Pioneer Woman at Heart

One Flourishing, Frugal and Fun Family!

One family learning to live off the land, cut back on expenses, and to live a simpler and a more self-sufficient lifestyle.

Adopted Motto

"Eat it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or go without."
~A Pioneer Sampler, by Barbara Greenwood~

Friday, November 27, 2015

Food Dehydrator Uses ~ Making Homemade Bread ~ New Side Dishes

In the past several years, I knew that my dehydrator had a temperature for rising bread dough.  It was not large enough, height-wise.

 My new one however, is perfect for rising bread.

 I placed a small tray of water in the bottom, removed all my racks but the bottom one, and covered the dough with a damp cloth.  My dehydrator has a clear door on it, so I can see the results without opening it.


 Removed it, punched it down, split the dough, and put the pans back into the dehydrator to rise again.


I'm thrilled with the results.  Homemade bread is back in action more than ever before.

Note:  I used the "Rising Bread" temperature recommended by the brand I purchased.

With the Thanksgiving holiday behind us now, the Christmas tree goes up, lights on, and ornaments too.  We have enough leftovers to last a while yet.  This year was the first year in a very long time in which we sat down for Thanksgiving dinner, and said grace.  Hubby, myself and the kids (all but one).

The girls helped with making the deviled eggs, and used greek yogurt in place of mayonnaise.  Pretty good too.

Another daughter helped Hubby pick up brush in the yard.  We have lots of it. 

We relaxed, enjoyed ourselves, and had a few good laughs.  My timer broke, so watching several dishes at once was a chore, but I was successful.

 (before baking)
We ditched the "green bean casserole" and opted for a side of shelled peas and butternut squash, along with a rutabaga/apple casserole.  I plan to make the rutabaga dish again, but will add some cinnamon to the brown sugar and butter.

I'll be sharing a new butter we made as well.  I'm also playing around with yarn again.  I'll have some new items to share soon.
 
There is absolutely zero traffic this morning.  I'm guessing everyone is at the store shopping madly for all those sales.  As you can see, I am not one of them.  I'll be taking my coffee and breakfast to the porch.  It's raining this morning, but the temperature is wonderfully warmer.  Youngest wants to go camping, despite the rain.

5 comments:

Susan said...

Sounds like a perfect, peaceful holiday. I hadn't thought about using my dehydrator for bread - what a great idea!

Mama Pea said...

This is another "you learn something new every day." I had no idea you could rise bread in the dehydrator. Wonder if it works in all dehydrators? Mine is a really old one and doesn't have a setting for that.

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

Susan and Mama Pea, my dehydrator instructions say to rise bread on 110°f/43°c. My bread was ready before the suggested 1 hour, on the second rise.

RB said...

We had a lovely Thanksgiving too. I work at a grocery store, so I worked 10am-3pm. While I was at work, Bro Tom made our dinner. I'd made the dressing and the sweet potato dish the day before, so all he had to do with that is pop them in the oven for a bit. We'd brined the small turkey breast we'd gotten for our meal, and it was great. All the critters got a tiny bit of turkey except for the dog, cause all the online animal health websites said not to give turkey to the dog, so we didn't; I felt a little bad about that, but not bad enough to want to indulge him and have him get sick.
I generally avoid shopping Black Friday weekend, but we do have to go out to get some cat supplies and some butter that one of the stores has on sale. We'll get a bite to eat while we're out, cause we're almost turkey'd out and the turkey's nearly gone anyway, just enough to pick off and toss in some gravy for a hot turkey sandwich later this week.
Prayers everyone has a safe and blessed week ahead.
God bless.
RB
<><

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

RB, our oldest daughter had to work Thanksgiving day as well. We ate after she arrived. We have almost no leftovers now. Although I still have homemade bread. We may grill sandwiches today for lunch.