Adventures in an alternative Sour Dough

A friend of mine gave me a sourdough start in April.  Actually, she gave me five.  I put them in the fridge to keep for a few days till I could get to them but since then, we've been cooking!
I know that Amish Friendship Bread comes with a little handout and  recipe with specific instructions on it's feeding schedule, how and when to split the mixture and yet more details on how to spread it around to the whole world, 5 friends at a time.  Grand Ambitions... and on their preferred schedule, I believe it could be achieved.  However, I also think that majority of people are really missing what a gem this ziplock bag of goo on the counter really is.  Sure.  The cinnamon laden Amish friendship cake is amazing.  But, it has so much more potential!
I love their slightly sourdough pancakes and waffles.  Both are delicious!  I would not give up my traditional waffle recipe, but I would love to keep this as an alternative.  My favorite resource for recipes, most of them being reviewed, can be found here.

The morning is going to be crazy at the least, as I finished bedtime with all the children at 10:45.  That is up to 3 hours late for some of them!    Knowing this, I'm hedging my bet tonight by preparing breakfast for the morn.
I found a Apple Cranberry Nut Bread recipe that is made with the starter.

I had to make some subs from lack of ingredients, and others I choose to add out of preference.
I wanted to make them with all wheat flour to give them a bit more staying power and help propel every one through their meetings in the morning.  I added the coconut at the end on a whim.  I wouldn't change that, as it added a delicious added note!

Apple Cranberry Nut Amish Friendship Muffins

Ingredients:

• 2 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 vegetable oil
• 6 beaten eggs
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 cups wheat flour
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup craisins
• 1 cup shredded apple
• 1 shredded carrot
• 1/2 cup shredded coconut
• 1 cup smashed pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 F
2. Beat eggs, then combine all ingredients in Bosch.
3. Bake in large muffin tins for approximately 25 min*.

These are a delicious muffin.  Not too sweet, but still yummy enough to devour.  A great Breakfast!

*My oven is a bit wonky, please don't go off of this time measurement by faith alone!

On a side note, while you're waiting for those muffins to bake,  macerate some strawberries with fresh mint leaves.

Thinking these are destined to be served over some ice cream tomorrow topped with some whipped cream!  Yum!

How I really work

In the past, I have read blog posts that expose a person in their true form.  They always awe me as I'm the person who tries to do a quick tidy behind the child before I shoot the picture.  Of course, half the time I miss the shot.  Then there is another good percentage of the time that I would not even think about taking a picture no matter how cute my kid is being because there is just no way I could make the background look presentable in any amount of short time!  

On Wednesday morning, I walked around my house, and took note that nearly every single room was destroyed.  Many spaces just had their typical stuff scattered around.  I only make the kids tidy their rooms for vacuuming once a week on Friday's.  So, it's safe to say, their rooms are messy.   Naturally, my canning from Monday is all sitting on the counter still in all its red bejeweled glory. The hallway looked as if a book tornado make a few passes. (the little kids like to read books by pulling off the entire shelf, sitting in the pile, and then reading.) It also was the home of the spilt box of costumes. The front room had the remnants of a pillow fort and the toys that they were playing with inside of said fort. The dining room had the leftovers of a get well soon card that the family made together for my sis who just had surgery, and the toys that were brought in to keep Zander happy on the floor and not crawling over the masterpiece in the making.   The kids bathroom was host to a family reunion for the toothbrushes thanks to Abigail.  She set out beds for each one, and made sure they had snacks.  Toothpaste, of course.  Darling in its own disastrous way.   Am I painting a picture yet?

My problem is I don't know where to start.  I wanted to put away my jams and syrups so I could prepare the kitchen for Strawberry 2.0, but this is what I ran into when I went up the stairs to get to the food storage closet.  

 These are some of our costumes.  Let me explain.  I love all things pretend.  I love to sew and buy costumes.  In our last home, Khali had a gigantic closet and we hung up all of our costumes in there.  When we moved, there was no extra closet space to put them.  Since I didn't have a solution for this, I left the costumes packed in a box, stored in the back of food storage closet knowing that without a good place for them, they'd constantly be a mess.  However, I now have a 6 year old who is extremely curious and can ready very well.  So, of course when I asked her to retrieve some salsa one night, she stepped on top of this box to get it and read 'Costumes' written in fat sharpie.  My salsa never was brought to the kitchen, and when I went upstairs to see where my child had gotten lost, the costumes were being strewn about as Bell looked, excitedly, for a princess gown.  I had successfully avoided the problem of costume storage for 8 months.  That was 4 months ago.  Since then, whenever the kids wanted to play dress up, they dug through the box casting off the rejections in all directions.  Then someone (generally me) would go toss them all back into the box for the process to repeat another day.

