“Molly’s Extra Hour” a post by Molly

George Vernon Hudson first proposed daylight savings time to give more morning daylight to the winter months and more evening daylight to the summer months. His reasons have been shrouded in mystery for several years, until now. I have learned the exciting truth about this odd practice: Georgie boy was throwing me an extra hour for baking. Think about it, daylight savings time was strategically placed to give me the optimal time for baking, just on the cusp of winter, but with the holiday stress not yet started and just before our summer vegetables went bad. It couldn’t have been clearer if they printed “Molly’s Baking Day” on the calendar. I decided not to take my pal George’s gift for granted, and spent my long day baking foods to celebrate: whole wheat bread, vegetable chips, watermelon marmalade, and watermelon rind cake (an odd invention of the day). Feel free to try them, if history ever gives you an extra hour.

Whole Wheat Oat Bread

2½ cup Whole Wheat flour

1 cup Rolled Oats

1 tbs. brown sugar

1 pkg. active dry yeast

1½ cup milk

1 tbs. olive oil

1. Dissolve brown sugar in milk, and heat milk to 100^o or a little higher. Dissolve yeast into mixture and let stand.
2. In a mixing bowl, mix wheat and oatmeal thoroughly. Slowly and milk-yeast mixture, and mix until a dense dough is made.
3. Spread olive oil over your hand and knead dough for a few minutes (it will not get as elastic as most bread doughs)
4. Leave dough in a mixing bowl, cover with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place for two hours. Punch down and form dough into a loaf on a cookie sheet. Let rise for 1 ½ more hours.
5. Bake at 350^o for 25-30 minutes. It’s delicious toasted.

Root Vegetable Chips

3 cups canola oil

1 large parsnip

2 beets

2 turnips

1. Wash and peel your root vegetables. Slice each one in to paper-thin slices, do the beets last (trust me).
2. In a 2 quart saucepan, heat oil to 360^o and fry slices in shifts, for 6-10 minutes each (parsnips take a little longer), do the beets last. After you slices have fried long enough, remove them from the oil with a slotted spoon and let them drain on a stack of paper towels.
3. You can sprinkle some salt on your chips if you want. I didn’t because they have a nice sweet flavor. Unfortunately, these don’t keep well. They taste best warm,

Watermelon Marmalade

½ of a large watermelon (rind removed, seedless is best)

1½ cups sugar

1 lemon (juiced)

2 tsp. cardamom

1. In a blender or food processor, blend watermelon until it is completely blended. Strain out seeds, you can add back pulp if you’d like but you don’t have to.
2. In a medium saucepan, mix watermelon, sugar, lemon juice, and cardamom. Bring to a boil. Let reduce for a little over an hour, stirring occasionally.
3. Pour marmalade into sterilized mason jar (should make one 2 cup jar)
4. Place jar in a large pot over water, covering at least two inches above the lid. Bring water to a boil and cover for ten minutes. Goes very well with the whole wheat bread or plain Greek yogurt.

Watermelon Rind Cake

2 cups grated watermelon rind (peel off dark green skin off before grating)

½ cup vegetable oil

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2½ cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1. In a large bowl, mix watermelon, oil, sugar, and eggs completely
2. Mix cinnamon, baking soda, and baking powder in with watermelon mixture. Mix flour in with the watermelon mixture, until there’s a consistent batter.
3. Pour into a well-greased 13 x 9 x 2 in. pan. Bake at 350^o for about an hour.