WINNER of the Progresso Prize Pack

I love choosing the winners. It's so much fun! Well, I don't do it Random.org does it so without further ado here is the result for the Progresso Soup Prize Pack.

Drum Roll please.....

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 69 


and the winner is.....

Dina!

 Hooray! I will send her an email and she will have 48 hours to get back to me. If she doesn't I will choose another winner.


Thank you to everyone who entered. 


Be sure to keep checking back for more great giveaways!

Baking with the King - King Arthur: Pizza!

As I wrote last week I received some cool products from King Arthur Flour in what I called my big box o'fun. When you are a cook/baker there is nothing more exciting that new stuff for your kitchen be it flours, spices or a gadget. For this second installment my intention was to again use my White Whole Wheat Flour in something I would ordinarily use regular white flour and see how I like it. To my surprise the recipe called for the other flour in my box - King Arthur Unbleached Cake Flour.  Oooh, two new flours in one recipe - cool, huh? (If you click on the photo you will learn all about this spiffy flour.)

I love making homemade pizza as I have mentioned in a previous post as the pizza out here is just awful. So I whipped out my pizza: Anyway You Slice It cookbook and went for my basic Neopolitan crust recipe but instead of white flour I used my King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour.  Here I am working my little fingers to the bone kneading my dough. Tough work, that. Heh heh.

I must say, the two flours (White Whole Wheat and Unbleached Cake) made a G.O.R.G.E.O.U.S. dough. Here it is before the first rise....

...and after.

The recipe makes enough for two pies. What I do is freeze one ball of dough so I basically have "pizza on demand" one night when I need a quick meal.

I never do things like the recipe says. *sigh* so this is how I built my pizza. I put on a layer of goat's milk chevre mixed with a bit of olive oil, goat's milk and two cloves of minced garlic.

Then I added a layer of rehydrated summer tomatoes. I cannot begin to tell you how yummy these tomatoes are. They have a bright, sweet/tart flavor.

On top of that went some cooked sausage

The hubby's half got some anchovies (uhm, ICK!)

Then I topped it with some grated goat's milk colby cheese. I cracked open one of my wheels of cheese a bit early and to be honest my colby tasted a bit like cheddar but it was still mighty good.

Into the oven it went and it came out looking all bubbly and yummy.

Now I don't know what happened in the oven but when we tasted this pizza the flavors all came together to create a whole new taste.
We were eating and enjoying that we hardly talked to one another.
Needless to say there were no leftovers.

Now of course,the purpose of this post - THE CRUST!! It was delish! Nice and crispy with a bit of chew in the middle just like I want. I am again THRILLED with this White Whole Wheat Flour. It performed well and the crust as good, if not better than when I used white flour. 
Obviously the Unbleached Cake Flour performed well too. It will get to star all on its own next week when I  - here's a shocker for Cake Flour - BAKE A CAKE!

Stay tuned to the blog!  Next week I will have a giveaway for your very own King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour so you, too can learn to love it as much as I do!

 Can we have a great big THANK YOU to King Arthur Flour?!

Disclosure:  I received White Whole Wheat and Unbleached Cake Flour from King Arthur for review. The opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were in no way impacted by the receipt of the flours. I was not compensated monetarily for these reviews.

Let's All Help The Small Town Mommy

I regularly go to The Small Town Mommy blog. I like reading it. It's funny and I like funny. I went today and she posted:

Anyway, Melissa is offering a giveaway.  She is giving away a first grade Sylvan workbook for language arts.  Joanna is in first grade (I’m just sayin’).  While I don’t homeschool, Joanna has some difficulty with language arts so this workbook would be a great way to bring her up to speed.  I want to win this book.

You can only get one chance to win.  So I am asking a favor.  If you do not have a first grader in your life, will you enter the giveaway and win the book for Joanna?  I am asking because I never win anything and I am hoping you do.  If you do have a first grader in your life, move along, nothing to see here (oh, and those links above, they don’t work).  Keep going, we will be back tomorrow with an entertaining post.

So if you have a few minutes and space on your blog to post this please do so.
Thanks!

Butter Bells, Making Butter and a Giveaway!

I have always wanted a Butter Bell - you know those totally cool French crocks where you can keep your butter out so it's nice and spreadable but it stays cool and fresh. I think they are about the spiffiest things invented. But it was just never something I bought for myself.

I have a friend with a milk cow as I have mentioned in a previous post. I have been trading eggs for cream and I have been making my own butter. Rich, sweet, FRESH, cream butter. The perfect product for a lovely crisp, classic white Butter Bell.

Well, my desire and my butter have met! Thanks to the wonderful owner of Butter Bell I have been given the opportunity to review one and to give one away to you! But first I thought you might like to see just how it is I make my butter. Don't worry, you don't have to see the milking of the cow!

