Black Bean Flour

I have decided to be a part of the Cold Spring Farmers Market this year and I am pretty excited about it!  I am going to be selling my breads and freshly milled flours.  There are so many different types of flours out there with many uses other than bread.  Some of them are, whole wheat pastry flour, spelt flour, oat flour, amaranth flour, brown rice flour, millet flour, black bean flour, white bean flour, green pea flour, and the list goes on and on.

Since I am going to be selling these products I figured I better taste them and know how to use them. Last night I milled some black bean flour and found a recipe on www.bobsredmill.com for a black bean flour dip.  This website has many recipes for using different types of flours and they have lots of gluten free recipes for those of you gluten free-ers.  This recipe is super easy and my kids loved it, like ate it by the spoonfuls-forget the chips!

This is what black been flour looks like. I thought it would be blacker than this but it turns black once you add water to it.

And here is the recipe from www.bobsredmill.com and a picture of the dip.  It looks a little gross but if you are a black bean and salsa type of person, I promise you will love it!  We ate this last night with burgers on the grill and it was a perfect spring evening dinner followed by a bonfire of course!

• 1/2 cup Salsa or Picante Sauce
• 2 cups 1/2 Hot Water
• 1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon Chili Powder
• 1/4 Teaspoon Cumin
• 3/4 cup Black Bean Flour

Whisk 3/4 cup of Bob's Red Mill Black Bean Flour mixed with 1/4 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. chili powder and 1/2 tsp. salt into 2 1/2 cups of hot water. Stir 1 minute while cooking over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover saucepan and cook an additional 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add 1/2 cup of your favorite salsa or picante sauce and allow mixture to cool. Let mixture cool for 15 minutes if serving as a dip. May be topped with grated lowfat cheese (if desired) and chopped green onions and cilantro.

Happy Friday!

Here is a quilt that I just finished today.  It is a twin sized quilt that someone requested that I make for her son along with one to coordinate for herself.  I think it turned out really great!  They both love elephants so I used a fabric with elephants on it (which by the way is incredibly difficult to find!).

I still have a few projects to work on, including baby quilts for each of the girls that I have been dreading hand stitching, so they have been sitting in a chest unfinished.  And I also need to quilt this little gem that is for our bedroom.  By the time I actually do it, I will probably hate the colors and start another one.....I want to do some really intricate stitching on this one, so I am still planning what I want the finished quilt to look like.

With the weather finally warming up, I am getting very excited for my garden and to be able to play outside with the kids.  Happy Friday everyone!

Spring is near...

So, as it turns out, I am not the best at blogging on a regular basis after all...there are just too many things to do and not enough hours in the day.  Once the weather warms up I am going to plant the greatest vegetable garden Cold Spring has ever seen! ;). I attempted this last year and was doing pretty good with it all until some starving cows decided to trample our 5 foot tall chain link fence and completely demolish the entire garden.  They ate EVERYTHING down to the dirt, no joke.  So, I have been dreaming of which tomatoes to plant and paging through my Azure catalogue dreaming of Spring.  In the mean time, Matthias cheers every time a snowflake falls from the sky...

I am still baking bread every Wednesday and quilting whenever I get a chance.  I just completed a queen size quilt for someone and am working on a coordinating twin sized quilt for her son.  I will post pictures of that soon.  Here are a couple of baby quilts I made for my nephews when they were born.

Soon enough I am sure I will be sharing pictures of my fabulous garden, but until then, Happy Spring!

It's been a while....but I've been busy!

I have so many projects in the works right now it was nice to be able to start and finish one all in the same day. My sister-in-law had some pillows she wanted recovered so that was my project for Saturday morning.  I think they turned out beautifully and now I have the itch to add pillows to every chair or bench in my house.

Here is another quilt that is almost completed.  I made it completely out of the clothing of my brother-in-law who passed away.  I think it will be a nice keepsake for my niece Hope to enjoy when she is older.

Someone contacted me about a quilt she saw on my blog.  She loved the pattern and sent me a picture of her decor so I could coordinate the colors.  I started with this: (these little babies are super fun to quilt with. They are called jelly rolls.  They are made up of 20-40 strips of coordinating fabrics.  I made these but they sell them at any quilt shop for about a dollar a strip, so $20-$40 a roll.)

