Merry Tossmas!

Merry Tossmas? Yes indeed.

Watch the video below from Focus on the Family's Citizenlink to find out more. It gave me a smile. ;)

Watch the video "Merry Tossmas"

Enjoy!

Daughter's comment on Large Families

My daughter was reading over my shoulder and saw a recent post where I used the phrase "large families". She said,

BUT MOM, we aren't a large family! We ONLY have five kids!

LOL

Bulk Food Shopping 101

This week Saturday, I went to my bulk food store, and got some great deals, including this amazing box of apples for just $5. They are red delicious, emphasis on the DELICIOUS.

Someone emailed me recently with a question about bulk shopping, and I guessed it would be useful to post my response to her here:

Pardon my stupidity, but what's a bulk food store? Not like Sam's Club obviously because nothing is that cheap there. Where do you find something
like that?!

Well, I found ours through some other home schoolers in our area who were
always talking about it. I actually had to be led to it, as it is located
inside of what appears to be a private farm at first glance, and it is down
a few dirt roads in the middle of nowhere. They now have a sign, but you still feel almost like you are going on private property until you get closer. It is 45 minutes' drive, but we only
go every other month or more. The prices make it worth my while, even with
$4 a gallon gas.

This particular store is owned and operated by a Mennonite family, and it is
located in one of the pole barns on their farm. When I lived in the city,
there was another similar store located in one of the out-buildings of a
large Seventh Day Adventist church. This Mennonite Run store (called
Country View Bulk Foods, and located in Snover, Michigan, north of Marlette
off of M-46 for any of you Michganders out there--I can give you more
specific info if you need it!) buys local vegetables and fruits, most of it
is seasonal (In other words, you don't always find bushels of apples sitting outside), and most of the dry goods are packaged in smaller bags, by weight. I ask for larger bags. Since I am driving almost an hour, I am not going to buy a wee
bag of wheat--I'm going for the big one (50 pounds for just $18.25, or $0.37 per pound).

I also annually buy 100 pounds of Oatmeal (for $9.00) ,and that lasts me the year (usually). They special order 50 pound bags of Rye Berries for me too upon request. The spices though---good golly, it's so cheap! :-)) I especially love the idea of buying mostly locally grown fruits and veggies, and local milk, eggs, and cheese.

You can also start a bulk foods coop by looking up the different places that
sell whole grains, flours, and so forth in bulk (the name escapes me right
now of the main company--but I know you can buy wheat directly from Wheat Montana, for example). Co-ops I've belonged to had everyone place an order with the main
person in charge, that way they made the minimum amount the company required
(I think it was $200-300 in goods??) and they shipped it to the house of the
main person in charge in a large 18 wheeler!

With some co-ops, everyone gets together to package things up into smaller packs (for example, if 5 families
went in on a 50 pound bag of wheat berries--they would work together
packaging it into smaller amounts). Sometimes other co-ops, like the one I
belonged to in college, have a small storefront too that is open to the
public, though members get the best prices.

If you google your city (or the largest city near you) and the words "Bulk
Food Co-op" or "Bulk Foods Stores" you may find something there.

When I went to college in Marquette, Michigan, we had two bulk food natural
foods stores that were small, on either side of town. They bagged up the
brown rice and wheat and all of that in individually packaged smaller bags,
but you could also buy them in the huge bags as they came at the store
(because this was a smaller store, they wanted you to give them notice if
you wanted a huge bag, and as I was just a college student, that was unneeded). For the one, it was a bulk foods co-op, and each
person who joined (for an annual fee of something like $25), also had to
work a little bit each month, either packaging the foods, or helping unload
the truck, or working in the store. The store was open to the public, but
had a markup of 40% (typical retail), which co-op members did not have to
pay, just by showing their cards. The store was located in a building that
one of the members owned, and it was just a small wee office, with so many
shelves you could hardly walk. It was a good thing for me, a poor college
student who was a vegetarian at the time. For just a few hours of work
each month, and $25 a year, I got rice for 30 cents a pound. Local
farmers and gardeners in the Marquette area also sold their goods via the co-op,
and so we got farm fresh eggs and things like that too.

The sad part is that because these little gems are usually family run, and not big conglomerates, it is very much dependant on the area in which you live. Also, most low-cost bulk food places don't pay for advertising, or for the best storefronts, because people usually go out of their way to find them, therefore you need to do some hard looking. They won't be found at the local mall or shopping center! Ask others around you, especially anyone with a large family who is on a tight budget. Most Seasoned Moms of Many in your area, unless they are unusually wealthy, have the bead on the good deals in town.

Homemade Advent Calendars for Large Families!

