Domesticity

I am a lover of crafts. 

I just feel calmer and happier when I am in the middle of a project that allows me to be creative and includes a skill that I want to master.  It gives my soul a break from thinking about the things I cannot change and it helps me to feel centered and competent.

 I craft because it is much more effective than therapy ever was, even though it's not actually cheaper. 

Once I find my groove in a project, I tend to be a little obsessed. 

I might possibly be a little obsessed with sewing right now...........

The painter's tape on my fingers to help where I have poked and pinched my fingertips raw may be seen as a cry for help. 

My sweet husband knows it means he chose well when he was Santahusband.

He also knows it's sign that I'm doing better and allowing myself to do the things that make me feel okay.

Yesterday, I decided to teach myself applique. 

There are so many cute things you can make with applique and you can take personalization to a whole new level. 

I started small with a freebie download that looked very simple.

Adorable.

My first attempt was bad.

 The applique shifted, just a hair too far and it was all off, then I wasn't paying attention and realized that I had sewn the tabs of the bib to back of it all and had to cut it off of the hoop.

Oops. 

I thought it was making terrible noises. 

I also.....

FINISHED ANOTHER QUILT.

Just a baby quilt, but I am really happy at how much better the binding is and the patches line up better than my first one. I still have a lot to learn, which means my readers are going to have to endure many more sewing posts. 

Both of these will be mailed to SLC for my sister, Sunnie, who is having a baby in a few months with her husband, Chad. They are a blendy family, too and this will be their first baby together. 

Because I am a Domestic Goddess, I also baked 4 loaves of homemade whole wheat bread yesterday.

Okay, I'm more of a tired schlub who didn't want to go to the store and buy bread, but the ends justify the means, Yo.

I used a new recipe, using vital wheat gluten. I've heard my friends sing the praises of that stuff, but had never used it. I have had struggles getting bread to rise since we moved to New Jersey, so I picked some up, hoping it would help.

It cut the raising time in half and the bread was very light and airy for being whole wheat.

Add me to the vital wheat gluten club.

It was great stuff.

I'm posting the recipe for my friends who asked. 

When I make this again, I'm going to make a couple of changes because my bread was a little more crusty on the outside than I like it. 

The inside had a texture that was similar to white bread though, I think this is one kids will love. 

Bosch Foolproof Whole Wheat Bread

*Makes 6 loaves ( I didn't see that part, and made four. I just NOW realized this. DUH. That explains why it seemed a little overcooked on the outside in order to achieve the perfect inside. Disregard my bread being too crusty, I'm a moron.)

That being said, it was too much for my large 6 qt Kitchenaid to really manage, so if you don't have a house full of bottomless pit young men who will eat 2 loaves within an hour of coming home from school-- I'd cut this in half. It's a huge recipe. 

Whole wheat bread freezes really well, though and you know your visiting teaching families would love you if you brought them some. 

6 cups warm water
2 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons salt
1/2 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
12-15 cups whole wheat flour

Mix 8-9 cups fresh wheat flour and 2 ½ tablespoons yeast together in the bowl of an electric mixer (or in a large bowl by hand). Add 6 cups warm water and mix to paste consistency. Cover and let sponge 10-15 minutes. Add salt, honey, oil, and gluten. Mix by hand or if using an electric mixer, turn to speed 1 or 2 as motor bears down and add additional flour until dough pulls away from sides of bowl (be careful not to add too much flour). Let the mixer knead the dough for five minutes. (If using hands, knead for 10 minutes.) Use oil or cooking spray on your hands to form six equal loaves. Take dough immediately from bowl and fill lightly greased (or nonstick) loaf pans ½ to 2/3 full. Cover with lightly greased plastic wrap to keep moist. Let the bread rise until doubled, approximately 1 ½ inches above the top of the pan. Place the bread carefully in a cold oven. Turn the oven to 350 degrees and bake for 38 minutes. Let cool completely before placing in bags to put in the freezer.

In the Kitchen

I hope that after we get through the first full year, it will be easier to have so many miles between us and our families. We were invited to a couple of places this year, but we stayed here so that Grey and Roe's dad could spend the day with the kids, too. 

