Bagels

I am a bagel fanatic. Given the opportunity, I will sit and eat a whole package of bagels, and don't even get me started on the Bread Company! But, I can't allow myself to pay that much for something when 1 package isn't even enough to feed us all breakfast. So here's my bagel recipe. It will cost you about $0.50-0.60 to make a dozen... That's a savings of about $5.50 (When compared to supermarket prices). And when you see how easy it is and how yummy they taste, you'll never go store bought again!


Bagels

2 cups WARM water
1/2 package OR 1 teaspoon of active dry yeast
3 tablespoons white sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 cups all purpose flour OR half all purpose, half whole wheat
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar

So, start off by dissolving your yeast in your warm water in a very large mixing bowl. If your water's too cool it won't activate your yeast, too hot and it will kill it. If you want to be precise, you're water should be about 110 degrees, but I just wing it. Once your yeast is dissolved and your water is looking very murky, add the sugar, oil, flour, and salt. Now start stirring. You're hands will get very tired. This is when I wash mine and dig in, mixing the dough with my hands until I have a cohesive ball. If it's too sticky, slowing add more flour throughout the kneading process. To knead, you will take the palm of your hand and smash it into your dough as deep as you can. Then fold it over and do it again. Repeat this until you get a smooth and elastic ball. It should be moist to the touch, but also be able to peel away from the counter fairly easily. It's usually done in about 10 minutes, but could take about 15. When you're finished, let your dough rest for a minute while you wash out your big mixing bowl. Dry the bowl, then add a teaspoon or two of oil. Smear it around to grease your bowl, then drop in your dough and turn it over once to coat it. Dampen a dishcloth and lay it over the top. This is when it will rise. Ideally, your dough should double in size. This will take about an hour to an hour in a half depending on how warm your house is. I like to turn on the oven light and put my bowl in there. This seems to be just the right temperature for the dough to rise quickly, but not so hot that it kills my yeast. Once your dough has risen all it can rise, punch it down by taking your fist and cramming it in the center of your dough. Knead it a few time to get rid of any extra air and put the dough on your counter. Here's the fun part! Roll your dough into one long, fairly even log. Cut this into thirds. Roll each piece into another log in the same fashion and divide that into 4 equal pieces. This will give you 12 pieces total. Take each piece roll it into a log that's about 3 inches longer than the width of your hand. Connect each piece to itself to form a "bagelish" circle shape by pinching and then reshaping the ends. Then put each bagel on a lightly greased baking sheet. These need to rise again, but this time it should only take about 20 minutes. While these are rising, pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees and start a large pot of boiling water. Your pot should be wide enough to hold at least two or more bagels comfortably. Add one tablespoon of sugar to your water to give your bagels a glossy look. Once your bagels have risen, slowly add as many as you can without them touching to the boiling water. Boil for a total of 1 minute, flipping them over half way through. Gently lift the bagels out with a slotted spoon or spatula and place them back on your baking sheets. When you have a sheet full place it on the middle rack in the oven. These should cook for about 15-20 minutes and if you can remember, flip them somewhere in the middle to keep the top from burning. Keep in mind that these bagels are not going to be uniform and perfect because they were not pumped out of some machine. But that's okay! They're still absolutely beautiful!
I also have a recipe for cream cheese that I've not yet been brave enough to try. But after I do I'll be sure post it.

Party time!

