of a sliding shelf, but the hardware would have taken away from storage space (and made my day a little longer), so that was out.

In the end, it isn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it is sturdy, makes good use of the space and prevents the kitchen staff from being able to toss things into a tangled pile.

*happy sigh*

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GINGERSNAPS WITH FRESH GINGER

Few people remember the taste of REAL gingersnaps. If you’ve taken the time to read the label on a bag of gingersnaps, you’ll know that the genuine article just isn’t available in most stores. Not only that, but most recipes don’t even use fresh ginger root.

Now’s the time to fill the house with the smell of genuine homemade gingersnaps!

KAY’S GINGERSNAPS

NOTE: You will want to take the time to use fresh ginger root and coconut oil for this recipe. Coconut oil will give your cookies a snappy crunchiness that will make them quickly disappear. These can be frozen for serving later. . . . Otherwise you might find that they are gone before you get a chance to share them!

In a large bowl mix the following ingredients:

• 4 cups finely ground whole wheat flour
• 1 Tablespoon Arm & Hammer baking soda
• 1 teaspoon finely ground sea salt
• 2 cups sucanat
• 6 Tablespoons (or as much as ½ cup) finely ground fresh organic ginger root
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 4 large eggs

In a small pan gently melt (don’t heat or cook) 1 ½ cup coconut oil and ½ cup unsulfured blackstrap molasses. Add this to the ingredients in your bowl. Make sure the oil is not too hot or you will cook the eggs!

Mix until completely combined. Cover and place the bowl into the refrigerator overnight.

TO BAKE:
Place your oven racks on the lower and middle level. Preheat the oven to 350°F
Line 3 or 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper. You can use pizza pans.

Make balls out of the cookie dough that are the size of one level tablespoon. The dough is stiff, so you may need to measure the first one and use a sturdy spoon to dig out the rest in sizes that match the first. Roll the dough between your hands. Use coconut oil on your hands to help keep it from sticking badly, but expect to get some on your hands.

Roll the balls in more sucanat and place onto the cookie sheets.

Rub some coconut oil onto the flat bottom of a glass. Use this to mash the balls of cookie dough down flat. Reapply a bit of coconut oil to the glass after pressing each cookie. Space the cookies 1 ½ to 2 inches apart on the parchment paper.

When one pan is ready, place it onto the lowest shelf in your oven and set the timer for 7 minutes.

After 7 minutes, move the pan from the bottom shelf to the upper shelf and place another pan on the bottom.

Set the timer for another 7 minutes.
When the timer goes off, remove the upper pan (the one that has been in the oven a total of 14 minutes) and set it aside to cool. Move the lower pan to the upper shelf and place the next pan of cookies on the lower shelf.

As each pan is removed from the oven, let it rest a minute and then move the cookies to a cooling rack. Let the pan cool, re-using the parchment paper for the next batch.

In this way, you’ll have 100 cookies cooling within an hour. Actually, the recipe makes a few more than 100 cookies, but by the time you finish taste testing, you SHOULD have 100.

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Below find a short video on Ginger Root's benefits.
Also read BENEFITS OF GINGER ROOT.

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DVD Review: HOMESTEADING FOR BEGINNERS

HOMESTEADING FOR BEGINNERS is just the video for those who are considering the possibility of moving to the country. This video gives a delightful overview of life on a small family farm. Erin and Mark Harrison invite the viewer into their home to learn and laugh with them and their five children through the many adventures of homesteading.

You gain insight into all that it takes to get a REAL chicken dinner onto the table from the ground up – literally, from seed to supper. All of the scenes are filled with a beautiful rural setting and happy, healthy, helpful children keep popping up into almost every scene.

Learn how to make butter and cheese using kitchen tools you likely already have on hand. See how this family raises and harvests chickens and eggs. Get an introductory demonstration on wood splitting, building a simple chick pen, learn how to start seeds and tend a low-maintenance garden. Mama takes the time to show you how to freeze and can your produce and meat, gives you the recipes, and then shows you how to prepare the meal. Pamper your inner flower-child and learn how to make a wild-flower crown to adorn your head. If you watch carefully, you might spot Mike and Gabriel Pearl giving a knife-throwing demonstration.

