Bread of Choice!

I like changing things up and I like having the ideas at hand in case I'm having one of those brain-freeze days! This is such a recipe!

Bread of Choice
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmed
3 large eggs
1 cup vegetable oil
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups chosen from the ingredients listed below.
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zesk
1 cup toasted and chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degreesl

Mix together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat the eggs and then add oil and sugar, mixing well. Add your choice of the ingredients listed below along with the vanilla, zest, and nuts. Pour into two vegetable-oil sprayed loaf pans.

Ingredient list:
Grated apples
Apple sauce
Pureed bananas
Finely grated raw carrots
Canned Pumpkin
Cooked and pureed yams
Finely grated zucchini
Chopped pears
Finely chopped dates

Remember, you can use two cups of one ingredient or two or more as long as it adds up to two cups, total. If you want to add dried fruit like cranberries or raisins, add 1/4 cup to the already-selected 2 cups.

What More Can you Say . . . ?

 

Fast Refrigerator Pickles

 

This is an easy way to use up extra produce and provide a treat for the family. This is not one of those recipes that are canned and last 'forever' on the shelf. These have a life span of about two weeks in the refrigerator. After sampling my efforts, yesterday, I don't think they will even last two weeks!

Fast Refrigerator Pickles
12 half pint canning jars
6-8 regular cucumbers, very thinly sliced
3 carrots, very thinly sliced
2 cups of onion, very thinly sliced
3 cups cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon celery seeds
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Place all the sliced vegetables in a large, glass bowl. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a pot, stir to dissolve, and bring to a boil. Boil for a couple of minutes and then pour over the sliced vegetables and mix well so all the vegetables gets a soaking.

Fill each jar 3/4th full with the prepared vegetables. After that, add the brine to just cover. Seal and refrigerate. I found they tasted good later the same day but 24 hours is a good time to let the pickles really get tasty.

If you can find it, grocery stores sometimes sell packets of pickling spices and you can use that instead of buying the individual seeds mentioned in the recipe.

You don't need to but I did give all the jars the water bath to seal the jars more firmly but still consider them refrigerated items.

If you want to find a really great pickling spice (which I used), search on-line for Penzy Spices. They offer that along with a huge variety of spices and herbs at reasonable prices. Just passing on a hint!

Just so we don't forget . . .

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."

~ Joseph Story, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, 1833