Here We Go... Again!

I am so sorry that I've been AWOL for so long. Things have been pretty bad around here, but I'm working hard to set things straight. Please don't take the following as a bunch of whining. I'm trying to figure out the best way to lay it out for you so you can understand without sounding as if it's the end of the world. It's not.But I want to be honest about this stuff, too. Just know that, while these things weigh on me every day, I won't let the bad dominate the good. Sometimes just acting cheerful can help bring up your spirits to where you're no longer acting.

Better Living with OATS! {4 Great #Recipes}

My family costs an arm and a leg when it comes to breakfast. No, I don't cook pancakes, bacon, sausage, and eggs every morning. I don't buy fancy pastries or anything like that, either. Breakfast around here consists of two choices: cold cereal or oatmeal.

I used to buy the "good" cereals. You know, the organic, whole-grain stuff? I stopped when the price went up to $4 for a small box. I moved on to the name brand healthy stuff in the regular cereal section. It still cost more, but I wanted cereal that was good for my family and with an ingredients list that didn't read like a chemistry book. Then, my oldest hit a growth spurt that hasn't slowed. In fact, it's gotten worse by the day. The kid was putting away a box of cereal and a gallon of milk a day! I resorted to the cereal that comes in bags and has names like "Fruity O's". It was the only way I could keep the kid full without starving the rest of us.

There had to be a better way to feed this kid. I mean, he's growing at an alarming rate. All of the food he puts into his body is being used to its fullest potential. I really didn't want the makeup of his body (for the rest of his life!) to be based on Fruity O's ingredients! I decided to go back to the fancy healthy cereals I was buying in the first place, only I wanted to make them myself. I knew that the proper ingredients for growing a man would be in the granola and it would fill him up much faster and for much longer and using a much smaller amount.

And then there was the oatmeal problem. Since he could feed himself with a spoon, Little Guy has been eating oatmeal for breakfast every day. At first, it was organic baby oatmeal. Then he moved up to Better Oats instant oatmeal. (The stuff is fantastic, by the way!) Now, I rely on instant oatmeal in the morning for him. I usually mix it with hot water for him, then set it on the counter to soak up the water and cool while I get that first pot of coffee brewing. By the time I pour my cup of coffee, his oatmeal is ready, and we quietly wake up at the table together - him with his oats and me with my cup of coffee.

Then my husband, who always had sworn off oats as "yucky" decided that he really liked Little Guy's Better Oats. He started eating two packages at once a couple of times a day for a snack. Do you have any idea how much those things cost?! And there are only 5 packets in a box! The last straw came when, for the third time in a week, I went to make Little Guy's breakfast and there weren't any packets left - just an empty box. ARGH!!! I started hiding Little Guy's breakfast in weird places so hubby wouldn't eat it all - at one point, I had four boxes of oatmeal in my underwear drawer. I was inspired by THIS POST to create my own instant oatmeal packets. This way, hubby can eat as much as he likes and I know that Little Guy's breakfast won't disappear!

So, here are some of the recipes I've come up with. At the very bottom of this post, I'm linking to the recipes that have inspired me or that helped me get the ingredient amounts and cooking processes figured out. I suggest that you check those link out because they may prove to be very helpful!

Instant Oatmeal Packets

• 3c. whole rolled oats
• instant baby oatmeal (if you like thicker oatmeal)
• non-fat dried milk
• flax seed
• wheat germ
• brown sugar
• dried fruit, coconut, sunflower seeds, nuts, whatever you want

1. Put the oats, 1 cup at a time, into the blender and process using the ice crush setting on pulse. If you don't have this, just turn the blender on and off. Pulse 5-7 times, until it looks as if the oats have all been cut at least once. Kind of hard to describe now that I'm trying! Empty the blender canister into a bowl after each session.
2. Divide your oats into sandwich bags, 1/4 to 1/3 cup per bag. It just depends on how large a serving you or your kids will eat. Little Guy just moved up to 1/3 cup... must be growing again! Now, you don't have to use sandwich bags for this - small plastic containers or even glass jars would be great. I don't happen to have those. I reuse the plastic bags when I make more instant oatmeal, anyway. I just have my husband and son put the emptied bags into a re-purposed coffee can on the counter.
3. Into each bag, measure: 1 Tbsp. baby oatmeal, 1 Tbsp. dried milk, 1 tsp. flax seeds, 1/2 Tbsp. wheat germ, 1 Tbsp. brown sugar. Add the goodies! I put about 2 Tbsp. dried fruit (freeze-dried fruit works well, too) and 1 tsp. sunflower seeds into Little Guy's because that's what he likes.
4. Seal all of the baggies and then get the kids into the kitchen to help you. The ingredients in the bags need to be mixed up, particularly the brown sugar. If you don't mix that up, it'll end up becoming a rock of brown sugar that won't dissolve!
5. To make oatmeal my way: Heat up 1/4 c. of water to boiling or near-boiling. Empty oatmeal packet into a bowl and pour hot water over it. Stir well and let sit for about 5 minutes (just long enough to get the coffee pot going!) Stir once more and add honey to taste.
6. To make in the microwave: Cereal in bowl, 1/4 c. water mixed in, cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute. You may need to add some more water or a little milk because cooking it this way seems to result in a much thicker oatmeal.

Do you burn granola when you attempt to make it in the oven? Just a little too much heat or cooking time can ruin an entire batch of granola. The burnt flavor permeates every oat. And the ingredients in this stuff are too expensive to just toss when it burns. After my first experience of making (and burning) granola, I've been hesitant to try again. Until I learned you can make it in the crock pot. Now, using a crock pot to make granola doesn't mean you're exempt from burning! You still have to keep an eye on it and stir often. But, if you have different heat settings on your crock pot, you can relax a little.When I know I'll be busy and won't remember to stir, I turn the crock pot to "warm". When I'm in the kitchen cooking or cleaning and can be right on top of the granola, I set it to "high". And, when I'm on the computer or just hanging out with the kids, I put it on "low".

I have 1 7qt. crock pot. The amounts listed in the recipes fill it about 1/2 way. This gives me plenty of room for stirring without making a huge mess. If your crock pot is smaller, try cutting down on some of the ingredients. These recipes do not need to be followed exactly as written. If you don't like sunflower seeds, omit them. If you'd rather use coconut oil instead of butter, go for it. Just make sure the flavors of the things you add will meld together well. You don't want to use a strong-flavored olive oil, for instance. And don't add melty things (like chocolate chips) until after the granola is made and cooled. You'll just wind up with a huge mess if you add them before cooking!

Now, I made two batches of granola. My first batch failed the family taste test. First, I didn't add any salt. I didn't even think of adding it. When my husband and oldest said it was "missing something", it was the only thing I could think of. Salt brings out the flavor if the other ingredients, and you really don't need much of it for that boost. Second, it wasn't sweet enough for them. They tried adding sugar, honey, and brown sugar on top of the cereal, but it made it "taste funny". These guys are used to the colorful cereals in boxes on the store shelf, so I can see where it would be a problem for them. I used the first batch to make chewy granola bars (recipe below) and then changed some of the ingredients and amounts in the second batch (last recipe on this post), which they both love.

Crock Pot Granola #1 

(The not-so-sweet version)

• 5 c. rolled oats (not instant or quick-cooking)
• 2 Tbsp. flax seeds
• 1/4 c. raw sunflower seeds, unsalted
• 1/4 c. flaked coconut (I used sweetened, you don't have to)
• 1/4 c. slivered almonds (get the ones that still have the brown husk - it's way healthier!)
• 4 Tbsp. wheat germ
• 1/4 c. EACH: finely chopped pecans and walnuts
• 1/2 c. honey
• 1/2 c. melted butter, unsalted

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients in your crock pot.
2. Melt butter and pour it and the honey over the granola mixture. Fold together with a large spoon until everything is coated well.
3. Turn crock pot on LOW. You want to cover the crock pot to keep the heat in, but you also need to leave it vented so the moisture can escape. I just leave my wooden spoon in the crock pot. It sticks out enough to hold the lid off enough for venting. You could also use chopsticks or simply put the lid n askew to leave an opening. If you notice a lot of condensation inside the lid, you need to leave a larger opening. 
4. Stir every 20 to 30 minutes. Make sure you are getting into the corners, sides, and bottom of the crock. Make sure to stir it thoroughly each time. The parts of the granola that are touching the crock will, obviously heat up faster and are more prone to burning. (If you have it set to high, stir every 5 or 10 minutes. Set to low? Stir 30 to 40 minutes.)
5. Keep an eye on the color of your granola. It can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to cook, depending on your heat setting. You'll know it's done when it's a nice golden brown. Don't base doneness on how crisp the cereal is. Cooling time will make it crunchier.
6. Pour granola onto a baking sheet (or two, depending on how quickly you want it to cool) and spread evenly. Let cool for 30 to 45 minutes. You want to make sure it's completely cool before putting it away.
7. I keep my granola in gallon-sized food storage bags. Just like with the instant oatmeal, I reuse these bags over and over. You can use whatever you'd like to store your granola. Just make sure it's airtight. And, as I said above, make sure it's completely cool before packaging it. If it's still warm, it can still have moisture in it. Putting warm granola into an air-tight container will result in soggy granola and it will spoil quickly.
8. To serve: Just pour into a bowl, add a little milk, and munch away! You can also heat it up a little in the microwave. I love eating slightly warmed granola. Add to yogurt, top muffins with it, whatever you like!

