Bowling...sort of

I have this cute little bowling set that I got from Missouri town, and I've been waiting for just the right time to introduce the game to N.  Since it snowed last night I felt today is as good as any.  I set the pins up, grabbed one of N rubber balls and tried to get N to throw his ball at the pins.  N fell in love with the pins, at first sight he was rushing towards them, kneeling and pointing, "Dhat!"

The concept was lost in the excitement.  He loved to knock down the pins...with his hands and he loved to organize the pins and he even tried to set them up himself but there was no ball present.  All in All I deem the pins a success; they were build for amusement and they accomplished that.  :)

Here are some other pics of N during Wednesday's wonderful weather.

Saving Money Is It Worth It?

Okay I know my subject sounds like a stupid question, and of course you should put money away for big things and just plain emergencies but when does "saving money" go too far.  Example and truly the reason for this post, I've come to a point in my cooking career that for me to have high quality food at my house I have to make it from scratch.  Homemade chicken and veggy broths, homemade desserts, homemade noodles, etc.  But what I'm struggling with is bread.  I do great when it comes to quick breads; it's in the name they are QUICK and there is no need to buy them at the store but what about other breads, say tortillas or even your everyday loaf?

I love to cook and bake but I'm starting to see that it is taking a lot of time.  The other day, I made chicken enchiladas from a whole chicken! Which took a total of four hours to make.  I was exhausted, and then there are all the dishes let alone other chores and things I would like to do or accomplish.  BUT I want to save money and have a delish-meal. Other than meat, bread is a hot ticketed item in our house (I'm not counting milk or coffee of course :) ) we have it with almost every meal in one form or another. Whether it be tortillas, french bread, biscuits, sandwich bread, hamburger buns...it is always there and I wonder if I can save another $2 dollars here, and $4 dollars there by making my own bread.

With my spirit troubled I looked up a "No Knead Bread" recipe (plus, this blog is super funny, I found myself giggling as they went through the steps).  The theory behind the recipe is that you mix the ingredients one day and then the next day you have a dough that is ready for the oven within an hour or so.  Perfect!   But that only covers a portion of my bread addiction what about tortillas or buns?

I looked up a tortilla recipe, thinking "tortillas those should be easy, no yeast to speak of...easy..fast...cheap." Nope.  This is what the recipe said, "Make balls the size of golf balls, about 2 ounces each. Place them on a tray, and cover with a cloth. Let stand for at least 1 hour, or up to 8 hours." Holy @#$%^ "8 HOURS"!  Yeah, I know that I don't have to sit and watch it but still that means that I make the dough, roll it all in the chaotic morning hours so that I have tortillas in the evening!

It is starting to seem  like a lost cause.  Do you make your own bread? Or Even better how do you trim money from your food budget without forgoing taste and quality?

tired

I woke up today and prayed that even though i didn't get the best nights sleep the day would still be productive and fun.  And it wasn't a total loss but i find myself laying on a bed that still needs sheets and really not wanting to do anything.

I have no reason to be this tired except to say i haven't worked out since last week... it seems like such a catch 202 you have to use up energy to get energy.  Maybe I can sneak a little pilates in....

Impatience

I feel silly, but I can't help watching the mailman as he makes his deliver just to see if he is carrying anything that looks like a package or if UPS is on my street I watch him until I'm sure he is not going to be delivering anything to my house...at least today.

Why do you feel silly? you ask...I'm impatient for N's new diapers.  Oh, how low is THAT! But I am really excited to try out this new brand of diaper called GLdiapers.

I found them on etsy and am amazed at their perfection and simplicity.  Like Gdiapers they are not an all in one, but unlike Gdiapers where you have the option of removing the liner these ARE the liner! PLUS they come in super cute prints and colors! Here is a video on how they work:

I still feel silly for being so excited for some diapers to show up in the mail but at least I got to share some of that excitement with you.

The Laws of Substitutions

Have you ever gotten to the end of the month, aka the end of your grocery dollars and discovered that you are one ingredient short of making the perfect meal?  Well, it seems like it happens to me a lot and because of that I've discovered a couple of ingredients that I can sub in place of those little pesky ones that always seem to be used up first.     

Yesterday, I was a cooking and baking like a maniac! I prepared pie dough, cookies, sweet potato fries, a whole chicken, olive oil and thyme potatoes, baby food, and baked apples.  I'm going to be out of the house a lot this week and wanted to get everything lined up for the week so the coming home would be easier.  BUT! I ran out of some needed ingredients: Butter & brown sugar.

It was really an oversight; I made the pie dough first (which has a good amount of butter in it) and then started on my other dishes.  My chocolate chip cookies needed 1 cup of butter and I only had 1/2 cup. 

Law#1:  Know what your ingredients are for in the recipe. i.e. moister, lift, tenderness, richness, etc.  In my case butter added richness and moister to my cookies (butter is amazing and can be added to many recipes for a number of different reasons.  Say if you were making a savory sauce you would add it at the end for richness and texture). 

Substitute: one Banana!  This worked because I wasn't replacing all the butter just some of it.  The butter I did add gave my dough richness (plus the chocolate chips!), and the banana gave my dough much needed moister. Another sub that would have worked could have been applesauce.

One sub down next sugar. As I opened my brown sugar jar a very sad sight lay before me, just a half of cup of brown sugar (I needed a whole cup of PACKED brown sugar).

Law#2: Know how your ingredients are made.  Did you know that the only difference between your white sugar and your brown sugar is Molasses?! In fact it is the extraction of molasses from brown sugar that gives us our white sugar! 

Substitution: For 1 cup dark brown sugar I added 1 cup white (granulated) sugar and 2 TBLS molasses.  (1/2 the molasses if you want light brown sugar). 

With all my ingredients added I mixed and voila! Chocolate chip cookies!

P.S.
Today I made biscuits and needed butter (still haven't gone to the store), the recipe called for 1 cup buttermilk and 8TBL butter melted.  I don't know if you remember when I made butter but those ingredients are the two products of shaking heavy whipping cream of which I had! This goes along with Law#2; Voila biscuits!!!!

Mama's Little Helper

My 15 month old is very intrigued by every little chore that I do (except blogging. When I sit down to the computer he wants to watch Blues Clues and not me typing about his funny pictures).  Even making my morning coffee amuses him, but nothing amuses him more than doing the dishes.  It is a perfect mix of water, soap, and odd ball shapes that can splash and pour the soapy water. 

To keep N dry we have resorted to having him wear his rain jacket and rain boots while he "washes" the dishes.  N loves this game so much that he started dragging the green chair to the sink at any chance he got.  Because we love our son we updated his chair with a stool. :)

Spring in February

The past three days have been WONDERFUL!  50-70 degree weather and a good portion of sun to go with it.  N has been sick lately and I was afraid our outings would be cut short, but I figure the warm moist weather would be good for him so we went out anyways (making sure not to touch or cough on other kids).

One of our outings consisted of riding our bikes around Raytown.  The ride was great.

  The ride did bring to light somethings, like how out of bicycle shape Jessy and I are, or that I might need another way of riding around with N, or that I wish there was a safer way to ride around our great city or that I need a new way of carrying my stuff...my basket broke :(.  But I definitely would like to repeat riding around Raytown on a bike (especially if I'm going to get back in bike shape) I just need to address these things...sometime or another.

I've been researching Boxcycles (the American version of the Bakfiets) but I can't find one for less than $2,000!!! There is an alternative that that involves outfitting a normal bike with a TON of storage

and a carrier called a Kangaroo Carrier, shown here:

  This option would be fine except what if Steve and I make N#2? Then what happens to riding to the store or library?  O, CargoBikes please make yourselves cheaper for the masses! How are the willing green mothers (who tirelessly wash poopy diapers) going to get around town without you?!

Well, for now I have to take my own advice before I spend one more penny...I need to show that I WILL in fact be riding this year.  Pray for more great weather so more riding can happen. :)

Other Kitchen Lusts

So, Metric vs The American Recipe which is better?
I've often wondered way America was the only country that used Cups, tsp and Tbls to measure our food out, what are we missing? Exactness, ease, efficiency?  I'm thinking all three E's are wrapped up in the metric way of cooking.  I was watching a Irish cooking show and noted that she only used ONE measuring cup the one on the scale.  How much flour? 237ml, add on to that 15ml of salt etc.  Coming from a person who doesn't have a dishwasher and cooks and bakes a lot that sounds like a dream! So, for my kitchen lust a scale!

My other lust comes more from a need than anything.  recently, I've been trying out a lot more recipes and I find that a lot of people assume that you will have a food processor. 

"Pulse 30 times, until you get a crumbly dough," or "pulse until you get a paste."  Both of these instructions I have found in multiple recipes of things I would really like to make...like my own almond butter or the perfect pie dough.  So, I've been longing after one.  If I do get one the blender has got to go.  My house isn't too small but I HATE clutter and one more machine I think would put me over the edge (plus we already have the bullet blender, anyone want a Black and Decker blender?).  I'll have to keep you in the loop if I get either of these treasures but for now they will be dancing around in my dreams as they weigh out the flour and pulse butter into that flour.  I hope you have sweet dreams too.         

Converting Measurements

For the first time in two months I was able to have a long relaxed conversation with my life-long friend, Sarah Hodges.  If you don't know Sarah, she and I grew up together and about two months ago she moved to Kenya for a year of service with an orphanage.  If you think that just moving to Kenya is awesomely crazy try doing it with a two MONTH OLD BABY!

She LOVES it there. Yeah, there are a few things that she misses (ice cream being one of them :) ) But the grace and joy that comes from obeying God is well worth the sacrifice.  When I spoke with her I was thinking that she was going to tell me all the weird things that she was doing...aka tribal rituals, using mango as a diaper rash suppressant etc.  But to my comfort and interest she is having the same parenting experience as I had with my little N.  Her questions were the same, and though the supplies she had to work with are different the pursuit is not unlike my own; how can I provide a loving and comforting home for my family that I would want for myself without killing myself in the process.

One of the things that she said was hard for her was converting her American version of measurements to their Kenyan version.  One cup here in America is 237 milliliters in Kenya (and around the world.  America is only country to use such measurements). So, with the promise of her reading my blog in the not to distant future prodded the idea of posting about the conversion table that she was in need of.  So, Sarah here is your conversion table from 1 tsp to 8 cups. Love Ya Girl!

Volume Conversions: Normally used for liquids only
Customary quantity	Metric equivalent
1 teaspoon	5 mL
1 tablespoon or 1/2 fluid ounce	15 mL
1 fluid ounce or 1/8 cup	30 mL
1/4 cup or 2 fluid ounces	60 mL
1/3 cup	80 mL
1/2 cup or 4 fluid ounces	120 mL
2/3 cup	160 mL
3/4 cup or 6 fluid ounces	180 mL
1 cup or 8 fluid ounces or half a pint	240 mL
1 1/2 cups or 12 fluid ounces	350 mL
2 cups or 1 pint or 16 fluid ounces	475 mL
3 cups or 1 1/2 pints	700 mL
4 cups or 2 pints or 1 quart	950 mL
4 quarts or 1 gallon	3.8 L
Note: In cases where higher precision is not justified, it may be convenient to round these conversions off as follows:   1 cup = 250 mL   1 pint = 500 mL   1 quart = 1 L   1 gallon = 4 L

Weight Conversions
Customary quantity	Metric equivalent
1 ounce	28 g
4 ounces or 1/4 pound	113 g
1/3 pound	150 g
8 ounces or 1/2 pound	230 g
2/3 pound	300 g
12 ounces or 3/4 pound	340 g
1 pound or 16 ounces	450 g
2 pounds	900 g

  

Weights of common ingredients in grams
Ingredient	1 cup	3/4 cup	2/3 cup	1/2 cup	1/3 cup	1/4 cup	2 Tbsp
Flour, all purpose (wheat)	120 g	90 g	80 g	60 g	40 g	30 g	15 g
Flour, well sifted all purpose (wheat)	110 g	80 g	70 g	55 g	35 g	27 g	13 g
Sugar, granulated cane	200 g	150 g	130 g	100 g	65 g	50 g	25 g
Confectioner's sugar (cane)	100 g	75 g	70 g	50 g	35 g	25 g	13 g
Brown sugar, packed firmly (but not too firmly)	180 g	135 g	120 g	90 g	60 g	45 g	23 g
Corn meal	160 g	120 g	100 g	80 g	50 g	40 g	20 g
Corn starch	120 g	90 g	80 g	60 g	40 g	30 g	15 g
Rice, uncooked	190 g	140 g	125 g	95 g	65 g	48 g	24 g

A Place to Hang Her Necklace

If you have been reading this blog for a bit or just know me in person you know that I have a sister named Jessica (aka Jessy) who lives with us.  Jessy is a great blessing to our family, she helps out around the house, is always ready to chat girl stuff with me and watch guy movies with Steve (which for reasons yet to be revealed I just can't stomach).  She is also a big help with N (she's single guys!).

Well, ever since she moved in she has been tweeking her bedroom to make it more a reflection of her and less a reflection of her roommates (she moved into our previous office).  Yesterday was another tweek.

Jessy has a great collection of quirky jewelery and until yesterday that collection found itself all over her mirror, in jewelery boxes and strewn about the room in various nooks and crannies.  Solution: take a box, stapler, old frame, and roll out cork board and make it a jewelery display!
Here are the steps.

Supplies: old box, upholstery stapler, old frame, and roll-out cork.

Step 1: Cut the flaps off the box, flatten, and then cut to the desired length.  Step 2: Slowly apply the cork to box making sure to smooth out any bumps or bubbles along the way.

