Monday, June 15, 2009

Rhubarb shortcake? Rhubarb bread?

I was looking though this wonderful book for a bread recipe to make veggie roll up sandwiches: Uprisings, The Whole Grain Bakers' Book Ed. By Michael Arthur, Kathy Gaskin, Lew Kidder and Jean Marvel. I bought it at a thrift store for twenty-five cents. All the recipes are written by hand. Here's a pic: Photobucket

I came across this recipe for Rice Bread, which is described as being a good substitute for biscuits in shortcake. Hmmmm...I wonder? I had some rhubarb in "sauce" leftover from making a rhubarb pie last week. (Yum! Why have I never tried rhubarb before?!?!) I thought it might be softer from soaking in the sugar mixture for almost a week & that cooking it IN the bread might be enough cooking. It turned out beautiful looking & really good, but not great, tasting. But definitely something I'm going to tweak, because it had a lot of promise.

Here's the bread recipe:
2 1/2 c warm water
1 T yeast

Dissolve yeast in a bowl in the water.

Add & beat well w/ an egg beater or wire whisk:
1 T oil
1/2 t salt
1/2 c sunflower seeds
1/4 c rolled oats
1/4 c soy flour
2 c rice flour
1/2 c millet flour

Pour into well-greased pans and let rise uncovered for 20-30 min. Handle gently at all times or batter will collapse.

Once I got this bread in a pie tin, I added my rhubarb, which was half of this recipe, from the cookbook I grew up using, Betty Crocker's Cookbook.

1 1/2 - 1 2/3 c sugar
1/3 c flour
1/2 t grated orange peel (opt)
4 c chopped rhubarb (1/2 inch slices)
2 T margarine or butter

I was planned on topping the rhubarb with additional batter, but the rhubarb sunk to the bottom.

I baked at 375 for 40 minutes.

I changed out soy flour for garbanzo bean flour, as I had no soy flour & the rhubarb had no orange peel for the same reason.

Here's what I ended up with:
Photobucket

Ignore the dirty stove, if you will.

It would be awesome warm, with tea. I didn't care for the texture of the sunflower seeds, so I will try chopping them a bit on the next try. Also, the rhubarb needs to be chopped finer before going into this bread or pre-cooked on the stove a bit. Some of the pieces were a little...crunchy.

So, I'd say, a successful experiement. I'm looking forward to more time playing in the kitchen, now that I'm not tied to the school schedule. And those girls of mine love to put on their aprons and help their mama!

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Gratitudes of the past 10 days...

- no longer having an infant in the house (as much as I love babies, I think I am done caring for them)
- kindergarten graduates!
- no longer having to wake to an alarm
- weddings!
- finding a nice outfit + shoes at the thrift store for me for less than 1 dress I bought the twins. (score!)
- having lots of time to vist friends, be outside & craft
- getting Hubby onboard with the "healthy eating" plan

maybe now I can start actually posting pics occasionally...

Thursday, June 4, 2009

I keep trying to be grateful

of my health, so that I will shake this cold! but it's not working!!! (insert image of me jumping up & down like a toddler) 5 days of antibiotics & I STILL have a "full ear" feeling in the ear that had the infection & post nasal drip which makes me cough, which keeps me up, which keeps me from getting the healing sleep I need. What gives?

BUT despite this dip in my immune system, I have other things to be grateful for:
- beautiful weather
- enough energy to rearrange furniture
- outdoor concert with a picnic dinner
- making something for dinner that the girls liked for once

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

My health

I'm so thankful to be healthy.
I'm so thankful for healing medicines.
I'm so thankful that I am mindful of when I don't need medicines & when I DO.