It took me a lot of searching to understand how to make a good chewy granola bar. There are millions of recipes for them, but I wanted a particular texture. I like the texture of the Quaker Chewy Granola Bars. Toothy, a little crunch, easy to pull apart, won't crumble into a bunch of little pieces that I have to vacuum up. There were a lot of chewy recipes that called for flour, eggs, baking soda... To cake-like for me. Then there were the ones that relied on corn syrup. I'm not going into the corn syrup debate here, just know that I like to keep away from the stuff. I finally found a handful of recipes that use sweetened condensed milk. I checked out the ingredients list on the can I had in the cupboard (for years!), and this is what it had to say: Milk, Sugar. That's it. I don't know what kind of sugar, I still have to look it up.Anyway, it passed my requirements - for now.

The recipe below was made using my Crock Pot Granola #1 recipe. If you don't want to go through all of that, you can just mix 4 cups of oats and 3 cups of dried fruits and other add-ins together for this. You're going to want to toast them until they're brown. You can just mix them together, put them on a baking sheet, and pop them into a 200 F oven (stirring very often) until they start to brown (about 15 minutes or so?)

Chewy Granola Bars

• 7 c. Crock Pot Granola #1 (see the paragraph above if you don't have any)
• 1/4 tsp. Kosher salt (optional, use less if you use table salt)
• 1 can (oz.) sweetened condensed milk (make sure your can does NOT say: evaporated milk!!!)
• 1 c. chocolate chips (Optional - I added them for the kids)

1. Heat oven to 325 F. Line a jellyroll pan (baking sheet - 15"X10"X1") with parchment paper. You could also spray, butter, or oil the pan. However, I found that this can leave the bars somewhat greasy. Plus, using parchment allows you to lift the baked bars out of the pan and onto a flat surface for easier cutting.
2. Mix all of the ingredients together very well. Fold and fold and fold until every bit is coated with the milk.
3. Pour the mixture onto the pan and press it down firmly. This is important because if you don't have it all packed tightly, the bars will fall apart on you. Now, this part can be very sticky. I usually coat my hands in oil (avoid strong-flavored oils) to keep the stickiness down a little. I've also found that you can lay a sheet of waxed paper or parchment over the top of the granola and the use a rolling pin to press it all down. I just hate wasting the paper for that one job, you know?
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Because my oven's heat is not evenly distributed, I rotate the pan halfway through cooking to even out the baking.
5. Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes.
6. Cut into bars. You must do this while it is still warm. You don't have to separate the bars just yet. But, if you don't cut them now, you will find it near impossible to cut them. I can get 24 bars that are approx. 2"X3.5" - the perfect size for my family's snacking needs.
7. Let cool completely. Completely. This is going to take about 30-45 minutes, maybe more. As with the granola, you need to make sure these aren't holding any moisture before wrapping. 
8. I wrap my bars individually using small pieces of plastic wrap. I do this because these bars are often grabbed by my oldest as he's on his way out the door. You can just put them into a food storage container, if you prefer. Just make sure the layers of bars are separated by waxed paper or something else because they will slowly meld together into a gigantic hunk of granola bar (trust me - I know this one!)

And, finally, here's my granola recipe that passed muster with my oldest and my husband. It is very sweet and crunchy. I've just copied and pasted the instructions from the Crock Pot Granola #1 recipe above, since the procedure is the same. Any changes I have made in the instructions below are in italics. I also added some pumpkin seeds to this one. I didn't have them when I made the first recipe. Oh, and I only had 4 cups of oats left, so that's what I used. I'd have put in five if I had them.

Crock Pot Granola #2 

(The sweet stuff)

• 4 c. rolled oats (not instant or quick-cooking)
• 1/4 tsp. Kosher salt (if you use table salt, use less!)
• 1/2 c. slivered almonds
• 1/2 c. raw sunflower seeds, unsalted
• 1/2 c. pumpkin seeds, unsalted and shelled
• 1/4 c. EACH: finely chopped pecans and walnuts
• 2 Tb. flax seeds
• 1/4 c. wheat germ
• 1/2 c. flaked coconut
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries
• 3/4 c. honey
• 1/2 c. melted butter
• 1/4 c. dark brown sugar, packed

1. Mix all of the dry ingredients in your crock pot.
2. Melt butter and mix in the brown sugar. It won't completely dissolve the sugar, but it will make it easier to make sure that the sugar is evenly dispersed throughout the granola. Pour butter mixture and honey over granola mixture. Fold together with a large spoon until everything is coated well.
3. Turn crock pot on LOW. You want to cover the crock pot to keep the heat in, but you also need to leave it vented so the moisture can escape. I just leave my wooden spoon in the crock pot. It sticks out enough to hold the lid off enough for venting. You could also use chopsticks or simply put the lid n askew to leave an opening. If you notice a lot of condensation inside the lid, you need to leave a larger opening. 
4. Stir every 20 to 30 minutes. Make sure you are getting into the corners, sides, and bottom of the crock. Make sure to stir it thoroughly each time. The parts of the granola that are touching the crock will, obviously heat up faster and are more prone to burning. (If you have it set to high, stir every 5 or 10 minutes. Set to low? Stir 30 to 40 minutes.)
5. Keep an eye on the color of your granola. It can take anywhere from 2 to 4 hours to cook, depending on your heat setting. You'll know it's done when it's a nice golden brown. Don't base doneness on how crisp the cereal is. Cooling time will make it crunchier.
   
6. Pour granola onto a baking sheet (or two, depending on how quickly you want it to cool) and spread evenly. Let cool for 30 to 45 minutes. You want to make sure it's completely cool before putting it away.
7. I keep my granola in gallon-sized food storage bags. Just like with the instant oatmeal, I reuse these bags over and over. You can use whatever you'd like to store your granola. Just make sure it's airtight. And, as I said above, make sure it's completely cool before packaging it. If it's still warm, it can still have moisture in it. Putting warm granola into an air-tight container will result in soggy granola and it will spoil quickly. The granola will be chunked together in this recipe after cooling. You can break it into whatever size pieces you prefer.
8. To serve: Just pour into a bowl, add a little milk, and munch away! You can also heat it up a little in the microwave. I love eating slightly warmed granola. Add to yogurt, top muffins with it, whatever you like!

 Inspiration and how-to links:
Homemade Granola at Simplify, Life, Love
Granola at Crock Pot Recipe Exchange
Homemade Oatmeal Packets at The Frugal Girls
Homemade Chewy Granola Bars at Framed Cooks

Enjoy! 

I'd love to know what ingredients you like in your granola. Do you add anything to give it some UMPH, or to make it super healthy? Oh, and I would love any ideas you might have for wrapping the granola bars individually without making a heap of plastic wrap trash. It needs to be disposable because I'm not about to send my oldest out of the house with a $7 reusable snack bag that will inevitable get lost!

Two-Ingredient Thin Mint Cookies {Last-Minute Homemade Gifts}

O... M... G...
These cookies are AMAZING!!! And, yes, there are only two ingredients. You can literally make a few dozen of these in less than 15 minutes and people will be raving about them! I wouldn't venture so far as to say that these are just like the ones that you can buy in March from little girls dressed in green and brown, but they are close enough (and WAY more affordable!) The flavor is there, but the texture is more delicate.

Now, I don't have a photo of them because, as it turns out, my husband and oldest found my stash and pigged out. No worries, though, you can see a photo HERE, on Vanessa of The Crafty Nest's Pinterest board, where I found this idea. I cannot find her original post on her blog, so I cannot link you directly.

So, here's what you're going to need:

• A bag of Andes Mints (the original ones)
• A box of Ritz crackers

That's it.

Now, you can find Andes Mint pieces in some stores. They cost a little more, but you don't have to unwrap a zillion of the mints and they melt faster since they're already broken into small bits. I bought one bag of each kind because I couldn't resist having some of the mint foils on hand for projects. (Hey, free green foil paper! I'm thinking St. Patrick's Day and springtime craft projects!) Also, I didn't try using an inexpensive store-brand cracker. I wanted these to taste just right and wasn't willing to risk it. I'm sure a cheaper box of crackers would work out just fine, though.

Here's what you do:

Over a double-boiler, melt the mints. I made sure to get them good and warm so the excess chocolate would run off easily. Just be careful that you don't over-do it and burn the chocolate - ick! You could probably use the microwave, but I don't care to melt large amounts of chocolate that way. It heats from the inside out and can sometimes get overheated and burn without even changing shape!

Make sure you pull out any broken and flaking crackers from the package (I crumble mine up and keep them in a jar for a quick topping for mac and cheese or other casseroles). Simply drop one cracker at a time into the melted mints, flip it over, then fish it out with a fork. With the coated cracker laying bottom side down, very gently tap the fork to let the excess chocolate drip off. Set the coated cracker on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper or parchment (I use parchment this time of year - less chance of sticking and you can reuse it many times for the same thing.)

You can leave the cookies as they are, or make them look pretty. Since I have my assistant chef helping me all of the time, it was decided that our cookies would be pretty. I gave him several small bowls with different cookie toppings in them: nonpareils, sprinkles (some of you call them jimmies?!), colored sugar, candy cane pieces, etc. As soon as I set a freshly-dipped cracker onto the baking sheet, his job was to decorate it with "just one little pinch" of whichever topping he chose, and sometimes a few of them!