Well, it's that time of year again. We are getting our Christmas decor up and out. I am not sure why we seem to do it right after Thanksgiving now, other than the kids deciding that it is better to have the Advent Calendar start the weekend of Thanksgiving.

Unlike small, flat advent calendars which one finds at a store, with one little piece of chocolate behind the numbered doors, our advent calendar is designed for a family of seven :-). I begin by finding items to put in it: usually small items such as little craft kits (like what you may find at Oriental Trading), as well as sweets. This year we also added a small box of colored pencils for each child, which I picked up for just a quarter a piece at a sale this summer. I also found some nice little pencil boxes, and erasers. My kids are all into drawing so these things are always in demand!

Next, I grabbed 30 paper lunch sacks (it used to be 25 when we started, as normal people do, on the first of December!), and numbered them 1-30, and set them out, open, on the dining room table.



I filled each one with five items for the day, such as five pencils, five craft kits, or five little chocolates.

Next, I folded down the tops of the bags, and punched two holes in the top:



Next, I put about 8 inches of string into the holes, with the loose string hanging out of the back side. You can also use some nicer ribbon, or anything of that sort. This year things are a little tight ;) so the twine I found on my dh's work bench is going to suffice.


Next, I need a place to hang them. We are blessed with this gorgeous oak staircase in our house...one of the features that made me want the house in the first place (and cause me to totally miss the other problems with it LOL). I think the old farmer who built the house carved some of it by hand! Anyway, we wrap our bannisters with garland, and tie the bags on the bannisters/garlands from 30 at the top, down to 1 at the bottom.



Each day, the kids open one of the bags, counting down for Christmas. Usually we do Christmas-related memory verses from my Advent Devotional too.

Grain Mills?

On Friday, I posted about my fresh ground Rye bread that I made for Thanksgiving, and Deb had this question:

I very much want a grain mill. My friends all think that I am strange. I am so glad to find someone who uses a grain mill. Does the bread really have a different taste?

I think so! I would have never guessed it years ago, but then I was at a friends house for a weekend, and she had fresh ground wheat bread. I was amazed at the flavor. I guess we just don't realize just how rancid the oils in the flour get when you buy it pre-ground. If it sits too long it gets an off flavor, which is what most people don't like about wheat bread.

White flour was originally marketed because whole grain flour, with the germ and the bran, didn't stay fresh for long, and also for cosmetic reasons. Back then, people didn't realize that just because the fiber/bran was indigestable didn't mean that it wasn't important. We now know that the bran/fiber cleans out the instestines. The germ seemed to cause the flour to get an "off" taste after a few days or weeks of being ground. That is because all of the oils in the kernels are found in the germ of the grain, and it is full of vitamin E and other vitamins. Later, makers of flour created "enriched" flour, with vitamins artifically put back into the flour to correct some of the health issues that seemed to appear after white flour became predominant. Those oils are best when fresh, but old oil tastes pretty yucky.

I tend to see the kernel of wheat as another sign of God's perfect balance in the foods He has provided--lots of fiber, natural oils with the vitamins which those oils help our body to absorb better, and of course the starch portion of the kernel, all working together. When the Bible speaks of our daily bread, they don't mean Wonderbread ;), but rather bread that was made of fresh ingredients, and made fresh daily or nearly daily. If you had bread in Bible times, you had enough. That's why it is so profound for Jesus to declare Himself the BREAD of LIFE...He is enough for daily sustenance!

I can't even describe to you the difference in flavor between a loaf of bread made with store bought flour, vs. a loaf of bread made with fresh ground wheat (especially the Prairie Gold White Wheat, from Wheat Montana). It is sweeter, with a mild, pleasant flavor. I buy my wheat from a bulk food store near us called Country View Bulk Foods. Just yesterday, I bought 50# of wheat for $18.25. That's just $0.37 per pound!

I guess the real proof is the fact that my husband likes it. No, prefers it!
With Rye, I don't see that big of a difference, though I like to grind the rye with the caraway seeds for added flavor. But maybe I don't notice the taste because when I make Rye bread, I usually add flavorings like Caraway, dried minced onions, and dried minced garlic, whereas the wheat bread I prefer sweeter, with honey.

I also think it is easier to work with the flour. Other friends have said the same thing, though most of what I've read about it says it shouldn't make a difference. When I knead the different kinds of bread, fresh ground flour just seems to respond differently to kneading. I find it becomes more elastic with less effort. Understanding the whole science of bread making, I know that the freshness of the flour shouldn't make a difference (it is the gluten, or protein, in the flour that makes bread become elastic through kneading), but it does. Obviously Prairie Gold works best because it is 18% protein (very high gluten), but I notice this in any fresh flour, including the rye.

