Farmer Grover asks, "What did you do today?"

We colored, we made Honey bars, did laundry, played with toys, some took naps, others buried winter gear out of the basement! But mostly we just enjoyed being together!

Wanda's Pie in the Sky

While in Canada, we often had a delectable pie from Wanda's from the Pusateri bakery downstairs. Only once did we venture to one of the bakeries, which James bought me her bakebook.

I have made her Sweet pie crust and think it's amazing. I'm not a huge pie person, but I love this crust. So after a little research, I decided to experiment with prepping for Thanksgiving.  I made two Apple Crumb Pies from her bakebook; the change is that I did not bake them. Instead, I froze both pies. After much online reading, the only change is that you bake the pie completely frozen at 350* for one hour.

I will report my success or failure of this method come Thursday!

All in a Morning's Work

I have had a strong bug to be in the kitchen. I have been wanting to make my own bread each week for our family. My Artisan Bread cookbooks arrived last week and I spent one morning reading the intro chapters.

If you really want to know how bad I've wanted to be in the kitchen, listen up! Last Thursday, I line up all the ingredients to make the Oatmeal Pumpkin bread, I unloaded the dishwasher, had perfectly clean counters, my excitement was over-the-top! Only to have it immediately crashed when I realized I didn't have the dough hook for my KitchenAid mixer. I mean the recipe even called for the dough hook or a food processor. I looked high and low, dug through two random kitchen boxes in the basement.

THEN, I remembered why I had not made bread for a couple years. My dough hook was all metal and accidentally was put in the dishwasher and ruined. I called Bed, Bath, & Beyond, I called Williams & Sonoma, Mom even looked at Macy's, her W&S, and everyone said they could order it for me. With severe disappointment, I put all those beautiful ingredients away! But that was Thursday and today is Wednesday and wooohooo I have homemade bread!

This morning I made:
Honey Butter
Pureed Spinach
Pumpkin Cake dusted with powdered sugar from Amish Baking cookbook
Oatmeal Pumpkin bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day
1 Batch of Triple Berry Jam



Aren't you wondering how I was able to make bread today? Well Mom to the rescue, brought me a Cuisinart food processor! Woohoo, thank you Mom! But I am taking my 20%off coupon to BBB tomorrow to order the dough hook.

Representation

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes A Day

Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes A Day

I've browsed this book a few times. And having made a few loaves of bread a couple weeks ago, assessing the quality of homemade bread, choosing my own healthy ingredients, and cost, I treated myself to these two books. I read a lot of the comments on Amazon about these books and look forward to trying out these recipes! Great tips and comments by the way, please go read them if these books interest you! Just click on the title up there and it will take you right to Amazon!

I am determined to settle into a "domestic routine" as the Autumn season begins. In fact, I think I've been longing for this time since January because it represents my family being back home and just trying to lead a normal, consistent life. So now I am just waiting for MOPS to begin, the temperature to hit 52'F, hats and mittens to be knitted, the crisp leaves to change color, and of course Amazon to deliver my new books. All these "things" represent something to me, but mostly they are symbolic of the quiet dream in my heart to stop traveling and start living our home-life!

What is symbolic to you right now? What is something that represents change?

Blog Along- Baker

I love sweets! I love baking just to eat the sweets! I am excited to share these Top 5 with you just for the reason that it is another reason to eat tasty treats and "little goodies!"

1. Pampered Chef StoneWare- Though there is a learning curve for baking with stone, I think it does amazing things with cookies, pizzas, muffins, and bread. Once they are well seasoned they seem to help keep the flavor in the item baking, whether a sweet or savory flavor.
2. Kitchen Aid Mixers- I have both the stand and handheld mixer and I use them both all the time! Breads are easier to mix in the stand are soooooo much less intimidating with the dough hook! Maizie loves the handheld because she can mix the frosting for cupcakes!

3. Parchment Paper- I started using this product about two years ago. Every time I bake cookies, this is underneath the dough. It helps turn a cookie recipe into a real cookie, by this I mean that it is crispy around the edges and chewy on the inside. It helps to not overburn the bottoms as well. I think this is a product I will use for the rest of my cookie-making life! Click the words Parchment Paper to be directed to Reynolds Parchment Paper coupon!
4. Wooden Spoons & Spatulas- Take your pick there seems to be a million on the market, but I prefer the ones from Williams-Sonoma or Pampered Chef! I've had them for years, they have not stained. They don't melt. They are dishwasher safe.
5.Scotch Brite- Let's be honest and say that with baking comes a lot of dirty dishes, so I will recommend this item! With this I feel like hand washing is a breeze and goes quickly! And the scrubber can be replaced with a heavy-duty scrubber!!!!