This time around I had about a gallon of cream. I was (truth be told) rather shocked to learn that to make tastier butter you need to let the cream sit out overnight before you make your butter. The stronger smelling the cream the better taste in the butter. This little tidbit shocked this city girl but it has proven true and I am still living.

I pour the cream into the fill line of my Cuisinart, turn it on and then go do, well, whatever needs to be done. This takes a bit. The first time I made butter I stood and watched and was all - what's up until I learned the pace of it. It first whips...

...then breaks. I now can hear the difference in the motor.

I strain out the buttermilk and put the butter in a bowl.

It still needs to be washed. You can see how cloudy the water is at first.

After a few rounds of  cold water and lots of squishing

The water is clear and the butter is ready. The gallon of cream yielded a pound of butter.

I decided to make some seasoned butter this round for all those chickens I have in the freezer so I added about 1 1/2 teaspoons of dried tarragon and about 1/8 teaspoon of salt to 1/3 pound of the butter and mixed it all up. That will taste sooooo good under the breast skin of the chickens. The Butter Bell site has a whole section devoted to butter recipes. YUM!

The rest of the butter was salted to taste. It doesn't take much salt at all.  And I, of course, put some in my beautiful, new Butter Bell!

You can win this gorgeous Butterbell!

Wouldn't you just love to have one of your very own? And you don't have to make your own butter!

Here's how to enter...

MANDATORY ENTRY:

Go to the Butter Bell site and tell me which other Butterbell you would like to own. Please leave an email where you can be contacted in case you win.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

1. Follow my blog publicly. If you already follow, just say so. And thank you.
2. Follow me on twitter and tweet about the giveaway(one per day) - @BrokenTeepee and Butter Bell are giving away a classic,painted Butterbell @ http://tinyurl.com/ykpccdy #giveaway

3. Sign up for the Butterbell newsletter and leave the email with which you did so (good for three entries so leave three comments)
4. Blog about this giveaway with a link back to Broken Teepee and Butter Bell  (this is good for 6 entries so leave 6 comments)

5. Follow my goat Pricilla's Blog publicly. If you already do, just say so. And thank you.

6. Enter any of my other current giveaways. Good for one entry per...
7. Put me on your blogroll and leave a link. 




All entries need to be in by Monday, November 23rd at 9PM MST, when I will go to Random.org to pick the winner.  GOOD LUCK!!!

Giveaway - 50 Thank You Cards with Envelopes

I have another great giveaway from the great people at UPrinting and it's a great one with the holidays right around the corner.

Don't you hate when you need to write a thank you note and you don't have a card handy. Well, if you win this giveaway you won't have to worry about that! I have just the prize for you - 50 custom thank you notes with envelopes! You can make them personal to you and your family - or your business. How cool is that?

I just received my custom greeting cards from UPrinting with Pricilla's face on them and they are great! Nice sharp printing and high quality cardstock. I think anyone that receives one will just smile at that cute little goat face. I think next time I order I will use UPrinting's envelope printing and have my return address printed to save me some time.

You know I love UPrinting but you can see how others feel at Yelp.

Here's the nitty gritty on the prize:

Prize Offered: (50 ct.) 7 x 5" (folded to 3.5 x 5") Custom Thank You Cards with plain envelopes
Shipping: Free UPS Ground within United States
Blogger Appreciation Prize: (50 ct.) 7 x 5" (folded to 3.5 x 5") Custom Thank You Cards with plain envelopes
Eligibility: Limited to US Residents due to shipping costs. We will negotiate better shipping rates soon.


And entering is, of course, easy:

MANDATORY ENTRY:

Leave me a comment telling whom you would most like to thank. Be sure to leave an email so I can contact you if you win.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

1. Follow my blog publicly. If you already follow, just say so. And thank you.
2. Follow me on twitter and tweet about the giveaway - @BrokenTeepee and UPrinting.com are giving away 50 Custom Thank You Cards w/Envelopes @ http://tinyurl.com/ykg6knu #giveaway
3. Blog about this giveaway with a link back to Broken Teepee and UPrinting.com  (this is good for 6 entries so leave 6 comments)

4. Go to UPrinting.com and let me know what else you might purchase other than what has already been mentioned. Good for one entry.
5. Follow my goat Pricilla's Blog publicly. If you already do, just say so. And thank you.

6. Enter any of my other current giveaways. Good for one entry per...

All entries need to be received by 9PM MST on November 13th when I will go to Random.org to pick a winner. He/she will have 48hrs to get back to me or I will choose another winner.

Good luck!!!! 

Disclosure: I will be receiving 50 Custom Cards and envelopes for hosting this giveaway. The opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were no way impacted by my receipt of the cards. 