(the blue roll will be used for a quilt for her son in the same pattern)

And now I have this:

I still need to add a border or two and then quilt it.

As you can see, I have a lot of work to do!  So, I had better hop to it while the girls are asleep and the boys are gone.  Happy St. Patty's Day!!!

Play Dough!

Who doesn't love play dough!?  I do, and so do my kids, so with a snow day on our hands today, I tossed out the crumbly, cruddy store bought play dough ( that, by the way dries out after you've played with it three times) and made some new homemade stuff that is really easy to make.  You will need:

1cup water
1cup flour
2T salt
2T cream of tartar
2T veg. Oil
1-3oz pkg jello for color

Dump everything together in a saucepan over medium heat and continually stir until it begins to thicken and eventually form a ball.

Pour it onto a heavily floured surface, cool 20 minutes or so, and then knead the dough, adding additional flour until it reaches the consistency you like. It did take quite a bit of extra flour, so don't worry if you think you are adding too much!

The result, really soft, pretty, play dough that will last 10 times longer than anything you buy in the store.  This woud be an easy and fun project to let the wee ones help with too.

Thursday is coming!

Thursday is coming and you know what that means....it's a Breads and Threads day so get your order in!  This week I am baking up my tasty, high fiber bread.  Don't let the name scare you, it is delicious.  This recipe was created for someone who came to me and said, I want a high fiber bread that tastes like this...(as he hands me a loaf of well known, super yummy, moist bread).  I struggled for months trying to perfect my recipe.  Each week I would slightly change the recipe and have him taste test until I got the OK.

I am wrapping up another quilt I made for someone out of their loved ones clothing so I will post pictures soon!  If you are interested in having something made please contact me and I can answer any questions you have.  I am currently 6-8 weeks out and may be up to 12 weeks or so shortly, so please contact me if you have a project in mind so it can be finished by the date you need it for.

Sesame seed hamburger buns

Last night I had a hankering for hamburgers so I thought...I gotta make some buns to go with it.  I found a recipe online at www.browneyedbaker.com and it was really good so I have to share it.  Anyone can do this so don't be scared just dive right in!  The instructions below look overwhelming at first glance, but basically just dump everything together, knead, rise, shape, rise, bake....piece of cake! Enjoy!

4¼ cups bread flour
1½ teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 egg, slightly beaten, at room temperature
¼ cup butter, at room temperature
1½ cups buttermilk or whole milk, at room temperature

1 egg, whisked with 1 teaspoon water until frothy, for egg wash (optional)
Sesame or poppy seeds for garnish (optional)

1. Mix together the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large mixing bowl (or in the bowl of an electric mixer). Pour in the egg, butter and milk, and mix on low speed until all the flour is absorbed and the dough forms a ball. If the dough seems very stiff and dry, trickle in more milk until the dough is soft and supple.

2. Sprinkle flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and begin kneading (or mix on medium speed with the dough hook), adding more flour, if necessary, to create a dough that is soft, supple and tacky, but not sticky. Continue kneading (or mixing) for 6 to 8 minutes. (In the electric mixer, the dough should clear the sides of the bowl, but stick every so slightly to the bottom.) Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

3. Ferment at room temperature for 1½ to 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

4. Remove the fermented dough from the bowl and divide it into twelve 3-oune pieces. Shape the pieces into tight rounds. Mist the dough lightly with spray oil and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Allow to rest for about 20 minutes.

5. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Gently press down on the tops of the rolls with your fingers to flatten slightly. Transfer the buns to the sheet pans.

6. Mist the tops of the dough with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap or a towel. Proof the dough at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until the buns have nearly doubled in size.

7. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Brush the buns with the egg wash and garnish with poppy or sesame seeds, if desired.

8. Bake the buns for approximately 15 minutes, or until they are golden brown and register just about 180 degrees F in the center. The buns should cool for at least 15 minutes on a rack before serving. Store leftovers in an airtight zip-top bag. If you want to freeze them, I would wrap individually in plastic wrap and then store in a zip-top bag. Thaw at room temperature.