For the record, though, I do still use white flour somewhat...mostly I like wheat when I make cookies, or when I do different kinds of baking, but white seems to work better for birthday cakes for example, and for biscuits, and that sort of thing. I even make white bread sometimes, or use white flour for pizza, pancakes, French Bread, and so forth...though I've used wheat too.

Fresh Ground Rye Bread

We love Rye Bread.

A few years ago, my husband got me a Whisper Mill for Christmas, and that in it self was a miracle. My husband would normally look at me strangely when I requested a grain mill, and so I did my best to get one at a discount. I got my first grain mill about 8 years ago at a discount at the local health food store, by asking them to let me know when they were putting their demo model in the store up for sale.I got it for under the price of a hand crank one. It was loud, it took forever, but it worked, and it was purchasable with garage sale money. Fast forward several years, and my dh is now hooked on fresh ground wheat and rye bread...and so when the grain mill began to act up, he felt panicked about losing out on fresh ground bread...and found one of my catalogues and bought me a WhisperMill that they had on sale. woo hoo. The key, girls, is to get your man addicted first.


So, I have learned to make all varieties of bread with fresh ground grains.We love fresh rye too. I buy that, as I do my wheat, in 50 lb bags at Country View Bulk Foods in Snover, Michigan, for quite a deal, and I store it in Bakery Buckets (aka "Cannister Sets for Large Families").

In keeping with the theme of "what else can I bake to warm the house up until the Consumers Energy Guy fixes my furnace" I made a few loaves of fresh Rye Bread too. mmm mmm

I began by grinding about 8 cups of rye berries with 2T of caraway seeds thrown in for flavor, and mixing in about 1/3cup of vital gluten into the flour (rye is low in gluten). I also made 4 cups of warm water, with 1 T of yeast mixed well into it. I added 3 cups of flour to this and let it sponge for about 30 minutes while I made my tiramisu (see below).

Next, I mixed in enough flour/gluten mix to form a workable dough, as well as 1/3 c. of oil, and 2T of honey. I also mixed in 2T of onion flakes, and 1t of dried minced garlic for flavor. This is optional but I like the flavor it gives the bread.

I turned the dough out onto a floured board, and kneaded it for about 10 minutes. Because Rye is not high in gluten, it is important to knead it super long to get good gluten formation (even with added gluten). It will still be pretty stiff and dense when you're done.


I let it rise for about 1 1/2 hours sitting over the pilot light of the stove.

I formed two loaves, and slashed the tops for decoration and to help it rise without breaking the loaf apart. I let these rise for about another hour. With rye, all of this rising helps improve the flavor to a more sourdough flavor.

I baked it for about 45 minutes. The following day (Thanksgiving) I sliced it thinly and served at the table.

Tiramisu--my fave Italian Dessert

Tiramisu is one of those dishes that brings with it some sort of memory for me. I think it is funny how sometimes a taste of something can transport one through time and space and suddenly you remember a whole day's worth of memories that surround that simple bite.

Before I became a joyful momma, and before I was ever married, I embarked on the great adventure, post-college, of travelling the world. I only got as far as Europe and parts of North Africa and the Middle East, instead of circumnavigating the globe, but that is because in Prague, Czech Republic, the Lord Jesus Christ found me and filled my heart with such satisfaction in my, my wanderlust was cooled off. I remained in Austria, working as an Au Pair, and later getting a post in a Konditorei (coffee house) where I learned the fine art of being a Barista (someone who operates an Italian Style Espresso Machine), and how to make some coffee house specialties, including Tiramisu.

The first time I had Tiramisu, I was in northern Italy, and had just renewed an impromptu friendship with an Italian Christian named Luka, who I had met earlier in my travels. Anyway, we went to a coffee house, and as usual, the pastry waitress came around with a try full of goodies, and Luka grabbed the plate of Tiramisu, and said, "OH, Kimberly, you MUST try this!" The first bite was not what I was expecting--it was a little bit bitter. But by the third bite I was reminded why I prefer European Desserts--they have far less sugar than what we as Americans are used to, but usually the flavor is far more intense.You aren't just eating sugar flavored like something else--the sugar is not the main flavor.

Tiramisu, when I make it back home, is usually a little bit sweeter only because I have had people stop at the first bite and not eat any more...so I sweeten it slightly more but I still use the cream cheese, the unsweetened whipping cream, and the unsweetened baker's cocoa powder, and of course some strong espresso. I leave out that other flavoring Europeans seem to use in most baked goods (Rum) because this is not baked and therefore it doesn't cook off. It takes fine without it.

