Stuffing

Bread Stuffing (dont follow amounts they arent important)

9 cups (Make 4 times this)

3/4 c. minced onion

1-1/2 c. chopped celery

1 c. butter (use earth balance)

9 c. soft bread cubes

2 tsp. salt

1-1/2 tsp. cr. sage

1 tsp. thyme

1/2 tsp. pepper

In large skillet cook & stir onion and celery with the butter and half of the herbs. Stir in some of the of bread cubes. Put the mixture in a deep bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Mix. Throw in the oven at 350 until the top is starting to get crispy.

Sausage Stuffing

Add 1 lb. pork sausage crumbled- and browned with remaining ingredients. Substitute sausage fat for part of the butter, or if using Vegetarian Sausage just cook it thoroughly and add it to the mix. Most people dont cook gimme lean for long enough, but it you keep it hot for long is will brown and be really delicious.

Overall the exact amounts arent important, the main idea is that you cook sausage onions celery and carrots in butter then add sage, thyme and black pepper and add the result to bread :-) Sometimes I have to add more butter than called for to make sure the bread is soaked... but thats not a huge deal and you can always melt more butter if you need to after following the directions.

Quick & tasty yeast bread

2 Tsp honey

2 2/3 c. lukewarm water

4 Tsp dry yeast

3 Tbsp honey

5 c. whole wheat flour

1/2 Tsp salt

1 c. oats

Stir 2 tsp honey into 2/3 cup lukewarm water. Add yeast, set aside for about 10 min. Combine 3 tbsp honey with 2/3 cups of water and combine w/ yeast. Stir into flour. Add salt, oats, and the rest of the water. Adjust amount of water for dough to be quite sticky (I usually use way too little water before this step and then add enough to make it look like a very sticky pizza dough).

Pour dough into non-sticky loaf pans (use PAM!), such that they are about half filled. If you want to make it look fancy sprinkle oats, or other stuff, on top. Let rise until the dough reaches the top of the pan. Bake at 400 F, until it looks done (~40 min.).

Wait with the slicing until it's cold!

About a triple batch will be enough for a pika dinner.

French bread or rolls

French bread or rolls:

12 cups flour
3 tablespoons dry active yeast
6 teaspoons salt
6 cups warm water
a bit of cornmeal

Add the yeast to the warm water. Let sit for about 5 or 10 minutes. Add the salt. Then add about 2/3 of the flour and mix well. Let the dough rest for about 10 minutes. Add the rest of the flour (this can be difficult - you will probably have to knead the flour in to the dough, rather than mixing it in). Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. Spray a bowl with Pam. Put the dough in the bowl and put it in warm place (you can set the oven to 100 F if you like) until the dough has doubled in size. Punch the dough down to get rid of all the air bubbles. Let it double in size again. Preheat the oven to 450 F. Cut the dough in to pieces with a sharp knife. Peach-sized pieces for rolls, much larger for baguettes. Arrange the dough on baking sheets that have been sprinkled with cornmeal. Cut slits in to the top of the bread if you like. Let the dough rise again - it doesn't have to double this time, but it should look bigger and puffy. Sprinkle a little bit of water on top of the dough. Put a pan of water in to the oven with the dough. Don't open the oven too much becuase you want it to be really hot in there. Bake about 25 minutes, or at least until the bread is golden brown.