If you’re afraid to make homemade bread, today’s No-Knead Artisan Bread recipe is especially for you! If you love to make homemade bread, today’s recipe is for you, too! Continue reading “No-Knead Artisan Bread”
Category: Bread
Making Sour Dough Bread & Mentoring a Life
I’ve been making Sour Dough Bread for many years. I often think to myself that if people knew how easy it is, everyone would be baking these loaves in their ovens! You just can’t beat the taste of Sour Dough. I especially love this bread toasted. I love it for my morning toast, BLT’s or grilled cheese. But honestly, you will never go wrong with this yummy gluten!!
Continue reading “Making Sour Dough Bread & Mentoring a Life”
Living Proof
This is no ordinary Mason Jar. This is a jar that is alive! Its life is because of what’s inside. This is my Sour Dough Starter that I’ve had for over 30 years!! Of course it’s not the original Continue reading “Living Proof”
Overwhelmed or Refreshed By Life?
I’m just so overwhelmed!
Those words came from a wife, mom, employee, church member, daughter, daughter-in-law, who probably has lots more roles that she plays. We’ve all been in the place where we feel like the pressures from every side are coming in on us. So, how in the world DO we handle all those responsibilities? They all need attention. They’re all important, but we know we aren’t superwoman with super-powers enabling us to conquer the world in which we are engulfed.
What’s a woman to do? How do we get it all done?
I think we all have to re-evaluate often. When we feel pressure about several things that need our attention, we have to stop and ask:
Is my life exemplifying a life that a is given over to the Lord to do as He wills each day?
Am I obeying His Word and priorities for my life?
Do my words and my actions match?
For instance, I love writing my blog, and my passion here is all about refreshment that begins with a relationship with Jesus Christ and then moves to family/home, then church and others. If I follow the things I teach from God’s Word, I will keep blogging its right place.
This week we were able to make a quick trip to visit my family in Kentucky. We celebrated Memorial Day on the lake with my sisters, their husbands and our parents. It was a fabulous day. At the end of the boating excursion and return to my parent’s home, we decided since it was late in the afternoon, we would wait and come home on Tuesday. No blog post had been written for Tuesday, but I had a decision to make – visit with my family for those hours, or interrupt it with computer time. The choice was simple. We had a great visit!
Here are some other practical examples that might happen in my life:
If it comes between…
- Quiet time in God’s Word and rushing out the door…which will I choose? God is first.
- Time at my church for services or time with visiting relatives? God is first.
- Time with friends at an extra outside activity or time I’d planned with my family? Family is first.
- Bible study with my small group or time to chill and watch a movie? Others are first.
- Time with my grandsons or time with my husband? He is first.
- Time to exercise or time to pray? God is first.
- Time watching my friend’s children or watching my grandsons? Family is first.
There are many times that I have regretted the poor decision to shift my priorities. But I pray each day that the Lord will direct my steps and help me make the best choice, and He does when I lean in for His guidance.
One day last week I had an idea of what I would do that day and it got completely changed. One event was when a friend stopped by. She later sent a text apologizing for “keeping me,” but as I told her, when you give your day to the Lord, you take whatever He sends, and sometimes He sends the blessing of time with a friend when you didn’t expect it! The Lord knew I needed that, even though I didn’t schedule it, He did! It refreshed me!
We need the Lord every single day for every moment of the day. Rather than feeling overwhelmed, rest in God’s priorities for your life, and listen to His leading. His plans are always better than what we could dream up, and when we lay our head on our pillow at night, we can say what Jesus said, “Lord, I have done the work you gave me to do.” His ways don’t overwhelm; they refresh.
What areas of your life do you need to re-evaluate according to God’s priorities for your life? Where do you feel most overwhelmed?
Don’t stress – Stay refreshed.
Two-Ingredient Bagels With a Delicious Twist
Oh, friends! I’ve been playing around with the Two-Ingredient Bagels and I’ve come up with a couple of delicious ideas! More about that in a minute!
Not only did I find this bagel recipe on Skinnytaste’s site, (and on MANY other web sites!), I also found a recipe for the Everything but the Bagel seasoning on Two Peas and their Pod. It’s pretty pricey to buy this jar in the stores. I went to a bulk food store, found the ingredients and now I make my own! It’s delicious!
Everything But the Bagel Seasoning
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dried minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon dried minced onion
- 2 teaspoons flaked sea salt or course salt
DIRECTIONS:
Mix and stir. Store in an air-tight jar.
Use on these bagels, baked potatoes, avocado toast, eggs…the possibility is endless!
I had hoped to share a video tutorial with you today, but after LOTS of trouble and time, it simply wasn’t happening. So, I’ll share that next week, Lord willing!
