We’ve been home in our 1,190 square foot house – all together – for 20 days. A few too many of those days it rained, but the weather is looking more promising until the weekend. Sunshine is a beautiful thing. Sadly, California has closed vehicular access to our state parks so my hopes of taking hikes and enjoying the outdoors has been slightly altered. I heard foot traffic isn’t prohibited, but I’m not sure what to do with the car. So we are home doing our online school, eating well, and trying new recipes.
They say it takes 21 days to create a new habit. One routine we’ve fallen into is baking bread and trying new recipes for dinner. I wanted to share a few of our favorite meals we’ve had together. Please tell me know the lady that was hunkering down for a snow storm with plans to eat bread and desserts and just get all fat and sassy. We keep quoting her and laughing.
French Bread
I got this recipe from my mom and I’ve shared it quite a few times this week with my friends who saw me post this photo. You rip this bread apart and serve it with spaghetti night. It takes me back to cold winter nights in Michigan and over-filling myself with pasta and bread. My own kids love it too. Here is the recipe if you would like to try it too.
- 1 pkg yeast (2¼ tsp yeast)
- 1 C warm water
- 1 tsp salt
- ⅛ C melted butter or margarine
- 1 TB sugar
- 2 C flour
- Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and add sugar, salt, and butter.
- Add flour to make a soft dough. (I used my kitchen aid dough hook to knead)
- Put in a greased bowl and let it rise about 1 hour. Punch it down and let it rise again.
- Grease a pan and sprinkle with cornmeal.
- Powder your hands with flour and divide the dough into 3 long sections. Lay the sections on your pan and braid the dough.
- Sprinkle with cornmeal, cover, and let rise 30 minutes.
- Bake at 370 degrees for 25 minutes.
Mongolian Beef
We’ve had this recipe twice in 20 days. It’s really delicious! I used 1/4 cup of brown sugar instead of the 1/2 cup and it was still pretty sweet. You can also substitute Splenda Brown sugar. We did that the second time we made it and it tasted exactly the same. You know, it’s all about balancing out the spaghetti and bread night. I have been having trouble finding fresh meat in our stores so I used frozen stir fry beef strips instead of fresh meat as well. We serve it over rice with a veggie on the side.
Barnyard Biscuits
We unintentionally had an orange dinner night. Kind of funny when that happens. Barnyard Biscuits is an old post from the blog that you can find HERE. We have it at least 2 times every month. I also tried a lighter version of cheesy potatoes that are made with Greek yogurt. They were good too,. Your future self will thank you when you do the dishes if you spray your muffin tin liberally and avoid spilling cheese when you assemble your biscuits.
Hassleback Sweet Potatoes with Avocado Sauce
Woe, this was so good and I’m wondering if two days ago was long enough for me to make these again. I did tweak the Avocado Sauce a tiny bit and added Dill weed (sparingly) and Beaumonde seasoning. You have to check out the clever way to cut the potatoes too. Genius use of chopsticks! HERE is the recipe and a link to the cutting of these potatoes.
Lasagna and a Fresh Fruity Salad
No special recipe for the Lasagna. I just follow the one on the box of lasagna noodles. I do make it with ground turkey sausage because I think it’s more tasty then ground beef. The salad was the real star of this dinner. We mixed romaine and spinach and topped it with Light Raspberry Vinaigrette Reduced-Fat Dressing, berries, mozzarella cheese and fresh parmesan cheese. Even the kiddos liked the salad.
Olga Burgers
If you are from Michigan you probably know the restaurant Olga’s. It’s actually been reviewed on the blog! We don’t have the chain in California so I’ve learned to make my own Olga bread. It’s our favorite burger night. HERE is the copycat recipe.
Every night one of the kids wanders into the kitchen and asks to help. When life was busier I didn’t always say yes, but right now the answer is always yes. I loved teaching my Annabelle how to braid the bread. She assembled lasagna this week too.
I hope you are finding your way in this time that I refuse to call unprecedented. I’m finding myself annoyed by that word. We are living in some extraordinary days. While life is abnormal and out of our ordinary routine I hope you are finding your way and broadening your vocabulary. The writer in me had to share my pet peeve for an over-used word.
That’s all for today folks! Until next week – Keep On! This won’t make you want to try to make bread, but it’s certainly a funny picture!
Quarantine day 21
Posted by Mary Henne on Wednesday, April 1, 2020
