Donuts

 Some of you may know that I got a sweet find at a garage sale this fall: a brand new, still-in-packaging DeLonghi deep fryer. The original sticker said $20, the sticker below it said $10, so I offered $5, and she looked relieved to have it gone. Between morning sickness and the initial fear of using a deep fryer, it has been sitting in our basement for over a month now. No longer!

 We broke in our fryer with donuts. And they were yummy. I made a very simple recipe that I won't post the link for. The measurements are all in ounces, which is very annoying, and I ended up changing it pretty drastically by the end. But it still worked.

The dough was rolled into small balls, then fried for 2-3 minutes. Just as in the description in Farmer Boy, the donuts really do flip over when one side is done cooking. Watching them sizzle was really cool. The amazing part was that they came out of the fryer almost dry. There was no big grease stain on the towel after we let them sit. I don't know why that is, but it sure doesn't speak well for McDonald's fries.

We rolled half of them in cinnamon/sugar mixture, and I attempted to glaze the other half. I need a little more practice in donut glazing, but I'm sure the kids won't mind.

They tasted amazing. They were not Krispy Kreme's, they were much more home-made tasting, and it was an improvement. They had a weight to them that made you not want to inhale the entire plate, which seems like a pro rather than a con. But they weren't heavy-gross, either (which is how I generally view cake donuts, though others in my house disagree.) That said, the plate was gone in about 2 minutes, and the kids begged for more.

After a maiden run, I think that was $5 well spent! Next on the list: coconut shrimp, chocolate glazed donuts, and cannoli!

New Cookbooks!

I was very excited to get two GF cookbooks for Christmas this year:


It is a bit of a slow process to get started in gluten-free baking because of the expense of the various flours and other things that you have to buy. I have been having David stop at the local health food store every Tuesday (their 10% off day) for the past few weeks, getting just a few ingredients every time. I finally have a critical mass of ingredients to start baking things, and Ellie has been my happy food critic. Actually, she's not much of a critic. Here's how the conversation goes:
me: "Ellie, I made you some chocolate muffins!"
E: "Really, that I can eat?"
me: "Yep."
E: "How many can I have right now?"

I've also made a GF sourdough starter, though haven't tried making bread with it yet, and tonight we'll be having corn muffins with dinner. The chocolate chip muffins were actually delicious, I would have no trouble passing them off as normal. I froze most of the dozen, after letting the other kids split one, and she gets them when the rest of us are having some dessert that she can't have.

My other fun new cookbook is something that I just decided to splurge on and buy for myself:

I've been using their whole wheat basic recipe for a while now, which can be found for free here. We have enjoyed it, so I went ahead and bought the book, which promises healthy, and even some GF recipes. The UPS man brought it from amazon today, and I've been using every excuse to nurse Rose so that I can sit and read it for a few minutes. So far, I'm loving it! There will be many breads coming from our kitchen this winter!

Healthy Cookies?!?

As close as you can get, anyway...



They're also gluten-free, and Ellie had no problem downing several. Maybe I should've done this for her birthday :)

1/4 c butter, softened
3/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2/3 c. GF flour
2/3 c. rolled oats
1/4 c. flax seed meal
1/4 c. unsweetened cocoa powder
3 oz. dark or sweet baking chocolate, chopped (I used choc. chips)
1/3 c. flaked coconut
1/3 c. chopped pecans (I left these out, but I always leave nuts out)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer for 30 seconds. Add brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Beat until well combined. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in flour. Stir in rolled oats, flax seed meal, and cocoa powder. Stir in chopped chocolate, coconut, and chopped nuts (dough will be thick).
Drop dough by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. If desired, sprinkle tops with additional chopped pecans and flaked coconut. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are just firm and tops are set. Let cookies cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool. Makes about 35 cookies.

Each cookie: 84 calories, 4 g. fat

7 children for the afternoon...

7 sandwiches and 7 apples eaten, only 1 cup of water spilled.
7 kids sunscreened up.
1 kid down for a nap.
1 injured finger (volleyball for 4 boys--maybe not safe.)
6 kids playing inside because it's 90 degrees outside.
7 kids under the age of 8? Glad they're not all mine :).

