What Is Self Rising Flour?

Flour

Self Rising Flour, The Facts and Storage

White flour has been around since medieval times (we’ll get more into this in later posts, I promise!).  However, self rising flour was first patented by Henry Jones, a baker, in 1845 in Bristol, England.  His USA patent came in 1849 and he was issued a gold medal for the flour in 1852.

From the research I have done, you can make self rising flour yourself from 1c Flour (if you do not have all-purpose flour, research indicates cake flour is an acceptable substitution for this recipe), 1tsp Baking Powder and ½ tsp Salt.  (Remember, don’t add extra salt to a recipe which calls for self rising flour!)  When you purchase this flour premade in the stores, it comes premixed with leavening agents, which release gases to make the flour, and thus your baked goods, more light and airy.  Leavening agents can include baking soda, phosphates, ammonium bicarbonate (powdered baking ammonia), potassium bicarbonate (potash – potassium), potassium bitartrate (cream of tarter), potassium carbonate (pearl ash – used before the invention of baking powder) and hydrogen peroxide.  Personally, I am going to stop buying it in the store, so I know what is in my flour (sort of).

 

Self rising flour is low-protein and recommended for buiscuits and quick breads, some cake recipes (such as this Lemon Drizzle Cake), as well as some pastry recipes – but never, ever use it in yeast bread!!

 

As with all flour, you must keep self rising flour in a cool and dry storage space.  Do not use the flour after about six months time, per miller recommendation, because of the oils going rancid when exposed to air.  However, if you keep your flour in your freezer, it will keep for a several years.  During summer, especially in the extreme heat of the south, keep your flour refrigerated, if you do not use your freezer.

 

Insects and rodents can be attracted to your flour store, due to exposure to moisture and odor.  So make sure you keep your flour in a sealed container!  You can also place a bay leaf in the container on your shelf, as it is a natural insect repellant.

 

If your flour changes colour or starts to smell a little different, throw it out immediately.  Another reason for throwing out old flour, your biscuits will not plump up if your flour is too old – and that, my friends, is a real tragedy in our house!!

 

 

Flour Questions – Bread Flour, All-Purpose Flour or Self Rising Flour

Baking Can Get Messy

 

I was going through a cookbook a while back and ran into a recipe which called for bread flour.  At the time, I was out of bread flour and wondered about different flour substitutions to my wonderful followers on Twitter.  The consensus was, go out and purchase bread flour.  Phewy!

 

Since that time, I have had this post rattling around in my head.  I run into recipes which call for all-purpose flour and wonder if self rising flour really would work just as well?  My mawmaw and my mother never had all-purpose flour in their homes, that I can recall.  We always used self rising flour.  I never noticed a difference.  But now I’m all recipe-tester person, which means I have to be precise.  In the interest of science, maybe I will do a few experiments and make a recipe twice, each time using a different type of flour.  Stay tuned, this calls for a whole different Saturday Recipe than you are used to receiving!

 

This pondering has led me to this post.  Yes, this one.  You are reading it right now.  Aren’t you glad I let you know?  What are the different properties of each variation of flour we use in everyday baking.   For that, how the heck to they even come up with the different flours????

 

Wheat Field

 

Keep an eye out on your email or RSS feeder, folks.  I am planning on doing a whole series of posts on flour.  Why a series?  Because I can…also, when I started researching I found a TON of information on the subject.  Plus, it has captured my unschooling interest and I am following my joy with the research and learning something new.

 

What posts will be forthcoming?  We will do a post of different baking flours, we will do a post on the history of flour, a post on different milling techniques and maybe even a post on the history of milling in the US.  I told you I found a lot!!

 

 

I Am Back

Well, hello there, strangers!  I suppose you are now thinking one of two things – 1) Whoa, I forgot I had this blog on RSS/Email notification.  2) What happened to HER?!

