Tammy's Recipes

Joshua originally wrote this as a comment, but I think it's worthy of being its own post! :) Joshua has done a lot of research on dough conditioners for homemade bread, and here is some of what he's learned! :)

I admit I have a love for chemistry as well as an aversion to crumbly homemade bread. A couple years back I set out to find out the difference between homemade bread and store bought bread and see if I couldn't doctor up homemade bread to have a similar consistency to the store stuff while retaining the taste and nutritional value of homemade bread.

Long story short is that I have "discovered" a number of natural, and healthy, ingredients you can add to bread to alter the texture. Bread is one part science, one part art, and all living organism. Bread is really a giant yeast culture and your goal is to create a healthy environment for the yeast and to create a dough that compliments such as well as produces the results you want (which can vary depending on what bread you are making).

The neat thing about dough enhancers is that almost anyone who has ever made a loaf of bread has used some of some sorts. Bread of the yeast variety is just flour, water, and yeast. Everything else is a conditioner. Sugar is a dough enhancer as it is yeast food. Fats, like butter and vegetable oil, aid in elasticity and the moisture of the loaf. Eggs, among other things, contain a lot of lecithin. So if you feel a little awkward adding new ingredients to bread just remind yourself that almost everything in a loaf of homemade bread is in there to enhance the core ingredients to begin with.

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Joshua made some brisket today. Brisket always strikes me as such a man-thing... you know, the huge slab of meat that I would never ever think to stop and look at, much less actually purchase...

Joshua seasoned and grilled the outside of the brisket, and then brought it into the house to slow cook in some homemade barbecue sauce.

I caught him lifting the lid of the slow cooker to look inside as it cooked, and I said, "You know, I read one time that every time you lift the lid on that, you have to add 30 minutes to the cooking time."

Joshua replied, "Huh. Well, good thing I wasn't around when they invented the thing, or I would have concluded that it didn't work."  

I've been almost too busy to cook these days. I know it's summer, so roasting chicken in the oven all day isn't exactly easy on our electric (air conditioning!) bill.

I keep falling back on Joshua's grilling skillz... hot dogs, hamburgers, or -- even better -- grilled chicken sandwiches!

This was lunch today... simple but yummy grilled chicken on wheat buns with fresh lettuce! The sugar snap peas are from my mom's garden. I sauteed them and then tossed them with some couscous and a few seasonings (onion salt, garlic salt, pepper). It turned out pretty good considering that I didn't really know what I was doing and this was the first time I had ever cooked/eaten couscous!

We recently got a pound of two different kinds of couscous to try: semolina couscous and whole wheat couscous. I'd love to hear your take on couscous! From the little bit I've read, it seems to be a processed wheat product -- like pasta... maybe?? We tried the regular semolina couscous and although I thought it tasted okay, I wasn't overly impressed and I'm not sure if it's something worth trying to incorporate into our diets. What do you think? :)

Joshua grilled lamb chops for the first time last week, and I served them with garlic bread, cooked broccoli, and parsley potatoes. The lamb chops were good, and very tender. We'll be tweaking the recipe a bit before anything goes online though! :)

Do any of you have favorite recipes for lamb? Send them our way!! We just recently got half of a lamb, so we have plenty of lamb chops and lamb steaks to grill! There are just a few pounds of ground lamb, as well. It's really good meat, but we're pretty inexperienced when it comes to special lamb recipes! :)

The chicken squash bake recipe I shared last week is one of my favorite meals. With the last of our yellow crooked neck squash, I decided to make this recipe again. Joshua suggested grilling the chicken (instead of just baking it) and so of course I took him up on his offer. :)

Joshua's grilled chicken is tender and moist, and it transformed (what I consider) a really good dish into a really really good dish. Joshua says he wants us to always use grilled chicken in this recipe, and I won't argue with that!! It was so delicious. And so colorful.

I will miss having fresh squash; our plants have run their course. This was a nice ending to summer-squash-season, though! :)

This week, Kroger's has Texas Broil steak, buy one get one free. (Regular price is $4.89/lb.) Joshua grilled some for our lunch today, and it was SO yummy.

Preparation really affects the tenderness of meat, and Joshua's pretty good with his grill. But I'd have to say this steak was really tender and yummy... especially considering the price. :) It was a very good thing that Joshua only grilled two, 4-ounce steaks... because we both wanted to eat much more. ;)

Joshua used the seasonings from this t-bone recipe; here's another Texas Broil recipe, as well. I took the easy way out and served garden lettuce, garlic bread (from a box!) and sugar snap peas (another garden treat). :)

For lunch today, we had Grilled Chicken Wraps. Joshua grilled the chicken for me, and we each filled our tortillas with what we like best. :)

Mine (pictured above) had grilled chicken, black beans, sharp cheddar cheese, homemade salsa, sour cream, and fresh garden lettuce. :) It was so yummy!!

I'm so spoiled by Joshua and his grilling skills. :) I used to use the indoor Foreman grill sometimes, but ever since he got his gas Weber Q grill, the Foreman grill has stayed in the cupboard. There's just NO comparison in the taste or convenience. :)

Here is a cheesecake that Joshua made last week. It was a vanilla cheesecake, similar to this basic cheesecake recipe (for those curious).

