Jill 4 Today: "Around the world in 80 breads"

While researching bread-baking around the world, I stumbled on this YouTube channel - Jill 4 Today - and I just have to say that I'm really enjoying her.  A lot of fun to watch.  And I love when older women do videos like these because it feels very homey, very grandmotherly.   

I'm especially interested in her new series "Around the world in 80 breads."  And I love it that she makes some of these breads for the first time on camera, leaving in the doubts and mistakes and all.  Amusing and charming.

Anyway, I'd love for her to actually do all 80 breads, but she doesn't think she'll get to them all.  So if anyone else is interested in this too, support her channel and send her some comments to encourage her to actually do all 80.  It'd be fun to see.

Here are the three breads she's done so far:

#1 No-knead French bread

#2 Icelandic Rye Bread (just listening to their reactions as they eat it makes me want to try it too)

#3 German Broetchen Rolls  

It's a long way to 80, but it would be a fun journey getting there!

Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipes and Videos

My son recently got a new job and brings a turkey sandwich to work every day for lunch.  And to keep up with his bread-consumption and make it easier for him, I've been buying loaves of non-organic white bread every week.  Yuck!  (And even just the thought of turkey every day makes me gag.  I don't know how he can stand it.)   

I hate it that I have to buy non-organic white bread, but he's a picky eater and won't eat the heavy whole-wheat organic ones, especially if they have seeds or nuts in them.  But that seems to be all I can find out here lately.  

And while the organic, artisan-type loaves of sourdough I've been baking are wonderful (I'll share my recipe and process eventually), they're too large and holey for his sandwiches.  So we've been stuck with the non-organic white bread for now.

But no more!  I'm sick of it.  And I hate feeding it to him.  And so it's time to find a good sourdough sandwich bread recipe, one that makes a nice, softer, tighter-crumbed loaf of sourdough that slices thin and holds together well (and freezes nicely, because we always freeze the extras - sourdough freezes and thaws beautifully).  

Hopefully one of these will work.  It's worth a try.   

Baker Bettie (video): Sourdough Sandwich Bread Full Process, Soft Sourdough Loaf (I want to try this one next)... and here's the written recipe on a blog post: "Sourdough Sandwich Bread"

Lovely Bell Bakes (blog): "Super Soft Fresh Milled Sourdough Sandwich Bread"

Farmhouse on Boone (blog): "Sourdough Sandwich Bread"

Wagon Wheel Farmstead (blog): "Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread, Easy Recipe"

Feast and Farm Cooks (video): Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe (easy beginner recipe)

Muscle Momma Sourdough (video): Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread, step by step beginners guide... (and written recipe)

The Bread Code (a video that's not about sandwich bread but helpful in general, and I really enjoy this guy for some reason, maybe it's his accent or neighborly personality): 18 Sourdough Basics you should know

Videos on Baking Sourdough Bread

One of the most relaxing things for me lately has been watching videos of people making and baking sourdough bread.  And as a bonus, it's not only relaxing, but informative, productive, and rewarding, too.  A great "waste of time."  Especially if you actually bake the sourdough bread instead of just watching the videos😁. 

Anyway, here are some of the videos I enjoyed the most and found the most helpful.  Some use scales to measure, and some don't.  Some use Dutch ovens to bake the bread, and some use bread pans.  Some do more prep, and some do less.  But they're all informative and enjoyable.  

