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Bread stuffing

Bread Stuffing Recipe…or is it Dressing?

Bread Stuffing Recipe

This recipe may be downloaded, sent to the printer and picked up on your way to the kitchen.

It happens every year, about two weeks before Thanksgiving. The obsession resurfaces, creeping in, taking over my subconscious, making my stomach growl. Thanksgiving dinner. Stuffing. I use a friend’s bread stuffing recipe that makes my mouth water! I like to keep it simple and tasty. Our stuffing has never been fancy. Nana made a potato based stuffing. Or was it dressing? Stuffing? Dressing? What do you call it?

I make a bread based stuffing when it’s my turn to host Thanksgiving dinner and when I’m stuffing a roasting chicken. I sometimes make stuffing to go with chicken pieces. Stuffing doesn’t have to be stuffed, after all. Maybe that’s when it becomes dressing! Maybe stuffing is dressing when it’s a side dish.

Bread stuffing recipe

Sourdough bread will add flavor to your stuffing.

Saving stale bread is a time saver. It doesn’t matter what kind of bread I’ve made, it works. Remember the sour dough bread we made using the Pickle Pro for the starter? The flavor of sour dough adds a lot to stuffing.

If you don’t have stale bread you can make bread specifically for stuffing. I use whatever bread recipe I’m making at the time and add Italian or poultry seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder and pepper to half the batch of bread. Bake it as usual. You can add more seasonings when you make the stuffing if necessary.

Bread Stuffing Recipe

Bread stuffing recipe

Tear the bread into large pieces. It will condense when you add chicken broth.

This recipe is based on one pound of bread. Multiply as needed. It’s best if made a day ahead of time. Store in the refrigerator overnight. Stuff the turkey (or chicken) right before roasting, or bake in a buttered casserole or Dutch oven. This is great cooked ahead of time and reheated. I put it in the oven to warm when the turkey has finished cooking and is resting before carving.

Tear one pound of bread into large pieces. It will condense when you add stock.
4 medium celery stalks, chopped
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 tsp ground or 2 tsp fresh sage (I use a lot more as I love sage)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 to 1 1/2 cups turkey or chicken stock

Combine all ingredients, adding stock slowly until you get the consistency you want.

 

How to Make Popcorn on the Stove

How to Make Popcorn on the Stove

Earlier sunsets lead to earlier evenings which lead to movie and game nights.

Do you flavor your popcorn in a certain way? We love a little homemade butter with grated Parmesan cheese and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning. It’s our current favorite but it changes from time to time.

Our stainless steel stove top popper is built to last. The handles stay cool. The lid vents to let steam out to keep your popcorn tender and light.

how to make popcorn on the stove, popcorn popper, old fashioned popcorn

Old fashioned popcorn is the best!

Popping corn on the stove takes only a minute or two more than tossing a bag into the microwave. Stove top popcorn is healthy and tastes yummy, and it’s adaptable to the seasons. I’m thinking of trying one of the Pumpkin Pie spice recipes in last week’s newsletter.

Pour two tablespoons of oil (coconut or olive) into the popcorn popper.

Add 1/2 cup popcorn kernels to the oil.

Place the popper on a burner and turn the stove on to medium to medium-high heat. Stoves vary so much that there’s no absolute setting. From the time you turn the heat on until the last kernels pop should span about three minutes.  Start turning the handle as soon as you turn on the heat and don’t stop until the popping is finished. When more than six or seven seconds passes between pops your corn is done.

Powdered Ranch salad dressing is a great topping. A little goes a long way so one packet will last for at least two cups of unpopped popcorn. Look through your packets of seasoning. There might be a few you can use on popcorn. Taco or Fajita seasoning are great. Try a soup mix like French Onion, but sift out the solid onions first.

Cinnamon toast popcorn is an old time favorite. Mix cinnamon and sugar in a 50/50 blend and sprinkle over hot popcorn.

Back when we ate chips, Salt ‘n Vinegar was a favorite, and luckily it’s easy to make Salt ‘n Vinegar popcorn. Spray malt vinegar on popcorn and sprinkle with salt.

Chocolate popcorn, anyone? Melt semi-sweet or dark chocolate in a double boiler. Pour over popcorn and sprinkle with salt before the chocolate cools and sets.

Once you know how to make popcorn on the stove the possibilities are endless. What kind of popcorn do you like?

 

Ultimate Cheese Press Instructional Video

The Ultimate Cheese Press and More!

Wardee from GNOWFGLINS shows us how to use The Ultimate Cheese Press step by step. It’s very simple and seeing it in action lets us know we’re doing it just right.

You’ll find supplies you need to make cheese on our website. Calcium chloride and lipase are here.  Cheesecloth and muslin.  We have a great variety of cultures.

Do you need drying racks, funnels and other cheese making tools? We have two cheese making books. And kits. We have great cheese making kits.

And there’s more! You’ll find more cheese making supplies here.

Cheese Recipes

Bay, basil, sage, roasted bell pepper and olive oil makes a delicious marinade.

Bay, basil, sage, roasted bell pepper and olive oil makes a delicious marinade.

Farmer's Cheese with Garlic & Chive seasoning. Ultimate Cheese Press can be used to form a wheel.

