Happy St Paddy's Day!

I actually have never liked corned beef. And guinness is a little stronger than I enjoy. So I was very pleased when my sister-in-law shared this trick with me.  Buy a large corned beef brisket. Throw away seasoning packet. Rinse brisket and pat all over  with brown sugar- about 1 cup. Maybe a little more. Place in  crock pot and pour 1 can of guinness over meat. Slow cook all day.

And here's a little song to go with it.

You Know it's Lent When You See This

No, not people going around in sackcloth and ashes. I mean this:

I know people have differing opinions on Girl Scouts and whether they support things that really support "girls". I haven't really looked into it. But I have noticed they always start selling cookies at the beginning of Lent. I supported our neighbor girl who came around taking orders in early February. Then she came back to deliver them . On Ash Wednesday. Coincidence? 

Pizza, Pizza!

So I am planning on writing a follow up piece to the previous post. But upon thoughtful thinking, I realized it might take too much delicacy and it might sound mean and maybe it wasn't really funny. Then I was at the in-law's and we started recounting really funny family stories and as I wiped my eyes I realized, "It really is funny and I should." And I will. But not today. Today is pizza day.

And as it is lent, it is also vegetarian pizza day. Which my kids prefer anyway. At our pizza class we compared home made crust to Trader Joe's. And home made won hands down. I learned one trick is to bake it on an upside down cookie sheet- which my sister had already shared with me. But I learned another trick is to use bread flour. I knew there was cake flour, but rarely used it. I guess there is pastry flour, not sure where that fits in the spectrum of flours. But I just used all purpose flour for everything so when I tried to make the crust at home, it did not come out crisp on the bottom. So I got the bread flour. It is somewhere between all purpose and cake flour. But it makes a really soft, satiny dough, and the crust came out just right.

So then we had to try it with our french bread recipe. The loaves came out a beautiful pale golden color and the crust was soft. The crust never came out soft. Except once when I made it way up on  a mountain in Canada. The really amazing thing was, it kept better than the other loaves. Usually the next day the crust is dry and harder. This morning I sliced the leftover half and it was still soft and tender. Although a true test woud be to make it in my oven. Last night I used Trudy's new Cuisinart mixer and baked it in her oven. And as they are at a slightly higher elevation I might not be able to duplicate it.(ok that was joke for my father- in-law).
 But I'm looking forward to making all kinds of breads and cinnamon rolls and I have to try and improve the Pascha bread recipe every year so the new flour might come in handy for that too. And maybe I'll try some recipes in The big book Shane got me simply titled 'Bread'.  Although I'd need a scale too as all the measurements are in kilograms and ounces-at least they give the U.S. weights too.

I was especially pleased at how round I was able to get the pizza. I think the flour is more easily coaxed-rolled-stretched into the right shape.

10 min at 450 and it was perfect.I made several balls of dough and froze them. I already put one in the fridge for dinner as well.

The instructor used a food processor. I used my KitchenAid. Maybe someday I'll use my Cuisinart.

Preheat oven to 425

In mixer combine
3c bread flour
2 t yeast
2 t kosher salt

With mixer on, add
1 c water
2 T olive oil

Add more water as necessary. I think I added either some extra or not enough. I was doubling it and lost count. But it still turned out fine.

Knead by hand a few times and let rise 1-2 hrs. Roll out to desired thickness. place on greased up-side down baking sheet, and cook 10 min.

I'm thinking of doing the fresh broccoli and onion one tonight.

There are Two Kinds of Families: Ones with Huge, Insurmountable, Horrifying I Mean Really, Really Bad Problems

And then there are the ones Who Lie About It.


This was said by the priest to a family member after one of the many 'events' in the past 6 yrs. (Really? Its only been that long?) I'm not sure if it was at a funeral, by a hospital bed, or just one on one couseling. Anyway, it was reassuring. When unfortunate  things happen, you feel like the rest of the world is normal and you're not. It's as if you somehow got stuck in the  loser parade with two left shoes and a burlap dress and two teeth and just have to watch as the pretty fairy princess parade floats along to beautiful music. The princesses smile condescendingly at you -with  ALL their teeth- and wave and plead with you to come join their float, which of course you both know can't because of the wall which divides you, from them. So what do you do?
Scream and  shout that there has been some mistake and you were put in the wrong line? Explain you couldn't find your silk Princess Bubble Yum gown but now you remember where you left it, along with your other teeth and 'please let me out so I can get them and get in the right line?'