Our garden in full bloom

One of the getting home "chores" that I got to do today was go around our yard and take stock of how things have grown while we were gone. This spring has been amazing for the produce we have, staying cool for many more weeks than normal in May. After the frustration of flying yesterday (thank you, United), it was so nice to go into the yard and be able to pick something that we've grown. This is about half of the ripe strawberries that are out there, and the lettuce is what I thinned out of about 1/10th of what we have. Pretty exciting! After 3 years of trying, we're finally seeing real results from the work!


Other things around the yard are blooming, also:


Here's Laura, enjoying her snack:

Grocery Prices

A friend and I recently had a discussion about whose grocery prices in town are the best. Kroger and Marsh were completely out of the running, being actual overpriced supermarkets. The options we considered were 1)Sam's Club; 2) Wal Mart Supercenter; and 3) Aldi. We left the organic foodstores in town unconsidered, since if you want organic, you are willing to pay the price for it.

Fortunately for me, all three of these stores are on our side of town, all within about 3 blocks of one another. So, over the past week, I have been carting my notebook around while I grocery shop, trying to write down prices for things I would normally buy. For my fellow grocery shoppers knowledge, I would like to start by saying that Wal Mart will match any price found in a coupon for Kroger or Marsh. How awesome is that? While I have not tried it, it almost completely eliminates the need to go to Kroger, even when they have their famous $10/10 sales, or a great price on a 12-pack of soda.

Here are the items that Aldi had the best price on:
brown sugar and powdered sugar (though they only had Sam's beat by a few cents per pound)
breakfast cereal* (Cherrios, Shredded Wheat, and Corn Chex--all the Aldi brand)
oatmeal*
wheat bread
bagels*
eggs*
sour cream*
spaghetti sauce in a jar (we love their spaghetti sauce)
grapes (one of the few produce items I'll buy at Aldi)
frozen stir-fry veggies

*these are items that are cheaper at Aldi, but for quality purposes, I spend the extra money and buy the better quality at Sam's. Sour cream, for example, is $0.99/16 oz. at Aldi, but has an ingredients list about 10 items long, including high fructose corn syrup. The Daisy brand at Sam's, however, is $3.87/ 3 lbs., but the ingredients list has 1 item: Grade A Cultured Cream. Eggs, I know, do not have ingredients, but I have always hated Aldi eggs. They don't peel well when hard boiled, and they're small. And, in general, I hate shopping at Aldi. It's not kid-conducive, and I feel like the quality is always just a little sub-par, if not majorly sub-par. Our exception is their spaghetti sauce, which we really like. I've started running by Aldi once a month without kids and stocking up on spaghetti sauce for the whole month.

Here are the items that Sam's has the best price on (providing your family eats in quantity, like ours now does):
granola bars
bread flour and regular flour
diced tomatoes
frozen stawberries
mexican cheese, shredded
Silk Soymilk
butter
milk (I never buy this, but the price was $2.26/gallon--how crazy is that?!?)
carrots
garlic
potatoes
green, red, and yellow peppers
fruit, in general
fresh mozzarella cheese
Cabot sharp cheddar (same price as Wal Mart)
Thomasville english muffins
flour tortillas
meat (not only were their prices on all sorts of different cuts cheaper, but the quality, we feel, is so much superior to Wal Mart and Aldi that we won't consider buying meat anywhere else--try the steak!)

Wal Mart, sadly, could not beat any of the Sam's prices. So, we only buy the things from Wal Mart that Sam's doesn't carry. However, for some strange reason, Wal Mart will often have gas a few cents cheaper than Sam's. I don't know why--maybe a quality issue? You wouldn't think so with gas...)

Here's what's next on my list to try to save food costs: the Aunt Millie's bakery outlet just down the road. I'll let you know how it goes!

New Recipes!

While Laura napped today and David and Carver had an event to attend, Ellie and I tried a few new recipes. The first was Curry Pumpkin Soup, and I loved it. It had both curry and pumpkin pie spice, which made the whole house smell like the Indian restaurant that I love here in town.