Book Review - Jack Daniels Cookbook: The Spirit of Tennessee Vol. 1

 I received this book to review (my cover is different) and I have to admit I expected it to be all recipes using Jack Daniel's as an ingredient. So before it arrived I sent the hubby out shopping... I was pleasantly surprised to find that the book was a mix of recipes; some using the whiskey, others without. My biggest surprise was that this was not a new cookbook but rather a reprint from 1988 of a 1950 book. What made me look at the dates where the recipes. They are, as the book says, pulled from Southern family traditions and some of them have not worn well. Others are still classic and will always be. I will never cook possum - although that reference was a joking one.  The book is full of photos rich in the history of the Jack Daniel's distillery and the Tennessee Smokey Mountains area. They were a hoot to look through and made the book fun to browse. The various tales that were told in each chapter added local color and were interesting. 

The bulk of the recipes for entrees and sides are laden with butter, cream and bacon. Now I have nothing against butter, cream and bacon but you can't eat that way too often or you won't be here long enough to enjoy all that butter, cream and bacon!  A clever cook can modify them to suit today's lighter tastes. The appetizers are staples of 60ies cocktail parties and with the current fascination for "Mad Men" would make a good resource for a throwback party. One dessert is going to show up in my holiday plans and that is the Jack Daniel's Chocolate Chip Pecan Pie. Old Fashioned, yes. Classic, yes. But I'll bet it's going to be good.

There are a number of barbeque sauces in the book. This is a Southern Cookbook after all. When summer rolls around I am sure I will break out that bottle my husband bought and try a few.  He doesn't drink but wine and beer so I know I will have it on hand for a bit of experimentation.

I did make one chicken recipe so as to do a test for you. We both really enjoyed the dish and as I said to the hubby - it's a keeper and I'll be making it again. I did modify a bit because I didn't have cream on hand - it did call for both butter and cream; no bacon though! Here's how it went down:

Intoxicated Chicken

I put the oil and butter in my pan to heat up

Browned the chicken

Then added 1/4 cup of Jack Daniel's and lit it up. I was more concerned with watching the flame than taking the photos (this is a good thing when you are married to the Fire Chief) so the photo is not as dramatic as the reality was. Let's just say it went WHOOOOPH! and I said "Woozers! that was a good one" and leave it at that.

After the flames went out I put in 6 chopped shallots. After they had softened I added powered thyme, dried parsley and water and put the chicken back in to cook for about half an hour.


Then I popped the chicken out and added a cup of goat's milk. Here is where I improvised. I was supposed to add heavy cream. Our goat's milk is about 6% butterfat so it is quite rich. Neither my husband nor myself felt any lack of richness in the dish.  I let it cook 'til it thickened and I added the chicken back in to warm up.

And here is dinner - with some of our tomatoes from the garden. We still have some in the basement! Plus some of our corn.

We both really enjoyed this meal.

I think I will have fun with this cookbook. It was written/compiled by Lynne Tolley and Pat Mitchamore. Ms. Tolley is the great-grandniece of Jack Daniels.

Disclosure:  i received a copy of this book for free for writing this review. The opinions expressed are my honest opinions are were not impacted by the receipt of the free book.

Flyers/Brochures Winner!!!

Yay! It's time to pick a winner for the 100 Flyers/Brochures from UPrinting.

True Random Number Generator Min: Max: Result: 47 

WOOHOO!

Congratulations to:

Mijal Photography! I


I will send an email ...

16x20 Rolled Canvas Print Giveaway

My wonderful blog sponsor, UPrinting, has another great giveaway for my readers.

That's right!

And this is a great one with the holidays coming up. It's a 16 x 20 Rolled Canvas Print. How great a gift would that make? Just think! You could take that wonderful photo of the kids and have it made into a  Artist Canvas rolled print. With simple mounting they would have a gift to remember.

For hosting this giveaway I am receiving one and my husband and I are looking forward to going through all of the great photos we took on our three year journey around the country. I suspect it will be tough to pick just one memory out of all the places we visited. This will make a perfect decoration for our new house.

You know I am happy with UPrinting. If you want to read about how others feel about it check out the reviews on Yelp.

So how do you win? It's easy! But first the details:

Giveaway Prize: (1) 16x20 Rolled Canvas for One Lucky Winner

Size:  16x20 rolled canvas

Shipping: FREE UPS Ground Shipping in the US

Eligibility: Limited to US Residents due to shipping costs. We will negotiate better shipping rates soon.

Now for the entries...