When I finished with a tray, I put it into the refrigerator for about 5 minutes to let the chocolate set up. After I let them return to room temperature, I put 3 to 4 of the cookies, depending on how big Little Guy's pinches were, into a cupcake liner. We put three cupcake liners worth of cookies into a sandwich bag and tied it securely for giving to friends and family. You want to make sure that these are sealed pretty well or the minty flavor will sink into your other baked goods - not very yummy!

Now, I have to go melt some more mints. There are two guys in the doghouse right now who are going to be replacing the cookies they ate last night. See? These are so easy to make that I can actually have them do it on their own!

Fizzy Bath Bombs {Last-Minute Homemade Gift}

I originally found the recipe for these on About.com - the place to find articles about anything by anyone! This recipe for the Bath Bombs is based on the one posted by David Fisher, so I'd like to thank him for showing me just how easy these are to make. Really, I've been wanting to try them out for a while now, but they always seemed so complicated and as if they needed a ton of ingredients that were expensive and hard to find. Not true on either! 

Now, I scented my bath bombs with lavender essential oil and dried rosemary from my garden, but you can use any number of scent combinations. Check out this tutorial on mixing essential oils to get the right scent on Easy Aromatherapy Recipes. Just remember: If you use herbs instead of the oils, you'll need to use more. Also, remember that once the herbs rehydrate in the tub, their scent will be stronger! I chose Rosemary and Lavender because I just love how the two blend. Also, I had to buy the essential oil for this and I wanted something that I'd use often. And, once again, don't go all out and buy some expensive and fancy rosemary - get the cheap bulk stuff.

There is one ingredient on the list that I was worried about finding: Citric Acid powder. I took a shot in the dark and visited our local health food store, Health Matters in Monroe, MI, and found that Maurine had it AND it wasn't expensive. I only got a 4 oz. bottle, so I had to halve the recipe on About.com and, of course, I changed it up a little. Here's what I ended up with:

Rosemary-Lavender Bath Bombs

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. Corn starch 
• 1/2 c. Citric Acid (4 oz.)
• 1 c. Baking Soda
• 1/2 c. Epsom Salt
• 1 tsp. Water
• 1/2 tsp. Borax
• 1/2 to 1 tsp Lavender Essential Oil 
• 1 Tb. Dried Rosemary leaves, broken up into 1/4" or less pieces (I just pinched them in my hand to break them)
• 1 Tb. olive oil
• Colorant, if you want to use it (I used gel food coloring. If you have soap colorant you can use that, too)

Now, according to David Fisher, the most important part of the entire recipe is making sure that there is a 2:1 ratio of baking soda to citric acid. This is what makes the fizzies. All of the rest can be played with. The corn starch is there to make the bath water feel silky and it also helps hold the bombs together when they dry, but you can leave it out if you prefer. The Epsom salt can be exchanged in full or in part with sea salt. The oil is also up to you. I used olive oil because it's what I has on hand and I like it. Try grape seed, jojoba, anything you like!


Equipment
*Make sure that you either use all glass or metal equipment, or use plastics that you don't need for cooking. The essential oil will permeate the plastic and no amount of washing will help you!... Trust me - I found out the hard way!

• Large glass or metal mixing bowl
• Metal whisk
• Measuring spoons and cups
• Small squirt bottle (I picked up some ketchup and mustard bottles from the housewares section at the end of summer for $0.25. You could use anything that is small, squeezable, and has a top that allows you to control how much comes out.)
• Spoons
• Baking sheet lined with wax paper, foil, or paper towels
• A mold for your bombs. I used the rounded half of a plastic Easter egg. Look around the house - lids, scoops, measuring cups, even a sturdy cardboard tube from the tin foil will work! You just want to make sure the mold is sturdy enough to withstand the pressure you're going to be putting on it by packing the mixture into it and that it is shaped to release the bombs easily.

How I Did It

I'm so sorry I didn't take pictures. Though, it would have been hard to do with my hands covered in bath bomb stuff! I made these on my own, without Little Guy's help, because I ended up making them at 2am. There are portions of this that he could have helped with, but it was rather powdery and I think I'm glad to have kept him out of this project - I wouldn't have wanted him, at his close level to the counter, to have breathed in all of that dust!

Make sure that you have all of your equipment at hand. This isn't a project where timing is everything, but it keeps things cleaner. I ended up trailing some of the mixture from one end of the kitchen to the other, collecting the things I needed as I went along.

1. Mix the dry ingredients (*except the Borax) together with the whisk, or use a sifter: Cornstarch, Citric acid, Baking soda, Salt, and dried herbs. This is where I made the dusty powder bomb in my kitchen. Make sure you have food and clean dishes put away!
2. In the squirt bottle, mix the wet ingredients and Borax: Water, essential oil, olive oil. Just put them all in and shake it up! This is where I added my food coloring, too. Remember to not over-do the coloring! The bombs will darken as they dry.
3. Put your whisk in one hand and the squirt bottle in the other and get ready - this is where you have to make sure you went potty, the kids are going to be quiet for at least five minutes, and the answering machine is on. Just FIVE MINUTES! Squirt a tiny drop of the oil concoction into the middle of the dry stuff and wait a couple of seconds. See how it fizzes up? You don't want that to happen as you're mixing the wet and dry ingredients together, so make sure you keep stirring with that whisk. I don't know the scientific explanation as to why the stirring prevents the fizzing, it just does. So, as you drizzle the wet ingredients into the bowl, whisk like crazy. You may want to stop drizzling once in a while to make sure that it's all mixed in before adding more. 
4. You want to check every once in a while to see if you have enough wet mixed in - depending on your ingredients, you may need less wet than you mixed up. Grab a small handful of the mixture and squeeze it hard. Open your hand and gently poke the mass. If it flakes up any, crumble it back into the bowl and keep adding the wet ingredients. If it doesn't - stop and go on to step 6. If you run out of wet stuff, go to step 5. (Check the picture that David Fisher was so kind to include in his instructions here.)
5. If you need more wet, just put 1 TB of water into your squirt bottle. I added a little more food coloring here, too, because I wanted a darker color. Shake it up really well to get some of the leftover oils mixed in and keep squirting, mixing, and checking to see if you have enough wet in there. DO NOT USE TOO MUCH WET! I have no idea how to fix this!
6. Now you're ready to mold your bath bombs! Get your mold and fill it up with the mixture. Press it in there as tightly as you possible can. This took everything I had to do - I have arthritis in my wrists and fingers. It's important to get it packed well, or they'll end up falling apart as they dry (if they do, just crumble them up, put it in a jar with a nice bow on top and call it Fizzy Bath Salts!) 
7. If you're using a tube to mold them, set it directly on top of the lined baking sheet. Put some of the mixture into the tube, then use something to batter it down. I used a spice jar lid that fit perfectly inside the tube. kind of like a piston, and then used a long wooden spoon handle to pound it down. It worked great, but I didn't care for the giant pill-shaped bombs, so I scraped them and used the 1/2 egg mold. Once you have it packed well, just slowly lift the tube straight up. If it sticks, you can tap the sides of the tube and use the lid/spoon to press it out as you lift.
8. Unmolding can be tough. You must have patience because you can't just plop them out unless your mold will allow it.I just repeatedly tapped and shook the mold against my hand until the bomb came out. There were times when I'd nearly given up - it was getting really late! - but then the bomb would pop into my hand. 
9. Set the bombs on the baking sheet into your oven or other safe place to dry. Mine were dry in 12 hours, but I let them sit for about a day and a half just to make sure they were dry all the way through. When they were dry, they were rock hard and not at all fragile! 
10.  I packed three bombs into each bag, added a sprig or two of dried lavender for pretties, and was done!

Now, after I made these, I thought of a few possibilities that I could have tried, had I had the time:

• Split the dry mixture into two separate bowls, mix the wet ingredients into two separate bottles, and add different colors. When molding, create stripes or swirls of the two colors.
• Wrap each bomb in plastic wrap and tie with a ribbon.
• Put the bombs into wide-mouthed Mason jars with a pretty ribbon tied around the top.
• Pack the bombs into a "spa gift basket" with herbal tea, raw honey, a pretty mug, handmade soap, a scrubby or pretty washcloth...  

I'm planning on making these more often! I tried one out (had to make sure they worked!) and I loved it. Do you have any scent combos that you think would be good? For me, for my husband and oldest, for little guy, for gifts?

Orange Spice Potpourri {Last-Minute Homemade Gift}

 I got the original idea from a post on Keeper of the Home. You should really check out this blog - she recently posted about different home remedies for winter ailments. I get tons of great ideas from her!

I cannot believe how great this stuff ended up smelling. I just added a few ingredients to it. It is so easy to make - Little Guy pretty much did it all himself! Just make sure that you have the whole family save their orange peels!

Orange Spice Potpourri

• Cinnamon Sticks
• Whole Allspice
• Whole Cloves
• Peels from Oranges
• Bay Leaves
• Pine cones or Wood shavings (from untreated wood!),
• Orange or Citrus Essential Oil

Now, looking at the list of ingredients, I know what you're thinking: "Doesn't she have any idea how expensive those spices are???" Yes, I do. That's why I bought the dollar store out of them! As I mentioned in my Spiced Dough Ornaments post, if you're not eating it, it doesn't matter how good these things are. You want them for their scent only, so go the cheapest possible. You may even consider buying some of those Cinnamon-Scented Pine Cones to use - just pull them apart!

