Braided Egg Bread and more tues

One of my most requested breds at markets is my Braided Egg Bread.  There is quite a bit of time in makin this bread so I thought I would share with yall.  IF you want to try look up challah bread recipes as mine makes 9 1 pound loaves and that is alot plus it is mixed in a huge hobard machine.  So the dough is prepped and then let set to rise 1 hour.  After an hour you punch dough down and put back to rest and rise for 1 1/2 more hours then I weigh out 16 ounce pieces, set aside for 15 min to rest.  From that point the chunks are divided into 3 equal pieces then rolled to logs. The logs are then pressed together at end and braided down then sealed under.Here are the braided loaves which are then brushed with a pastry brush with egg yolk and set aside again to rise another hour.Then they are brushed again with egg yolk and sprinkled with organic sesame and poppy seeds.  And finally put into the oven.  They bake for around 20 min in a 330 convection oven baked until they reach 201 degrees. and as you can see nice and golden brown.  The rich smell and taste from egg bread is incredible!!  We love it made into french toast and dipped in even more egg!! LOL 2 1/2 dozen eggs here now and usin free range eggs gives these loaves even more golden color.  These are some cookies baking.  The light ones will be filled with my choc ganache,  or a white tea infused filled and the chocolate ones will have an espresso filling.  I am thinkin of puttin an assortment of these in bags.   Then I also made my pineapple black bean salsa.  This is a wonderful condiment for grilled fish, pork or chicken.  Some of my customers even like it with just tortilla chips.  I use unsweetened pineapple tidbits, chopped red pepper, green pepper, yellow and orange peppers, sweet red peppers, fresh cilantro, I just love all the color in salsas.  The fresh veggies are so vibrant!

And since we have been busy pickin blueberries I made a couple of batches of my blueberry jalapeno jelly!!  I will be givin samples of this at markets this week.  It is so fun to savor the pepper and fruit jellies as you first taste the strong blueberry then a min later the pepper flavor comes in.  like 2 different jellies!! super duper yummmo on a grilled turkey panini I might add!!  and of cource it is great with cream cheese on crackers, we also have had it on grilled pork and chicken brush it on just before it is done so it carmalizes a bit!!  OH and last year for blueberry festival Susan and I topped it on her homemade cheesecakes!! oh my gosh was that good we are plannin on bringin them to market again!!So as you can tell I made it back from the big CITY yesterday!!  I only got lost a couple of times and passed by the place I needed to be like 12 times!! LOL it was downtown which by the way was really kind of awesome!! but all the one way streets and busy hectic cars flyin by and then I have no clue about those parking ramps I was glad to find a spot along the street just had to put change in the meter and also I did put a quarter in the car infront of mine meter~ it was flashin the time was out and noone around so I played meter fairy and added a quarter for them.   My rak for the day!~  I survived and was so happy to be back home with my boys. dont plan on goin back anytime soon! 

I am off to do chores and sit and watch tv with hubby.  I will be postin a surprise guest on my blog!~ ZACH my new intern at the kitchen who will be startin friday!!  CANT WAIT~!~ Have a blessed evening yall!

HUGS

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

Made carmels

I made some of my carmels this am and this time I added some marchino cherry syrup we bought in Traverse City last summer.  Hubby like it on his waffles aso I thought it would be fun to experiment and add it to my vanilla carmels.  Not too bad either.  I am gonna make a batch of espresso carmels tomorrow.

I found these 7 in round pans with a clear plastic dome lid and they work just perfect for market people and just a right size where it is not too much and enough for a few.

I like the custardy filling in these especially when blinged up with some whipped cream!!Peach Blueberry Kucken!! oh what a treat this cake was and it is really yummy!! I do a peach and blueberry pie combo in the summer and it is a favo at market so thought i would try it with this kucken recipe i found.  I never had it before and I can honestly say this will be a cake I make for my summer markets. I can see making cherry almond or maybe peach praline.  Gosh I am gettin hungry for some....... u guessed it a piece of CAKE!! LOL

Hubby came home the other night and said come look at something with me, so we drove down to the park just down the road a mile.  There was an ice berg near the shore that the waves had opened the middle of it and it really looked cool.  U can see in the pics u see right thru it.  Kind of cool!!  A close up of the hole in the ice berg

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~

This was looking from the street at the ice bergs thru the trees.

