Whole wheat bread recipe

I am frequently asked about my bread recipe. I had a more complicated recipe that I have put on the blog before, but I tend to go back to this simple but yummy recipe I got from someone who used to be a friend (yes, they decided to block me from their personal blog and facebook without any explanation, I swear I felt like I was back in high school). Oh, well, their choice.

Anyhow, I am naming it

Carla's Basic Wheat Bread

Into your bread maker put the following in this order (you can also usebasic bread techniques in a mixer if you don't have a breadmaker, you just need tomake sure to knead it for a long time):

10 oz warm water
1/4 cup honey
1.5 tsp salt
1/2 - 1 tbsp vital wheat gluten (if its too gummy use less you may have to experiment based on your humidity)
1.5 tbsp oil
3.5-4 cups fresh ground white wheat (if using store bought you may need less, i just keep an eye on the breadmaker for a few minutes and add flour as needed till its no longer too sticky)
2 tsp instant yeast

Turn your bread maker on to the dough setting. It will go through kneading and some rise cycles. When its done pull it out and knead it into a loaf shape and throw it into a greased loaf pan. Let it rise covered for another 25 minutes, then take a knife and cut a 1/2 inch deep gash along the length of the loaf to allow for more expansion. Put the loaf into a cold oven, then turn the oven on to 350 and set the timer to 28-30 minutes. When the loaf is nice and golden pull it out then let it cool on a wire rack.

I made a full on dinner last night!

Man, that’s hard work and should be reserved for a weekend!  It was super good though and I want to start keeping track of my recipes here a little more and share the love!

Southern Baked Yellow Squash – click for the link – very yummy, I made it exactly as written but I did not put the butter on top with the bread crumbs, saved a few calories maybe!

Marinated Baked Pork Chops – I’m not sure why they are called marinated, cause they aren’t!  I guess you could, but probably not necessary.  I tripled all the sauce ingredients (except the oil, and next time I will probably omit altogether) and it was really yummy!  My chops were done at probably 40 minutes, it just depends on how big your chops are.

The last part of the meal was just mashed potatoes, no recipe just boiled then mashed taters, drained and add butter, milk, and sour cream to your liking.

Way to go John!

John had a couple breakthroughs this week.

Breakthrough #1 – completed Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.  He can read!  Seriously even a month ago if you asked him to read something other than his reading lesson he would tear up and say he couldn’t (but yet he could read a whole page of a story in the reading lesson).  Makes complete sense, right?  Not!  Anyhow, now that he officially finished the reading lesson book, he says he can read and will even pick up a book himself and read it!  Yay, progress!  Below are a few photos of his last reading lesson (from that book anyways).

  

Breakthrough #2 – he can really ride his bike!  So, remember he got a real bike (two wheeler no training wheels for his birthday) to ride instead of the balance bike?  Well, he could ride it but needed help getting started (the bike was a little too tall perhaps).  Anyhow, asking him to ride that new bike caused tears every time!  Well, yesterday we had some lovely cool (cold, really) weather and went outside, Luke got out the horrid bike and said lets ride this, John teared up, and I said just ride it for a while I’ll give you a dollar.  So, Luke helped him get it started a few times and then John just went off and did it on his own!  Yay!  He even told me today that Paul now has two bikes, the tricycle and the balance bike!  He loves the two wheeler bike now!  If only we could get Ruthanne riding a bike…

The only other good photo of the week:

Some fun photos

So, I got to buy myself a new camera with some birthday $$ (one of those fancy schmancy dslr ones, and yes I had to buy used in order to afford one, I don’t get THAT much for my birthday!). Anyhow, its been fun taking photos instantaneously, I’ve missed so much of my kids’ lives with my other cameras!

Anyhow, I’m not good yet and mostly just use the automatic mode, when I get adventurous I get bad pictures, but I’ll keep trying and learning! But, I did get a chance to use it while visiting Matt & Jaime and company for Talon’s baby blessing. Here are a few of the photos I took.

Baby Talon, its hard work being blessed!

Ruthanne loved holding baby Talon! Amazingly, he was happy with her and a little picky and grumpy with me just minutes before.

Goofy Hunter, I think this was my best photo of the day, and then he got all girly on me!

Corbin, the biggest brother.

All the grandkids with the last name Wilson (sorry you couldn’t be here Bentleys).

The many faces of Dane and his cupcake.

And just a few more random photos:

Oh, yes, I didn’t really edit these at all, thinking Matt or Jaime might want to download some and do their own edits. Oh, and I can get anybody a bigger photo if they want. And, I want to go back and look at the all 7 kids photos, maybe there was a better one?

Ruthanne’s Baptism

Its been almost a week since Ruthanne was baptized and I’m just now getting a few minutes to blog.  First off it was a great day, Ruthanne was ready to be baptized and we were able to have a lot of our families come to be there.  I wish I could say that it was all peaceful and I had everything impeccably planned so that we had a nice leisurely morning and everything was packed days in advance; alas it was not so.  In addition Paul had to throw a humongous fit about getting dressed before it was time to go.  

We did manage to take some photos before we left for the baptism.

Ruthanne on her new bench.

Ruthanne with Mimi and Poppa.

 

Ruthanne with Grandma and hairy Grandpa.

