Saturday Salvage

I have been reading Amy Dacyczn's The Complete Tightwad Gazette,  (checked out from the library of course), so every free moment has been spent trying to glean as much wisdom as possible before returning.   Now, for those who aren't familiar with this book, it actually isn't a typical book...with chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. whereby each chapter talks about a different topic.  It is a collection of newsletters called The Tightwad Gazette that Amy Dacyczn wrote from 1990-1996.  Therefore, it jumps around a lot, with one page talkng about Budget Weddings  and the prior page discussing Those Pesky Juice Lids.   However, there is still a lot of wisdom to be learned from it, once I got past the fact that some advice is outdated, I learned that much of her wisdom is timeless.

Anyway, as I was reading it, the Social-Butterfly was partaking in that annoying pastime of children...reading over my shoulder.   She happened to notice a page entitled "Toys from Trash" of course the word toys caught her attention.  Despite the fact that they have an entire toyroom filled with toys, they are always looking for new ones, combine new toys with a "crafty activity" and you have a thrilling Saturday for an 8-year old.   So, Social-Butterfly decided that she wanted to make a "hockey rink" which uses nothing more than a cardboard box and a magic marker.

The book suggested using little 6-inch rulers and checkers for the hockey sticks and the puck.  Instead we used wooden pieces from  Handwriting Without Tears Wooden Letter Sets for hockey sticks and a checker we managed to scrouge up from the bottom of the toy chest.  It provided a few moments of entertainment at least, but most of the fun was in making it.  More importantly, I think it taught a valuable lesson in creativity and "making do"

The Frugal Zealot  also is very adamant about NEVER wasting food.  That is one area we really need to work on, however at least today I was able to make one food salvage.

I decided to try a new bread recipe, one which promised to be faster and easier.

Ingredients
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast


3 cups  white-whole wheat flour


1 1/2 teaspoons salt


1 1/2 tablespoons honey


1 1/2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder


1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)


Directions


1.Place ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order suggested by the manufacturer.


2.Select Whole Wheat or Basic Bread setting. Press Start
 
 
Notice how this recipe states to use a bread machine.  I don't own one, nor did I ever really care for the odd-shaped loaves that came out of it, when I did own one.  However, I decided to try making this recipe by hand using the mixing paddle on my Cuisinart Food Processor.   I figured I would just put the ingredients in the same order as I would in a bread machine (wet first, with dry on top, putting the yeast in a little well in the dry ingredients).  Well, it mixed up just fine, but did.not.rise!  Not at all, so we decided instead to use the dough to make pretzals...rolling it into shapes, then brushing the tops with melted butter, sprinkling with sea salt and baking at 350 degrees for around 15 minutes.
 
The results were quite delicious!! 
 

  The kids also had tons of fun rolling the dough into their favorite shapes (mostly hearts and letters).  I baked them on an aluminium pizza baking sheet (the kind with holes in the bottom) and it came out rather good.
 
As, a bonus, I was also able to perfect my bread recipe.
 
100% Whole Wheat Bread
 
Ingredients



1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast


3 1/4 cups white-whole wheat flour


1 1/2 teaspoons salt


1 1/2 tablespoons honey

1 1/2 tablespoons nonfat dry milk powder


1 1/2 tablespoons butter


1 1/4 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)


Directions


1.Place water, honey and yeast in the mixing bowl of the food processor.


2. Mix gently with a spoon and allow to sit for around 10 minutes or until the yeast is frothy.
 
3. Add rest of ingredients and mix using the mixing blade of the food processor.
 
4. Remove dough and place in a greased bowl and allow to rise in a warm place for around 1 to 1.5 hours. 
 
5.  Punch dough down, shape into loaf and place into a greased 9" loaf pan.
 
6. Allow to rise again for 1 to 1.5 hours.
 
7.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.
 
 

 

Since I mix and knead this using the food processor, it is even simpler than my other bread recipe and truly is something I can just "whip right up"....or course there is rising time involved...but not much actual work.  Please note, however that if using regular whole-wheat flour instead of white-whole wheat, it is recommended to add a small amount of vital wheat gluten to aid in rising.  

Altogether I think it was a pretty good Saturday Salvage day.