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Monday, April 30, 2012

Sprouted No Knead Grain Bread Recipe and such...


Hello everyone...

Here we are with another weekend come and gone.. 
The Spring season is flying by, I would say.. 
Here in Eastern Canada we now have green lawns and the dandelions are popping up.. 

I thought I would just post another few pics of this past weekend.. 

Several of the Keepers and some of us older ladies attended our annual Ladies Retreat... 
It was a very blessed time..Wonderful music, speaking and fellowship.. Believe it or not though,  I find I am very tired... That is what only 5 hours sleep does for this old gal... grin.. 
We were away Friday and Saturday..

Yesterday, on our way home from church we stopped and picked some of these...

Canadian Mayflowers.. 
They have one of earth's loveliest scents... (my opinion)
We almost missed them as they bloomed so quickly... 
 I had them glued to my nose all the way home... smile... 

Today I made something that I have been trying to accomplish for a while, now..

Sprouted Grain Bread... 

I started the sprouts earlier..
Terry was good enough to rinse them for me.. smile..

And I made the bread today... 

I sprouted barley and quinoa...

There are different recipes on the web but some of them are pretty complicated.. 

This is very simple recipe and probably not as healthy as others but I am sure it has more benefits that an ordinary loaf... 

And as usual it is a no knead recipe..

Terry really liked the texture and taste of it.. 


Even if he did put molasses on it.. smile.. 

Tomorrow, though, he can put this between a couple of slices..






Left over meat loaf... smile.. 

Anyway, dear hearts ... 

Here is the recipe.. 
I will probably tweak it here and there but when I do I will come back and note it on this post... OK?

SPROUTED GRAIN NO KNEAD BREAD..

FIRST OF ALL...
 You need to place 3 or 4 T. of mixed grains in a sprouting bottle...
I use a mason jar with a piece of cheesecloth tied on the top.. 
As I said I used the grains barley and quinoa..
  
Rinse the grains and drain.. 
Then cover with water and let sit for several hours.. 
About 3 times a day rinse and drain well..
Do this for 2 or 3 days..
OK? 

NOW MAKE THE BREAD... 

Take 1 cup of drained sprouted grains and place in a food chopper and chop well...

Place in a glass cup measure and add enough water to make an even cup.. Stir well then drain the water into a 2 cup measure..
Add enough water to make 2 cups of liquid.. 
Heat this up in the microwave until just warm... 

Place the warmed liquid in a bowl and add 2 T. of sugar and 2 1/2 tsp. of instant yeast.. 
Add 2 cups of unbleached flour and the drained sprouted grains and stir well ... 

Then add 1 more cup of flour and 2 tsp. of salt.. 
Stir well and cover with a tea towel.. 

Place in a warm place and let rise until doubled....

Using olive oiled hands roll the dough into a loaf and place in an oiled tin.. Let rise again until doubled.. 

Bake in a 375 degree F. oven for 35 minutes.. 

** Next time I will try replacing 1 or 2 cups of unbleached flour to whole wheat or rye.. and change the sugar to honey..

I just wanted to make sure that this was a nice light loaf and it is.. 
The flavor is nice, too and would be great made into a veggie sandwich... 


On another note we are having a Keepers meeting on Saturday .. 
Not a regular meeting but the Keepers will be celebrating Mothers Day.. 
So, I don't think there will be any homework... 
Next time.. 

Thank you for your sweet visit and your lovely comments.. 
Let me know if you make the bread.. OK...

May God bless and keep you my friends... 
Peace...

LINKED TO..BARN HOP
ALSO LINKED TO ....THE MORRIS TRIBE BLOGHOP

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Some info about KEEPERS OF THE HOME MEETINGS....


Good Evening, my dears.. 
Welcome to the Blessed Hearth...

Tonight I am finally going to do a post giving you some info on how to have your own Keepers of the Home meetings.. 

Over the past while I have received  many emails from not only our own province but the U. S. and even the U.K. asking me for information on how you can have your own meetings in your own area..
So... I think it would be better if I  do a post and that way I can just refer everyone to this link.. smile.. 

One of the questions that I am asked is.. 

