Mum's Molasses Brown Bread

While it may seem I'm copping out twice in a row by posting other people's recipes, this recipe is actually in my Grammie's cookbook. My Mum, who is an AMAZING baker, has the best brown bread recipe I've ever made or tasted. Hands down. Over the past few years I've shared it with many friends and members of my husband's family. Even the most novice bread-maker will find this recipe manageable and easy to follow. It was the first bread I ever made, and unlike my first try with white bread, it was a complete success. I think we ate an entire loaf in a day. What made me choose to share it here even though I've already passed it along to many people, is the fact that I can tell my Grammie really liked it too. There are several copies of the recipe in her cookbook, one in Grammie's handwriting, and two in my Mum's. The recipe is always the same, and the one my Grammie wrote down has my mother's name proudly written at the top. The second copy I found is in my mother's neat handwriting, familiar to me from her signature on permission slips and birthday cards. The third copy I found looked like her handwriting, but different from what I remember. It's youthful, unsure, and not so different from my own. It's fascinating to me that as she changed, this recipe stayed the same. I think I'm like that too. I know I've changed. At first I was a child, then I moved out, became a wife, and now a mother. Still, through all the changes in my life, inside I'm still the same person, learning new talents but not forgetting my old ones. As I'm sure my parents will tell you if you ask, I was not always an accomplished baker or cook. I lacked confidence and foresight. I had more than one incident in which I almost burned my parents house down by means of the microwave. While it may be a funny story to them, to me it was a learning experience. I learned about patience, attentiveness, and in the long run to trust my instincts. Now, here I am today using those hard-won skills for my family. It always seemed to me my Mum and Grammie came by their talent for baking genetically. There are generations of women in my family who had no fears in the kitchen. Somehow though, looking at my mother's uncertain handwriting as she shared her recipe with her own mother, I realised maybe I was wrong. We are only who we are because of who we were. We are women because once upon a time we were princesses playing tea party under our mother's watchful eyes. Or in my mother's case, my Mum is a confident baker because once upon a time her mother like a recipe enough that she included it amongst her favourites in her flour-covered cookbook. I'm grateful for this realisation because I appreciate something so simple as a bread recipe more today because it tells me something of who my mother and grandmother were yesterday. Maybe someday I'll have a recipe to share with you, Mum, that you can proudly write my name at the top of. Until then, I'll keep learning from the written history of the women of our family. A few old binders crammed with the memories of a woman who left us too soon but who helped give you and now me confidence to share old things and try new things.

Now, on to the recipe! Here's a shot of everything you'll need. Just add water! Doesn't look so menacing, does it? And no, you don't have to buy the jumbo jug of molasses. I just REALLY like this bread recipe so it behooves me to keep molasses in bulk.

Mix and let cool to lukewarm:

4 cups boiling water

2 cups quick rolled oats

1 1/2 cups golden molasses (I use dark with great results)

1/2 cup margarine

If you stir this mix frequently, I think you'll find it's cool in 10 minutes. As such, you'll want to get your yeast ready pretty much as soon as you've combined the oat mixture.

Mix and let stand for 10 minutes:

2 1/2 tablespoons quick rise dry yeast

1 tablespoon sugar

1 cup lukewarm water

Once the 10 minutes has elapsed, combine the two mixtures in a large bowl. Mix in 12 to 14 cups of flour. Just like the white bread, I recommend you mix in the flour gradually so your mix isn't overwhelmed. Turn mix out onto a floured surface and knead well. You will want the dough to be a little sticky. A great feature of this recipe is that you don't have to double rise the dough in a bowl. Cut the dough into four, form the quarters into loaves and put into greased bread pans. Let your loaves rise to double covered with a dry cloth towel. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Stay close to the oven and follow your nose because the bottom burns very easily. You'll know it's ready when the top of your bread is a beautiful golden brown. Let the loaves cool in the pans for 20 minutes, then cool them the rest of the way on wire racks. Or, if you don't want to let them cool, take a bread knife and dig in. Much like the white bread, this bread freezes very well. Just pop it into clean bread bags once it's cooled and put it right in your freezer. When you're ready for it, take it out and let it defrost on your counter. This bread is SO good it doesn't need any spreads, but it's very good as a grilled cheese sandwhich. I'm salivating just thinking of it. I'd better wrap this up so I can get downstairs and get some while it's fresh...

This one's for you Mum! Enjoy your baking!

Picky Potato Salad

I've learned a few things about my Grammie by sifting through her cookbooks this past week. While there are many handwritten recipes in her book, most of them are copied down from family and friends. Besides that though there are pages upon pages of calendar, magazine and flyer clippings with recipes. If she's tried them, she usually puts her stamp of approval (good, very good!) on the top right corner of the page. Sometimes there are little notes written all over the paper with improvements on the original recipe. I have unwittingly been doing the same thing for years with a little cookbook my mother assembled for me one year. This blog is really my way of sharing some of those favourite recipes with my own little improvements. In honour of Grammie's willingness to try other people's favourite recipes, I'm posting a family favourite from my husband's parents. I don't know for sure if today's recipe is in her cookbook, but I wouldn't be surprised to find it there. This recipe is from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine originally. After looking through Grammie's cookbook, I doubt that there's a recipe from the last 50 years that she didn't clip and put in her binder. This one, I assure you, is worth trying and sharing. Perfect for BBQs, potlucks, cold suppers, or just because. Once you try this recipe for potato salad, you'll never want to buy the bright green stuff from the grocery store again.

