Random projects crossed off the to-do list! ...and how to save time making tortillas!

It has been a busy time around our house, but it is wonderful to see what we have accomplished in this time as well. School is fully in swing (but it has been for several months now),  and we are still trying to tweak our studies to align more with what God’s Word says about discipleship (but that is a whole topic within itself).  In the midst of the every day, I have been able to complete a few projects that have been on my “to do” list for quite awhile and wanted to share them!

WHAT TO DO WITH AN OLD SPARE WINDOW:  When we redid the house out here, I immediately had some projects in mind for old windows. One project was to make a chalkboard (or two). I chose the windows that were the appropriate size for my space and painted them with a fresh coat of paint. I wasn’t too concerned about being perfect, because I wanted the rustic look.  I then primed (right on the glass) them with a magnetic primer. My hope was to get a magnetic chalkboard… however, I shouldn’t have wasted my $$ on that part because even after 3 coats of the primer, the ability for a magnetic to stick to it is sub-par.  Anyway, I then painted 3 coats of chalkboard paint onto the glass and that was done! My hubby lovingly hung them for me and I’m very pleased with the outcome. So, for the cost of the chalkboard paint I have two great chalkboards!

 

WHAT TO DO WITH AN OLD BOARD:  I’ve been wanting to do this for quite some time. I love having scripture posted all around my house… it is a great way for us all to memorize it as well as great reminders of God’s truth each time we read it.  I found an appropriate board lying around in our barn. I painted it with some leftover paint (again, I wanted a rustic look). Then I used chalk to draw my words on the board. When I had the right size and shape, I painted right over the chalk with some other left over paint. I love how it turned out. This picture was taken before we got it hung on the wall (about 4 inches higher than where it was sitting for the photo op.  I have another board I am doing for my girls’ room, but I wanted to use pink paint for the letters and didn’t have any. So that continues to be on my to do list!

WHAT TO DO WITH AN OLD DECK: We have an old redwood deck on the east side of our house that really is an eye sore. It seemed wasteful to just junk it and start over. Sure, the boards were shabby and a bit splintery… but they weren’t warped at all.  I found a product called Restore at Lowes and it promised to coat and fill in gaps up to ¼ inch wide while providing a non slip surface. It is supposed to be good for 12 years. We decided to give it a shot. It was a bit pricey ($1.35/sq. foot) but that was much cheaper than buying a new deck.  I first powerwashed off the deck, let it dry, swept it, and then decided it was time to apply the product.  The stuff is much thicker than paint and you are supposed to use their roller to apply 2 coats to the surface. I brushed the edges and used a brush to fill in the bigger gaps and holes. Then I rolled the rest on. We are very pleased with how it turned out! So far, it seems really durable and has stood up to dog claws and a bunch of kids. We will see what the future brings!

The next project is to replace the windows and doors!

HOW TO SAVE TIME MAKING TORTILLAS: I have a tip for anyone who makes tortillas! I love homemade tortillas. They are cheap to make and taste great.  The problem is that I spend a LOT of time rolling each one out with my antique roller that keeps losing one of its handles. Plus, when I’m going to the trouble of making tortillas, I make a bunch of them while I’m at it. Really, I spend an hour or more just ROLLING them out!  Then I got to thinking… why can’t I use my kitchen aid pasta maker attachment on my mixer to flatten them out? Sure, they may be “oval” in their shape, but it isn’t like I get perfect circles when I do it manually anyway. So I gave it a shot and what takes me more than an hour to do manually, I was able to do in 15 minutes!  I ran them through the “roller” at the widest setting (1) the first time, then squished them at the 5 setting the second time. I then cooked them as I normally do in my cast iron skillet and the job was soon done! A quadruple batch of tortillas!! Woo Hoo!! So if you happen to have the pasta attachment for your kitchen aid… put it to use for rolling out tortillas too!

LABELS, LABELS, LABELS: I’ve always imagined a pantry that was organized and labeled. Since we have been buying more things in bulk (accommodating our growing family) it now has become a necessity to repackage, store, organize, and label!  I bought some vinyl chalkboard rolls from Hobby Lobby and my good friend was kind enough to put her “Cricut” to use and cut some fancy labels for me. I used a chalk “marker” to write on the labels, which proved to be neater and longer lasting than regular chalk. I love how everything is coming together… even though it isn’t complete yet. What is your favorite method for labeling and organizing???