Due to various factors (forgetting to grease the sides of the pan, allowing the cheesecake to completely cool in the pan, etc.), the cheesecake ended up with some huge cracks in it. I don't think I've ever seen such a disastrous-looking cheesecake before!!

The good news is that we smothered the top of the cheesecake with some super-flavorful homemade cherry pie filling/topping. I used some of my canned sour cherries. The addition of red food coloring would have made the topping even more attractive, but we knew our guests would rather eat a dark topping than a bright one, if it meant adding food coloring. :)

When the cheesecake was cut, the cracks still weren't even really noticeable. It tasted great! :)

We recently mentioned that Tammy's website would be undergoing some updates and changes to make her site better and more accessible. Today I get to introduce one of the proposed changes: Flash Videos. Why Flash Videos? The primary reasons are accessibility and flexibility. Keep reading for details and an example of one of Tammy's videos in the new format.

Tammy is frugal. Or more properly: Tammy is Frugal (TM). Not cheap, mind you--if there is an item of need or heavy use she is willing to save so we can purchase a high quality, durable item that is enjoyable to use. Yet Tammy is always on the lookout for a good sale on items we frequently use. 

Knowing Tammy's knack for frugality, I should have raised my eyebrows a couple more times when she asked if I would take her shopping tonight. I cannot even remember the last time she asked me to take her shopping! (Note from Tammy: I usually hate shopping!)

Tammy's desired destination? Krogers. Purpose? Crazy savings that her friend Crystal pointed out in her blog. (Catherine also blogged about this special in her blog!) How do I define crazy savings? How about paying $27.92 for $173.14 worth of staple groceries -- that is a savings of $145.22 (or 84% discount).

Yes, you read that right. We paid $27.92 for $173.14 worth of food.

The best news is that if you act fast, you may be able to cash in on these savings as well, but you probably don't have much time (our Kroger sales end on Sunday). Read on to find out how Tammy's frugal insights saved us a lot of money... (Note from Tammy: I give complete credit to the sources linked above!! I am not a super saver genius, though I have a husband who is very complimentary! )

Yes, you read right. We have been hard at work brainstorming and testing new features for the "re-launch" of Tammy's Recipes.

The current layout and workflow have worked well for the first 6 months (has it really been that long?!), but with all the great content Tammy and her community are producing we want to make sure it is easier to use as well as make room for the new features Tammy has planned...

As well as the features you, the community, want :) So comment away on changes you would like to see!

Tammy and I always envisioned TammysRecipes.com as a resource for happy homemaking where the content is more than a list of recipes but a place where people can find tips, hints, and wholesome encouragement to edify them daily.

So, as we work on version 2.0 we would like some feedback on the features and changes you would like to see at TammysRecipes.com.

Not to give away our list, one of the things on the drawing board are a new website design tailored to her content with the goal of making her content more quickly and easily accessible. If you know of any sites with a lot of different content and that yet make it easily accessible feel free to drop a link :)

One of the other features we are planning to deploy is a website forum. We hope a forum could be a place where visitors could communicate about topics they are interested in as well as edify eachother in wholesome discussion.

We have other ideas as well (more frequent Q&As, ebooks, etc) but we don't want to give them all away!

So, here is how you can help:

Please leave comments in this thread of feature and content ideas you would like to see on Tammy's website. All suggestions are welcome. We obviously cannot incorporate every idea, but hearing what you, the community, want to see will help us prioritize :)

Thanks for your time and for making Tammy's Recipes such an enjoyable place to visit. Feel free to make yourself at home and stay a while :)

This is Tammy, hijacking Joshua's Grill to blog about Joshua's most recent grilling success!

I love garlic. I love adding lots of garlic to my foods. Garlic bread almost can't be too strong for me, especially when it's made with fresh garlic cloves!

So you can imagine how excited I was when Joshua decided to make me some Garlic Herb Grilled Turkey Burgers!

We used some high(er) quality ground turkey, and mixed up the meat the night before so the flavors would really permeate the burger. The next day, Joshua went out to his wonderful Weber Q and grilled these burgers!

From my first bite, I was totally addicted to the great flavor of these Garlic Herb Turkey Burgers! The flavors were strong but not too strong, and the ground turkey (85% lean) was a great, consistent texture. YUM.

I want these again, and SOON! :)

What 4th of July week would be complete without some grilling? Thankfully Tammy is very diligent and keeps us stocked full of quality meat at affordable prices. Recently boneless chicken breast was on sale for $1.69/lbs. so we have been grilling a bit of chicken, which is great... except I prefer steaks! The good news is that over the years I have learned some good approaches to taming chicken to get tender, juicy meat that has great flavor. This week I would like to share some of these ideas.

Joshua's Grill... wow, my first blog at Tammy's Recipes! Learn a little bit about my cooking background, specifically about my cherished Weber Grill and why it is so great for cooking. All the grilled foods you have seen on this site come off this handy, and affordable, grill. If you are in the market for a grill, or want to know how I make all those neat grill marks, come join me in Joshua's Grill!