2 T. butter

2 medium onions, chopped (1 cup)

1 medium carrot, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 stalk celery, chopped (1/2 cup)

1 tsp. curry powder

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I improvised with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice)

2 15-0z cans pumpkin

2 14-oz cans chicken broth

2/3 cup water

1 cup half-and-half (I substituted 1/2 cup heavy cream and 1/2 cup milk)

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. ground pepper

1. In 4-quart Dutch over melt butter over medium heat. Add onions, carrot, and celery. Cook, 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add curry powder and pumpkin pie spice. Cook and stir 1 minute. Add pumpkin, broth, and water. Increase heat to medium-high; bring to boiling. Reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. Remove from heat; cool slightly.

2. In food processor or blender, add one-third of the pumpkin mixture at a time, cover, and process or blend until smooth. Return all pumpking mixture to Dutch oven.

3. Stir half-and-half, salt and pepper int opumpking mixture; heat through.

The second was Blackberry Swirl Pie. Unfortunately, we have not tried it yet (we're saving it for small group tonight), so I'll give you the recipe simply because it looks amazing!

1 uncooked pie crust

1 8-oz. package dairy sour cream

3/4 cup sugar

3 T. flour

1/8 tsp. salt

3 cups fresh blackberries or 16-oz. frozen blackberries

1. Preheat oven to 450. Let frozen berries stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare pastry and line 9-inch pie plate. Line pastry with double thickness of foil. Bake 8 minutes. Remove foil. Bake 4 minutes more or until lightly browned. Cool on wire rack. Reduce oven to 350.

2. In bowl combine sour cream, sugar, flour, and salt. Add blackberries and gently stir to combine. Spoon into prebaked crust. To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil. Bake 25 minutes (50 minutes if using frozen berries). Remove foil. Bake 20 minutes more or until filling is bubbly and appears set. Cool on wire rack for 2 hours. Serve or cover and refrigerate.

Favorite Household Items...

Bethany put up a great post about favorite household products, and asked a few of us to do likewise. It's been fun to see what other people have said they like!

1. My second favorite life-saving tool is my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. I am completely in love with it. My MIL bought it for me a few years ago, and I have used it once or twice a day since then. After watching me make bread in it, my mom also bought one. I love it because it does knead bread, so I can be nursing a baby, reading to a toddler, and making homemade bread at the same time! It really reminds me that I cannot whine about not having servants like the Proverbs 31 woman had. I have a KitchenAid.

2. Like Emily, I love my set of Wusthof knives. They were a wedding present to us, and I have been so grateful to my Aunt Sally for getting them for us! They have turned me completely into a knife snob! It's so much easier to do quick meal prep with a nice knife that's been sharpened by my amazing husband.

3. Like Bethany, I also really like my Cuisinart Blender/Food Processor. It's cool to have both things in one tool. I used to have a cheapo blender, and having a nice one really makes a big difference. My most recent experiments were hummus with roasted garlic and pesto. The kids liked neither. I've also seen in the instruction manual that it will shave ice for me. Bailey's over shaved ice, here we come!

4. My favorite cleaning tool is my set of Swiffer stuff. I have both the broom and the WetJet, and I love them. The swiffers themselves are great for dusting, and I just love being able to throw it away when I'm done dusting, sweeping, or mopping. My other cleaning favorite is Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser. I first bought one when Carver was a baby and had smeared my mascara all over our cream-colored curtains. I went to Wal Mart and bought kid-locks for my makeup drawer and the Magic Eraser. It got it all out. Totally impressive. My most recent use has been scuffs on the baseboards and grime on the stair handrail. (Of course, as I google it to find a link, I come across several websites warning against dangerous chemicals.)

5. But, over all, my favorite household helper is my 5-year old! While he's starting to understand that some jobs are not cool for guys to do, he's generally very good natured about folding and putting away laundry, cutting veggies for dinner and apples for pie, putting away clean dishes, swiffing the floors and dusting, making his bed, vacuuming, and swiping down bathroom surfaces with a Clorox wipe. My pastor's wife was right, training them early really does pay off! Yay for kids!