Whole Wheat Multi-Grain Bread ~ Recipe

Yummy Whole Wheat Multi-Grain Bread

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

Last week our cupboards resembled Old Mother Hubbard's.

Yet I adamantly resisted going grocery shopping. Because it is not my favorite thing to do. You can read the post here.

Bread was in zero supply, so I looked in the cupboard and we had yeast packets! I decided to make bread. I know, lots of work. But anything to avoid hitting the supermarket aisles.

Enjoy!

Whole Wheat Multi-Grain Bread

Ingredients:

2 pkgs. active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups lukewarm milk (scalded and cooled)
1/4 cup honey
3 T. shortening
1 tsp. salt
4-5 cups whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour
3/4 cup chopped sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and almond flour (mixed together)
1/2 cup oatmeal (lightly ground in coffee grinder)
softened butter

Directions:

In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk, honey, shortening, salt, white flour, and 2 cups whole wheat flour. Mix together.

Add oatmeal and grains plus enough whole wheat flour to make dough easy to handle.

Turn dough out onto floured counter. Knead about 10 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Roll into a ball. Put in a shortening greased bowl, turning once to cover all sides with shortening. Cover. Set bowl in warm spot and let rise until double (about 1 hour).

Punch down dough. Divide in half. Roll each half out into a rectangle. Tightly (but gently) roll the dough into a loaf and place seam-side down in a greased loaf pan. Repeat with second loaf. Lightly brush tops with butter. Cover and let rise for another hour, or until doubled.

Heat oven to 425 and put oven racks on a lower setting so the bread tops rest in the center of the oven. Bake until loaves are toasty brown and sound hollow when thumped, about 30 minutes.

Remove loaves from pans, place on cooling racks, and spread butter on top. Cool and enjoy!

My well-loved and much used pre-marriage cookbook

The original recipe came from my Betty Crocker's Cookbook (Golden, New and Revised Edition) that I've had since before I was married (pre-1985). The name inscribed on the inside front cover is Angie Hill.

In fact, there is no title page, as it has fallen out during some previous cooking escapade. We now start things off on page 7 and discuss how to care for and prepare meat.

***My recipe for Whole Wheat Multi-Grain Bread has been adjusted and adapted to our tastes - less salt, more grains, and a mix of whole wheat and white flour.

Old Mother Hubbard Says It's Time to Go Grocery Shopping

A sweet potato and a few onions...

By Angie Quantrell @AngieQuantrell

You do know the nursery rhyme about Old Mother Hubbard, right?

Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor doggy a bone.

When she got there,
The cupboard was bare,
So the poor little doggy had none.

Presenting, on life's stage, Old Mother Hubbard.
Played by Angie.

Seriously.

Old Mother Hubbard needs to go shopping for groceries. Now.

I resist grocery shopping. I don't know why. I will scrounge, create, and do everything I can to make it last just one more day. All to avoid grocery shopping.

Maybe it's the lines, the crowds, the cost, the forgetting something on the opposite end of the store and making repeat trips, the foraging through produce to find the freshest, the struggle to open produce bags, touching raw meat packages...

Probably it's the having to take it all home and put it away.

But I so love having food to use when I prepare meals!

We are down to wilted celery, one sweet potato, a few onions, and garlic. Oh, I think there may be a dried up bit of ginger hanging around as well and some frozen peas and corn. Almost out of milk, yogurt, and bread.

Two pieces of frozen salmon and one package of frozen ground turkey make up the protein portion of our diet (per what is in the fridge/pantry/cupboard). I suppose I could count the canned chicken and tuna.

Well, that sounds like I have plenty for another day of Grocery Store Avoidance.

Yippee!


Frozen Food Tip:
Guess what?! The package directions actually work for frozen brussel sprouts! I've never even glanced at the directions, but did so last night on a whim. You can MICROWAVE the entire package - and they come out perfectly moist and not soggy and gross!

Eggs Benedict Delight

break the fast mouthful
lemon yellow saucy bite
egg and ham divine

~ Angie Quantrell

My first EVER attempt to make Eggs Benedict. This was a treat for my honey, who loves this dish. Too lemony was the hollandaise sauce, so back to adjusting the recipe I go. But there were no curdled eggs and a nice rich sauce covered the poached eggs and ham. I consider my maiden voyage on the ship named Hollandaise & Poached Eggs a success.

For me, this was Boxing Day - cooking outside our usual breakfast rut.

Happy Boxing Day to those who celebrate in more traditional ways!