Bread and Veggie Sausage on a Rainy Day

We have two straight rainy days here in Shelburne, Vermont, and we decided to do some nesting-type activities.  Today is the first of the rainy days, and we thought it fitting to make a big mess, so that we can clean everything up tomorrow.  We also slipped some laundry into the mix, too.

We decided on two projects:  make some great honey oatmeal bread, and mix up some spicy veggie breakfast sausage.  Here's how it went.

HONEY OATMEAL BREAD

Here's a preview of the outcome -- two golden brown loaves of delicious whole grain bread:

We've baked bread before, although not in our new RV's propane oven.  We even have the silicon bread pans.  And all the ingredients are handy in our pantry.  Here's the recipe, with photo commentary.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups boiling water

1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1 cup rolled oats

4 cups bread flour - up to 1 cup (25%) of total flour can be soy flour

1/2 cup honey

2 tablespoons butter

2 teaspoons salt

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine boiling water, oats, 1/2 cup honey, butter and salt. Let stand for 1 hour.

2. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

3. Pour the yeast mixture into the oat mixture.

At this point, we took a photo of all the ingredients before throwing them together:

4. Add 2 cups of flour; mix well. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.

5. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 20 minutes.

Well, the "kneading" was a little more "punching," but it got the job done:

6. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

7. Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and form into loaves. Place the loaves into two lightly greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.

8. Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Here are the loaves, snug in their little red pans, ready to bake:

And so we got the bread shown in the first photo above!

SPICY VEGGIE SAUSAGE
We've tried numerous veggie sausage recipes, all with the aim of eliminating cholesterol and sodium, and adding super amounts of fiber.  This is our best version to date.
 

INGREDIENTS

1 sm. onion, minced

1 Tbs olive oil

1 cup brown rice, cooked

3/4 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup cooked black beans

1 extra Tbs olive oil - ONLY IF SUN-DRIED TOMATOES DON'T HAVE OLIVE OIL

1/2 cup olive oil soaked sun-dried tomatoes

1/4 cup grated carrots

1/4 cup diced/grated (steamed) green veggie (USED 1 PKG FROZEN CHOPPED SPINACH, DRAINED AND DRIED)

3 teaspoons ground sage

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp dried cilantro

1 Tbs Cajun garlic sauce

Black pepper to taste

(If desired, add 2 TBS soy or whole wheat flour to bind – DID NOT ADD TO THIS BATCH)

DIRECTIONS

1. In a large nonstick frying pan, saute the carrots, onions and garlic in 1 tablespoon of the oil until clear. Set aside.

This is how our carrot-onion-garlic saute looked:

-- and this is how all the ingredients looked as we readied to moosh them together into sausage patties:

2. Pulse oats in food processor 6-7 times, set aside.

3. Pulse black beans, sun-dried tomato, green veggies, onions and rice in food processor 8-10 times.

4. Combine oats, black beans, tomatoes, veggies, carrots, onion and rice. Add remaining ingredients and blend by hand till mixed.

5. With dampened hands, form 2 oz. balls and flatten into patties.

Gotta get our hands dirty now!  David packed and weighed the 2 oz. sausage balls, and Kathy artfully shaped them into patties:

MAKES APPROXIMATELY 13 PATTIES.

Here are our baker's dozen of veggie sausage patties, all nestled in their freezer bags.  We'll pop them in the freezer, separated by parchment paper, so that we can take out one or two per person for an occasional hearty breakfast!

EPILOGUE

We just got home from a great dinner with Risa and Laird's nephew Jeremy and his partner Leigh Ann, at a great restaurant, The Farmhouse Tap & Grill, in downtown Burlington.  The beer and food were great, and we had a spectacular time with those two, sharing fishing stories, their recommendations for the Burlington area, and wild stories of hiking and climbing Adirondack mountains!

Our bread had a chance to cool down and breathe, so we sliced it and tasted a bit.  YUMMY!  We're staying at the Shelburne Camping Area -- stop by and share a slice with us!