Finally...Kringla

I finally had time to make kringla. I would like to thank my Mom for helping with the second batch. The day after making the first batch I was really sore. It was nice to have someone else to roll and shape the second batch.

Combining sugar and butter.


All of the wet ingredients.


Kringla dough.


Kneaded dough.

I have learned when you make multiple batches of kringla, you need to make them on consecutive days as opposed to one day. It's very hard on your body to roll, shape, and bake more than 6 dozen in one day.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas is almost here! There is so much to do yet! There's presents to wrap, kringla to make, suitcases to pack, and carols to sing. It's been a busy week so far. I've been working on just cleaning up some of the house. It seems that since we got decorations out, there is no room for some of the stuff we have accumulated!
The plan is to bake tomorrow. We need to get our holiday treats sent before the holidays are over! I'm hoping to make some krumkake as well (another Norwegian treat). It's pretty easy and quick to make, I just have to have the ambition.
I still have some Christmas movies to watch, too. Maybe next year it will be easier to keep on top of all the Christmas stuff!

Kringla

I'm getting ready to make kringla. The plan was to make a batch of dough today so I could roll and bake them tomorrow while my hubby is home. I spent today running errands with my son most of the late morning and afternoon. Of course, that means most of my house chores didn't get done so now I'm somewhat behind. I feel a lack of energy today, most likely from the weather and having to haul around our cute son. I'm sure the weather isn't helping either. I'm hoping I'll be able to get it made after supper. It's a great time of year for this wonderful little Norwegian treat. It's one of our families favorites, even our little guy!

Suggestions

So, no pictures for this week. We haven't put up our Christmas decorations which means no holiday baking yet. I have baked some store cookie mixes because sometimes, you just need a cookie! And with a little one, it's been difficult to have enough time to make them from scratch. Since my husband has tomorrow off, I'm hoping to get some decorating done and possibly some baking. Of course he goes to the dentist in the morning, so it may be difficult getting everything done.

I would also like to hear what people would like me to blog about. How can I make this blog better for you? What do you want me to do more of? What do you not want me to do? I'm taking any and all suggestions. Just leave a comment! Thanks for your input!

(Make sure to check out the recipe for December! It would make a great breakfast for Christmas!)

Gettin' My Sewing On

I've been planning on working on some of my sewing projects this week. I started this week by fixing some clothes that were overly due for fixing. I also made a couple of baby toys that my sister-in-law gave me the pattern for. It's my sons favorite toy and in order to wash the original, I needed to make at least another one. I figured it's as easy to make two as it is one, so I will make duplicates to donate to our church's charity fund.
Tomorrow is our church's quilting circle meeting, which I usually go to in the afternoon. I'm hoping to make some new sheets for our son's crib tomorrow as well. We'll see how well my sewing talents extend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

As it was a holiday week with working at a craft fair last weekend, I have not had time to post a blog. So, welcome to the Thanksgiving edition!

We did well at our first craft fair. We sold several items including, but not limited to, caramel corn, popcorn, Christmas wreaths, baby toys, hair accessories, cookbooks and peanut brittle. There are a few changes we decided to make for next year, but we have decided to work at it again. I believe there is another craft fair which our stuff will be sold at next weekend, but I will not be able to attend.

I made Chipotle Sweet Pretzels and took pictures of each step as I made them.

Here I am adding the water to the egg whites.


Adding the rest of the coating ingredients.


Coating the pretzels.


The finished product after baking.
They aren't too spicy, but have a very nice flavor.

Hopefully I'll start making more holiday fare and post pictures during the holiday season!

Food Galore

I took the weekend and made our next six weeks meals. It was a little more difficult to plan since there are two holidays to plan for. (We usually travel for both holidays, but with the weather always being iffy here, it's hard to plan which days we'll be gone for sure. Last year we ended up staying home an extra day because of the snow.) I made eight meals, leaving the last one for tonight. It didn't make much sense to me to freeze a meal to take it out the next day. Most of the recipes for this menu are from the different Taste of Home magazines. I did take pictures of a couple of the menu items I made, however, I didn't have time to upload them to my computer. Hopefully I'll be able to post them sometime this week.
I have also been working on items to sell for the craft fair I'm attending with my in-laws on Saturday. I've been making mixes and rice heating pads. I will also be making some flavored pretzels and caramel corn. I will be more than happy to post pictures of making one of these items and the recipe! This will be my first craft fair, some I'm excited to see what will sell and what won't and how much will.

