Sourdough Starter is Here!

I love how it says "please feed me".

Sprouted Flour Tortillas

Yesterday I made Sprouted Wheat Tortillas from THIS recipe from Fresh Idea Mama.  I have never met her sister is a fellow homeschooling mama by me and she is so kindly going to give me some Kefir grains AND a Kombucha Scooby- how awesome is she!!!  
I made the recipe pretty much per her instructions except I used sprouted flour and they turned out very nice.  Not quite as soft as unbleached white wheat but maybe would have been if I would have sifted out the flour? 

Here's my little doughball flattened- sorry the picture quality is really bad on this one.

Here it is rolled out on my awesome Cherry Breakfast Board from Palumba.
It worked out great for this cause I could stand at the oven and cook one while I was rolling out the other.  I just rolled it on this little board and kept watch on the cooking one.

Here's one all finished. 

From http://www.freshideamama.com/
I only changed to sprouted but have made her way before and they are great!
Makes 8 Small Flour Tortillas
Ingredients:
* 1 3/4 cup unbleached white flour (I used sprouted)
* 3/4 tsp sea salt
* 1/4 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 cup coconut oil, softened
* 1/2 cup very hot water
* coconut oil for cooking

Directions:
1. Gently mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in a mixing bowl. Add the coconut oil, and work into the flour with a fork, or until crumbly.
2. Mix in the hot water and gently mix with a fork. Pour mixture on a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes. Make the dough into a ball and place back in the bowl, cover with a towel and let rest 15 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into 8 separate balls and roll with your hands to make as smooth as possible. Then flatten each ball in to a paper thin circle using your palm, *make sure they are really thin or they will turn out more like a pancake. (you can also use a rolling pin, but I find using my palm is much easier and makes a much more evenly round tortilla).
4. Preheat an oiled skillet on medium heat. Cook the tortillas one at a time by placing them in the hot greased pan and cook for about 40 seconds or until small air bubbles appear. Flip over and cook for another 40 seconds, and then finish by flipping over one last time for another 20 seconds. You know it is done when it will slightly puff up, and small browned spots will form on the surface. *Do not let the pan get too hot or you will get burned spots, and continue to grease skillet as necessary.
5. Let cool and freeze unused tortillas

Salisbury Steak Update

Here's a picture. Made it again tonight and it was awesome! Didn't have any beef stock so I just used the wine and it was still great without it. When I deglazed the pan I used wine but then added a little water along with the flour and some cream. Yummy gravy. When you cook it slow like that it is just so fork tender. Next time I have to make 2 lbs though cause Manny ate 1/2 mine and only Tommy got 2 pieces.

Living Treasures

Manny really enjoyed feeding the animals at Living Treasures Animal Park today.

Kennywood

Manny looks as tired as I feel but he wants to keep going. I just want to go home and get a shower and go to bed.

You Have Got to be Kidding Me!

Obama is asking children to forgo their bar/bat mitzvah gifts and have money donated to his reelection campaign instead.  This is directly from his site-

Register with Obama 2012

Got a special milestone or event coming up?

Instead of another gift card you'll forget to use, ask your friends and family for something that will go a little further: a donation to Obama for America. Register your next celebration—whether it's a birthday, bar or bat mitzvah, wedding, or anniversary—with the Obama campaign. It's a great way to show your support for a cause that's important to you on your big day.

That's just wrong.  If a child wants to donate a few buck of their allowance or money from a special occasion that's up to them but not to register.  Madison, who is 14 wanted to donate to Rick Santorum and a modest amount was fine but I would have been mad at him too if he would have suggested what Obama is.   Romney may not have been my first choice but there is just so much about Obama that is just wrong, so sadly wrong.   

Why??????

Some of you may b wondering why I am posting a picture of my Spotbot along with Raspberry Lemonade. Well, I mistakenly gave Manny his sippy cup with the lemonade in it and let him walk away while I was cleaning up after dinner. Yep, that was a mistake. A few minutes later, no more than 5, tops Marlee comes running into the kitchen telling me to come and see what Manny did. What he did was suck some lemonade out then spit it out all over the carpet, REPEATING this over and over till his cup was empty. Really? Why? That boys only getting water in his cup for a good long while!

Mini Bacon Wrapped Meatloafs

Wonderful!!!
Just made meatloaf like I normally would and made them small and wrapped them in Applegate Natural Sunday Bacon sprinkled with a touch of maple sugar. They were wonderful and cut like butter, even the bacon. The potatoes, carrots and onions were cut small and mixed with a bit of oil and ketchup first for flavor.

Ok, so here's an idea of how I usually put together a meatloaf, these are guestiments since I dont ever measure for meatloaf.