I change two more ingredients slightly. Normally Marscapone cheese is used, but that is hard to find here, and when I find it, it's usually expensive. Instead, I blend 1 pint of whipping cream with 8 oz of softened cream cheese to the same effect. Note, I said whippING cream not whippED cream. there's a difference. WhippED is on the left, whippING is on the right. :-)



Secondly, instead of using "Ladyfingers" cookies, I find that vanilla wafers are basically the same thing (different shape) and much less expensive ($1 a box, vs. $3.69 for a small package). Because the cookies will be dipped in Espresso, and will fall apart anyway, the shape, I feel, is irrelevant.

Begin by not only softening your cream cheese, but also brewing about 3-4 cups of espresso or other strong coffee. Don't use instant as the flavor doesn't come out right. Let the coffee cool to the point where you can put your hand in it without burns ;).



Beat the cream cheese until it is fluffy, and add about 1/2c. of powdered sugar (optional). Beat some more, and slowly add whipping cream while beating, until you have soft peaks. A friend of mine said to note that she uses Cheese cake instant pudding instead, and thinks it also works (this is quite a bit sweeter though).

Take a baking pan (glass works well), and carefully dip, one at a time, the vanilla wafers into the Espresso, and then line the baking dish with them. They will stay hard long enough for you to move them around, but work fast anyway.

Next, take your cream-cheese mixture, and spread a layer over the top of the cookies carefully, about 1/2 inch.


Take your powedered baking cocoa, and spread it with a sieve or shaker evenly over the cream cheese mixture.


Repeat the process for a few more layers, until you run out of cream cheese mix (number of layers depends on how big of a pan you are using).


Refrigerate overnight or for several hours. The dessert will firm up by then. Serve with coffee.

Gingerbread Houses

This year, we not only made gingerbread men (and women) as I noted in a previous post, but we also made some gingerbread houses. Normally I don't do quite so much baking but the furnace was broken again (it needed a new circuit board) and the we were waiting on the right part. Actually our repair person ordered the part only to have it shipped wrong a few times now. They finally came on Wednesday. In the meanwhile, I was baking my little heart out to warm up the house, and thanking God for good friends who graciously lent space heaters.

This summer while garage saling, I found this cool little gem: A pampered chef stoneware gingerbread house mold.

I've made gingerbread houses without one too--just cut your dough to the right size, bake on parchment paper, and trim it so the sides are square--but this made it that much easier. Usually I'd wind up with sides that didn't match up the other way. Just following my previously given Gingerbread recipe!


I baked these on Monday (all day monday, to be exact). I made enough to make 5 gingerbread houses. I just let them sit on racks and cool until Tuesday, when I began to make the icing cement.

The icing cement is made by first frothing up 2 egg whites, 1/8tsp of Cream of Tartar (available in the spice section), and 2T of water. There's another recipe I've seen that uses Meringue powder, if you are overly concerned about raw egg whites. I've not had it dry as hard, though.

Next, I added 3C. of powdered sugar, one cup at a time, and blended it on high for five minutes. I actually set a timer to make sure I did it long enough. You want the icing to be stiff.

I filled my pastry bag with frosting, and began to pipe on a Right Angle onto my plate.


I also piped the sides of my pieces where the sides would meet, with a little help from my daughter, Esther.

I gently stood up one front, and one side, and then did the other front and side, while piping on another right angle.


The roof is the trickiest. Be GENEROUS with the icing cement. Pipe it all around the top edges of the sides and front/back of the house. Then I placed one side, then the other onto the house, and piped another generous glob of icing in between the two roof parts.


These I let set overnight, as the icing cement, as the name implies, dries nice and hard, into something that my son observed looks and feels like bathroom caulk. And yet, it's edible!!!

the next day, knowing that Gingerbread is made to be shared :-)), we invited over our neighbors to help us decorate. We had my mother in law's leftover halloween candy, and some candy I got from the store that was on clearance following last month's holiday. Gummy bears, by far, are the easiest to work with as is "gummi-anything".

I made up some more of the Icing Cement, and gave each child group a small bowl of it...and from there we dipped the candy into the icing and onto the gingerbread houses. We went sort of freestyle with it ;).



Someone I know told me they usually thinly slice half-frozen 3 Muskateer bars using a mandoline slicer to make shingles. We didn't get quite so fancy. We had, as you can see, candy corn, gum drops, and gummy bears, and some banana runts, sweet tarts, and someone ate the licorice. LOL

We each took a Gingerbread house, and we are giving the other three to the pastors at our church.

