Cooking from Scratch

HALF LOAF OF BREAD This page is for all of you that desire a half loaf of bread. Many people live alone and a full loaf of bread may go to waste if you do not put part of it in the freezer. Some couples only need a half a loaf because our diet does not always include bread and then it goes stale. Recently I decided to look for a half loaf pan and I could not find anything desirable to use. I read in the forums and some suggested to make two balls of dough and put it in the bread pan side by side and pull it apart but then you still end up with a full loaf of bread. Another suggestion is baking in a can but that did not sound safe with the types of metal and some of ......

Cooking Gluten Free takes a little bit of creative thinking and a few extra bowls but the effort will be worth it when you taste these Ganny Skillet Cakes. The recipe will be in three parts and pictures will follow To make light fluffy cakes we need something to make the batter lift up a bit so here are the three ingredients then the three parts. 1 and 1/4 cup Milk (this will be separated) 1 and 1/2 teaspoons vinegar 2 Tablespoons plain yogurt 1/4 heaping teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon cream of tarter 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup gluten free flour mix, I use Bloomfield farms Gluten Free all purpose baking mix 2 large eggs 2Tablespoons sugar, I use ......

Gannys Recipe 2 Cups of gluten free all purpose mix 1/2 plus 1/4 teaspoons baking Powder 6 Tablespoons cold Butter cut into small chunks 1 ounce and a splash of any kind of milk 1/2 cup water Kosher salt to sprinkle over the top before cooking Preheat oven to 375 or less if your oven cooks hot or more if your oven cooks less hot. Mix flour and baking powder into a large bowl then cut or work in the cold butter into the flour until fine and crumbly. Add milk and water until it forms something that looks like cookie or pastry dough. If it looks too thin add a little more flour. Roll out to very thin using wax paper ......

If you cannot eat Gluten and are really craving bread, this recipe is for you. Use a Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Mix that contains xanthum gum. This recipe is for a mini loaf of gluten free bread since gluten free flour is so expensive. This loaf about a third of the size of a normal loaf.pictures will follow recipe 1 teaspoon yeast 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 plus 1 tablespoon warm water 105 degrees Mix in a small bowl and set aside for 5 - 8 minutes in another small bowl 1 egg 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 teaspoon honey whisk together and set aside in a medium size bowl 1 & 1/3 cup gluten free flour with xanthum gum 1/4 ......

Ganny Pie’s Pictures follow the recipe My husband just loves these pies so I thought I would share this recipe and other recipes for those that have issues with gluten. These are individual apple pies with a splash of lemon. You can leave of the lemon if you choose. The lemon is used to keep the apple from turning dark while preparing the pies. These pies are a very light dessert, almost like a French dessert. For 4 good size individual pies I use: Filling 3 apples Peeled, cored and sliced One lemon 4 teaspoons Organic sugar Cinnamon to sprinkle over apples Small amount of melted butter to spoon over cooked pies but is optional. I have tried several types of gluten free flours ......

Next time I make scones I will take pictures of the entire process. I was not sure they would turn out but they did and are wonderful! These were so good I am posting this recipe right away. My husband and I have been avoiding all gluten to see if it makes a difference with a few issues and I must say that we do miss certain foods that has gluten. My mindset has been to simply go on to other foods that we can eat but when it comes to gravy, salmon patties and other things I decided to give a gluten free flour mixture a try. I purchased the King Arthur gluten free multi purpose flour. It is very expensive but I will not use much. ......

Canning is not as difficult as you may think It may be easier to go to the grocery store and buy your food but canning your own food is so much better because you know what you put in that jar. The most important part of canning is to get you a good canning book and read about the things you need to know such as do you need to use a water bath canner or a pressure canner. Let us make pear preserves You will need a few canning tools. A jar lifter to handle hot jars, something to dip with, I use a measuring cup, a jar funnel, a lid lifter or a fork (something to get the lids out of the hot water), and pictured far right a long air bubble remover. ......

My daughter and I both cook all our meals at home. We live in different states but with a click of the mouse we have been taking pictures sending each other meal ideas. I wanted to share our meal photos because sometimes it helps just to see a meal put together. And for those that are allergic to peanuts, these meals are peanut free because my Grandson is allergic to peanuts and several other foods. I have found through cooking peanut free that we have eliminated many foods that we use to buy due to peanut being in that food and it has actually helped us to eat healthier. It also saves at the grocery store so we can spend the saved money on more organic food ......

This is the first layer of Pate First is gather together your ingredients Ground beef or ground pork 1 lb onion 1/2 can of cream style corn 6 potatoes seasoning butter optional, leave out if allergic to dairy milk optional, leave out if allergic to dairy Peel and cut up potatoes and then boil them to make mashed potatoes Drain the potatoes, add butter and milk and mash or use mixer to make fresh mashed potatoes. If allergic to dairy then save the water when draining the cooked potatoes and use that potato water to mash the potatoes. You can also drizzle a little light olive oil in the potatoes when mashing if you are not using butter. Dice half an onion Place Grou ......

Food that is simple and warm and made with your own hands can nourish your family in more ways than you can imagine. This page is dedicated to the visitors on my website asking about food budgets. Many people are struggling to buy food. After much consideration and thought I came to the conclusion that there is no way I can tell you what food to buy for a budget because food prices change and seasons change and everyone has a different pallet and many have food allergies. I will try and do a page just to address the allergies but for now I need to stay on track with a typical food budget and hope that something that I say will help. I could easily do a pag ......

