Tuesday, June 14, 2011
What to make now.
I've spent most of my time lately organizing the house and little time devoted to baking, except for bread which Z is getting quite good at these days! Now I need something easy, quick, and oh so yummy to bake with my babies. Maybe a batch of granola if I can find a great recipe.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Daddy helped make jam.
We've made jam with fruit picked from our property already! The rhubarb is gone crazy and if I've learned anything from my parent's huge rhubarb patch it's that picking what's ready will help the new stuff come up sooner. So I've been picking!
Z wanted to make jam so I went online and found a recipe that we modified a little to suit what we had on hand.
5 cups rhubarb, washed and cut into chunks
1/2 pineapple, crushed
2 C sugar
1 small package of jelly powder (we used strawberry kiwi because that's all we had on hand)
That's all you need. The recipe called for a can of crushed pineapple, but since fresh pineapples are on sale this week I happened to have half of one left in the fridge so we used that.
Mix the first three ingredients and leave it for 2 hours. I think this is to help get some of the moisture out of the rhubarb. Then boil it for 12 minutes. Take it off the heat and add the jelly powder. Mix well to make sure all the granules have dissolved and put it into containers. It made 2 regular sized mason jars for us.
The kids all tasted it before it went into jars but I waited until last night and had some on homemade bread with peanut butte. Yummmmmmmmmmm. I think I would cut down on the sugar a bit next time (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup) but still really good.
Z wanted to make jam so I went online and found a recipe that we modified a little to suit what we had on hand.
5 cups rhubarb, washed and cut into chunks
1/2 pineapple, crushed
2 C sugar
1 small package of jelly powder (we used strawberry kiwi because that's all we had on hand)
That's all you need. The recipe called for a can of crushed pineapple, but since fresh pineapples are on sale this week I happened to have half of one left in the fridge so we used that.
Mix the first three ingredients and leave it for 2 hours. I think this is to help get some of the moisture out of the rhubarb. Then boil it for 12 minutes. Take it off the heat and add the jelly powder. Mix well to make sure all the granules have dissolved and put it into containers. It made 2 regular sized mason jars for us.
The kids all tasted it before it went into jars but I waited until last night and had some on homemade bread with peanut butte. Yummmmmmmmmmm. I think I would cut down on the sugar a bit next time (maybe 1/4-1/2 cup) but still really good.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Pancake Poppers
That's what we're calling them anyway. Yummmmmmmy!
I got this idea after some online surfing the other day and it seemed so simple. So this morning I .decided it was time to make mini pancake muffins for the kiddies. We're all sick of the usual toast, cereal, scrambled eggs.
THe recipe is nothing special, and actually, I didn't even use a recipe. I just threw a bunch of ingredients into a jar and shook it up. We've done pancakes enough times to remember flour, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, and something sweet. I used maple syrup this morning and when I had it all done Z and H put chocolate chips on top. Into the oven at 350 for 10 mins and they were perfect.
Unfortunately I still haven't been able to find an actual non-stick mini muffin pan (or any muffin pan for that matter) so I had to be a little creative in getting them out of the pan. Still so good.
I can't find the charger for my Canon camera battery so I've been suing my Flip Video Camera for everything lately and these are a few still shots I got from this mornings videos.
I got this idea after some online surfing the other day and it seemed so simple. So this morning I .decided it was time to make mini pancake muffins for the kiddies. We're all sick of the usual toast, cereal, scrambled eggs.
THe recipe is nothing special, and actually, I didn't even use a recipe. I just threw a bunch of ingredients into a jar and shook it up. We've done pancakes enough times to remember flour, baking powder, salt, egg, milk, and something sweet. I used maple syrup this morning and when I had it all done Z and H put chocolate chips on top. Into the oven at 350 for 10 mins and they were perfect.
Unfortunately I still haven't been able to find an actual non-stick mini muffin pan (or any muffin pan for that matter) so I had to be a little creative in getting them out of the pan. Still so good.
I can't find the charger for my Canon camera battery so I've been suing my Flip Video Camera for everything lately and these are a few still shots I got from this mornings videos.
 |
| Adding chocolate chips. |
 |
| Final product |
 | |
| And breakfast time...shhh don 't tell anyone we're sitting on the living room sofa! |
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
New neighbours bearing cookies....and an offer to mow the jungle.
We were out trying to mow the jungle with our itty bitty mower yesterday evening when our wonderful neighbors came over to say hi. She brought a plate of very yummy cookies (chocolate chip and coconut.mmmmmmm) and he brought an offer to finish the main lawn with his ride on mower!
It's nice to know that we've got some friendly people living close by if we ever need anything. I just hope we can be as helpful to them if they need anything. And I hope that we can become friends, since we plan on being in this new house for a long time.
It's nice to know that we've got some friendly people living close by if we ever need anything. I just hope we can be as helpful to them if they need anything. And I hope that we can become friends, since we plan on being in this new house for a long time.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
I'm Back!
