He Cooks Too!

I conquered an item on my "Too Hard" list

Do you have one of those?
A list of things that seem too hard to accomplish so you can't muster courage to even attempt them?

Well I do. And my husband frequently encourages me overcome and try.
On that list was something my family loves. Something reserved for a special treat because I found buying it expensive and not-so-very-healthy.

That something was crackers.

Notice I say was.
I tried making them. And you know what? they're not so hard after all. In fact, I liken them to making biscuits, and I do that all the time!
I tried a couple of recipes and tweaked them around until they met my criteria for food fit for my family to consume.
Consume them they do, it seems I can't keep enough of them on hand.

Without further ado, here's the recipes I use:

Wheat-Thin Like Crackers
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup butter
2 TBSP each: ground flax seed, oat bran, wheat germ
mix together well (I've heard a food processor works well, but I don't have one so I use my pastry blender).
Then add:
1 tsp honey
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup water
Mix with hands to make a stiff dough.
Allow to rest for about 15 minutes.
Roll out very thin, sprinkle with sea salt, roll lightly to adhere salt.
Transfer to a cookie sheet and cut into squares. Alternately, you can hand small cookie cutters to your children and let them go to town, allowing them to think you're the coolest mom ever.
Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until golden brown -watch closely toward the end, you want them crisp, but not burnt!


Cheddar Crackers
8 ounces sharp or old cheddar cheese
1/4 cup butter
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 TBSP each: ground flax seed, oat bran, wheat germ
3/4 tsp salt
Mix well with pastry blender, then add:
2 TBSP water (more if needed)
Mix with hands to form a stiff dough.
Wrap in plastic and chill for 20 minutes
Roll out thin, transfer to cookie sheet and cut into squares, or, you know, cookie cutters.
Sometimes these stick so I use parchment paper on the cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes or until crispy.

If you try these I'd love to know about it, I hope your family enjoys them as much as mine does!

If You Give Girl A Watermelon...

Wildflower Jelly

The girls have been ecstatic about the arrival of the first flowers of Spring. They want to pick every bit of color they see and I'm beginning to run out of vase space so I decided to try a more creative use for their finds. Today we made jelly, both violet and dandelion. First, we had to pick lots and lots of flowers, approximately one cup of each (if you try this I would strongly suggest making sure the flowers you choose are indeed edible).

Nest we thoroughly rinsed the flowers, placed them in a glass jar and poured one cup of boiling water over them. We let that sit for a few hours then poured the mixture through a sieve, reserving the water and discarding the flowers.

Next was an eighth cup of lemon juice and two cups sugar and bringing the mixture to a boil. (I think wearing butterfly wings during this step is optional.)

When it was boiling we added half a package of liquid pectin and boiled for two more minutes.

Then came the canning, and even better,the taste-testing.

Mmmmmm... can we make it again?

Such pretty pink and yellow Spring color!

Lil' Chefs

My girlies helping me make cookies in their new chef ensembles. Heidi's styled after her current favorite skirt in her favorite colors, and Hannah's in her favorite color and a bit more of Momma's style. They have oven mitts and hot pads too!

Christmas Candy

I had help making my annual caramels for the first time this year.

Everyone learned about stove safety and that it's Momma 's turn when things get too hot.

We had great fun cooking, stirring and wrapping,

but the best part was the eating!

Playing With Food

Occasionally I break out of the rut of boring snacks and suppers and have a little more fun with food. This is the girls current favorite snack, Mr Crab: Cut the top off an apple,then cut the rest into eighths. One marshmallow broken in half plus two chocolate chips or raisins for the eyes.

Then just sit back and listen to exclamations of delight!

Heidi helps me make pumpkin bread

Egg Roll Recipe

For Marcia. These are really pretty simple to make, but I apologize if you're the exacting recipe type. I rarely ever measure so I'll have to give approximates. They freeze very well so I make lots, freeze them individually on a tray, put them in a big bag, and pull them out to defrost and fry whenever I'm in the mood or need a quick meal.

Thinly slice 5-6 chicken breasts (easiest if they are still slightly frozen).
Marinate in about:
1/4 cup soy sauce,
1/8 cup sesame oil
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 TBSP chopped fresh ginger, or 1 tsp. powdered ginger
2 TBSP brown sugar

While marinating (I usually let it sit for 20 min. - 2 hours), shred 1 medium head of cabbage and about three carrots.

