Pioneering Today-8 Tips for Perfect Homemade Bread

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There’s hardly anything I can think of that I like more than fresh warm homemade bread just out of the oven. The scent, warm and yeasty, melt-in-your mouth texture and homemade jelly smothered on top. Can you tell I’m hungry?

When I first started baking bread, I was often frustrated by breads containing yeast. Sometimes it would rise beautifully and others times it remained flat and sad. Along the way I learned some tips that bring success every time, no matter what type of bread or recipe I decided to bake. I’m sharing my 8 tips for perfect homemade bread with you because life is too short not to eat home-baked bread!Tweet this8 Tips for Baking Perfect Homemade Bread @MelissaKNorris #Pioneering Today Continue reading

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Pioneering Today-How to Make Your Own Sweet and Smoky Barbecue Sauce

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We try to replace as many processed products with homemade ones as we can. When we’d raised, butchered, and roasted our own pig, I couldn’t very well serve it with store bought barbecue sauce. (Okay, I could have, but I didn’t want to)barbecuesauce

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Pioneering Today-How to Make Fresh Raspberry Juice

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Our raspberries are in full swing. As any pioneer, I try to use all of the crop when it’s ready to harvest. I made raspberry jelly, but with an entire shelf in the pantry filled with jam and jellies, I’d met my quota.

I always freeze raspberries to use in later baked goods, like my scrumptious Raspberry Chocolate Chip Coffee Cake. Simply pick your berries and dump them in a Ziploc bag. I’ve never laid mine out on wax paper or a sheet to freeze and I’ve never had a problem of them sticking together.

But today, I wanted to make something easy and refreshing on a hot summer day. You can’t get much more refreshing than this picture.

Fresh Raspberry Juice

Fresh Raspberry Juice Recipe:

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Pioneering Today-Strawberry Rhubarb Dump Cake

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I’m a lifelong recipe collector. I started with this recipe when I was seven years old. A neighbor served this dish and the next day, I walked up the street to her log cabin and asked for the recipe. She graciously shared! (I take it as a compliment when someone asks for the recipe and always supply it upon request)Strawberry Rhubarb Dump Cake www.melissaknorris.com

I love the combination of rhubarb and strawberries, here’s my recipe for strawberry rhubarb jam. The tartness of the rhubarb makes the strawberries all the sweeter, like biting into summer no matter what time of year you eat it.

This recipe is so easy, but the most important part is don’t stir it!

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Molasses Sugar Cookie Recipe-Virtual Cookie Exchange

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Molasses Sugar Cookies

Want more recipes like this? Over 40 from scratch recipes in my new book, Pioneering Today.

Molasses Sugar Cookie

3/4 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg (original recipe called for cloves, but I don’t care for cloves so I substitute nutmeg)

In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add molasses and egg, beating until well blended.

In medium bowl, blend flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger; add to molasses mixture, mix well. Cover and chill.

Form dough into 1 inch balls, roll each in sugar, place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Let stand 1 minute before removing. Makes around 5 dozen. (I tend to get 3 dozen, but they’re so good I like a bigger cookie)

To make Gingerbread, just cut 1/4 cup butter and increase the molasses.

These are a soft, melt in your mouth, one is never enough kind of cookie. Enjoy!

For other great recipes, check out the virtual cookie exchange here. For other homemade Christmas gifts, here’s some baking ideas and for the crocheter’s out there, here’s some cute flower hat patterns.

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Please share your favorite cookie recipe!

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Crocheted Flower Hat Pattern for a Homemade Gift

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Crocheted beanie hats with flowers on the side are very fashionable right now. They’re gracing the heads of infants on up to teens and adults. If you have the basic crochet stitches down and possess a pioneer spirit of I can make it myself, then you can make one of these darlings in an evening.

The color choices are endless. Here’s a picture of the infant version. You can clip an artificial flower on. (I hot glue a flower to a metal alligator clip, then you can also use it as a barret or an a headband)

Infant crochet hat w/ flower clip

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or, you can crochet a flower and then sew it on.

Both are cute and depend upon your on hand supplies.

Infant hat with crocheted flower

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a toddler hat I made for my daughter to match her new coat.

I have an obsession with pink and brown. I did use infant yarn on this hat, the others were regular.

Toddler hat

And here’s an adult version. You can do stripes, I actually didn’t have enough yarn to do all purple, so I used scraps. Buttons or jewels look cute in the center of the flower. You can change yarn to do an outer edge in a different color, or do two flowers and then layer them.

Adult crochet flower hat

Here’s the link to the pattern I used for the hat. I used it as a base pattern for the adult hat too, I just kept repeating round 4 until it was large enough to fit my head and then continued with the instructions for round 5 until it fit.

Here’s the instructions for the flower embellishment. There is a hat pattern listed here also, but I preferred the above pattern myself. I just found a pattern for the layered flower here, it gives instructions for three different sizes you then sew together as one.

For a boy or man’s hat, I like to do dark colors, though school colors would work for a teenager or the favorite sport team colors for your sport fanatic adult. (I’d leave off the flower though, hee, hee) Another fun option is camouflage yarn.

If you’re pressed for time but would like to give other homemade gifts or baking, check out this post.

Please share any tips or links you have to fun crochet projects. If you have any questions on the pattern, I’ll help as best as I can.

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