turkey barley soup

leftover turkey, diced finely, maybe 3 cups give or take

1 1/2 cups shredded carrots

few stalks shredded/sliced celery

1 or 2 chopped onion

1/2 to 1 cup pearl barley

chicken broth to cover above ingredients

salt and pepper to taste

2 or 3 bay leaves

1/2 tsp each poultry seasoning and sage

Very slowly simmer together all afternoon. Serve with sour cream and mozza and parmesan cheese. We just love this soup. It's so simple and delicious. Last night I added some shredded potatoes that needed using up and that worked too.  What makes this soup so good IMO is the sage and poultry seasoning. It would work to quad this and can it.

(I'm realizing just how difficult it is to write my recipes down; I do NOT measure much at all! Hope you can use these.)

coconut butter

hard margarine or real butter and soft margarine to equal about 1 1/2 cups

1/2 tsp coconut flavoring

1/2 cup icing sugar

2 Tbsp honey

Whip all together and serve with warm fresh bread or hot toast. If you have Torani Coconut syrup, use just butter and syrup to make a fabulous spread.

cinnamon butter

A mixture of either real butter or hard margarine and soft margarine to equal about 1 1/2 cup

2 Tbsp honey

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Whip all together and spread on fresh bread or toast

maple butter

Take a blob of butter or hard margarine that has softened, as well as some soft margarine to keep it soft once you've refrigerated it again. This amount should total (together) approximately 1 1/2 cups. It's not that fussy. Add 1/4 cup maple syrup or if you have that Torani coffee syrup in maple flavor, put in about 2 squirts. Whip together and serve with fresh bread or toast. I actually think that if you don't have either syrups use maple flavoring and 1/2 cup icing sugar and a Tbsp honey.  This is sooo good!

three cheese bread

3/4 cup lukewarm water

1/2 cup creamed cottage cheese

1/2 cup shredded Swiss/mozza/cheddar cheese (your choice)

3 Tbsp parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp lard

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 cups white flour (I added a bit more as it mixed as it was too soft)

2 tsp yeast

Mix on dough setting in your bread machine. Pan into individual loaf pans and let rise. Bake @350F for 20 minutes. This was my favorite of the three types of bread I made yesterday. (See last two posts as well as this one.) It was so moist and is still fabulous a day later.

cracked wheat bread

1 1/4 cups lukewarm water

2 Tbsp powdered milk

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp lard

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups white flour

3/4 cups cracked wheat

2 tsp yeast

Mix as you usually would in your bread maker on dough setting. Pan into individual loaf pans. Let rise and bake @ 350F for 20 minutes. I braided these loaves and then sprayed them with Watkins version of "Pam" and sprinkled cracked wheat on top before baking.

caraway rye bread

first of all, this recipe is mixed in the bread machine, then panned into those nifty little individual loaf pans.

1 1/4 cup lukewarm water

2 Tbsp powdered milk

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp honey

2 Tbsp molasses (next time I'd use a bit less)

2 Tbsp lard

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups white flour

3/4 cup rye flour

1 Tbsp caraway seed

2 tsp yeast

Mix as you would according to your bread machine instructions. Punch "dough setting" and leave it for the next couple hours. Pan into individual loaf pans. Let rise and bake @ 350F for 20 - 25 minutes. This bread is heavy but pungent and best fresh with soup. I sorta babysit my bread maker and as the dough is mixing I keep checking it to see if I need to add miniscule portions of flour or water so it is just right! This is probably cuz I don't measure accurately AT ALL. I go by "feel". When I serve these loaves, I place little cutting boards and knives by each place setting along with a little pat of butter in a dipping bowl. If you can't find cutting boards, make them outa pieces of smooth wood. That's what we did. And I use steak knives.