in the mood for food ~ bread baking and breakfast

Who doesn't love fresh bread, especially when it's homemade? I went to a sourdough bread baking class this past Sunday. Andrea of My Kitchen Clatter teaches these bread baking classes out of her home. She buys wheat berries in 50 lb. containers and using a NutriMill, grinds the berries into wheat flour. This is the flour she uses for all her bread, waffles and pancakes, pizza crust, muffins...any kind of baked good calling for flour. She will also grind 5 lbs. of flour right then and there for you to take home - which I did. The bag was still warm when I got home. Andrea had sourdough starters in Ball jars, all ready for us to take home, too.

Andrea made a big batch of English muffin dough and we all got to cut, weigh the dough

(we made each piece into two ounces, which makes small English muffins), and shape into rounds.

We then cooked the muffins on a cast iron griddle and a cast iron pan right on top of

the stove.

The recipe made a ton of muffins! And yes, some of them did get burned. These were

sooo yummy while still warm, slathered with butter and homemade jam.

If you don't have your own sourdough starter at home, here's a great tutorial from King Arthur flour on how to make your own:

Creating Your Own Sourdough Starter 

There's also links on the above page as to how to maintain your starter and even how to make a gluten-free starter. Another great website for everything related to bread baking, including recipes and great video tutorials is Breadtopia.

I also mentioned in my last post that I was going to make my "famous breakfast casserole" for Tim while he was home. Rue of An Old Fashioned World asked if I'd be sharing the recipe. I forgot to take a photo while the casserole was still in the pan - it was much prettier then. In fact, I didn't even remember to take a photo until this morning when I was eating up leftovers. Warning: this isn't the healthiest breakfast casserole. I normally eat very healthy and "clean" and don't eat prepared foods, such as these Crescent rolls. But, I only make this casserole maybe twice a year, so I don't beat myself up over it. I also didn't buy the traditional Pillsbury Crescent rolls - I bought the ones at Trader Joes. They're a little bit healthier. FYI, the Pillsbury ones have hydrogenated soybean oil in them (which I try to totally avoid, if I can help it) as well as food dyes (another big no-no). The Trader Joes ones have healthier oil in them and no food coloring. If you really want to be "good", you could always make your own Crescent roll dough. Also, this recipe is adaptable to your own tastes. Use pork or turkey bacon; pork sausage or a vegetarian sausage - or, no meat at all. Use any kind of veggies that you like or have on-hand.

MEL'S FAMOUS BREAKFAST CASSEROLE

1 package (roll) Crescent roll dough

5 slices cooked bacon or 1/2 lb. cooked breakfast sausage

1/4 onion, diced 

1/2 green, red, yellow, or orange pepper (or combination), diced

3/4 c. shredded cheese (cheddar or a blend with cheddar in it)

6 large eggs

1/2 c. milk

Salt, pepper, and oregano to taste

Preheat oven to 375F.

Unroll dough and place into a greased 9"x13" pan. Sprinkle cooked bacon or sausage on top of the dough. In a small frying pan, saute the onion and peppers (you could also add broccoli, mushrooms, or any other veggies of your choice) in a little bit of olive oil until partially soft, about 4-5 minutes. Layer the cooked veggies over the bacon (or sausage). Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the cooked veggies.
 In a medium bowl, use a mixer to blend the eggs, milk and seasonings. Pour evenly on the top of the casserole. (It will be a thin layer and may not be completely even.) Bake for about 20-25 minutes, until egg mixture is set.

In other news, I'm happy to report that we just had a string of beautiful, sunny, warm days
that melted most of the snow and had green shoots coming out of the ground. I discovered
chives coming back in my herb garden...

daylilies poking up in the ditch in front of the house...

and Lamb's Ear trying to poke its way back through the clumps of ice and snow still stuck in the shady part of the butterfly garden, even though temperatures were in the 60's. Temps are back in the 40's again this week, which is normal here for this time of year. March is very fickle in northern Illinois...it could be cold and snowy (and we'll most likely have at least one more round of snow before it's all over), cool and rainy, or warm and sunny.

The sunset last night was incredible. At first, shades of pink and purple danced across

the sky.

As the minutes flew by and the sun sank lower, the sky turned a darker shade of 

purple and a fiery orange glowed underneath. I stood outside on my patio and watched

the entire light show until the sky was almost black.

Happy baking and happy St. Paddy's Day (we're not doing anything special; we don't even

like corned beef roast, plus Brian's working tonight)...don't forget to take a few minutes from

your busy life and stand in awe of the beauty in our world.

Linking to Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday.