We had a *sort of* quiet weekend. We ordered pizza Friday night and rented "Mulan", "Bolt", and "Cars II" to watch. We actually own the first two movies but can't find them. It doesn't do much good to only find the cases. It was a fun and restful way to spend a Friday evening. Saturday we woke up and decided to use a Cracker Barrel gift card we'd received for Christmas and went for brunch. We did some shopping at Sears for more work clothes for Kevin and then ran in Barnes & Noble. We did manage a stop at Starbucks and then had to run in WAL*MART for a few things before heading back home. We decided on the pizza again for Saturday night and watched Mulan since we'd only watched 2 of the movies Friday. Sunday evening I figured why bother with cooking NOW.....so we opted for burgers and shakes from Culver's and watched some of the Pro Bowl, and then various other stuff before calling it a weekend.
The picture is of our first attempt at making/weaving a pot holder. One of the projects/crafts from the primer. We're pretty proud of our little pot holder. :)
And now we have a new school week ahead of us that looks to be pretty busy. Guess I should probably get off here and look at today's lesson plan.
I recently read on another blog, things about winter that make a person happy. Here then, is my list of what I love about winter:
1)snow falling
2)freshly fallen snow with no animal or human footprints
3)roaring fire in the fireplace
4)walking outside when it's snowing lightly
5)the pinkish tint to the sky as it is clearing after a snow
6)watching Jason try to shovel
7)staying in our jammies all day reading a good book
8)hot tea
9)popcorn(it somehow smells and tastes better in cold weather)
10)snuggling with my husband while watching tv
11)an unexpected kiss while out in the snow
12)fleece anything
13)a big pancake and sausage breakfast
14)Valentine's Day
15)Colorado
I'm sure there are plenty more things I adore about winter, but these are a few that top my list!!
Today was our butter and bread making day as a project in The Prairie Primer. We looked forward to it all week! We started the butter making around 10:30 this morning. I personally wouldn't say it is easy, but it isn't hard. We used a Prego spaghetti sauce jar and lid that had been washed in the dishwasher. Needs to be clean and cooled. We used a pint of heavy whipping cream and there was probably an 1/8 cup left after pouring into the jar. You need to leave a couple inches from the top of the cream to the lid. Kevin and Jason took turns shaking it for about 16 minutes. It turned, or started to, into cream but we could never make it do more, so we turned to our ever handy stand mixer to complete the job. Using the whisk attachment with the cream in the bowl, turn it on high and let it go. The process took a good 20 minutes, maybe a little more to get the butter stage. It gets really, really thick and you think it's the butter. It isn't. It will "appear" to thin out a bit and liquid appear. That my friends is what you've been waiting for. Liquid and what will appear to be little clumps. Using a spoon, pour off all the liquid. This liquid folks, is buttermilk. Real buttermilk. You can put it in a container with a lid and make pancakes or biscuits etc. Now, holding it over a bowl, turn on the cold water. We use a Brita filter for drinking and cooking so we used that for this part as well. You run it under the water and then away from it and squeeze. Hold it under the water, then squeeze, over and over. Eventually it will look like butter and no clumps will fall off. Your butter is now ready. OH, and before putting the cream in the jar in the first place, use between a half teaspoon and teaspoon of salt. Put it in the jar first. We loved the taste of the butter. Very fresh taste. It won't keep in the fridge like store bought, but it will last several days(unless you use it all the first day).
We used this recipe for bread:
Egg Bread:
In a large bowl, dissolve 2 packets of yeast in 2/3 cup warm water at a temp of 110 degrees. Stir in 3 beaten eggs and 6 egg yolks, 1/2 cup canola oil, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tsp salt. Add 3 1/2 cups flour and mix until a sticky dough forms. We used the mixer again for this with the dough attachment. Turn dough out on a floured surface and knead an additional cup of flour into it. Dough needs to be smooth and elastic, takes about 7 minutes. Place dough in a well oiled large bowl and turn to coat both sides. Cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm place until doubled in size, approximately 1 1/2 hours. Punch dough down and divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 12 inches long. Braid the 3 pieces together and seal edges. Place on a well greased cookie sheet. Beat one egg and add a pinch of salt and brush on dough. Let sit for 45 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375 oven for about 40 minutes, but just until golden brown and cooked through. It tasted great and was amazing with the butter!
Found a new chili recipe that I must share. Mind you I have NOT tried it, but it is currently simmering in my crockpot for tonight. We had purchased some red wine for a roast recipe we love and had some leftover so I went searching for recipes using red wine. This was the first I came upon and it sounded good(and smells good)so I chose it. It DOES make a lot but I suspect it freezes nicely for use in the future. There was no real name for it so I will call it "My Chili" =)
2 lbs lean ground beef(I use 96%)
1/2-3/4 cup dry red wine
1 box beef stock(not broth)
1/2 of a large can of crushed tomatoes
1 can of dark red kidney beans(do not rinse)
3-4 tsp chipotle chili in adobe sauce, just the sauce
2-3 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground garlic
1 medium onion chopped
3-4 T chili powder
I love recipes like this because you literally throw it all in the crockpot and mix! You do need to break up the beef a bit, but that's it! Cook on low for 5-6 hours. It smells good just mixing it, I cannot wait to try it. It says you can serve it with crackers, cornbread, biscuits, grits, or over rice. Also you can of course put shredded cheese, sour cream, whatever on it in your bowl.
We do not use a lot of sour cream, so when we do, I do usually use the whole fat. Sometimes I use Greek Yogurt instead. Same with cheese, none of my recipes use a whole lot of cheese so I tend to use full fat. I like the flavor better. I don't fall into that a lot, as I use things like fat free or 1% milk, but sometimes in recipes if it doesn't call for a lot, it really does make a difference to use whole fat. As for rice, I like to use either brown or whole grain. Grits, well, you don't mess with that! They are made one way, period!
It is already January 9th and I really haven't done diddly in those 9 days! The holiday season seems like a blur to me. It's like we had turkey day and then it was New Year's Day. I don't know how that happened! Of course we have been sick for a couple of weeks so that probably played a part in the blur. Fever can do that. :)
We are jumping back into school today for the first time since before Christmas. Jason will be reading "Winnie The Pooh" and then learning to write a book report. He will also be planning a "vacation" to WDW for a math unit. He will be told he has $3000 to plan a trip for 4 people. Curious to see what he comes up with. Also starting a new spelling curriculum from "Rod and Staff" that I'm excited about.
While being sick, we tried to be smart and think of things that could be easily made and could be made in amounts for leftovers. The crockpot is your friend. I've said it before and Imma sayin' it again. This is one of the things we tried and it was excellent so I will share it for my first recipe of 2012.
Crockpot Beefstew
spray cooking pot with cooking spray
put in a package of beef stew meat, small bag of baby carrots and a small bag of potatoes of some sort. Since we were sick and didn't feel like messing with it, we used both pre-peeled carrots and potatoes that were microwave ready. We only needed to cut the potatoes a bit smaller. One onion chopped large. In a large bowl mix 4 cups of beef stock(not broth), 1/2 cup dry red wine, and two packages any brand beef stew seasoning. Cook on low for 7-8 hours. That's it. Simple, filling and good. Especially with cornbread. :)