Next, I used Clementines. Little Guy can peel them by himself and the peels are very thin, they dry very quickly. I kept a bowl near the trash can and told everyone to put their peels into it. Little Guy's job, before bed, was to tear the peels into small pieces (about 1/2" X 1/2"). Then, we spread them onto a wax paper-lined cookie sheet and popped them into the oven. We have a pilot light that is on all of the time, so the little bit of heat generated by it helped dry the peels overnight. If you don't have a pilot light, try setting the sheet near a heating vent or anywhere that the air circulates.

You don't have to go collecting pine cones and wood shavings like we did. I just wanted to be able to bulk up my batch of potpourri so I could give out more and use less spices (they might have been bought at the dollar store, but the cost does add up, anyway!) We had a friend save his shavings for us. Since we had a lot of time before having to give the gifts, We mixed up a little food coloring into warm water and added the shavings. I let them sit for a couple of hours, then drained and spread onto a cookie sheet. I was worried about the orange scent being overpowered by the spices, so I shook a little bit of the essential oil onto the still wet shavings then put them into the oven to dry. They took about 24 hours, and I used my hand to turn them over a few times so they'd dry all over.It added a little extra color and extra scent to the mix.

Now, I didn't give any measurements because there really aren't any. I used about 8 cinnamon sticks. I had to get out a hammer and gently hit them so I could break them into 1/2" to 1" pieces. I used one jar of cloves (0.62 oz, I think), and the same amount of allspice. I think we had the peels from a dozen clementines (they shrink a ton when they dry!) and around 1 1/2 c. of wood shavings. I dumped it all into a bowl and Little Guy used a wooden spoon, then his hands, to mix it all together.

We wanted to have enough potpourri to give to ten people, so we put about 1/2 cup (eyeballed it) into a sandwich bag, then tied closed with a pretty ribbon. The potpourri smell good enough to just set in a bowl. When it stops being "smelly", just put a tablespoon or two into a mug filled about halfway with water and microwave for 45 to 60 seconds. Mmmm!

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In Up to My Eyeballs in Melted Chocolate and Candle Wax...

I had planned on writing two posts tonight before going to bed. Not gonna happen!

Since we don't have a car, it can be kind of hard to get things done in the winter time. Well, Michigan has some of the most contrary weather I've ever witnessed. Tomorrow (Thursday) is going to be 51 degrees and partly sunny. This will be the perfect opportunity for us to walk to the post office and get our three packages of gifts mailed out. Oh, and I have got to buy stamps for our cards! I MUST remember to buy the darn stamps! Our cards have been done for a week - the first time that I've ever gotten them done when I planned - and they're just sitting here... waiting for a 3 year old with a marker to get a hold of them!

Now, I had planned to mail out our packages next Monday, but I just can't let a beautiful day in the middle of December go by without taking full advantage! Little Guy needs to get out and run (his snow pants make him waddle - it's cute, but not that great for getting around quickly), I need to go to the grocery store, I have a few more items to pick up at the thrift store for projects that I am giving on Sunday, AND I just found out that I can get free range eggs at the health food store - so I have got to stop there, too. Anyway, the date change means that I need to have all of the gifts I plan on mailing made, wrapped, packed, and addressed... TONIGHT!

I planned on making one food item per night this week. Each afternoon all week, I was to work on the homemade gifts I plan to give. They're not terribly complicated, but they do take time. Well, since those gifts and food items are all supposed to go into the packages I want to mail out, I need to get it all done tonight. I know I won't... it's too much stress and these things need to be done right. I don't want to be giving crappy gifts just because I went too fast. I also don't want to hate making this stuff. I live for the holidays. I love making things to give. Regardless, I still want to try to get as much done as possible.

Please check back tomorrow evening, though. I have a wonderful story to tell you! Plus, I have a quick giveaway to post.

Here's a preview of the story I want to tell you. 

Can you guess what's got Little Guy so excited and 

allowed me to get a photo of my teen with a genuine smile on his face?

Transform Your Bread Dough into Something Gooey! {Recipe... Kinda}

Yesterday, I made beef stew in the crock pot. Once the smell of the stew drifted into the front room and into my nostrils, I started daydreaming about eating it. In this daydream, I wasn't just eating that stew. It was accompanied by some very gooey cheesy bread and followed up with even gooier apple cinnamon bread. So, I tried to figure out how to move this vision from my mind to my plate. I could have made a pizza dough for the cheesy bread and a sweet dough for the cinnamon apple bread, but that means LOTS of measuring and even more dishes. So, I decided to make one of my rather bland bread recipes, split it in half, and sweeten up one part and add salt and herbs to the other.

Here's the base dough recipe that I used:

• 3 Tb. Warm water
• 2 1/4 Tb. Yeast (one packet)
• 1 c. Milk
• 5 Tb. Unsalted butter (cut into small pieces)
• 3 Tb. Sugar
• 1 tsp. Kosher salt (if you don't have it, use just 1/2 tsp. table salt)
• 1 Lg. egg
• 2 c. + 1 1/2 c. All-purpose flour

1. Measure warm water (105 degrees F) into your mixing bowl. Sprinkle yeast onto the water and set aside.
2. Mix milk, butter, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan. Heat on medium low, stirring, just until butter has nearly melted. Let cool to warm (105 degrees F.) I have a kitchen thermometer that I just pop into the pan. Every couple of minutes, I'll stir the milk to help it cool and then check the temperature. It's not necessary, though. Just poke your finger into the milk once in a while. It should just barely feel warm. Do not try to rush this - yeast dies at high temperatures. In fact, it's better if you use it too cool than too hot. If it's cold, it'll just take a little longer for the dough to rise - no harm done!
3. Once it's cooled, lightly beat the egg into the milk mixture.
4. Add the milk to the yeast and mix.
5. Add the first 2 c. of lour to the yeast/milk mixture and stir well. Slowly, about 1/2 c. at a time, add the remaining 1 1/2 c. flour, stirring after every addition.
6. When the dough comes together, don't mess up your counter! I knead the dough right in the mixing bowl for about 5 minutes. You can stop kneading it when it no longer sticks to everything and is stretchy.
7. Oil a second bowl with vegetable oil (about 1 - 2 Tbsp.), you can use just about any oil, just remember that the flavor may transfer to the bread! Place dough into bowl and flip it around until it's coated in oil. Put a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap over the bowl, then cover with a kitchen towel.
8. Find a warm place and set the bowl there. Let the dough rise until double, about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. *You can also put the dough into the fridge overnight. It'll still rise, it'll just take much longer. You'll need to pull it out of the refrigerator about 1/2 hour or so before making the breads.

*I find that the oven is a good, safe place to let my dough rise. If it's particularly cold in the kitchen, I'll turn the oven to 200 degrees F for a few minutes, then open the door to let it cool down some before putting the dough in to rise.

From here to the end of this post, I don't have any real measurements. I just guessed. I know that I should have added a little more salt to the cheesy bread and apples to the apple cinnamon bread.

Gooey Cheesy Bread

Split risen dough in half. Set one half of the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle about 1 tsp. oregano, 1 1/2 tsp. basil, 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt, 1/2 tsp. rosemary, and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. powdered garlic on the dough. Fold the dough over the herbs and start kneading. Knead for about 5 minutes, until all of the ingredients are mixed in pretty evenly.

Roll dough to about 1/2" thick. I actually just rolled it to roughly the size of my baking sheet! Place the rolled dough onto a lightly greased baking sheet (I admit it: I use Pam.) You can also skip greasing the sheet by sprinkling some corn meal onto the baking sheet. Put the dough somewhere warm for about 45 minutes to rise.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. As the oven's heating, sprinkle cheese and any toppings you'd like over the dough. For this one, I used sharp cheddar, a little more garlic powder, and some cut-up pieces of salami that I found in the refrigerator drawer. Then, I cut a few chunks of mozzarella cheese and distributed them all over. Drizzle the whole thing lightly with olive oil or a little melted butter. Bake for about 15 minutes, checking after 10 minutes. You'll know it's done when the top is all bubbly and gooey-looking! Let cool for about 10 minutes before attempting to cut or the cheese will just melt back together. This is really good dipped in beef stew, ranch dressing, and leftover spaghetti sauce!

Cinnamon Apple Bread

As with the cheesy bread, place the dough on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle the dough with 1 - 2 Tbsp. sugar and 1 tsp. cinnamon. Knead until the ingredients are distributed. Roll to about 1/2" thick and transfer to a greased baking sheet (you can use corn meal for this one, too, if you prefer.) Let rise for 45 minutes.

Brush the dough with melted butter. Peel and cut 2-3 apples, depending on the size, (tart ones like Granny Smith or Rome are best) into 1/8" thick slices. Distribute apples onto dough evenly. Sprinkle with 1 - 2 tsp. cinnamon and 1/2 tsp. ground cloves. You can add any other spices you like, such as nutmeg or allspice. Sprinkle about 1/2c. UN-packed brown sugar (light or dark) over the apples. Then, drizzle a little honey over that. Finally, melt 2 Tb. unsalted butter and drizzle that over the apples. Bake in  375 degree F oven for 15 - 20 minutes, until brown and bubbly.