Farmer’s Cheese with Garlic Chive seasoning

We’re proud of our American made products. Made in the USA, they keep our dollars in not just our country but in our communities.

Homemade Summer Drinks From Your Kitchen

Homemade Summer Drinks

Homemade Summer Drinks

Homemade Summer Drinks

Ahhh summer! It’s time for delicious homemade summer drinks that quench your thirst, taste great and are healthy. These recipes are child friendly. They can be turned into an adult beverage with the addition of your choice of alcohol. We know a lot of fruit and sweetener can be out of the question for many diabetics so we have a smoothie recipe that’s suitable for most everyone.

Garnishes are easy ways to make homemade summer drinks prettier and might add some flavor. Edible flowers such as chive blossoms, violets and rose petals are perfect. Be sure they haven’t been sprayed with pesticide. Sprigs of mint are great, and an established plant will continue to grow and provide more sprigs.

It’s easy to substitute fresh fruit in your summer beverages as they come into season. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, gooseberries, plums, watermelon, cantaloupe, peaches, grapes, apricots…the list is long.

Freezing fruit to use in place of ice cubes will keep your beverage from being watered down as the fruit thaws. Pureeing fruit before freezing is a nice treat. As it melts you’ll be able to drink the fruit through a straw so you don’t lose it beneath the ice.

Coconut Peach Lemonade

  • 1 tablespoon honey or agave
  • 2 cups of coconut water
  • 2 peaches, peeled and pit removed
  • Juice from five lemons
  • ice
  • garnish – peach slice, spring of mint or a slice of lemon is nice

Put everything but the garnish in the blender. Blend on high until you reach the consistency of a Smoothie. Pour into a tall glass. Garnish and serve with a tall straw.

Freeze strawberries for "ice" cubes that won't water down your beverage.

Freeze strawberries for “ice” cubes that won’t water down your beverage.

Strawberry Watermelon Lemonade

It’s hard to beat sweet, juicy watermelon and strawberries on a hot summer day.

  • 3 cups of watermelon, seeds removed
  • 1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries. Slice one cup, leave 1/2 cup whole.
  • 1/4 cup agave or honey
  • 1/2 cup lemon juice
  • 4 cups sparkling water

Combine watermelon, 1 cup strawberries, agave or honey, and lemon juice in the blender. Blend until smooth, approximately 30 seconds. Stir in sparkling water and pour into glasses. Garnish with a strawberry.

Peach Smoothie

  • 1/2 cup sugar free yogurt, peach or vanilla flavor
  • 1 peach, peeled and chopped
  • 1/2 cup skim milk
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 cup ice

Combine all ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.

 

How to leave fast food behind and eat inexpensively at home

It’s sad that it is cheaper to feed your family at McDonalds than to provide a balanced meal for your family..

For example – if all they can afford is crap, and they don’t have the resources to grow their own they could be at a real disadvantage.

These are two of the comments made on Homesteader’s Supply Facebook page. Balanced meals don’t have to be expensive, or complicated. They can be much healthier than fast food. We can leave fast food behind and eat inexpensively.

It takes a bit of time to prepare and cook a good meal. The time can be spent teaching children to cook, a skill that’s being lost in a large portion of our youngsters. Food for thought: In the big picture of life, is it more important to have children in three after school and extra curricular programs that keep us too busy to cook and eat well than it is to teach our kids to cook? Let’s get off the road a little and into the kitchen more, where we can share some quality family time.

9

9″ stainless steel pie pan.

Here is a recipe for quiche to help us get started. Quiche is great for breakfast, lunch or dinner. For a grab-and-go breakfast use muffin tins instead of the pie plate, no crust needed. I browsed the online flyer a Hannaford, a grocery store chain, and the paper flyer from Food Mart to get prices.

Broccoli & Cheese Quiche

One dozen eggs
1/2 pound chopped broccoli
1/2 pound grated cheese
One pie crust
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp Italian seasoning

Scramble the eggs and add seasonings. Use seasonings you like. A quarter-teaspoon of crushed red pepper adds zing without heat. Garlic powder is also good. If the broccoli is frozen you should thaw, drain and pat it dry. Mix everything together and pour into the crust-lined pie plate.

Serving sizes are out of proportion these days. One serving of meat is three to four ounces. That’s the size of a deck of play cards (not Uno or other large game cards). Keep the number of servings you need for the entire day in mind. You have three meals and possibly a snack to get all that you need to be healthy and fit.

Variations: spinach, onion, mushrooms, artichoke, dandelion greens. What’s available in the garden?

Bake at 350* for 45 minutes.

To cut down on costs:

  • use brick cheese that you grate yourself
  • chopped broccoli is less expensive than pieces when using frozen
  • use broccoli stems, not just the tops

Eight servings. $7.20 total.
Eggs – $3.00
1 pie crust – $1.15
Cheese – $2.20
Chopped broccoli – .60 cents
Seasoning – .25 cents

Serving cost: .90 cents.

Eating healthy, homemade meals probably means dietary changes if you’re used to swinging through the drive through on a regular basis. Change can be difficult and fun. Try to avoid overwhelming everyone. You might cause a revolt. Keep it fun.