Let it snow!!…

Here in North Carolina we had a snowstorm roll through.  Around here that means making a bee line to the grocery store for bread and milk.  It also means putting on a pot of pintos and making a pan of cornbread or biscuits…and yes, I did both.  What else is there to do when you’re snowed in but eat!!  Well, you could also let your dogs play in the snow…and without further ado I give you Bruiser in “A Dog’s Ice Capade”!!!

Chase and Rufus snuggle on the couch.  As you can see there is a hole in the blanket so Rufus takes it upon himself to make a Snuggie out of it!!  How smart is he???

Is my Amish Bread Supposed to be Green??…

Okay…so here’s the scoop… I only have one glass loaf pan so I used 2 small disposable aluminum pans along with the glass.  WRONG thing to do!!!  The bread turned out great in the glass pan but not in the disposables.  The disposables didn’t give the bottom a good crust…it was gooey and GREEN!!!  It was edible but not very appealing. What happened?? Well, after Googling “Amish Bread turned green”, I found out I am not alone.  I know the recipe said not to use aluminum to mix the dough in but it didn’t say not to use aluminum pans to cook the bread in.  I used devil’s food chocolate pudding and so did the other cooks whose bread turned green.  There’s a reaction that occurs with this pudding when it is baked. Its edible, but I just couldn’t eat it!  I actually didn’t notice it until well after it cooled.  Mental note to self: DO NOT USE DEVILS FOOD CHOCOLATE PUDDING AND ALUMINUM LOAF PANS!!!  The one I cooked in the glass pan was fine.  Not sure if the others used aluminum pans too but I am not doing that again!  I also wasn’t crazy about the pudding in the bread.  I tried one my co-worker made without pudding and I liked it so much better!!  Oh well…live and learn…and don’t use aluminum pans to bake in!!!

A Ziploc Bag Full of Goodness!!…

Inside this bag contains a secret bread starter that only the Amish claim to know how to make. This secret recipe is handed down from person to person 1 cup at a time. And if you give all of yours away you will have to travel to the Amish country to get them to make you some more.

Or you could just Google “Amish Friendship Bread” and start your own. Don’t you love how they put that on the recipe? Like we have time to hunt down an Amish woman and have her make us some starter.

Anyway, my co-worker Gina was sweet enough to give me a bag of it and I can’t wait until it’s time to bake. I’m on Day 5. Only 5 more days until I can bake 2 wonderful loaves and then share the starter with the ones I love…or just keep it for myself.

Amish Friendship Bread

Day 1: Do nothing.
Day 2: Mush the bag.
Day 3: Mush the bag.
Day 4: Mush the bag.
Day 5: Mush the bag.
Day 6: Add to the bag: 1/2 cup of flour, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of milk. Mush the bag.
Day 7: Mush the bag.
Day 8: Mush the bag.
Day 9: Mush the bag.
Day 10:
Add 3/4 cup of milk, flour and sugar. Mix well. Remove 1 cup of the batter into a new bag.

To the remaining batter add:
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups oil (or use 1/2 oil and 1/2 applesauce)
3/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
3 cups flour
1 large box of instant vanilla pudding.

This will make three smaller loaves or two large loaves or muffins. Grease the bottom of the pans and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Pour batter into pans and sprinkle the top with sugar and cinnamon. Bake at 325 about and hour for bread loaves or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool until the bread loosens from the pan easily.

Variations:

For chocolate bread omit the cinnamon and replace the vanilla pudding with sugar-free chocolate fudge pudding, add 3 oz. of chocolate chips and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.

For blueberry-lemon omit the cinnamon, use sugar-free lemon pudding plus a teaspoon of lemon extract and 1 cup of frozen blueberries that have been thawed and drained.

Super Doubles Round 2…

OK…it’s round 2 and I don’t think I did too bad.  36 items for $34.00!!!  Except it seems as if I’m missing a yogurt from the picture.  Good thing it’s 22 degrees outside…at least I know the yogurt won’t go bad in the trunk of my car. Well, it’s been a long day and I’m tired.  I’ll leave you to oooh and aaah over my fabulous buys while I go to bed!!

Saving with Coupons and Feeding the Savages!!…

I love coupons…NO!…I mean I LOVE coupons. And starting tomorrow Harris Teeter will be having Super Doubles!! Don’t know what that is? HT will double 20 coupons at $1.98 or less per person per day. Rarely do you find any $1.98 coupons, but there are a good amount of $1.50 coupons out there. Good thing I bought 2 Sunday newspapers! Now I just have to clip and sort them!!! At A Full Cup you can find out what’s on sale and the coupons you should use to get the best deal.  You should check it out.  Well, gotta go…I’ve got a lot of coupons to clip.  And by the look on Tre’s face I better do it in a hurry…he gets mad when he’s hungry!  I will include some pics of my fabulous deals in the days to come.