Step 3: Cut off any cork that is hanging off the sides of the box.  Step 4: Measure the width of your frame and mark it on the box.

Step 5: Cut box to width.

Step 6: If your frame doesn't have a backing, like ours didn't, staple around the edges securing the box and cork to the frame. Make sure to staple where the box was originally bent.

Step 7: mount using two mounts in each of the upper corners to keep frame from swinging when jewelry is added or taken off.

Step 8: Hang jewelery with sewing pins and enjoy!

Bubbles and Blizzards!

Kc is presently being hit by a blizzard.  My home town alone is getting 23 inches at this present moment! Once, the wind and everything calms down I'll take some outdoor pictures.  In the mean time we were a little board so we made some fruit pop.
Awhile ago I was reading the ingredient list on a Fizzy and noticed that it was just a combination of fruit juice concentrate and carbonated water.  "Aha! I can do that!" Today, I made blueberry/ pomegranate sparkling juice.  Here are some pretty pictures of the juice bottles.

The juice concentrate is on the bottom of the bottle and the carbonated water is on top. No other water is added.

And swirl...

until mixed.

Enjoy.

 Some other fun during the blizzard was had by Jessy and PJ.

Relish The Day

Do you have any weird things that you enjoy? I have three things that normally get some weird looks when I exclaim about how I enjoy them.  First is winter, especially when it snows! Second a trip to the dentist. It's like a pedicure for your mouth! and last is grocery shopping.

Grocery shopping has always been fun for me.  When I was little my mom would send me on item hunts or have me keep track of what still needed to be purchased.  When I got older and moved out on my own the joy of grocery shopping strengthened as my love of cooking strengthened.  It was so inspiring to walk down an isle and see whole grains, beautiful pastries, artisan breads, and greens that I'd never seen before.  What's for dinner? Why a beautiful baguette with roasted chicken, sauteed greens (I'm on a kale kick lately), and new potatoes coated in garlic, rosemary and olive oil.   I still find shopping at the market fun, but now there is an added element; a ticking bomb if you will that takes the leisure out of my beloved shopping experience.

N, though he loves seeing people gets rather impatient in the cart if he is there for awhile.  He can only put so many items in the cart before he is screaming to be let down.  If you let him down, he either gets stuck looking at something or starts to reorganize the shelves (like he does at home).  I love N but he just doesn't get my need to peruse the artisan cheese section for twenty minutes at a time.

Something needed to be done.  I needed to get my inspiration before I hit the store, and when I got to the store, it needed to be a hit it and quit it type of trip.  No lingering, no "researching"; just get in, collect, pay and leave.  But how? For me I made the menu at the store because that was where I got my inspiration.

To solve my problem Steve, an avid Dave Ramsey fan, told me about a menu planning site that would help us save money and give us a shopping list.  No more need for inspiration just cook and enjoy... But the recipes were "boring" and I found myself not looking forward to cooking let alone shopping. "There has to be something else out there that is better than this." I thought.  So, I googled Menu planning sites and found Relish.

Relish is a menu building site.  You can either use what they have planned out or you can search their data base for additional recipes OR you can add your favorites and pick those and add them to your menu while still getting your department organized shopping list (totally a run-on sentence...sorry).  Also, unlike other menu sites Relish has recipes for breakfast, lunch, parties, and even make ahead meals that can be froze and reheated when needed (totally recommend the breakfast burrito!).  

I've been using it for almost a month and have really enjoyed the quality of the recipes (no instant potatoes here!), and how I can fit the menu to our busy schedule. i.e. Don't have time at night to cook, I'll plan one or more crock pot meals. Can only cook at night but you know you'll be tired, plan a quick 30 min meal!

In total my shopping has become quicker and easier while still keeping that experimentation alive and the baby happy!

P.S.
Do you have any quirky pleasures? 

Four more days to go

This period of fasting has not only been hard but eye opening.  I realized how much of a crutch my blog and magazine reading was.  If I was having a bad day or even just a bad moment I would sit down to read blogs.  Any excuse and I was clicking the "next" button on one blog or another.  Magazines have also been hard to resist.

I was in line at the grocery store and just out of habit was reading the headlines on the magazines.  One of my favorite magazines had a number head lines that I wanted to read up on, so I just bought it.  It wasn't until I got home that I realized what I had done.  So, right now I have a brand new (unread) magazine!

Four more days left for the fast which is both a relief and saddening.  I think I might try to limit my time that I spend reading blogs just so I don't get caught up in it again.  Just don't want to "escape" my life anymore.  My life is messy, not super easy, wonderful and I don't want to miss it anymore.

Just look at my little guy doing the dishes!