Hamburger Buns

First, I worked for 4-5 hours on Saturday sewing cuffs for a large order. It was fun and felt good to get it all done. I wanted to share a recipe I made up in the last while. The whole family loves it, and I think they are great for lunches away from home. I'm calling them "Hamburger Buns"
First make a pizza dough.
My recipe for this is:
1 cup warmer water
2.25 tsp yeast
2 tsp sugar
4 tbsp oil
2 tsp salt
2.5 cups flour
Doubled easily.
Let rise 45-mins to an hour
Makes a soft dough. Don't work too much flour into the dough. Just enough to kneed it sufficiently and then let it be.
In the mean-time start on the filling.
1 Potatoe, peeled, chopped into sm cubes
1 carrot, peeled, chopped into sm cubes
1 parsnip, peeled, chopped into sm cubes
(try to keep all your veg chopped to the same size for even cooking)
1 sm onion diced
Feel free to add other root veg.
Now put a glug of oil in a pan and cook all of the above.
Season with Salt and pepper.
Now add garlic (all I had was garlic powder)
Dry thyme
Dry Rosemary. ( This really makes it great!!!)
Dry parsley
Once veg have had a good start cooking add Ground Beef.
About 1.5 pounds
Break it all up and stir until browned.
Cover and cook until Potatoes are tender. ( I don't have a lid for my pan so I just cover it with tin foil.) :)
Now add 1/2 cup frozen peas ( if you want), cook until just done.

Now the dough should be risen ( double in size)
Roll out into a rectangle. 1/2 - 1/4 inch thick.
Cut into squares. It all depends on how big you want your bun to be.
Spoon a good spoon full (1/4 cup or more) into the middle of the dough. The filling does not have to be cooled. Start bringing the dough up and around the filling.

Put on parchment paper lined sheet, seam side down.
Wisk 1 egg and brush on tops. Sprinkle with Parmesan.
Cook in a 375 oven for 20-25 mins.
So there it is. Yummy. I don't have a finished product picture. Sorry.
Enjoy. Have fun cooking.
amie

knitting, and saskatoon berries

We've got a mix today. First i had to show you this beautiful picture of Grace and Ian. She is a really good helper. I can't thank the Lord enough for the love Elijah and Grace both have for Ian. They are always willing to help me with him.

Second I had to show you the vest completed. I changed it up a bit and he wears it as a tank top. I like the changes I made though. More summery.
And Thirdly, I wanted to show you the Saskatoon Berries I picked this afternoon with the kids and my friend Leanne. I wish I had remembered to bring my camera with me to the berry patch. We had a lot of fun. The kids found caterpillars and spiders and Leanne and I picked. The kids also accidentally knocked over the pails a few times, so they need a good bath when we got home. So that's what I'm doing in this frist picture. Two pails worth in the sink with cold water. Alot of the leaves and sticks and stuff floated to the top conveniently.


Then I took my little strainer and scooped out the berries. As I poured them into the bowl I grabbed out the bad ones and anyother stuff I don't want in my jam.
And here's the bowl full of yummy clean Saskatoon Berries. I picked too small of a bowl so they eventually ended up in my largest Tupperware bowl. It is unfortunately white, so I'm scared it is going to turn purple...but what's a girl to do?! I try to remember to take picture when I turn it into jam.

A cherished book

This cook book belonged to my mother. I don't remember where she got it. (Mom you can comments and tell us.) As a child I remember her using it often. It must have gotten wet in some accident in the kitchen at some point because the pages are wrinkled in places. This just makes me love it more. My mom often used the biscuit recipe on page 13. It's the only one I use now. The book naturally opens to the page. When I married a Mennonite and he told me about these little cookie his mom made, of course I wanted to make them for him and on page 279 I found, "Pfeffernusse". This young bride had a happy husband.

Recently, in an attempt to make cheap, healthy food for my family I decided to try the very affordable cut of pork, 'the ham hock.' What's a girl to do with ham hock? I opened my cookbook and there I found a wonderful recipe for Split Pea Soup (pg 41) Because I love this recipe so much I thought I would share it with you.

1 ham hock

2 1/2 quarts water

2 1/2 cups split peas

1 large onion

3 medium carrots

Salt and pepper

Cook ham hock and peas together slowly for about 3 hours. Dice onions and carrots and add 30 minutes before severing. Season.

