Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Good Food!

I had a fun but busy and chaotic day today. This is the first time in about 7 years that I have not had to work the day before Thanksgiving. I took full advantage of the day and decided to bake all my pies and buns for tomorrows Holiday Feast. I began my day by preparing my bread dough for its long rising session. Two hours later I wasn't convinced that the yeast was working properly. So after talking with my mother I decided that I should start my oven and heat the house up some more. Finally I decided to punch down the dough and form it into buns. The dough never did rise as much as I thought it should.


I was impressed with the final results though. They smelled like buns, looked like buns and best of all they taste like buns.


I have been buying this Montana Wheat flour at the grocery store and I have started using it more than white flour. They sure turned out to be a nice golden brown.
While I was waiting for the buns to rise I decided to prepare my pies. First I made this pumpkin pie. I cheated this year and used canned pumpkin. Last year I used fresh. Hey it was on sale and I didn't have any extra pumpkins laying around.


I want to point out that the edge of the crust is braided. I was having fun being creative with the pie crust!


I have always seen fancy pies on TV and in Magazines and wanted to create on too. It was time consuming but fun.
Here is the apple pie I made. I decided that for this one I was going to make the crust that covers the apple into leaves.
Some of the leaves looked better than others but it again it was fun and I think it is very pleasing to the eye.

Now I must warn you if you get queasy do not look at the next picture!


Are you sure you want to look!


OK! I tried to warn you!


Tim came home last night witha deer. A guy at work was giving away the meat and so we decieded to take it and make roast, stew meat and jerkey out of it. I just had to take a picure of Ansir helping Tim. Tim was in the picture but stood up right before the picture took. Tonight I made one of the roasts. It was very tasty! So to start early I am thankful for the gentelman who gave us the deer. Even if he kept all the best parts for himself!

This is a picture of the jerkey baking! MMMM smells so good! I can't wait to try a piece! I don't think it will last very long around this house!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey Melissa! That pie looks yummy! A tip I learned about bread rising is that it is because it is so dry here in the West that the yeast has a hard time. I very good luck with putting a cup of water in my microwave, turning on the microwave for 2 minutes and then putting my dough in the microwave with the cup of water still in there. I have to put a sticky note on the microwave so no one uses it, but it works like a charm! I've also had good luck with rolls by putting them in a slightly warm oven with a pan of water to rise.

Anyway -- Happy Thanksgiving! We miss you guys!!!
Lisa