Let Go of the Cheese

Life has been pretty crazy around here lately. The return to work full-time after being a homeschool mom for so many years, but always working part-time doing something from home to help make ends meet - has been a transition for sure. My job at Walmart prepared me for the first step out of the house, like a boot camp of sorts without the full time hours.
I have to say that I.love.my.job. Seriously. I actually get up in the morning looking forward to going to work. I feel productive, purposeful, accomplished. I work in an environment that supports me in my efforts to keep my kids at home - and recognizes this as my choice as a parent. I get to talk to other homeschooling parents and support them in their choices, and offer some tangible help. My co-workers are some of the most amazing people with a wide variety of personalities. They each make the day better in their own unique ways. We also have opportunities twice a week to pray together. I couldn't ask for a better place to work.
This transition in our lives has led to a lot of changes. The kids are taking on a lot of the household responsibilities, including the cooking. I love to cook. It has been hard for me to let go of this, but it has been really nice to see what the kids can do. I can put a meal in the crock pot in the mornings, but I only do that occasionally.
These life changes have dictated a lot of standard reconciliation. I have had to reevaluate what meant the most to me, what I actually had control of, and what I did and did not have the time to do. One of the things I noticed recently that had changed in our lives was cheese. About ten years ago, during the Pampered Chef era in my life, I stopped buying shredded cheese because it was covered in cellulose - a flour like substance that kept it from sticking together. Freshly shredded cheese is also more flavorful. It is just one of the things I had to let go of - and it indicates to me a healthy response to all of the changes I have encountered. Most of them go way deeper than cheese. I had all these plans and dreams for my life, that haven't necessarily died but taken on a different shape. I have learned to let go of the cheese.

A Devastating Loss

The day after surgery, I was moving carefully around my kitchen trying to get some things together to throw in the crock-pot for dinner. One of the kids was helping me. I was in a less than pleasant mood trying to get things done so I could go lay back down. I was barking orders left and right so rapidly that my helper was struggling to keep up, not that the helper copped an attitude or anything. (Who would blame her?) The crock was sat on the edge of the island precariously and all of a sudden a loud CRASH! It fell. The crock pot which provided so many lovely meals for our family is gone forever! I was surprised that it did not break the tile when it hit so hard. It was quite a mess of broken glass and ceramic pieces to clean up. I was in the market for a new one anyway - but at $30-40 that will have to wait. Finances are so tight. It is going to be hard to cook without it. Somehow, we'll survive.

Don't Miss Rachel Ray TOMORROW

I found this really terrific blog a couple of months ago about Crockpotting. Stephanie is a really neat lady with a terrific sense of humor that comes through in a way you could never imagine in posts about recipes! I just visited her blog and found out that she is a guest on the Rachel Ray show - tomorrow, Wed., July 9th! I know some of you found her blog via this one, so I thought you might like to be sure to see her there.
Here is the link on the Rachel Ray website.
Have you ever heard of six degrees of separation? Me and Rachel Ray are now 2 degrees! I can live vicariously through a fellow blogger! Go Stephanie, crock pot queen!

Healthy Changes

I decided today that we are making the switch to organic milk. It is something that has been nagging at me for a while, and very suddenly today standing in front of the milk case while I was grocery shopping, I just knew that I could not buy hormone and antibiotic laden milk anymore. I just couldn't do it - even though a half-gallon cost as much as a whole gallon of regular milk, and even though my family consumes at least two gallons a week. I found this great website that has all kinds of information about the Bovine Growth Hormone used to increase milk production in dairy cows.
On the way home from the store, there was a super segment on the local Christian radio segment about moms cooking healthy foods for their children. The guest on the radio show has a website called Mom-a-licious and I spent some time checking it out earlier tonight. It was terrific. There is a cookbook by the same name. The website has recipes, and all sorts of resources and ideas for feeding your children well. One of the best resources offered is a segment on their website called "a fresh start", that details what to throw out of your pantry and what to add in. Very informative.
Happy Healthy Eating!

Kullen in the Kitchen

My Kully-boy has always liked to be in the kitchen. I think it started with being small and wanting to be near me. Now he has really developed a love for cooking. Once I make sure his hands are thoroughly decontaminated, we have a lot of fun together. When he found out that I was making pizzas today, he pretty much took over my job! We had a lot of fun. Unfortunately I still can't get the pizza dough recipe to come out the way I want it in my Bosch mixer. It always turns out a little tough. We are trying again tomorrow. I have a bunch of crusts to make for a youth pizza night on Friday, and I have GOT to get this dough right! Good thing I have a trusty helper! Too bad it doesn't taste as good as it looks!
If you have a really good pizza dough recipe - I'd love it if you'd share. I've tried one that came in a bread cookbook, but it is too bread-y and not yeasty enough for pizza. This recipe was from my old bread machine - but it got kind of tough when baked. I used to be able to make beautifully soft pizza dough in the bread machine - but with this homongo mixer it has been a challenge. And if you have any recipes that are especially 10 year old boy friendly that'd be an added bonus! (The boy will be TEN in two days! How much growing up is a mama's heart supposed to handle?)

