A New Bread Recipe

I have enjoyed making my own whole wheat bread for some time now. All the while, sticking my head into the sand over the fact that I was, little by little, running out of honey. The recipe (which can be found HERE) that I have been using from www.breadbeckers.com is awesome! BUT, at 1/3 cup of honey per two loaves, I have been thinking that I had better come up with a solution, and soon! Well, the inevitable happened. I am out of honey. At $40 per gallon, I don't plan on stocking up any time soon. I used to be able to get it for $20 a gallon. SO! What to do, what to do? I decided to experiment by mixing the recipe I had been using with another that I have used in the past, but didn't like nearly as much. Much to my surprise, it worked! I now have a honey-free recipe that turned out as good, or better than my old standby!

I made two batches. The first I kneaded by hand and I found it to be very soft and easy to knead. It never did "toughen" up. I formed this dough into two loaves. The next batch I made, I let my bread machine do the mixing and first rising. Then I took it out and formed it into 15 large rolls. This batch did super, as well!

You can see some of the bread here in this photo. The rolls on the left were the honey-less recipe. The rolls that look a little more golden on the right was the breadbeckers recipe. But, the loaves turned out golden, too, so I think the pale rolls had more to do with cooking them for a little less time. They were totally done in the center, and very soft!


A close-up of the basket.


The perfect roll! Doesn't it just BEG to be dipped in a hot bowl of soup?


After some very "scientific" blind taste testing, the results were in: although the bread was still slightly sweet, it had just a hint of a sour dough flavor. There were no complaints over the change in flavor, and it is now the new, even cheaper bread of choice for our family!

Here is the recipe:

2 cups very hot water
1/4 cup melted butter
2 Tbs molasses
1 egg
1 1/2 Tbs salt
1 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs Lecithin (optional)
1 tsp gluten

Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl or dump into bread machine. Add 2 cups whole wheat flour and 1 Tbs yeast. Mix thoroughly. Add 3 more cups flour, one cup at a time until dough can be turned out on counter and kneaded. Knead for 6 minutes, adding more flour as needed. (if you use the bread machine, add flour until a ball forms in the machine and pulls totally away from the walls. Cover and let rise for about 1 hour or until doubled. Pinch and shape dough into 2 loaves, place in greased bread pans, cover, and let rise again. OR, break off about 1/4 cup dough, roll playdough style into a 6 inch long, 3/4 inch diameter "snake". Tie into a knot, place on greased cookie sheet, cover and let rise again. Bake loaves in 350 oven for 20 min. (or more if needed), bake rolls for about 12 minutes.

Random Thoughts From Someone Who Hasn't Blogged In Awhile

There has been this nagging thought in the back of my mind that I have been neglecting my blog. Then I think who really wants to see another blog with pictures of my kids doing something cute/amazing, or photos of yet another person's Thanksgiving turkey and all their family and friends (conveniently enough, I forgot to take my camera with on Thanksgiving Day) or marvelous Christmas decorations hung and artfully arranged without any mishaps. So, in lieu of another boring predictable blog, I am stepping out of the mainstream and giving you a peek into our normal, imperfect life. Don't worry, it's as boring as the predictable blogs!


I never did understand the love affair some people have with raw cookie dough. The kids and I whipped up 3 batches of cookies to take with us to our friend's house on Thanksgiving day. Keeping (clean) fingers out of the dough proved to be a challenge.


Notice that I have photos of all the dough, but I neglected to take any pictures of the huge pile of actual cookies we had a couple hours later. And I challenge YOU to take a better photo of 5 kids who are on a cookie dough sugar high. And yes, Rebecca is now pleading with me "Can I please go, now, Mom?"


Remember the Thankful Tree a couple of blogs back? Well, in spite of all my good intentions, the holiday week kicked my butt and we didn't get as many hands on the tree as we thought we would. Hey, I got a picture of it before I removed it from the fridge, so that should count for something, right?


Did you ever wake up in the morning and say "Who cares what I look like, I just want to sit at the table and eat a donut?" Yeah. Me neither. But James has! This was Black Friday morning, after Rebecca and I got up at 3:30 am and hit the stores with our list in hand. We got everything we had on the list!!! All two items. Can you spell success? Then we went by Dunkin Donuts, bought a box of 14, went home, threw them on the table and went back to bed. When everyone woke up, we had eggs and donuts and coffee. (Sounds gross now that I think about it!)


After the donuts and coffee, we put up our tree! Hold your applause. By the next day, 95% of the lights were (and still are) out. Something got unplugged and for the LIFE of me, I can't find the end it should be connected to. So, sometime before Christmas Eve, I have to UNdecorate the tree and get the stupid thing lit! You know, Christmas is for kids! And we have 5. (just in case you didn't know) So, I can't be all hum-bug about it.


So, there you have it. All my dirty laundry: I forget to take pictures of important things. Projects that are started don't always get completely finished. I feed my kids donuts for breakfast (very rarely, though) Plus, I have a dark Christmas tree sitting in my living room that looks nothing like the photo above. Hey, I just realized that I DID take a picture of the tree before the lights went out, so that should count for something! So, as you read other blogs today and maybe feel overwhelmed by their apparent jockeying for the next Martha Stewart award, remember that there are some of us out here in the blog world that are just (gasp!) normal people!

Live, Love, Laugh and hug the people you love!

A Doctor's Wisdom

A worried woman went to her gynecologist and said: 'Doctor, I have a serious problem and desperately need your help! My baby is not even 1 yr. old and I'm pregnant again. I don't want kids so close together.' So the doctor said: 'Ok, and what do you want me to do?'
She said: 'I want you to end my pregnancy, and I'm counting on your help with this.'
The doctor thought for a little, and after some silence he said to the lady: 'I think I have a better solution for your problem. It's less dangerous for you too.'
She smiled, thinking that the doctor was going to accept her request.
Then he continued: 'You see, in order for you not to have to take care of two babies at the same time, let's kill the one in your arms. This way, you could rest some before the other one is born. If we're going to kill one of them, it doesn't matter which one it is. There would be no risk for your body if you chose the one in your arms. The lady was horrified and said: 'No doctor! How terrible! It's a crime to kill a child!
'I agree', the doctor replied. 'But you seemed to be ok with it, so I thought maybe that was the best solution. The doctor smiled,realizing that he had made his point.
He convinced the mom that there is no difference in killing a child that's already been born and one that's still in the womb. The crime is the same!

If you agree, please forward. Together we can help save precious lives!

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"
Philippians 4:13

PS: Obama supports partial-birth abortion

Our Thankful Tree

I had an idea for this "Thankful Tree" for the kids to demonstrate their thankfulness in a visual way. Elijah painted the lovely tree on heavy painting paper and we taped it up on the fridge. I then had them trace their hands on construction paper and cut out several of them. Each day, they take one and write on it something for which they are thankful, and add it to the tree. With five leaves being added each day, I'm sure we'll run out of room very soon. We are letting some of the "leaves" fall on the "ground".


I wasn't sure if Nathanael and James would grasp the concept of listing things they are thankful for, but as I was talking to them about it, they picked right up on it! They had all sorts of things they were thankful for and I wrote down their first ideas which were apples for Nate and James said he was thankful for Puppy, his stuffed animal. Today, James said he was thankful for pumpkin lolly-pops, and Nate was thankful for his bicycle!


The three older kids have come up with even more great things they want to express gratitude for like sunshine, love, God, aquariums and Mom and Dad!


This was a quick, fun project for them to do and they are chomping at the bit to get the tree all filled in with thankful leaves. I'll post another picture of the tree in a couple weeks when it is full and overflowing. I have a feeling they will ask to do this again next year!

What are YOU thankful for today?

Green is a Great Color!

This past Saturday was promotion day for Rebecca and Elijah at Kids Kickin' for Christ. They both promoted to GREEN belt! Woo-hoo! They have been doing TKD for a few months now, after taking a break from it for a couple years. They had to re-learn everything, brush up on their forms, one-steps, and Bible verses. They have practiced a LOT over that last couple months. I think they average about 3 hours a week practicing, outside of actual class. I had told Rebecca and Elijah that I had to work and wouldn't be able to be at the promotion. Rob was to go, and so was their aunt. So, I knew there would be someone there to cheer them on and take pictures. Yeah. That was the plan. Don't you love how things can go SO bad when least expected? Rob dropped Nate and James off with a sitter and took Becca and Eli to promotion. After he got there, he realized he hadn't sent any diapers and wipes with the little guys. So, he turned right around and took diapers and wipes to the sitter and went straight back to promotion. Now, usually, Steve and Bri have a big class promoting and it usually takes and hour and a half from start to finish. This class, though, as you can see in the picture was on the small side and by the time Rob got back, promotion was over! And the aunt never showed up. I never knew my heart could break into a thousand pieces over an emotional hurt in my child. But that's exactly what happened. Rebecca was so disappointed that neither Rob nor I were there for them. I held Becca later and we both sobbed over it. I vowed to her that at the next promotion, there was NO WAY I would work and Rob and I would both be there for her.

Thankfully, someone (not sure who!) took pictures with the camera I sent with them. This one is a little blurry, but you can see Becca on the back row, with the orange belt around her neck. Elijah is on the far right.



Here they are with their teacher, Steve. Way to go, kids! I am SOOOO proud of both of you! You both worked your butts off in order to promote this week. Green is great, but PURPLE, here we come!!!