I don't know what has possessed me this month, but I have been in the kitchen...trying new recipes. I hate cooking, in general. But I am on a cooking high right now, trying to experiment with tasty, cheap recipes for my children. I forgot to take pictures of my favorite new recipe--homemade fruit leather--probably because I ate (all by myself) the entire batch in about two minutes. Here are some other firsts for me.
Homemade yogurt:
8 cups whole milk, on low in the crockpot for 2 1/2 hours, unplug for 3 hours, whisk in 6 oz. plain yogurt, cover and wrap in a heavy towel for 8 hours...
(Steve came home at 10:00 PM, just as I was finishing wrapping the crockpot with the towel so it could sit overnight while we slept. He was sporting such a nice combination: scrubs and khaki shorts. Anyway, it confused me, so I took a picture.)
The final product (mixed with blueberry puree).
My first ever batch of homemade rolls:
A huge success! Devoured in minutes.
Switching gears. We took the kids to Kent Park to walk around the lake on Friday. Here is Lincoln, glad he brought his ultra-cool walking stick, if only so he could take this picture:
Isaac...don't fall in!!! Be careful!!! (That would have been the audio had I videotaped this.)
Um...gotta give her points for her enthusiasm:
Isaac and Noelle:
The picture of the spider my kids will want to enlarge over and over again. (Actually, when I enlarged it I found three giant spiders--two that weren't quite as obvious as the one in the web--and I realized my kids have got me thinking like an eight-year-old these days. "How many spiders can I find...?")
Just after sunset:
Moving along...
So I started giving Laura cooking lessons this week (my family is laughing right now, thinking how ironic it is), and we will do it every Tuesday for a couple of hours. I even printed out a lesson plan (after researching on the internet) and every week we will learn a few skills and then make something. This week we learned about general kitchen safety, how to measure, and how to use the oven. We made a simple chocolate cake. Here is Laura spreading the batter in the dish:
Nervously putting it in the (HOT) oven:
Waiting...
And then, after all of that, I forgot to take a picture of the final product. Such a shame. It was spectacular, I tell you.
7 comments:
Looking at that last picture, I can almost smell the cake right along with Laura. I love the cooking class idea, and I am so impressed with all the fun things you are trying! Scrubs w/ khaki shorts is something Neal would do. (Come to think of it, he has done scrubs with church slacks...) Cute hiker picture, and beautiful lake at sunset! Wow, you pack a lot into a post. Love it!
Go Jenn, go! Way to develop those culinary talents! I'm so impressed that you made yogurt.
Now I miss Kent Park again. . .
Hey, why did you have to re-invite me to your blog? Were psychos stalking you and leaving inappropriate comments?
What a great mom doing cooking lessons. You've inspired me, maybe I'll start...next week.
Wow, and I've been eating out every day because I don't have the energy to cook. I want to make an M and M cake!!
you are amazing!
OK so how was it to make the homemade rolls and fruit leather? I'm such a wuss and am scared to make bread of any type-I need professional help-so how was it?
Amber, fruit leather was EASY. I just dumped a couple of jars of applesauce onto cookie sheets lined with plastic wrap, then put them in the oven (door propped open a couple of inches with a potato masher) on the "warm" setting for about twelve hours. The applesauce started out 1/4 inch thick, and ended up being less than an 1/8 inch, and leathery and toughish. I loved it. Next time, I'm going to add strawberry puree to the applesauce.
The rolls were easy after I learned how to deal with yeast. I tried to make a few loaves of bread prior to the rolls, but I could only get bricks. Finally I realized I was putting yeast in water that was way too hot and it was killing the yeast. The key (I think) is to put the yeast in warm water from the tap (I was putting in the micrawave to get it really hot. I finally used my candy thermometer to make sure it was between 110 and 120 degrees) and from there on out, it was pretty easy, just follow the recipe...slightly time consuming, but I've been making these at least once a week since, so they can't be that difficult, right?
During our first sojourn in Iowa City, we were getting brick bread randomly. We finally decided that sometimes there was so much chlorine in the tap water that it killed the yeast. When we switched to bottled water for bread-making, we had no problem. I heated it in the microwave, not too long. The water quality is much better here now, so we can use the tap water without fear.
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