In no particular order:

Farmhouse on Boone - Sourdough Bread for Beginners | NO KNEAD - YouTube

Alexandra's Kitchen - Simple Sourdough Bread: Step by Step 75% Hydration - YouTube

Grant Bakes - A Sourdough Masterclass for Home Bakers - YouTube

Lovely Bell Bakes - Daily Sourdough Bread with Fresh Milled Flour | Without a mixer

Preppy Kitchen - Amazing Sourdough Bread Recipe - YouTube

Healthy Elizabeth - My Easy GUIDE To Making Foolproof SOURDOUGH BREADS | BAKE WITH ME - YouTube

The Perfect Loaf - The Secret to Make the BEST Sourdough Bread 

Mary's Nest (a playlist): No Knead Sourdough Bread Recipe - FAST and FOOLPROOF

Homesteading with the Zimmerman's: Kate's SOFT SOURDOUGH SANDWICH BREAD - YouTube

Little Spoon Farm: Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread from Little Spoon Farm

LoveMeg 2.0: HOW TO MAKE THE BEST SOURDOUGH SANDWICH BREAD | EASY STEP BY STEP BEGINNERS GUIDE | LOVEMEG 2.0

Our Gabled Home: Bake A Delicious Sourdough Bread with Me - Even Beginners Can Do It!

Melissa K. Norris: Best Beginner Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe | HOMEMADE YEAST

Rustic Honey - Sourdough For A Year | What I've learned + favorite recipes for beginners - YouTube

Alexandra's Kitchen - Simple Sourdough Pizza + Pizza Margherita  - YouTube

And here's a blog post, on baking in a bread pan: Can You Bake Sourdough In A Loaf Pan? - The Pantry Mama

And here's a blog post with the sourdough recipe I use: Sourdough Bread Recipe - Sugar Spun Run.  But I usually bake it in a Dutch oven instead of a loaf pan.  

   

[And see here for the videos I like on starting a sourdough starter.]

Meet Mr. Bean, my sourdough starter

During the pandemic and lockdown - Ahh, remember that!  Good times!😒 - many people started making sourdough as a way to pass the time.  But I was too busy watching/reading Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit and reading many biographies on C.S. Lewis.  (Love it!)  

But I have recently jumped on the sourdough bandwagon too, and I'm totally loving it!  

Years ago, I tried to start a sourdough starter from scratch but totally failed (I realize now that I was adding way too much water, drowning it).  And so I gave up for years.  But then after hearing a friend rave about how much she loves her sourdough starter (named Calico the Wonder Horse) and loves making sourdough bread, I decided to try again this past January...

Low-sugar Chocolate, Peanut Butter, Banana Breakfast Cake

I realized the other day that I had a jar of peanut butter I had to use up soon.  And when I opened my freezer, I found three frozen bananas.  And that's how this cake came about.  It's a thick cake and sticks to your mouth, but it's filling and low-sugar, making it great for breakfast.

Grease a 9x13 pan.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a big bowl, mix these together:

3 mashed bananas

1/3 cup to 1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 eggs
1 1/4 cup to 1 1/2 cup water (I actually used an 11.1 oz. container of coconut water that I had to use up)
1/2 cup to 3/4 cup softened butter or oil (I used olive oil)

Then mix and add the dry ingredients:

4 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cocoa powder

1 cup chocolate chips

(Add a bit more water if too thick or a bit more flour if too thin, enough to make a thick batter)

Pour into greased pan, sprinkle a spoonful of sugar on top.  Bake for about 50 minutes or till done, covering with foil last 15 minutes if necessary.

Let it cool then eat (and store leftovers in the fridge).

It's Late Summer!

As a gardener, you know it's late summer when the sight of one more overgrown zucchini or ripe tomato makes you groan. 

Can I get an "Amen"!?!

Just had to share ...

Oh my goodness, I just made a sweet-and-sour cabbage recipe for the first time.

It smells like a biological weapon and tastes like vomit.

Never again!

And now you'll have to excuse me while I air the place out. 

Do you realize how bad it's gonna get?

Just thought I'd put this out there...

During and after lockdown 2020, I ordered dried goods from a co-op.  Well, I recently checked the prices ... and it blew my mind.  

I'm not surprised, given the food factory fires and natural disasters and bad weather and crop failures happening all over the place, but I fear that if the prices of unprocessed, bulk grains are skyrocketing this bad, this fast, then it's a sign of terrible times to come (and these increases are even before the massive gas price increases set in and before the upcoming diesel shortages and before the massive trucker lay-off in California and before the sudden increase in natural gas line explosions and before the possible railway labor strike which would shut down railroad deliveries).

