Homemade Wheat Bread - The tip that makes it quick and easy!

Recently I started making homemade wheat bread again. My family loves it, but it can take the entire morning by the time you grind the wheat and then make the bread. I decided to use my freezer to help out with this problem. I spent one morning grinding wheat and then putting 12 cup portions into freezer bags (that's the amount my recipe calls for). 

 Now when it's time to make bread I pull a bag of flour out of the freezer and dump it in my recipe, no measuring needed. My recipe calls for an additional 3-4 cups of bread flour so I can adjust that flour to make the bread the right consistency. This has saved me so much time. I make bread at least once a week now and my family is really enjoying it. I love that it is simple and doesn't take my entire day!

Here is my recipe, it is very simple and so good!!!

Single Rise Wheat Bread 

Add the following to mixer:

6 cups warm water

3 tablespoons Instant yeast

3 tablespoons vital wheat gluten

2 tablespoons salt

1/3 cup oil

2/3 cup honey

1 can applesauce (about 2 cups)

12 cups whole wheat flour

4 cups bread flour

Mix all but flour a few times. Add whole wheat flour. Add bread flour one cup at a time until it pulls away from sides of bowl.  Let mixer mix the dough for 10 minutes. Shape into 5-6 loaves and put in a cold oven to rise until double - about one hour. Set oven temp. to 350 ℉ and timer to 32 minutes and bake. Remove from pans and cool on wire rack. Brush tops with butter. 

Calvin and Hobbes - The Walls are Just Packed

 Our family has a thing for Calvin and Hobbes. My boys can usually be found reading a Calvin and Hobbes comic book at some point in the day. For my 9 year old's birthday I decided to make him a wall size comic strip for his room. It was so much fun. I used to paint quite a bit, but the last 10 years or so I really haven't done much. It was fun to dust off the paint brushes and tackle this project.

 

Supplies were fairly simple. We used 8 stretched canvas's and acrylic craft paint. I think the hardest part was deciding which comic to use. 

I started out by sketching it onto the canvas in pencil, next I outlined everything in black. I put the colored paint on one color at a time. (I would color all the red on all 8 canvas's, and then the blue, etc. )Then I went back and touched up the black and added a few details. 

The birthday boy even helped out. He was happy to help me paint. 

 

 

 

Finally I put a coat of a clear water based polyurethane on each canvas. This helps to protect the surface and keeps the paint from flaking off.  We attached it to the wall with 3M Command strips.  (Love those!)

The finished comic strip hung on the wall. Happy birthday T-man!