While the bread is cooling, mix 2 Tb. melted butter, 1/2 c. powdered sugar, and 1 - 2 Tb. milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream in a small bowl. Drizzle over apples, then let cool for about 15 minutes before cutting.

Do you have any suggestions for toppings for these breads? 

It was so easy to do and my family loved them so much that I know I'll be doing it again... often. 

I'm thinking that a spinach/artichoke/Parmesan cheesy bread might be good. 

And I'm trying to figure out how I'd do a pumpkin version of the sweet bread.

Spiced Dough for Ornaments {Craft}

On Sunday, I had planned to make salt dough ornaments with the kids as our Advent calendar activity. Well, on Saturday night, I checked out all of the different recipes, looking to see if there was anyone with an unusual twist or different kind of ingredients. I'm always looking for stuff like that. Anyway, I saw an old recipe that I tried a few times with my oldest and didn't much care for: Cinnamon Applesauce Dough. I mean, it was OK for playing with, but it didn't set up well for ornaments and the scent seemed to go away as it dried. So, I switched my search to a cinnamon dough that had those two qualities I've been missing.

I decorated these two rather quickly so I could take pictures and write this post. The kids and I will decorate the rest on Thursday - it's another one of our activities!

I came upon the best recipe yet! It was posted on a blog called Heartland MOPS. And, if you know me, you know I changed it a little bit. (One thing I want to tell you before I get started on the recipe: Do not buy your spices at the grocery store for this one. Head to the dollar store, Aldi, anywhere else. They don't need to be fresh, you're not eating them - just using their smell!)

Spiced Ornament Dough

• 1 c. ground cinnamon
• 1 Tb. ground cloves
• 1 Tb. ground ginger
• 1 Tb. ground nutmeg
• 1 c. applesauce
• 2 Tb. white glue (I used Elmer's Glue All)
• 2 Tb. flour + more for rolling dough 

1.  Measure out the dry ingredients and stir them together. Make sure you pour the cinnamon and stir slowly! There will be cinnamon dust floating around and you probably don't want to be breathing it in. I had Little Guy get down off the chair he was standing on and wait at the kitchen table until I had the wet ingredients added.
2. So, yeah... the next part is to add  the applesauce and glue. Now, the glue probably isn't a necessity, but it does hold everything together nicely once the ornaments are dry.
3. Once everything is mixed pretty well, have you kid put his or her hands into that bowl and knead the dough for a while. It's not as if it has to be perfectly kneaded, so just let them feel it, squish it, and smell it for 5-10 minutes. What they're doing is helping the gluten in the flour come out, making the dough a little elastic. If the dough seems too wet or sticky, add a little more flour. It really shouldn't be sticky. You should be able to shake your hands and have the majority of it fall off.
4. Now it's time for fun! Roll the dough on a lightly-floured surface to 1/4" thick. I had some that was slightly thinner, but you need to be careful - the thinner the ornaments are, the more likely they will break! Also, watch that you don't use too much flour. You can see faint white areas on my ornaments from using too much.
5. Cut the ornaments and set on parchment- or foil-lined baking sheets. You don't really have to worry about them being far apart because they're not going to rise, but make sure that they aren't touching.
6. Bake at 200 degrees for an hour - your house is going to smell AMAZING. If they're still wet, carefully flip them over and bake for 30 minutes to an hour more - check every 10-15 minutes to make sure they don't burn! (Burnt cinnamon is nasty-smelling and will hang around the house for days. Yuck!) If you don't want to bake them, you can let them dry on their own for 3 to 4 days, turning once a day to dry evenly.
7. Once dry, you can decorate your ornaments in any number of ways. I chose to use obviously inedible decorations so no one would think they were cookies. While the ornaments are made of food and non-toxic glue, they taste nasty - just ask Little Guy who decided that I was wrong when I told him it was yucky. He took a HUGE bite of dough when my back was turned. He really wanted to prove me wrong and tell me it was yummy (yep, he's three!) When I turned back around, I knew, by the look on his face, what he'd done. I waited to see what he'd do. After holding it in his mouth for 30 seconds, it got spit right out.

If you don't celebrate any ornament-related holidays, you can also make beads from this dough. That's what I did with the scraps that were leftover. You could make a nice car freshener by threading a few large beads onto a ribbon and hanging it from the rear view mirror. I tossed a couple of flattened disks of dried dough into the exhaust of our vacuum cleaner, so every time I run it, the room gets deodorized, too!

Easy DIY Advent Calendar with Stuff You Already Have {#Craft}

Every year, I make plans to make my own Advent Calendar... I always wind up picking one up at Walgreen's for $2 around December 5th. I also make a list of fun family activities that we can do together for the holiday season... and it ends up just sitting there because I don't plan ahead. Not this year!

I saw a really easy Advent calendar idea where you use muffin tins as the base. It's perfect - the little candy holders are already there! And, the next day, guess what hubby came home with... Yes, 6 aluminum mini muffin tins. It seems that someone he knew was going to just throw them out (I KNOW!) Knowing me, he figured if I couldn't use them, I'd recycle them. Two of them are now part of our Advent calendar, and I'll be able to use them again next year!

Another idea I saw was to make an Advent calendar that contained a surprise family activity for each of the 24 days leading to Christmas. If I put an activity on little pieces of paper for each day, I'd kind of have to do the stuff, right? You can't have the kids opening each section, read the paper, then say, "Eh... I don't feel like it!"

So, here's my little Advent calendar idea. It took me a total of one hour to make it, including the portions that the kids helped me with. I mostly used things I have around the house. I bought candy and some nice scrapbooking stickers that were on sale at 2/$2.

The mini muffin tins that I have hold one dozen muffins each, so I needed to figure out how to make them stick together. I don't keep glue that works on metal laying around the house, so I figured out a different way: bread ties. Yeah... I never throw them away. I even have other people save them for me! You can use those suckers for everything, even sticking two aluminum pans together! I had the kids help me peel the paper off of about 6 ties. Then, I used a pin to poke holes in both of the tins and threaded one end of each wire into the holes. I loosely twisted each wire before I flipped the tins over and tightened it all up.

*TIP: See the picture on the right up there? 

That paper clip saved me lots of trouble. 

I stuck it on there to remind me which cup

was Day 1. The tins got turned around so 

many times that I had to take all of the candy

out and read the activities so I knew which

one the calendar was supposed to start on.

Next, I had the kids help me. First, we had to agree on some activities. I found a wonderful list of over 30 ideas at Code Name: Mama that I borrowed from. Some of the things we chose will take effort, others are very easy: Make paper snowflakes, Take a family walk at night to look at the decorated houses, bake and decorate cookies (I have four days set aside for that!), family holiday movie night, write to Santa... The very next thing I did - and you shouldn't skip this step! - is to plan out what we;ll be doing on what day, then wrote it down in my planner. This is so important! You don't want to: 1) be surprised that today is the day you're supposed to go to the zoo, and 2) have something major planned for a bust night and something that takes 10 minutes planned for a day when you have lots of time to spare. I wrote all of the activities down on a piece of paper and we put them into the bottoms of the muffin cups.  The kids each got to pick out a bag of candy to fill each day's section with. So, they each took turns placing two of their candies into each cup.

While my oldest watched Little Guy, I got out the glue gun. I had to figure out how to cover each of the cups so they could be opened individually. I saw some great ideas on Pinterest that included cutting little circles from cardstock and covering each individually, making felt bags that contain the day's prize that had a glue dot holding them into the cups... I had two options with what I had on hand: wrapping paper or newsprint. They're both pretty easy to tear open. If I used one sticker for each day, when the kids puled on the sticker, the paper would rip and reveal the contents of the cup underneath. Although wrapping paper is a little more decorative, I went with newsprint. I've been carefully folding each piece of packing paper that I get and squirreling it away for projects just like this - not using it would have been insane, you know?

Now, I had to figure out how to make the paper stick to the aluminum well enough that the kids wouldn't end up ripping the entire sheet off on the first day. I came up with this nifty idea: I used a nail to poke holes in key areas of the tins. Then, I used the glue gun to glue the paper over each section - one at a time. I made sure to let the glue pool a little wherever I had poked holes. After I had the entire paper glued down, I carefully flipped the tins over and put extra dollops of glue over each hole. I also reinforced the bread ties by laying down a line of glue over the two edges of the tins they were holding together.









Then it was time for Little Guy's VERY IMPORTANT job. He had to put the stickers onto the Advent calendar! I had him leave Day 24 empty because I wanted to add a picture of Santa for Christmas Eve.

*TIP: If you have little ones helping, put dots where the center of each cup is.

Our last step was to fancy it up a little bit. I has all kids of ideas: the old tissue paper squares on the end of a pencil thing (too frustrating when it sticks to the pencil), glitter (and look like I ran into a pixie until February?!), paint (too easy for Little Guy to puncture the paper with the brush. AHA! We have tons of ribbon, so we simply glued a little in the spaces between the stickers.

The photo above is our almost-finished product (you can see some of the white glue's not even dry yet!) I plan on putting bows on each corner and then attaching a ribbon to hang the calendar on the wall. Where to put this posed a problem until I was downloading the pictures of our Christmas tree**.  When I saw the photo, I saw the perfect spot - just  left of the tree, up high. There's no way (short of using a long stick or throwing something heavy at it) for Little Guy to get that calendar down. He's is a candy freak and it doesn't agree with his disposition, so one piece a day is enough! He knows there's a whole lot of candy in those tins, so I have to be extra careful.

