Snow Ice Cream

Oh what a fun couple of days we've had here! The kids have had so much fun playing out in the snow, but all Eli wanted to do was throw snow at Kevin! Here's a few pictures of them, just for fun. Make sure you scroll past that for my recipe for Snow Ice Cream, no ice cream maker neccessary!

Snow Ice Cream

Okay, this is what you need per serving:

1 large Ziplock bag

2 small Ziplock bags

6 tablespoons of salt

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons sugar

Start off by filling you large bags 1/2 full of snow. Add your salt and squeeze and mash this up for about 5 minutes. Some of the pieces will get really hard, but that's okay. Once you've squeezed enough set it aside and fill one of your small baggies with your milk, sugar, and vanilla. Close that bag and squeeze out enough air as possible. Place that baggie into the other small baggie, squeeze as much air out as possible, then close it. Now put that into your large, snow filled baggie. Again, squeeze out as much air as you can and seal it. Then start squeezing the big bag again. You'll have to do this for about 5 minutes. Be gentle and try to keep the snow around the smaller baggie. When the time is up, take out you small baggies, open them up, and slide your icecream into a bowl. Yummy!

$0.40 snack!

Here's a recipe called Indian Fried Bread. This is a great and healthy snack for the family for a very small price. The recipe calls for frying the bread, but if you want to choose a healthier approach you could bake the bread instead.
Okay, so start off by adding 2 cups of whole wheat flour (or half whole wheat/half white, or all white). Then add 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon oil, and 3/4 cup water. Mix it all together with a fork until it forms a nice little dough ball. It may seem a bit dry and if it does just add some more water a tablespoon at a time. When you get your ball, divide it into 6 smaller balls. After you do this, start heating up your skillet with about an inch of oil on medium-high heat. Then go back to your dough and start rolling each ball out until it's about 1/8-1/4" thick. To do this very easily, tear off two pieces of wax paper. Place your ball of dough in between the two pieces and smash it down a little bit, then use your rolling pin to roll it out. This way you don't have to worry about it sticking to your pin or your counter. Check your oil. Do this by dropping just a sprinkle of flour in your skillet. If is sizzles then you're ready. If it doesn't then give it a few more minutes. Frying the bread when the oil isn't hot enough will cause your bread to be soggy, but if your pan is smoking then your oil is too hot. When your oil is ready drop in a rolled out piece of dough. Use your spatula to press it down in a few spots. Cook it on one side for a minute or so, then flip it over and do the other side. The dough will start to bubble up in some spots and if you press it with your spatula it may even whistle, which my children think is great fun! The bread should be browned on each side. When it is, lay it on a paper towel (or brown bag) lined plate and put the next one in the pan. While it's cooking, return to your finished bread, smear it with some butter, sprinkle on some cinnamon and sugar and hand it over to one of the eager children that have been under your feet this whole time! :)

If you choose to bake it instead, the only difference in taste is that the baked bread is a little more dry, but still very yummy! You'll follow the above instructions, but instead of frying it, you'll put in on a greased cookie sheet. Cook it at about 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to brown. After it's done, prepare it just like the original version.

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?