Not my favorite, but it went perfectly fine.

I made too many pies this year- if there can be such a thing. 

I was a little disappointed in my beautiful magazine worthy pineapple custard pie. I'm going to make it again and tweak the recipe. It needed a little less pineapple and the custard needed to be heavier.  It was very good, but not quite at 'to die for' level.

Yet.

I taught Romy how to make pumpkin pie this year.

Do you remember the first time you ever made it, or saw it made?

I remember crying thinking I ruined it and throwing it away because the filling was just soup.

I didn't know that an hour in the oven was going to fix that. I made another one and it was the same. I put it in the oven anyway and still cried as I obsessively checked it every 10 minutes and it was still runny. 

I decided to leave it in there until it burned though, I was so frustrated.

Lo and behold, after just over an hour, it magically turned into pie. It looked terrible because I'd messed with it so much, but it was pumpkin pie.

Romy's first pumpkin pie turned out much better:

Good stuff. 

And even though our table seemed awfully empty this year, we had a good day.

The next day, we started our holiday baking.

You wouldn't know it was the next day based on Greyson wearing the same shirt every single day all weekend long.......boys.

The kids helped dip pretzels in chocolate, same as they do every year.

I also made these cookies with a recipe I got from Cousin Lisa. The recipe said that it was my mother in law's recipe, but Matt doesn't remember them.

I added too much flour anyway, so they turned out a little on the dry side. I dipped half of the cookie in melted chocolate later and they were immediately gobbled up by the family.

Today I made chocolate chip cookies.

One of the changes in having so many of the kids gone and not having ward members that live next door is that when I make a big batch of cookies, it tends to be too much. Usually a dozen or two will last us a couple of days. That same amount usually lasted one night and we would bring a plate over to someone in the ward as well.

It only dawned on me today to just freeze the extra dough and only make one pan of cookies.

And it dawned on me that one pan usually lasts a few days that the best way to store the dough was to take my handy cookie scoop, measure out 15 cookies and seal up one cookie sheet's worth at a time.

Now I have exactly three more batches of chocolate chip cookies all

ready to bake. No more wasting or making so many cookies that we get sick of them. I can't believe it took me this long to realize this simple solution.

I guess I could have also cut the recipe in half, but I like this idea much better.

(Please ignore the gross parchment paper, this was batch 2 of the day. )

We also made fudge and plan to start on the other candy this week. 

The holiday season has a lot of stress and chaos, but few things are more comforting than sitting with your family listening to Dean and Bing sing Christmas carols as you catch a passing glimpse of your sparkling Christmas tree. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year, indeed.

Martha Made Me Do It

Eight solid hours on my feet.....

NOW I will admit that I was absolutely nuts to buy 150 pounds of apples.

 

I know you already knew that, but I had this vision of myself having some totally Martha Stewart moments as I filled my home with the smell of cinnamon and apples and sang songs about pioneers and ...um...apples and stuff.

 

 I did not envision nearly amputating my thumb with the paring knife, burning the bottom of my most expensive pot because I got distracted and covering my hands with hundreds of splatters of boiling hot apple water.

The fact that it happens every single time had no impact on my canning fantasy.

It never does.

 

Actually, it was just fine.

Romy helped me for the first 45 seconds and then went off to go watch the video of that I Love Cats lady on youtube.

 

I cooked and mooshed 50 pounds of apples and got about 12 quarts done.

I tasted it after everything was finished and I'm not in love with the flavor of this batch. It's a little on the tart side. Sour apples are great, but not in applesauce.

 

Normally, I boil my apples in apple juice and sometimes add a little sugar to make it sweeter. This time I was going for super healthy organic.

Super healthy organic isn't awesome, IMO, at least not the way I made it.

It's not a loss though because applesauce makes a great oil substitute in a lot of baking, so I'll add it to my fats and oils in my food storage. It's always good to have some 'oil' that doesn't go rancid quickly. This will keep for 10 years, so I am happy with it, even if it isn't yummy applesauce.

