Well, we had an incredibly fun time with family this weekend, and I managed to not only get everything cooked, baked, and onto the table, but I also made enough food for two separate family dinners. Craig’s family came thursday for Thanksgiving dinner, and we had a great time getting everything ready, and catching up on all of the recent happenings. Two of my sister-in-law’s brought some amazing dishes with them, and I intend to wrangle the recipes from them very soon. I brined my turkey (a 25 lb. beast) and it turned out very nicely. I had read that if you make the gravy with only the pan juices and separate the fat off, it won’t be salty from the brining process, and it worked so the gravy was not a disaster like I had worried it might be. I did struggle a little in getting the food onto the table at the time I had hoped, but everyone was extremely helpful, so I was able to get it onto the table that much faster. Every year I learn one more thing to make my next holiday even better. This time? I learned that making the mashed potatoes at least a day or two ahead of time for any large family gathering is the best way, at least for me. And they still taste just as good as if I had made them that same day. Gotta love that.

On friday, a bunch of my family came over and we reheated the monstrous amount of leftovers I had (what can I say, I tend to overdo it in the kitchen and this time was no exception), and we enjoyed round two of Thanksgiving together. The kids played until they were ready to pass out, which was our evil plan anyways. I am sure everyone had a very quiet ride home since the kids more than likely fell asleep as soon as the car started. And I have zero leftovers as of today. Well, except for the leftover bits of turkey which I plan on using to make a nice soup sometime later this week, but you don’t really want to hear about the turkey carcass do you? Didn’t think so. And of course I am still swimming in pie. Lots of pie. I think I made too many desserts. Nothing new here. Too much pie is not a bad thing. Well, maybe for my scale, but I’m not looking at it until after the new year anyways.

We have already begun to plan out family Christmas party, which I am so excited to be hosting at our house this year. Heidi had a great idea to have a family talent show at the party, and so everyone is busy trying to think of new and crazy ways to make total and complete fools of themselves, but in the funnest family way possible,l of course. Craig is trying to convince me that I need to sing. Is he new? I am forcing my two oldest children into a duet with their violin and cello, much to their disgust delight. And Scott don’t worry, Noah is working on his lightsaber routine as we speak, so get Hal ready. And the video camera. We might need a video for the TBA fundraiser. George Michael, eat your heart out.

I am already in the midst of my baking and cooking frenzy, and I have only stopped for a moment to look for a much needed recipe. I have still not been able to locate my rolling pin, and I am left with only a very, very small child size version that in reality is actually just a fat wooden dowel. My pie making is going to very interesting indeed. Oh well, I will figure something out.

I’m sure I am not the only one that is going to be busy today and tomorrow, but I am sure things will slow down after Thursday.  I am very mindful of so many things I am thankful for, and I am humbled by the many incredible blessings and good things in my life. And for all of you, I wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving, and a lovely holiday!

I read somewhere that the perfect cookie should have the same color on the top of the cookie as the bottom, that if the bottom is darker it’s overdone, and that they should look fairly raw when removed from the oven in order to get the best results. While I agree with this 100%, I also know that there are some of you out there that prefer a crispier cookie. So please note that baking this cookie for 8 minutes will give you a softer, chewier cookie, and 10 minutes gives you a much crispier version. Either way, enjoy!

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter*

1 cup Sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups freshly ground Whole Wheat Flour*

1 cup all purpose white flour

3/4 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Cream butter & sugars in an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix in vanilla & eggs. Combine flours, baking soda & salt. Gradually blend flour mixture into butter mixture. Fold in chocolate chips and drop onto a cookie sheet that has been lined with silpat or that has been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Bake 8-10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool for 5 minutes on baking sheets before placing on a wire rack.

*if using salted butter decrease salt to 3/4 tsp.

*This recipe was written using freshly ground whole wheat flour ground from Hard White Wheat, so I am not sure what results a store bought bag of whole wheat flour will give you.

*note* I have used 1 cup semi-sweet and 1 cup milk chocolate chips mixed together for a bakery style taste. Also, you can add 3/4 - 1 cup of rolled oats, just decrease the white flour to about 3/4 to 1/2 of a cup, depending on the consistency. I have also increased the wheat flour to 2 1/2 cups and decreased the white flour to 1/2 cup with no noticable difference, and I have also used regular margarine in a pinch with the same great results as the unsalted butter.

