Fresh Homemade Bread

Yep...I made this yesterday! And so of course, I had to share with you!!

Don't be alarmed, you all know my kitchen capability and this was REALLY REALLY EASY.

Do not be intimidated.

Here's where I got the directions: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

Apparently you can add herbs and make herb bread or you can make pizza's with the dough or a bunch of other stuff. I'm going to perfect the Master Recipe before moving on first. The best part is you do this once, and the dough keeps up to two weeks.

I hope you love it, it was positively scrumptious and ohh so tasty! If the recipe link above scares you, go to my blog, I wrote a longer post about it there!

Do this with your kiddos - they'll love it!

Activity bags

This past summer on vacation we drove from here to Durango, CO. We drove the 750 miles in two days each way. Now that's a lot of car time for a 1-year-old and 4-year-old, and frankly for mommy and daddy too!

So in preparation of the trip I made up a bunch of activity bags. Activity bags are individual activities with all needed materials portioned into a gallon zip-lock bag. There's actually a great book out there which I haven't read but puts this philosophy to work for home school moms with preschool age children. It provides a self-directed activity with minimal instruction from the parent so they can focus on older children. Its a brilliant idea, and it worked great for our trip. In fact, I liked this idea so much, I've maintained several of the bags and we pull them out a few times a week for general activity or when I need to get something accomplished with fewer interruptions.

We use a medium size metal cookie sheet to contain these activities at home or in the car. If we use up some of the materials I replace them and they go back in the activity bag box (a storage drawer). Each bag is labeled with the activity name.

Below you'll find some of our favorites, and I bet it will be enough to get your juices flowing too.

Cutting: A pair of kids scissors and anytime of cutting material: paper of different weights and colors, fabric, felt, etc. The paper could be junk mail, or old cards or really anything since it goes in the trash afterwards. You could include or make a separate bag with craft punches too. We recently had little bears all over the house because someone got into this bag without asking....

Felt Story Board: This can be super easy or a bit more complicated. I made a mini one, small enough to travel with. But I've also seen them mounted in a picture frame so it looks like a portrait. Then I added felt shapes to be used to create pictures or stories.

Beads: Lots of beads of your choice and some cording or string. You can instruct them to make patterns with the beads or let them do it free form. I also made a second one with fruity cheerios - activity, necklace and snack in one!

Pint-Sized Adventure: Amy's Farm

Remember, we won't be meeting until the 15th of this month, but we are doing a Pint-sized adventure THIS WEEK!! It's a bit early this month because of scheduling, so I hope you are all headed back into the swing of routine, and ready for a pint-sized adventure with the kiddos. Amy's Farm will be giving us the farm tour and we'll be able to see and cuddle some cute little baby chicks.

Watch for an email with more details or contact me at ke_osborn@hotmail.com

Happy New Year Time Capsule

I thought this time capsule can would be fun and I'm going to try it with the kiddo's tomorrow.

Let us know if you liked the idea too, and how it went if you try it or if you do other time capsule activities to mark your new year.

Hope your holidays have been spectacular - looking forward to where God takes us in 2009.

December Notes

If you missed today's meeting (as did I - had to make an unscheduled visit to the pediatric dentist - everyone is okay!) then you missed out on learning how to make Carol's YUMMY pies! There was also a sock exchange and much fun and festivity.

We won't meet again until January 15th, with GUM meetings on the 3rd and 5th Thursdays of January.

HOWEVER - we are doing a Pint-Sized Adventure on January 8th. There will be more follow-up emails coming, so watch for those after the first of the year!

Carol's Recipe's from this morning:

Betty Crocker 8 or 9 inch Two Crust Pie
(But you are really going to make 3 crusts from it)
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4-5 tablespoons cold water

Whip as 4 tbs water into the shortening. Add salt and flour and mix with a fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans side of bowl (adding remaining water if needed). Divide dough into three pieces and shape into rounds on lightly floured cloth-covered board. Roll pastry 2 inches larger than inverted pie plate. Fold pastry into quarters; unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.

"His Favorite" Apple Pie

Make pie crust. Line a 9" pie pan with first crust. Prepare 6-8 cups pared, cored thin apple slices. Arrange half of slices in pastry-lined pan.

Mix 1 cup sugar,
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Sprinkle half of this mixture over apples in pan. Arrange remaining slices on top and cover with remaining sugar mixture. Dot 1 tablespoon butter over filling. Roll remaining dough and lay over apples. Fold under edges of bottom crust, press together to seal. Cut decorative slits in top for steam to escape. Brush pastry with slightly beaten egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in hot oven (425 F.) 45-55 minutes.