So just to give you an idea of the hard times that might be coming, here's a comparison of what the catalog prices were in January 2021 and what they currently are in 2022 (it doesn't matter what size the bag is, just look at the price increase) ...

What we did when we got the virus

We always expected the virus would eventually hit us, but we managed to escape it … until last month.  We knew it was going around my husband’s work, and so, feeling it heading our way, I stocked up on a bunch of food and vitamins and immune-boosters.  Just in case. 

And several days later, we got our first positive.  Not through my husband’s work, ironically, but through my son’s.  Three days later, two more of us tested positive.  I expected all six of us to get it, but only three of us got it (the 12-21-year-olds).  (And yes, we all quarantined for 14 days.  Because that’s the incubation period for those still testing negative.) 

Thankfully, it ended up being quite mild for us.  (Who knows, but maybe if us 40+-year-olds got it, it might’ve been worse.  I know a few adults around my age who got it pretty rough, and a few elderly people who died from it.)  

The first to get it was already getting better before he even tested positive.  He had one or two days of a 101-degree temperature which went down to the 99-degree range for a few more days, and he lost his taste/smell on the third day, but that’s about all he got.  The second had a mild fever (mostly 99.4-100.5) for a week, which spiked to 101.9 after he took a bath on day 6, and a small cough (which sounded maybe a little "goose-like," the only way I can think to describe it).  And the third son was barely sick at all, just a very mild temp and the feeling of being a little “under the weather,” but we tested him anyway and it was positive, but with a super-faint line because he was already almost all done with it before we even knew he was sick.  And my fourth son who normally gets hit the hardest with illness, who gets the highest temperatures and picks up infections easier than the rest of us, never got sick.  (Thank you, God!) 

All in all, it was about 10-12 days of mild fever in the house (fevers lasted about 6 days per person).  10-12 days of me running around taking temperatures, checking coughs, making soup, serving tea, and dishing out various immune-boosters to help us as much as possible.  And I thought I’d share what we did to treat it, in case anyone else is looking for ideas.

Simple Chicken Salad Sandwich with Dried Cranberries

Okay, so I bought a ton of cooked, canned chicken during the lockdown in March, and now I need to find ways to start using it.  

First I did a simple BBQ Chicken Pizza.  [Either make your own pizza crust dough or buy a premade one, top it with BBQ sauce and some chopped onions and garlic, sprinkle on some cooked chicken (drained and pressed, if it's full of water from the can), and add a thick layer of shredded mozzarella on top.  Bake till done.  I make my own thick crust, so I cook mine for about 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  If it starts to brown too much near the end, cover loosely with foil.]

Our Favorite Pot Roast in Gravy

This is such a simple dinner.  The pot roast basically makes it's own gravy.  Just make some corn and mashed potatoes on the side, maybe some rolls, and you have a dinner that pleases almost everyone:

In a large pot, add 4-5 pounds beef top round (or chuck roast, but I prefer top round because it's not as fatty, chop it into large chunks if you need to)

Then sprinkle this on top:
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (Lawry's)
1/2 - 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 1/2 Tablespoons onion powder
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 -1 Tablespoon dried oregano

Pour 3 cups of water over the top, bring it to a boil on medium-high then turn it down to a low-boil, covered, for 3 to 4 hours.  You know it's done when you try to pick it up with a fork and it falls apart.  (Add more water as necessary if too much water boils off while it's cooking.)

When it's done, mix 3-4 Tablespoons cornstarch with 1/2 cup water (or more, if too much evaporated), pour right into the pot while it's on low boil and move the meat around with a spoon so that the cornstarch water gets spread throughout.  Let it return to a boil for about a minute so that it thickens up into a gravy.  Turn off heat and serve.

