>My Seven Favorite Kitchen Gadgets

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>Heidi tagged me with the ever popular Seven Things meme. I could spontaneously come up with seven random and useless facts, or I could write an entire series like Bubbly Thorp did, or…well, how about this angle?

I’d rather bake than cook, but I end up doing the majority of the cooking chore because I’m the first one home from work on weekdays. Here are my favorite gadgets to get the evening meal on the table.

1. The crock pot! Chili, soup, stew, or casserole, it can simmer all day while I’m teaching. When I get home, I add the noodles or the dumplings, and it’s ready to serve by 5:30. The aroma when I walk in the door? Priceless.
2. Bread maker! I’m on my third. I wore out the first two. Whether I’m making a mix or baking from scratch, it’s a great time saver. I must learn to knead dough on my own some day, but for now, the bread machine is my friend.
3. Immersion blender. I don’t use it as often as the top two, but it’s a great tool. I can stick it in the crock pot (see #1) after tomatoes or potatoes have been simmering all day, and voila! Creamy soup. I used it to mash potatoes on Thanksgiving and Christmas because it’s so handy and easy to clean.
4. Mixer and/or MixMaster. I enjoy baking, and these two are my assistants in putting many doughs together. Cookies, brownies, quick breads, you name it, they would take much longer if I attempted to mix them by hand. the handheld mixer is more than 20 years old and still going strong. The MixMaster is a hand-me-down from my Mother-In-Law, so I don’t know how old it is. I’m glad she passed it on to me; I don’t think I would have bought one on my own, since I didn’t know how useful a MixMaster can be until this one stepped into my kitchen.
5. My coffee grinder is a luxury, and I enjoy it immensely. I can’t wait to grind my Obama Blend for the Inauguration!
6. Food processor! I use this for garden goodies. I’m still getting to know its blades and its idiosyncrasies. Remember the pepper mush? I’ll fix that next summer. Really.
7. George Foreman Grill. This one makes the list because I don’t use it. The girls (me and La Petite) gave it to The Boys (Husband and Amigo) for Christmas. They’re getting to know George, and we’re watching…and eating well.

The coffeemaker is a given.
I’m still hoping for a rain barrel or two for Mother’s Day.

Here’s a recipe that uses #1, #3, and #6. Serve it on fresh bread using #2, with a cup of decaf later (fresh ground with #5, of course). #4 could mix up dessert, and we’d have a meal using six out of seven!

This meme is so popular that I can’t possibly tag anyone else. If you’d like to take it on, leave a note in the comments so we can read your responses!

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>Monkey Bread: another easy brunch goodie

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>Monkey Bread is similar to sticky buns, except in Monkey Bread, it is a bunch of little sticky buns baked together. Some people like to add raisins, or dried cranberries, others add walnuts and chocolate chips. I used raisins and walnuts the first time, but I can see endless possibilities for add-ins with this sweet brunchy treat.

Ingredients
2 cans refrigerated biscuits or 1 package Grands
½ cup packed brown sugar
6 Tablespoons (3/4 of a stick) butter
1/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 cup each raisins and walnuts (optional)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-10 inch tube pan or Bundt pan.
Mix the white sugar and cinnamon together in a medium sized zipper bag. Shake well.
Take out the refrigerated biscuits, and cut them into quarters (eighths, if you’re using larger biscuits). Place six to eight pieces in the bag with the cinnamon sugar mix and shake to coat. Repeat until all pieces are coated.
Place the cinnamon-sugared dough pieces in the of the greased pan, layering over and over until all of the biscuit pieces are in the pan. If you are using raisins or walnuts, place them among the biscuit pieces as you are layering.
Melt the butter with the brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Boil for 1 minute, and then pour the melted mix over the layered biscuits.
Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Once done, let the bread cool in pan for 5 minutes. Turn upside down onto a plate to serve.
To eat, simply pull apart and enjoy!

This brunch dish works well alongside Dutch Babies. We found out the leftovers (there were leftovers?!) tasted best microwaved for 30 seconds, then eaten with a fork. Sticky mess, perhaps. Worth it? Yes, absolutely!

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>To-Do list fights with Ta-Dah!! list

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>Who needs an inbox and an outbox? I have to-do and ta-dah. Sing that last one: Ta-Dah! Here’s the set from mid-day Sunday: let’s see which side wins.

Accomplishments for the day so far

  • made coffee
  • cleaned kitchen
  • ran dishwasher
  • washed two loads of laundry
  • dried four loads of laundry (including two that were washed last night, hung on drying racks overnight. Jeans and sweats work great that way)
  • folded five loads of laundry (the socks and underwear were already out of the dryer last night. they don’t wrinkle, so I left them overnight)
  • Read the Sunday newspaper (yes, even a working mama deserves a simple pleasure)
  • Ate a grapefruit (it’s an investment in my health. Of course that goes on the list!)
  • Are you ready for this? The major accomplishment for the morning:
  • I took the ornaments off the tree and put them in storage.
    Diced veggies and thawed other ingredients to put a turkey soup in the crockpot.
  • Made lunch for Husband and me and Amigo while La Petite slept in
  • Cleared Christmas decor from the mantel and around the house, sorted it into “keep” and “donate” and “throw away,” stored the “keep” boxes.
  • Replaced Christmas decorations with snowmen for January!
  • Helped Amigo with his homework
  • voted for the Packer in the Click for Cans contest

I think I need to sit down and take a break with some playoff football, a Diet Coke, and laptop time.