Better than Takeout 2: Homemade Egg Rolls

Continuing on with our "better than takeout" theme, I made some homemake eggrolls. Now ,before I give you the instructions, I need to say that my kids previously hated egg rolls and though they were gross. My husband loved them, and used to complain if I made stir fry with no egg rolls accompaning it, so I learned how to do this. After learning, though, our family decided that egg rolls are actually quite yummy, and and make a great meal unto themselves.

Because they are deep fried, we don't do this too often. My husband wouldn't mind, but for the sake of his heart health and my ever-shrinking waistline, I am insisting. ;)

I've tried baking them but they are so dry they are inedible (in my opinion anyway). If the oil is hot enough, they do not absorb as much oil, but this is definately not a lo fat dish.

Another note on ingredients: it can be whatever you want. I use just regular old cabbage, a carrot or two, and some onions, along with some leftover meat. You can also add some "worms" (my daughter's word for mung bean sprouts), and whatever else. This is great for leftover meat...especially I dare say, leftover Thanksgiving Turkey. Much more creative than turkey sandwiches ;). The egg roll wrappers are usually in the refridgerated produce section, near the tofu, organic veggies, and strange vegetables, and is usually less than $2 for 20-25 wraps (they are packaged by weight). Often I get it for 99 cents.

Start by cooking your meat if you haven't already, and then shredding it up. You need about 1-2 chicken breasts or whatever you have on hand. This is more art than science. Use what you have.

Finely chop or shred 1 small head of cabbage, 1-2 onions, and 1 carrot. Heat a wok with some sesame oil mingled with olive oil (about 2T total). The sesame oil provides flavor.

Mix in some fresh grated ginger (or dry ginger)--about 1t or so, and add 1/4t of Chinese Five Spices. Mix in your vegetables and the shredded meat. Stir fry to "wilt" the vegetables. It should reduce in size by half or more. Pour 1/4c. of rice vinegar over the vegetables, turn it off, and let it cool.


Prepare your workspace:

Plug in/warm up the deep fryer (or set a dutch oven on the stove with a good thermometer, and let it heat to 360F), and have a dry area for rolling your egg rolls. I usually put a little bit of corn starch down to keep them from sticking (and thus tearing).

Lay your wraps down in a diamond shape.

Add about 2-4T of mixture to the middle, towards the bottom corner


fold up the bottom corner over the mix, and start to roll.


Tuck in the side corners as you go past them.


Wet the top corner and sides by dipping your finger (or a brush--but finger is faster) in water, and rubbing it along the edge, as we did with the wontons.

Pull that corner up and over, and press to seal.


Set aside, and repeat. When you reach your target temp, fry them 3-4 at a time. Even if you can fit more in, don't. It will lower the oil temperature and make them cook improperly. Fry for about 3 minutes, then flip over, and fry for 3-5 more minutes. They should be golden brown.

Lightly salt them after you pull them out, and set them on a plate lined with paper towels to drain off the grease.



Serve with Plum Duck Sauce. this is my own homemade sauce, which I can myself. I'll post the recipe another time. I need to make some new sauce soon, so I'll be sure to document it for the blog! :-)

Want to know the will of God for YOU? Read on...

Have you ever heard someone say, "I just want to know the will of God for my life?" Maybe you've said it. I know I have. A few times.

BUT, the will of God is not nearly as mysterious and adventurous as we make it out to be. The will of God is actually quite simple, and is found in the Bible.

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (I Thessalonians 5:18)

I remember reading years ago the autobiographical story of Corrie and Betsy Ten Boom, helping Jews in Nazi-controlled Holland at the time, and getting thrown into the concentration camp. Betsy read this verse, and started to give thanks for everything, even the fleas and lice (having recently had to battle fleas this summer on our Doxie I have a great image in my mind on that one!), and Corrie protested. Finally, Betsy learned, months later, that the reason why they could hold Bible studies and have prayer meetings without being disturbed by the cruel and evil guards is because the guards wouldn't set foot in the dorms because of those fleas. Everything has a purpose, even fleas (though I agree with Corrie; I think I'd also have a hard time thanking God for fleas LOL).

This has been a really hard year for our family. It seems like things are going totally crazy around here, and in all of the craziness--the jury duty, the broken down van, then malfunctioning car, the furnace that broke down for a second time and is waiting for a part--brrrrr, the broken washing machine, and the lack of sales on my website---we are still more blessed than those living in other parts of the world. Hey, I could be one of those Christians in Darfur that the Muslims are brutally murdering, torturing, and raping for their faith. I could live in China, where house church leaders and members are often thrown into prison or beaten for their faith, but God continues to move and add to those churches daily in spite of it. I could live in Germany where the neo-nazi government siezes property, children, and bank accounts of parents who choose to homeschool their kids.

All in all, I'm pretty blessed.

I have a lot to be thankful for.

And so do you....

