Midnight Surprise

Last spring, my husband happened to cut through our pasture and noticed a brand new baby horse in our neighbors, the Binghams, field. He knew the Binghams were out of town so he called Marty and asked him if they got a new colt. Marty was shocked and said he didn't know what my husband was talking about. Evidently, he didn't even know the horse was pregnant! The even funnier things is, my husband kept asking Marty if he needed more hay, but Marty told him his horse was getting to fat and could just eat sticks for a while. The moral of the story is, if your horse starts getting really fat, you might wanna check to see if she is pregnant!

It was cold, rainy and his other horse, (appropriately named Cain,) was upsetting the mother whose name was Midnight. So we caught the mama and brought her and the baby up to the warm barn where she would be safe. We kept him in our corrals for a few months so they could work with him easier. I thought they should call the colt Midnight's Surprise but they named him Bolt. He was so cute! His mom was a wild mustang that was trained and while she was at the trainer, she got pregnant and no one knew. We still laugh about it every time we see him.

About a year ago, Michelle Bingham brought me an Amish Friendship Bread Starter - it was a little work to keep up, but it is soooo.... good! Plus it is fun to share with friends.

Amish Friendship Bread Starter

In a small bowl, dissolve 1 pkg. active dry yeast and let it stand about 10 minutes.

In a 2 qrt. container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 C. flour and 1 C. sugar. Mis thoroughly. Slowly stir in 1C. milk and the dissoved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly. Consider this to be day 1 of the cycle. Put into a ziplock baggie at room temperature.

Day 1 - Do nothing. (Today you received the bag, or go by the date on the bag.)

Day 2 - Mush the bag

Day 3- Mush the bag

Day 4 - Mush the bag

Day 5 - Mush the bag

Day 6 - Add 1C. flour, 1C. sugar and 1C. milk to the bag

Day 7 - Mush the bag

Day 8 - Mush the bag

Day 9 - Mush the bag

Day 10 -

Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non-metal bowl.

Add 1 1/2C. flour, 1 1/2C. sugar and 3/4C. milk.

Measure out 4 separte batters of 1 Cup each into 1 gallon zip lock bags.

Keep one starter for yourself and share the other three with friends along with a copy of

this recipe. Write the date on the bag so everyone will know what day it was started.

Preheat the oven to 325*

To the remaining batter in the bowl, add:

3 eggs

1 1/2C. milk

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/2tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1C. oil

1 C. sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 C. flour

1 lrg. box of instant vanilla pudding

Grease 2 large loaf pans or 4 small loaf pans and mix in a separate bowl:

1/2C. sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon. Dust loaf pans with half of this mixture.

Pour the batter evenly nto the bread pans and sprinkle with the remaining

cinnamon mix on top.

Bake 1 hr. or 40 min. if using the small pans

Cool until the bread loosens from the sides of the pans about 10 min.

If you keep a starter for yourself, you will be baking every 10 days. The bread is very good and makes a great gift for a friend!