Thanksgiving is almost here and I have one last grocery shopping trip today before I am banishing myself to my kitchen until further notice. I have been planning the menu for quite some time now, and I think I have it all narrowed down. I am planning on preparing and serving these dishes for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday…

Brined Turkey w/ homemade Gravy

Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes

 my Mom’s Classic Stuffing

Korby’s Butter n’ Brown Sugar Yams

Heidi’s Glazed Baby Carrots

Sweet Corn

Creamed Peas

Fresh Cranberry Sauce

 2 Brown Sugar Pumpkin Pies

 Granny’s Apple Pie

Cranberry Pecan Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie w/ Marshamallow Meringue

Sweet Potato Pie

Cherry Berry Pie

Creamy Baked Cheesecake

 Craig’s family will be bringing several dishes as well, so we will have lots of delicious food to enjoy. I know, this looks beyond ambitious, but I will be working on all of the dishes over this week, and hopefully it will all culminate in the end into a lovely dinner, and I will have a manageable week as well. I have all of the recipes from my files printed out and ready to go, I am as prepared as I can be. I will try and post some of the recipes afterwards, but if you see one you really, really want, let me know and I will get it up pronto. So, do you know what you are making yet? Or is someone else doing the cooking for you?

Ok, first off here is some info on some of the ingredients…

I have been using flour that has been freshly ground in my wheat grinder using ‘Hard White Spring Wheat’, so I can’t say how these recipes will turn out or taste if made with purchased whole wheat flour, or even freshly ground red wheat.

(red wheat on left, hard white on right)

The yeast I personally use and prefer is ‘Saf-Instant Yeast’, and the recipe that follows was written using it as well.

The recipe calls for honey, but sugar can be used instead if you prefer.

I have used both ‘Quick Cooking’ and ‘Old Fashioned’ rolled oats, with the same great results, and any brand will do just fine. I use store brand rolled oats with no problem.

And if I haven’t ground enough fresh whole wheat flour and I still need a cup or two to get the dough just right and I don’t want to get my grinder out and set it up again, I have added up to 3 cups of regular all purpose white flour on occaision without any problem.

I have never frozen any of the bread I have made from this recipe since we tend to eat it all within a few days.

I recommend you use a Bsoch or Magic Mill/Electrolux DLX mixer as this makes a large amount of dough and could strain a KitchenAid or other similarly styled mixers. You can try it if you want, just don’t be mad at me if it all goes south.

And lastly, yes, it really only does have only one rising cycle, I promise I didn’t forget a step. That is what makes this bread so fast and easy.

OK, so enough of that, here is the first recipe…

Whole Wheat Bread

 3 rounded TBSP. yeast

2/3 cup oil

1/2 to 1 cup honey

5 1/2 cups warm water (120-130 degrees)

5 tsp. salt (leveled)

3 TBSP. dough enhancer

1 cup gluten flour

1 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup milled flax seed (optional)

6 to 8 cups of whole wheat flour

500 mg Vitamin C

 Mill whole hard white wheat in grain mill. If the vitamin C is a tablet, grind in with the wheat. If Vitamin C is a capsule, empty contents in with gluten.

 In a mixer, add yeast, oil, sugar or honey, and water in that order. Pulse a few times to barely mix. Cover and let sit for a few minutes.

 Quickly add salt, dough enhancer, gluten and Vitamin C if in capsule. Turn on mixer and add oats and milled flax seed, and then wheat flour, one cup at a time. Amount of flour may vary. Add flour until dough forms a soft ball and cleans the sides of the bowl. You don’t want your dough too stiff. Dough should be slightly sticky to the touch. Knead for 6-8 minutes.

 Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. During this time, grease bread pans. Lightly oil hands. Divide dough into equal portions (5 loaves). Shape into loaves and place in greased bread pans. Turn OFF oven. Place bread in oven, arranging pans with space between to allow heat to circulate freely. Set timer for 20 minutes and let bread rise in oven for 20 minutes.

 Leave bread in oven and turn heat to 325 degrees F for 30 minutes. Immediatley remove from pans and let cool on dish towels. For a soft crust, rub butter on top while still hot. Store in plastic bags when cool and put in freezer.

 Let me know if you have any problems, and happy bread baking!

My next post, the recipe for ‘Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies’….Yum!

Ok, first off, I will not be taking this blog private as I had previously thought. I realized that I just don’t have the time or energy to maintain two separate blogs, meaning that eventually one would die a terrible, lonely death anyways, which would be an awful waste of a perfectly good blog. I’m far too practical to let anything go to waste, so I will continue on with this one as usual. I feel comfortable using our first names, but I will do my best to keep as many personal details about our life off of the blog as I can. Basically I won’t post where we live, our address, our last name, our exact birthdates etc. But the rest of my life in all of it’s goofy glory will be posted, in case you were worried about missing some hot and juicy detail about me. Which by the way, there are no hot and juicy details. I’m losing you, right?

In other dork related news, I have exceeded my previous nerdiness and am happy to report that I managed to get the bread baking right the second and now third time. After my barely mediocre result the first time, I immediately set about using an entirely different recipe given to me by a friend, and this one was it. And by “it” I mean that the end result was four loaves of magical, delicious, hearty, soft, scrumptious, freshly ground whole wheat goodness! (ignore the dents, they happened when I removed the loaf from the pan…oops!) And did I mention it’s so darn easy? Well, it is! I could hardly believe it. So, nerd that I am, I have found my whole wheat bread nirvana.

