30 Minute Rolls

We got the most awesome surprise in the mail yesterday. My mom and Sandy (my step-dad) had ordered us some things from Omaha Steaks! Filet Mignon  and ground beef patties!  If you're wondering about the hamburger patties it's because a couple of years ago they had set us a "Sampler Kit"  (I KNOW that's probably not what it's actually called but you get the idea!) that included ground beef patties.  They are some of the best hamburgers  I've ever had and we enjoyed the heck out of them.  So yesterday, for the life of me I couldn't figure out "why" they had sent them.  Until I read the enclosed note which read 
"Happy Homestead! 
We are so happy for y'all. Thought you should feast to celebrate. (Just add your favorite whatever ;). 
Love y'all, Mom and Sandy"
 
Now you tell me  wasn't that one of the most thoughtful things in the world to do?  So we feasted on grilled Filet Mignon, stuffed baked potato's, salad and homemade 30 minute rolls. Nice, very nice.
  I've been saying I was going to make these rolls for over a year now and never did get around to it until yesterday. I'll definitely be making them again.  My friend from West Virginia had given the recipe to me and told me just how easy (not to mention good) they are to make. I don't know where she had originally seen the recipe and it wasn't on  the copy of the recipe.  I tried searching it and came up with several the were pretty much the same so... Thanks to whoever you are for originally sharing this recipe.  These are fast and really easy!

30 Minute Rolls
1 C plus 2 Tbsp warm water
1/3 C oil
2 Tbsp yeast
1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
3 1/2 C bread flour (seems to work better but all purpose flour will also work)
Heat oven to 400 degrees.
In your mixer bowl combine the water, oil, yeast and sugar and allow it to rest for 15 minutes.  Using your dough hook, mix in the salt, egg and flour.  Knead with hook until will incorporated and dough is soft and smooth. (Just a few minutes)
Form dough into 12 balls and then place in a greased 9 x 13 pan and allow to rest for 10 minutes.  Bake for 10 minutes at 400 degrees or until golden brown.

And there you have it. There are only a couple of things I would probably do differently.  There was enough dough that I easily made 14 instead of 12 rolls.  I also had to cook these about 17 minutes but I'm sure that's because of the oven and it's little "ticks".

In any case I'll be sure to make these again.  Try them.  You might be really surprised at just how yummy (not to mention easy) these rolls are. 
A perfect accompaniment to an awesome steak dinner.

Is it Spring Yet?

 Sorry about no pictures for this post.  Yet again we've exceeded our bandwidth limit and our service has been throttled back.  Shoot it took me longer to load this page than it did to write the post! Trying to load a picture is pure torture. 

Between the weather and tight finances this past month try as we might we are seemingly running behind with the garden. We got potatoes and a few onion sets planted. Every effort in the greenhouse failed and so I'll be trying again this week. Heck it's almost time to just start seedlings in the ground. It's all due to not having heat in there yet.  Honestly I just haven't felt worth a darn lately.  I won't go into it because really who wants to hear someone whining?

Anyway.... We need to order some parts for the watering system.  Splicers and stuff.  That's on the list for this month.  Most of it will have to be done before we can actually plant in some of the rows. I've been studying the gardening guide for our area again and realized that even if we miss some of the planting this spring we still have another shot at it for fall garden. Of course that is all depending on the weather.  It seems like its been a crap shoot with it. It seems like every year we've been here the weather has been nuts.

It's also time for the lawnmower to come out of the barn for some maintenance. Things are starting to green up.  And every year it seems like something needs to be worked on and parts ordered. I've got my fingers crossed it won't need a new battery.  Gas is needed for it and the tiller. Every year we go through this. It's to be expected and its a good thing that Mars is quite handy with that sort of thing. As a matter of fact he's really handy with a ton of things. Bless his heart, I hate that I can't help much. 

The little red hen went broody last week.  I caught her off the nest this morning and got to count nine eggs.  Not bad!  Last year I had two hens sitting on one nest.  It was kind of funny in a way because once the chicks hatched they kind of shared them.

One of the sweetest of my rabbits had seven baby bunnies last week. FINALLY!  Don't let anyone tell you all rabbits will breed like...well... rabbits.  What I ended up doing was pretty much start all over.  I gave Bucky another chance at breeding.  Nothing, nada, zilch. I figure he's sterile.  I'm getting him fattened up before we send him off to the freezer. The new buck is now proven.  I don't remember if I told you about The Rabbit Lady giving me back the doe I traded off.  So I've ended up now with four does.  I'll probably make some rabbit stew with at least one of them. There's really no need for having that many does at the moment.  It just not worth the feed bill.  We'll see how things work out though.

