Life on the Prairie: Fall mornings and a brief country commute.

I recently went from living in town and 5 minutes from work, to living out in the country 27 minutes from work. Luckily the majority of my commute is country roads and the in town journey  is on quiet secondary streets with one school zone and a couple of lights. Commuting is not my favorite thing. My time in the country should be limited to just a year, and by then I hope the commute will return to a few walkable blocks. 

Most mornings my husband and I carpool, he drives. Some days I fill the ride with crocheting, reading, playing games on my phone, but I also am learning to enjoy the moment. This morning as we left the house and started down the dirt road hill the fog was rolling into the pockets of valleys. As we turned onto low speed country road I soaked in the orange glow from the sun rise flooding the horizon. I remind my husband that the speed limit is only 45, and that he needs to watch for four legged creatures dashing across the road. We pass the farm house where mom and daughter are awaiting the country school bus. The daughter is amused by the warmth of her breath in the crisp morning air. The flock of turkeys are out in the field, we commonly see them morning and night. We approach the main road connecting the bedroom community to town it seems as if there is always a long line of traffic headed to town, different people headed different places, the pickup in front turns into the landscaping business, headed to work. As we make our way into town we follow traffic around the roundabouts almost like an amusement park ride, eventually descending down though the hustle and bustle of the main thorough fare. Work begins to fill my mind as we start making our way through the lights. I start to lose track of the events of the outside and begin to center my mind on upcoming meetings and tasks to be completed. Before I totally lose myself in future events, I notice three children making their way to school, running, jumping, and laughing. Teachers collecting and sorting kids by the morning bus. My ride is almost over, just a few blocks. My day is awaiting me. 

I am aware country living has a lot to offer, mostly time, quiet moments, and a different perspective on life. I am looking forward to sharing them over the next year, and including more posts about life on the prairie. 

From Mothers Recipe Box: Cowboy Coffee Cake

This was a Sunday morning favorite for church fellowship hour. 

Preheat oven to 375, grease an 9x9 baking pan.

Ingredients

Cake:

1/4 c canola oil

1 egg, beaten

1/2 c milk (not skim)

1 1/2 c all purpose flour

3/4 c sugar

2 t baking powder 

Dash salt

Topping:

1/4 c brown sugar

1 T Flour

1 t cinnamon 

1 T melted butter (unsalted)

1/2 c ground mixed nuts (optional)

Combine oil, egg, milk and mix well. 

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and whisk to mix. 

Stir in your wet ingredients to your dry, mix well.

Spread into greased 9x9 pan.

Mix together topping ingredients and sprinkle of top of cake mixture.

Bake at 375 for 25m.

Serve warm or cool, also topped with powdered sugar glaze drizzled over the top.

  

Homemade Milk Bread sort of from Joy of Cooking

Homemade Milk Bread #food #bread, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

If you aren't familiar with the bread making process I suggest you check out the Joy of Cooking from the library and look up the full instructions. I am not good with the details of the process.

3 T of Warm Water (105-115 deg F)
1 PKG of Active Dry Yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
Add your yeast to the warm water and let set. Be careful not to overheat your water.
Let set 5m

While it was doing its yeasty thing, I prepped the next step, and put in my handy dandy stand mixer with dough hook. Don't have a stand mixer get your arms warmed up for Grandma's got great arms workout!

Heat 1 Cup of Milk (this is not the time to reach for the skim milk either, go with 2% or higher), heat it to 105-115 deg F.
Melt 5 T of Unsalted Butter
3 T of Sweet (white sugar, or honey)
1 t of Salt (optional to me, however the recipe doesn't make it an option)

After the 5m mark on the yeast, mix in mixer, or with a wooden spoon in bowl, for 1m. All the above ingredients with yeast & water mix.

Then slowly add
2 C of AP Flour or Bread Flour or Whole Wheat Flour (if you do whole wheat, use honey instead of sugar above)

Let it mix away happily in your mixer.. or if your doing it like Grandma feel the burn in those arms.

When it starts to come together, add 1-1/2 Cups to 2 Cups of AP Flour or Bread Flour (if you used whole wheat before, I strongly suggest you opt for a white flour on this go around).

You want to slowly add that flour and watch for the dough to pull away from the bowl and leave the bowl clean. Thats when you know you have enough flour..

If your working it my hand, there will become a point when the bowl is pain and you will be able to begin working it on the counter, the dough will be tacky but not sticky. If your not sure what it should feel like, consult a bread book. Once you do it a couple of times, you'll just know.