The attentive viewer may even pick up some tips on how to incorporate child training and education throughout the busy day. Washing eggs becomes a math and chemistry lesson taught by a curly blond-headed little girl that needs a step-stool to reach her mama’s kitchen sink. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the film. A take-charge big brother is happy to demonstrate how to use scraps of wood to make signs for the garden. Listen carefully as Papa patiently explains how to milk a cow while little voices comment on the condition of the barn floor (you’ll have to rewind here as your laughter might drown him out).

Grandpa and Granny loved watching with us as little ones stole scene after scene. Grandpa said, “I can see now, if I wanted to homestead, I’d have to find some little helpers.”

HOMESTEADING FOR BEGINNERS should come with a warning label for parents that are used to children sitting peacefully in front of the television all day. After viewing this video, those children could be inspired to go enjoy the great outdoors more often. They might begin asking for some chickens or a cow of their own . . . possibly even some pigs to ride!

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Available at Bulk Herb Store.

Click on the image to order.

Review an excerpt from the video here:

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SOURDOUGH BREAD RECIPE

Each time I make a loaf of Sourdough bread, I am reminded that our daily bread comes about as a result of processes God set into motion at creation. I recall the poor widow that fed the prophet Elijah during a time of drought (I Kings 17). From her dwindling supply, she had to contribute enough water and ground wheat to feed her starter and keep it viable even though she and her son were facing great lack. She must have understood the importance of reserving enough to invest in an increase. I can only imagine how her bread must have tasted.

ABOUT THIS RECIPE:
What follows is a recipe that uses traditional ingredients and methods. This recipe will yield 3 small loaves or 2 large loaves. If you are still learning to bake bread and maintain a sourdough starter, I recommend that you use half of this recipe and practice by making a single loaf each day until you have achieved the results you desire. A healthy sourdough starter is sufficient to raise your bread. You will notice that the rising times are different than what is found in recipes using commercial yeast.

You will need:
• 2 cups kefir
• 2 cups starter
• ¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• ¼ cup Honey
• 2 ½ tsp sea salt
• 6 cups whole wheat flour

Place the first 5 ingredients into a large glass, plastic or wooden bowl and mix well. Add the flour 1 cup at a time, blending completely between each addition. Use a plastic dough scraper to scrape bits of flour off of the side of the container and incorporate into the dough.

Once mixed, let the dough rest for 5 minutes or so. This is especially important with fresh ground flour as it takes longer to absorb the liquids. Fresh ground flour can utilize more liquid than retailed flour. Giving it time to rest allows the liquid to be incorporated into the dough. This dough can be a bit damp and may require more flour if you aren’t grinding your own wheat berries.

Knead the dough for 10 to 15 minutes on a cutting board, pulling the dough and then folding it over with your hands to develop the gluten. When the dough is well-developed, it should be light and not heavy or hard.

Once kneaded, place the dough back into the plastic bowl and cover tightly with a lid. Allow to sit overnight (8 to 10 hours). In the morning, punch down the dough and lift it out of the bowl, scraping any bits off of the side with your dough scraper. Lightly knead the dough and cut into 3 equal portions.

Lightly oil your loaf pans with olive oil.

To shape my dough into loaves, I flatten the dough into a rectangular shape and roll it along the longest side (like a jelly roll). With the seam side down, curl the ends under. Place this into your oiled bread pan and brush the top with olive oil. I make 3 small loaves with this recipe.



Put the pans into a covered, draft-free space for 4 to 6 hours. I use my oven (not turned on!). Try to position your pans so that they do not crowd each other. When you bake your loaves, you’ll want the heated air to be able to circulate fully around each pan.

When the dough has risen an inch or so over the top of your pan, simply turn on your oven to 350 degrees and bake for 50 minutes or until golden brown. When the bread sounds hollow as you thump the bottom of the pan (wear oven mitts!) it is done. If your bread does not bake in this amount of time, do not increase the temperature; just allow it to bake a little longer. Increasing the temperature could cause the outside of the loaf to finish baking before the inside of the loaf has had enough time to finish cooking.

