Tuesday Update

Things are very quiet around here right now. Dick left for his meeting at the church and I am here sitting in the den trying to figure out if anything worth mentioning happened to me last week. Actually it has been pretty quiet around here the whole week, so needless to say it has been one that has dragged along pretty slowly.

I had almost decided to skip this weeks blog but something happened to change my mind. I read one of the blogs I follow, Tima's who lives in Africa. She posted a picture of a place where she goes shopping on the weekend. It looks to me sorta like our farmers market as it has lots of booths that sell fresh vegetables etc. She took a picture of a place where she likes to buy fresh bread. It looked so yummy that I decided to post my oatmeal recipe, hoping that she and her young son, Ethan, would make it one weekend. Ethan is a great little kid who loves to cook and bake. Tima made my Swedish pancake recipe and Ethan loves it and wants her to make it for him often, and whenever they have company. This bread recipe is so easy to make as everything goes in all at once and if you don't have a mixer with a dough hook, you don't have to knead it for a long time. Even if you don't have any kind of mixer, it is very easy to make. So here it is:

Grandma Robbins Oatmeal Bread:

2 pkgs yeast
2 1/2 cups warm water, 1 cup for the yeast and 1 cup for the dough
1 teaspoon sugar
1 cup honey
1/4 cup oil
2 cups quick cooking oatmeal
2 teaspoons salt
6 cups flour

Dissolve yeast in 1 cup of warm water with 1 teaspoon sugar in bowl that will allow for yeast to rise.
In largest bowl of mixer put flour, oatmeal and salt
Add the rest of the warm water(1 1/2 cups), yeast, honey and oil
Add dough hook and turn on mixer at #l speed until blended, or, if you don't have a mixer, just stir with a large spoon until blended.
If you use a dough hook, turn on speed to #2 and knead for 5 minutes, or if doing by hand, flour hands and knead dough for 5 minutes.
Cover with a cloth or kitchen towel and let rise until double in bulk, punch down and let rise once more.
Remove dough to a very lightly greased board, flour hands and knead for a couple of minutes more until all the air holes are gone. Cut into three equal pieces and mold each piece into a loaf. Turn loaf over and put into greased and lightly oiled pan that measures 4x8 inches. This will put the seam at the bottom.
Let rise for about an hour or until doubled in bulk and bake in 350 degree for 40 minutes.
Remove from oven and turn immediately onto racks to cool.


Tips:

I always grease pans first and put oil into the bottom of the greased pan, so that when I turn the loaf into it, it makes sure that there is oil on top of the loaf, which you want oiled so that it will make a nice brown crust. Also it insures that the loaf will pop right out of the pan. I also preheat the oven about 15 minutes before it's time to put the loaves in the oven.

Hope many of you will try this, and of course let me know how it turned out.