Don't you just love the thermostat? I think I'll put a big bow on top of it so it looks like an ornament. As we add our own ornaments to the tree, it should blend in... right?

**Now, we don't have a real or plastic tree for a variety of reasons. So, each year, I go out and look for the "perfect tree wrapping paper". In an hour or so, I cover the wall with wrapping paper , then cut out a tree shape from the tree paper. This year's was a quickie job - Little Guy was cranky and I was trying to hurry up and get it done so I could put him to bed. It's not even or anything, but that's how they come in real life, right? As we get closer to Christmas, we'll be making little crafts here and there and adding them to our tree as ornaments (we already have a beaded candy cane on there!)

This post has been added to the following crafty linkies:
 

Turkey in the Crock Pot {And a Couple More Thanksgiving Recipes}

Just like with my Thanksgiving craft post, I'm late on this one, too. But I wanted to try it all out before posting the recipes, so I have a good excuse. Plus, these are all things that can be made anytime, not just Turkey Day! In fact, I will be making turkey in the slow cooker from now on - it's so moist and I really don't care if it has a golden brown skin (we never eat that part anyway, and I think the cat doesn't care what color it is, either!) So, here's what out Thanksgiving Menu looked like (the ones with stars have recipes below):

• Crock Pot Turkey*
• Roasted Acorn & Butternut Squash
• Green Bean Casserole (It's my oldest's favorite)
• Fresh Cranberry Sauce* (three ingredients!)
• Mushroom & Sage Dressing
• Red Mashed Potatoes w/ Garlic & Rosemary
• Sweet Dinner Rolls*
• REAL Pumpkin Pie* w/ Real Whipped Cream

 Crock Pot Turkey

OK, I found this recipe via The Crock Pot Recipe Exchange. It came from A Busy Mom's Slow Cooker Adventures. These are both my go-to sites for crock pot recipes that aren't the same old thing. I changed the recipe quite a bit so it included the things I think are essential to a Thanksgiving turkey. 

7lb. Turkey Breast (bone-in, skin on)
2 carrots
2 stalks celery
1 apple
1 onion
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. garlic powder (NOT salt!)
1/2 tsp. rubbed sage
1/2 tsp. thyme
3 fresh rosemary stalks (is that what they're called?)

1. Cut up the carrots, celery, apple, and onion into big chunks. I just rinsed them off and chopped. They're there for flavor, not to eat (they go into the woods tonight for all of the little animals!)
2. Line the bottom of the slow cooker with the veggies and apple. Put the rest into the breast cavity, along with the rosemary. 
3. Set the turkey into the crock pot. I bought some slow cooker bags for this one. I knew I'd be doing dishes all day long and did not want to be scrubbing the crock at midnight! 
4. Mix up the salt and herbs. Rub them onto the breast's skin. *OPTIONAL - cut up 3-4 Tbsp. butter and set on top of the breast.
5. Cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Now, I just want to tell you about our turkey this year. Due to the long cooking time, I put everything into the crock pot the night before, then stuck it into the fridge. Hubby was supposed to set his alarm for 7am so he could wake up, put the crock pot into the cooker, plug it in, and set it to low. I expected to sleep in and wake up to the smell of turkey cooking. He forgot to turn it on!!! So, our dinner didn't get finished up until after 7pm. (I couldn't get mad - I can't tell you how many times I've done this!)

The turkey was amazing!! I am a dark meat person but, with this way of cooking it, I didn't even miss it. It was moist, flavorful, and YUMMY!

Fresh Cranberry Sauce

This is from my very, very favorite cooking star, Alton Brown. I could watch Good Eats all day, every day. I have learned so much about the science behind cooking just by watching (not trying to write everything down or memorize it all.) I've found that the knowledge just kind of embeds itself into my brain. I'll be cooking something and just know what spices to use. I also know why it's important to spend the time to cream the butter & sugars for cookies and how to make the flakiest pie crust ever. If you ever have a chance to watch one of his shows, you'll be hooked - I promise! As with the turkey recipe, I changed it just a little. Alton's recipe calls for both OJ and cranberry juice (Click on "Alton Brown, above, for the real recipe). I forgot the cranberry juice when I was shopping, so I doubled the OJ. I've never had real cranberry sauce, and my mouth was in heaven when I tasted this. The extra OJ, I think, gave it the perfect flavor.

(Oh, and this makes the perfect "sick food", too. With all of the Vitamin C, honey, and antioxidants, it really helps get over that cold fast. Plus, the tartness cuts through the mucous. Little Guy came down with a cold and has been more than happy to eat a few bites throughout the day!)

1 lb. fresh cranberries

1/2 c. fresh orange juice (I used reconstituted frozen)

1 c. honey

1.  Mix juice and honey in a tall saucepan. You want a tall one because the cranberries will pop and they tend to spray. Also, this can boil over if you're not careful. Cleaning up cranberry/honey goop from the stove is NOT easy! Heat the juice and honey until it boils. Lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring often.
2. Rinse cranberries. Pick out the soft and wrinkled ones. Add to juice/honey mixture. Let cook over medium-low heat for 15 minutes or until all berries have popped and sauce thickens. Do NOT cook longer than 15 minutes or the pectin in the berries will break down and it won't gel up.
3. Let sit for 5 minutes to cool.
4. Find a 3-cup mold. Anything will do, as long as you can invert it and let the sauce slide out. I used one of my square food storage containers. Pour the sauce into the container and let cool for another 10-15 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for 6 hours. You can do this a day ahead of time, but make sure you eat it within 24 hours or the sauce will begin to get watery again.
5. To loosen from the mold, hold the container in hot water for 15-30 seconds. Put a plate over the top of the mold and - flip! - you should have the perfect-looking cranberry sauce. If it's ugly, no big deal. The taste will make everyone forget how it looks!
6. *** You can add cloves, cinnamon, ginger, orange peel, etc. to the recipe, if you want. Add these when you add the cranberries.

 Sweet Dinner Rolls

I love dinner rolls! I have had a hard time finding a recipe that is fast, uses few ingredients, and really has a lot of flavor - until now! These are amazing rolls. They are so easy to make that my husband (who can't cook anything unless the ingredients are cold cereal and milk) did it himself one day when I was sick. By Himself! I found this recipe on Foodie's Hope and didn't change a thing!

1 Tbsp active dry yeast (this is a little less than 2 packets of yeast)
4 Tbsp. sugar
1 c. + 2 Tbsp. warm milk
1 tsp Kosher salt
1 egg
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
3 1/2 to 4 cups all-purpose unbleached white flour (you can replace up to 2c. with wheat flour)
1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp. honey for glazing rolls

1. Mix the Yeast, 1 tsp Sugar (out of 4 tbsp sugar), 2 tbsp warm milk (about 105 F), let it froth for 5-10min. Use a cereal-size bowl, because when it froths, it grows! (The kids like watching the yeast "fart" - Yeah... they're guys!)
2. Heat 1 cup of milk, the rest of the sugar, and the butter until butter melts in the milk. Set aside until it cools down just "warm to touch" temperature. I used my thermometer to make sure it was below 105 degrees F because I've killed yeast by adding milk that's too hot.
3. Add 1 egg to the milk and beat well. Then add in the yeast and stir. It doesn't have to be beaten in or anything.
4. Sift 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour with salt. Make a well in the center, add milk mixture and stir. Knead it well until you get a soft dough, not sticky. Now, I hate cleaning flour off of the counter, so I just knead tit right in the bowl. You can do it either way - just make sure the gluten in the flour are working and the dough gets stretchy.
5. Lightly oil a large bowl (I use olive oil, you can use anything you want.) Place dough in the bowl and turn it so it's coated in oil. Cover the dough with a clean towel or plastic wrap and let it rise until double, about 1 hour. You can also let it rise in the fridge overnight.
6. Punch down the dough and lightly knead it in the bowl. Divide it in half, then divide those in half (you'll have 4 equal pieces.) Cut each of the four pieces into three even pieces - you'll have 12 total. Roll into balls and set onto a lightly greased baking sheet. Cover and let rise one hour.
7. Preheat the oven at 400 F (this is the one thing I changed in the recipe. It said 425 F, but I found it made the bottoms burn.) Uncover the rolls, brush it with egg glaze for the best browned color (or with melted butter for super-soft rolls), then place the cookie sheet in the oven on the middle rack.
8. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until they are golden. If you tap on them, they will sound hollow. Do not over-bake, they are softer when they are a bit undercooked. Cool them on a wire rack.

REAL Pumpkin Pie

I bought pie pumpkins at the farmer's market for Halloween this year. I had the kids decorate them with facial features that we cut from magazines so we could eat the pumpkins later. I just can't see how laying out $7-15 for a pumpkin that ends up as waste is good for much.) Anyway, after Halloween, we cut up the pumpkins, roasted the seeds, and I cooked the flesh in the slow cooker. I pureed it in the blender and had to add cooking water because I couldn't get it to puree without it. I was worried that the pie wouldn't set up, but Jen, Life with My BOYS, shared this recipe from Group Recipes with me. It was originally for white pumpkin pie, but I don't think it really mattered what color the pumpkins were... Oh, and this recipe makes enough filling for TWO 10" pies. I made one pie, and froze the rest of the filling for later.

