A Creative Cookbook Idea

Just a little while ago, Emily began working on her own cookbook. She's including recipes that she likes & wants to try. That gave me an idea: (after some suggesting from Emily ;) I'll make my own cookbook for that one day when I'm married and need an idea for dinner!  I still have yet to start it, but when I do, I'll let you all know.

Any ideas for some recipes? I plan to include the recipes I have grown up with, & my most recent favorites, but I just might add a few that are new. I might start the cookbook once we are settled since most of our recipes (like some of our family recipes) are packed, but I do have some memorized. (like my chocolate chip cookies!)

I'll try to keep you all updated on it!



Picture Credit

Tasty Oatmeal Raisin Cookies!

About 2 weeks ago, Emily made some tasty Oatmeal Raisin Cookies! The recipe we use is the one you get from the Quaker Oats container. It's really yummy!

We were given this beautiful blue countertop mixer from some dear friends, and we wanted to try it out! Making cookies was the perfect thing to test it!

Here Emily is mixing the wet ingredients. (Yes! That's a toy kitchen! lol!)

Dry ingredients added.

CHEESE! Jaden enjoyed helping Emily make the cookie batter!

We were using the girls toy kitchen in the "office" area since in the warehouse, it was very cold that day.

Adding the oatmeal & raisins!

Mix!

The finished cookies! They turned out small because Emily used wheat flour instead of white. (usually w/ white they are slightly flatter/bigger.) These were gone by bed time! lol!

Criss-Cross-Applesauce

Today Emily was making homemade applesauce, so I thought I would have her take some pics so I can blog about it :)

It's really very simple.

Homemade Applesauce

First, start with some apples. (It doesn't matter how many. 4 makes about 2 servings.)

Quarter the apples, seeds, skin, and all!

Put the quartered apples in a pot with some water. You don't need to fill the whole pot with water. Just enough so that the apples don't burn when cooking. (About 1/4 full maybe) The apples will give their own juices.

Boil the apples. Stir occasionally so the apples don't stick to the pot. Be careful not to mash them yet!

While the apples cook, get your food mill or apple-saucer out.

When all the apples are soft, put them in the food mill or apple-saucer & mash!

Like so. In the apple-saucer that we have, there are small holes in the cone shaped part that allow the applesauce to go through, but leaves the skin & seeds behind!

Cooking the apples the way we did give the applesauce lots of nutrients!

The applesauce.

TADAA!! Home made healthy & FRESH applesauce! No additives or preservatives! It's very easy, too!

Jaden loves his applesauce!

SEE!?

Now, what to do with the left over liquid?

Simple.

Strain the apple juice into a bowl, or pitcher, (we transferred it to a pitcher afterwards.)

The more water added in the beginning, the less "apple-y" your juice will taste.

Enjoy!!

I had to post this!!

 

Who got out of bed during nap time & fell asleep at the door?!

Lydia! Purse, & all! lol!!

(I'm glad she fell asleep on the rugs, & not the cement!)

We found her there when Emily went out to get something, & tripped over the dear girl! lol!

She's now cozy on the couch! lol!

Innovative baking!

With us moving in a warehouse so my dad can work on an invention project, we have learned to make do without some lovely features taken for granted in a kitchen! Namely, an oven!
Our "oven" is our lovely large roster! Things have been taking nearly twice as long to "bake", but so far it's all turned out alright! (except for the gingerbread cookies...Those, not so much...)

Today I made some Pumpkin Apple Muffins! (SOO YUMMY!) I got the recipe from Mia's blog.
I doubled the recipe when I made it, but the recipe below is just a single batch. The single batch can make 2 loaves.
I thought I would blog my process since I haven't posted anything since before Christmas!

Pumpkin Apple Muffins

In a large mixing bowl, mix together 3 cups of flour, 2 tsp. of cinnamon, 2 tsp. baking soda, & 1.5 tsp. salt

(whisk together to remove lumps)

In a separate bowl, combine 3 cups of sugar, (don't decrease the amount. I ran out of white sugar, so I substituted with brown sugar. So, I needed 6c. sugar, I used 4c. white, & 2c. brown!)

15 oz. Pumpkin puree, 4 large eggs, and 1/2 c. of vegetable oil. Combine.

Next, add 1/2 c. apple juice (she also suggests apple cider!) Mix.

Add your wet ingredients to your dry, & combine. (don't whip or mix to fast. This creates gluten, and makes the muffins dense/stiff, or something!)

Chop 1 large apple and mix into the batter. (I did large pieces)

Now it's time to bake!

Grease a muffin tin. (or use muffin cups. We didn't have any, so just used Crisco, & it worked out fine!)

I did two scoops of a papered chef scoop in each muffin spot. (about 3/4 full I would say)

Lydia happy to have helped scoop the batter into the muffin tins! (Liana helped mix everything & even cracked two eggs by herself!)

We like to shake things up a bit ;-) lol!

Bake the muffins in an oven preheated to 350* for 20-25 minutes.

 (or in a roaster @ 450* for 35 min or till done when poked w. a cake tester or toothpick.)

The finished muffins! The lighter color on the muffins are the apple chunks.

This was the first batch and was eaten up before they had a chance to cool! lol!

Now, onto some other projects!

For Christmas, Caley & I got some lovely suede fabric from our grandparents, & a skirt pattern!

The color of the fabric I got is like a soft sage green, & Caley got a lovely cranberry/Christmas red! the pattern is Simplicity  # 2516. I plan to make style D, & Caley chose A. (D is the long pinkish color, & A is the long black one.

So far I have the pattern pieces cut out. All I need to do is find my sewing scissors, & then I can cut out the fabric! I can't wait to begin!

(Don't worry! I haven't forgotten about my jean skirt project! I hope to get that finished soon, too!! lol!)

I also had to post some pics of our kitty, Trinity! She's such a character!

Playing with a piece of yarn.

About to catch some yarn!

Baking...MMMM!!!

The other day I got an update on a new post from Growing in Grace Magazine, & it was a recipe!
The recipe was Challah Bread. By reading the ingredients & directions, it sounds yummy!!

Well, even though it's made to eat on the Sabbath, I decided to try it today. I made two batches before I realized one batch made two loaves! lol!
Well, we tried one loaf, & it is soooo yummy!!! We put bread on it & when you eat it when it's warm, you can taste the honey that's in the bread, & it's just enough sweetness, & it doesn't overpower it! It's really good!

Now, some of the directions were a bit vague, but other than that, it's a really simple recipe.
Now, it calls for 4 eggs, but it doesn't say if you use it for the top of the bread, or inside the bread. I just used 1 egg for on top of the bread before you bake it. It says to do that towards the end of the recipe, so I'm guessing the 4 was a typo, & is supposed to be a 1...
So just use 1 egg for the top of the bread right before you put it in the oven.

You can view the recipe HERE. I highly recommend trying it!