Low-Sugar, Double-Chocolate, Coconut-Milk Breakfast Cake

I made this recipe to use up some of the coconut milk I bought during the lockdown (in case dairy became hard to get).  It turned out almost brownie-like in my opinion (considering that I never make brownies because they are too sugary).  It was soft, slightly chewy, chocolately, and very lightly sweet.  Perfect for breakfast with a cup of coffee or milk.  (We always do low-sugar, so add more if you want it sweeter or if it's going to be for dessert.)

Grease a 9x13 baking dish (I use glass).  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a big bowl, add and mix:

1 can coconut milk (I used a 13.66 oz. can unsweet organic coconut milk)

3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup olive oil (or oil of your choice)
1 1/4 cups sugar (or up to 2 1/2 cups, if you prefer)

1 cup of water

Then mix these and blend with the wet ingredients:
4 1/2 cups flour (I use fresh ground flour)
2/3 - 1 cup cocoa powder (I use 1 cup, very cocoa-y)
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup shredded coconut (optional)

If the batter is too thick, add a bit more water.  If it's too thin, add a bit more flour.

Pour into greased pan, smooth out, sprinkle a spoonful of sugar across the top, and bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes, until done.  You may need to cover with foil the last 15 minutes.  Let it cool, then serve.  (Or serve warm.)  I am not a morning person, so I always make it the night before so that it's ready for breakfast in the morning.

What I Stocked Up On, in case of Lockdown or Quarantine (with simple recipes)

(The memes are from here.)

This is some of what I stocked up on (with a few recipes at the end) as the Coronavirus panic took hold of our country.  I made sure to only buy what I knew we would use up by the expiration dates, and I spread it out over several shopping trips.  I'm not stocking up out of concern that we'll be on lockdown or quarantined.  (We're homeschooling homebodies anyway, so as long we don't get the virus, we'll be fine.  Which is good, because - surprise! - we just got put on lockdown.)  I'm stocking up more out of concern that this will have economic repercussions, affecting the country's future food supply.  Maybe not huge repercussions, but ones that will make us realize how much we took for granted before.  (My bedroom looks more like a fall-out shelter, full of food and supplies.)  

So Chicken Sandwiches Hurt "Queer Kids" and Red Hats Are "Scary"!?!

So, there's this article out (an opinion piece in the Toronto Star) about how "eating at Chick-fil-A will increase the suffering of queer kids." 

And I say, "What?"

First off, if chicken sandwiches have the power to hurt "queer" folk, then maybe those "queer" folks need to toughen up a bit.  Life is a lot more cruel than a chicken sandwich will ever be.

And secondly, if chicken sandwiches from Chick-fil-A have the power to hurt queer people, it's only because the LGBTQ-community made it that way.  

Best Pan-Scrubber for Non-Teflon Pans

Awhile back, I was trying to scrub off the cooked-on egg that was stuck to my non-Teflon-coated pans.  I tried rags.  I tried scrubby sponges.  I tried adding a layer of baking soda and salt to see if the extra abrasiveness would help.  

Nothing seemed to work.  The layer of egg was too thick and too stuck.  

My elbow and shoulder were beginning to ache because I was working so hard to get this egg off.  And so knowing that I was losing the battle, I looked around on my countertop in desperation for anything I could use to scratch the egg off.

A fork?  No, too sharp.  It'll scratch the pan.  

An egg-covered spatula?  Once again, too sharp.  And the edge is covered in cooked-on egg too, so I guess I'll need to work on scrubbing that egg off also.

A knife's edge?  Stabbing into the egg with enough pressure to cut through the egg but not too much that I cut through my hand or scratch the pan?  Yeah right!

And that's when I stumbled upon it ... the best egg-scrubber for regular metal pans (pans that are NOT non-stick!): 

A large green lid to a Simply Lemonade bottle.

