Homegrown Thoughts
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008 - Snickerdoodles |
| Posted in Home Arts |
I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but lately I’ve been on a big baking kick. I’ve been looking at tons of recipes to try and they all look so good and I feel the need to make them all!
My most recent baking foray took me to very familiar territory. Snickerdoodles. I’m pretty sure these are the first cookies I ever made by myself and I’ve made them a lot in the intervening years. I’ve always used the same recipe from the very beginning and never considered trying a different one. Until this week. As I was perusing allrecipes.com, I came across a Snickerdoodle recipe with a 5 out of 5 rating and 2,142 votes! Now that is pretty amazing. So I decided it was time for this old dog to try a new trick and I made the new recipe.
I’ve compared this recipe to my old standby and much to my surprise, there is quite a bit of difference between them. And here I figured all Snickerdoodle recipes were pretty much the same. Apparently not! I don’t notice a huge difference in taste, but the new recipe seems to be holding up better than my old one. The cookies are maintaining a nice crispy/chewy balance that my old recipe would lose in about a day. I generally like to slightly undercook my cookies to keep them chewy but I cooked this one about a minute longer than I normally would have because I mistakenly believed I was making the cookies larger than the recipe called for. It turns out I got exactly the amount the recipe said I would (48 minus the 2 cookie’s worth of raw dough I ate, heh heh) using my cookie scoop. So I might bake them a slightly shorter time next time, but they are actually good just the way they are, too. I did alter the recipe slightly as the sugar/cinnamon mixture they are rolled in was not enough in the original recipe.
Adapted from:
Yields: 48 servings
INGREDIENTS:
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
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2 teaspoons cream of tartar
3 1/2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
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DIRECTIONS:
| 1. |
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). |
| 2. |
Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. |
| 3. |
Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. |
| 4. |
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets. |
Technorati Tags: recipe, cookies, baking, snickerdoodles
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Friday, May 9, 2008 - Our First Letter From Selina |
| Posted in True-Life Tales |
We got our first letter from our Compassion Child, Selina a few days ago. So exciting! It was written on March 14, which was only about a week after we became her sponsors. Pretty fast! She answered some of the questions I asked her before she even got our first letter. It looks like it takes about 8 weeks for the letters to get from her to us and, I assume, from us to her.
We’ve learned that she has one older sister and 2 younger sisters. And a duck. :-) She likes to count and write at school. We also got some drawings that she did - very good for such a young child! I’m going to send her some coloring pages. She draws and colors better than my boys do! She also wants to know when I will come visit her. Uhhhhh… that would be very cool but at this point I don’t really see that happening. But you never know what God has in store, right?
It’s just so neat to hear from her. We’re going to put together a notebook to keep her letters in and also some information about Tanzania as a ready reference. We’re still working on the Swahili!
Technorati Tags: Compassion-International, Africa, Tanzania
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Friday, May 2, 2008 - FREE Resources (6 days only) |
| Posted in Homeschool Helps |
I received this information today and thought it might be helpful to some of my readers. :-)
http://www.learninga-z.com/
Access to Thousands of FREE Resources During Teacher Appreciation Week
We all owe much of our success in life to teachers everywhere. We at Learning A–Z want to thank educators the best way we know how—by opening up access to our websites. Last year during Teacher
Appreciation Week, we held an Open House that provided FREE access to ALL of our educational websites. Response was so overwhelming that we are going to do it again, and for even longer!
Explore Six Websites Bursting with Materials
Each day during this year’s Teacher Appreciation Week, May 5–9, plus May 12, Learning A–Z will open one of its six password-protected websites. This will allow teachers to leisurely explore all of Learning A–Z’s resources, including our newest website for differentiated instruction, Science A–Z.
We invite teachers everywhere to sample the Internet-delivered books, lessons, activities, and worksheets—for FREE.
Enjoy Six Days of FREE Access
The websites will be open on the days indicated below, from midnight to midnight Central time.
