Whatcha eating?

OK, the bacon bread recipe.

Two pounds of thick sliced hickory sliced bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces. Put all the pieces in a sauce pot (10 inch or larger) and cook uncovered over low heat until the bacon is leathry in texture. You DON'T want to fry is crisp. Remove the bacon and drain. Let bacon fat cool and drink for lunch.

Bread recipe.

1/2 cup whole milk
3 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp table salt (I use sea salt)
3 tbsp butter (I use salted).
2 packages active dry yeast (NOT INSTANT)
1 1/2 cups warm water (105 to 115 degrees F). Use a thermometer to be sure. Hot water kills yeast.
6 cups bread flour. I use King Arthur unbleached bread flour. It makes an excellent bread. You CAN use all purpose white or unbleached flour. The bread won't have the same amout of chew when it's done. Bread flour is worth the money.

Combine milk, butter, salt and butter in a 1 quart saucepan. Heat over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves, stir while heating. Cool to no warmer than 115 degrees F.

I use a Kitchenaid mixer. Warm the mixing bowl from the mixer with warm water until it is about 90 degrees F. Drain bowl,

Dissolve yeast in 1 1/2 cups of water (see above), Mix with fork and let sit. Add the milk mixture (see above) and 4 1/2 cups of flour.

Put bowl on mixer, install dough hook and mix on speed 2 for 2 minutes. Continue mixing on speed 2 and add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough cleans the bowl. The dough, when it is the correct consistancy will clean all the remaining dough from the walls of the mixing bowl. Always wait until the flour has time to mix in befoe adding more, about 20 seconds.

Knead on speed 2 for 3 to five minutes longer. I use 5 minutes. At the 3 minute mark, add your fried bacon by the half cups and let mix the remaining two minutes. If you add it two early it pulverizes the bacon too much.

Place dough in greased bowl ( I use Crisco) and cover with plastic wrap. Put bowl in warm place (80-90 degrees F) and let rise until it doubles, about 1 hour. I use my warming drawer. You can use a warm oven that has been turned off. If the heat gets too high you kill the yeast.

Remove dough from bowl after it doubles in size, punch down and knead for a few minutes, 2 or 3. Cut dough in half, and put in two greased loaf pans. Grease loaf pans with Crisco. Cover pans with greased (Crisco) covered plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in the same spot you originally let the dough rise.

As an alternative to the above step, remove dough from bowl, very lightly flour surface of pastry cloth and rolling pin and roll out the dough to a 9 inch by 14 inch rectangle. Keep the width 9 inches and roll the dough until it's 1/4 inch thick. Now roll the dough tightly like a jelly roll and when you are done, cut the dough in half and roll the ends under to seal it closed. Then put in loaf pan as above. The purpose of rollling the dough, or kneading it is to break up any air bubbles from the douhg rising. This step will give you a nice tight uniform loaf.

When the dough is doubled, bake on the second rack from the bottom in a 400 degree F oven for 30 minutes. Turn loaf pans end for end at 15 minutes. Keep loaf pans in the center of the oven rack about 2 inches apart. A dark loaf pan will cook 'faster' than a light colored loaf pan. This USUALLY only makes a difference in the color of the crust.

USE AN OVEN THERMOMETER.

Remove loaves from pan after one hour of baking and dump upside down on wire rack. They will slide out or use a butter knife to loosed the sides by sliding it along the edges. Turn the loaves upside down and knock on the bottom and sides of the loaves. They should sound hollow and NOT make a thud sound. A thud means they have to bake for another 5 or 6 minutes. Try 5 minutes, then test for the thud agian. If OK, turn out on wire racks and let cool, about and hour. DO NOT COOL THE LOAVES IN THEIR PAN OR THEY WILL GET RUBBERY.

Because there is meat (bacon) in the bread, I store it in the fridge inside a ziploc bag. Warm at 350 for 4 or 5 minutes, or toast on medimum. This bread freezed very well, and tastes fresh at least two months after freezing.
Awesome! Thanks Festus!
 
We don't eat white bread, and havent for the last 50 years. Rye bread and pumpernickel is bought unsliced and sliced at home. Both of those breads have more taste and nutrition than white bread, but all of them pale in flavor to home made bread. I honestly believe that store bought bread makers have stopped using yeast in their bread to prolong shelf life. Baking soda and baking powder are two ingredients that can be substituted for yeast, and both are cheaper.

I'll post pics of my turkey pot pie later tonight. In a deep 9 inch (no jokes, please) pie pan it weighs over 7 pounds and contains 3 pounds of diced turkey, along with 3 pounds of peas and carrots held together with a pound of a tasty thick sauce. One standard size slice will fill your belly. It's how I use the dark meat on the turkey, since neither my wife nor I like the taste of dark meat. If you guys like the pot pie I'll post the recipe.

Think Swanson turkey pot pie....but full of meat, vegetables and flavor along with a crunchy crust.

I'm going to make someone a great wife some day.
 
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We don't eat white bread, and havent for the last 50 years. Rye bread and pumpernickel is bought unsliced and sliced at home. Both of those breads have more taste and nutrition than white bread, but all of them pale in flavor to home made bread. I honestly believe that store bought bread makers have stopped using yeast in their bread to prolong shelf life. Baking soda and baking powder are two ingredients that can be substituted for yeast, and both are cheaper.

I'll post pics of my turkey pot pie later tonight. In a deep 9 inch (no jokes, please) pie pan it weighs over 7 pounds and contains 3 pounds of diced turkey, along with 3 pounds of peas and carrots held together with a pound of a tasty thick sauce. One standard size slice will fill your belly. It's how I use the dark meat on the turkey, since neither my wife nor I like the taste of dark meat. If you guys like the pot pie I'll post the recipe.

Think Swanson turkey pot pie....but full of meat, vegetables and flavor along with a crunchy crust.

I'm going to make someone a great wife some day.

Sounds great
 
Simvastatin

Ah yes, a statin drug. My wife was on Lipitor (a statin drug) for 10 years, no trouble. The she became plagued by shoulder pains, knee pains, hip pains, they would all come and go. She thought it was arthritis. Went to the doctor, he took her off Lipitor and put her on two capsules of red yeast rice. Same active ingredient in Lipitor and Simvastatin, but natural. Her cholesterol is lower than ever, well within normal limits and the pains are gone. It took about a month for them to go away.

Seems the body tolerates statin drugs for so long, then it causes inflammation in the joints, causing pain. For some people it's years, others do it after the first dose.

Just something to watch out for.
 
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