Adventures in Baby Food

*I had a migraine yesterday, so this post is one day late. My apologies!*

Our son has started eating solid foods. Instead of paying for baby food, we have opted to try to make our own. I did all right with the butternut squash, which he started to like. The green beans and carrots have been a different story, although he does like both of them. The carrots need a little more pureeing, so do the green beans, but I'm not sure I can puree the green beans anymore without completely watering it down. It's still experimental, but we're working on it. I think we're trying peas next which will hopefully be much easier!

Apples Galore

I didn't get all of my list done from last week. I did get some of the apples dehydrated and I cut up one of the butternut squashes. I am having somewhat of a hard time not eating the apple chips that I've made. Sprinkled with cinnamon sugar before drying and they are really tasty! I still have quite a few apples left, but I'm hoping to finish them up this week.

To Do

This week:
Dehydrate apples
Make room in freezer
Freeze pumpkin
Freeze butternut squash
Wash laundry
Finish unpacking

Apples

This week my son and I are visiting family. Today we are at my parents. We went to a local apple orchard where we picked up apples for baking, drying, saucing and, of course, eating. My in-laws have already made applesauce and have saved some for us, so I will be getting to take some of the drying apples home. We are going to try to make and can apple pie filling before my son and I leave Wednesday for my in-laws. I did have one of the eating apples, Jonagold, and it was delicious!

Quilting Fun

This post is a little late (trying for every Monday), but I am posting. I have been practicing hand quilting. I have started going to a quilting group through the church we've been attending and the ladies were more than happy to teach me how to hand quilt. I'm very excited to work on this new skill and hope to be able to help them quilt soon!
This week I'm going to try to work on my mother-in-laws quilt. I need to cut squares but have limited space to cut right now and it seems fairly limited time. It's hard to keep the little one entertained long enough to get a good amount of anything done some days.

Freezer Cooking

This past weekend I spent cooking for our freezer. I cooked nine recipes total and have one more to do. The last recipe I have to make is a soup recipe. Seeing as it has once again warmed up, and I'm running low on freezer space, I've decided to wait until the menu says to have the soup, then make a big batch to freeze. It's hard to make soup while it's warm outside!
Here are some pictures of the hard work I did:





I picked ten recipes and did triple batches. My menu is for 42 days, so there are some days for roasts, leftovers, pasta with sauce and pizza. Our son was very good for me on Friday while I did the first batch of baking. My husband watched him on Sunday and also picked up supper for us. (I completely recommend not cooking supper the day you do the most of the cooking. It really wipes you out!)
I'm still washing some of the dishes, but I run out of strainer space quickly when I use the big bowls, skillets and pots. I'm sure I'll see the end of the dishes soon!

Culinary Delight

Last week I made ham and cheese calzones (picture to be posted later). This weeks culinary experiment is muffins. I have two recipes I'd like to try, Pumpkin Oat Bran and Chocolate Almond. The recipes sound like they'll taste really yummy, and the best part is I can freeze them for later! I made ham and bean soup Sunday night and made some yummy pasta tonight. I've been playing with different flavors and coming up with new ideas to keep our menu a little less boring.

Pretzels

This last week I tried my had at a recipe I found in one of the magazines I subscribe to. It is called "Sweet Chipotle Pretzels" and they are really good! I made two double batches and bagged some for my mother-in-law to sell at the farmer's market. Each batch makes four cups of pretzels, so there isn't a whole lot to share, but it's a nice change from some of the snack food I've made, and one I will be sure to make again.

Update

So, we've decided that we will no longer have a garden. We don't have the room to have a garden in our yard if we want to have any play sets for our child. We will still have our rhubarb and possibly and herb garden, if I have time to tear us part of a flower bed. We still have our raspberries, but I don't think they're doing very well. It's somewhat overrun by weeds and I'm not brave enough to figure out what is a thorny raspberry vine and a thorny weed. I am working on some recipes that I would like to try out. Hopefully they will be really yummy!

