Eating Healthy

The other day my sister, asked me how come I'm not fat. (As she put it portly). I asked her what brought up that question and she said all I do is make cakes, pies, cookies, and breads. So I explained to her that I make all those items and then give them away to friends, family, and keep a little for testing, and I work hard. ( I get up in the morning and answer emails, scan channels on TV, and take Tiger for his walk) that's hard work. Besides I cook my own food and eat healthy.  This made me wonder if the rest of you think the same way. So here is a typical menu for me. Like yesterday I made Fish & Chips for dinner, with beer.

Now see that is good eating. And I had enough left over for today at lunch. I really had a hanker'en for some fish & chips with a beer.

Classic Fish and Chips

Prep Time: 10 Min
Cook Time: 25 Min
Ready In: 45 Min
Yield 4 servings

Ingredients:
    * 4 large potatoes, peeled and cut into strips
    * 1 cup all-purpose flour
    * 1 teaspoon baking powder
    * 1 teaspoon salt
    * 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
    * 1 cup milk
    * 1 egg
    * 1 quart vegetable oil for frying
    * 1 1/2 pounds cod fillets

Directions:
   1. Place potatoes in a medium-size bowl of cold water. In a separate medium-size mixing bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, salt, and    pepper. Stir in the milk and egg; stir until the mixture is smooth. Let mixture stand for 20 minutes.
   2. Preheat the oil in a large pot or electric skillet to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
   3. Fry the potatoes in the hot oil until they are tender. Drain them on paper towels.
   4. Dredge the fish in the batter, one piece at a time, and place them in the hot oil. Fry until the fish is golden brown. If necessary, increase the heat to maintain the 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) temperature. Drain well on paper towels.
   5. Fry the potatoes again for 1 to 2 minutes for added crispness.

So with lunch finished for the day, I had to prepare dinner for tonight and make Tiger's food.  So I cooked a chicken leg for Tiger and added some Lamb Liver for a little taste change for him. (He loved it… Or he was really hungry). I decided to make Stromboli for dinner and Pizza for lunch tomorrow. 

Now that my fast food is ready for dinner tomorrow night, I'll have ready made pizza for lunch.

    Of course it is always correct to have a good beer or even a good wine with all meals.  Even when I make bread I will make a good grilled Ham & Cheese sandwich. And when I make Macaroni & Cheese, and Hamburgers, I'm eating the American way and it is healthy.

This weekend I'll make a beer bread from a recipe that my #1 sent me. (That is if I have any beer left). I'll tell you about it in the next blog.

Tiger and his new toy from Sis.   See how trim he is….LOL

Tell the next time keep safe and healthy.  Tiger and Stu

Amish Friendship Bread

I mentioned in my last blog update that the starter for the Amish Friendship bread wouldn't be ready till this Sunday. Well it is ready and I just thought I would bring you up to date on how it turned out. First it took 10 days for the starter to be ready. And no it isn't a sour dough. But it is more like a cake than a bread. In fact when you mix everything together it's more like a Banana bread dough. In fact if I was just looking at the batter, and not knowing, I would say it is Banana bread dough. However instead of Banana's it has apples in it. I'm passing on this recipe, because it is so good and so easy to make, If you decide to try it, you'll be  pleasantly surprised.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

Yield 4 cups of starter
Prep Time: 30 Min
Ready In: 9 Days 40 Min

Ingredients

    * 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
    * 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
    * 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
    * 3 cups white sugar, divided
    * 3 cups milk

Directions :

   1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or flour  will lump when milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly. Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.
   2. On days 2 thru 4; stir starter with a spoon. Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Days 6 thru 9; stir only.
   3. Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Remove 1 cup to make your first bread, give 2 cups to friends along with this recipe, and your favorite Amish Bread recipe. Store the remaining 1 cup starter in a container in the refrigerator, or begin the 10 day process over again (beginning with step 2).
Note: Once you have made the starter, you will consider it Day One, and thus ignore step 1 in this recipe and proceed with step 2. You can also freeze this starter in 1 cup measures for later use. Frozen starter will take at least 3 hours at room temperature to thaw before using.