Now, once you have added all the flour that you can-- let mixer knead the dough for 10m.
If your kneading by hand, you will know, but it should be roughly about the same. Do not abuse your dough, pull then push and fold and repeat a lot.

While its going in the mixer prep your bowl to rise in coat with butter, and after 10m put bread in a neat ball with a little butter on top. Cover and keep in a warm spot (75deg), for 1 hour or until doubled.

If your working it the old fashion way, once your done kneading you can leave it to rest on the counter with a clean tea towel over it. Or do the same as above.

Now after its rested, there is no more machine work.

Several people say punch, but you don't have to be so mean. Push the air out of the dough and peal out of the bowl and work on a lightly floured surface for a few mins, work into the shape you desire, make sure when you put it in to your pan or rolls or whatever, seam side down.
This will fit into a 9x5 loaf pan. and yes you should grease with butter.

Ok, once you have it shaped cover and let rest for and hour to hour and half. Once again, double in size.

Melt 1-T of butter and let cool while its rising. Also at some point begin to pre-heat your over 375deg F.

Once your ready coat your bread with the cooled melted butter and put into your preheated over for 35-45m, or until you tap it and it sounds hollow.

Let rest in pan on its side for 10m. Then you can pop out and let cool for 10m more, then you can cut your nice warm slice of bread.

Most books say to let cool completely, but seriously who does that?

Sunday Morning Breakfast: Fresh Peach Dutch Baby #breakfast

Sunday Morning Breakfast: Fresh Peach Dutch Baby #breakfast, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

Dutch Baby
1/2 C Milk
1/2 C Flour (AP)
1/4 C Sugar
2 Lg Eggs
Mix together, add any flavorings you wish, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla, etc...
Melt 2 T of Butter in a medium 8-10in oven proof skillet, we use cast iron.
Add batter to the melted butter and let cook on stove 1 m
Put in pre-heated 425deg F oven for
10in pan 12m
8in pan for 15m
It will fit either, and just depend on how thick you want your pancake.
If you want fruit put it on as it comes out of the oven.

Coconut Cream Poke Cake with lite frosting

Coconut Cream Poke Cake with lite frosting #cake, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

This was cake recipe I found on Pintrest. It was pretty basic, make box cake (white), after it comes out poke it all over with a fork and pour can of cream of coconut over it, let cool. Here's the part I changed... it called for just a tub of Cool Whip over it, yes that is ok, but what if you could make it better?
I have used this frosting recipe before and it is always a hit!
1 Cup of Milk (2%, Skim, whole, whatever you fancy).
1 Pkg of Pudding (for this cake I used vanilla, but I have used chocolate)
Mix with a whisk for 2 min, then fold in 1 small tub of Cool Whip.
Now for coconut cake I did add coconut extract 1tsp, and some shredded coconut.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (or as I knew it Z Bar Ranch)

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

We started out from Topeka going south to Emporia, then to 50 HWY to Strong City, and worked our way out to Cottonwood Falls, then back through Strong City, then on K177 N through Council Grove, and up to Lower McDowell Creek Road to Manhattan. Which helped to avoid the KSU game day traffic, although it wasn't bad. We spent some time in Manhattan, then drove to Topeka, on HWY 24, although it was dark by that time.
Ponds were all but empty up until north of I-70 on Lower McDowell Creek Road, although I wouldn't call them full by any means, just not bone dry. We could use rain really bad. Tallgrass also had up information about invasive cedar trees, which I was glad to see. I grew up in the Flint Hills, and they can be so beautiful, but if they are left to become overgrown with cedar the beauty will be gone.

Summer Surprise

Homemade Pork Tender Sandwich, a photo by KS Girl on Flickr.

Its my first day of stay-cation, or at least vacation from my day job. I am off for a whole week. I came home early from helping my husband out today, and decided to work on supper.
Last week, it seemed we had a thousand things going on in the evenings. We had intended to eat these pork chops on the grill one night. We never made it around to it and by now I really figured they were bad. After given them a good sniff they smelled fine, the looked fine, so I decided it was time for a mid-summer treat! A lettuce and tomato pork tender sandwich.
I tenderized my pork chops and fried them the good ol' fashioned way, breading, buttermilk, oil. I put them in one by one and let them sit and cook on med-heat flipping them when they were golden brown. Whiles they were cooking I cleaned up, washed the lettuce, toasted the bread, cut the vine ripened tomato, heated up some beans I had forgotten about in the fridge. It was a great easy going night. Why can't cooking dinner be this nice when I come home from work?