So that's about all of the news around here right now.  It's finally time to get up and out of the house. Now if the weather would just try and cooperate.

We're Debt Free!!!

I haven't mentioned anything about the land being paid off since I hinted at it last month.  I wanted to wait until I had the actual paperwork in my hands.  I've never really felt like it was truly ours and until I had the deed in my hand I knew I wouldn't.  I know we've been paying on it but someone else was holding the deed. I just never  really felt like it was ours.  I know that sounds kind of silly but that's the way I've felt for the past three years.

 Well, guess what came in the mail this week!  We officially own our place.  I am feeling like I'm on the top of the world every since we got the deed..  Even my back problems seem small today! I walk outside and look all around me and still think "Wow, this is OURS"  No one can take it from us.  A lifelong dream has been realized.   I've wanted a place to call home for most of my life.  No renting no mortgages. A place that was mine, that no one could ever take away. I walked around the property today in between rain showers and everything looks so different to me now.We owe nothing to anyone.  And we did it on  $11,000 a year and the preps we brought from Austin. We are officially LAND OWNERS!
Let the games begin!

Powdered Milk

Do you store powdered milk?  I used to store just any kind at all.  I'd  use my FoodSaver to vacuum  seal it in jars.   Every once in awhile I would have to open a jar because I'd run out of regular milk.  I would only end up using it for cooking because the smell was enough to gross me out.  And trying to drink it? Oh heck no, not even chilling it and even adding a bit of vanilla extract would make it any better. I'd rather drink 2% milk, which to me is like wanna be milk but hands down better than some powdered milk.

So there I was with all these different brands of milk sitting in the pantry.I stopped buying powdered milk and figured I can always use what I have for baking/cooking.    I had broken one of the very first "rules to remember"  of long term food storage. Store what you eat and eat what you store.
  One day I'll have some goats (maybe. That is if I stop reading over at Carolyn's blog about her goat antics and adventures. She's my "goat guru" and has made me think twice about getting some goats my own. And she's funny too) I would like to have a source for milk and cheese here though and not have to worry about it. We'll see...

I was grocery shopping one day and saw a can of powdered milk that I recognized. I'd never tried it before but a friend stores the same brand and she uses it in her world famous biscuits. (Well in MY mind they should be world famous!) After a few times trying to get my biscuits as nice as hers always are I got to thinking maybe it's the milk that makes the difference.  It turns out I was wrong about the biscuits.  I still can't make them turn out as amazing as hers are but I've been practicing a lot.  Anyway..... I had been on the lookout for the same brand and finally found it in a local grocery around here.
 It's called Sanalac dry milk.  One of the first things I thought of when I  saw it was "Wow, isn't that a baby formula?"  It's not but the name is close enough to make you want to double check.

I made a quart up and set it in the fridge to let it chill.  I don't know about you but I can't handle milk that isn't chilled anyway.  The first thing I noticed was the texture of the dried milk. It's truly a powder.  Not like so many of the other brands.  It was a little hard to mix up at first because it sort of clumped up in the bottom of the jar. Now I mix it up in a quart jar using a little hot water and then adding the powder.  It seems to be easier to mix up like that. Once I finally got it mixed up good ( now I just shake it rather than trying to stir it)and took a smell.  It didn't have that nasty smell that most powdered milk have. Once it was cold, I gave it a test run.  I was craving some cornbread and milk Now if you think I just poured it into a glass before checking out the flavor, you'd be thinking wrong.  No way I'm going to possibly ruin a good piece of cornbread.  I took a tiny sip. Just because it didn't have a nasty smell I wasn't willing to swallow a mouthful and end up either gagging or spitting it out. (or both)
 All this talk just to say I really like it.  The flavor is just great.  It actually tastes like whole milk. I suppose if you like 2% milk you could just decrease the amount of dry milk.  All this really means is that I've found a new milk that I'll gladly be adding to my food storage.

PS  This is not a paid ad, I just really think it's a good product.

True Love and Homegrown Tomatoes

Just a friendly reminder.... Spring is right around the corner! And for a little inspiration well, who better than Guy Clark to remind us. I don't know when it happened but this is my tomato inspiration every single year! Besides, it puts a smile on my face.