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

SNOW DAY!!!!

On Thursday, the weather forecast started to call for a pretty nasty storm that was due to come through Friday afternoon.  Both of the kids' districts cancelled school for Friday the night before, but we had almost finished our normal bedtime routine by the time Grace and Juliet's school cancelled, so we didn't announce it, and instead just got a good nights' sleep.  = )

I woke before Billy's alarm, since mine usually goes off a few minutes before his, despite having turned off my alarms.

So, what did we do with the day?  Well, After pushing through the laundry, and unloading the dishwasher, and cleaning/polishing the bathroom sink countertop, and refilling the soap, and showering, and bringing up a new gallon of milk, and refilling the oxiclean container, and changing the handtowels, and cutting the basil plants to dry out the leaves, I decided to make kartoffelbrot!

First step was to peel the potatoes.  We had only used 7 of the potatoes in the 10lb bag that I bought, so it took me a while to peel the rest. 

Since my compost bag was full, I took it out, as well as the trash and recycling, and brought in the empty bin from the road.  Luckily, a lot of the snow we had fall the day before, had melted.

The recipe recommended using the water from the boiled potatoes, but was taking forever to cool, and I didn't want to kill of my yeast, so I let the snow help me drop the temperature quickly.

My first loaf didn't rise very well, and was a little overcooked. = ( So, after loading up my dehydrator to make another round of potato flour, I took the potatoes that didn't fit, and made another loaf of kartoffelbrot.

This time, I was very careful with the yeast, and made sure to do everything according to the directions*.  And, it turns out, kartoffelbrot just doesn't rise much!  Both loaves came out similar in outside doneness, but was quite soft and tasty inside!  So, now we have two loaves.  Emily is a fan. = )

The dishwasher has been running non-stop today.  4 loads of dishes through the machine, and at least as many handwashed loads (though, those were admittedly smaller.)

Grace spent part of her snow day sewing a happy mushroom family!

I emptied all the hampers today, finishing probably 5 or 6 loads of laundry.  One of those loads had Billy's repaired undershirt, which had a few new holes.  Some of which were torn along the patch of the other repair, where the fabric was too weak to support the repair.  So, I now have layered patches in places, as well as a few new patches, and a repair along the edge.  Billy wasn't bothered by the first round of repairs, but this will be even thicker, and I had to patch across seams.  So, it seems that this shirt may be headed to the pile to repair the next round of shirts.  We'll see how it wears for him!

He had a second under shirt with a few small holes that was a quick patch.  

And the snow?  Well, it didn't start until 2ish.  The roads didn't look all that bad at either school's pick-up time, but I certainly wasn't bothered by the snow day. = )

Grace wanted to cook dinner tonight, and picked hamburger helper.  She did most of the stirring, but I would consider myself and equal partner with prep work & measuring & clean up. = )

Billy's commute took an extra 10 minutes, since the roads started getting slick and slushy by 5.

I took pictures of our snow gauge in irregular intervals.  What can I say, I was busy!

2:50pm, 4:41pm, 5:26pm, 7:28pm

 

We are expecting more snow tonight, so we will have to shovel tomorrow.  I don't think we're really poised to lose power, but we filled the tub, just in case. Oh, and we have plenty of bread. ; )

Now my blog is up to date, and I finished the third and final book in my series.  So, I'm going to be feeling accomplished, but dreading the snow removal tomorrow.

later days

*The directions specifically say to put the seam side up, so that the loaf is not rounded, but I like a round loaf, so on the first round I cooked it round up.  The second round, I flipped it according to the recipe, and it came out just as done, but not rounded.

Cookies and Other Food

We made our first round of Christmas cookies at the end of November this year!  We started out with Some sugar cookies and royal icing.  The recipe was pretty good, but it was a learning experience for me. with the icing, so the flooding icing didn't work out as well as I had hoped.

Emily made the second batch the following weekend, because she didn't get to give cookies to everyone she wanted to, since the cookies had gluten in them.  She opted to make some no bake cookies for round two.  

The third round of cookies was Alice's project: treats for the band.  She attempted to make some pastry Christmas trees, but I was overloaded with my own projects and chores, so I was unable to assist her.  They were uneven in size, so some of them were fully cooked, and others were not.  I wouldn't allow her to take them, but helped her pick out the fully cooked ones for our family to eat.

She made some cute little Santa hats using strawberries, icing, and blonde Oreos. Since she made them the night before, the Oreos softened in the refrigerator, and people said they were quite good!