Yet To-do

  • correct spelling tests (abbreviations)
  • correct math tests (mid-chapter, multiplication and division)
  • check penmanship papers
  • add barley to soup, determine side dishes, prepare to serve supper

I must add this: Husband, noticing my progress in getting the ornaments down, took off the lights, stored them, and then dragged the tree outside. He put the tree stand in the basement and even (yes, honestly, he did) vacuumed all the pine needles and put the furniture back in its regular place. Isn’t he a gem?

Hmmm. I’m a pro at rationalization. But even without rationalizing my excuses for doing housework before schoolwork, this looks pretty darn good. No guilt: I’ve accomplished plenty, and the rest will get done, too.

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>I’ll take that advice!

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>I always read the Employee Wellness Newsletter. Sometimes I skim it and roll my eyes, but once in a while there’s an article that makes sense. There was dietary advice this time. Here are a few carefully selected quotes along with my reactions.

“Research shows that what you eat can significantly affect your mood.”
Um, yeah, why do you think my coffee addiction is such a big deal, y’all?

“For breakfast, try oatmeal or eggs. Both contain an amino acid that helps boost the levels
of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that makes you feel good.”
Yay! I’m doing something right: I often make oatmeal from breakfast. My favorite is steelcut oats with raisins and brown sugar with a hint of cinnamon sugar on top.

“As for the blueberries, save those for lunch. The antioxidants in them will ward off workday stress.” Stress? What stress?! And how about my daily orange? It smells good, tastes good, and adds vitamin C to give my immune system a fighting chance against the kids sneezing and coughing and breathing at me.

“Finish with a small piece of chocolate.”
Oh, yes! I can deal with that advice. My colleague down the hall has a stash of dark chocolate and sometimes even shares it.

But wait…they didn’t mention coffee. Uh-oh. Where does my daily cuppa (or two or three) fit into this picture?

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>Reclaiming the den

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>”Can we take the tree down tonight?”
“Absolutely not on my agenda.”
“But the Maids are coming tomorrow!”

Let me be clear. I am not wealthy. The Maids are on the order of a cleaning service, a group of people who come in once every four weeks to do the main cleaning chores in our home. I have the utmost respect for them (and tip them every single time) because I really detest cleaning. They clean the floors, the toilets, the bathtubs, and the sinks – all the dirty and grimy places I can’t stand. The Maids will be the last item I cut as we adjust our family budget for the tightening economy.

But I digress. I really started this post thinking about the den, the mantel full of Christmas decorations, and the rapidly-drying Christmas tree. I like to have the tree down before the Maids’ visit because they vacuum and dust, and that’s exactly what I need done after the holiday decor goes back in the basement. This year the post-Santa cleaning visit arrived closer to Christmas than usual, so we weren’t ready to deal with the tree.

So here it is, already the second week in January. I’m back to school, Husband is luckily (according to him) not working any play-off games, but Amigo is gearing up for final exams and I’m busily gathering data for Semester I report cards. Who will take the tree down, and when will it finally happen?

Most years we get the tree down and the knick-knacks stored within a few days of the New Year. The Maids sweep and vacuum any needles we’ve missed and leave the place looking Christmas-free. This year, I’m going to end up doing it all myself because no one, but no one else is interested in helping out.

No help? I’ll be like the little Red Hen. See if I bake any cookies for the lazy family this weekend. Not if I have to do it all. by. myself.

Parent Bloggers Network is looking for more stories about the holiday clean-up. If you’d like to post on the topic and link to them, go to their main blog. SCJohnson’s new website also gives cleaning advice… for the dreaded day that I stop the cleaning service!

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>Dutch Babies (pannekukken)

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>A simple breakfast or brunch dish from my Plurk buddy Barb in Nebraska

In a large oven-safe pan, melt a stick of butter at 425 degrees.
While butter is melting, break 6 eggs into a blender and whirl at high speed for 1 minute. While motor is running add ½ cup of milk. Then slowly add 1 ½ cups flour. By now, the butter is melted. Slowly pour batter into the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and nutmeg. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Check periodically to pop air bubbles. They look frightening, but they taste just fine.
Use pizza cutter to cut into pieces. Serve with maple syrup or jelly.

This reminds me of when my kids were young and I made French Toast regularly. Sourdough bread from the day-old bread store, half a dozen eggs, and a little syrup made an easy and inexpensive brunch for the family. If the grocery store had a sale we might have had bacon on the side.