May 5 readinga-z.com
Thousands of printable books, including leveled readers and supporting materials
May 6 raz-kids.com
Interactive leveled reading library and online progress management system
May 7 writinga-z.com
The most complete collection of elementary writing resources anywhere
May 8 vocabularya-z.com
Custom vocabulary lessons and activities to match thousands of topics
May 9 reading-tutors.com
Skill-specific materials for students needing extra reading help
May 12 sciencea-z.com
Science units with multi-level books, lessons, experiments, and labs |
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Thursday, May 1, 2008 - Warning: Power Tool Use Imminent |
| Posted in True-Life Tales |
I’m trying not to lose my momentum with my project completion here. I’m having many discussions with myself about whether it is better to seed and fertilize before or after the predicted rain over the next several days, if I should even be doing this in the spring rather than the fall, if I can do it alone or need to wait for help from my husband…blah blah blah. Having not come to any kind of a solid decision, I settled for mowing the front yard and finishing the de-thatching of said front yard by doing the last side yard. Doing that on a windy day was probably not the best choice, but it’s as done as I’m going to get it. I also went and picked up my new microwave and chest freezer from Lowe’s. They barely fit in the back of my van, whew! That was what I got done yesterday.
I had many plans for great strides in the project department today, also. I didn’t get far. I spent much of the day dealing with homeschool group work, freelance work and spending some quality time with my older son. You see, we just ordered a Wii and it was imperative that we do some research online to see what games we might want to get for it. We bought a bundle and probably will exchange the games it includes for some other ones, so…of course the projects had to be postponed for this important activity. I’m not really a ‘gamer’, but I am excited about the Wii as it will be more active games, not just sitting on the couch exercising our thumbs. I was a little freaked out by the cost, but my friend Heather mentioned it being out of my physical education budget for homeschooling and somehow that made it feel a lot better. :-)
What I did accomplish project-wise today was getting our range hood down in preparation for the over-the-range microwave. That was not easy and I got quite a workout. *insert flexing biceps visual* Come to find out, the range hood is not vented! I was sure it was vented out of the house, but no. I’m really surprised because this house is new enough for me to expect outside venting. However, that’s not the case, so we’ll be going the re-circulation route with the microwave fan. GE wants us to spend an extra $40 every 6-12 months on a charcoal filter for said re-circulation, but I’m pretty sure I know how to take care of it for much less. So no thank you, GE, you have enough of our money already.
I then started reading the installation instructions and getting the template ready.
Tangent: How do you pronounce the word template? I say ‘temp-lutt’ and my husband says ‘temp-layt’. I’ve never heard anybody else pronounce it the way he does. He claims the computer people he’s worked with say it the way he does. I find this odd. Anyway…
So I got my ‘templutt’ all folded to size and ready to go, then saw that I have to insert some wood blocks as filler because we have a recess under our cabinets. This is the way my projects are going. If there can be an extra step needed or something a little ‘off’ which causes a lot of extra work, that’s how it will be. Fortunately, I did locate one lone 2 x 4 in the garage, which is there for some unknown reason. I’m very glad I don’t have to go back to the home improvement store for yet another item this week!
So that’s where the power tools come into play. I now need to cut this 2 x4 to create 2 blocks of wood that will perfectly fit the recessed area under my cabinet so I can attach the microwave to them. This will involve sawing and sanding as the 2 x 4 is about 1/2 inch too thick for the recess. I will have bandages and tourniquets at the ready.
You may be asking yourself about now, “Where is her husband and why isn’t he doing this stuff?” That is a good question. And here’s the answer. My husband would most likely be doing this stuff if I weren’t so impatient and would wait for him to get to it. But his ‘get to it’ list is quite long and I’ve learned that if I want it done on my timetable, I need to do it myself. Which is fine. I’m fairly handy and like doing most of this stuff. So much of what I do in my life is intangible and invisible, it’s nice to do something that I can actually point to and say, “I did that!”, once in awhile. My husband is very good about jumping in to help me when I get to a point that needs more than one person to accomplish or I’ve managed to get myself into a situation I can’t figure my way out of.
So…that pretty much sums up my day. Other than a gaping hole where the range hood used to be, my home looks very much the same as it did when I got up this morning, other than some additional dishes and toys strewn about. There were already plenty to start with, thank you very much. Maybe I’ll get some house cleaning done tomorrow. Or not.
Technorati Tags: home-improvement, projects, tools, Wii
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Friday, April 25, 2008 - I think I gained 5 pounds... |
| Posted in Home Arts |
…just looking at the picture of these bars. Oh. My. Word. I am so making these as soon as my husband is done with his challenge diet. 2 more weeks to go!
I mean, seriously. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars? Each word you read just makes it better and better. And that doesn’t even include the chocolate drizzle on top.
Check these out!
Bake or Break recipe post
Technorati Tags: recipe, baking
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