You will never know the complete, detailed will of God for your specific life, until you are already obeying His general will of God for you, as revealed in the Bible. We all fail of course ;) but there are so many things He shows us to be the will of God in His word that we routinely ignore or disobey while begging to know the will of God...do a study, searching for the words "the will of God" in some Bible software....there is a whole selection of verses.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Jury Duties

Jury duty makes me feel quite conflicted inside.

On the one hand, it really is one of the foundations of our civilized society, and on quite the other hand, how on earth does someone support a family on $15 a day (In Michigan, we have no family friendly jury duty laws and no law requiring employers to pay you while you fulfill your civic duty).

as if things couldn't get any tighter at home, my husband was called to serve on a Jury for the month of January. That means a month earning daily less than he makes hourly. Isn't that nice? Even if he only has to go in a few days, like most people, our budget doesn't work with several days of missed pay.

...And he gets called every single year. I've been called a few times too, and the only time I was ever dismissed was for a rape case (Since I was a victim myself once too and have strong opinions about what I would like to see happen to rapists), and once when I had just given birth. Even my midwife had to serve the week I was due with my last baby. They even threatened her with contempt of court if she showed up with a cell phone or pager. Martin was excused last year because he had just started a new job.

We just have the jury duty anointing over here at our house, I suppose. LOL

We are praying they'll excuse him but that has not happened in the past, and that if we have to serve, that God will provide miraculously some other way for our family for that month.

Homemade Biscotti to Thank some Special People

When my van broke down the other day, my dh's friend V. drove down and helped tow old bessie back home for us. He also has picked up my dh before by the side of the road when he was broke down just 2 months ago, when the trans in the car went....not to mention his wife is always giving used clothes to my girls...so I wanted to do something special for them. I also wanted to bless the folks who have helped my dh trouble shoot the furnace (Which is not working again). And of course, do some baking because that will warm up the house nicely and work well with the space heaters :-))

What shall we make? The kids and I discussed our options....considering the fact that we were missing some ingredients and had no vehicle....

Gingerbread? Na, no icing.

Chocolate Chip? Na, no chips.

Drop cookies? too boring.

Sugar cookies? hmmmmmm. As I was looking for my sugar cookie recipe, I found my biscotti recipe and decided that this is something they would probably like instead.


Biscotti are simple enough and can be made with different flavorings. This one is a modified recipe made with those things which I found in my pantry. You can pretty much use any cookie recipe, form the cookies into an oblong mound on a baking sheet, and bake it, then cut into slices, and toast the slices in the oven again...this is how I made mine:

I started off by creaming together 4 sticks of butter (about 2 cups), and then adding 2 cups of sugar to the butter, and further creaming it. I also added about a 1/2t of vanilla, and 1/2t. of almond extract (at this point, you could add whatever flavorings you have and would like to add--I've even added mint before). Cream in 4 eggs. Next, stir in 6 cups of all purpose flour (or about 5 to 5.5 cups of soft wheat flour, which is what I used--you need less when you use fresh wheat), as well as 3t of baking powder, and a pinch of salt. I also stirred in about 1/2 c. of chopped pecans, which I had in my cupboard.

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Divide your dough into 4 parts, and form 4 oblong shaped loaves on baking stones or greased cookie sheets (this works best with some parchment paper, if you have it. Parchment is the key to nearly perfect cookies of all sorts! :-)). This is sticky "cookie dough", not smooth bread dough. Bake for around 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean from the middle.

Let them cool for about 20 minutes on the cookie sheet before using a serated edge knife to cut them into 1/2 inch slices. Lay the slices, cut side down, on the cookie sheets or baking stones, and toast for an additional 10 minutes, flip the cookies, and bake for 10 more. Cool them.



Now, at this point, I think it looks really cool to have them halfway dipped in chocolate. The problem was, I had no baking chocolate in the house. So, as i rummaged through the pantry, I realized I did have some baking cocoa from the bulk food store.

Thankfully, I worked in a bakery before and seem to remember the recipe for dipping chocolate is cocoa, butter, vanilla, water, and powdered sugar, heated in a double boiler. I played with it til I got it right, so I am not really sure what the exact amounts are (sorry).


After Heating it well, I tested it out to make sure that the proportions were correct, and the chocolate hardened on the outside of the cookies...well, close enough ;). They tasted awesome!

Family Fitness Thursday 11/15/07

I haven't posted too many of these in a while, because we have all had flu type things going on at our house...and I've had a seriously stuffy nose, which has made it hard to just work out as much as I had been. I am still moving a little bit, and still losing some weight. My sweat pants that I sleep in no longer stay up without really tugging at the draw string and seriously tying them.