It's that easy! I added celery and cooked it longer that 3 hours because I started with a frozen ham hock. I also added the meat off the bone (its not that much) back into the soup. Mine is really thick after cooling and I like it like that. But if you didn't want it really thick just don't cook it till it gets to that point. And if you do just add water when you are reheating the leftovers! Yummy, easy, healthy, affordable soup. What more could you ask for.

At the end of the book the author has included a little jewel.

"Food for a Barn Raising" This list was found in an olds handwritten recipe book.

115 lemon pie

500 fat cakes (doughnuts)

15 large cakes

3 gallons applesauce

3 gallons rice pudding

16 chickens

3 hams

50 pounds roast beef

300 light rolls

16 loaves bread

Red beet pickles, pickles eggs, cucumber pickles

6 pounds dried prunes, stewed

1 large crock stewed raisins

5 gallon stone jar white potatoes and the same amount of sweet potatoes

Enough for 175 men.

Wow!!!! That must have taken quite the cook force. Talk about team work.

So there you have it- my favorite cookbook. Maybe one day I'll have the privilege of giving it to Grace...if she wants it...if not...I'll keep it!!!!

blessings

a day in the life

I'm a mother of three with what always seem to be full days, and yet when I sit down in the evening to write a blog I have a terrible time thinking of something to write.
My Moms and Tots group is doing at cookie exchange tomorrow. So today I did my best to make something for the exchange. I don't know why I had to try something new. I made Cream Cheese Swirl Blondies. All three of the kids were either crying, begging , or complaining during the mixing process. I was about to throw in the towel, but I sent to two older one's to their rooms and put the youngest down for a nap. Problem solved! The blondies didn't turn out the way I thought they would. Oh well. I'm supposed to have the recipe typed out for whoever takes my cookies...but that's not going to happen the way the day has gone.
It is so cold outside today. It seems like the past week I've either been in my house or in my van. Walking somewhere is not going to happen. This is not a particularly good thing seeing I've just had a baby, its Christmas and there are always more sweet things to eat, and when it gets cold I always want to eat things with either or both flour and sugar. What's with that? It is as predictable as the canada goose going south for the winter. The temp. starts dropping and I start baking. Hey it just hit me, that would be the good thing about living in the Kenyan heat...I wouldn't ever feel like baking. Who wants to turn on the oven when it's plus 30? Not me!
Well, wish me luck with my blondies at Moms and Tots tomorrow. Hope someone wants them.
Off to bed I go.

Soup, a night out and my growing boy

So this is a mix-mash of the last week.
I made some amazing soup on Monday. Cream of Pea and Spinach. I love the beautiful green color and texture was so smooth and velvety. Here's the recipie
1 small onion chopped small
5 tbsp of butter
1/4 cup flour
4 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water
2 cup frozen/fresh peas
1 bag of spinach
1/2 cup heavy cream. I use coffee cream

1.melt butter in larger pot
2. add onion and cook unto translucent don't brown them
3.add flour stirring let it start bubbling
4.add broth slowly stirring all the time
5.add water
6.bring to boil and turn down to simmer stirring ferquently. let it thicken to consistency of cream. let it simmer for 10 mins to get rid of flour taste.
7.add peas and spinach. simmer until wilted and mushy.
8.puree in blender in batches. Don't fill blender too much with each batch
9.put back in pot add cream and heat. Don't boil or you may ruin your cream.
Enjoy!!!! Try using broccoli that's good too!

On Wednesday night Jon and I were able to go the Agrobition. We had a lot of fun together. Blayne and Penny Banting offered to look after Elijah and Grace. What a blessing that was. We felt so served and loved by them. We bought tickets for the rodeo. We saw some bucking broncos, cattle roping, calf wrestling, sheep herding dogs, mutten bustin' and lots more. Its a nice crowd, its not too loud and Jon and I were able to watch and have a conversation.

I thought I throw and picture of Ian in the jolly jumper for the first time. He just loved it. I think he was in there for a half hour or more. What a cutie. He's getting so big so fast. Always smiling expect when he's hungry or tired.

I've been given so many good gifts. Thank you Lord.