Sorry, this isn't the most thought provoking blog entry... just a bunch or random thoughts! But I did want to share some of these easy, low cost projects that have been keeping me busy!

Part II: Bosch vs. Kitchen Aid

OK, I have played around with the Bosch Universal Plus mixer for a few weeks now, using it for a variety of mixing needs, so I feel that I can give a (somewhat) educated opinion of how it measures up.

Bowl - The professional Kitchen Aid (KA) comes with a stainless steel bowl that has a handle (yeah... we love the handle when we are transferring the contents to another dish). The smaller KA had a palm-sized "foot" that you used to lock it into the mixer... the foot was very handy to hold on to when I dumped the contents out... even though it wasn't a true handle. The Bosch came with a plastic bowl, but the ss bowl is also available. Since my husband is so great, he also purchased the ss bowl. I love ss, but unfortunately, the Bosch ss bowl does not have a handle which did make it tricky holding on to it while I was scraping out the contents. The plastic bowl already had a couple of strikes against it in my mind (because it was plastic), but after using it, I have to digress. It has a bit of a different design than the ss in that it has a lip that goes all around the top edge of the bowl. This lip makes it super easy to hang on to when transferring contents. Also, even though it is plastic, it is a nice, heavy duty, plastic that is not flimsy at all. The one weird thing that I will mention, is that the Bosch bowls have a "cone" that sticks up from the middle of them. This is where the beaters attach and they are controlled by the motor which is underneath the bowl. The cone really isn't a problem cleaning, but it is different and it takes some getting used to.

Splash guard - I purchased a splash guard for my smaller KA, but the professional one came with it. It is a clear plastic that sits on top of the bowl and has a spout that allows you to pour ingredients into the bowl while mixing. The splash guard does not attach securely to the bowl, making it very easy to dislodge. It also doesn't do that great of a job preventing splashes. In fact, when I make butter, I have to take a large tea towel and drape completely over my mixer and splash guard to keep buttermilk from spattering all over my kitchen. The Bosch motor controls the beaters from underneath rather than the top of the bowl. Because of this design, the splash guard that comes with it is actually a lid. It is clear plastic and it fastens securely on top of the bowl. There is no mess, no splatters, and best of all.... it guards against any little fingers getting ripped off and mixed into the batter.... Only by the Lord's grace have my children escaped "helping" mix without losing some fingers because of the race to be the first one to taste the cookie dough!

Multi-tasking - Because of the beaters being "exposed" on the KA, I can not really turn my back on the machine because of keeping a watchful eye on my kiddos and their fingers... In addition, if I am working with any kind of "stiff" dough, the machine will "walk", so I have to be aware of it walking off of the counter. Of course, you could prevent this by setting the mixer in the sink...  With the Bosch, it does not walk, the beaters are not exposed, and I am able to get other things done around the kitchen without "babysitting" the mixer.

Beaters - The KA came with metal beaters, dough hooks, and whisks. The Bosch came with metal whisks and dough hooks. Cookie paddles are sold separately and the attachment for the paddles is metal, but the paddles themselves are plastic. My great hubby also purchased the cookie paddles.... ummmm probably because he really loves cookies he really loves me. I was skeptical about the cookie paddles because of them being plastic... but I have to digress again, they are super sturdy and do a great job. The thing with the Bosch, is that the design allows for a 2-sided dough hook, 2 whisks, and 2 cookie paddles. The KA has one of each. You wouldn't think that it would make a difference, but it really does. The whipping, mixing, beating, and kneeding with the Bosch is fantastic... and YES... I could tell the difference. They say in bread making that the double hook helps really develop the gluten (whatever that means). The motor handled my dough like a breeze and the bread rose wonderfully... despite it being like 20 degrees outside. So maybe there is something to this "gluten developing thing". I also made some brownies (heavenlyhomemakers.com has a great, healthier brownie recipe that I've used for quite awhile now). Mixing it with the Bosch made them even better than they were before. Probably because I mixed them up a lot longer because I was distracted multi-tasking, knowing that little fingers weren't getting in the beaters! I also made butter the other day with the Bosch. I've been making butter weekly for about a year now. I've tried every tip out there to get it done faster, but no matter what, it is going to take about 20 or 30 minutes to turn the cream into butter. And then, I have to clean up the thoroughly splattered, red, mixer.  I really didn't expect the Bosch to decrease the time for butter making, but I was excited that I wasn't going to splatter up my kitchen because the lid is really a LID! But, the butter was done in about 10-15 minutes! I am attributing this to having a double sided whisk... but what do I know? All I know, was that it was much faster and the clean up was quicker!

