Spicy Honey Raisin Yeast Bread

What can you serve for a beautiful weekend morning breakfast that is a little bit different from what is too quickly eaten on weekdays?  How about a slice of this fragrant loaf of bread, studded with plump raisins, and slathered with butter?  After all, we can splurge on the weekends, can’t we?  Take time to really read the newspaper or a good book, have the coffee nice and hot, and relax for just a little while.

SPICY HONEY RAISIN BREAD

1 pkg fast-rising dry yeast

1 tsp. salt

4 to 5 cups all-purpose flour, divided

1 cup milk, heated to 110 degrees F

1 egg, room temperature

1/2 cup honey

2-1/4 tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 cup melted butter or margarine

1 cup raisins

In large bowl of electric mixer, with regular beater, place yeast, salt and two cups of flour.  Add heated milk and beat at medium speed for 3 minutes.  Add egg, honey, spices and butter/margarine – beat to mix.  Insert dough hook and add remaining flour, a half-cup or so at a time, beating for a total of 6 minutes.  Enough flour should be added as you beat to keep dough from being sticky.  Put dough on floured surface and hand-knead raisins in, about 1/4 cup at a time.  Place in greased bowl and cover – let rise in warm place for 30 minutes.

Punch down dough and divide between two 7 inch, greased bread pans.  Cover and let rise 30 minutes.  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.  Bake @ 375 degrees F for approximately 45 minutes.  Remove from pans and cool on rack.

Note:  Can also be baked in one 9 inch greased loaf pan for approximately 45 minutes.

Yield:  One 9 inch or two 7 inch loaves

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Quilt, Tote Bag & Wallet for Cat Charities

I make small quilted items for my daughter, Shannon, to add to her donations to two of our favorite cat charities in the Cincinnati area, The Scratching Post and O’Bryonville Animal Rescue.  

The quilt is a small snuggle quilt for a child and is made in the quilt-as-you-go method from the Kaye Wood book, 6 Hour Quilt.  It is a simple method that joins strips, batting and backing at the same time and the quilt is reversible. 

I did some additional quilting, using decorative stitches on my Bernina. I made a small wallet and tote bag from leftover fabric.

  

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Quilted Items for Cat Charities

I enjoy making small projects for various animal charities in our area.  My daughter, Shannon, is a great supporter of these groups and makes beautiful cross-stich pieces to donate.  I pass all my projects on to her to distribute among the groups as she sees fit.  I found some great Funky Cat fabric at Fabric Shack in Waynesville, Ohio and used it to make three wall hangings and a tote bag for the benefit of the cats.   These items are offered for sale at various functions with the money going to the cat groups.

Two of our favorite cat rescue groups in the Cincinnati area are The Scratching Post and O’Bryonville Animal Rescue. 

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Linus Project Charity Quilts

For the past five years, I’ve been making three quilts a year for the Linus Project which provides quilts for hospitalized children with terminal illnesses.   I like to use scraps that are bright and cheerful.  The first quilt I made this year was a pinwheel.

 The second quilt was a dot-to-dot pattern I had seen on the cover of Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting magazine and it was simple enough that I was able to duplicate it on my Electric Quilt software.  The centers are fussycuts from fabric I thought a boy might like.

 The third quilt was designed with a little girl in mind.

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Honeybee Wall Hanging

The honey bee block was the block of the month on the Quilting Board forum, using a pattern from the McCall’s Quilting web site.  It was offered at just the right time for me since my oldest daughter, Nancy, had just given me a beautifully embroidered piece to design a wall hanging.

I decided on a border using colors from the piece and four corners using the honey bee block.  The blocks were very small, about 3″, so I fused the yellow bee “wings” and zigzagged around them with invisible thread.  I like the wallhanging which gives a little different approach to displaying the embroidered piece other than framing.

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Streusel Concord Grape Pie

 

 

About 20 years ago, this pie won a ribbon at a large pie contest at the Hamilton County Fair (Cincinnati, Ohio).  This was when we lived on a couple of acres in a rural area and I had large 5-gallon buckets of Concord grapes setting all over my kitchen.  I made as much jam and jelly as I needed, then made this pie.  If there were still grapes left, I would make the filling and put it in the freezer for later use.  Eventually, the grapes were wiped out by some disease and ever since I’ve searched the produce aisles and farm markets of the area for Concord grapes, with no luck.  Last week, I was amazed to see plastic containers of these wonderful grapes in my grocery store.  I couldn’t wait to make another pie for our Sunday dinner.

My best memory of this pie is taking it to a large square dance federation potluck dinner party where normally the buffet line led through the entrees, salads, etc., and then after eating the meal, the guests would go to the dessert table.  In this case, 8 men went directly to the dessert table and cleaned out the grape pie.

