3,2,1............Christmas Cookies!

Although most people are thinking about Thanksgiving now, I have already made our Christmas ginger/all spices cookies. They need a few weeks to soften. Now they are waiting in two boxes till they get decorated and ready for Christmas.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Bread

 'Bless our House as we come and go,

Bless our Families as they gather in,

Bless our Home with love and friends.'

A very, very good bread!

Recipe

This is the first recipe I am placing on my blog - I just do not want to lose the recipe itself in case if my offline sources happen to be gone some day.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/3 cups warm water
2 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp granulated sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg beaten + melted butter to brush the bread loaf before baking
Baking: 400F/ 200C for 30 min.

1. Mix the yeast, sugar and warm water in a glass - leave it for 5-10 min. till the mixture bubbles.
2. In a big bowl mix the flour and salt.
3. Add the 'yeast water' to the flour and salt, stir it well with a wooden spoon and work on dough for 5-8 minutes till it becomes smooth. It should not stick to your fingers. If it does, add some flour but not too much.
4. Leave the dough in the bowl. Cover the bowl with a dry and clean kitchen towel.You can lightly grease the bowl before you put the dough into it - I never do it. Let the dough rest for about an hour.
5. Take the dough out of the bowl and place it on the slightly floured kitchen top. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes.
6. Grease the loaf tin. Preheat the oven 400F/200C. Form the dough into a loaf. Place it in the tin and let it rest for 20 minutes. After that, brush the loaf with a mixture of some melted unsalted butter and a bitten egg. Bake the bread for 30 minutes. Enjoy!

Little cow/ Ram resting on the pan Biscuit

Joys and Pol-Southern Meal

'May Good Fortune be yours,

 May your Joys never end!'

Some of the Joys may be: 

dancing together

Italian dancers at Fiesta Latinoamericana! 2013

or a very tasty dinner:

Southern chicken fried steak & gravy...... .it was oh sooooo good!

and Polish carrots and peas

It all was quite a treat!

Mexican Rolls and Positive Thinking

'Everything will be allright in the end,

If it is not allright, it is not yet the end,' 

 

Bolillos

100g flour

1 ts dried yeast

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Ts honey

+

400g flour

1 1/2 ts salt

1 ts oil

Baking: 375F/190C for 30-35 min.

Some Reading And Baked Up Beans

A very nice little book has been given to me - very interesting reading too. It's called 'The New-England Primer' and it was first published in 1777.

'The New-England Primer was a text for students who were just beginning to read, regardless of their age (there were no grade level classification in American schools until the 19th century).* 

The book contains of :

• the English language learning section  - the  alphabet, illustrated also with black-and-white figures, easy syllables, words of one/two/three/four/five/six syllables;
• 'Some proper Names of Men and Women to teach Children to spell their own'; 
• lessons for children, including verses on how to be a good child;
• prayers and Catechism + 'SPIRITUAL MILK FOR American BABES Drown of the Breasts of both  Testaments, for their Souls Nourishment' (love this title).

Although I am neither a child nor a student who learns to read, I found the Primer educational too. Some of the English words included in the Primer were also new to me (English is my second language), and I needed to look them up in a dictionary, eg.:

Words of two Syllables

beguile, heinous

Word of three Syllables

amending, damnify

Words of four Syllables

edifying, benevolent

Words of five Syllables

abominable, fornication, exhortation

Words of six Syllables

abomination, edification

Some parts of The New English Primer which  I especially like:

'My Book and Heart must never part'.

'Have communion with few,

Be intimate with ONE,

Deal justly with all,

Speak evil of none.' 

'Be you to others kind and true,

As you'd have others be to you:

And neither do nor say to men,

Whate'er you would not take again.'

After reading and learning it is time for a good dinner:

 

The beans & meat go very well with yeast rolls or

 

with buttermilk white corn bread.

* from 'The New-England Primer