Attachments - I can't speak much about this, as I don't have a lot of them. I have the pasta making attachments for the KA, and I love them. Bosch also has them available, but I don't have them. I have the blender attachment for the Bosch and I love it... but there could be some improvements. First, it is a clear plastic... for the money, why can't it be glass? Also, there isn't a pour spout. However, it does pour out smoothies just fine. The metal blades are quite sturdy and sharp, and the base that the blender fits in to is also a metal attachment. However, at the bottom of the blender (that has the part that fits into the metal thingy that will spin the blades) is not metal. It would seem that it should also be metal. But so far, so good. I haven't broken it yet and smoothie making with ice tends to give blenders around here a run for their money.

I have read reviews that say the the KA is better for small batches of whatever and the Bosch is better for large, however, I used the KA for large batches of cookie dough all the time and it did fine. However, I have tried the Bosch with a small batch just to see if it was true and I would have to disagree. It did just fine on a small batch. That being said, on my smaller KA, whenever I did a larger batch of cookies or bread dough, the dough would climb up the beater and wrap itself around that little springy thing that the beater attached to and it did make it a bit of a bear to clean up. I also noticed that my smaller KA would leak oil or some type of black stuff from where the beater attaches. I've read reviews where others had similar problems. I did not experience this with the larger KA.

So there you have it... my not-so-professional opinion of Bosch vs. Kitchen Aid. Which one would I recommend? Probably the Bosch. However, if you have a KA already, that doesn't mean chuck it to replace it. I have enjoyed my KA throughout the years. However, if you plan on making a lot of bread, the Bosch definitely wins... hands down. But if you don't have any kind of a mixer yet, I would encourage you to check out the Bosch. Money-wise, the professional KA and the Bosch are similar in price (unless you count a possible trip to the ER to attach a finger that got caught in the KA.... then that makes the Bosch much cheaper)!

Part I: Kitchenaid vs. Bosch... One Mom's Opinion....

I think that it has been about one year since I started making all of our family's bread from scratch.... and from scratch I mean gathering the wheat, cleaning the wheat, grinding the wheat, and THEN making the bread. I do not use a bread machine, but I'm all about utilizing a mixer to mix up the dough! I have owned a Kitchen aid mixer for about a dozen or so years... and I have loved it. However, its bowl was only about 4 quarts which was becoming a challenge for my ever-expanding family. But honestly, the real reason I wanted it to die was because I wanted a RED one! However, my faithful mixer would not die. But as my bread making expanded, my little mixer was not keeping up: the bowl wasn't big enough, the motor wasn't powerful enough, (and it wasn't red.... because I know that the color really makes a difference on performance). So last spring, I decided that I had a good enough reason to upgrade my mixer.

Now, enter in the blogging world of information.... I can't say that I wasn't warned. In nearly every blog of faithful breadmakers, it was recommended that the best mixer to get would be the Bosch Universal Kitchen Machine. Their expertise was that the Kitchen aid would not keep up with the 800 watt motor of the Bosch. Problem: the Bosch isn't RED.... and quite frankly, it isn't really attractive either... I told myself that I had to get the Kitchen aid because I had the pasta attachments for a Kitchen aid (and it comes in red). I mean, the professional model has a 575 watt motor... surely that is good enough right? And it's RED!

So, I saved my pennies and dimes, and for an early birthday gift my generous mother-in-law pitched in and bought me the beautiful, RED, professional model Kitchen aid about 6 months ago (and I gifted my little Kitchen aid to my friend). WOO HOO! Let the bread making begin! I have made dozens of loaves of bread since then with the Kitchen aid, and I hadn't really given the Bosch another thought... until December... when my Kitchen aid DIED right in the middle of my batch of dough! So how did it handle all of the bread making? It was mediocre, but all that was masked by the fact that it is red.  My recipe makes 4 loaves, and I do 2 batches at a time (actually I'm doing 3 batches at a time now). Before I consistently soaked my grains overnight, the Kitchen aid handled the dough OK. The motor did get hot and you definitely could hear it struggling at times, but it always managed to conquer the dough and we were on our merry way to fresh bread. I did have to stand by the mixer and "baby sit" it because if I didn't, it would walk its way off of the counter.  But after I started soaking the grains (which tended to yield a "stiffer" lump of dough to initially work through the next day), the Kitchen aid really started to bog down... culminating in dying right before my very eyes! I was horrified!  Thankfully, Kohls didn't need a receipt to exchange it and my DH was going to town that afternoon anyway and he graciously exchanged my mixer for another, beautiful, RED, Kitchen aid.