Just so you know, the actual recipe title is Perfect Potato Salad, but I call it Picky Potato salad because I'm picky and have a tendancy to omit a lot of ingredients. haha. The only parts you absolutely can't omit are the condiments and spices. Oh, and of course the potatoes!

3 cups cooked potatoes (cut in chunks and allowed to cool)

1 tsp sugar

1/4 cup chopped onion (guess what? I omitted them!)

1/4 cup sweet relish

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup mayonnaise

2 hard-cooked eggs (I omitted these this time, but more for time constraint, they're great!)

1 tsp vinegar

1/2 cup sliced celery (omitted, but only because I didn't have them handy, also a nice touch)

1 1/2 tsp celery seed

1 tsp mustard

Sprinkle potatoes with sugar and vinegar. Add all remaining ingredients and garnish with slices of egg if desired. Serve cold.

Enjoy your cooking!

Chili con Carne (or... chili with meat)

I doubt I will be able to keep up this pace for long, but I figured that since I was planning on making up some of my favourite recipes, I might as well share them with you. Now, most of you may not think chili is a summer dish, but I think chili is an any time dish. I made it for the first time today, but it has been a favourite of mine for years. My Mum has perfected the art of making it in her slow-cooker, but I made it right on my stove-top tonight. Easy to do either way.

I realised as I was scouring my Grammie's cookbooks this week that this chili recipe must have been a favourite of hers over the years. I think I saw it copies in her tight scrawling handwriting at least three times. I'm pretty sure it was always the same recipe with only minor variations. Even my version has some variations on her original. I didn't have all the ingredients, so I just omitted some and added others. I can see why she liked it enough to write it in so many times. When she was raising up her family, she had my grandfather and three kids to feed. Depending on how you spice it, you can serve this dish up to everyone in the family (although the smaller ones may make a bit of a mess of it) all out of one pot. I remember when I was a kid my Mum used to add sour cream for those of us who couldn't handle the spice on days when she was a little heavy-handed on the chili peppers. Tonight, I made it for just my husband and I, so we cranked it up a notch with far more spice than the recipe called for. I must say, no regrets. I downed a few glasses of water to sooth the fire in my mouth, but I did it with a smile on my face. I think maybe I should have raised a glass to you Grammie, for another great recipe, and to my lovely Mum, for sharing it with me when I was growing up. I hope you enjoy this recipe with a fancy italian name, that is nothing fancy to make!

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons oil

2 cloves minced garlic (I substituted garlic powder)

1 cup diced onion (I omitted this, but you can substitute with onion powder)

1 pound ground beef

1 28oz can of diced tomatoes

1 28oz can of red kidney beans (I couldn't find a 28oz, so I used 2 19oz... great choice!)

1 6oz can of tomato paste

1 tsp oregano

3 tbl chili powder

1/4 tsp pepper

1 bay leaf

1 tsp crushed red peppers

In a large pot, sauté onions and garlic in oil until soft. If you're going to use powdered onions or garlic, save the spices for later and skip on to the next step. Add ground beef to pot and brown it over medium heat. Turn heat down to low and add remaining ingredients. Gradually bring up to medium heat and let simmer for 30-60 minutes. Stir it frequently as it will stick to the bottom of the pot. Make sure to remove the bay leaf before serving, as it will remain quite sharp. If you're the slow-cooker type, sauté our onions and garlic and then brown your meat. Add these and all other ingredients to your slow cooker and cook on low heat all day.

This is very delicious fresh or re-heated in the microwave. I also like to serve it up with a few hunks of home-made white bread (see previous recipe).

Enjoy your cooking!

Home-made White Bread

For those of us with kids, sandwiches seem to be an every day meal. Not that bread from the store is so expensive, but for what you get I think that home-made bread is worth it. It's hearty, tasty, and gives you the satisfaction of knowing exactly what went into it. No preservatives, no nothing.

This recipe is a family favourite, and when I say that I mean it's a family favourite for generations. As far as I know, it's from my Grammie. I remember watching her make bread every summer and finding it fascinating. My mother and oldest brother really took it on too. At least once a month someone was making it fresh in our house. As for me, I make it at least once a week, because when you're feeding two toddlers and two adults, you go through a LOT of bread. You wouldn't believe how much better even a jam sandwich tastes on thick slabs of white bread.

I should also mention I don't have a fancy (or even not fancy) stand mixer. I use a big bowl, a wooden spoon and my bare hands. Now, my mother has said more than once she couldn't live without her stand mixer, and I totally get that. As for me, I don't have one, and I don't know how I'd live with it. There's something about doing it all with your bare hands that makes you appreciate the food even more.