As is my style in the kitchen, I’ll experiment with the Dutch Babies recipe. I might try it with wheat flour or oatmeal added, cranberry sauce on top, or other goodies. Maybe egg substitute for half the eggs, too. In spring and summer, the eggshells will go in the garden or the compost, of course.
Enjoy! My next planned kitchen experiment: Monkey Bread!

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>Word of the year

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>Resolutions. Goals. Good intentions. Words.
Words?
In another trend sweeping the blogosphere, the philosophy is this: choose a word. The word will be your focus, guiding changes and progress in 2009.

G’s Cottage, the first place I saw this, chose Cultivate as her word. This is a great multi-meaning word. It encompasses nurturing, planting, growing, assisting, caretaking, and many more action words. Cultivate would fit my teaching profession and my gardening hobby and, face it, motherhood.
But cultivate is G’s word. No matter how well it might fit me, it’s not quite right.
Christine, the leader of this movement, provided a long list of words from which to choose. This list, while comprehensive, doesn’t cover everyone’s personality and/or needs. It’s meant to guide and suggest, not limit.

So far, my personal list is narrowed down to these.

Clarify: Think, act, speak clearly. Keep goals in mind: eyes on the prize, while simultaneously focused on the process. Maybe Clarity is even better.
Mastery: Aim high, don’t settle. Improvement is good; mastery is better.
Acceptance: Change is good, but accepting limits is also good. As in the famous serenity prayer, the key is knowing what I can and cannot change, and accepting this.
Willingness: Not digging in my heels, but moving ahead willingly. The opposite might be “grudgingly.” No one sets a goal of being unwilling; it seems to happen on its own. Willing or willingness would be reminders to push forward with a “glass half full” philosophy, working to make the glass overflow.
Balance: need I say more?
Health: this one is almost too broad. Physical, emotional, mental health; my own, my family’s, my pets’ health?
Action: Similar to willingness or willing, this word would remind me that thoughts and ideas are cheap. Action is where the change originates, begins, ends, and succeeds.

Later this month I’ll choose a word, a term that will guide me toward goals that make sense. One word. It will most likely come from this list, but maybe a better one will turn up. Until then, it’s back to school, back to work, and back to (hopefully) a consistent sleep schedule.

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>Packer Pride helps the hungry

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>Green Bay Packer fans are proud people. We spend our Sundays (and some Monday nights) wearing green and gold, sporting hats that resemble wedges of cheese, and simply cheering on our team. Win or lose, playoffs or no playoffs, we still identify ourselves with the guys doing the Lambeau Leap.
Green Bay Packer fans take pride in other contests, too. Campbell’s Soup’s Click for Cans is going on right now. Here’s how it works.
Click on “Vote Now” and then choose the contest that includes the desired team. Click on the appropriate helmet (yellow, with a big G), enter the code to prove you’re not a robot, and voila! You’ve voted.
Fans can vote once a day.
The highest scoring teams will receive donations of soup for local food pantries. I drive past the Salvation Army headquarters on my way to work, and the lines and crowds there have grown noticably. Our local food pantry is getting fewer donations even as the requests for assistance increase. My own school’s Adopt-a-Family program is serving fewer families while we’d rather be serving more.
I hope you’ll help the Packers once again win the Click for Cans. But most of all, bloggy friends and acquaintances, I hope you’ll take the time to make a difference. Soup can be a meal for a hungry family. Help those cans get where they’re needed.
For more details on the contest procedure, look here.

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>Mom’s playing — in the kitchen?

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>Gardening and baking. Two seemingly dissimilar activities, both serve a similar place and purpose for me.

I tried to blend butter and sugars the other day and the butter wasn’t ready. It reminded me to plan ahead, get the butter out ahead of time, and let it sit. I stopped, waited, and got back at it with better results and a more peaceful, easy feeling. The cookies were delicious.

Gardening is also a slower process, a contrast to my high pressure teaching job. When I put the garden to bed for the winter, it’s a melancholy feeling not only for the yield, but because I truly miss working with my hands in the dirt.

Both gardening and baking let me incorporate a few more healthy ingredients into our menus. Spinach, fresh tomatoes, and crisp green beans make their way onto the family table in late summer and fall. When I bake from scratch, I can control the ingredients that make their way onto my family’s plates, not to mention using up foodstuffs that might otherwise go to waste. I recently used up two very ripe bananas in a banana bread. Husband helped; he peeled the bananas.

Gardening gets me out of the house and away from distractions like the telephone. Baking doesn’t do exactly that, but it does take me out of the whirlwind that is my life. Putting the ingredients together, measuring properly, following a recipe (well, to some extent) all take just enough concentration. Just enough, that is, to take my mind off the many day to day stressors.

We’re steadily working our way through the Christmas cookies, so I’m looking at a few other ideas to plant in the kitchen. Cranberry muffins, anyone?

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