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Friday, April 22, 2011

Bloomin' Parmesan Bread And Cheese Biscuits!

Today's post includes a recipe for one of our favorite ways of using up the bread we bake each week. You may use a round loaf of any bread of your choosing. We've used our whole wheat, sourdough....any kind is fine. We've even used a regular shaped loaf of bread, but the round loaf makes a beautiful presentation.

~Bloomin" Parmesan Bread~

1 round loaf of cooked bread which hasn't been sliced
1 cup shredded cheese of any kind
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 cup melted butter
spices~optional~we like Italian seasoning or dill
Chopped chives or green onions, optional

This is what it looks like when it comes out of the oven !
Cut a cross and then continue cutting lengthwise and widthwise until it looks like a blooming onion. Be careful not to cut all the way through the bread to the bottom.
This is how it looks as you're cutting each way:)

Now use your fingers to hold the bread apart and stuff it with the cheese of your choice.
Mix butter, parmesan, and spices and pour over all. Wrap in foil and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for approximately 20 minutes or until cheese is melted. Enjoy !!!
This makes a wonderful presentation for company or Sunday dinner. You can bake or purchase your bread a day or two before, stuff the morning you intend to serve, and cook right before dinner or company arrives.
Here's another recipe for a favorite one of my daughters likes to make on her day to cook. She usually serves Cheese Biscuits with a pasta meal, but they are very good with breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

~Cheese Biscuits~

4 cups whole wheat flour or your choice of flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt or powder
1/2 teaspoon spice of your choice, optional (we like dill or Italian)
2 cups shredded sharp cheese or your preference
1/2 Parmesan
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2/3 cup olive or coconut oil

Combine all dry ingredients. Add buttermilk and oil. Drop by spoonfuls 2 inch apart onto greased baking sheet. Sometimes she shapes them like biscuits, and sometimes she just puts them on the pan like drop biscuits. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Yum!

I wanted to mention something about making a wheat purchase. I mentioned in a previous post that we purchase wheat with a group of friends directly from Wheat Montana. I've heard that some people in some states are finding wheat in Walmart and places like Costco. That would be wonderful to look into. I plan to ask my local Sam's and Costco about the possibility of them carrying wheat. Others have mentioned ordering from Walton's and Honeyville?? Not sure I got the name right. Anyway, there might be a number of possibilities. I'd love to hear from you if you have a source you've been pleased with. A commenter also asked whether or not we ever make sourdough bread. We do, and I hope to post other recipes soon. One of my daughters in particular takes care of a starter, and she almost always makes sourdough when it is her turn to cook. I tend to revert back to my original recipe 'cause I can almost make it in my sleep, and it's so hard to learn new ways:)

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'd love to hear about your tried and true favorite recipes. Blessings to all.:)

Sherry

P.S. We most recently had the Bloomin' Parmesan Bread with Sugar Pie Farmhouse's recipe for Spaghetti Pie. It is cooked in a cast iron skillet, and we have one that is so large it will hardly allow for the oven door being shut. Her recipe is INCREDIBLE !! Gotta try it!
This post is being linked to http://www.deborahjeansdandelionhouse.blogspot.com, and Verde Farm.
Raising Homemakers

Thursday, April 21, 2011

A Weekend Of Fun And Work On An Off-Grid Homestead !

Recently we spent the weekend with our dear friends in Tennessee. We learn SO much when we are with them, and our families have a wonderful time working together. They've lived off-grid for many many years, and they know so much about so many things.

I love their chalkboard door and the way they post a list of chores to be done while we're there! They have a post for the big folks and a post for the not-so-big folks!
Mending fences and building a new gate was on the to-do list:)
Don't they look happy? Well, maybe not...now they won't be able to escape and eat the garden vegetables!




They have a lovely creek for keeping their milk and food cold, and our little ones ALWAYS end up in there NO MATTER the temperature:)
Mending fences. Is he hiding behind that post?
Always looking for pretty rocks and arrowheads. They especially love these work weekends 'cause it means they get to be outside just about the whole time, and mom and dad are out there with them.
The little ones kept arriving at the door with a new bouquet of flowers to be put in water. Here a daughter is receiving yet another one:)
They have some very nice starter plants thriving in that hoop house. He looks very happy!

The girls are taking good care of the chickens and I think they made some repairs on the pen.
Don't you just love their washroom?!!

Their wood stove kept us warm and fed. It was an unusually chilly weekend, and the wood felt and smelled SO good:) Do you see their little box of chicks next to the stove?
These girls stayed busy in the kitchen cooking for a crowd!
Another pretty bouquet picked by the little ones.
Peeling potatoes for the gigantic pan of potato salad they made to go with the yummy venison sloppy joes which were served on homemade slabs of whole wheat bread.

Aren't these cinnamon rolls beautiful:) They were super yummy!
Scrambled eggs fresh from the hen house.
Lots of talking going on!

Love the summer kitchen.




Their pretty cat had kittens a few days after we left.
They always send us home with lots of plants and herbs dug up from their yard. I try to learn all that I can, but she is so knowledgeable and I just can't seem to absorb everything she tells me:) I take notes and pictures.

Above is watercress. I really wanted to become familiar with how it looks. I've often read how the early immigrants could be seen combing the hillsides for the first watercress to grace the banks in the springtime. I hear it's also high in vitamin C!



Straightening the woodpile.
Good bye and God bless!