We also talked about a streusel topping for pumpkin pie. This is the recipe for Gingerbread Pumpkin Pie with streusel topping (from Cuisine At Home Magazine).

for the pie--
1 baked pie shell
2 eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp. molasses
1 can pumpkin puree (15 oz.)
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tsp. table salt
1 cup heavy cream

for the streusel topping--
1/4 cup crushed gingersnaps
2 Tbsp. chopped pecans
2 Tbsp. chopped crystallized ginger
2 Tbsp. butter melted
Preheat oven to 375.

Whisk eggs, brown sugar, and molasses together in a bowl until combined. Add pumpkin puree ginger, pumpkin pie spice, and salt, and stir until blended. Stir in cream until mixture is smooth; pour into prepared pie shell and bake until set, about 40 minutes. Prepare streusel topping while pie is baking. Combine gingersnaps, pecans, crystallized ginger, and butter in a bowl until gingersnaps are saturated with butter.
Scatter streusel generously over the center of the pie and return to oven. Bake until center is set, pie puffs in the center, and streusel is crisp, 15-20 minutes more. If needed, shield pie. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature.

Easy Button Tree Craft

I pulled this one together last week, when BOTH girls were feeling crafty. I had planned on Emma doing a button wreath craft I picked up from Oriental Trading Co. but I only had one and Audrey was intent on being involved.

So I got out my felt and cut some Christmas trees out, pulled out our box of assorted buttons and the tacky glue and let them have at it.

Turned out pretty good, and kept thier attention for at least 30 minutes. Success!!

Nativity Conversations

A couple of days ago, I overheard Emma playing with our childs nativity. She was acting out some sort of scene in which Mary and Joseph were leaving the baby behind. An open door to talk about Jesus never leaving! What other opportunities have you had this month? Tell us about it!

Listening to her gave me a chuckle but it also hit home. How often do we leave Jesus behind in the hustle and bustle of this season? Just another good reminder from my kiddos just what we're celebrating this season. Not the gifts and the decorations and all such things, but God coming to earth as a tiny baby. A humble beginning with so much purpose!

Which brings me to the COD Living Nativity. If its not on your callendar yet, its this weekend! Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings from 6-9pm on COD's hillside. I hope I'll see each one of you there, as you experience the nativity with your kids.

Adventures in Turkey: Final Chapter

The finished bird.

I can't believe it! I've made a turkey!! And we ate it and it was juicy and tasty and delicious.
Here's the finished bird (prior to eating, of course):
Now the wings got a bit crispy there. Not sure why that happened, as I covered it loosely with tin foil pretty early on.
This beauty took a full 5 1/2 hours to cook at 350. I don't think it should have taken that long, so I think I better have my oven temp checked for accuracy. But it did finally hit 365 in the middle stuffing there, much to my relief.

So what have I learned?
I learned cooking a turkey makes your house smell yummy. Which makes me feel warm fuzzies and all homey.
I learned that doing something hard you've never done before is usually easier than you think it will be. Which makes me feel confident and adventurous.
I learned that at almost 30, I'm still calling my mom (and dad) when I need help. Which makes me feel safe and well loved.
I learned naming a turkey Tom can be confusing for others. And well, that just makes me giggle.

Thank you for following along this epic-to-me story. I hope you enjoyed it! What will you try for the first time now??

Adventures in Making a Turkey: Part One

You can read the full adventure here: Karen's Blog
Here's the highlights:

Making the Brine.









Giving Tom a bath.









This baby is resting before he gets stuffed!!









Brining smells yummy. Raw turkey not so much. But with only one quick call for a back up opinion, I have successfully clean and brined my turkey. In a couple hours I'll be making the stuffing, stuffing Tom and sticking him in the oven. IT'S TURKEY DAY!!!

Greater Than Flashcards

This is actually from a few weeks ago, but I thought you all would enjoy it just the same.

I was teaching Emma the concept of "greater than" today. So I pulled out the dollar store 3x5 cards and the stickers I have stocked away.

Together we made flashcards, 1-10. Each got a number sticker and then we put the corresponding number of objects on the card too. So the number 1 got one cow. And so forth. I also made one > card. Then I explained the "greater than" symbol and what it means facing each way. I used the old pacman analogy here, and actually drew a little > with a head. Like a giant open mouth, because Greater Than Man, likes to eat the most.

She giggled and I totally didn't think she was getting it. But then one right after the other, she picked two cards and put the greater than sign between them. And I bet some of your little ones will enjoy this too. It was easy, fun and cheap. (Although, now I have to buy a laminator so the cards will be around longer than today, but that's a whole other thing.)