Question: Cookbook for Children

This week my daughter and I made a honey cake from the recipe in her Pooh birthday card. I often have a helper (or two or three) hanging around when I bake. There is always the potential of a spoon or bowl to lick! But this time, she really wanted to help mix up the cake. She was delighted with the result!

I was again reminded of my goal of finding a good children's cookbook. I have fond memories of the cookbook I used as a child. Quinn and I were discussing cookbooks for children and so far, we haven't found exactly what we are looking for.

I'm sure I haven't seen them all, so I'm wondering if any of you have a favorite children's cookbook to recommend.

My perfect cookbook would have clear directions in large print for children to read. It would contain not just desserts (the fun stuff!) but also main dishes and healthier foods for a balanced diet. And I would like it to be lovely! Maybe because my husband is a printer but nicely done, well designed, good illustrated books really appeal to me.

Maybe the perfect book doesn't exist. Thanks for any suggestions!

Artisan Breads Every Day - final review

I'm done! Thanks for traveling with me through this journey through Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. I'm sure I've bored you to death, but I've made every recipe in this book. I have not tried every variation, for example, I made croissants but not chocolate croissants or danish that use the same dough. There are enough variations on many of the recipes to keep me busy for another year! But I promise I won't bore you with any more recipe reviews.

I learned so much through this book. Peter is a gifted teacher, and like his other books, it is impossible to make his recipes without improving your baking skills.
Most of these recipes are refrigerated overnight to improve flavor. At first I wasn't sure I liked this technique as it meant I had to think ahead, something I'm not always good at! But by now I'm sold! Often I would spend an hour mixing up two or three different batches of dough. The dough would all go in the fridge to be baked at leisure in the next several days. Splitting up the mixing from the baking seemed to fit a busy mom's schedule.

This method especially worked well if we were having guests. With the dough in the fridge, I could concentrate on cleaning up the house or other meal prep and still enjoy freshly baked bread with our friends.
But the best part of this book was that time and time again I was simply astounded with the results. The flavor of these breads were simply wonderful. I could bake breads before, but with this book, true artisan quality bread is within grasp.

Frugal Gardening Tip #2 - Mulch

If "time is money" then any time saver is saving money - or that is the way I look at it.

And mulch saves time - lots of time.

We never mulched at my home growing up. Well, we did lay black plastic down in the melon patch but otherwise we relied on the tiller, hoes, and man (or child) power to beat back the weeds. It was a great project to keep children busy in the summer and I actually did not hate it. But by the end of summer, when the harvest was full swing, the weeds usually got the upper hand.

My husband's family were mulchers. And what a difference. By the time I met Ed's parents, they were retired and gardening was their hobby. My father-in-law mulched with newspaper between the garden rows and his garden was beautiful.

When we moved to our own home, we had a mower with a grass bagger. We use the grass clippings as mulch and enjoy a basically weed free garden. Our garden has continued to grow and we don't always have enough grass clippings but we mulch as much as possible.

Remember our new strawberry bed? Last week the plants were only a few straggly roots. A week later, there is new green growth and the row can be seen. The weeds haven't appeared yet but it is only a matter of time. Weeds in our old patch is one of the reasons we planted a new strawberry bed. We wanted to do what we could to eliminate the weed problem before it began.

Our strawberry rows are three feet apart. We needed to allow room for the strawberry plants to grow runners. We laid down one foot of card board between the rows. When we ran out of cardboard, we used newspaper.

We covered the paper with a generous layer of grass clippings. We pulled the grass clippings up around the plants. The runners should be able to root through the clippings.

We did the same to our new raspberry bed, using cardboard and grass clippings. (And you'll notice that I say "we". Ed does the work while I take pictures and say how wonderful it looks. And cook him a good supper. And take care of the children. And...well, I won't pretend I hold up my side of the team, but I try! I know I'm one blessed girl. And have I told you that he REALLY likes homemade bread?)

Some mulching tips -

• Free is good. My husband has a basically unlimited supply of cardboard boxes from work. We have a huge lawn so grass clippings are abundant as long as we have rain and the grass is growing.
  
• If you use newspaper or cardboard, you'll need to weight it down with rocks, dirt or something to keep it from blowing away. It also works well to soak the newspaper in a bucket of water first to make it easier to manage on a windy day.
• Aim for thin layers. A thick layer of grass clippings will become slimy and yucky. A thin layer applied often is much preferred.
• Keep in mind that the best mulch depends on what you are planting. Strawy manure is great if it won't come in contact with food. Maybe for a new strawberry bed that won't be harvested until the next year or around corn. Grass clippings can cling to things like green beans and make it more difficult to get clean. Choose something like newspaper for cleaner green beans.
• I like to mulch after a rain. If dry soil is mulched, rain fall may run off without sinking into the soil. A good mulch will help to hold in the moisture. We use drip irrigation right in the garden rows to maximize our water.
  
• This has not been a problem for us but if you have a lot of trouble with slugs, mulching may not be for you.
  
• Our garden has very good soil but it also contains a lot of clay. The consistent use of mulch for the past seven years has increased the humus in our soil significantly. Though we use a generous layer of mulch, with our humid summers and freezing winters, all the mulch material has completely composted by spring. I think of it as the lazy man's compost system. In another climate, mulching may not work as well. I love to pull back some mulch, dig in, and watch all the earth worms squirm. A picture of happy soil!
• We have found it best not to mulch late in the season. If the soil is covered with a heavy layer of mulch in the spring, it will take a long time to dry out and warm up. We usually add fall leaves and grass clippings to our compost pile or around shrubs, grapevines or other place that will not need tilled up for spring planting. That said, we are running an experiment this year with one sections of our garden. We covered it with shredded leaves this past fall. This spring we did no tilling but just chopped a hole and dropped in the broccoli and lettuce plants. We plan to plant corn in that garden as well with no tilling just pushing the seed into the ground. We'll see if it works!
  