The final treat she made was 'fire pit' pretzels and candy.  They didn't have red hots at any of the stores I visited, so she tried using crushed cinnamon disks.  It didn't quite match her vision, but she ate them, and a few brave souls tried them too.  We ended up tossing the rest of these.

I made 5 boxes worth of brownies.  One of the boxes was gluten free, so that Emily could give some to her bff Abby.  The rest of them were given out to band and non-band members alike, since Alice wanted hers to be exclusively for the band members after the concert.

Billy found a cheddar-potato soup recipe for the crock pot.  I just happened to make it the day after my mom and most of the kids went to the church supper and came home with a container of leftover bread sticks!  They were the perfect match for the soup, and everyone ate dinner that night!

Billy and I each had an Aldi wine Advent Calendar this year.  I did have my glass the first night, but we were both terrible about trying to have one a night, and then we decided that we weren't even enjoying the whites enough to drink them, and we would save them for our friends who actually like white wine.  So, we still have the majority of both wine calendars, despite it being the 23rd of December. We liked the beer calendar (that we drank in November) more!

Carl's for the win!  I finally found the red hot type candy that I needed!

So we made the fourth round of Christmas cookies!

The fifth round of cookies were actually our annual gingerbread house day, and so they get their own post. = )

One of my big projects was to try my hand at making potato flour.  I've been wanting to use my flour mill from Kristy since my birthday!!!!  I pulled every potato that we had from the basement.  Which actually consisted of three different types!

I started by scrubbing them.

Then peeled them.  There were lots of scraps!!!

My pile of peeled potatoes!

I cut them up, and there were actually too many to fit into my pot.  So, I sent those with my mom so that Sarah could make some mashed potatoes.  I boiled them, 

...removed them from the pot... 

...mashed them up...

...and then loaded them into the dehydrator!

It took an extremely long time, with several sessions of breaking up thicker areas.  I think this is definitely a less is more appliance!

Next time, I'll try to do 1/3-1/2 of the pile that I did this time.  Essentially, if I buy a bag of potatoes for a recipe and don't use them all, just make them into flour straight away, no need to collect them for later!

Despite the pile, it was an awfully small amount once dehydrated!

Then, taking out the air, even a smaller amount!

However, when it came to milling it by hand, it was an awfully big pile!  I'm so glad that I've done it by hand, but if we ever switch over from store bought flour, we will absolutely need an electric mill or one that clips onto an edge.  The handle sticks out further than the base of this mill, so it's hard to get a flow, because you have to constantly move your stationary arm.  I tried holding it between my legs to stabilize it, but ended up with several bruises on the insides of my thighs from where the corners dug into me. = 0  Holding it steady while one of my children cranked was the least painful way. = )

Look at that beautiful potato flour!!!  I still haven't decided what to make with it, but maybe once my blog is up to date, I'll find the time!

I had sent my mom two salad ideas that had crossed my feed.  I had no intention of making either, because I didn't think I'd have an occasion.  But, the last moms' meeting of the year we had a kind of party/white elephant gift exchange!  So, I bought the makings for this adorable candy cane caprese salad!  The basil leaves were from my cute little countertop garden!  I brought balsamic vinegar as a dressing.  It was really good, and despite only 6 of us attending, I didn't have to bring any home with me! = )

The second salad idea I actually got to bring for the twins' class party!  Their teacher sent out an email early in the week that he was buying them pizza on Friday and asked if any parents would like to donate sides.  I jumped on the veggie sign up so fast! = )

After washing the cucumbers, I used my ribbon slicer to make thin strips.

Next step was to halve a cherry tomato.

Then thread a toothpick through the ribbon in a zig zag, so that each layer was slightly longer.  I was able to fit three folds onto my toothpicks!

I cut out the cheese stars, but didn't assemble them, since they wouldn't be covered in the fridge overnight. I bought an entire block of cheese to use, but it was not enough.  I ended up using American Cheese slices for the remainder.

The next morning the cucumbers were still crunchy, the tomatoes fared well, and the cheese was just a little crumbly after being in a container overnight.  They came out really cute, with only 3 casualties!!!  I am so glad that I got to make these this year.  

Grace and Juliet were delighted and highly complementary.  They said that people enjoyed them.  I didn't get to talk to the teacher after school, so I have no idea whether or not they enjoyed them, and extended that to their friends or not. They also brought up a bag of carrots, the rest of the tomatoes and some ranch, for those who don't care for cucumber.

And today, on the first day of Christmas break, I made devilled eggs!  They are not the fancy Christmas tree ones that my mom sent me, but they are quite tasty!

 It's been a fun season of baking and making and creating for all of us!

later days