1 lb of grass fed beef
1 lb of grass fed veal
2 eggs
1/4 cup of Panko bread crumbs
1/4 cup of an shredded cheese I have/like available
1/4 cup of some sort of tomato sauce/ketchup/pizza sauce/tomato soup
splash of milk or cream
salt
pepper
mama garlic
onion powder
parsley
whatever seasoning your family likes
If I have cottage cheese I like to toss some in too
I used to mix by hand but have started using my kitchen aid to mix it just till its blended, you dont want to over do it, kind of like muffin batter.

I really liked it better as small, personal loaves instead of one big one and so did the rest of my family.  I cooked it in a low 320 degree oven for over 2 hours while we went swimming then came home and uncovered it and turned the oven up to 400 for about 15 mins. 

I wrapped them all in 2 slices of bacon then sprinkled with maple sugar because we love maple bacon but I didn't have any.

THIS recipe is awesome and I'm going to try it mini-style soon.

The girls think THIS mac n cheese should be the side dish next time and I agree.

Lana Bella Goodness

Oh Jenni, you create such lovely things. I can't wait to dig into this box of goodness. If anyone orders from Lana Bella after seeing her items here please let her know I referred you and you will get 15% off. Use my email- ms3mama@yahoo.com in the "note to seller" area of your order. I ordered mine throughout lanabella.etsy.com. Gotta go now and enjoy!

Is Walmart Trying to Tell Us Something.....

It's around $60.00.

Trying to Stay Cool at 92 Degrees

She's playing in our sprinkler that Tommy hooked up like a shower. They loved it.

Look at Our Boys

So sweet. They are enjoying some ice cream at Gram and Paps after swimming. Manny loves to do what ever Mason is doing and be where ever he is. He's such a little shadow.

Our Little Herb Garden

Is thriving. I planted the basil a little late but it's doing great. Next to it is rosemary and then parsley. Our bunnies have been enjoying our parsley. I can't wait till the basil is big enough to share with them too. They didn't care for the rosemary.

Manny the Architect.

You can see the concentration on his little face!

This one is Masons but he didn't want in the picture.

Mmmmmmmm

Manny liked Marlees communion cake ;)

Picking up my girl at camp

Look What Marlee Found

Marlee found one of praying mantis babies when she was watering for me today. He's so cute. Our babies are growing up ;) I'm happy to see some have stuck around.

Please excuse my unattractive hand.

Redmond Products are Here!

The toothpaste is the reason I looked into this company but ordered these other good looking items as well.  Who couldn't use a good detoxing bath soak?
HERE is the Earthpaste info.  I'll let ya know how it tastes.

Here is the powdered clay.  You can read about it HERE

This is a picture of the bath salts.  You can real about them HERE

I mixed up some to drink and made the paste from some.  The paste is good for so many things.  You can read about that HERE

And here is Manny having fun with the packing stuff.

Disclosure-  I am not being paid or anything by Redmond.  I just learned of their products and ordered some to hopefully get the good effects from them :)

Waterplay

Nothing calms an annoying cranky child like playing in/with water. My water bill is going to break me though cause Manny has been tough lately and we have been outside, in the bathtub or the kitchen sink a lot playing in water and it running is much more soothing to him than just playing in it. He loves all the elements- fire, water, wind, and dirt!

Shamrocks Rock

Did you realize shamrocks were so hardy? I didn't. Mine is thriving outside in a pot. And they close at night which is really cool too.

Blueberries

Mason just picked me these blueberries for my yogurt. We have a tiny bit of soil for a garden but we have 2 blueberry bushes squeezed in and they are so good.

This is a tiny bush but it actually produces more than our bigger one.

Here is our bigger bush.

Here's the little's posing in my picture of the small soil/garden area we have.  I had asked them to stop scootering and riding around for a minute so that I could take a picture.  The blueberry bushes are over on the right. 

My "New" Toland Flag

Got it at a yard sale for .50 cents. And it's like new! I just staple them to my wooden fence cause I don't have a flag pole and I like them better that way anyway.

Pan Crispy Nuts

These are so easy. And as usual I don't measure, just dump stuff in.
In a skillet (non stick) on medium/high heat
About 1/2 cup of nuts per 2-3 tablespoons of raw sugar.
Heat till sugar is melted, stirring constantly. Sprinkle with sea salt.
I then dump mine on parchment to cool.
They are so good and satisfy that need for something crunchy.

Good Morning

Mason is such a good boy.

He was so well behaved at Liturgy today. Can you see the Old Testament Icons behind him?

Cream Cheese Cookies

Wonderful!