NOTE ABOUT KNEADING:
Use a work surface that is even with the level of your hip joints. This level will be more comfortable when kneading bread. If your bowl or cutting board tends to slide, place a damp dish towel between it and the table or countertop for traction. If your dough is difficult to work and requires a lot of muscle, you’ve added too much flour and need to increase the liquid content. When developed, your dough should be light and not readily stick to the surface of your cutting board.



A WORD ABOUT GLUTEN DEVELOPMENT:
With your hands, it is nearly impossible to overwork the dough. If you use a machine, too much kneading will stretch the gluten too far and cause it to break. Gluten in the flour is like bubble gum. If it is not kneaded (chewed) enough, there will not be enough stretch to it to hold the structure as the yeast activity expands the dough. If it is overworked, the gluten will become fragile and break as the bread rises. Either of these extremes could leave you with crumbly bread that will not hold its shape when sliced.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
If you are new to sourdough bread making, you may be interested in reading more about the process here:
SOURDOUGH BREADMAKING GUIDELINES

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BEGINNING A SOURDOUGH STARTER

Place 6 tablespoons of ground, whole grain flour into a wide-mouthed glass container and mix this well with 4 tablespoons of water. Filtered water is recommended as chlorinated water from the tap will be harmful to the bacteria you are trying to culture. Stir this to make sure the water and flour are well-incorporated, scraping any residue down off of the sides of the container. Secure a cover on the jar loosely. This will keep out unwanted pests and protect the new starter from drying. A loosely fitting lid also allows gases (which result as the cultures multiply) to escape without breaking your container.

GIVE IT A GROWING START
Allow your new starter to sit for 12 hours and check it to see whether there are any bubbles by looking at the side of the glass. If you don’t see any bubbles, stir the starter vigorously and re-cover it loosely. Check it again in 12 hours. The presence of bubbles will tell you that there are enough organisms growing to thrive in your starter. Feeding the starter before you see bubbles could dilute the strength of your starter by separating the organisms that need each other to thrive. This happens more commonly in cooler climates

If you still aren’t seeing bubbles after two days, discard the starter and begin again with bottled spring water and a different brand of whole wheat flour.

FEEDING AND MAINTENANCE
When your starter begins to make bubbles, it will be ready for regular feedings. A feeding consists of 6 tablespoons of flour and 4 tablespoons of water. Feedings should take place every 12 hours. I feed mine each morning and evening. The starter should double itself a few hours after being fed. Place a rubber band around your glass jar to mark the level of your starter. This way, you can see how much it rises and how long it takes the starter to double. The rising time of your starter is a good indicator of how much time you will need to allow your dough to rise.

A well-fed, healthy starter will have a stable colony of microbes that will produce enough carbon dioxide to cause your dough to rise nicely. Just as you would with a garden, the key to having a healthy Sourdough starter is to give it a good environment in which to grow. In the absence of proper food, yeast and the lactobacilli will die, leaving your starter to be taken over by bad bacteria that thrive on decay. This is something that definitely WON’T enhance your bread!

When the quantity of your starter reaches 2 cups, discard half of it at each feeding. This provides the starter enough room to continue growing and keeps it from becoming too large to manage. If you wish to bake a large batch of bread at one time, you can continue feeding the starter without discarding any until you have the necessary amount. Just be sure to stir the starter vigorously at each feeding. This shuffles the microbes and allows them to access more food. They don’t have the ability to migrate to better food sources on their own.

Your new starter will be ready to make bread when it accomplishes two things. The starter should be at least 4 days old as this is the length of time required to produce an established colony of microbes. Your culture should produce bubbles and double in bulk between feedings.

If you find that your starter is not doing well, you can add a couple of tablespoons of Kefir to the mixture as a booster shot. The day before I bake a loaf of bread, I feed my starter three times: morning, noon and evening.

TIPS
If your glass container becomes coated, your starter can be poured into another clean jar. I place the food mixture in a clean measuring glass and stir vigorously. Then I add the contents of my starter jar to the food, blending the entire contents well. I clean and dry the (now empty) starter container, return the newly fed starter to the jar and replace the lid loosely.