Raw Chicken

My friend Joanne just posted this awesome recipe for Chicken Marsala at her blog, that I just can't wait to try. She is an incredible cook, regardless of what she will tell you about the smoke detector being her dinner bell! I, however who do not have that same reputation recalled upon seeing said recipe posted at her blog, a moment when my cooking skills were at their worst. When my girls were in elementary school, I had decided in the throes of our Prairie Primer unit study on the Little House series, to host a "birthday party" posthumously for Laura Ingalls Wilder. I made "fried prairie hen", and cornbread. The hubby helped make sarsaparilla using sassafras root from the woods around our house. We played some games that children in that era might have played. We read some information and looked at some pictures of the Ingalls' and Wilder's family homes. We ate our dinner by candlelight and oil lamps - which all seemed like a great idea until I realized the chicken breasts that some of us were eating were RAW! Joanne was the only other brave adult to stay and eat, and thankfully I didn't kill her! Geesh - just when I thought I was Martha Stewart!

Deep Green Southern Roots

I am going to give away the one part of me that is definitely, without a doubt, and unashamedly southern to the core! I LOVE southern cooking - sweet tea, cornbread, fried chicken! I think I am packing on the calories just thinking about it. One of the first things that I was loving when we first got to TX last May (yep our one year anniversary on the 29th - but that is another post!) was the abundance of fresh produce available at the local farmer's market - as well as in the gardens of all of Travis' family - everytime you visited somebody you were taking home an armful of something - even if you had never seen it before and didn't know how to cook it! One of my favorites things to make was Fried Green Tomatoes! They are sooo soo good! (I have also always loved the movie by the same name!)
Anyhoo - I thought I would share my favorite recipe for them which is from the Fanny Flagg's Whistle Stop Cafe Cookbook. Be careful though - if you get too addicted, you may never let any tomatoes get red - and they are so good too!

¾ c self-rising flour

¼ c cornmeal

¼ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

¾ c milk

3 – 4 green tomatoes, cut into ¼ inch slices

Vegetable oil

Combine first 5 ingredients; mix until smooth. Add additional milk to thin if necessary (I say - don’t do this! Keep the batter thick!) Batter should resemble pancake batter. Working in batches, dip tomato slices into batter, allowing excess batter to drip back into bowl. Fry in 2 inches hot oil. (375⁰F) in a large, heavy skillet until browned, turning once carefully with tongs. Transfer to a colander to drain.

I used a fork, and I laid mine on a paper towel as with most fried foods. They are tangy – and not everybody likes them. If you try them and enjoy them let me know! Oh yeah, and they are super dipped in Ranch dressing!

My Favorite Bread Recipe – Buttermilk Oat Bread

Ever since I got a Bosch kitchen mixer, I've been making our family's daily bread. I really do enjoy it most of the time, although there are days when I wish I didn't have to do it. It isn't that it's hard – it's just those days when it is just one more thing to do. However, the results are so wonderful that we don't really like store bought bread anymore – and find most of the time, even the better brands that we used to swear by taste much like a dried up sponge. I have tried several different recipes that we've liked, but boy did we find a great one last week. I hadn't tried it before because it called for "buttermilk powder" – and it wasn't a staple ingredient I had in the cupboard. I think this is the favorite of the whole family. The recipe is from Marmee Dear's Bread Basket Cookbook.

Buttermilk Oat Bread

Mill 2 cups hard wheat in your mill – set aside (I don't do that – I just use whole wheat flour)

Place these ingredients in your mixer equipped with dough hook:

4 cups boiling water

1 ½ cups oatmeal flakes

9 Tbsp softened butter

9 Tbsp raw sugar or granulated sugar

1 ½ Tbsp sea salt

9 Tbsp dry buttermilk powder

Add the wheat flour from above – then add:

2 Tbsp SAF yeast (or any brand – I can never find SAF)

Unbleached bread flour will be used in the next step.

Mix until ingredients are combined with the mixer on a low speed. Now begin adding unbleached bread four, 1 cup at a time, until dough begins to clean away from sides of mixer bowl. Add flour very carefully as you only want a soft, workable dough. Do not add TOO much flour but dough should be able to be handled and not sticky. Knead on medium speed for 6 minutes. Let dough "rest" for 1 hour. Turn mixer on briefly to deflate dough. Turn dough out onto clean oiled surface. Form loaves and place into greased loaf pans. If desired, brush with egg wash and sprinkle tops of loaves with oatmeal flakes. Let rise for 45 minutes. Bake at 350° for 30-35 minutes. If tops have not been sprinkled with oatmeal, brush hot loaves with soft butter. Let loaves cool in pans for 5 minutes after removing from oven. Remove to cooling racks and cool completely. Cool completely before slicing.

This bread makes for a GREAT peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but we've also enjoyed roast beef and havarti, ham and cheese, etc.