Freezing Meals

I have decided to adopt the idea of freezing a lot of meals so we don't have to cook as often. I'm starting with just a couple of weeks worth first. And I've picked some easy recipes: Rice and Bean Burritos, Chicken Soup, Chicken Casserole and Scalloped Potatoes and Ham. Of course, since it is summer time here, I'm using some of the chicken to make chicken salad. It's amazing how far two whole chickens will go! I spent about the same amount of money for two and a half weeks of groceries as I normally would for one. Of course I'll still have to buy milk and fresh produce, but I think this will help us save money in the long run.
We're also having a meatless meal once a week, and a breakfast meal once a week as well. I'm hoping these ideas will help us since I don't work during the summer and therefore have less income.

SpringTime

It's officially spring time! The weather has actually stayed fairly warm and it's been raining quite a bit. Most of all, I was able to pick rhubarb!
I cut up about three cups for ourselves and gave the rest to a friend of ours. I'm hoping to make some rhubarb sauce. It's getting to be that time where we'll start making some homemade ice cream which goes great with the rhubarb sauce. We'll have another batch of rhubarb ready to pick soon and I'll be able to make some other rhubarb goodies!

Early Arrival

So our little one came earlier than expected. We did not get all our meals ready before he showed up. My husband has been wonderful since we have all been home and has been cooking for me. He has also managed to make a batch of pulled pork to partially freeze and several pounds of taco meat to freeze as well. He goes back to work soon, so it will be really nice for me to have some of these things to just heat up for lunches. He has realized that it is much easier to cook in the early evening, otherwise our kitchen gets hot quickly. The temperature here has been in the upper 70's, lower 80's these last couple of days and we're trying not to turn our air conditioning on.

My husband has also been making the menus for the week and doing the grocery shopping. He's not doing too bad! He reports why he got what he did and if there was something he didn't get, he explains that too. I am very lucky to have such a supportive, helpful husband.

More Meals

Today we bought a fairly inexpensive ham, which I cut in half. The first half I sliced enough for our dinner on Tuesday, I diced about a cups worth for Wednesday's dinner and used the rest in a green bean casserole for supper tonight. The other half I cubed and was able to put into three different freezer containers for the summer. Depending on what we use it for, that's at least three meals. Possibly even more! Later this week, I'll be making taco meat to freeze as well. Our meals for post partum are coming along, slowly but surely.

Farmer's Market

I have been thinking about selling items at the local Farmer's Market. Of course this summer, it's going to be very difficult to do with the new baby. I've picked a few mix recipes and have been trying the different goodies that can be made by the mix to see if they are any good. I have a long way to go, but my husband is enjoying the experimentation immensely.

I've also been doing some cost analysis to see if this venture is worth the effort. Any helpful tips would be greatly appreciated!

Baby Quilt

I have finished making our baby quilt. It took a lot less time than I thought it would.
This is the fabric I used.

Here are some of the squares sewn together.

Here is the finished project. I'm so glad I got it done so early. I've been able to show it off and double check to make sure everything is all right.

Done

Today I was able to make a microwave potato baker bag. My husband and I love using it! We had baked potatoes Wednesday night and our old one started to smolder. Needless to say, we had worn ours out.
I have gathered some very quite fabric to start my baby quilt. I'm hoping to get it done by March, I just have to be very dedicated! Or at least, focused, which has been a little hard for me to do lately. When I get the quilt done, I'll have to find a new project for myself. Probably finish moving furniture around and getting ready for baby.

New Year

Happy new year to everyone! I did finally get my quilt done and was able to give it to my sister. On time even! This is quite the finished project, but it was one of the last steps. Now it's on to a baby quilt!

I was very thankful how all of the relatives we gave homemade gifts to were grateful for them. It's nice to know that some people still appreciate simple things and don't need expensive things to be happy. I made some microwave baked potato bags and rice heating pads and gave some of the things I canned this summer. (I have found that giving food is almost always is a good idea. People love food!)

I am going to try to post more often since I am going to try to work on some projects more often. I am still working full-time, taking a class and due at the end of May. Some days it's hard to find time to even wash the dishes, but I'm going to try and manage my time better. At least for now.