I know, I know, I have been a very, very bad blog mom!  No updates, if you discount the Wordless Wednesday posts with no updates in them, since October.  I am still here, though!  The holidays, as usual, kicked my butt.  This was the second year since losing my beloved grandfather and I get in a funk.  Plus, life kicked me in the butt, it was crazy here the last few months with the two little ones and the oldest finally finished her 11th grade work and is now a SENIOR!!!  (How did she get this old without me noticing??)

We had another chicken go broody and hatched four eggs.  We lost all four chicks to the hawks around the area.  We have also lost a few of our hens, as well.  We are now down to eight chickens.  Rogan and I have decided when the weather turns warmer (it has been freezing almost every night since right before Christmas) we are going to fence in their coop and start keeping them in the pen and safe from the hawks and the neighborhood dogs (this is entirely the chickens’ fault, as they keep flying over our “jailhouse” fence -out from under the protection of the tree cover of our yard- and over to the neighbor’s yard and in an empty field across the road).  We may order some more chicks this spring.

I have started garden dreaming.  I have catalogs, both paper and virtual, I am going through and trying to decide on exactly what to plant this season.  I am planning on expanding our largish-small plot and maybe do greenhouse hoops we can cover in the winter and have a year round garden!  The little ones are getting old enough now that I can spend a bit more time on gardening – and I am planning a separate herb garden and a kid’s plot for them to learn how to work the earth.

I will confess to weakness and admit I have not been using my clothesline since it got cold.  Our laundry room is outside in an alcove off our carport and it takes all I have to just walk out there and do laundry.  So I have been succumbing to the luxury of using the dryer more and more.  We have to run a small heater in the room with the double doors shut so the water line does not freeze on us, but I still find myself having to run an empty load before I can start on the day’s laundry to clear out ice in the line (we do not have a hot water line, only the cold line).

We also discovered at the beginning of the month we need to replace our septic tank and field drains – they are original to the house, so are about fifty years old or so.  The field drains are being blocked by all of my precious trees’ root systems in that part of the yard.  We are looking at about three grand for that.

Plus, we bought the little ones some wooden blocks and building sets for the holidays.  Right before the septic tank issues one of them tossed a block and it hit our HUGE picture window in the living room and cracked it – we are talking about around two to three thousand if we replace it, as it is now structured (also original to the house and is only single pane and had spider cracks running through it already).  This is where I beg you for work, or to recommend me to anyone who needs administrative or bookkeeping work!

Bills, Bills, Bills

So, it looks like any refund we get from the IRS is spoken for this year.  The house is starting to remind of two movies – the first obvious choice is The Money Pit and the second is Baby Boom – where the ad executive moves into this great old house in the country, only to discover everything is breaking down.  (Did I mention the kitchen floor also needs replacing, because the subfloor is starting to buckle?)

Oh, well.  I suppose this is the price you pay for living in an older house.  We have a project lined up to replace the two prong outlets with three prong ones (which requires a lot of rewiring).

 

The Money Pit

 

Oh, and something no one really warns you about when you move from the big city to the country – and have a house surrounded by woods – is critters.  Yes, I theoretically knew there would be creepy crawlies, but was not prepared for my new arch enemy – MICE.  Apparently my chickens (and dogs and cat) suck at killing these things before they get into the house!  We have tried traps of all kinds and we keep the population from getting out of control, but we still seeing them scurrying around in the corners sometimes.  I have ordered a product from my favorite online store – Greenfeet – that is supposed to keep them from coming into the house, due to the odor of the herbs and cedar in the product not agreeing with their olfactory senses.  I should be getting it in this week and will let you know how it works.

Saturday Recipe will hopefully continue soon, but some posts may be teasers – I am now a recipe tester for one of my all time favorite recipe sites and will not be able to disclose the recipe for you until it is published on the site.  But I will show you some pics and give you some tips (like how to truss a chicken and how to chop chocolate blocks).