If you want to make the Blueberry or Brown Sugar bagels, here’s what I did:
Blueberry Bagels – To half of the dough, I added about 1/4 cup frozen blueberries. I folded the berries in, then cut the dough in half. I made a ball of dough out of each half, then cut a hole in the middle, using a melon baller. I placed them on the silpat on a baking sheet. Brush with egg white. Sprinkle lightly with white sugar.
Brown Sugar Bagels – To half of the dough, I rolled it out on the counter, sprinkled it heavily with cinnamon and about 1/4 cup of raisins. I folded the dough over a couple of times, then cut it in half, made two balls of dough, cut out the center and placed on a baking sheet covered with a Silpat. Brush with egg white. I then sprinkled about a tablespoon of brown sugar over the top, as well as a sprinkling of cinnamon. Next time I may try putting the brown sugar on both sides!
Bring to room temperature (about an hour) and then bake at 375° for about 20 minutes.
I split them open, brushed them with soft butter and broiled them until toasted.
Wow, these are good! I hope you’ll try them soon!
I’ll hope to get the video posted next week. In the meantime you can visit my You tube channel for other videos.
Which of these flavors appeal most to you?
The Easiest Bagels Ever!
I’ve always wanted to make bagels, but the making of the dough, then boiling, then baking just seemed too laborious. But when I came across a recipe for Two-Ingredient Bagels that require NO BOILING and had awesome reviews, I knew I had to give these a try! They were:
- Made of only flour, Greek yogurt (and leavening agents if you don’t use Self-rising flour)
- Fast!
- Easy
- DELICIOUS!!
One word of caution – you have to let the dough come to room temperature, so leave time in the baking process for them to sit out an hour. You can make the dough the night before, let them set out, then bake them.
The savory topping is so good! We had a wonderful toasted sandwich using these bagels and I’m telling you, it was a gourmet-tasting lunch! Here’s how to make them:
Two-Ingredient Bagels
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cup (5 oz) unbleached all purpose flour, whole wheat or gluten-free mix*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (make sure it’s not expired or it won’t rise)
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (use less if using table salt)
- 1 cup non-fat Greek yogurt (not regular yogurt, it will be too sticky)
- 1 egg white, beaten (whole egg works fine too)
- (optional toppings: everything bagel seasoning, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, dried garlic flakes, dried onion flakes)**
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 375F. Place parchment paper or a silpat on a baking sheet. If using parchment paper, spray with oil to avoid sticking.
- In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk well. Add the yogurt and mix with a fork or spatula until well combined, it will look like small crumbles.
- Lightly dust flour on a work surface and remove dough from the bowl, knead the dough a few times until dough is tacky, but not sticky, about 15 turns (it should not leave dough on your hand when you pull away).
- Divide into 4 equal balls. Roll each ball into 3/4-inch thick ropes and join the ends to form bagels. (or you can make a ball and poke a hole in the center then stretch it slightly)
- Top with egg wash and sprinkle both sides with seasoning of your choice. Bake on the top rack of the oven for 25 minutes. Let cool at least 10 minutes before cutting.
- You can wrap leftover bagels in plastic and reheat the next day without refrigerating, or refrigerate for up to 3 days.
- To freeze, slice open and wrap individually with foil or plastic wrap. To reheat pop them back into the oven, toaster
These are only 152 calories, friends! You will love these soft, savory bagels! There’s a seriously delicious breakfast or lunch in your future if you make these!
Guess what? My weekly video on Thursday will be a step-by-step tutorial on making these bagels! So if you’re not sure you can pull this recipe off, be sure to tune in for some simple instruction!
Happy baking!
With love from my country kitchen,
Wonderful, Quick Breadsticks
Bread. It is the sustenance of life. Winter soups need breadsticks for dipping. Pasta needs a breadstick for sopping up sauce, and Sunday roasts need one to mop up gravy. Am I right?
I’m always on the search for a better roll, fluffier biscuit or quicker breadstick. One day this winter when I was making my Cheese Ravioli with Tomatoes, I found this recipe on Pinterest, at Genius Kitchen and had to give it a try because the reviews were fabulous. I halved the recipe and it was perfect for a couple of meals. Oh, these are good. These are fast. These need to be in your recipe file!
Soft, Quick Breadsticks
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup warm water
- 3 tbl brown sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1⁄4 cup oil
- 3 cups bread flour
- 2 1⁄2 tsp yeast
DIRECTIONS
The next time you make anything that has sauce of any kind, you need to whip this recipe up. I’m ditching every other breadstick recipe and keeping this one. You should too!
What kind of meal would you make these breadsticks to accompany? Are you a “dipper?”