Funny thing is: as I unpacked the new, RED, Kitchen aid.... there was this little green card on top that said that the motor had a protective sensor that would shut the machine off if the motor overheated... and if you waited 20 minutes, it would again start..... OOPS.... maybe my first Kitchen aid wasn't broken after all... Oh well. So I continued with my bread making ventures! The very FIRST time I used the NEW Kitchen aid, I was mixing up my second of three batches of bread and it DIED... just like the first mixer! GRRRRRRRRR! This time I figured it was that protective sensor, so I waited 20 minutes.... still no power... 30 minutes... still no power... 40 minutes... 45 minutes... FINALLY, it turned on again. This was not exactly my most efficient experience in bread making! All this time I am lamenting that I didn't listen to all of the wise women's advice on the Bosch! I briefly mentioned to my husband that some time in the far off future, it would be nice to have the Bosch...

Little did I know, my DH decided to surprise me with a Bosch mixer for Christmas!!!!! I was super surprised!!!!  And now that I have used it a fair amount, I thought I would share my opinion of how the 2 mixers "match" up! My DH also got me the blender attachment for the Bosch, so I use the machine nearly every day in some fashion. The blender gets used for kefir smoothies, and I've used the mixer for cornbread, bread, cookies, etc...  It does a fantastic job. It effortlessly mixes stiff bread dough, developed the gluten (my bread did a fantastic job rising... even in the cold of winter), I love the lid that REALLY keeps everything contained while mixing... i.e. - there is not flour flying out over the top of the bowl... and it is easy to run. My 7 year old made double chocolate whole wheat cookies all by herself tonight using it.

So all-in-all, I am loving my Bosch even though it is not red... I will be writing a more detailed side-by-side comparison of the Kitchen aid vs. Bosch in part 2 of this post... coming soon!

In The Mood for Ginger...

I love gingerbread cookies.... I didn't use to, but after finding this recipe from Our Best Bites I am addicted! In my mind, this is a seasonal cookie... so I generally only make them during the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons.  Since we have radically changed the ingredients we cook with during the past year, I was excited to alter the recipe and give it a shot using "healthier" ingredients.  The result????  AMAZING! And even better than the original recipe!!!!

While I am completely in the "ginger" mode, I thought that gingerbread granola sounded fun and yummy... so I thought I'd give it a try last night. However, I was planning on using my "normal" granola recipe as the backbone for gingerbread granola and I couldn't find a recipe that was similar. I didn't look too hard, (so I'm not saying that there wasn't a comparable one out there) but I went ahead and made up my own concoction. It also turned out to be amazing!!!  The recipe below shows what I did originally, but next time I will probably just do 2 cups of honey and 1 whole cup of molasses.

So in case you might be in the mood for some gingerbread recipes.... here is what I did:

Gingerbread granola... it might last us a couple of days...

Homemade yogurt with gingerbread granola and Ginger spice cookies!

Ginger Spice Cookies - (adapted from Our Best Bites)
Ingredients:
3/4 C real butter or palm oil shortening
1 C sucanat (plus extra for rolling the cookies in)
1 large egg
1/4 C molasses
2 C fresh milled whole wheat flour
2 t baking soda
1 t ground cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t salt
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
 Combine butter and sucanat and cream until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the egg and the molasses and beat until well mixed. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir until combined. Roll the dough into 1 inch balls by hand and roll in sugar.(The kids love this part).
Place on cookie sheets.
Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just set around the edges and you start to see “crackling” on the top.
Don’t overbake! They will be soft and chewy in the middle!!!!
Yield: about 4 dozen


Gingerbread Granola -
Keep in mind that we have lots of hungry kids at our house... so the following recipe is actually tripled. If you're family is not as hungry as we are, you can adjust it accordingly... :) Preheat oven to 300 degrees and place baking rack in TOP position.