It;s almost time!!

Red onion cheddar pepper bread rounds

Buttercrumb topped lemon cream bread (before baking)

a corsage for the wedding we did last week at the flower shop, more pics on the Floral Touch Florist blog

Some cheesecake sugar cookies topped with black currant jelly and drizzled with white chocolate.. SUPER YUMMY!! these guys all sold quickly

Before baking and before adding my "farmgirl bling" LOL

Its almost VACATION TIME!! YEAH YEE HAW!! WOO HOO!! YIPPEE!~!!

can you tell I cant wait!! well actually I can since it goes by so dang quick!! hubby always says "dont blink and its over!"

Ok so this weekend was the best market all season for us!! I had alot of new goodies and alot of new customers! I decided to start an email list for the local folks that I will deliver to thru the winter months so got quite a few sign ups for that!! A guy at the allegan market on thurs said he comes to town 2 times a month to deliver fresh meats and meets customers in the parking lot where we have market now so maybe he and I can do this together for everyone!! IF you are near the Allegan area and would like to be on the list please leave me a comment and I will add ya!! I plan on sending an email or taking special requests. Last year I did get alot of orders for thanksgiving pies, including my pumpkin praline cheesecake, apple cream cheese pie with walnuts, cinnamon apple cheesecake and also some peach praline pies oh and of cource pumpkin pies!!

Oh yeah I have a funny story to share with yall from tues. My mom and I took 2 of our cats in to be fixed. Hers is Elmo a male and my Emmy Lou a female, we went dropped them both off, keep in mind they are both light grey and long haired cats Elmo is a bit bigger than mine and has a distinctive characteristic which you will find out later. So we brought them both home, Emmy Lou stayed in the carrier that night in our enclosed porch so noone else will bother her, Elmo ran under the couch in my parents living room. so for 2 days I didnt see too much of my little girl and my mom said she put food out and Elmo didnt come out just sat under the couch. We knew this is pretty common for cats especially since they had surgery and were sore i am sure. So the other night hubby says what did they do to Emmy Lou? her bottom canine tooth was stickin outward, not thinkin of anything I told him maybe it was something that will fix itself from surgery? She ate and was actin a bit more like herself plus i picked her up and cuddled her not wanting to move her around too much, my mom said Elmo still hasnt come out for them to see he must have just come out to eat when they left for work. Yesterday morning while I was feeding everyone getting ready to leave for market I noticed the snaggle tooth on both sides of Emmy's mouth and thought that is strange, then figured I would pick her up to check her incision out and make sure it looked ok. WELLLLLLLLLLLLL COME TO FIND OUT>>>>>>>seenin a white spot below her neck (still didnt click with me) (i know I am blonde cant u tell>??) LOL didnt find an incision, rubbing her belly I didnt feel anything either and thought hmmmmmm that is strange they should have shaved her little belly? went about my morning chores and FINALLY!! thought!~! THAT IS NOT my cat!! This is ELMO!! I could not believe how long it took~~4 days and noticed it was him and not my Emmy!! CRAZY~~he usually fights with my mom's outside cats and is nasty well here he was eating out of the same bowl as Chevy girl and the other cats and not a peep out of him!! I called my mom that am and told her the story!! she wondered too why her cat was hiding under the couch when he is such a tyrant in the house!! We have to let the vet know next time we go huh!!

LOL

Well I better get packing the 5th wheel, i hear hubby loading one of the tractors!! and our house sitter, farm sitter should be here soon!!

We will be staying out at the South Haven Flywheelers for the annual tractor and engine show!! this is a great tractor show!! There's a huge flea market, good food available, tractor parades fri, sat and sun and also demos of an antique sawmill, blacksmith, and tractor pulls goin on all weekend!! come on down!!! you will enjoy it and dont forget to get some steam engine steamed corn on the cob!! IT IS THE BEST EVER~~

South Haven Michigan

take bluestar hwy to phoenix street head east follow the tractors or signs!! It is HUGE!!

Have a blessed week yall!!

HUGS!~!

Darlene

~~LIVE LIFE JOYFULLY~~and SIMPLY~~