These cookies are just the best darn sugar cookie ever.  HERE is my post with the recipe.  This time I made them with the rectangular medium sized cookie cutter that Ree recommends for THESE yummy cookies.  I like this cutter for several reasons.  One being this dough is very soft and you do not want to keep rolling it and adding a ton of flour and with these cutters there is hardly any waste at all.  And secondly because they then fit very nicely in

Here

I am makng two batches of dough.  One with regular unbleached flour and the other with organic sprouted flour.  The batch pictured is the regular flour.  Today I will bake the sprouted.  I had a very uncooperative 2 1/2 year old yeasterday so making both just wasn't happening.
Some of the cookies pictured just have the unbleached sugar sprinkled on them before baking with the egg wash and the others also have ground walnuts for those of us who love nuts. (me)
I will post picts and let you know how the sprouted flour ones turn out.
 Gotta run and get ready for Divine Liturgy :)

Ok, here are the Sprouted Flour ones and they are super good!  I did the recipe the same but just swapped out the unbleached flour for sprouted.  I also rolled them out in the sprouted so that they have no regular flour at all.

Yard Sale Finds

Got this wonderful Wagner Cast Iron Skillet for $5.00 and it wasn't even rusty!

I'm breaking it in this morning with one of Mason's favorites- COBBLER  from the Pioneer Woman of course.

We found some other great buys that I will try and post later.

Coffee?

Have I mentioned that I love our Keurig?  I didn't even touch coffee till I was pregnant with Marlee and the now all the children like it but her, go figure.  We save money on the k-cups by brewing them twice- like Madison gets the first brew and Mason gets the 2nd and we also use our own ground coffee in the refillable k-cup.  We also bought our machine at Costco and it came with tons of free coffee and when you registered it you got 4 more boxes of free coffee!

Review- Trader Joe's Sun Dried Tomatos, Fire Roasted Peppers and Cheese

I can't get this stupid picture to rotate!

Anyway,  I can't tell you how much I love Trader Joes.  The prices and quality are well worth the 45 minute drive.  The Sun Dried Tomatoes and Fire Roasted Red and Yellow Peppers are both only $1.99 and the Parm., Romano and Asiago Cheese Flakes are $2.49!  I also get a Citterio Cubed Pancetta there for only $2.99.  I just love TJ's.

Chicken and Veggie Pasta

Noodles- preferably gluten free
Grilled Chicken - pan grilled mine
Sundried Tomatoes
Steamed Broccoli
Grilled mushrooms -pan grilled mine
Parmesan Cheese Flakes
Garlic Mama Seasoning from Frontier
Toss with a little butter and olive oil

Manny Likey

Bacon and Blue Stilton Salad

Madison and I made these for lunch today. Very good

From Trader Joes-
Blue Stilton Cheese
Cucumber
Romaine lettuce
Green onion
Tomato
Broccoli

Homemade croutons with Panera Three Cheese Miche bread

Giant Eagle-
Bolthouse Farms Chunky Blue Cheese Yogurt Dressing
Applegate Farms Sunday Bacon

Coffee Cream Cake Defrosted

It freezes so good. I'm so happy I made a double batch.

HERE is the original post.

Iced Coffee

The older girls and I picked up this coffee on sale and with a coupon yesterday at the Market District Giant Eagle and it is really good. Not overly flavorful, which we like. I'm using a slightly altered version of the Pioneer Womans Iced Coffee. I use a bit less coffee and cut the recipe in 1/2.

Lego Lord of the Rings Preview!!!!!

Click HERE to see it!!!

Homemade Cream Soda Recipe

This recipe is from the Summer 2008 issue of Hobby Farm Home magazine and it is so good. I thought I lost it and almost cried so I'm blogging it so that never happens again.

Brown Sugar Cream Soda with Real Dairy Cream-

2 cups spring or well water
1 cup organic brown sugar, lightly packed
1 T. real vanilla extract
1 T. lemon juice
Heavy cream to taste

Bring water to a boil and completely dissolve brown sugar in it. Once dissolved, add lemon juice and remove from heat. Add the vanilla after mixture has cooled slightly so it's aroma won't dissipate in the high heat. Cool and store in refrigerator.
Makes about 2 cups of syrup. To serve, try 1 part cream, 2 parts syrup and 3 parts carbonated water, adjusting to taste.

Curse You Costco!

before

You had to have the big box of Ghirardelli brownie mix on sale for such a good price that I just had to buy some to make my most awesome Peanut Butter Filled Brownies!!!!

Filling recipe-

Beat together

4 Tlbs. melted butter
1/2 cup powdered sugar
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/4 tsp. salt -if not using salted butter
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Add about a heaping tablespoon to the center of each "cupcake" brownie before baking.

After

 
                                                                              

This pict. didn't come out as good as I would have liked but can you see the top one is cut in half so that you can see the yummy peanutbutter filling :)