Group Participants:
Julie
Meagan

A Morning in the Kitchen

After a comedy of errors, like Jackson gagging because he put too many apple pieces in his mouth which resulted in him throwing up, a frozen banana falling out of the freezer and hurting my foot, Maizie dropping her cereal bowl all over the kitchen floor, I decided I needed to do something relaxing and familiar. You would think I would retreat and say take a shower and get ready for the day. No, instead I spent the morning in the kitchen! It started with Herbed Lamb Shanks in the CrockPot.

Then, I pulled my Amish Baking cookbook and decided to make Peanut Butter Swirl Bars, only to realize that my granulated sugar level was at zero. Oh well, I typed Brown Sugar into my fav recipe website and found BROWN SUGAR MUFFINS!! I think I will make a Maple Butter to accompany these little tasteys!SideNote: Oh KitchenAid Mixer how I missed you! I brought all the attachments and hope to start shredding/slicing/grinding just so we can spend more time together! I did notice that KitchenAid has released a pasta attachment, oh how divine would that be!

So with a large meal in the works, I decided to invite James' coworkers, we'll see who attends, I mean not everyone likes Lamb the way I do! I will probably venture to the grocery store and pickup a few things for a dessert, I just need a tally of coworkers and a good pantry check first!

Recipe: Stir-Fry

I experimented with a few things and surprised myself:

Chicken Stir-Fry

1) Prepare 1 Cup Rice as instructed on packaging adding 2 teaspoons of parsley!
2) Sautee chicken strips in EVOO until lightly golden (and done)!
3) Steam a variety of Asian vegetables for 8-10 minutes preserving some crisp & crunch!
4) Pour following recipe over chicken and veggies immediately then serve with the rice!

Sauce Recipe:
2 teaspoons cilantro
3 teaspoons fresh ginger, chopped
2 gloves garlic, chopped
1/4c Soy Sauce
3T Worshershire Sauce
1/4c pureed pumpkin
1T peanut butter
3T EVOO (or Sesame Seed Oil if you have it)

Please give this sauce a try and let me know what you think!

Now you are wondering what to do with the rest of the canned pumpkin! Well you do what I did, you make THIS CAKE while cooking the stir-fry! Then by the end of eating your dinner, you have a warm dessert coming out of the oven!

Yes, I know the recipe calls for the whole can, but I used what was left and it turned out perfectly! Do you want to know another secret to making this Pumpkin Cake recipe strumptous? Add two teaspoons of real Maple Syrup to the pumpkin batter! (FYI- this is the picture from Allrecipes.com, this is not the one I made.) Alas, it is time for me to leave the desk and follow my nose to the aroma of a sweet Autumn-inspired dessert!

Baker's Delight

Having tasted some delicious food recently and made a Goal for 2010 of baking bread, I started with some simple inspiration. Peanut Butter Banana Chocolate Chip Bread was my first loaf for the new year! This is James' favorite version and I'm excited for him to come home and eat this tonight!

Since we are gearing up for moving again in a couple weeks, I'm cleaning out the freezer. As you all know, each January I clean my freezer of old bananas and bake a dozen loaves. Well, this year, I have you know, I only made the two! I did make changes to the recipe, I used natural peanut butter, oat flour, and whole wheat flour, in addition to the other ingredients!~




I found a few new recipes to be inspired in the coming weeks!

Pumpkin Cookies (didn't get to make in Autumn)
Orange Cranberry Biscotti (cut very thinly)
Lemon-Butter Cookies (I am disappointed in this picture because I picked up MixingBowl's Mag at Walmart and that pic is amazing!)
Brown Butter-Carrot Cupcakes (a healthy change for my Cupcake Princess!)

Maizie and I made cut-outs this morning too! Since we are portion-controlling, this weekend we purchased some adorable and small cookie cutters! Tea Pots, Car, and the Canadian Maple Leaf! Maizie loves the frosting...and Mommy likes the chocolate & almonds!

Enjoying The Process

1st Annual Murdock Gingerbread House

We have been reflecting on Christmas traditions and we concluded we only have two. The first is traveling to visit family and the second is making cutout cookies. This year we tried adding a few, like attending tree lighting ceremonies, venturing to large department stores to see window displays, and building a Gingerbread House. This is our first attempt and we had so much fun doing this together and licking our fingers covered in frosting!

What are some new traditions you have during your Christmas holiday? I'd love to hear how your Christmas has changed sinced the routine of your childhood Christmas!