 

Our family.

 

Ruthanne and Luke outside the church.

Ruthanne and Mamom.

My Mom and Dad took a bunch of photos with their camera and things were too crazy after the baptism that I didn’t get a chance to download them to my computer (I will someday).

Ruthanne is happy to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and we are proud of her decision to be baptized!

Ruthanne's Baptism

Well, we finally have Ruthanne's baptism date and time squared away.

July 2, 12:00

Augusta Ward Building

Family is invited to come back to my house for some kind of grub and socializing! Please let me know if you are coming!

John's Birthday

John had a birthday yesterday (the big 5!). There were a couple things that stood out yesterday:

1 - He was surprised that his clothes still fit him since he turned 5!

2 - When he saw that he got two water guns in his present, he told Ruthanne that she could have one with no prompting from anyone or Ruthanne asking. Such a sweet boy!

Oh, his other present was a bicycle (no training wheels). I never got a picture but we've been out practicing and he's getting pretty good, I just barely hold on to the back of the seat. In a day or two, he'll have it for sure! Of course John has been telling me that he won't be able to ride until he's 8, sorry John you're almost there already (then we need to work on Ruthanne). But, seriously none of my kids (except Ruthanne cause I didn't know better) will have training wheels ever again! Balance bike to regular bicycle is the way to go!

On to the photos of some present opening and cake time! Gotta put together a little kid party for him sometime this week. I'm thinking we'll just do some water games in the backyard.

Zucchini Breakfast Cookies (Chocolate ones too!)

At Missy's request (thankfully, I've been meaning to do this forever), I'm gonna write down my zucchini breakfast cookie recipe variation.

Zucchini Breakfast Cookies

1 heaping cup wheat flour*

1 heaping cup old fashioned oats

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt (maybe 1/4 tsp)

1 heaping tsp cinnamon*

2 tbsp oil (I use extra virgin coconut oil but a vegetable oil will work)

2 eggs

1/2 cup sweetener (honey, sugar, etc)

1 cup shredded zucchini

1 tsp vanilla

Mix together all the dry ingredients, add in all the wet and mix (don't go crazy but mix it together). Now, you may need to add more flour (or wheat germ if you want) if its too liquidy, you want it to keep its shape when put on the baking sheets and not run out like a pancake (I'll try to take a pic the next time I make these). For this much batter I make 12 cookies on 2 greased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for about 10-15 minutes (rotate your pans around while cooking).

*If you want to make these into chocolate zucchini breakfast cookies, use 1 level cup wheat flour, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, just 1/4 tsp cinnamon, and add in some chocolate chips if you want something truly decadent. You still may need to add more flour depending on your zucchini that day and what sweetener you use.

**Other varieties: Banana

For apple or pumpkin, just replace the zucchini with applesauce or pumpkin puree, easy and yummy! Get creative! I keep thinking of making a carrot cake version sometime, if you do it first, tell me!

New Bread Recipe

So, I had a bread recipe I had been using for about a year that for some reason was becoming unremarkable to me. I decided to go back searching, and remembered a King Arthur recipe I liked. I made it a couple times, but it was too orange-y to me. So I modified it a bit and came up with something nice and light and it really does keep well. There is nothing "weird" in the recipe that you have to search for except the vital wheat gluten (I buy it in bulk from amazon).

10 ounces warm water

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup dried milk (you can just use warm milk instead of the water)

1/2 cup instant potato flakes

2 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp some kind of oil/butter (I use extra light olive oil but canola or a low flavor vegetable oil would work best)

1-2 tbsp vital wheat gluten (you generally need less in the summer, if your bread is gummy, use less)

1.5 tsp salt

3.5 cups white whole wheat flour*

2.5 tsp instant yeast

I combine all the ingredients in an order recommended by my bread machine but you could use standard bread making procedures. After its kneaded (and whole wheat needs a good long knead) and risen, shape it into a loaf pan (metal works best, and actually I use three mini loaf pans because it keeps better if the loaf hasn't been cut into), cover and let rise again. Place bread into a cold oven, turn the oven on to 350 and set the timer for 20 minutes. If you use a regular metal loaf pan it will take longer (about 30 minutes), but my mini loaves are done at 20. Take it out of the oven and immediately out of the pans and let cool, then store in a ziploc bag.

*I use freshly ground white wheat flour. If you use wheat from the store you may need to use less. Sometimes I need less/more depending on the humidity anyways, so just make sure it has formed a nice ball and isn't too sticky while kneading.

**Metal is better by far than glass (I found some good pans at Kroger recently, and bonus, they were cheap, but still bake really well!). If you use a glass loaf pan you may also need to cover it with tin foil to prevent too much browning on top.

Paul is Two!

Happy Birthday silly boy!  I don’t dare want to jinx myself, but he has seemed a little mellower lately.  I really doubt the terrible twos are going to be all peaches and cream though!  You all need to wish me luck too though, John will be moving into Paul’s room soon!  Yikes!

A couple photos of the birthday boy.

We get to have Boy oh Boy! tonight.  Maybe I should share the recipe on the blog huh?  Its an old Wilson favorite, Luke’s favorite actually which is good because its for his birthday too!  I decided we didn’t need two treats this week!