So, with an entire house to put back in order, I went to the garage. I had seen a costume wardrobe on Ana White's website.  I figured if I fixed my costume problem, then I would be able to traverse the path from my kitchen to the storage area, and then, and only then, could I clean up the rest of my house.  This logic works for you,  doesn't it?  If it does, please come help me explain to my dearest.  He doesn't get it at all.

I didn't have any nice wood to work with, and my dearest darling has banned me from spending any more at Lowes or Home Depot this month, so I went with plywood leftover from my Chicken Coop project.  While not being ideal wood, this helps me solve the problem of what to do to with these piles that are taking over my garage.  (The wood on the left is slated for Potato Boxes. My next project!)

 The next problem comes from not having a table saw to rip down the boards, or a chop saw to make quick cuts.   I did have my trusty old Jig Saw.  Thanks Daddy for giving me your cast off tools!  I obviously was slightly determined or the lack of the ideal wood and tools would have sent me to choose a different starting point in cleaning the house. Maybe the costumes?  Nah.

I had the base built in about 2 hours in the afternoon, and even had enough time to make a proper dinner!  Because this was turning into a use-it-up project, I went to the paint closet and made my selection from there.  I went with 'Twig Basket', since I wanted a neutral color to work for all my littles.   I managed to paint it while the older kids cleaned up the dinner dishes.  After bedtime, I pulled out my Silhouette and cut out the freezer paper stencil I used on the base to jazz it up a little.

I didn't wait quite long enough to stencil,  I got a bit of paint (a whole lot of paint) on the sole of my iron.  But this isn't the first time a craft project has made a mess of my iron. A little salt will clean it up!  

I ran to the store this morning to buy castors to put on the bottom so that we could move it easily.  This addition puts the project at a grand total of $7.00 out of pocket.   I had it upstairs with a few costumes already hung up when the little girls woke up to surprise them.  

Ideally I'd finish up the project with 

• Baskets on the top shelf  to hold wings, crowns, hats and armor.
• Full body mirror on one side
• Hooks for bags on the other side
• Sword Storage
• Organize Shoes that are now tossed into the bottom.

Not too shabby for a day project eh?  

Homemade Bagel Chips

When you make the Original Chex Mix, do you buy bagel chips to put in? Or, are you like me and refuse to pay $5.00 for a 7oz bag?  Sadly, bagel chips have always been one of my favorite ingredients in the mix!  So, this fall, when I started making Chex Mix recipes, I thought to myself, "I make croutons at home.  Why not Bagel Chips?"   Well, guess what.  I tried it.  It's super easy and cheap to boot.  Score!

• First, you slice your bagels.  For future reference, I'm using 3 bagels in this batch.

Depending on what I want the chips for, I slice them differently.  For any snack mix, I prefer the coins.

For soup or salad, I go with the faster method of plank slices.  Why?  Because, I'm lazy like that.  

• Second, combine 2 Tablespoons melted butter or olive oil with your choice of seasonings mixed in.  I'm a garlic lover, so I added 3 large garlic cloves, minced.   You could do onion and garlic, parmesan and garlic, herb and garlic (Told you, I love garlic.)  Then placing all your bagel pieces in a large plastic bag, pour in the melted butter/olive oil and shake.  This will help with equal distribution.

• Third, Empty contents of your bag onto a cookie sheet, spreading them out evenly.  Pop into a hot oven at 325 for 15-20 minutes until they are turning brown.  (YMMV, so watch carefully!)

• Fourth,  Enjoy!  Once they are cooled you can put them in a container for storage for the week, or use them immediately in your soup.  

Drop Waist Knit Dresses

Recently, I have been playing around refashioning t-shirts.  I trimmed down a few old adult tee's into some little girl nightgowns, but then I wanted to make some dresses.  I first tried a dress from scratch.  I constructed this completely from a maternity shirt that I have no intention of EVER wearing again in my life.  While it went pretty well, it ended up being about a size 4, and really did not fit Abigail.  I also didn't realize until after I washed this dress that I needed to be using a ball point needle.  Not to shabby for a first attempt.  It could have been cute on her, next year, but I scrapped it to make an even better creation.