Heat a couple tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet over med-high heat. Brown chicken. When cooked through, add cabbage and carrots and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly. Cool.

Depending on the size of my cabbage, chicken breasts, how much I snack while cooking, etc., I usually need about two packages of egg roll wrappers. This is the part Heidi likes. Wet 2 edges of the wrapper with a finger dipped in water. Place a spoonful of mix in center of wrap. Fold non-wet corner of wrap over mix, fold in outside corners, then roll to wet corner. You can freeze at this point, or go straight to frying.

Fry in about 1 inch of oil until golden brown, a few minutes on each side.
Leftover wrappers are yummy fried as well!

I got my sweet and sour sauce recipe from my dear friend Momma Bug.
1/3 cup rice vinegar
4 TBSP Brown Sugar
1 TBSP Soy Sauce
1 TBSP ketchup
Bring to a boil while stirring
Add while stirring, 2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 4 tsp cold water. Cook and stir until thick.

Canning Day

Outside
Snow Flies.
Inside
Pots simmer.
Autumn's colors
Red, gold,
Bottled up,
Saved for months
When all is White
Outside.

The fruits of today's labor: tomato sauce and applesauce

Gingerbread Girls

"Gingerbread Fred" has been a frequent read at Grandma's house lately. As a result, there's been a lot of requests to make gingerbread men at our house. Yesterday it finally happened, but about halfway through the process, Heidi declared she only wanted to make a couple of gingerbread men, the rest would be gingerbread girls. So, gingerbread girls it was!

Heidi was very careful about making sure everything got in the bowl "properly"

Rolling out the dough was tough work - but fun!


Watching her decorate was the most fun part for me
So many buttons!

Hannah liked the buttons too, but for a different reason!

I'm still not sure how Hannah talked me into a WHOLE cookie.

Thankfully she lost interest halfway through the head.

"I holding it up so you can take a picture"

There, that's better. A delicious completion to our project.

Pita Bread

Heidi helped me make pitas for the first time last week. They were surprisingly easy and very tasty! Our wheat grinder is currently not functioning - the seal has broken, meaning that if we try to use it the whole house gets covered in a fine layer of flour - so I made these with *gasp* white flour, but I'm hoping to try with whole wheat soon.

Pita Recipe

makes 8 pitas

3 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 TBSP honey or sugar

2 tsp yeast

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water (at room temperature)

2 TBSP olive oil

1. Mix yeast, flour, sugar and salt
2. Add olive oil and 1 1/4 cup water and stir
3. Ingredients should form a ball. If not, add more water
4. Knead for ten minutes
5. Place in an oiled bowl, cover, let rise until doubled, about 90 minutes
6. When doubled, punch down, divide into eight pieces, roll into balls, cover and allow to rest for twenty minutes
7. While resting, preheat oven to 400 and place a baking stone or upside down cookie sheet in oven (this is your baking surface)
8. Roll dough on floured surface to 1/4" to 1/8" thick
9. Place as many pitas on your stone as you can at a time and bake for 3-8 minutes. They don't need to get brown, just a bit puffy
10. Remove to cool on wire racks, repeat, and try not to eat your entire first batch before the second comes out of the oven

Crunchy Granola Bars

My Mom asked me for this recipe, and I thought I would share it with all of you as well. One small problem is that I almost never cook according to a recipe. I may use measuring cups and spoons, but they are more of a method to transfer ingredients from here to there, rather than to actually measure with. If it looks like it would be yummy with more, I fill the cup further. If it looks like it needs less, the cup looks a tad more empty. All measurements, therefore, are approximate. You have been warned.



Crunchy Granola Bars

4 to 5 cups oats

1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 TBSP honey

Totally optional, but recommended yummy ingredients include:
1 tsp almond extract
1tsp vanilla
1 cup pecan pieces
1cup white chocolate chips

Again optional ingredients, but these are to make you feel better about eating the treats:
1/4 cup flax seed
2 TBSP wheat germ
2 TBSP Wheat or oat bran

I could go on with the add-ins, but I'm sure you get the idea.

1. Put the oats and whatever other dry ingredients you're using into a large bowl.
2. Heat butter, sugar, and honey gently, over low heat, until the sugar has dissolved, but don't allow to boil.
3. Add vanilla and almond extract.
4. Pour over oat mixture.
5. Mix, coating oats well.
6. Place in a greased cookie sheet and pat down with moistened hands.
7. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.
8. Cut into bars while still warm and allow to cool before removing from pan.

Enjoy!