And you thought I couldn’t get any dorkier. But I can, because I have also been making whole wheat chocolate chip cookies. Yep, really. So easy, simply dee-lish, and closer to the healthy side without tasting like it. See, I told ya. Nerd.

The good news…we finally found a table big enough for us (hooray!). It’s mahogany with two large leaves that when added extend the table to 136 inches at it’s fullest length, so I not only have enough room for us but any other guests as well. Dinner at my house anyone?

The bad news…My house is just one big mess of boxes and totes, and I am not even close to where I want to be when it comes to unpacking. We emptied our two storage sheds into two rooms, and the garage, and there are literally piles of boxes taller than me, just waiting to be unpacked. I am slowly wading through and have been completely ruthless as I sort through everything, sending most to the D.I (again…hooray!). I am keeping very little of most of our junk, I really don’t want it or need it. The last year of trying to sell our house has shown me I don’t need much in order to be happy, in fact, too much stuff makes me very unhappy. Trying to get all of this done whilst wrangling kidlets though, is another story. If I had a full time nanny I could be done with all of this in just a few days, but I don’t. I’m it. And that’s ok, I will get to the end someday. Maybe I will hit the halfway mark by Thanksgiving? One can hope right?

In other good news, I was able to find the time on Sunday to make a batch of bread in my new mixer, but I had to use the flour I had on hand as I couldn’t find my bucket of wheat and the new filter for my grinder. The bread turned out just ok, but not great, prompting Craig and I to search everywhere until we found the rest of my wheat grinding stuff, so hopefully my next batch will be better. Or maybe I’m just a lousy bread baker. I really hope that’s not the case, but I will be working on it nonetheless. I am absolutely determined to get this whole wheat bread making thing figured out. I just hope I can figure it all out really soon.

So, I was catching up on some of my fave crafty blogs the other night when I stumbled across this site, Spoonflower.  They allow you to custom design and print your own fabric through them. Seriously, how cool is that! You could write a letter or note to a loved one, have it printed onto the fabric then make a quilt, or jammies, or a crazy shirt or something with your fabric. Or you could arrange several artistic masterpieces from your kidlet in a sort of collage, have that printed up, and then make some kind of keepsake, or funky item from it as well. Or what about a totally one of a kind, original print that you then make into a soft quilt for a new baby. Oh the possibilities! I would love to design a few yards for myself, but I am going to have to wait a bit before I buy anymore fabric. What can I say, I haven’t been at my sewing machine in so long, I am going through withdrawals, and the closest I am going to get right now is looking at and talking about fabric. So bear with me until I can get my sewing room set up and in some sort of order.

My oldest baby son passed his driving test today. It’s official, he is now a licensed driver. I think my heart is going to explode. With fear. How am I EVER going to be able to let him drive, unless I am right there in the car too….behind the wheel….in total control. He can have his license, but does he really need to use it? Come on, I can still drive him everwhere, right? What, you mean he won’t want me driving for all of his dates? Are you sure, because I can be really funny. I mean, really, really funny.  I’m sure they will appreciate my finely honed sense of humor, and mad joke telling skills. I had better get a routine together, the weekend is coming up fast.

We are slowly getting everything organized, sorted through, and put away. It is a long, slow, and ongoing process, but every day ends with a little bit more done. The first week was the hardest. The kitchen sink was clogged, two of the three bathrooms were out of order, one bathtub had a constant leak and hair clogged drain (ewww!), and the water pressure was WAY off and at barely a trickle. Thank goodness Craig is superhandy, he was able to get it all fixed in no time and we are happily back on track.

We spent yesterday afternoon working in the front yeard, raking leaves and cleaning up the overgrown mess that was left behind. The previous owners had let the entire yard go wild for the two years they lived here, so we had our work cut out for us. Our house sits on about an acre of land, and there are tons of trees all around, which means we had a lot of raking to do.  It was well worth it though, and everything looks so much better. And of course the kids LOVED jumping into the two huge piles of leaves that we ended up with after all was said and done. Now if we can just find some time to get to the back yard.

I have almost all of my kitchen organized, and I am slowly starting to get the feel of it. I still haven’t even busted out my new mixer to try it all out, but I am hoping to get a chance in the coming week as I am the hostess for this years family Thanksgiving dinner (hubby’s fam). I absolutely volunteered myself, crazy as it might sound, but I am beyond excited that I get to do this, and I have already begun to plan food. Nerd.

And of course my kidlets love the fact that we share the same block as the elementary school, on a continuous sidewalk with no street to cross, five house from the playground, and mere steps from the school’s front doors. If I sound like I’m loving it, it’s because I am. I swear I couldn’t feel any more blessed. Now if I can just get caught up on my laundry…it’s getting ugly. And maybe a little smelly.