As we prepare for Serenity's 1st birthday party this week, it has reminded me of how happy I am to have children that are so willing to serve their family. Pulling a party off and keeping up with daily activities is straining to say the least! I can't imagine having 5 children who run off and leave Mom to do all the work. We are a family and as a family we serve each other and work together to maintain a home. I've heard it referred to as a baseball team. The role of the father, Kevin, is that of a manager. The manager controls all matters of team strategy and leadership. He makes the line-up and substitutions through-out the game. He hands out the orders and sometimes has to go out onto the field to get involved, but most of the time he delegates responsibility to the a coach. I am the coach, or as the bible states, my husband's helpmate. I handle things when he's not here and I execute his plans for him, taking time to work with the players individually and instruct them. The children are the baseball players. Each having their own area of expertise and when executed properly and as instructed, this makes for a fully functioning team, a reflection of good leadership. Last, but definitely not least, is the owner of the team. What would a team be without an owner? Nothing! They would have no existence. Thankfully, we can choose to have the best team owner in the universe... God! Sure you can try to leave him out, but why would you want to? Without his mercy and guidance, we would be lost.
So, when you add the responsibilities of everyone together, then mix in the love and compassion crucial for raising a family, you've got a winning team! Can you imagine a manger taking everything on without the help of an assistant? An assistant trying to be the manager? Or what happens when the shortstop catches a grounder and throws it to the 1st baseman for an out, but the 1st baseman's too busy waving to his fans? In order for a team, or family, to be successful, everyone has to chip in and do the part that God has created them to do. How blessed Kevin and I are to have such wonderful and loving "Team Members" in our family, all glory to God!

Homemade laundry detergent

It seems every time I turn around, I'm having to buy laundry detergent! This is a huge pain to me because I'm always torn between the cheap, chemical-laden detergent or the all natural version that costs twice as much. We are very skeptical of chemically engineered products and are uneasy about using them. We feel like we can trust the things God has naturally given us and things that have been faithful throughout history. We cannot trust what man has created as willingly, no matter what kind of degrees they have, because humans make mistakes. How often have we seen these concoctions recalled and taken off the market because what the FDA once thought was safe, they're now realizing it's not. Although there is no proof that the chemicals in detergents and other soaps are harmful, we'd rather be on the safe side as often as possible! That being said, store-bought all natural cleaning products usually come with a price too high for us! We've gotten around this many times by learning how to make our own. So I was very happy when I got an e-mail from a good friend of mine saying she had a recipe off the Duggar family's web-site with a homemade detergent recipe! So, I will post the link, and then add a few things of my own.



http://duggarfamily.com/recipes.html


Okay, washing soda and borax cost about $2.50 a box around here and a friend of mine picked up the soap for me, but I don't think it cost more than a couple dollars, either. This makes a 5 gallon bucket full of solution, but you mix 1/2 solution, 1/2 water in an old laundry container to use, so your talking about a big bang for your buck! After you make the solution and let it sit for a while it will separate and need to be stirred to refill your smaller container. My friend Heather suggests using a thick dowel rod, which works great. Also, you'll need to shake the bottle of solution well before you add it to your washer. For measurements, we marked a line on a paper cup that we keep next to the detergent. Without adding any essential oils for fragrance, the clothes don't really have a scent and the water won't get sudsy at all. But when you take a whiff of your freshly laundered clothes they smell clean, not like Wild Flowers, Lavender Vanilla, or any other false smells your ordinary detergents carry, just clean. How simple and refreshing!

New web-site addiction...

I read about this web-site in one of my magazines and wanted to pass it on.

www.Cyke.com/snowman.swf

This site has a blank snowman that you can decorate with traditional and super funny accessories. It's a kid pleaser for sure! Ava and I have had a great time making silly snowmen today. Then you can type a personal message and print out your picture. When you scroll over the options, like the "Arms" category, the computer will say the word, for those of you with pre-readers. Great distraction for the little ones while you're trying to wrap those presents!!

Puppet Theater

Well here's the big present for the kids this year. I'm very excited about it! Puppet theaters are so pricey, and though they are much more professional than my humble version, the purpose is the same. What a valuable tool to have around the home! This is beneficial for playing and for teaching. Plus it makes for easy present ideas! How fun will it be to buy a new book for the kids and make character puppets to go along with it. Or to make puppets that coincide with biblical parables? The possibilities are endless!

I won't go through how I made it step by step because some of it's pretty self explanatory. It's made up of 3 pieces: The main blue piece has a rectangle cut out of the middle/top leaving about 5 inches on each side and the two pink pieces are the curtains which can be drawn back during a "show". It's held in the doorway by a tension rod and there is a dowel rod sewn in horizontally under the opening in the blue piece to hold the middle up and open.