STREUSEL CONCORD GRAPE PIE

Unbaked 9″ pie shell

4-1/2 cups Concord grapes

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup flour

2 tsp. lemon juice

1/8 tsp. salt

Oat Streusel:  Combine 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats, 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup flour.  Cut in 1/4 cup butter to distribute evenly.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Wash grapes and remove skins by pinching at end opposite stem.  Place pulp in a small saucepan and bring to a boil; cook several minutes until pulp is soft.  Put through strainer or food mill while pulp is hot to remove seeds.

Mix strained pulp with skins.  Stir in sugar, flour, lemon juice and salt.  Place grape mixture in pastry-lined 9″ pie pan.  Sprinkle on Oat Streusel.  Place on large flat pan or cookie sheet to catch spills.  Bake @ 375 degrees F for approximately 45 minutes.  Cool on rack.

Note:  Removing the skins from the grapes takes about 15 minutes but is not difficult or overly messy.  A word of caution – if you don’t have a food mill, removing the seeds with a strainer is labor-intensive.  It’s worth all the work to me – the flavor of the grapes is unbelievable.

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Tennessee Waltz Quilt

 

When I bought an expensive Bernina sewing machine in January of 2007, I set myself a goal of making a fair-worthy queen-size quilt to enter in the Warren County (Lebanon, Ohio) fair.  The pattern is from a 1985 Judy Martin book, Scrap Quilts and the quilt was pieced and quilted on the Bernina 440QE.  I entered it in the fair and felt very lucky to have won a third place ribbon.

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Fresh Fruit Kuchen

Before retiring, I worked for 30 years for a manufacturer’s rep and in the 1980s and 90s he started doing business with Germany.  I took German lessons so I could help with translating the letters we received and to send presentable letters back to Germany.  I also used my limited skills to translate many recipes for the boss’s wife.  One of them was for a fruit kuchen which I adapted to my own taste and what was available in the U.S.  The recipe was a good one and a plum version won a Blue Ribbon at our county fair plus a low-fat recipe contest at a Cincinnati paper.  It makes a very tasty morning coffee cake, especially with fresh peaches.  The results aren’t as good with canned fruit.

FRESH FRUIT KUCHEN

3 Tblsp. sour cream

3 Tblsp. milk

3 Tblps. vegetable oil

½ cup granulated sugar

½ tsp lemon peel

¼ tsp salt

1 cup + 2 Tblsp. all-purpose flour

¾ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. baking soda

1 lb. fresh fruit, peeled and cored, in thin slices

Cinnamon topping:  2 Tblsp. granulated sugar

and 1 tsp. cinnamon, mixed together

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

In medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, oil, sugar and lemon peel.  Mix together the salt, flour, baking powder and baking soda, and gradually stir into sour cream mixture.  Place batter in greased 8″ or 9″ pan.  The dough will be stiff and somewhat sticky.  Dampen your hands with water and then press the dough into the pan.

Arrange the peach slices over the top of the cake.

Bake @ 350 degrees F for 20 minutes.  Sprinkle cinnamon topping over top of cake and continue baking for 5 more minutes.

Place on wire rack to cool for 5 minutes before cutting.

Best when eaten warm from the oven.Yield: One 8″ or 9″ kuchen

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Grandma Martha’s Banana Pudding

When I was growing up in the 1930s and 40s, we always had a light dessert for weekday suppers.  Sometimes it was fruit cocktail with careful portioning by Mother so everybody would get one of the maraschino cherries or coconut cream pudding made from a box of My-T-Fine mix or Mother’s own homemade banana pudding – easily our favorite.

GRANDMA MARTHA’S  BANANA PUDDING

¾ cup sugar

¼ tsp salt

¼ cup cornstarch

1 egg

2 cups milk

1 tsp banana extract

2 Tblsp butter

2 bananas

10-12 vanilla wafers

 

In medium saucepan stir together the sugar, salt and cornstarch.  Whisk in the egg and then the milk, a little at a time.  Stir over medium heat until pudding thickens and begins to bubble.  Continue stirring and cook for one more minute.  A whisk will help to smooth out any lumps.

 

Remove from heat, stir in banana extract and butter.  When ready to serve, stir in sliced bananas and crumbled vanilla wafers.

 

Yield:  4 servings

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Really Good Ginger Beef

I discovered this recipe in our community newspaper and made a few changes to suit our tastes.  This makes good use of an economy cut of beef which is baked for a long, slow time and comes out of the oven juicy, tender and flavorful.  I like to serve this with seasoned brown rice and a broccoli/carrot/garlic sauté.

 

REALLY GOOD GINGER BEEF

1-1/2# chuck or round steak, cut into cubes

¼ cup hot water

Approx 1 tsp grated fresh ginger

½ Tblsp. minced garlic

¼ cup teriyaki sauce

1 large onion, sliced

 

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.

 

Brown beef in a small amount of olive oil in a large oven-safe skillet.  Add water, ginger, garlic and teriyaki sauce, mixing well.  Spread sliced onions over the top of the beef mixture and bake covered @ about 300 degrees for 3-4 hours.  If meat is getting done beforehand, reduce heat and keep warm.  A small amount of water can be added if needed.

 

Yield:  4 dinner-sized portions

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