Collards are inexpensive and a very healthy food This bag of two heads of collards was $1.77 plus 10% So lets get started by scrubbing the sink really good. It takes me about half hour to prepare the collards for cooking. Real food takes time to prepare and many people take the easy way out these days and buy packaged processed food but my husband and I try to eat fresh and do the work ourselves. Fresh greens are often sandy so I wash them good or there will be grit in the greens. I place the collards in the sink and pop off the leaves one at a time. There is a thick stem that runs all the way through the leaf and to me it tastes bitter wh ......

Sourdough Starter is all you need to make these biscuits rise I have noticed on the internet that many people are looking for a recipe for sourdough biscuits. But the recipes that I have seen so far use baking soda and baking powder to rise the biscuit. In my opinion this only makes the biscuit rise faster and I would not want my biscuits to rise fast because the flour would not have time to ferment properly. To make a true sourdough biscuit you must expect it to taste different because it is Sourdough”. If you have a sourdough starter you do not need baking soda or baking powder and you surely do not need sugar to make your biscuits. What you n ......

It all depends if you like Tart GrandChip says This oatmeal doesn't lay down, it reaches up and slaps you. Well I don't know about that and you can make it less tart if you don't mind adding sugar. So here is this easy recipe for Grandmas Tart Cherry butter sauce. One can of Tart Cherries ( I use Cherries packed in water) Nothing else is added One Tablespoon maple syrup One Tablespoon Molasses Two Tablespooons Butter Place the cherries with water in a sauce pan and add the maple syrup and molasses. You can reserve some of the water from the can if you want to make this thicker. Bring the cherries, maple syrup and molassses to a boil, turn ......

Homemade Chicken Stock/Broth These containers are BPA Free Freezer Safe and what I use to freeze our stock. Use good quality meats and vegetables in your stock, we buy organic if we can find it and afford it. I would recommend using wings, necks, backs and such to make chicken stock but our grocer did not have these parts when I went shopping for stock supplies. So I purchased a whole Chicken. Time involved about 4 and 1/2 hours Equipment Large stock Pot Large bowl or another large pot Large Colander Cheese Cloth Ladle or measuring cup small bowl for skimming fat off skimmer Freezer safe containers To make this broth you will need about 4 ......

I am making Ground dehydrated sweet potatoes First start off with good healthy sweet potatoes and wash them then put them whole into a large boiler. This is a large pot. Boil the potatoes until you can push a fork through them. You will need to take the smaller ones out first and keep testing them. Sweet potatoes do not take long to cook. Remove the sweet potatoes to a cooking rack These are the larger sweet potatoes still boiling. They only needed about three more minutes. Peel the potatoes Spread the potatoes thinly on the dehydrator fruit roll up trays Now this is where it gets a bit fiddly. After 4 hours ......

I just love apple season This is how I dehydrate apples I wash the apples I dry them and polish them up a bit I set up the peeling area and put lemon juice in a spray bottle They still make apple peelers like this one. This will peel, core and slice the apple. If you don't have a apple peeler like this one you can use a knife and still do the job, it will take longer. The apple will slide right off the core Slice the apple one time for half rings This is how the slices look After dipping the slices in lemon juice or spraying the slices in a plate with lemon juice I then placed them on one of the dehydrator trays. My trays h ......

How we keep extra bananas in our pantry I dehydrate them I have purchased the proper tools to dehydrate food. I have read my handbooks that came with my dehydrator. I have read other books so I can be more knowledgeable about food safety. I would advise anyone preserving food to do the same. I have food dehydrator books as well as Ball canning books. This is where you first start when preserving food. People have their own reasons for storing food. My goal is to have enough for my family to get us through tough times, food shortages due to drought or weather disasters. We recently went through ......

You will need 1 spoon, 1 cup measuring cup, 1 medium size bowl and 1 small bowl and one tablespoon measuring spoon if using crisco. 1 Cup self rising flour Buttermilk About 1/2 cup Plain flour (not self rising) in anoter small bowl 2 Tablespoons butter or crisco Dash salt (If you don't have buttermilk put 1 Tablespoon vineger or lemon juice into a cup of regular milk, stir and let sit a few minutes to sour.) Preheat oven to 495 degrees Add salt to self rising flour. Work or cut butter into flour until crumbly. Add buttermilk to flour mixture until it looks like thick cottage cheese. If it is too dry add more butte ......

Making bread or dough at home is not difficult. After making a few loaves of bread or a few pizzas you will start feeling more confident. The house will smell wonderful and knowing what is in your food is a good thing. One thing that would be helpful to buy is a kitchen thermometer because you will have better results if the water is around 105 degrees to 110 degrees. Some people can just feel that temperature with their hands but I have always used a thermometer. If you don't have the money for it don't worry, just warm the water until it feels warm, not hot. This is my basic bread dough for all, you can make bread, dinner rol ......

Double Crust Pear Pie First start with a basic double butter crust 2 and ½ cups all purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon sugar 1 cup cold butter cut into pieces 1/4 to 1/2 cup Ice water (you have to judge the amount of water, I don't usually need all the water) Pie Crust DirectionsIn a large size bowl put in flour, salt and sugar. Add cut up pieces of butter and work with your fingers until crumbly or use a pastry cutter. Some small chunks is ok.Work in the cold water a small amount at a time using a rubber spatula, spoon or your hands. You only need to use just enough water until the dough holds together without being stic ......