In fact, I just went to the local thrift store a week and a half ago, because they had $1 bags of clothes---all you could stuff in for a buck, and I took that occasion not only to get my son some much needed dress slacks, but to get me two skirts with smaller waists. ;) woo hoo. My son, who is 12, is getting taller by the minute. He came down stairs for church the other Sunday, and I realized they were about 5 inches too short, so I was grateful for finding some nice courderoys and slacks.

One of the exercises we have enjoyed doing this fall is raking leaves. It doesn't look like it at all in our yard of course ;) but we have raked many piles and jumped in mountains of leaves. Lots of great outdoor exercises.

Higher Ground?

Cats are funny people ;)

I'm not sure why but my cats always seem to be headed for higher ground at whatever chance they get....lately, we've noticed that Ginger-kitty's favorite perch is one of the posts in the staircase, which has an approximate 1 floor drop below her (she is also often walking up and down the banister)!. Today I snapped this picture of her, just as she was getting up from an apparent nap:



As I trotted back to the dining room to help a frustrated fifth-grader with her math, I noticed that the momma cat (aka "Nefertiti") was likewise perched on a pedestal. This time, she was on a stack of Ninth Grade Textbooks, atop the dining table.

Musings from the Side of the Road

Breaking down in one's vehicle is more fun when you have a fully charged laptop with you, and it is also fun to have a cell phone. In that regard, I considered myself quite fortunate...I remember not too many years ago, having all five kids with me (including a newborn baby) and breaking down by the side of the highway, no cell phone (it was after that incident that we got them!), and no one stopped for over 4 hours to help us. At least now I can write a live action blog post and publish it when I get home.

It is an interesting study into human behavior when you are broke down by the side of the road. Most people just race past you. Some get angry if you were so rude as to have your car stop moving while hanging slightly into traffic (even with your hazards on, flares out, and so forth), and beep, honk, and make hand gestures. Because I'm a lady I can't just stop and help a stranger (too dangerous)when I see someone broke down by the side of the road, but I do at least call the police to send them some help, or AAA if they have the sticker in their window.

My van was finally "fixed" (in quotes) on Saturday, when my hubby and my mom's dh drained the trans fluid, and then replaced filters, and such, hoping that would solve the issues inexpensively. And, voila, it ran better than it had in months, so "mission accomplished' or so we thought. Martin thought I should drive it a bit, and so off I went today, since the no one told me we were out of dog food and garbage bags when I went grocery shopping (in our house, when you use the last or next to last of something, you have to write it on the chalkboard, but it doesn't always work that way), and we had some overdue library books that we thought were due this week but apparently were due last week.

Everything was going along swimmingly until Old Bessie here decided to shift from 60 down to 50, and from there, progressively shift down in 10MPH increments until she eventually refused to move. Thankfully I was able to pull over (mostly). In the past when the trans has acted up, putting it into reverse, and then back into drive helped, and so I tried that... the van ran perfectly in reverse. LOL which as you may imagine was not helpful to me. I am so bad at backing into driveways that I didn't get my drivers license on time as my dad made me back into the driveway, and all the way into the garage in our conversion van...and I took out large pieces of the garage on several occasions. With ditches next to the road, I was a little nervous, but I eventually backed up and into a business driveway several yards away.

I thanked God for my cell phone, and started to call. My dh is sick on the couch with the flu, so he was the last person I planned to call...but as it turned out, all of my people in my phone were not home or their phones were busy, so I wound up calling Dh anyway...He called a friend of his who was to meet us. The only other person I got ahold of was my friend Angela in Virginia. Her husband was all willing to come get me and help me out until he found out I was about 14 hours away in another state, but it was a nice thought :-)

Hubby got there first, and when I told him she only drives in reverse, he told me to back it up, across 5 lanes of highway, into the gas station across the street. I will admit to not cheerfully submitting to that request, but instead doing a sort of blank stare with a ~blink, blink, blink~ at him trying to figure out if he was kidding. (he wasn't). Instead, I drove the go cart (our name for dh's Saturn, which feels like a GC in comparison to the van), close behind him as he maneuvered the van across the road, and prayed the whole way for angels to protect us (they did). People really were honking then, but thankfully there wasn't as much traffic.

Martin and his friend towed it all the way home, and I finished the shopping trip in the Go Cart.

Now we are going to have to make some decisions about what to do with the van. J. keeps saying that it is in perfect shape apart from the trans issue, and that we should fix it even with all of those miles on it.