But you know they won't beleive you. So, heartbroken, you reach down  all the while gazing wistfully at the normal parade. Slip off your shoes, which are also the wrong size. And you hurl them  as hard as you can at the princess' head. The crystal crown is not so impressive when it sits over a big purple welt on her forehead is it?  That will bring her down a peg or two.

Ok. That wouldn't be very nice. But it might be funny. If the hard truth were not so sad. The reality is we are all in the "gimp parade". Whether we look like it or not. We all have our huge, insurmountable, horrifying problems. Sometimes we lie about them. Sometimes we are forced to admit them. But at the end of the day we are all in the same parade.
We've gone through a lot in the past 6 or so years. I won't list all the trials and tribulations. If you are human and have a family, you have your own list.. Whether or not you acknowledge  it. But at least you have the entire world for company.

But don't get too down . Next post I'll show you how to have fun with it. Seriously.

Little Chefs

The kids have been wanting to come to "cooking lessons" . Grandma Trudy and I have been taking a few here and there and its been really fun. But not necessarily geared towards kids. Of course I knew Kateri would love seeing the big kitchen and watching the chefs cook. And trying the wine. So we'd been looking for a good one and a pizza class came up. And of course the other kids were interested too. I left Pippin with Grandma and they went shopping and had lunch.

I"m not sure if Audrey is taking notes, or drawing a horse.

Before class we shopped. Cyril found a chef's hat, which was adjustable. Unfortuantely they only had adults shirts, but I'll have to keep looking, or just make one. He asked afterwards if he could come to more classes.

Finally a hat to accomodate ALL of Kateri's hair. I would have bought it just for that feature.

Audrey had to try on everything before settling on the apron.

And in the end Kateri did too. I thought it was a good choice.

The cooking class was a success. All the pizzas were meatless so it was nice to get you thinking of Lenten dishes. I really liked the pear and gorgonzola on whole wheat tortilla. Cyril liked the four cheese. But the broccoli pesto was great too.

The owner/chef and her husband, who runs the wine side, are really nice. It was a school day at 1:00 and she asked if the kids were on vacation. I told her we homeschooled. And today was our home ec class. She thought that was great. They are a really nice couple. And I'm not just saying that because they cook me yummy food and pour me wine.

Taking Down the Tree

I decided, last week, that it was finally time to take down the tree. Given that Lent is upon us, it just didn't seem right to mix the two seasons. The kids were very sad and the ones who did not approve didn't take part in the trimming of the branches. But Kateri and Pippin had fun.

It was a work day and it was a really big tree. So I did not feel comfortable with just hefting it out the back door intact. But I figured if we severed the big lower branches, it would be manageable. Of course I could not find the big clippers so had to use a hand saw instead. Kateri liked helping with that part.

Once I got it outside Kateri and Pippin dragged it off into the woods. Where the kids later made a fort with it.

Kateri was super excited to have so many needles to vacuum up. Cyprian enjoyed hand feeding them into the hose.

 For Christmas Kateri wanted two things: a new baby doll with a high chair, and a vacuum like Grandma's. (Was that three things?)

Grandma found this little vacuum for her and it is perfect. We decided her daily chore would be to keep  the kitchen and eating area "swept". She would run the batteries out every day-its rechargeable-and though its not as thorough as a broom, it gets most of the dirt and our floors are looking cleaner. Sometimes she is not in a cleaning mood. The other day Shane told her the stairs were needing some attention and suggested she clean them. She looked at him and said,

"Well, I told Mom she could use my vacuum whenever she wanted."

When we were all done, Kateri decided to try on the tree skirt. All she needs now it a star on top.

And now a reading from the book of Audrey

I was correcting Audrey's math and found a little story she had written. Cyril and I had been reading the story of Moses at the other end of the table. She was inspsired to write  this:

How Moses Died
....,then Moses saw a bush. It was burning. He heard a voice in it. He ran to save the person in the fire. But the fire killed him.


I thought it was pretty funny.