How did the Keepers of the Home meetings begin?

We began our meeting 4 years ago this May... 

One evening on our way home from church I expressed to my husband that the Lord had given me the desire to help the younger married ladies in our church..

I felt that because of the day and age that we were living in that there was a need to get back to the basics of keeping the home...

 Titus 2: 3-5
Paul advised the older women to teach the younger ones to love their husbands and children and to be keepers of the home..

With Terry's support I inquired of our pastor if it would be possible to start something of this sort in our own church and with his blessing our meetings began..

The Lord even laid the name of the group on my mind as I was expressing my burden to my husband..
THE KEEPERS OF THE HOME...

How often do we meet?
We try and meet the first Saturday of each month.. 
Usually, we begin at 9 am in our fellowship hall at our church although we have met at one of the girl's homes occasionally.. 
We also plan for some outings about 3 or 4 times a year.. 

What is the order of our meetings?
We begin our Saturday morning meetings with the making of our breakfast.. Everyone helps and I always try to have a new recipe for them.. Sometimes, one or two of the girls will bring us one of their own homemade treats like coffee cake or rice pudding.. 
An older sister in the church will sometimes bless us by sending a sweet bread with her daughter that we so appreciate.. smile
Then we have sweet fellowship while we eat our breakfast and catch up with Mama things...
We may share the hopes and dreams of our hearts...
and answered prayers or requests..

When the girls start on their second cups of coffee then I give a little life lesson.. 
These come from my heart..  I read a lot of good books and of course the Lord always knows the need and hopefully I am listening and can be that hand extended to these sweet mamas... 

 We may then have some type of discussion over future plans and such for the group..

Each time we have some type of activity... 
Such as...
 learning how to make no knead bread
making pickles or jams
crafting decor for our homes
making candles and such..
herbs and gardening.. 
learning how to make green cleaners.. 
soap balls and laundry soap... 
or my cousin Val will visit and  teach them all a handmade craft..
just home keeping type of things... 

If there is a prayer request that is certainly included... 
Then that is it for that day.. smile.. 

What activities do you do outside of the fellowship hall?

Since you girls are readers of this blog then you know we have a cottage in St. Martins.. Well, the girls all come down for an overniter which they love.. 
We have supper together.... 
Sit up late and chat and have a little devotional.. 
Eat snacks and go to the beach for a bonfire.. 
Then after a late night and little sleep we go out to a local restaurant for breakfast and then they all visit the shop...

Or... 
We go for a field trip to Kings Landing (one of our historical villages here in New Brunswick) or we have gone to the Bulk Barn and then visited a dear Keeper's home and made mixes ... 

Things like that...
All with the goal to find something to learn or inspire...
To increase our desires for placing God in the centre of our homes... 

This Summer we hope to go to a Artisan Bakery and a Herb Farm...

At Christmas, Terry and I host a dinner for the Keepers and their husbands which is always fun.. 

ALSO... 

Right now as you know we are concentrating on 
Home... the best place in the world... journals.. 
I hope that this is inspiring them with their desire to turn their homes into what God has planned for their families...

We all aspire to the Proverbs 31 woman in our reaching out to our community... 
We have given luncheon to the elders in our church to show them our love and appreciation and we try to donate Christmas dinners or donations to Women's shelters and such...

Actually, this blog was started with the KEEPERS AT HOME in mind.. 
I hoped it would help all you ladies that strive to make your home a haven for your sweet families..

My posts are often about things that I think the Keepers would be interested in..  
I have usually posted on each of the Keepers meetings ...
Just go to the sidebar and find the search engine.. 
Type in the word Keepers Meetings and then go back to the top and they will all be listed there for you to click on...

Well, dear hearts I hope I have helped you learn what we are about...

If you have any questions just put them in the comment section on the bottom and I will reply to you there.. OK?

Thank you so much for your sweet visit and as always I look forward to reading your notes to me... 

I am heading to Ladies Retreat tomorrow..(Lord willing)

It will be a blessing I am sure...
 Our sweet daughter will be there, too.. smile.. 

Until next time.. 
God bless... 



Wednesday, April 25, 2012

A little home keeping idea..