I love this idea because it's something that's so simple to make and easy to put up and take down. Plus storage is no problem because it folds up as small as a tension and dowel rod. Besides, because I already had most of the material on hand, it cost me about $8.

I also made puppets to go along with this, but because I was running low on time and experience, they're a little homely. I just needed something quick and these served that purpose very well!

We have 2 men and 2 women hand stitched from felt. Then for accessories I made a baby, banjo, guitar, school book/bible/story book/cookbook/song book/etc, pot, wooden spoon, and hammer. These are made out of felt, too, so they will temporarily stick to the puppets. Now, who wants to take up a pool to see how long it takes for something to get lost?

Homemade baby shoes

Yes, you read that title right! Who would've thought? Well, obviously somebody did and boy am I thankful!

We've always been lovers of soft baby shoes like Robeez and Bobux, but we don't love the price! At $30 a pair, one pair at a time is all we could ever buy and even that was hard on our conscience. But we knew these little shoes were better for our babies feet than those hard-soled, tight shoes.

Serenity has been barefoot her whole 10 1/2 months of life, but now the weather is cold and strangers have started inquiring (Sometimes rather rudely!) about where her shoes are. So Kevin and I started the hunt. We checked Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, e-bay, etsy, and many more trying to get a good deal. We had nothing but bad luck! So finally I started thinking, "Surely I'm not the only one who has been in this situation and there are many crafty people out there..." So I did a quick search and found so many links to free patterns and tuts on making soft-soled baby shoes!

I just finished Serenity's first pair. It took me about 2 hours and cost about $2!!! Whew, what a relief! Here's the finished product:

Here's the link I used:

http://www.tackyliving.com/article.php?id=121

She gives really great instructions. The only thing I really changed is the sole. She calls for leather or suede and the local fabric store didn't have either of those. So I bought pleather. I'm sure after time it won't hold up as nicely, but Serenity's not walking yet and I'm impatient, so this was my choice. Next time I'll probably look for something a little more durable.

Frugal Christmas Decorations

Well, the decorating has begun!! We're very excited. We've had Christmas music blaring since Monday. We have the inside of the house almost done. This weekend Kevin will start on the outside of the house. Last year we had over 4,000 lights outside and this year, thanks to hitting up the yard sales, we have even more!
Anyway, you can get really caught up in all of the frillies this time of year, sometimes spending more on decorations than your budget was ready for! But it doesn't have to be that way. There are many ways to decorate for the season without breaking the bank. Here are some of our favorites:

1. Wrap your doors. This year we bought 3 rolls of wrapping paper at the Dollar Tree and that was more than enough to cover all of our interior and exterior doors. Plus I have a little left over for presents. This really makes a dynamic difference in your house. It covers a large, otherwise, bland space with Christmas cheer!

2. Homemade garland is another favorite. This year we strung popcorn and cotton balls onto string with a needle and thread and put these on the tree as well as draping them over windows, doorways, etc. You can also make paper chains in Christmas colors or in just white for a "White Christmas" affect. Pom poms are another option for lacing onto some string.

3. For the kitchen or bathroom, stitch or glue some Christmas ribbon onto some hand towels instead of buying those little expensive holiday towels at the store. You can really get fancy with this! If you have some extra Christmas fabric lying around, cut a piece equal to the length your hand towel plus an inch or two for hemming, and about 3/4 as wide. Hem the ends all the way around, center on your towel, and stitch them together. Super fun!

4. We love to make snowflakes! This year we made a few dozen, put some sparkly glue on them and hung them from the ceiling in the kitchen and dining room. It looks like a winter wonderland!

5. Here's a great web-site that will put the kids to work making decorations. She has directions to make everything from advent calendars to ornaments. We've already gotten a lot of use out of it this year. http://www.dltk-holidays.com/

Ahh... Christmas is our favorite time of year. I'm really looking forward to sharing any other ideas I stumble across this season.