Boy things have really been crazy for our family.
Exciting news: We moved into our new house.
Not so exciting: Our bathroom reno is taking so much longer than we had expected.
I'm still super psyched to be in our house though. We have lots of space, big barn for storage and projects, lots of property for the kids to play in, and we're in the country a little. I can't wait until I'm all organized in the house and am able to go and explore our new community and meet some people.
We bought a new stove a few weeks back, since I hated the flat top one we had at our other house, and I like it so far. We're turning into a Kenmore family. The kids baked cookies already and last night I baked my first batch of bread since moving in. It's good to get back in a routine even if its a small one.
Not much else to talk about today, although I did find a new web site called BookSneeze that offers free books in exchange for reviews so I'll be signing up for that and giving it a try. I'll add a Book Review section on the side of the blog and you can check it out whenever I post a review. I'm hoping they have some good cook/baking books!!!!!
Totally unrelated, but also noteworthy before I sign off, one of my other favorite baking blogs is Bakerella. For those of you who don't know about Bakerella, she's the lady who makes the awesome cakepops and just published an entire cake pop book. Check her out here. She's been sick lately so send her some good vibes and prayers.
Friday, January 28, 2011
cheating
The only thing I've been baking with the kids lately is bread. Yummy yummy bread! I did cheat and buy ready made cookies the other day though. I couldn't believe I was picking up pop in the oven cookies. But there I was, drawn in by a big fluorescent pink 50% OFF sticker. They were good though. PC chocolate pecan caramel bars or something ridiculously yummy like that.
Friday, January 7, 2011
Back at it
I have actually been busy baking over the holidays and since the new year started but I just never seem to find the time to get the pictures put on the computer or the time to find my way here to the blog.
That being said, we've been baking bread like crazy this past week. Every day we make 1-2 loaves. Seems like a lot but it doesn't last long at all in our house. I'm going to have to get some whole wheat so we're not eating a ton of fattening white bread got much longer.
I cheat a little and put everything in the bread machine to mix but I do take it out and we kneed it and put it in a good loaf pan. I'm ashamed to say that I only have one good loaf pan to my name :( But making one loaf at a time is working for now. When we get into our new house and I get the big freezer set up I can make several and have them in the freezer.
I remember my mom making 15-20 loaves of bread at a time. The house smelled so yummy and we couldn't wait to get the first slice still hot and slather it with butter.
That's not all we've been doing lately though. The kids all made their own gingerbread houses. Of course I can't find the pictures right now but as soon as I do I'll post them. Hunter decided early on in the process that he'd rather eat the gingerbread than make anything with it so his looked like the one that Shrek and Fiona stayed in on their honeymoon. Mackenzie got chocolate rosebuds from the store specifically for putting reindeer poop around her gingerbread house. She wanted it to be lifelike I guess!
Zoe got some easy bake stuff from Nanny P and of course we had to make some of that this week. She made s'mores and loved doing it but when it came time to eating, she took a bite and that was it. I don't blame her, it's not like campfire s'mores at all! But still fun.
So I hope you all had a nice holiday and had a little bit of a break. I enjoyed staying home and being with the family. Craig had a week off so that was an extra treat for us this year.
I'll leave you all with the only picture I can find easily this morning. It's our Christmas card for this year. And those of you still waiting for one, it's coming. I totally dropped the ball on those this year.
That being said, we've been baking bread like crazy this past week. Every day we make 1-2 loaves. Seems like a lot but it doesn't last long at all in our house. I'm going to have to get some whole wheat so we're not eating a ton of fattening white bread got much longer.
I cheat a little and put everything in the bread machine to mix but I do take it out and we kneed it and put it in a good loaf pan. I'm ashamed to say that I only have one good loaf pan to my name :( But making one loaf at a time is working for now. When we get into our new house and I get the big freezer set up I can make several and have them in the freezer.
I remember my mom making 15-20 loaves of bread at a time. The house smelled so yummy and we couldn't wait to get the first slice still hot and slather it with butter.
That's not all we've been doing lately though. The kids all made their own gingerbread houses. Of course I can't find the pictures right now but as soon as I do I'll post them. Hunter decided early on in the process that he'd rather eat the gingerbread than make anything with it so his looked like the one that Shrek and Fiona stayed in on their honeymoon. Mackenzie got chocolate rosebuds from the store specifically for putting reindeer poop around her gingerbread house. She wanted it to be lifelike I guess!
Zoe got some easy bake stuff from Nanny P and of course we had to make some of that this week. She made s'mores and loved doing it but when it came time to eating, she took a bite and that was it. I don't blame her, it's not like campfire s'mores at all! But still fun.
So I hope you all had a nice holiday and had a little bit of a break. I enjoyed staying home and being with the family. Craig had a week off so that was an extra treat for us this year.
I'll leave you all with the only picture I can find easily this morning. It's our Christmas card for this year. And those of you still waiting for one, it's coming. I totally dropped the ball on those this year.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)