My next efforts were based off of three t-shirts that Abigail already had that fit her.  I simply added a tube of material, cut from another t-shirt, to the bottom to make them little dresses.  Each dress is slightly different though they are all built on the same construction principle.  

This skirt is the least gathered.  It was constructed from a shirt of my eldest daughters that was too short for her to wear any longer.   I was able to stretch the t-shirt to its max girth to match the skirt addition.

 The Purple skirt was formerly a plain shirt of mine.  It was a very cheap t-shirt that had absolutely no shape, so its second life is a drastic improvement.  I needed to sew a gathering stitch around the tube before attaching to the top.  I'm thinking about adding a purple gathered ruffle around the bottom of the sleeves to make it more co-hesive.   

 This dress ended up having the most gathering of the bunch.  The skirt was the above mentioned maternity shirt that masqueraded as a toddler dress for a single day.  The skirt was twice the width of the t-shirt making the skirt much fuller than the others.  

I love these simple dresses for so many reasons.  

1. I don't need to find a coordinating bottom when dressing her in the morning.
2. I don't need to find a coordinating bottom when dressing her again a few hours later.
3. Only one piece of laundry to wash.
4. Only one piece of laundry to fold.
5. Only one piece of laundry to put away!

With 15 minutes of time, a $4.00 t-shirt from Target, an old t-shirt and one seam to sew, anyone can fill their little ones closet with cute every day play dresses!

Homemade Soft Scrub Cleaner

I like homemade cleaners for multiple reasons.

• I do not have to run to the store
• Gentle on hands (especially delicate children who will be doing the scrubbing this time around)
• Control of product
• Less Chemicals
• Less expensive
• Less cleaning product to store under my sink for my little children to get into

 Today I decided the bathrooms had to be scrubbed down better than the usual swish and swipe, so I mixed up a batch of 'soft scrub'.   I filled the bottom of a container with Baking Soda, then using a cleaning toothbrush to stir, proceeded to add dish soap until I had a nice frosting consistency.  To help the kids try to have a good attitude, I also splashed in a few drops of Orange Essential Oil in as well at the end.    A minute later, we have a container of cleaning stuff ready to use! The amount shown above was enough to clean 5 sinks and counters, 1 garden tub, 1 stall shower, and an attempt to clean one normal tub.
  I gave my older children each a rag and some cleaner and set them to work on the bathtubs, showers, and sinks.  I LOVE how this product works on fixtures.  It shines them up beautifully!  It also did a wonderful job on the sinks, tile countertops, and even the shower door that was starting to get the hard water 'fog'.

Isn't this just a beautiful shining sink??? 

   As an added recycled bonus, I have found that you can wash the thicker baby wipes that are often sold in grocery stores with your other towels and rags and they come through the wash just fine and ready to be used as small rags, or to be reused as a baby wipe again.  Its actually scaring me a bit to see how many times these can go through the washing machine and continue to function, so I'm glad we are reusing many of them. 

*If you have not completely neglected your tub for way to long, it also does a great job cleaning that up as well.  If however, you haven't given your tub a good deep scrubbing in a very long time, you are going to need something with more oomph to get off the yucky dirty oily ring around your tub.  (I personally, am not admitting to this......)

Sewing Hair Curlers

I have been wanting to sew these hair curlers since before we moved! I saw this posted on another blog and put it on my 'to sew' list. Unfortunately Wonderwoman is no longer blogging, but her website is full of wonderfully creative projects that I'd love to make more of. Wonderwoman found the idea here, but her's were far more inspirational. I made them out of 3 old handkerchiefs my grandma sent me in a fabric stash, and a little bit of fluff that was also laying around. Total cost- negligible. My type of project!!!

Khali's hair had been washed and was still slightly damp when I put her hair up. I used a little bit of gel before hand as well. I made 14 curlers total, but I believe that I only used 10 in her hair. (I have had to use all 14 when wrapping my hair) Thankfully it only took about 10 minutes to wrap her hair, and she didn't really care because she was reading a book :) She also didn't mind leaving them in for a few hours to dry, because she just read her book.

I let the curl rest for a few minutes upon taking the curlers out before trying to separate them. Isn't she a pretty little girl?