Good Evening everyone.. 

So glad you are taking the time to drop by ... 
You are all so NICE... smile..

It is a bit rainy here tonight but it is supposed to be clearing off by morning..
 Terry is heading for the farm tomorrow with our youngest son to do a bit of work but I think I need to stay home and accomplish a few things.. 

Time is flying by and in only a few weeks now we should be opening the

As usual, this world class procrastinator is only starting to get motivated... I ask you... What is my problem??..

What ever it is I have been blessed with it for most of my life..
smile.. 

Oh well, I am one of those people who work much better under pressure...
(rolling my eyes..)

ANYWAY...

I thought I would show you a simple home keeping chore that I worked on one day this week..


Some everyday dishcloths.. 

I saw that someone had made them on a couple of blogs and
I loved them..

 Also..I had several old towels that were pretty ragged so I decided to give them a try... 

One old towel made 8 dishcloths...

I was wondering how well they would work so I gave one a try..

They are lovely.. 

As you can see, I hand wash our dishes.. 

We have a dishwasher but because of our water hardness the dishes do not turn out great in the dishwasher.. 

So... I wash them by hand..

I could say that there are only two of us but to be honest I have as many dirty dishes as a family of five...

I haven't figured that one out yet either.. smile..


If you would like to sew a few of these up and recycle your old towels or flannel sheets you can find the tutorial  HERE..


I would love to find a good homemade dish washing liquid, too.. 

I now have Gain which my dear friend Ethel picked up for me in the U.S. because we don't have it here in Canada and I love the smell..

I am so fickle when it comes to scent... 

If you happen to have a good recipe then I would love to have it.. 

I looked up recipes but they call for Castile soap which we do not have here, either... 

Well, my dears that is about it for tonight..

Sometimes, I wonder if I am boring you all silly .. 
Perhaps, I should just post pictures.. smile.. 

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments and visits.. 
Until we chat again.. 
God bless...

LINKED TO....INSPIRE ME FRIDAYS,..



Monday, April 23, 2012

Weekend Snips..


Hello to all of you ... 

Hope you had a good weekend.. 

We woke up each morning to skies like this.. 

As you can see we still do not have any maple leaves..

 Which of course is normal for us here in Maritime Canada.. 

We received our much needed rain and our lawns have greened up amazingly in just a couple of days.. smile.. 

The photo of the barn up above is one that we pass on our way to the farm.. 

That is a genuine bonavide Canadian barn, eh!  smile.. 

Just a few pics of snips of our weekend.. 


One of Terry's favorite meals.. 

Stir fry and rice.. 

A quick stop at a thrift store...


I found these lovelies...

3 x pewter candle holders.. 
a prim picture
a carved wood hen which I need to repaint.. (someone tried to paint it silver..???) 
several metres of check fabric.. 
a couple more of a tartan.. (I think) which will become an apron.... 

Really pleased with all this stuff for the shop... 

Although, the pewter candlesticks are now on our mantel.. smile...

A batch of bread...


A recipe from Pinterest ...


Amish Bread, I think... 

We were not as fond of it as others, I make.. 

Dear Son said it dried out in only a day... 

That is the thing with recipes.. 
You have to try them out.. eh? 

Yesterday, we went to church in the morning and then headed to St. Martins ..

We made a quick trip past the old cottage..

Tomorrow we will stop in for a bit as we need to go down again..
 It was lovely seeing all of my family... 

Well, it is ten o'clock here and I need to get to bed.. 
A very busy day tomorrow.. 

Thank you for taking time to visit.. 

As you know...
 I love reading the notes you leave me...

Remember.. 
Serving God is beautiful.... 

God bless...

Saturday, April 21, 2012

An Old Photo Chair Project...


Hello my dears.. 

We are finally getting rain here.. It is a bit of a windy night, too..
Right up my alley..smile.. 

This is only a short post to share a little project with you that I have finished.. 

I found the idea HERE on Pinterest.. 
I like that chair better but I could not find one like it.. 

So.... 
I used what I had..

This chair did have a back on it..

There were 3 layers, actually..
 2 old black leather layers and a rattan one, too... 
Lots of upholstery nails and staples..

