(stay tuned at the end of this post for some favorite bread recipes of mine. :))

Today the children and I have been discussing our goals for ‘Keepers at Home’ and ‘Contenders for the Faith’ this year.  My oldest daughter would like her first focus to be baking, since she can complete that pretty quickly.  Next she wants to focus on cleaning,sewing and a study on horses.  My six year old will be finishing up a latch hooking project and then we will go from there with her.

We will be combining some things for the boys to learn WITH the girls, such as fire safety and first aid.  My oldest son would like to explore knife safety/ care and archery, in addition to the fire safety and first aid.

If their are others who are involved in this program, I would LOVE to hear from you and hear about what you are doing as well!

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What we are up to today:

I have not worked any more on my homekeeping fall focus, as I have been busy catching up on some other things.  Yesterday I worked with the children as they wrote a report on their favorite part of Animal Kingdom (a Moody Bible Video) and then drew a picture to go along with it.  They put their reports in a Science notebook once all corrections were made.  It was really fun and we all enjoyed it!

This morning, while the children did their seat work I made up some of my favorite classic homemade bread, some corn bread and some banana bread and muffins.  I thought I would share the bread and banana bread recipe here, for those interested.

The bread recipe is my all time favorite.  It is a classic recipe and takes longer than the "throw everything in the bosch or bread maker" recipes these days. :)  Don't get me wrong...I like those recipes on those days when I need bread fast, but this is the best...in my eyes. 

It is a Tasha Tudor recipe and she writes,

"I used to set the bread bowl on the woodbox next to the stove, a nice draft~free and snug spot.  Then one winter's morning I found Miss Purvis fast asleep in the bowl atop the dough with it's dishcloth!  Kitty had climbed into the bowl of rising dough, thinking it was a warm bed just for her!

This is a wonderful bread receipt and makes a large quantity, four loaves~so nice for a large family.

If you make the bread with honey, the crust will be soft instead of crisp.  Whole wheat bread is made the same way; use half whole wheat flour and half unbleached white flour and allow just one rising in the bowl (for the wheat variation).  You may also make delicious rolls from this same recipe."

2 cups milk

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup sugar OR 1 cup honey

2 tsp. salt

2 cups water

11 cups unbleached flour, approximately

2 packages (4~1/2 tsp.) dry yeast

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. honey or sugar

Grease or oil four 5X9~inch loaf pans. 

In a saucepan, scald milk, butter, sugar OR honey and salt.  Put the misture in a very large bowl and add water.  Then add a cup or so of the flour.  When the mixture is lukewarm, dissolve the yeast in 1/4 cup water with 1tsp. honey or sugar...let proof five minutes or so until foamy.  Add it to milk mixture.

Add enough flour to make a nice workable dough and knead 10 minutes.

Place dough in a very large well greased bowl, turn once to coat the top, cover with a warm towel and allow to rise in a warm place for about 1 hour, until double in size.  When the dough has risen, punch it down and repeat process.

At the end of the second rising, punch dough down and divide it into 4 loaves, making sure to smooth out any air bubbles.  Place the loaves in prepared pans and let rise until double (about 1 hour). 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  When the dough is almost double put into preheated oven and bake approximately 1 hour, until they are crusty brown and sound hollow when tapped.  Remove loaves from pans and cool on rack.

Banana Bread

note: I found this particular recipe online and cannot remember where now!  It is the best I have found.  I triple the recipe for my family size, but will put the normal amounts and let you do what you need to do for your own family size. :)

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup oil

2 eggs

3~4 bananas

pinch of salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1~3/4 cups unbleached or wheat flour (sometimes I do all naturally white, sometimes half and half)

Mix the sugar, oil, eggs and bananas with a mixer then add salt, soda, powder and flour.

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until a knife comes out clean from the center.

HAPPY HOMEMAKING!!!  ENJOY!!!