I only changed one thing - I made my own pumpkin pie spice. So, rather than including all of the different spices the recipe called for, I added up the total amount of spices and just used my pumpkin pie spice mixture for the entire amount. The pie set up perfectly and the spices were perfect (if you don't like a lot of spice, cut back by about 1 tsp or so.) Oh, and I used Alton Brown's Pie Crust recipe. It's the only one I use now - it's perfectly flaky and very easy to make. If you have a hard time with pie crust, watch this episode of Good Eats. He explains everything you'll ever need to know to make crusts of any kind, with any recipe, and have them turn out perfectly every time!

4 eggs
3 c. pumpkin puree
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
6 oz. evaporated milk (it's 1/2 can - I gave the rest to the cat. He's now my very best friend.)

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Mix all of the ingredients together. I used a wire whisk because I've found that using a mixer causes bubbles to form and you end up with a pie that has a bunch of little holes on top.
3. Pour pumpkin mixture into prepared 10" pie crust(s) - I have a 9" deep-dish pan, so that's what I used. I cannot stress this part enough: Line a baking sheet with foil and set the pie(s) on top. My pie boiled over and I'd have had a nasty mess if I hadn't used a baking sheet. The foil saved me from lots of soaking and scrubbing, too!
4. Set pie(s) in the oven. After 15 minutes, TURN DOWN the thermostat to 350 F. Bake 50-60 more minutes, or until the center is set. Because my pie was deep-dish, it took about 70 minutes.
5. Cool on wire rack. We eat our pumpkin pie warm, which is how I thought everyone ate it until I moved to L.A. and people looked at me as if I had two heads when I asked them if they wanted their pie warmed. So, if you want it cold, make sure it's cooled to room temperature before putting it into the fridge. If you don't, you'll end up with that gooey, watery stuff on top. Not a big deal, but not all that pretty, either.

Everything was wonderful! It's now Friday night, and we have only enough leftovers for one more meal - for one person. I do have extra turkey and a quart of turkey stock in the freezer. I think that, with the response from my family (and the fact that even my oldest was having leftovers, and then seconds!), I need to make this meal more often. Who says a turkey dinner is for Thanksgiving only?!

Super-Easy Pumpkin Decorating!

The last few years, we haven't carved pumpkins. I always hated paying for a pumpkin, only to throw it out after Halloween. Yeah, we got pumpkin seeds from those carving pumpkins, but they weren't very yummy. So, I started to buy pie pumpkins and we do this to them:

It's so fun and easy for the kids to cut out eyeballs, mouths, and noses from magazines. Then, with a little glue, we make some pretty creepy pumpkins. I mean, really - Which is scarier? A pumpkin with triangles carved into it, or these weird-looking faces that just aren't right?

Plus, it's safer and everyone can participate. I mean, I know that my oldest is 13, but his knife skills aren't all there. I don't want him showing his kids a scar on his hand one day, saying, "You see this one? I got this while carving a pumpkin. Twenty-three stitches!" And then there's Little Guy who is at a point where, "I do it myself!" translates into: "If you don't let me do exactly the same thing as everyone else, I'm going to flip out into a pool of tears and ear-piercing screaming!" So, letting him try to figure out how to use scissors, then giving him a paintbrush and a bowl with some white glue it such an easy solution.

Just checking out the pumpkins.

This is a great way to explore some creative options in facial features!

We're planning on gluing on some marigolds and autumn leaves for hair tomorrow.

On Tuesday, I'll cut up the pumpkins and bake the seeds and cook the pumpkin in the crock pot, then puree it for pies, cookies, etc. No wasted money - and some healthy fall treats, too!

Do you have any good pumpkin recipes we might want to try? Let me know!

Money? What Money?! {#CarNatPar}

Welcome to the October Carnival of Natural Parenting: Money Matters
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama. This month our participants have shared how finances affect their parenting choices. Please read to the end to find a list of links to the other carnival participants.
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Photo by Aaron Patterson

I’ve learned that being “poor” is the easiest way to go green. Really, it is. Now, I’ve always leaned toward living naturally. Heck, I was the only person in my high school to celebrate Earth Day – and by “celebrate” I mean that I walked around the town I lived in and picked up trash for a couple of hours. I really didn’t know much else about it. I was raised in an upper middle-class family. We consumed and wasted a lot of stuff. Even when I was in my twenties and worked as a waitress, I didn’t really think about my lifestyle. I lived in Los Angeles, had The Oldest there, and was on a very tight budget. I guess it wasn’t tight enough – if I wanted something, I bought it. I didn’t think twice about the environment or the effects it had on my child. Then…

In early 2008, just weeks after hubby and I were married, I learned that we were expecting Little Guy. I was working third shift as a baker at a coffee shop. Just a month after finding out I was pregnant, hubby had an accident that totaled our minivan (thankfully, no one was hurt.) The next day, I found out that I couldn’t keep working at a job that had me on my feet & lifting heavy things for 8 – 10 hours a day. I had started bleeding and an ultrasound revealed that I had placenta previa. OK, no big deal. We talked it over and decided not to replace the van. Since I didn’t need to get to work at hours that the buses didn’t run anymore, we really had no need for a vehicle. It would save us a ton on gas money, insurance, and repairs (I swear, that thing cost us exactly $500 every time anything went wrong.) Hubby worked days and the buses ran right on schedule for him. So, #1 way to “afford” living more naturally:

NO CAR!

I decided to get back to school while I wasn’t working, so I started an online program that would have resulted in earning a Bachelor’s degree. I applied for financial aid and obtained a Pell Grant and a couple of student loans. Twice a year, I received a stipend check that helped pay for our utilities and rent (a.k.a. “room and board”), leaving some extra money out of hubby’s checks to pay for baby things, maternity clothes, little extras for The Oldest, etc. It was great – we were actually doing better with me home and not having a car than when I was working and driving!

We were even looking for a larger apartment. Our place was a one-bedroom, 625 sq. ft. apartment that we called “The House that Herb Built” (Herb being our landlord.) The angles of the walls, floors, and ceilings are wonky – you can never hang a picture and make it look straight because all of the angles are so crazy. The insulation (if there is any) in the walls is so thin that a gust of wind can be felt through the entire place. My Oldest had the bedroom and we were sleeping on a twin mattress in the living room. What were we going to do when Baby came?

Then, hubby was injured at work. It wasn’t a workman’s comp. type of situation, he had some medical problems that caused the accident and, as a result, was unable to work any longer. He filed for SSI in July of 2008. It was a good thing that I was at home because he needed care and someone to be around all of the time. Some of his medications had him walking around outside our apartment at 3am not knowing where he was. For a while there, I had one of those alarms on the door that beep loudly whenever it was opened so I knew if he had gotten lost on the five-foot walk from the living room to the bathroom and made his way outside. Without his income, we just couldn’t afford to move. We learned to make our small apartment work.

It can be hard, especially in the winter, with all of us in this little apartment. When cabin fever strikes, we do two things: purge our belongings and watch a TV show or DVD about how others live around the world. We receive all kinds of hand-me-down stuff from people. Rather than donating to the Salvation Army, people bring their useless junk to us instead. Then there’s hubby, who can’t go past a dumpster without peeking inside. Therefore, the place fills up rather quickly and a good purge helps. I read Momma Jorje’s Monday Minimalist posts to help get myself in the mood for this! And, because you just don’t know how good you have it until you see how other people live, I try to find some kind of show that features a family of 10 living in a hut the size of Oldest’s bedroom. We’ll all sit on the twin bed in the living room, passing around popcorn, and remind ourselves that we have it really, really good! There you have the #2 way to “afford” living more naturally:  

LIVE IN THE SMALLEST SPACE POSSIBLE.

Money started to get really tight with only my stipends to live on – they totaled only $8,000 a year. Our rent took nearly half of that, and utilities took the rest. We had to apply for food stamps – no choice. I also started going to WIC for milk, cereal, juice, etc. WIC even had a great program called Project Fresh that allotted me $50 a month to spend at the farmer’s market! We stopped eating out altogether – it was just way too expensive. We used to order pizza twice a month. I decided to make it from scratch, instead. It cost roughly $4 to make the same amount of pizza that we paid $25 to have someone deliver. (When I think about spending a whopping FIFTY DOLLARS on pizza – just two meals – every month, I want to kick myself!) I also started to make my own bread, froze as much farmer’s market produce as I could fit into the freezer, and stopped buying pop and junk food. Tortilla chips and shredded cheese, for instance, replaced chips. This was healthier AND the fact that we actually had to make nachos rather than grab a handful of chips when we were hungry made us all think twice about why we wanted to eat in the first place. Was it to fuel our bodies, or “just because”? I had also been reading a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. She and her family agreed to eat only locally-grown food (I think it was within 50 miles of their home?) for one year. As she describes how the family met their challenge, some disturbing facts about fuel consumption, pesticides, and many other food-related eco-unfriendly truths are revealed. Yeah, our eating habits definitely changed and the #3 way to “afford” living more naturally was born:  

KNOW WHERE YOUR FOOD COMES FROM AND WHAT IT’S MADE FROM.