One of the things we enjoy about gardening is trying new things. We've had successes and failures but we wouldn't have known the result if we had not tried.

If mulching your garden is a new idea to you, I'd encourage you to try it this year! I'm sure you could find a better use of your time then weeding!

Artisan Breads Every Day - English Muffins

Finally! The last recipe review from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day.

I'm not sure who is most relieved that I've come to the last recipe in this book. Me - or you my long-suffering readers! I have learned so much about bread baking by working through this book - but I'm sure you would like to read about something other then bread!

I didn't save this recipe for last on purpose. It is not the most difficult recipe in the book. Since the English muffin dough is more of a batter, I needed to find some crumpet rings, which I finally borrowed from my mom. After making this recipe, I think I will need to purchase my own.
These English muffins were simple to make and delicious. My husband, who just walked through the room, says they taste just like the bought ones, only better. I used the partial whole wheat variation. Maybe next time I'll try increasing the whole wheat even further.
The dough was refrigerated overnight just like most of the other recipes in the book. Baking them in a griddle took time but wasn't difficult. The dough rose significantly and my first muffins spilled out over the side of the rings. All that rising made wonderful large holes for which English muffins are known.For the next batch I just used less batter and they were perfect.

Artisan Breads Every Day - Croissants

Almost done! Another recipe review from Peter Reinhart's newest book.

This recipe scared me. I've wanted to make croissants for years but laminated doughs just freaked me out! I really wanted to try this recipe knowing that with Peter's hand holding, I probably could do it. But if I wouldn't have told you all that I was going to make every recipe in this book, I would have probably chickened out!

I'm glad I didn't! These were incredible!

The recipe wasn't difficult, just time consuming. Mixing the dough was easy, but laminating the butter between layers of dough took nearly all afternoon. Every 20 minutes I was rolling, folding, flouring, and working with this dough. The dough kept springing back on me and I struggled to get it rolled wide enough but finally I had all 81 layers.

The cutting and forming of rolls was simple enough and I impatiently waited for the dough to rise so we could get these in the oven. But baking these rolls wasn't without difficulties. All that butter started to melt out of the rolls. I had mistakenly placed these rolls on a flat baking sheet. Butter dripping on the oven coils caused flame ups and soon my kitchen was filled with smoke! Good time to check the smoke detector!

But the result was lovely despite the extra flames. I love how the layers separated inside. And one bite of these...Mmmmm!

The next pan I made sure had sides which avoided any problems. My husband enjoyed these for egg sandwiches for several mornings. I'm not sure this recipe will become a regular with all the extra effort involved but at least now I don't have to be intimidated by croissants!

Ragged baby quilt and other sewing projects

In the past months, I've done very little sewing (besides the never ending mending pile, which doesn't count!) But I thought I'd share pictures of a few of the projects that were completed.
I always make a baby quilt for our babies before they are born. Since we don't know the gender, that means a neutral baby quilt. The quilt I made for our last baby was mostly white with a little yellow and blue. When our baby daughter was born, my oldest daughter begged for me to make her a girly quilt. When flannels went on sale last fall, I relented.
This quilt was super simple. I cut rectangles 10 x 4 inches, sandwiched cotton batting in between two rectangles, and stitched it up. The basic method was like the denim ragged quilts I made the winter before.
Here is my new bag, inspired by my cousin Carolyn's creative bags. If I had more time, I'd make a new bag every week! They are just too much fun!
When growing up, I always wanted a sister to dress in matching dresses with me. I was the oldest in my family and after me were born four boys. My first sister wasn't born until I was 15. (Later I was blessed with two more sisters as well as another brother.) I immediately made her a dress to match mine but there was too big of an age difference and we never did it again, though I did make lots of matching dresses for the younger girls.
But now I can sew matching dresses for my two daughters! My oldest daughter loves matching her little sister. And little sister couldn't care in the less about what she is wearing!

Artisan Breads Every Day - Biscuits

More from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day.

Peter calls these the "best biscuits ever", which is a bold claim, but I think these biscuits live up to it! Soft, flaky, tender and wonderful flavor make these the best biscuits I've ever made. Of course, they are not low fat but I'm willing to support my dairy farming dad and enjoy the butter and cream in these biscuits.

The first time I made these, I followed the directions explicitly. I loved the idea of grating frozen butter. It made it so easy to work the butter in the flour. The dough was very soft and wet but I resisted adding more flour and turned it on the counter and did the folds as described. The results were without description! I stirred up some sausage gravy and we had a breakfast to dream of. (And my sweet husband watched the children so I could go for a brisk walk to help with some calorie reduction!)

The next time I made this recipe, was much more spur of the moment. One evening, my husband just decided he was very hungry for these biscuits and I decided to see how fast I could make this recipe. By doing some short cuts (no freezing the butter or dough resting time) we had biscuits from start to eating in 20 minutes. I also used half whole wheat flour in this batch. They were still wonderful! This time a few made it to the next day so we were able to find that they are almost as good the next day.

This is one great recipe. If you can borrow this book from the library and try one recipe, you won't lose with this one!

Edit to add: Check the comments! Quinn shares a link to this recipe! Thanks Quinn for finding this for us!