I hope you will not delete me from your feed and will continue on with me in this journey of learning homesteading and country living and homeschooling (oldest will be graduating soon, but the middle one will be starting kindergarten this fall!).  I will give you all the good AND the bad of it all (like mice!).  You will see me fall on my face and learn from mistakes.  So, stay tuned – same bat-ish time, same bat channel!!

 

Wordless Wednesday – Turning the Tables

Say Cheese!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Fighting Over Space To Lay Eggs

 

Wordless Wednesday – Happy Toddler

Happy 2yo

 

Wordless Wednesday – Rain Water Collector

Rain Barrel

 

Saturday Recipe – Spaghetti Os

When I was a kid we would occasionally get Spaghetti Os for lunch.  Like fast food, this was a treat for us.  When I moved into my own apartment, I discovered the joys of living off such cheap and convenient foods purchased on a waitress’s salary.  Nowadays, I know better than eat processed foods.  But the Spaghetti Os still haunt me when I pass by them on the aisle at the grocery store.

So….I have “cooked up” my own recipe!

You will need noodles.  You can use whatever your favorite is, I use macaroni or, as pictured here, spaghetti noodles broken into bite sized bits.  You can also use the fun noodles, such as animal shapes!  I like to cook my noodles in chicken broth, to give them extra flavor.

 

Noodles

You will also need tomato soup.  You can buy this in a can, if you wish (I use Campbell’s since I haven’t come across a tomato soup recipe I really like yet, but I add a bit of dried oregano to it).

 

Tomato Soup

I cook these in separate pots, strain the noodles, put them in a bowl and pour the soup over the noodles.

Faux Spaghetti Os

Try this for yourself and let me know what you think!  Do you have recipes you have made to take the place of your favorite caned pasta meals?  Share with the class!

 

Slow Food and Picky Eaters

 

Fresh Food Is Not Always Appreciated By Children

It can be HARD to be a parent.  I remember days of driving two hours to work, trying to fit in pumping three times during the work day, stress of budget deadlines and monthly branch finance deadlines, dealing with operations managers who were busy and didn’t get around to clearing discrepancies in estimated costs of import/export items we shipped, and then driving another two hours home, cooking dinner, breastfeeding the baby and feeling so guilty about only spending a handful of hours a day during the week with my family.  High stress job, mommy guilt, low milk supply problems due to stress and guilt (and forgetting sometimes to eat at work because I was busy and forgot the time) and postpartum depression - these were some of my issues, but there are a whole spectrum of other issues women – and men – have when trying to work outside the home and still have a quality family life, whether or not they have children, and to try to be healthy and kick the fast food monkey on our collective backs.

 

So what is one to do when you find yourself in this stressful situation?  Some people run, some do yoga, some meditate..and, yes, some turn to food or drugs or alcohol.  I don’t recommend turning to drugs – just FYI – they are illegal and you will wind up in jail with a bunk mate named Bubba(ette), also, they are very bad for your body.  Alcohol is equally bad, it can cause you to disassociate yourself from your family – and, if you are a mean or morose drunk, you can alienate those whom you need most.  Food, though it may be bad for you in excess and if you eat just junk/fast food and is right up there with the other two, you can turn into a good thing.  When I’m upset or stressed I do one of two things: Cook/bake or clean.  If you have visited my house lately, you know I have been going with the first instead of the later….but that’s another story.

Last night I had a bit of a meltdown (ok, ok, Rogan, so it was more than a bit!  Sheesh! )  I made baked teriyaki chicken and mashed sweet potatoes (from an 8lb paper bag purchase I made a few weeks ago at the Farmer’s Market) and the 4yo started about how she didn’t like this or that or the other.  The 17yo has been a challenge to cook for since she was about the same age – I have to not cook things Rogan and I would love to eat (ie, things made with hamburger meat, mushrooms, lots of garlic, onions, etc) because she doesn’t like something it is made with – and I just broke.  14 years of hearing “I don’t like that” came crashing down on me.  Add the 4yo and 2yo going through a “I may or may not eat with you, but I WILL ask for something to eat when it’s time to go to bed”, and it is enough to drive even someone without PPD over the edge.