12 cups rolled oats
3 cups unsweetened coconut
3 cups dried cranberries
3 cups dried apples (optional... I added some that I had dehydrated this summer because I thought  
                                they would add a nice touch...)
2-3 cups mixed nuts of your liking... (I threw in some organic trail mix I had on hand)
3 t ground ginger
1 t cloves
1/2 cup flax (optional)
3 t cinnamon

Mix above ingredients together in a large bowl.

In a saucepan melt together:
3 cups coconut oil
2 1/4 cups honey
1/2 cup molasses

Pour oil/honey/molasses mixture over dry ingredients and mix well. Dump granola onto a PARCHMENT lined pan. Spread out evenly and bake at 300 for 20 minutes. Stir after 20 minutes and bake for another 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool before storing in an airtight container. You can eat it dry, with milk, with yogurt, or make it into granola bars!

The beauty of technology!

Let me preface this post with this: I am not advocating an abdication of time spent teaching your children in a "hands-on" fashion. I am not saying that you should use technology as a "babysitter" either.  That being said, technology can be a wonderful tool or servant in our schooling/parenting routine!

I am sure that many of you probably have figured out this cool little tool. But I have just discovered it, and in case I am not the only one who has been in the dark.... I want to pass on this invaluable information!

I was chatting with a fellow homeschooling mom at church last Sunday, sharing with her my current woes of being behind on a read-a-long book we're doing for school. I have been reading "Augustus Ceasar's World" as part of our history. This book takes quite a chunk of time each day. I did not realize that our curriculum (that we sort of follow in spite of adding many of our own things) recommended reading aloud "The Bronze Bow" too. By the time I realized this, we were like 100 pages behind the schedule. Each day's reading in this book was also taking up a huge chunk of time... especially when you are in "catch-up" mode.  As I was sharing this with my friend, I mentioned that it would be great to have as an audio book, but I didn't want to buy one. She (in her great wisdom) told me that there are virtual libraries where you could "check out" the audio books and play them on a smart phone (or computer, or mp3 player, or kindle)!

What a concept! Think of the possibilities! For free! So today, I went to our local city's virtual library website (where I already had a library card #) and signed up for a virtual account. I downloaded the app for my iphone (also available for android platforms, PC's, laptops, and Mac), I then browsed the titles in search of my book, and I downloaded the book.  I have 21 days to use it, at which time I can recheck it out, or just return it... (I'm assuming that it "returns itself" but since I'm a newbie at this, I don't know for sure... I can let you know in 21 days!)

Think about the possibilities of this handy little tool! Again, I do not plan on using this method to become my only source of reading aloud to my children. But in my current situation, I was able to play 2 chapters over lunch today while I got caught up on making butter and mozzarella cheese.  As I was talking to another homeschooling friend about this today, we thought about the opportunity to "read" during time in the car. Our family tends to be on the road a lot. I have tried using that time to read to the kids while Byron is driving, but it is quite laborious reading loud enough for everyone in the 3rd row to hear... especially over the diesel engine in our excursion or in our 4.5 door truck....

This truck has been great in transporting around our ever-increasing family! Check out www.customautosbytim.com

So having the option of using my iphone to play the read aloud and utilize the driving time as school time sounds like a great idea to me!  (In case you have a cassette player in your vehicle, you can get the cassette adapters for less than $5 at walmart. You connect one end to the headphone jack in your phone/kindle/ipad and the cassette end inserts into the cassette player. Then the audio is played through your car speakers.  Alternately, you can get an FM transmitter that will transmit via your FM radio to your car speakers.)

If you haven't figured it out, I'm quite excited about this! But on a similar note I'll just share another tidbit of info.... I have an app for my iphone called Bible.Is.  You can read the Bible on it in many versions, but what I love it for is the audio Bible.  When I have a Wifi or 3G connection I have access to a DRAMATIZED audio bible.... yes... you actually get to listen to the Egyptian plagues with locusts and frogs croaking in the background! The kids love it. Occasionally we take a break from our "normal" Bible reading and listen to the dramatized ESV Bible instead.  I'm sure there are more apps out there that do the same thing, but this is the one we are familiar with.  I am also able to use this app in the truck.

What are your favorite techno helps???? Please post and share!!!!