 

I don't plan to touch the apples tomorrow, but I'll be back at it on Monday.

Try to wait until then for my third, fascinating post about apples.

Apple Pickin'

We love apple picking......

We went up to New York with the Hawkins, Ralston and Mathusek bunch and had a regular Mormon Mardi Gras.

There were apples as big as softballs and the kids had fun pummeling one another with rotten apples from the ground as we ate lunch. Okay, they called it "apple bowling" but I think that when you use people as pins......there's a little bonus if you manage to hit a sibling.

We had a great time.

 I bought 150 pounds of gorgeous apples.

When I tried to leave and realized I forgot my checkbook.

Duh.

Cyndi helped me out and I was able to leave the farm with all of my treasure.

Last night we made these:

Can Jay-Z and Beyonce do that, my friends?

 I think not.

Granola, Eaten In Moderation....

Granola is such great stuff.

My grandmother's granola was the best, I've never had anything that quite compared to what Grandma Westfall use to make. I know that time and memory have probably transformed her granola from being simply great into the most amazing marriage of oats and coconut ever to occur on this planet.

Don't get me started on her peaches.

Romy and I love granola more than others in this house. 

When I buy it, I know that as much as I want to eat an entire box, it will have consequences.

One does not simply eat an entire box of high fiber cereal.

I will spare you the story of the Great Cracklin' Oat Bran Girls Camp Disaster of 1988.

Romy has been told to go easy on the granola and she has been told the reasons why, but she just caved in the face of temptation. 

She ate nothing but granola for almost 2 days, until the box was empty.

Live and learn, Kid.....

She wanted to miss school and I told her we do not miss school for tummy troubles due to eating a horse-size portion of grains. I gave her some Kaopectate and sent a note to her teachers, telling them that Romy was NOT sick, but she was over-fibered and if she asks to use the restroom, to please let her go as often as she asked.

(taken yesterday, NOT on  Fiberday)

She was mortified, but she survived.

She vowed to NEVER eat granola again........until yesterday, less than one week after her fiber fiasco.

I made granola yesterday and she's having a hard time finding anything else to eat because it's so good.

It's my own twist to a recipe that was just a little too bland.

Olson Peanut Butter Granola

2 cup light Karo Syrup 

1 cup peanut butter

Microwave for 1 minute, blend together

add 4 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

mix together

add

6 C quick oats

1 C chopped peanuts (I used dry roasted, the kind you snack on because I like salty and sweet)

1/2 c sliced almonds

1 C coconut

Mix it all together in a big bowl until all of the dry ingredients are coated. 

Divide between two cookie sheets and spread out. 

bake at 275 for 40-50 minutes, take it out and stir it every 15 or the bottom and edges will overcook and burn.

I do not like fruit in my cereal and this granola is not overly sweet. It's a crunchy nutty granola with a subtle peanut butter flavor. Add whatever you think will make it yummy to you. If you want a ton of peanut butter flavor, add another half cup or full cup of peanut butter. It's granola, you can't screw this up. I'm going to add hot cocoa mix next time and see how that goes. 

Eat it, it's good.

Just don't eat it all in one day. 

Baking...Like a Boss

I cannot express how much I love this new season.

They call it "fall" here.

(Not my picture, but one of our town )

It's amazing.

I know you have autumn in Utah, but to tell the truth.....not like this.

I grew up in Arizona. There is not such thing as Autumn/Fall. It's too hot to wear long sleeves when you go Trick or Treating and sometime in November, it's finally not like living on the surface of the sun. You might even need a sweatshirt for the months of December -February. There are no piles of leaves to jump in and your jack-o-lantern starts to rot if you carve it more than a week before Halloween.

Don't get me wrong, it was great to be a teenager in the land that heavy winter coats forgot. 

When I moved to Utah, I was delighted to have Spring and Fall.

Seasons!

