Month: August 2023

Mockmill Professional 200 Grain Mill: Dinner Rolls

Aynaria Leave a comment

My daughter told me that only three hamburger rolls were left this morning. Yesterday, I made eight hamburger rolls using my freshly milled flour. After they cooled, I ate one as a sandwich. I’d made sauteed mushrooms, spinach, and onions specifically for those rolls, and I must say that was a fabulous combination! Since my nephew will be here tomorrow, and I did not want to run out of the rolls, I made more.

Dinner Rolls – Second Rise

This time I made the rolls smaller so they would be dinner rolls. I also used different wheat berries. What did I use? Einkorn (the world’s oldest grain), hard white wheat, and soft white wheat.

Super Soft Dinner Rolls

While the rolls were fabulous, I prefer yesterday’s combination; however, this was still very good. My daughter said she did not have a preference. Tomorrow, I plan to make cinnamon rolls. I planned to make them today; however, the plans changed since we were almost out of rolls.

I’m enjoying my Mockmill Professional 200 Grain Mill and look forward to using it for various meals.

MockMill Professional 200 Grain Mill: Making Hamburger Rolls

Aynaria Leave a comment

Since my MockMill Professional 200 Grain Mill arrived last Thursday, I’ve enjoyed experimenting with various flour-based items.

Hard white wheat berries

I have purchased a variety of grains to grind into flour. The above is hard white wheat berries.

 

Freshly milled hard white wheat berries

 

I must say that the MockMill Professional 200 Grain Mill does a beautiful job of turning the grains into excellent flour. See above!

Cinnamon Raisin Drop Biscuits

I’ve made cinnamon raisin drop biscuits.

Freshly baked loaf bread

I made two yeast bread, the above was made the traditional way, and the other was prepared in my Zojirushi Virtuoso Bread Machine. I made the one in the bread machine yesterday.

 

 

Cinnamon Raisin Cookies

I also made cinnamon raisin cookies.

 

Hamburger Rolls – First Rise

 

Hamburger Rolls – Second Rise

 

Hamburger Rolls – Just out of the oven!

And yesterday, I made hamburger rolls!

I must say that I’m excited about my grain mill and creating healthy foods with flour. Freshly ground flour differs from store-bought flour since everything is intact—endosperm, germ, and bran. The bran and germ are removed with store-bought flour, the healthiest part of the flour.

Since eating freshly milled flour, I have noticed a few positive changes. I would experience bloating almost instantly with store-bought flour, and my nasal passages would start to get clogged, so I avoided flour-based products. I have not had that issue when using freshly milled grains.

Kitchen remodeling: Splashguard added

Aynaria Leave a comment

Earlier today, we finally added the splashguard tile to our kitchen.

Or, I should say my daughter added the tile. Well, I did start; however, I only did one square. I went outside to work the gardens, and my lovely daughter took over this wonderful project.

I must say that she did an excellent job with this project.

 

This evening, I started placing my kitchen appliances back in place, and I finally put my Mock Mill Professional 200 Stone Grain Mill in its new home right beside my Vitamix. It took a while to get everything into its location, and I thoroughly cleaned my granite countertops before placing my kitchen appliances into their location.

My daughter hasn’t finished this project; there’s still a small amount to complete; however, we are both pleased with how this project has turned out.

 

Bountiful harvest

Aynaria 2 Comments

Since we love tomatoes, I made sure I planted a lot. Before my workday started this morning, I was out in the garden, harvesting my heirloom tomatoes.

I picked a little over half of this five-gallon bucket full of tomatoes. After washing and cleaning the tomatoes, I placed a whole bucket in my large roaster.

Tomatoes were added to my electric roaster.

I rinsed off these tomatoes during my break (I work from home) and added them to my large electric roaster. I’ll let them cook down overnight, and perhaps tomorrow, they’ll be ready for me to turn into spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce. Once that’s complete, I’ll be canning the tomatoes. Plenty of tomatoes are in the garden, just waiting to ripen. I’ll gather more for us; however, I’ll also share with loved ones.

About an hour ago, I saw that my MockMill Professional 200 Stone GrainMill had shipped. I should be receiving it later this week! I don’t eat too much bread or pasta, and when I do eat either, I’m very particular about the type I eat or make since most of the stuff at the typical big box grocery stores doesn’t agree with me and will make me bloated. No thanks. I don’t have that issue when preparing my bread or getting it from specialty stores where the breads are freshly ground and baked as they should be. I know that freshly ground flour that has everything is not an issue, so I’m looking forward to finally grinding my own grains.

Grinding my own flour

Aynaria 2 Comments

I’ve been baking my bread for several years; after the pandemic, I increased that to baking bread several times weekly. Like many others, I had a lot of time on my hands while many of us were required to shelter in place. I’m happy that my bread-baking knowledge increased significantly because of this time, and I truly enjoyed the freshly baked bread’s welcoming smell to the home. Although I’d seriously considered purchasing a grain mill then, I didn’t. I still was unsure of what I truly wanted, and because of the pandemic, certain items like flour and products related to baking bread were hard to come by.

Years before, I was looking at Country Living and the Diamante grain mill. Reviewing my posts here on Celebrate Life, I first mentioned Country Living grain mill in 2013. That was almost ten years ago! I was planning to buy it then; however, I held off. I can sit on my wants for a long time.

Fast forward to today, a few hours ago, I purchased the Mock Mill Pro 200. Unlike the Country Living and the Diamante, which are manual, although both can have a motor added, the MockMill Pro 200 is electric. I must admit that I’m excited about grinding my grains and am especially looking forward to bringing ancient grains, quinoa, and sprouted grains that I can turn into freshly baked loaves of bread and pasta. I’m a member of a few breadmaking forums, and many who grind their flour talk about the freshness of the flour compared to flours purchased in the store, some of which have had chemicals added to them.

What will I make first? My daughter loves dinner rolls, and so that’s what it will be.

Deer sampling the garden

Aynaria 1 Comment

Well, my suspicions were confirmed Sunday evening.

There’s a doe that has been checking out our garden. In the above photo, you can see her right behind the fence. My garden is completely fenced, so she’s hopped the fence and feasted on some garden beds. The ones that had my beautiful collards and cabbage. She ate all of them! Since I know they don’t particularly care for the scent of humans, I have attached some of my loose hair to the garden beds, and I also got an ultrasound device that emits a high-pitched sound. Hopefully, that will be enough to keep her away.

Yoki, our working line German shepherd, heard her outside, was not thrilled at all, and started barking, aka fussing. Ms. Doe did not stay around too long; however, the camera did show her return this morning a little after 3:00 am. This fall, I will install a deer fence. It’s 8′ tall, so that I won’t have this issue next year. We have deer since we live in the woods; this is the first year they have been a nuisance for me.

Yesterday afternoon, I returned to the garden pick up more of the produce. There s still a lot more to get. I’ll hopefully finish that tomorrow. What’s in the five-gallon bucket? Cucumbers, heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and many peaches! I will make a peach cobbler or peach pie using some of the peaches I picked.