Lemon Bread

So, I'm all about easy recipes.  Something to whip up quickly to serve to guests or to have in the freezer ready for those pop in visits.  This recipe has to be the easiest recipe to make and the most delicious!  Super easy and super delicious!

Here are all the ingredients that you need for this recipe. (Minus the glaze).

Put in a mixing bowl
1 box of lemon cake mix
1 box of instant lemon pudding
1/2 cup salad oil (vegetable oil is what I used)
1 cup water
4 Eggs

Mix them together, put in well greased bread pans (4 small ones or 2 big ones....I always do the 2 big ones).  Put in preheated oven, 350 for 32-35 minutes.  It is done when you can take a tooth pick and put it in the center and have it come out clean.  If it has crumbs on it, then cook it a bit longer.

Take out of oven and immediately put them on a cooling rack.  They can stick to the pan if you don't, so the sooner you can flip em out, the better.

Now for the glaze:
Take 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 tsp almond extract and a little milk.  The less milk you use, the thicker the glaze will be.  The more milk you use, the runnier.  I use about 2 tablespoons.  Mix together and drizzle over the top of the bread when it is still warm. It will sort of "crustify" (is that a word?) on the bread and be heavenly.  I usally do one coat, let it cool and then put another on for good measure.  All slices have to have a good amount of glaze right?  I don't want to short anyone.

There we go!  Super duper easy and good, definitely try it out!

 (I was out of almond extract so I used vanilla today. Not as delicious as almond but yummy all in all!)

Pumpkins, pumpkins and more pumpkins!

So, being blessed with great family and friends, I have the advantage of getting lots of stuff from them.  My friend Erin came into town and blessed me with A LOT of pumpkins to freeze.  I don't have a pressure cooker so I couldn't can it, so freezing was my only option.





 First I started with my abundance of pumpkins.  I washed them all, took the stems off, cut them all in half and gutted them.  Should'a done pumpkin seeds too but I didn't have that much energy.

 Cut in half.

Gutted!

After they are gutted, put them on a sprayed pan (I used Pam) and cut side down.  Put in preheated oven of 350 degrees and cook for about 1 hour each pan.

On the left is the before cooking.  The right is the after cooking.

When they done in the oven, cool them on a cooling rack until you can handle them.  Take a fork (or spoon) and scrape the pumpkin "inards" into a food processor.  Then here is the technical term for what you need to do.  Wipe the heck out of em!  You turn that puppy on high speed and get it good and smooth.  You might have to take a spatula and scrap the sides a few times to get the left overs puree'd.

Put them in freezer bags, label em (I put them in 2 cup bags) and put them in the freezer.  All done!  I ended up with 78 cups total of pumpkin (39 bags frozen).








So you may wonder what to do with all that pumpkin.  Consider those frozen bags of wonderful pumpkin to be your 1 can of pumpkin from the store for pies, cakes, breads, muffins, or my now favorite, Pumpkin roll.  I'll post that recipe soon.  My friend Angie gave it to me and when I made it for a house warming party, it was a HIT!  Delicious!

Tis the season of apples!

Fall to me is the best season.  Cooler temperatures, school back in session and apples are ready for the picking.  I love apples, eating them, baking with them and looking at them.  Heavenly!  So today I felt like baking apple crisp, a good ol' past time of me and one of the easiest recipes I know.  So I thought I would share.

First you get a pan, any size you want. Depends on if you want to share the goods or not.  I made a smaller pan today.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Peel and slice the apples into the pan, filling it up to be about 1 inch or 1 1/2 inch thick (more or less, depending on what you want, it isn't picky.)

I usually sprinkle the tops of my apples after they are sliced with cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg but it isn't necessary, all what you want.  Some apples are so delicious that they don't need any seasoning on it.

Now the fun part.  I use to make the topping when I was a kid and eat it, thus now my weight problem probably. LOL  This, like the apples, isn't very picky.  It all depends on how much crumbly stuff you want and if you are making a big or little pan. For a 9x13 pan, I usually make this recipe:

3/4 cup butter (DO NOT SUBSTITUTE, IT GETS RUNNY!)
1 cup flour
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup brown sugar

Now here is the secret that was passed down from my wonderful grandma that makes or breaks this recipe.

When mixing the topping stuff together, always mix the butter and flour together first.  The butter should be soft but not runny and use a fork to blend it together.  It should make a clumpy paste in the bowl.  Then you add the brown sugar and the oatmeal in, with the end product being a nice crumbly consistency.  Take it, put it on top of the apples and into the oven it goes.

Bake for 60 minutes, but keep an eye on it, sometimes it might get done earlier, depending on the size of the pan.  The top should be a nice golden brown and you could even have some juices bubbling over the sides (make sure you put a pan under the pan to catch it so it doesn't drop in the oven and stink it up like something is on fire...yes, personal experience was involved in this.)

Final product, delicious.  Top it with ice cream, caramel or even whipped cream. 

Best part of the fall!

New To Blogging

Well, I've joined this 21st century.  Welcome to blogging!  So, my desire to start blogging started with my love for recipes.  I love trying new foods, new recipes and new things.  I just recently started canning things and have always had a love for baking. I also love to share my recipes with family and friends and love baking for them also. 

So tonight, I made some homemade Finnish Limpa Bread (Flat bread) for a cousin that is watching my boys tomorrow.  I've always been asked for recipes and have given them out a few times, but tonight it hit me, why not start a blog!  Then when I make things that I love, I can share so someone else can love them too!

So here is my recipe for my Finnish Limpa Bread, which my mother gave me many years ago.

1. Dissolve 3 packages of dry active yeast in a 1/2 cup of warm water. (Warm water to me runs about 115 degrees on a thermometer.)

2. Mix together-

4 cups warm water
2 tsp salt
2 cups whole wheat flour or graham flour (I usually use whole wheat)
2 Tbsp molasses
2 Tbsp sugar
1/3 cup shortening

When all mixed together, add the yeast and let sit for 20 minutes.  The mixture should look all bubbly and almost foamy.  It's doing what it is suppose to.

3. Take 8 cups flour (you can use white, you can use wheat, whatever floats your boat) and add it cup by cup to the foamy mixture.  I usually get to about 6 cups and then will need to knead it.  Sometimes I don't use all 8 cups, sometimes I use a bit more.  Depends on what you want.  At about 6 cups, I will sprinkle my counter with flour and knead it until its to the right consistancy (not very sticky but not tough).  When ready, set it in a bowl, put a towel over it and put it someplace warm. 

4. Fun part!  Now, take the bowl with the bread and take off the towel.  It should be about an hour later.  The bread should be twice it's size.  Then punch it down.  It should deflate.  Use your sprinkled flour counter and take the bread out of the bowl.  It might stick a bit to the sides, scrap it clean if you want.  Then get the bread into one big ball and cut it into 4 loaves.  I like bigger loaves so 4 is good for me but you can do 6 or even 8.

5.  Once the bread is seperated, take the dough and form into the loaves you want.  I make mine oval.  Put on a greased cookie sheet (I put 2 on a sheet) and cover with a towel again.  Let it rise again to whatever size you want.  If you like a flatter bread, then let it rise to like a 1/2 inch and poke it with a fork.  When it has raised to the size you want, put it in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for 35 minutes.

6. The secret that I've found is to not cook it too long. I check mine at 25 minutes and if it is brown on top, I knock it like a door.  If it sounds hollow, it's done.  Take it out, put it on a cooling rack.  I like a softer crust so I rub butter on the crust right when it comes out, but if you like it a little crispier, leave it be. 

7. Enjoy!