THIS IS GONNA BE HARD …

This morning, I switched my homemade & MOD summer kitchen towels out for my homemade & MOD Fall kitchen towels: ALL these Fall kitchen towels were designed & crafted last Fall, while Bob was in the hospital – I needed towels, I needed something to redirect my thoughts from the death sentences we were getting from the docs … and if, by some miracle, Bob would be able to return home to me, I wanted him to come home to a colorful & cherry atmosphere home.

Well; Bob DID go Home: he just didn’t come back here to the home we set up here on Earth.

And, here on earth, in our home, I will be using those towels I made last Fall; this Fall.

It is gonna be hard to do.

I will be thinking of the days those towels were designed and crafted; designed at home after returning home from all day spent by his side in the hospital, hearing conflicting, confusing, and dreary doctors’ reports – and crafted while I cried and prayed as he slept (and rallied to be brave faced when he was awake), watching him valiantly try to fight off that insidious illness (along with the doctors’ killing “helps”) that finally wore his body out.

This shortie towel is one such towel:

I patterned it after the colorful Fall leaved scene we used to enjoy while walking our favorite county park & feeding the squirrels when Bob was able to do that; Bob loved feeding the furry little beggers. He enjoyed their antics ...

The videos are a little jerky and not very well aimed, but we hadn’t had the phone very  long; we were learning how to use it – along with learning how to face death. Death was never taken off the discussion table when doctors spoke to us about the future; we did the best we could to learn the manuvers on both counts.

This towel is quite a bit shorter than the others because I was lost in a fog while knitting it up, and didn’t realize until it was finished that it was only half the length of what I intended it to be.

This particular towel, over all the others, will always be a reminder of those terrible days … BUT Elohim was faithful, and got us both through those difficult and heart-rending days, and on to happier & better days.

We are both thankful: Bob beyond the clouds in his new celestial Home ... and me, still walking this Earth.

On another note, the bread I made yesterday afternoon DID turn okay okay :-D (https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2019/09/sky-high-challah.html)

There was only 1 instance of an air bubble – and that was not significant enough to damage the loaf; thank You, Yeshua!

For a light Supper, I had a roll last night with some Strawberry Butter (basically just 1 cup of butter with strawberries whipped into it), & a big mug of chicken broth – it was delish ;-)

SKY-HIGH CHALLAH!

WOW!

I made Challah this afternoon ... and it just came out of the oven: SKY-HIGH!

Must have had a GOOD batch of yeast ;-)

There was enough bread dough to make 2 loaves & 8 good-sized dinner rolls.

I pray it is not full of air bubbles when I cut into it – I did knead it real good to make sure there would be no bubbles – but never expected it to rise this high; it never has before!

I used the recipe I have been using for decades; I guess I got blessed today. LOL
(http://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2018/07/low-cholesterol-challah-shabbat-bread.html)

A TASTE OF SUMMER

STRAWBERRY BREAD.

I baked all day today.

First off, I made and baked Challah … (http://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2018/07/low-cholesterol-challah-shabbat-bread.html)

I normally braid my challah, but I was in a hurry this morning, so I skipped getting fancy and just baked the bread.

While the challah cooled, I got the strawberry bread – I have finally gathered enough strawberries for – underway. I have been faithfully checking and picking the strawberries I grow in my strawberry jar here at home, and was happy to see that there was the exact amount I needed for the recipe. I found a recipe for strawberry bread online, so this afternoon, the bread was made, cooled, and stored away in the freezer for a taste of summer in the winter months ahead.

The recipe is posted at the end of this post.

I substituted Stevia & yogurt for the sugar in the recipe. A LOT of stevia packets were used to equal the amount of sugar being substituted:

I also lined each mini loaf pan with foil to make cleanup quicker; it was tedious, but necessary as I am also very frugal, and want to reuse the pans ...

==Strawberry Bread Recipe ~6 mini loaf pans

Ingredients

·         3 cups all-purpose flour

36 to 48 individual Stevia serving packets (equals 2 cups regular granulated sugar original recipe calls for)

·         1 teaspoon Baking Soda

·         1 teaspoon Salt

·         1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon

·         1 cup Vegetable Oil

·         4 Eggs, lightly beaten

·         1 teaspoon Vanilla

·         2 1/2 cups diced Strawberries

·         6 ounces of Yogurt

Instructions

1.   Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Spray loaf pans with nonstick cooking spray.

2.   In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir in the vegetable oil, eggs and vanilla. The batter will be thick. Stir in the strawberries.

Elohim blessed me with just enough strawberries from the strawberry jar to make the bread with.

3.   Place the batter in the prepared pans. Bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean – 35-45 minutes for small loaf pans or about 60 minutes for large loaf pans. Cool the loaves in the pans for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Batter equally divided among mini loaf pans.

Strawberry bread baking; pans fit the oven with room to spare.

First cooling.

Foil removed came away cleanly from the bread.

Final cooling.

Double wrapped & labeled for the freezer. These little loaves of summer goodness will be a very welcome taste of Summer in the Winter months.

Not only will these tasty summer-filled breads push back the gray days of winter months, they are also FULL of healthy goodness as this link explains: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/foods/strawberries