I declared I was going to stop cooking, buy a ton of boxed cereals and just let everyone pick their own for dinners!  (Rogan took me out for coffee to let me calm down, that was how bad it was!)

Um, yeah.  Like that’s going to happen.  We have a box of MultiGrain Cheerios for the toddlers to keep them out of my hair for them to snack on during the day.  Occasionally, I will go nuts and buy something in vein of Apple Jacks, but I try to keep that to a minimum because I will eat them because of the sugar content.

I cook.  It is what I do.  I am tempted to cook what I want and let them eat something else, but then my Southern upbringing (sometimes I sound just like my mother) rears it’s head and I hear myself saying, “You will eat what I cooked, or you can go hungry!”  I never actually follow up on that statement, so don’t go calling DSS on me!  But it is tempting.  They usually run around (yeah, family dinner time with two toddlers running around like wild animals, screaming and hitting each other is soooo relaxing) and don’t eat.  Around 8:30-9:00 they will ask for food.  They usually get a peanut butter sandwich (the teen just raids the food pantry and fridge at all hours of the day).  I am soooo not good on the tough love parenting thing.

So, tell me.  What do you do to cope with the picky eaters (kids or spouses) in your family?  Do you cave to the “happy, happy, joy, joy” kids meals, or do you make different things for different eaters, or do you put your foot down and they eat what you decide to cook?  Also, tips for getting toddlers to sit at the dinner tape (without resorting to duct tape or rope or chains) would be greatly appreciated.

 

“Weighing” In On Marie Claire and Photoshoping Models

Marie Claire Asks If Overweight Couples Should Kiss Only In Private

I have been going back and forth about whether or not to write about this very hot topic of  a blog post on Marie Claire’s Website which started out about a tv show and people “with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other” and went on to say “I think obesity is something that most people have a ton of control over. It’s something they can change, if only they put their minds to it.”  I write mostly about local events/places and parenting and homesteading and slow food.  Though I suppose this could, in the other writer’s eye, have something to do with food.

The piece’s author, Maura Kelly, has publicly apologized for the post, which has so far garnered over 1100 comments (most of them calling her a bully, a sizest and some even getting very personal and nasty).  When I first learned of the article Tuesday night and read the article I was livid, I admit it.  I have had three children and have been on strong antidepressants.  I am overweight.  Not because of what or how much I eat, but because of the pregnancy weight I haven’t lost on top of medication which is proven to cause weight gain.  No amount of “putting my mind to it” will change these facts.  Luckily, my doctor switched my medications and I am on the road to weight loss, but it has nothing to do with will power and my eating or exercise habits.

But what has upset me the most, and what has really prompted me to write this post, isn’t so much that Ms. Kelly feels the way she does, it’s the fact that someone in the Marie Claire ranks approved this article.  Not only did someone in Marie Claire approve this article, they are unabashedly unapologetic about about posting an article which bashes overweight people.

I do not buy this magazine, or any like it.  I believe these publications give the teenage and young adult women of our country a bad body image ideal, one model was allegedly fired for being a size 4.  The fashion industry sets it’s plus sized modeling for a size 6.  More to the point, my 17 year old daughter who DOES read magazines such as this, thinks she is fat because she is a size 8!  Way to go fashionistas and designers of the USA!  You are promoting anorexia better than Twiggy ever believed possible.  Between magazines which feel the need to photoshop already skinny models, to sizing standards for models, to the authors of articles such as this one which makes overweight people feel ashamed and worsens their already low body images, our young people are set on the cusp to make eating and exercise disorders the new drain on America’s healthcare.

To paraphrase a well-known quote: All it takes is for one person to remain quiet.  I am through being quiet.  What about you?