KJV Bible verse: Psalm 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
Devotional: "Renewing Your Mind" www.ligonier.org
Housekeeping: We are currently out-of town, so I don't have to worry about today's housekeeping, but here is the link to my favorite site: www.flylady.com
Exercise: Other than running around after my kids today, I am giving myself the weekend off. The weather is awful, as it has been all week, and remember, I am out-of-town for the weekend. So I have a pretty good, solid excuse.
Now for the pictures and stories. Last Friday found me in quite an ambitious mood and I happily opened my almond flour and coconut flour to learn how to use them in my bread making. Don't forget, I am still using my wheat flours in my standard bread recipes with increasing proportions of almond flour and coconut flour.
In the picture above, I have sifted together the bread (wheat) flour, almond flour and coconut flour in a three: one: one ratio according to my bread machine recipe's 4 cups of flour requirement. Here is my nifty bread machine. This particular model will knead, rise, second knead, second rise and bake your bread. I set the machine and let it go. I tried to restrain myself, but I did peek into the window at the top of the machine with quite a bit of frequency.
Finally, the machine beeped the end tones and these is what I found upon opening the top:
Hmmmm, not the height or size that I expected. The smell is divine but the physical appearance seems to indicate that it did not rise properly. Here is what it looked like after removing it from the pan:
I put a towel over it and let it cool a bit and cut into it.
Just as I suspected, the bread did not rise correctly. Hopefully you can tell from the picture, the bread is entirely too dense. I tried a bite and the taste was delicious, just too dense. A huge improvement over the foccocia bread I attempted with the start of this blog. Now, why do you do with (another) loaf of bread that you really can't eat as bread and you're loathe to throw away anything, even your failures? We had already used one of my failures in as a cornbread/bread dressing recipe so what else could I use this for?? In my Southern Living Cookbook, I found a breakfast casserole recipe that I could adjust and use. I cut the bread into cubes and whisked together eggs, some milk, sour cream and seasonings (salt and pepper.) I grated cheddar, colby and parmesan cheeses and began assembly of the casserole.
The directions for the recipe read to cover and chill 8 hours or overnight, so into the refrigerator it went for our breakfast the next day. Crossing my fingers and saying a quick prayer that this concoction would break my streak of attempts and failures.
Next on my menu agenda was chili. Many people have a standard way of making chili using a seasoning packet that is easy to find at your local grocery store. However, if you check the packets, most of them use wheat flour as a thickener. Since I am trying to monitor the amount of wheat, I will use my own seasonings for this dish. I started with browning 2 lbs. of ground chuck. I seasoned the beef with a sprinkle of salt, pepper, minced garlic, minced onion, diced green and red bell peppers. I drained the grease from the mixture after the beef was throughly cooked and set aside. In my slow cooker, I put a jar of plain spaghetti sauce, a can of diced tomatoes, a can of black beans that have been rinsed and these seasonings: oregano, ground cumin, ground chipotle pepper, ground chili peppers, red pepper flakes, and some crushed rosemary. I apologize that I don't have precise measurements listed. I have cooked chili so many times that I do my seasonings from intuition now instead of precise measurements. After checking the taste of the sauce and deciding if it's about right, then I put in my browned meat mixture. I love to sneak in vegetables in my recipes so today I am sneaking collard greens into my chili. I cut it into small squares with my kitchen shears, probably close to 1 cup of cut up collard greens. And instead of using any wheat or corn product as a thickener, I use canned pumpkin. I usually only need a tablespoon or two to get my chili the consistency that I like. I set the slow cooker preset on low and slow, which is 8 hours of low heat. I checked the taste after about 4 hours and make adjustments to my seasonings if necessary. I check the taste again before serving. Here is my end result:
Yippee!! Thank the Lord for a meal of truly delicious food. My family was also very grateful and ate lots. In fact, the above picture is what was left over. The large slow cooker was full of chili and my hungry family gobbled it up so pictured is only about 8 cups of leftovers. :)
From glowing success to dismal failure: the breakfast casserole. The next morning, I woke early and pulled the breakfast casserole from the refrigerator to put it in the oven. I made coffee, set the timer and set the table with my expectations high. Beep, beep, beep; it's ready.
Looks yummy; smells yummy. Let's cut into it and check the taste.
How disappointing! The casserole recipe wasn't enough to compensate for the bread. The top of the casserole, where all the cheeses were was pretty good but the interior and bottom wasn't tasty at all. What do you do with a breakfast casserole that was an attempt to salvage an inedible bread? Why give it to the dogs and cats, of course. There weren't any ingredients that were bad for cats nor dogs within my bread or breakfast casserole and since eggs are a great source of protein and cheese is really tasty, it made perfectly good sense to give my failed recipe to the pets. They were very pleased and cleaned their plates. I'm so glad that someone like it.
At this point, I felt I should take a break from my wheat-less cooking plans. I expressed my dismay to my mother who replied that I should completely abandon my quest. Later, when I talked it over with my husband, he said something that I think will stay with me the rest of my life. He said, "Anybody can quit." Which means, anyone can give up a project but it takes perseverance for someone to keep going even when they encounter failure. I'm not sure if he realizes that it was exactly the encouragement that I needed to hear. :)
I may flutter when I try to fly; I may stumble when I try to run but I keep trying and I keep aiming for a better life.
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