3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

bread

Garlic Knot Bread

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Garlic Know Bread RecipeA little over a month ago we had a BBQ and party. Why? Just because we could. It was a combination Pinterest party, BBQ, and excuse to feed my oldest Marine son who was home on leave. We started at noon with hamburgers and hot dogs and progressed throughout the day, moving through the meat groups. Here is just a start of the various foods we served.

My friend Beth brought fixed this wonderful delight, recipe courtesy of Rachael Ray, who else, her favorite chef.

Italian Garlic bread with marinara sauce
Ready to eat Italian Garlic bread with marinara sauce

My son came outside while it was cooling and said “What is that wonderful spectacle on top of the stove? I want to eat it!” In no time at all it was gone.

Recipe

  • Nonstick cooking spray
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 pound store-bought pizza dough, cut into 1-inch balls
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary
  • Coarse ground sea salt
  • Black pepper
  • 1 cup shredded provolone
  • 1 cup grated Parmesan
  • Tomato sauce, homemade or store-bought, for dipping
  • Pieces of cooked bacon (optional, but we added it, bacon is good with EVERYTHING)

Preheat oven to 400ºF.

Prepare a bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray.

In a small saucepot, melt butter with garlic. Pour into a large mixing bowl and toss together with pizza dough balls, rosemary, sea salt and black pepper. Place half of the dough balls into the bundt pan, top with half of the cheeses. Top with remaining dough and finish with remaining cheese. Bake 30 minutes.

Serve with tomato sauce alongside

*This reminds me of the dessert treat monkey bread with butter and cinnamon. I’m sure thawed dinner rolls could be used in replacement of pizza dough

And the Waving Wheat, Can Sure Smell Sweet

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Wheat in Western Nebraska
Wheat in Western Nebraska (harvested Mid June)

When the wind comes whipping down the plain, Neeeebraska. yup, not Oklahoma., but western Nebraska near Palisade.

Some people consider us a fly over state without much scenery, but I would argue there is something amazing at every turn, if you just know what to look for and why it’s important.

For example after stopping at this field you can hear a rustling sound as wind blows through the dry wheat. There is an illusion of waves moving across the prairie in an endless roll, never hitting the shore.

The wheat may look soft, but the heads and beards are actually quite coarse. Pick off a spike and break off one of the 30-50 kernals, rub it between your fingers and inside is a single grain of wheat. Put it in your mouth to taste the nutty taste. Look out across the horizon at the old abandoned homestead and the clouds rolling by, sigh. It’s peaceful, yet not quiet as the wave roll in the background. It’s soothing.

From this field of over 640 acres comes bushels of wheat which will be made into bread that you will pick up in your supermarket for just one dollar. The farmer was paid less than 0.05 for that loaf.

Other Ag Facts About wheat

America’s Bread Basket

  • Each American consumers, on average, 53 pounds of bread per year.
  • Assuming a sandwich was eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it would take 168 days to eat the amount of bread produced from one bushel of wheat.
  • A family of four could live for 10 years off the bread produced by one acre of wheat.
  • One bushel of wheat will produce 73 one-pound loaves of bread.
  • In 1997, Kansas‘s wheat farmers produced enough wheat to make 36.5 billion loaves of bread, or enough to provide each person on earth with 6 loaves of bread.
  • Farmers receive approximately 5 cents (or less) from each loaf of bread sold.

Want to follow a wheat harvesting family? Head over to Nebraska Wheatie

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Day 30/365: Our Daily Bread

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Day 30: Our Daily Bread

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

What does this mean?

God gives daily bread, even without our prayer, to all wicked men; but we pray in this petition that He would lead us to know it, and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

What is meant by daily bread?

Everything that belongs to the support and wants of the body, such as meat, drink, clothing, shoes, house, homestead, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful magistrates, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.

Lutheran Small Catechism: 4th petition, Lords Prayer
Let us never forget this as the year ends, the new year begins, and life brings us challenges we feel we cannot bear.