Flour flury

After an afternoon nap for all the gang, me included, I headed into the kitchen to test some recipes and mixes in prep for my next life.

Yes its nearly hot as hades, but I put the oven on and finished several items. With the help of MM, we produced a loaf of beer bread, peanut butter cookies, walnut chocolate chip cookies, butterbrikle scones, and dried fruit scones.  The bread and peanut butter cookies are from scratch, while the others had starts from mixes.  It was so much fun having MM help read the recipes, measure ingredients and lick the beaters was a wonderful time.  It brought back many memories of cooking with my Nana during my summer visits and Grandpa's complaints that it was too hot to heat the house by turning on the oven.  Nana generally settled him and we made whatever treat I asked for and later we all enjoyed it.

The biggest test today wasn't getting so many pans through the oven without burning anything, but my plan for the next round. Half of the cookie and scone batches went into the freezer for later baking.  In my next life having items ready for the oven will save me major amounts of time so the family is my current testing ground.  All the results earned two thumbs up from LB, MM, and DH.  I especially like the dried fruit scones .

An afternoon well spent....

Since February 1, life has been so different from anything I ever planned.  That slip on ice outside the office resulted in  being out of the office since February 2.  First diagnosed as a back sprain, then a pinched nerve showed up with physical therapy. Continued numbness in my leg led to a MRI, and the results moved me to the orthopedist and then an epidural just before Easter.  Now physical therapy continues as does the numbness in my leg, though it is getting  better ever so slowly.  Seems the epidural is helping but more to come after my next ortho appointment.

Being frustrated with this situation pushed me this weekend to trying to do a more normal weekend's worth of activity.  Tomorrow will show if this was a good idea or not.

MM had a birthday party this afternoon, which DH willingly took her to (he uses the time for computer work), so LB and I focused on cleaning up the last parts of his room.  LB isn't a dirty child, just a cluttered and messy one.  Putting things back in tubs or drawers is not his strong suit.  While he put away the piles of stuff at the end of his bed, I helped sort the every present Lego blocks.  He started this a couple of weeks ago but then building interrupted.

In the end, he decided to sort the bricks by color with a couple of drawers for the more unique pieces.  Once all the blocks were sorted, we worked together to labels the drawers.  After showing him how to use my label maker, he went to town typing out labels and I put them on the correct drawers.



While the sorting and labeling progressed, I had a batch of granola in the oven.  With bags of assorted nuts and dried fruits left from making Passover charoset and being out of granola, I saw this afternoon as the perfect time to make a batch of my own.  King Arthur Flour must have read my mind because a email earlier this week came with a recipe for crunchy granola.

I tweaked it a bit for the nuts and fruit in my pantry; apricots, dates, raisins, walnuts, cashews, almonds, and pumpkin seeds.  The end result is just wonderful and tasty.  It also fills my new storage container perfectly.

Growing up my Nana made granola which was wonderful, and always in a jar on the kitchen counter.  She didn't add the dried fruit as Grandpa wasn't big on this in his cereal.  I loved helping mix the ingredients in her biggest bowl and helping spread them on the baking sheets.  Next time I'll have to get MM and LB to help out, then they might enjoy eating it.

Winter comfort food

"Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home." - Edith Sitwell

More snow for us means the kids are home and I have to cook something for lunch and dinner.  King Arthur Flour Co. sent a recipe for baked macaroni and cheese a couple of months ago and I decided it just had to come out of my oven.  


As the back problems continue, I drafted MM to grate the cheese.  She did a great job and added the secret ingredient.  After stirring and mixing, we have this lovely pan for the oven.

A round in the oven brought this wonderful warmth for the table which was quickly enjoyed by all.  The entire family agrees this recipe is a keeper.