Spices Over Yanda Blog (Previously Allyson's Attempt at Domestication)

I am really soo excited! I LOVE wheat bread. As I've posted before, I store and grind my own wheat at home, so using it is really important to me. I posted a recipe for Fast and Easy Whole Wheat Bread before and it is super easy and it is super yummy. However, there were a couple things I didn't like about it and I think I figured out a couple easy ways to improve the recipe. Here is the recipe after I changed a couple things: 2 1/2 cups hot tap water 2 tsp. dry active yeast 5 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 1 cup white flour 1 tbsp. salt (I use kosher) 1/3 cup oil (I use olive oil) 1/3 cup honey or sugar (I use sugar) 1 1/4 tbsp. lemon juice Mix together water and yeast and add 1 tsp. of the sugar or honey. Allow to sit for at least 5 minutes to proof the yeast. Add the 1 cup white flour and 3 cups whole wheat flour, stir and let sit for 10-15 minutes just until it starts to rise. Add salt, oil, the rest of the honey or sugar and lemon juice and mix for one minute. Add the ...

Whew! It's been too long between blog posts! I need to do better. I'm sure I'll be posting more as I have many new ideas of things I want to try. Plus, for the first time I am planning on planting a fall garden. I plan on starting just as soon as this 100 degree weather subsides. :D The kids all go to school on Monday. That combined with needing to save more money to pay for orthodontics for one of my children has me back to meal planning. Yay!! My friend tipped me of to a GREAT sale on pork chops this weekend, so I went and loaded up on those, london broil and beef roasts. I've been sticking to a strict $80 per week grocery budget (we are a family of 5 and that includes ALL household items) so yummy meat isn't always on the menu. The pork chops were .99 per pound, london broil and beef roast were 1.99 per pound. My cut off for meat is usually 2.00 per pound so this worked out great! I also have on hand a few pounds of ground beef, 3 whole chickens and I al...

Everything is growing! I'm having some trouble. Something happened to my peas. It's the second year for my peas not to do well and so I may not try them again. We'll see. It was a different problem this year. Not sure if they didn't get enough nutrients or if the late freeze ruined them or what. Some of them just plain old died. So sad. I've also got a leaf eating problem. To the best of what I can figure out, I've got some grasshoppers doing the leaf eating. So far I don't noticed any major damage, but I'm still watching. My strawberries also seem to have a problem. The part that touches the soil isn't turning red, in fact it's turning brown and it's deformed in that part. The rest of the strawberry does fine and they taste oh soo good, but not sure what is causing that. I'm also only getting berries on 2 plants which were my 2 original plants from last year. The two new plants are just busy growing this year. :) Here is ...

I finished this awhile ago, but am just now getting it posted to show off! :D It was a fun project and easy enough for me to do without stressing. I will definitely be doing this project again. :) I hope my friend is enjoying this and her new baby! :D Here is my post with the link for the tutorial from the blog Creations by Kara .

It's garden time again! I've been working pretty hard to get my garden going again and I finally have most everything planted. I might do one more big box since we have a lot of compost leftover, but it would just be to try out some things we haven't before. We'll see. Here is my big box from last year. I had left the strawberries from last year. They started out as 2 plants and have grown to several. They now take up an entire row and will probably grow more and more each year. They are already blooming and we should have fruit on them very soon! Yay! On the top there I planted some onions. This year I used onion sets and they did much better than last years seeds. I also tried a few shallots. The shallots are growing much slower. I planted my onions in various ways. In two boxes I did them closer together so I could have some "green onions" and then further apart in one box so I could have some regular onions. I'm excited to see how they di...

Here is another great way to save money and never run out of what you need. The commercial packets are expensive and can really add up. Save money and make your own at home! Ranch Dressing Mix 1 ½ cups dry buttermilk 1 ½ Tbsp parsley flakes 1 ½ tsp each, dill weed, onion powder, dried onion flakes and salt 1 ½ Tbsp ascorbic acid (Vitamin C powder) ½ tsp garlic powder 1 ½ tsp ground black pepper Whisk together until well blended. Place in an air-tight, labeled container. Note: One tablespoon is equal to one packet of commercial Ranch Dressing Mix To Make Ranch Dressing: Add 1 to 2 tablespoons of the Ranch Dressing Mix to 1 cup mayonnaise and enough water for desired consistency (about 6 tablespoons). This is an excellent dressing to use in salads (egg, tuna, potato, cabbage, tossed greens, a topping for steamed vegetables, etc). Dry Onion Soup Mix Similar to Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix Combine the following: 7 oz beef bouillon powder ½ teaspoon pepper 1 cup dried minced onion ½ cup onion po...

I've been meaning for awhile now to post this fabulous, easy french bread recipe. I have given it to several people and I love making it! I have a request for it again tonight, so I decided to just get it posted. Here ya go! French Bread - recipe from Debra Oldroyd 2 Tbsp sugar 2 Tbsp yeast 2 Tbsp oil (I use olive) 1 1/4 tsp salt (optional to taste) 2 1/2 Cups water (hot from tap) 6 Cups flour In a large bowl, put sugar and yeast then pour water over them. Let yeast proof for several minutes (until foamy...) Add 3 cups flour and mix until smooth. Add salt and oil, mix until smooth. Add 2 1/2 Cups flour, stir (dough should pull away from sides of bowl). Leave spoon in the dough. Cover and let dough rise for 10 minutes. Stir down (repeat this step 5 times, stir well each time). Pour dough out onto floured counter, knead lightly. Divide into desired loaf sizes - roll each into a rectangle, loosely roll dough into french loaves, place on greased (or sprinkled with cornmeal) cookie shee...