It took a couple of hours to clean the back off..


I was hoping to put it in our guest bathroom.. 
Remember.. I did a little redo on it HERE..

The room is decorated with a lot of old photos but there just was not enough room for it..

I will probably sell it in the shop..

Then there was this LITTLE LAMP PROJECT HERE..


This used old photos, too...

 Then there is this old photo wreath shown HERE in our bathroom..

There are so many lovely old photo projects on  Pinterest..

Just click on the word Pinterest on my side bar and you can go to my boards and check them out..

Thanks for your visit this evening.. As for me I think I should go and make a cup of tea..
Thank you for your sweet comments.. 

Tomorrow is Sunday... 
The Lord's Day.. 

May God bless and keep you and your sweet families... 
Hugs ..

LINKED TO BARN HOP


Friday, April 20, 2012

Scones and pillows and such..


Happy Weekend, everyone.. 
How are you all faring? 

It was another sunny day here but a bit cooler..
How is your weather?..

We had to go to the city to do a bit of shopping this morning
(I found some lovely thrift store finds) and this afternoon we had a bit of company..

I thought that I should make something nice for Saturday morning breakfast and wondered if you might like it also..

I decided to make a pan of Scones and then all I have to do is heat them either in the oven or toaster (never in the microwave)..

I found this recipe in one of my cookbooks and it said they were called English Scones.. 
I will have to ask my friends across the pond if the recipe is right or not... smile.. 
Here it is...


*please note.....one of the scones is already missing in the pic .. 
Someone needed one right away.. with peanut butter.. ugh.. 
* note.. it was not me.. smile..

ENGLISH SCONES
2 1/2 cups of flour
1 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
2 T. white sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chilled cut up butter
1 c. raisins or currents or cut up dried apricots
1 large egg
1 c. buttermilk

Egg wash... 1 egg and 1 T. milk, slightly beaten..

In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt.. Whisk together..

Cut in butter until well blended..( I used my hands)
Add fruit.. In a separate bowl combine egg and buttermilk and add all at once to dry ingredients.. Stir lightly to form a soft ball.. 
Turn the dough onto floured surface and knead gently..

Pat into a round shape and place on a greased cookie tray.. 
Turn oven to 400 degrees F.

With a knife cut the circle into pie shapes and brush with egg wash..Separate slightly with knife.. 

Bake for 20 -25 minutes until baked through and golden.. 
Serve with butter and your daughter's homemade caramel apple jam (smile) or with cream cheese...


They are very good but I have not tasted a British one.. smile..

For Supper tonight we had a Canadian organic chicken.. 
Grown by our neighbor farmer.... 


Baked with garlic and thyme.. 
Lovely and tender.. 



I thought I would show you a couple of cushions I finished..


This piece of quilting is awesome.. Some of those squares has 4 separate pieces sewn together..Most are 3 pieces and then puffed out somehow.. Amazing..

I bought the small piece years ago at a sale and always wanted to make a cushion with it..
 Finally... 


A little cat pillow... smile..
I do have another project almost finished that I will try and share with you next time.. 
You will love it.. I think.. I do, anyway...


My sweet cousin Valerie called me early this morning..

(You may remember her teaching crafts at our Keepers meeting 
and sharing some of her many talents with me HERE and me preparing her room HERE or on my previous blog.. PRIMITIVE LACE ..)

Her dear Dad and my lovely Uncle passed away early this morning.. He was one of my Mom's older brothers..

Uncle Jimmy was such a wonderful husband and father..
He was 91.. (and ate bacon every day) smile..
Him and Aunt Barb have the dearest family... 
Their children are like my brothers and sisters..

He was a soldier in the Second World War and came home safe and sound.. Thank the Lord.. 

Whenever we visited my Gram we would meet all of our cousins at the bottom of her lane where Uncle Jimmy and his family lived.. 

Wonderful memories.. 

He surely will be missed.. 
Please pray for Val and her sweet sweet family.. 



God bless you all this weekend and I am so happy you dropped by for a few minutes...

Looking forward to receiving a note from you all.. 

Hugs...