Posted in Life in the Crazy House

New to my blog?

 Check out my welcome post at

http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/crazyhouse/595801/

Okay, so I do reviews for the TOS Homeschool Crew, which I LOVE!  This year is even cooler than last year because we are getting a lot of stuff that isn't even exclusively for homeschooers.  One of the things I'll be reviewing is a cookbook (or if I'm really lucky, cookbooks) from Sue Gregg. 

So Sue sends us a letter and tells us to go to her website and try some recipes.  I decide to go with pancakes as we already had a dinner menu planned for several weeks, plus I thought the kids might be more open to my experiement than Sane Man.

I decided to go with unground whole wheat.  I don't know what that even is.  I mean,  I do, but I don't.  In other words, I'm not sure I've ever seen wheat before it's been ground into flour, but I know it exists.  Somewhere.  I've only used whole wheat flour a few times, so this was foreign to me.

So I go to the store and get what I think its unground whole wheat.  My kids got excited when they saw it, thinking it was bird seed!  "No," I said, "I'm making pancakes with it."  Hmmm...  I don't think they liked that idea.  The crazy thing is that when I looked at the package it said it was ground.  What do I know?  I can tell you that it was not flour, however ground it might be.  I decided that was close enough.

So I got some other stuff, like buttermilk.  Not sure I've ever bought buttermilk either.  I am way over my head here.  I prefer the kind of pancakes you buy frozen in a box, just like I buy my waffles.  (Now, my kids actually will make pancakes with a mix.  Just add water!)

So I go home and am totally excited about making something healthful.  (Grammar note:  Healthy food means your food isn't sick.  Healthful means it's good for you.)

So I get my printed out recipe and decide that with my big family I need to triple it.  I am doing some two step thing which requires me to put in some of the ingredients in the blender to sit overnight.  Something to do with breaking things down to allow for easier digestion.  (Read:  Less gas!)  I put the stuff aside and go to bed totally excited about my healthful breakfast plans.

Wow!  I get up to find that my ingredients have E X P A N D E D !  The blender is just about full.  So I turn it on.  It's making lots of noise, but I don't see any movement.  So I just keep running it.  No movement.  A strange smell.  I just keep running it.  No movement.  No SOUND either.  Oops!  I just fried my blender.

Well, I'm committed at this point.  Not to mention, I've spent a lot of money on this already.  So I try to spoon some of the "batter" into a tiny food processor.  Well, it makes sounds and I see some movement, but it just wasn't cutting it.  Still, I keep doing it and then go ahead and try to make the "pancakes." 

Well, I attempt to pour the thick goop into the pan.  It is so think that it seems to take forever to cook.  Finally I think it is done.  The "bird seed" is still fully visible and my kids are less than enthusiastic.  I encourage them to drown them in syrup to make it edible and they indulge me, but I don't think any of them got past the first bite.  The dog, on the other hand, loved them!  LOL

Oh, what a typical moment in a typical Crazy Mom day.  I just seem to be quite inept at all things domestic.  Now, Sue Gregg is like the opposite of me.  She is together.  None of this is her fault, and I want to be absolutely clear when I tell you that.  She did tell me that she burnt up a few blenders in her day, though, so that made me feel MUCH better.  Seems tripling the recipe in a cheapo blender was not a wise idea.  Also I had failed to read that I was supposed to BLEND the ingredients together at night, BEFORE setting it aside.  You see, Sue Gregg writes up her recipes a little differently than most cookbooks, and I DID NOT READ THROUGH THE WHOLE RECIPE BEFORE STARTING.  Oops.  So, that is my true confession.  My bad.

So, I went back to the store and decided to go with oats and brown rice to make the recipe.  (Yes, the recipe is written so that you can use several different grains.)  Oh, and I went out and bought a new blender.     THIS TIME I read the recipe through, and followed it to a T.  I didn't so much as double the recipe.  Funny thing.  It worked.  Now, I'm not saying all my kids loved them.  Some did and some didn't. 

Now, I am a much wiser woman.  (Still crazy, fear not.)  I think I will have to play with the recipe a bit more and maybe use a bit of white flour with the wheat, oats, or brown rice to start and gradually reduce the amount until we can go fully healthful. 

So, with that sucess under my belt I decided to try Sue Gregg's parmeasan chicken.  Now, THAT I made and EVERYONE liked it.  So, I am not a TOTAL failure after all.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be checking out some more stuff from the website to try.  I think I am actually gonna LIKE cooking more healthful foods.  First sewing, now this.  This is gonna be the year that I finally become a real homemaker!  LOL