Raisin Walnut Bread

After blogging yesterday about baking bread, I had to share with you the new bread I baked yesterday afternoon. From the title you can see it's Raisin Walnut Bread. I used an Oatmeal Bread recipe from the book "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day." I made a few substitutions, like using honey because I didn't have maple syrup. And I used a whole cup of sprouted whole wheat flour and left out the oat and wheat bran. Then when the dough was ready, I took out a 1/3 of the dough; and after lightly flouring the bread and the counter, I rolled it out, sprinkled on raisins and walnuts, rolled it up and put it in a loaf pan, let it rise, and then baked. OOOhhhh my!!!! It smelled so good! I also used Black Walnuts I bought at one of the local farmers' markets in my area. If you've ever tasted Black Walnuts, you know they have a stronger flavor than English Walnuts. We had this bread this morning with breakfast, toasted, with cream cheese. This bread was absolutely delicious! I bet it would make good French Toast, too!

First Snow Day of 2010

Today is my kids' first snow day of the year and they are glad. We have a little over 2 inches of snow here today and the weatherman says it's going to turn bitterly cold by this afternoon and will be through the weekend.

Ended up bringing another goat kid to the house to get dry and warm. He wasn't eating much, but now he is. He went back to the barn yesterday afternoon. Keep the oldest one in the house overnight, but this morning I asked hubby to take him back as well. He's not eating as much as I'd like, but he is doing fine and I'm tired of cleaning up goat pee and poop. His mama had "adopted" the other does' baby that remained at the barn. How funny for the baby goat to have 2 mamas fussing over him. Hubby rubbed the kid on his mama so he'd smell like her, but if she doesn't take care of him it's okay. We always bottle feed all the baby goats anyway.

I have sourdough rising to make a loaf of sourdough bread and sourdough pretzels. Promised hubby I'd make pretzels over the Christmas break and haven't done that yet.

Because of caring for the new baby goats, I only made 2 batches of soap this week. So much for that New Year's Resolution! I made Castile soap on Monday and coffee soap yesterday. This afternoon I will wrap the Oatmeal & Honey, after I bake the bread and pretzels.

But first, it's time to heat up goat milk for the goat babies and take warm water to the rest of the animals and gather eggs. We aren't getting many eggs right now and hopefully they haven't frozen.

Canning, Soap Making, Baking Bread, and Knitting

Had a busy week last week.  I've started baking bread to sell at the farmers' markets along with my goat milk soaps.  So I spent last Tuesday baking until it was time to leave for the market.  Wednesday morning was another market.  Afterwards I drove to my parents' farm and picked up 3 boxes full of green beans that Daddy had picked earlier in the day.  I put in them in the freezer and finished that job around midnight.  

I spent 5 hours Thursday at the shop where repairs were made on my Durango.  To pass the time, I finished a pair of hand knit socks for #2 daughter and started on another pair.  I have lots of wool socks now, so I thought I'd knit a pair to sell at one of my craft shows this fall.  While at the Saturday morning farmers' market I was telling an acquaintance of mine about this pair of socks and she wants to buy them.  She doesn't care what color or pattern I make them; she just wants a pair of socks that I knitted.

I canned a double batch of spaghetti sauce, as well as a double batch of salsa last Friday.  I didn't have enough spaghetti sauce to fill the last jar, so I made spaghetti and meatballs for supper tonight, along with 2 baguette shaped loaves of artisan herb bread.  The French chevre goat cheese, seasoned with Ranch seasoning, that I made was delicious on this bread.    I ate some on my sandwich at lunchtime, too.  

We're getting lots of goat milk right now, and I have another batch of French chevre sitting until the morning, when I'll drain it and put it in the freezer.  Hubby is patiently waiting for me to make feta cheese.  He really likes the marinated feta.  Timewise, I won't be able to make that particular cheese until later in the week.  I think we need to seriously consider buying an ice cream maker to make home-made ice cream with all the milk we're getting now.  The goatie girls are really producing!!!  Hubby is milking three right now, and we're still waiting for one of the does to give birth anytime.

Tomorrow is Market Day.  I have a batch of artisan herb bread dough in the fridge and will bake it tomorrow.  I have an order for 2 loaves of that bread.  I mixed up another batch of sourdough refrigerator rolls and they are in the fridge until tomorrow morning.  I plan to bake a double-batch of the garlic dinner rolls since they sell out quickly, just ahead of the sourdough rolls....which are wonderful with another vendor's honey spread on top!

I was finally able to make soap today!  Yeah!  I made Smokey Patchouli goat milk soap...not my favorite; and a new scented soap....Magnolia Magnifique.  I wasn't sure what to expect other than it was a floral, but it smells really nice so far.   Have more soap making to go as I'm out of Lavender, Frankincense & Myrrh, plain lye soap, and low on other scents.

Well, it's my bedtime, so I'd better get off of this computer.  I have a busy day tomorrow baking breads and rolls. 

Time is Flying!

Well, here it is September and I haven't posted for over a month!   Hubby and I took #1 Daughter to airport 3 weeks ago and she is now living across the country in the Desert Southwest.  

I've canned lots of pepper jelly, a few tomatoes, and a batch of spaghetti sauce.  Not much else is doing really well in my garden except for the jalapenos.  Speaking of which, it's time to pick them again, and then make more jelly.

My 2 younger kids started a new school year 3 weeks ago.  And  since this coming Monday is Labor Day, they'll have a day off and so will Hubby.  We were thinking of visiting Elephant Rock State Park for the day, but I guess we'll wait and see.  May just grill or smoke something here and enjoy the day at home.

I had a tour at our small farm this past Monday morning.  It was fun!  Four moms and their 2 year olds came out to see the baby goats.  I had the babies' milk bottles ready so the tots could feed them.  First off though, the goats were in the woods and all came to the barn when I called, except that they left the youngest baby goat in the woods by himself.  So I hurried out to find him and he followed me back to the barn.  He was the most playful and the 3 little girls and 1 little boy could hug and pet him; and he followed them all around the barn and the field.   The moms took lots of pictures.

I'm trying something new for two of my three farmers' markets.  In addition to selling my soaps, I made home-made breads and dinner rolls this last week.  I sold everything but 2 breads at the Tuesday market.  Of those two,  I gave one away and the other one sold at my Wednesday morning market first thing before I even finished setting up.  That night I searched the internet and found some sources for bread bags and bought 2 cases.  Guess that means I have to bake breads now so the bags don't go to waste.  Ha, ha!  I recently bought a new Artisan bread book and it has lots of great recipe ideas.  In fact, I made couple of the breads in this book and sold them at the farmers' market.  I have some Deli Rye Bread rising right now and will bake it later to go with our supper.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to spend much time knitting.  However, I had to take my vehicle into the shop this morning and I did finish a dishcloth.  Something mindless to work on while waiting.   

I haven't been able to make soap lately, but I finally made a batch of Black Raspberry-Vanilla.  It seems to be the "It" fragrance this summer.  It will be ready to sell before the market season is over.

The kids are home from school now, so I should go and get their snacks ready.