With God All Things Are Possible: Cooking Cowgirl Style!

What does a cowgirl do when the temperature or weather suggests it would be wiser to work inside?

Head to the kitchen...

to do some baking...

cowgirl style!

Put on your riding boots and cover your western shirt with an apron. You could even wear your hat just for fun! Then put that imagination to work tweaking recipes to satisfy your taste buds and the hungry stomachs of your hard working farmhands! Not a cowgirl? Don't worry! You can come up with your own cooking style!

Howdy everybody! One of my favorite ways to spend a frigid cold wintry day, is filling the house with the delicious aroma of freshly baked bread products. Home ground wheat flour sweetened with honey enhances the flavor of my breads. A warm butter melting slice of this bread is one of the best ways to satisfy a food craving! I often acquire new recipe ideas from farm newspapers, magazines, cookbooks, and sometimes the internet. I usually end up not following the instructions for a recipe exactly---substituting ingredients and adding new ones. I like to use whole grains, natural sweeteners, and healthy oils. Our bodies are better able to digest foods that are closest to their natural form with the least amount of processing. When we feed our bodies with wholesome foods, we are being good stewards of the bodies God has given us and our bodies are fit to serve God.

The following is a meat and cheese filled bread that can be frozen to be thawed later for a quick meal. I like it because it can be made ahead of time to be used later, but is delicious and filling. One of my brothers came up with the name. It's been called football bread too.

Zipper Bread

What you'll need:

*bread dough *cream cheese (set out to soften) *cheddar cheese *garlic powder *onion powder *chives

First take one loaf of bread dough and role it out into a big rectangle on a greased cookie sheet. Use your favorite bread dough recipe and if you don't have one, go look in a cookbook! I usually make 6 loaves of bread at a time, so setting aside one of those loaf sized portions for this recipe works out easily for me.

Next, layer ham down the center. Leave a 1 inch space at the top and bottom and a 2 in space at the sides. I used 16 slices of ham: 4 rows with 4 in each row. You can use any kind of meat that you prefer.

Now mix up the cream cheese filling: 4 oz. cream cheese, 1/2 t onion powder, 1/4 t garlic powder, 1 c cheddar cheese, and chives.

Dump the ingredients into the cream cheese that you let soften at room temperature and sprinkle in enough chives to taste good and look pretty.

Spread the seasoned cream cheese over the ham. I use my fingers--the best spatulas you'll ever find! Then take a knife and cut 2-inch long slits at each corner and every 1-1/2 inches along the side. Fold over the dough at each end in preparation for the next step.

Now we're going to start braiding the dough. Don't worry! It sounds and looks hard, but trust me it's really easy! All you have to do is take one strip of dough from the side and lay it down at a diagonal with the end crossing the center a bit. Then take the strip directly opposite it and cross it over the one lying on top of the filling.