If you find that you wish to take a break from baking or will be out of town, feed your starter and place it into the refrigerator. When you wish to use it again, remove your starter and feed it. Once you see bubbles, feed it 3 times in one day. After this, it should be ready to use again.

SUBSTITUTING SOURDOUGH IN A RECIPE
The rising times for a recipe made with sourdough will be different than with commercial yeast. Remember to watch how your starter rises to determine the amount of time your converted recipe will require.

A cup of healthy Sourdough starter should equal one package (2 ¼ tsp) of yeast in its ability to rise. To convert a recipe, reduce the amount of liquid by ½ cup and reduce the flour by ¾ cup for each package of yeast you replace with a cup of sourdough starter. You may have to adjust the amount of water and flour to get the proper consistency to your dough.

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SOURDOUGH BREADMAKING GUIDELINES

A loaf of sourdough bread begins about 18 hours BEFORE the bread is baked. You won’t need to be in the kitchen the entire time. Rather, you’ll need to remind yourself to schedule a few breaks in your day to give the dough some attention. This post is not a detailed recipe but an overview of the tasks and the order in which they are performed to produce sourdough bread.

While learning, it is a good idea to bake only one loaf at a time so that any failures will not deplete your supplies. Initially, baking one loaf per day will give enough practice to perfect your technique and adjust your recipe to your preferences. Your family will greatly enjoy the aroma of a fresh baked loaf each day. Loaves that you do not wish to serve can be repurposed into salad croutons or crumbs for birds.

Make a note of rising times, ratio of water to flour and the resulting taste when you adjust the measurements of your ingredients. When the written instructions are memorized, you will be ready to increase your recipe to produce more loaves with each batch of dough.

You will need an acidic liquid (I prefer Kefir) and freshly ground whole wheat flour. Add the liquid to your flour and mix well with a fork. The mixture may appear somewhat dry. Allow it to soak overnight.

In the morning, add a portion of your sourdough starter to your soaked flour along with honey, sea salt and olive oil. Knead the dough until elastic.

When finished, place the dough in a greased bowl. I use a lidded casserole dish for this rather than covering with plastic wrap which can stick to the dough. Put your dough into the bowl upside down and turn it to rub the sides of the dish. Turn the dough over and set it bottom side down. This oils the surface of your dough and keeps it from drying, forming a skin and binding your dough during the rising process. Cover with the greased lid of the casserole dish.

Turn your oven on for 1 minute and then turn it off. This will briefly warm the oven and allow you to set your container of dough into this insulated warm box to rise. Allow the dough to rise 4 to 5 hours or until doubled in bulk.

Gently punch down and knead the dough. This second kneading moves the yeast to a new area in the dough, allowing it to have access to new food, raising the dough a second time.

Shape the dough and place into (or onto) a greased baking container. This will be either a bread pan, baking pan, or baker’s stone. Gently brush the top of your loaf with oil.

Allow the dough to rise in a briefly warmed oven (as described above) for ½ the time that was needed for the first rise.

Remove the dough from the oven. Place a small cake pan on the lowest shelf of your oven. Heat a kettle of water to boil on your stove while you preheat the oven. When the water boils, pour it into the small pan in the oven. Shut the door and allow the oven to preheat for ten minutes. When ready, quickly place your bread pan of dough into the oven and shut the door.

In about 45 minutes, your bread will be ready. Check for doneness by tapping onto the bottom of the pan with an oven mitt. The bread is ready when this thump produces a hollow sound. Turn the pan over onto your gloved hand and allow the loaf to fall out. Turn your bread pan upside down and let your loaf rest on top of the pan. Coat the hot loaf with butter to allow the crust to be a softer, chewy consistency instead of thick, crunchy and hard.

Allow the loaf to cool before slicing. Use a serrated-edged knife for ease of slicing. A handy way to speed the cooling of your bread is to remove the loaf from the pan and allow it to cool while standing on end. My husband saw this one day while passing through the kitchen and remarked, "Stonehenge?"

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