MANDATORY ENTRY:

Leave me a comment telling what you would you would photo you would use for your prize. Be sure to leave me an email where I can contact you if you win.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

1. Follow my blog publicly. If you already follow, just say so. And thank you.
2. Follow me on twitter and tweet about the giveaway - @BrokenTeepee and UPrinting.com are giving away a 16x20 Rolled Canvas Print @http://tinyurl.com/ylolhjd #giveaway
3. Blog about this giveaway with a link back to Broken Teepee and UPrinting.com  (this is good for 6 entries so leave 6 comments)

4. Go to UPrinting.com and let me know what else you might purchase other than what has already been mentioned. Good for one entry.
5. Follow my goat Pricilla's Blog publicly. If you already do, just say so. And thank you.

6. Enter any of my other current giveaways. Good for one entry per...

Good luck! I will go to Random.org at 9PM MST on November 12th to pick the winner. He/she will have 48 hours to get back to me or I will choose another winner.

Disclosure:  I will be receiving a 16x20 Rolled Canvas Print for hosting this giveaway. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were in no way impacted by the receipt of the Print.

Baking with the King - King Arthur!

I received a box o'fun the other day. For a baker like me this was an especially fun box. It came to me from King Arthur Flour and it had several great products in it that you will learn about over the next couple of weeks. AND you will be able to win some of them for your very own.

HOW. COOL. IS. THAT?!

See the bag in the picture? Click on it. Go ahead...nothing will bite you and you will learn all about this delightful flour.

The first item I wanted to experiment play with was the White Whole Wheat Flour. I will be honest; I am not a lover of whole wheat flour. I know, I know. It's better for me. But I am just a white bread girl. What can I say. So when I was offered the opportunity to try the White Whole Wheat Flour I was very intrigued. The hubby? He was thrilled because he's a man who loves him some whole wheat and if he could get me to bake some more of it HE would do the goat dance of joy!

So the first thing I made with this spiffy flour was my beloved Challah bread. Using my favorite recipe from my Jewish Baker cookbook I made NO changes at all to the recipe except that I used the beautiful White Whole Wheat Flour from King Arthur.  Isn't it pretty flour?

Here is my dough ball before it finished the first rise....

...and after. You can see the lovely indentation from my finger so you know this is going well.

The dough performed beautifully when I went to put it in my pans; none of that ripping and tearing you can sometimes get with traditional whole wheat flour.  Again, before the rise....

....and after, right before they went into the oven.

Mmmm, can you smell the fresh baked bread?

Now I had just baked some Challah on Monday so I had a loaf of my regular, white flour bread handy. Here it is in the middle of my two White Whole Wheat Flour loaves. You can hardly tell the difference!

I cut them both open. Hey, a girl's gotta do a taste test, right? RIGHT?

The White Whole Wheat Flour loaf is a bit browner (bottom photo) in color but I'm telling you this bread is light and delicious.

I'm sold.

One loaf is half gone already and I'm not talking the white flour loaf.

Tonight we are having pizza for dinner and guess what I am using in the crust? heh heh

This will be an ongoing series as I learn to bake with my new flour. I will have a giveaway for this very exciting product next week. And for another wonderful King Arthur flour....am I a tease or what?

How to Earn Money Online

Now don't go all shaking your head at me. This is a good thing. My blog friend Jen over at Redhead Ranting has written an ebook on the various ways she has made money online. REAL ways not "send me your money and I will send you crap to put together ways."  She is waiting to get a third party service to do the processing for her but for the next 72 hours or so she is selling it herself on her blog here. So go on over and check it out. It comes with some freebies. Check out the blog too - she's very funny!

Wordless Wednesday - I am Not a Special Kitty

Oh no! Doesn't every kitty have their own pillow?

Random Tuesday Thoughts

Welcome the the randomness that is Tuesday. All due to The UnMom. So if you want to get ramdom head on over and link up!

The little goats keep escaping. I keep putting them back in. I think they are going to win this battle because they have more energy and my arms are getting tired. You will know if you never hear from me again and you see a news report about a woman in Montana who was found wandering around with a dazed look claiming she lost her kids but was found to never have had children.

I made this  killer cake for the hubby's fire meeting last night. It called for sour cream but I didn't have any so I improvised. I took 1 1/2 cups of milk and added 1/2 cup of vinegar. The batter tasted like I had added cream cheese and the finished cake was unbelievably rich and moist.  Good to know for future baking....

The kitten continures to climb. Anything. The other night the hubby and I were sitting in our chairs and wwe heard this noise. Never a good thing. We looked over and Sherpa had climbed the front screen door to the top and was sitting on the decorative ledge that rests over it.  We were laughing so hard we couldn't yell at him.  He also climbs the curtains and the hubby.

I HAVE NOTHING TO PROCESS. THE GARDEN IS DEAD.

Would anyone else be grossed out by looking in their floss container and seeing a bug? I mean ICK. How did the stupid thing get in there in the first place. It was new floss! I threw that sucker out so fast my husband didn't know what went past him. Disgusting! It was dead, but STILL.

Well, I have to go chase kids and search for eggs so I hope you all have a very Random Tuesday!