However, those seasons are what I referred to as Sybil Time. You'd start off the morning freezing, by noon it would be so hot you considered just leaving that coat you wore in the morning by the side of the road, it was too hot to even carry the stupid thing. Sometimes it would freeze early and ruin your garden and just as you were pulling out the sweaters and accepting the cold weather, it would be 85 degrees again for a few weeks.

The weather in Salt Lake had multiple personalities most of the time. 

Summer, Winter and "Mother Nature has a hangover, so she'll just put on whatever looks clean."

Here, we've had this GROSS humid summer.  It's awful. Cooking is terrible because even the crock pot makes the whole house seem to heat up. I used my oven as little as possible and every time I did, we paid the price. Our electric bill was insane. It was way worse than any bill I'd had in the worst Arizona summers. we were all dehydrated and the summer weather was a huge shock to our bodies and we had a lot of migraines and stink.

Then, September came and slowly the weather has been cooling down. One morning there was a crisp breeze and it practically smelled like Autumn. I was expecting it to be a fluke, but every day it's just a little bit cooler and the air feels a little more clean and the leaves are slowly changing color. In Utah, you have window of about 1-3 weeks where the leaves all turn and you make sure to load up the kids and drive to the mountains if you want to see all of that "autumn" stuff in nature- at least, that's how we experienced it. 

The house is pleasant. The weather outside is amazing. Cool enough to wear jeans now, but they don't become denim sauna pants by late afternoon. It's comfortable and I can cook now without my whole house going into shock.

I promised Zane I'd make pumpkin roll. It's his favorite dessert I make and I don't blame him. It's as addictive as crack. Sweet pumpkin and cream cheese flavored crack.

I made one today, but it looks bad. I used the wrong pan, so the cake was too thin and even though it tastes like orange heaven, it looks like an orange poo.

So I'll post a picture of one that another person baked.

Someone who cooled it the right way and used the right pan and who sifts her powdered sugar so it doesn't look like clumps of carpet fresh.

The recipe I use is the one you find on the inside of the can of Libby's Pumpkin. If you haven't made this- DO IT. Everyone you share it with will want to kiss you after they are done licking the filling off their fingers and singing songs of praise. It's so good.

I also made a new recipe today.

We're having pasta for dinner tonight and since I was feeling extra bake-y I made bread sticks.

They were so easy and they are super good.

I got the recipe from the Worldwide Ward Cookbook, Mom's Best Recipes.

The think that makes these amazing is that they are quick and simple and you cook them in a pool of butter.

I know!

Buttery Bread Sticks

1T Yeast

1 1/2 C warm water

2 T sugar

1/2 t. salt

3 C flour

1/2 C butter

---

Preheat the oven to 350.

 Take your stick of butter and put it on a shallow baking sheet and pop it in the oven until it melts.

put yeast, sugar and water in a bowl and let it do it's thing for about 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, mix flour & salt, then add yeast mixture.

knead until it's firm and elastic. I just did it all with the dough hook in my mixer, it worked great. I think I let it run about 5 minutes. The recipe says hand knead for 10. 

Whatever floats your boat.

Let the dough rest and raise for about 10 minutes, then divide it into 12 balls- roll and shape like bread sticks.

Take your bread stick snakes and roll them in the melted butter in the pan.

I sprinkled garlic powder on mine, if we had Parmesan cheese in the house I would have used some of that, too.

Let the sticks rise in the pan of buttery goodness for 15-20 minutes.

Then brush on some more of the butter, just to make sure it's going to make your heart stop beating for sure.

Bake for 15-18 minutes.

Pinch yourself that they were that easy and they are so freaking good. 

Olive Garden has nothing on these, I'm telling you.

 It's my new favorite roll recipe.

The bottom is soaked with butter and has a light flaky crust on it, but they are very soft.(

 I turned one upside down so you could get an idea of how much butter those babies soaked up, but it looks burned in the picture. It's not burned, just too much of whatever Instagram effect I used/)

They took about an hour start to finish. It makes 12 bread

sticks, but I can't count so I only made 8. The story I'm telling the family is that it only made 7 though because I was hungry, Yo.

There I go again with the "Yo."

That's my cue to stop typing and eat some pumpkin roll.