Cooking and Time Spent in the Kitchen

I got a new container, I'm not sure whether or not I've shared it already, because I haven't updated in so long, but I was really excited that this one nests into the lid!!!

My second round of egg noodles fell apart more than round one, but I made due.

Sometimes I get on a kick, trying to use up ingredients, and on this particular day I also thought I should make some chicken and dumplings to use up the old celery and carrots.

Dumpling ingredients:

The other ingredients:

I love that this recipe lets you use a single pan for the whole process, because heaven knows I used just about every prep dish and measuring spoon in my kitchen!

Season chicken and cook thoroughly, remove.

The veggies need to soften next.

Mix in the other ingredients. Add the chicken back in.

And drop in the dumplings, then steam for a while.

Yum!  I froze several portions and shared with Sarah. She approved.

Since I'd made so many things already, I though a quick brownie mix was in order.  Sadly, we were out of mix!  This is unusual, since it's something I try to keep, just incase the mood strikes. = (

So, back to the internet for a brownie recipe.  

Grace came in the kitchen while the were cooling and said, "oh, did you find some mix?" I was like, no, I made these from scratch.  She was like, "you can do that?"  yes, yes you can, dear girl.

Lots of dishwasher runs and many, many, rounds of handwashing.

My basement pantry had become disorganized, so I had various areas with cans and jars that I consolidated.  Thankfully I didn't have to throw out much in the way of expired food, but now all the like things are grouped together!  

One of the things that I found I had a surplus of was condensed milk.  I looked up recipes that could be made with condensed milk.  The recipe for which I had all the necessary ingredients and did not appear to be too time intensive was for oat bread.  When I started, I thought it was a sweet bread, but as the dough progressed, I realized that it was a regular kind of bread.  So, I made some cinnamon honey butter to go with it.  It was quite tasty!

In the theme of using things up, I wanted to use up the remaining molasses from our Christmas Gingerbread House making.  So, I made a round of St. Lucia cakes.

Finally, the day came for me to use the egg noodles that I'd made!  Tuna casserole is actually really enjoyed in this house!  It's not the healthiest meal, but I'll take less complaining any day.

At a rummage sale, I found a Pampered Chef terra cotta microwave egg maker. I almost passed it along before trying it out, and I'm so glad that I didn't!  We use it almost every school morning!!!  It makes two eggs at a time, so Alice and I each get a 'fried' egg on toast.  

Grace and Juliet have also used it for scrambled eggs, which they were already making in my regular bowls in the microwave, but this device cleans up much easier!

Old potatoes turned into flour, again!  This is one of my favorite transformations, but I'm always amazed at how little flour comes out of all of those potatoes!

After drying, it goes into the blender, then the grinder, then William helped out with the final step: flour mill!

Using some of this flour, I made lemon muffins!

One of the ladies in my moms' group was saying that she wrapped her block cheese in beeswax wrap.  Since I had some unused sheets from my sister, I thought I'd give it a try.  I don't think I'll ever go back to a container!  It keeps it really soft and fresh.

And more banana bread with those bananas on the counter that always seem to be browning!

A special moms' group meeting this past week was cookie decorating!  Each set had two cookies, so I ordered 3 sets, because, well, five children.

There wasn't really time for me to decorate all of them, since we were learning, but I did get sneak an extra one before heading home.

Because I ordered three sets, I had tons of icing left.  So, I came home and searched up 'no spread' cookies like she told us, and made some for my children to decorate!

Emily, Grace and Juliet were my only interested ones, but they enjoyed decorating the cookies.

Juliet lasted the longest, and helped me until almost all of the icing was gone.  I added some touches to almost all of the cookies, in an attempt to use up the frosting.  

We sent Emily to school with a box of them so that she could share with her robotics team.  Sadly, only a few of them came to the final meeting, so she brought home more than I'd hoped. 

When I was preparing lunches for our Frankenmuth adventure, Billy requested turkey and swiss.  Sadly, we didn't have any, so I did my best with the colby jack that we did have.

When we got back from Frankenmuth, we had cinnamon honey butter, and no bread to use it on!  So, I made another round of the oat bread.  It was a good combination! I froze the second loaf for the next time we come home with cinnamon honey butter. ; )

In our house, if you request spaghetti squids, you have to help make them.  Juliet wanted it on the dinner list for the week, so she helped me make them, but not before making a hot dog face. lol.

The last time I saw her, Kristy gave me four dozen eggs!  I never want them to go to waste (and so far they never have) so I decided that we would have some devilled eggs four or Memorial Day weekend.  = )

Alice saw the boiled eggs in the fridge, and when she asked what they were for, wanted me to make them straight away.  I told her if she would peel them, I would get the filling made, but I hadn't planned on peeling them until Friday.  Well, she shelled them, so we had devilled eggs Thursday night.  They were gone by Friday afternoon.

We brought Billy home an oatmeal raisin cookie from the art show, and he enjoyed it immensely.  The oatmeal packs have fallen out of favor for a while now, so I thought I'd use them up to make Billy his own batch of oatmeal raisin cookies!  Well, they smelled amazing, so I also made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the rest of us! = )

Next week I have tuna casserole on the menu, so I made another round of homemade egg noodles.  This was a triple batch, so it was thicker than the first two batches that I made.  It seemed to dry okay, we'll see how it does when frozen and thawed in a few days.

I am so thankful to Kristy for the gift of the eggs from her chickens, we sure are enjoying them!  And I'm also thankful for the internet with all of it's recipes to use up ingredients that would otherwise go to waste!

later days