I tell you, these things fit perfectly in your hand, and they have just enough rigidness to scrape off a layer of egg, but they have smooth-enough edges that they won't scratch your pans.  They break up the egg just enough that anything left on the pan can be easily scrubbed off with a scrubby sponge.  

(Once again, DO NOT use on non-stick or Teflon-coated pans, though, just the regular metal pans with no coating!)  

And when you have to throw one out, another one is usually available pretty quickly, as long as you buy Simply Lemonade or Simply Orange Juice again.  (You can use other lids too, I'm sure.  But I like the size of these.  It makes them easier to grip.)

Anyway, just passing on this little tidbit, helping to save your time and elbows and shoulders!      

Cinnamon Zucchini (or Pumpkin) Bread

I love having recipes with interchangeable ingredients, like swapping out pumpkin for zucchini.  That way, one recipe can lead to several variations.  This is a wonderful Spiced Bread - pumpkin or zucchini.  We use it for breakfast, slathered with butter and drizzled with honey.

Fakey Bacon

            There’s only one thing I never feed my children.  I mean, for the most part we avoid GMOs and artificial this and artificial that.  But the one thing I tell them never to touch is pork.  No ham, no bologna, no sausage, no bacon.  (So who’s thinking “horrible parent” right about now?)

            The only time we eat pig products is when we have marshmallows (gelatin) for s’mores on vacation once a year, when we take vitamins with gelatin (but we try to buy those without gelatin), and when we forget to not eat pie that we didn’t make (many pre-made pie crusts have lard) or bean dips at parties (most people buy the regular refried beans which contains lard). 

            But other than that … no pork!

Moist and Chewy Low-Sugar Chocolate Zucchini Breakfast Cake

            (Say that 5 times fast!)
            I am constantly cutting down the sugar in everything I make.  And yet I do like a nice chocolate cake.  And I also like finding ways to use up the abundance of overgrown zucchini that I get from the garden in the summer.  (From my father-in-law’s garden, that is.  I don’t get enough sun for much summer squash in mine.) 
            So I found a way to combine “low sugar” with zucchini and chocolate … and that’s what this cake is.  A good-for-you cake that we usually eat for breakfast.  (I am not a morning person so I do not cook breakfast in the morning.  But I make cakes like these the night before so we have something quick yet healthy to grab for breakfast.)

Our "Go To" Stove-top Pot Roast

I really suck at cooking beef of any kind, in any way.  But this is my easy, "go to" recipe whenever I get a huge hunk of beef.  (Wow, that sounds a bit inappropriate.).  

This recipe works great with brisket, but less expensive cuts of meat work good too.  You can use tougher cuts because it simmers all day in juice, till it falls apart.  

Today, I am trying top round, but chuck roast works good too.  (I seriously don't know what the difference is between most cuts of meat, other than filet mignon, so I just pick one based on size, shape, and price.  Use whatever cut you prefer.  And I wish I had pictures to post, but our computer isn't working.)

Here's the recipe:

Low-Sugar Zucchini Bread - Three Ways

(Spiced, “Carrot Cake-ish,” or Chocolate Chip)
A "go to" breakfast bread for us!

            I cringe – physically cringe and gag – when there is too much sugar in a recipe. 

            Whenever I make dessert for other people and I try to pour in the called-for amount of sugar (which is usually double what I put in for my family), I physically cannot make my hand pour the whole amount in.  I start to sweat and panic at the thought of too much sugar.  So I always stop short. 

            Personally, the ratio of sugar to flour that I think is perfectly sweet is about 1 cup sugar to 4-5 cups flour, maybe with a spoonful of sugar sprinkled over the top to trick your mind into thinking that it’s sweeter than it actually is. 

            But the recipe that I found for zucchini bread in a cookbook is more than 1 cup sugar to 2 cups flour.  UGH!  So I made this one with less sugar.  I think that the less sugar you have, the more flavor you can actually taste in your food and the better you feel about yourself.