So, here's the recipe:

3 tablespoons of sugar
1 1/3 tablespoons salt
1/2 cup butter of margarine

Set these ingredients in your largest mixing bowl and scald with 4 cups of boiling water. Allow this mixture to cool to lukewarm. To help the process along (if you're short on time like me) stir constantly with a wooden spoon.

When you can tell it's cooling enough, take another smaller bowl and combine

2 tablespoons of quick-rise yeast
2 teaspoons of sugar
1 cup of lukewarm water

Let this mixture stand for 10 minutes. It will get nice and frothy. After 10 minutes, add to large mixture and stir in for a few seconds. Now's the time to add your flour. My recipe says it will take 11 cups of flour, but I often find it will take 12. I usually start with the 11 and keep a full cup set aside to add as needed (or should I say kneaded? Hah, Mom humour). Because I'm mixing it by hand, I try to add the flour a few cups at a time, stirring until it's completely mixed it, then proceed adding more. At some point, your bowl may not be big enough for all that flour, so turn it out onto a floured surface (I just use my counter) and let the rest of your flour mix in while you knead it. For those of you who wear rings, I'd recommend (if you're comfortable with it), that you take off any rings with gems or diamonds on them as they will catch in the dough and leave your ring looking like a mess. I leave on my wedding band and take off my engagement ring. As a side note, this always reminds me doubly of my Grammie, because it was her engagement ring. My parents gave it to my husband so he could propose and I'm so happy to wear it as a constant reminder of how loved I am by those present and gone.

You'll want to knead your dough until it's smooth and elastic. Make sure to add enough flour to keep it from being sticky but not tough. That will make it nice and soft. I try to add any extra flour in handful and knead it in gradually rather than adding whole cups of flour after the first 11 cups.

Next, put your big ball of dough into a large bowl (I wash my bowl and plop it back in there) and let it rise to double, covered with a clean, dry towel. In my bowl this part looks pretty comical as it inevitably rises over the edge and mushrooms out. This doesn't change the taste of the bread, so don't worry if you're in the same situation.

Here's the fun part. My Mum always calls this part one of her favourite forms of stress relief. Punch down that big ball of dough. I mean it. Not just once, but as many times as you need to so you can get those air bubble outs. After punching it down a few times I usually turn it out onto a clean surface and continue to pound it until it's flat. After that's done, cut it into four equal pieces and knead it a little while you form it into the shape of a loaf. Plop it into a lightly greased bread pan. Let all four loaves sit in the pans and rise to double again. Once they're all ready, pop them into a 375 degree oven for 35-40 minutes. After they're baked take them right out of the pans and let them cool on wire racks.

If you like your bread to stay soft, I suggest bagging them while they're still warm. They freeze very well, so stuff them into cleaned out bread bags (I like the wonderplus ones because they're roomy enough for these bigger loaves) and pop a few in the freezer if you like. If you want to have a piece while it's hot and fresh, be aware that it will be hard to cut because the inside is so light and fluffy when it's warm. I also recommend you don't toast this bread. Not that it doesn't taste amazing, but I promise you it's a million times better heated up for about 20 seconds in the microwave.

Enjoy your baking!

An Introduction of Sorts

First of all a little about me. Some would consider me a newlywed with almost 4 years of marriage under my belt, but I'm also a new Mom. I have (so far) three beautiful babies. My oldest, a little girl, will be three in September. My second is a boy, and he's 16 months. My youngest is just two months old, and he's also a little boy. We live a truly blessed life full of diapers, potties, peanut butter kisses, time outs, of course, lots of love. We may not be perfect, but we're us. I remember when we were at the hospital for the delivery of our third, our very wise nurse told me that there are no perfect deliveries, only perfect babies. I feel like we've been lucky thrice over with our children. Enough bragging though, or you'll get too bored.

Now, for the concept of this blog. With the birth of our third, I became acutely aware of the fact that I now have a family the same size as my parents and maternal grandparents had. Now, my memories of my family close and extended are not perfect, but I have my fair share of beautiful memories down in the country with my mother's family. Most of those revolved around the kitchen with my Mum and my Grammie. There were many successes, and a few disasters that are still notorious today. Let's just say my Grammie wasn't the best cook, but what she did know she did very well. Her cookbooks are full of food that I consider even today to be comfort food.

Let it be said though, while my Grammie was a passable cook, she was an excellent baker. I can't remember a recipe that she couldn't make to perfection. Every church bake sale table at her small community church was full of her pies, cookies and squares. Now, she passed on this amazing skill to my mother, and I'd like to think to me too. It took me two kids to really try baking on my own (it was usually a social activity when I was a kid). I'm not going to say I've mastered the art of baking, but I have a few staple baked goods I can whip up with ease.

My plan over the next little while is to share my favourite recipes, and maybe some memories too. I hope you'll follow me along this journey to rediscover my Grammie through the dusty pages of her old cookbooks and share her with you. As we add recipes, I hope you'll come to love her as I do.