I was thinking as I sat here in this van, how God so miraculously provided so much for us...HE gave us THIS VAN just 3 Christmases ago...we prayed for it, and tried our best to save to a vehicle, but even though it looked impossible, we got this van as literally a Christmas present from Heaven....the laptop--God GAVE me that laptop under totally miraculous circumstances (it didn't drop from heaven; it came UPS but it still was totally God)....and so much more. I have no doubt He will provide a way.

Well, after we got home and had dinner...I read from a George Mueller biography to build my faith, and this time read it outloud to the whole family...someone called to tell us they found us a transmission for $100 and someone to put it in for under $200...which was really amazing since the quote we got back in October was more like $2000!!!...Of course right now that $300 might as well be $3K because we have no money...but wouldn't you know it, a web design job has come up that will be paying right around that.

The same God George Mueller served, is the one we still serve today.

Creative Beef Soup with homemade Spaetzel

I am digging in my freezer, getting ready to thaw and clean it before the holidays (A good practice to do with both fridge and freezer, to make room for goodies and leftovers), and I realized I never did use that package of beef back ribs from Angel Food Ministries. We tried Angel Food, and frankly I didn't find it helpful due to our family size and what we eat. For example, the wee little package of Beef Ribs would probably work if it were just my husband and I (though DH insists he could eat that by himself) but with 5 kids, that just isn't working for us.

Ribs, though, can only be prepared one way, or can they?

A good soup stock starts with some sort of bone-in meat (for beef, this is usually Oxtail, which I saw at Walmart for $3.68 a pound this week), and a mirepoix of aromatic vegetables (more on that later). So ,why couldn't the ribs replace the Oxtail? It basically looks to be of approximentally the same composition (though the ribs were fattier).

I began though with a Mirepoix, which is the key to an amazing soup or stew. Basically, you need to finely chop some aromatic vegetables, such as what I used: 1 carrot, 1 rib of celery, 1 medium onion, and 2 garlic cloves. This normally though can include other things you happen to have: cabbages, parsnips, turnips, broccoli stalks (save the florets for later), and so forth. I also for flavor tossed in the following:

• caraway seeds (awesome with Beef anything!)
• A few cloves
• Whole cumin seeds
• Some bay leaves (2-3)
• Whole coriander seeds

And thus I saulted my mirepoix until it was just starting to brown.


I should also say that I used a large pot so I could then throw in the ribs, and just ever so slightly braise them on the bottom of the pot, which develops flavor. Doing this with something as incoveniently shaped as ribs (as opposed to the oxtail which is made for this task!), is not easy and it will by no means be completely braised. I also sliced a bit of the fat off first, anything that was freely hanging there (the dogs enjoyed it). I manuvered the ribs around to try to get a few different sides ligthly browned, while keeping the veggies from scortching on the bottom.

Then, I added the water...about 4-6 quarts only because I needed to cover the ends of the ribs. One can always use extra beef stock.

I set it to simmer, covered it, and let is be for about 2-3 hours, or until the meat was literally falling off the bones. When you make a soup with oxtail, when there is nothing left in the round soup bone, it is done. I wasn't sure if a rib emptied out quite like that so I didn't hold it to that test. I waited until they were easily separated. :-) I pulled out the meat, and let it sit to cool for a little bit. One more addition to stock to give it more body is about 2-3T of red wine vinegar (really, any vinegar would work best, but I had some of this left over). Season with salt and pepper to taste.

After the ribs are cooled, pull off the meat, and put it into the stock.

I realized after cooking my stock that I had NO noodles, no rice, no barley, and not potatoes, which has to be a record in my house (i usually have a bucket full of each). I did however have flour, and my dear neighbor had some eggs. And, thankfully, I have a Spaetzel maker...though if I didn't, I would have just made homemade pasta, hand rolled and cut with a pizza cutter.

Spaetzel? What on earth?

Oh, only like MY FAVORITE sort of last minute soup addition!

I got my spaetzel maker when I lived in Austria. Actually, the woman I worked for gave me one as a wedding gift. However, I have seen them in some stores here in America, most notably in Lehman's Catalog, where they are just $6.95. Definately a bargain to be able to make last minute noodles!



The spaetzel recipe is simple enough:

• beat 4 eggs
• add to 2 cups of flour
• Stir in 1/2 c. of water
• add a dash of salt (optional)
• I also added about 1T of parsley as I think it looks pretty

this is going to be a really wet sort of dough (not like bread or normal pasta dough). Scoop it up, put it in the hopper of the spaetzel maker, or dribble it with a spoon or fork into the simmering stew. if you are using the spaetzel maker, move the hopper back and forth as if you are using a grater or mandoline slicer, over the stew, to make the dough fall into the simmering broth below. It's that easy (cleaning the thing is the hard part! LOL).



Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. You can taste test if you want...they should all rise to the top and look like little drops.