And now for the recipe for the bread. The easy part.

Amish Friendship Bread

Prep Time: 20 Min
Cook Time: 50 Min
Ready In: 1 Hr 10 Min

Ingredients:
    * 2 cups all-purpose flour
    * 1 cup white sugar
    * 2 teaspoons baking powder
    * 1 teaspoon baking soda
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    * 1 teaspoon salt
    * 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
    * 3 eggs
    * 2/3 cup vegetable oil
    * 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
    * 1 cup chopped walnuts
    * 2 apples - peeled, cored and finely chopped

Directions:
   1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon,    baking soda and salt, set aside
   2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the Amish Friendship  Starter, eggs, oil and vanilla. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Finally stir in the chopped nuts  and apples. Divide the batter evenly between the two prepared pans.
   3. Bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a loaf comes out clean.

I didn't have any fresh apples to put in my bread so I just put in a 10-oz. can of apple pie filling.  It turned out great. I don't know where it got the brown color from. I did bake it for 60 minutes instead of 50, But that might just be my oven characteristics.

Hope you all give it a try.  It was wonderful.

Till the next time keep healthy and safe. From Tiger and Stu

The Bread man

Here it is April already and still raining in Oregon. It's really hard for Tiger,  he wants to run, jump, and do things that Dog's do. So to keep him busy I've been teaching him how to bake and cook. Needless to say he is a bit slow to learn this. He hates it when I have him knead the bread and the dough gets caught in his paw's. Of course I don't really appreciate that either.  He likes stomping grapes and making wine better.   I think he's a lot better at morel support.

I really like cinnamon rolls, so we gave that a try first. They turned out just like you would buy in the local bakery.  Of course it something turns out right, you just keep going. So I decided to make sourdough bread. Well I didn't know you have to make a starter. But it didn't take me long to learn what to do. (I love the internet).  

 

 

 

Talk about planning ahead. It take about 10 days or better to make a sourdough starter.  It reminds me of the flour and water "paste" we use to make in school. I'm sure you remember that.  But for all the trouble and the time involved it turned out to make a great bread. Just a light hint of sour taste. Next time I'll let it get riper. Maybe let it sit longer and get it more sour. But it is good this way, even Tiger tried a piece. I don't think he is much into bread. But he likes it with butter and or peanut butter.  So while waiting for the starter to age and the rain to quit, we had to make something that wouldn't take so long to get ready.

So I decided to make an Amish Friendship Bread. Guess what!! It takes 10 days for an Amish Starter. So I started that too. I've never tried Amish Friendship bread before. I wonder if it's a sourdough? I'm on my sixth day so I won't know till this Sunday.  

 

Now we have two starters going and this is turning into a baby sitting job. You have to stir them everyday and feed them. Damn, I feel like a father to a bunch of bacteria. I think I'm suppose to burp this stuff too.

 

Tiger and I decided to make Raisin Cinnamon bread in between the feedings and burps. Now this is something you can make and eat the same day. Boy is it good. My sis likes it and mom likes it and even Roger liked it. And Tiger likes it as well and I guess raisin's are good for dogs? I haven't read any different. I don't give him much because of the sugar and cinnamon.   I ended up making 3 loathes. So sis got one, I got one, and I ate one while testing the goods. LOL  

Now Sheila wants to raise chickens. She is looking to have a dozen eggs every morning and fryers for dinner.  And a lot of Chicken..S--t for the garden..she has been looking online for chicken coops and has decided that she needs one on wheels to move around the yard so she won't have to shovel the Chicken..S—t. Can you imagine being a chicken and waking up in the morning to find out you and your home have been moved to a new neighbor hood. They have to get to know the neighbors all over again.  And when they just get to feeling comfy, you up and move them and their home again.  I don't think they would lay alot of eggs, but you wouldn't have to shovel alot of Chicken..S—t either.

Till the next time, keep healthy and safe.  From Tiger and Stu