Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge

With permission, my blogpal, Johno from the Minstry of Minor Perfidy, has allowed me to reprint his original recipe for whole wheat bread. Try baking it on the weekend. Start in the morning and have loaves ready by dinner time! It is a commitment, but it’s worth it. Lately I’ve made it with a cup of regular whole wheat and a cup of white whole wheat in the first part and a cup of white whole wheat in the dry mix. It’s the King Arthur brand flour and it makes a lighter but still tasty bread.

Also, if you take his advice and work with a wetter dough, it will be lighter with bigger bubbles. It’s worth varying the wetness to figure out what kind of texture you want in the final product.

(more…)

Inspired by Mrs. Micah’s recipe. This is a recipe for a 1.5 qt crockpot, the small, single person kind.

Sausage Lentil Stew

2 fresh sausages or 1/3-1/2 lbs of sausage meat
1/4 c diced onion
1-1.5 cups dried lentils
2 cloves of garlic
2-4 whole, unsulfured sundried tomatoes
1-1.25 qts UNSALTED chicken stock (that’s 4-5 cups)
1 c water, if needed

1. Get fresh sausages from the butcher. Slice open the casings and throw casing away. Very little should stick to the casing. Get used to my meat-handling recipes. Squeeze the meat until its no longer a hot dog shape.

Alternatively, you can get sausage meat by itself, but usually it’s in 1 lbs flats. The meat can be frozen. I just prefer paper wrapped sausages instead of styrofoam packaging.

2. Brown sausage meat and drain thoroughly. Use your spatula to break up the meat into bite-sized chunks and smaller. You want your spoonfuls to have some meat, but not be a huge meatball. Drain meat and throw out most of the fat. Put the meat into a separate bowl.

3. Saute the onions in the leftover fat. Sweat them a little till they are clear, but no need to brown them completely. Take them off the stove and dump into the crock pot.

4. Peel your cloves of garlic and dump into the crock pot.

5. Rinse and pick over your lentils. The amount you use will determine how soupy your stew is. Less is soupy, more is stewy. Add them to the crock pot.

6. Put your whole sundried tomatoes into the pot. No need to pre-soak them unless you want to cut them up first. I usually leave them whole as you can generally tear them apart with your spoon after cooking.

7. Add your meat and chicken stock. Add any extra water to the pot to fill it up. The lentils will expand, so cover them with liquid till you are about an inch or two below the top of the crockpot. Much of the liquid will get absorbed, so you aren’t going to have as much in the end as it appears now.

8. Simmer in your crockpot for at least 6 hours. Cook till lentils are tender. I usually go about 8 hours.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with hearty bread like a chili. Or serve over rice. Serves about 4 really large portions or about 6 small meals. Freezes well.

Note on sundried tomatoes. I love them, but to be frugal, I buy them dried in plastic packages. You can get them in oil, but those are usually more expensive and I don’t think they last as long as plain dried ones. Get unsulfured ones since some people think the chemical preservative makes the tomatoes taste funny. Personally, because the sulfur treatment is used to retain the color and I usually bury the tomato in a soup, the color preservative property is a waste. If I want really red tomatoes, I will get them packed in oil.