Little Guy was born and I learned that there’s a huge difference between “want” and “need”. We did not need the things that you always see on those lists from baby registries: bottles, swing, wipes warmer, monitor, crib, changing table… I had breasts (well, actually, I still have them!) that held his food at the right temperature and didn’t cost anything, I held him all of the time, we made our own wipes on an as-needed basis so the water was always warm, um – don’t need a monitor if you’re in the vicinity of baby all of the time, we co-sleep, a blanket on the floor or bed works perfectly as a changing table. I can go on and on about how all of those “must have” items are a waste of money, space, and resources. The only thing that we really had to worry about was laundry and diapers. I never had the full amount needed to invest in cloth and, just three years ago, the availability of affordable cloth diapers was limited (or I just didn’t know where to look.) Clothing, toys, etc. were easy to come by – we either received hand-me-downs or I hit up the local thrift stores. When he started eating food, I just made my own from farmer’s market finds. Rather than buying all kinds of little freezer bowls and special baby food making equipment, I just used the blender and asked on Freecycle.com for some baby food jars. Hence, #4 of how to “afford” living more naturally:

LEARN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “NEED” AND “WANT”.

Since this is getting very long, I’m going to make this the last one (yay!)* One thing I worry about is my Oldest son. He is growing up with friends whose families are still stuck in consumer mode. Even though we live closer to the low-socioeconomic side of town, his friends still get new shoes & clothing, video games, junk food, etc. And here’s my kid, trying to be cool in last year’s styles from the thrift store, trying to keep up on the newest video games so he can talk about them without actually having ever seen them, and eating an apple for a snack rather than a bag of Cheeto's. He doesn’t complain, but I know it’s hard. Now that he’s in high school, it’s even harder. Other kids judge. And, while it’s all well and good to keep telling him that they’re just being stupid teens and one day they’ll realize that the style of shirt you’re wearing doesn’t define who you are – it doesn’t make today any easier for him.

So, without a lot of money and attempting to live green, I started to enter blog giveaways and take surveys that offer Amazon.com gift cards and PayPal payments. I use these to get gifts and “cool” stuff for the kids, especially my Oldest. Last week, he gave me his Christmas list. Yeah, I know… BEFORE October even started! You know why? “Because I know that if you win something, it can take a while for it to get here.” He made up a very modest list of things he’d like because he knows that I can attempt to enter giveaways or check out Amazon for sales of these items. Some of the things I win or buy aren’t 100% green, but I have to remember what I felt like when I was his age. I want him to feel good about himself and have the self-esteem that I didn’t. This year, he will be wearing his very first non-homemade costume for Halloween thanks to a giveaway I won (kinda cool since it'll be his last year trick-or-treating!) I know that he understands my lifestyle choices and he knows why I made the decisions I have made. He and I have had numerous conversations about why such-and-such is bad (for him, for people, for the earth…) and I see him making eco-friendly decisions more and more. However, it’s important to note that I made these choices for me. I cannot deprive him of the things he wants or make him feel bad for wanting them just because of my opinions. The final thing to remember if you want to “afford” to live more naturally is:

FIND WAYS TO LET YOUR KIDS BE PART OF THE CROWD.

So, how do you live more naturally and still make ends meet? We’ve gone without and learned how to live comfortably, but there’s always room for improvement!
Any suggestions?

*I have a lot more to say on this subject, but I wanted to keep it at a readable length. :)

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Visit Code Name: Mama and Hobo Mama to find out how you can participate in the next Carnival of Natural Parenting!

Please take time to read the submissions by the other carnival participants:

(This list will be live and updated by afternoon October 11 with all the carnival links.)

• Money Matter$ — Jenny at I'm a full-time mummy shares her experiences on several ways to save money as a parent.
• A different kind of life... — Mrs Green from Little Green Blog shares her utopian life and how it differs from her current one!
• Show Me The Money! — Arpita of Up, Down & Natural shares her experience of planning for parenting costs while also balancing the financial aspect of infertility treatments.
• Material v Spiritual Wealth - Living a Very Frugal Life with Kids — Amy at Peace 4 Parents shares her family's realizations about the differences between material and spiritual wealth.
• If I Had a Money Tree — Sheila at A Gift Universe lists the things she would buy for her children if money were no object.
• Financial Sacrifices, Budgets, and the Single Income Family — Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama looks at the importance of living within your means, the basics of crafting a budget, and the "real cost" of working outside of the home.
• Overcoming My Fear of All Things Financial — Christine at African Babies Don't Cry shares how she is currently overcoming her fear of money and trying to rectify her ignorance of all things financial.
• Confessions of a Cheapskate — Adrienne at Mommying My Way admits that her cheapskate tendencies that were present pre-motherhood only compounded post-baby.
• Money Matters — Witch Mom hates money; here's why.
• Money? What Money?! — Alicia C. at McCrenshaw's Newest Thoughts describes how decisions she's made have resulted in little income, yet a green lifestyle for her and her family.
• What matters. — Laura at Our Messy Messy Life might worry about spending too much money on the grocery budget, but she will not sacrifice quality to save a dollar.
• Making Ends Meet — Abbie at Farmer's Daughter shares about being a working mom and natural parent.
• Poor People, Wealthy Ways — Sylvia at MaMammalia discusses how existing on very little money allows her to set an example of how to live conscientiously and with love.
• The Green Stuff — Amyables at Toddler In Tow shares how natural parenting has bettered her budget - and her perspective on creating and mothering.
• Jemma's Money — Take a sneak peek at That Mama Gretchen's monthly budget and how Jemma fits into it.
• 5 Tips for How to Save Time and Money by Eating Healthier — Family meal prep can be expensive and time-consuming without a plan! Dionna at Code Name: Mama shares five easy tips for how to make your cooking life (and budget) easier.
• Belonging in the Countryside — Lack of money led Phoebe at Little Tinker Tales towards natural parenting, but it also hinders her from realizing her dream.
• Total Disclosure and Total Reform — Claire at The Adventures of Lactating Girl gets down to the nitty gritty of her money problems with hopes that you all can help her get her budget under control.
• Save Money by Using What You Have — Gaby at Tmuffin is only good with money because she's lazy, has trouble throwing things away, and is indecisive. Here are some money-saving tips that helped her manage to quit her job and save enough money to become a WAHM.
• Two Hippos & Ten Euros: A Lesson in Budgeting — MudpieMama shares all about how her boys managed a tight budget at a recent zoo outing.
• ABBA said it — Laura from A Pug in the Kitchen ponders where her family has come from, where they are now and her hopes for her children's financial future.
• Money vs. Time — Momma Jorje writes about cutting back on junk, bills, and then ultimately on income as well ~ to gain something of greater value: Time.
• An Unexpected Cost of Parenting — Moorea at MamaLady shares how medical crises changed how she feels about planning for parenthood.
• 5 Ways This Stay at Home Mom Saves Money — Charise at I Thought I Knew Mama shares 5 self-imposed guidelines that help her spend as little money as possible.
• Frugal Parenting — Lisa at My World Edenwild shares 8 ways she saves money and enriches her family's lives at the same time.
• Conscious Cash Conscious — Zoie at TouchstoneZ shares her 5 money-conscious considerations that balance her family’s joy with their eco-friendly ideals.
• Money, Sex and Having it All — Patti at Jazzy Mama explains how she's willing to give up one thing to get another. (And just for fun, she pretends to give advice on how to build capital in the bedroom.)
• Money could buy me ... a clone? — With no local family to help out, Jessica Claire at Crunchy-Chewy Mama wants childcare so she can take care of her health.
• Spending Intentionally — CatholicMommy loves to budget! Join her to learn what to buy, what not to buy, and, most importantly, where to buy.
• New lessons from an allowance — Lauren at Hobo Mama welcomes a follow-up guest post from Sam about the latest lessons their four-year-old's learned from having his own spending money.
• How to Homeschool without Spending a Fortune — Deb Chitwood at Living Montessori Now shares tips and links to many resources for saving money while homeschooling from preschool through high school.
• It's Not a Baby Crisis. It's Not Even a Professional Crisis. — Why paid maternity leave, you may ask? Rachael at The Variegated Life has some answers.
• "Making" Money — Do you like to do-it-yourself? Amy at Anktangle uses her crafty skills to save her family money and live a little greener.
• Money On My Mind — Luschka at Diary of a First Child has been thinking about money and her relationship with it, specifically how it impacts on her parenting, her parenting choices, and ultimately her lifestyle.
• Spending, Saving, and Finding a Balance — Melissa at The New Mommy Files discusses the various choices she and her family have made that affect their finances, and finds it all to be worth it in the end.
• Accounting for Taste — Cassie at There's a Pickle in My Life shares their budget and talks about how they decided food is the most important item to budget for.
• Money Matters... But Not Too Much — Mamapoekie at Authentic Parenting shares how her family approaches money without putting too much of a focus onto it.
• Parenting While Owning a Home Business — In a guest post at Natural Parents Network, Lauren at Hobo Mama lays out the pros and cons of balancing parenting with working from home.
• Crunchy Living is SO Expensive...Or Is It? — Kelly at Becoming Crunchy talks about her biggest objection to natural living - and her surprise at what she learned.
• Mo' Money, Mo' Problems — Sarah at Parenting God's Children shares how a financial accountability partner changed her family's finances.
• The Importance of Food Planning — Amanda at Let's Take the Metro discusses how food budgeting and planning has helped her, even if she doesn't always do it.
• Kids & Money: Starting an Allowance for Preschoolers — Kristin at Intrepid Murmurings discusses her family's approach and experiences with starting an allowance for preschoolers.