Got lost in snow craze!!

Have not blogged recently for a lot of reasons but mostly because I just have not had a lot of alone time to get it done. Sadly, the only reason I have a little alone time today is because JJ is not feeling well and is taking his first nap in over 6 months. He passed out on my bed after laying down on his own free will. He has some sort of eye infection. :(

We have still been busy as always though. I have finished a few projects but I am not ready to post about them yet.

Since it is snowing, I figured it was only appropriate to share what we have been doing to occupy our time since we are snowed in (only one car and Kevin had to take it to work).

We have made:
Snow Ice Cream (After a lot of research, I loved this website because it gave us options on how we wanted to make the snow ice cream and lots of ideas we are going to try again later.)
We made two kinds on snow ice cream but between the two kiddos "helping" I only got a few pictures. We made the mix the snow in the milk/cream kind and the put the snow in a bag and the cream in a little bag inside of the snow and and mix kind. I have to say after having both Jaedyn and I both liked the put the snow in a bag and then the cream in a smaller bag and not let the snow touch our ice cream simply because it was smoother and richer. The kind where you mix the snow in is a LOT easier with little kids though. Its like instant gratification. We made the mix the snow in kind chocolate using a bit of coco powder in the mix. We made the other kind vanilla.

ingredients

jj mixing it all up

finished snow mixture

 

Snow "gems" (These are currently freezing in the snow and awaiting jj in his bath tonight, he is too cold and tired to play with them in the snow today, we will make more tomorrow if there is still snow to play in)
These did not work as well as hoped. I reccomment using small water ballons since they hold more and you can make them bigger and the ballon is thinner so it would have actually frozen solid like we had hoped.

ingredients

water in balloons

Freezing the water

 

now paint ( I didn't have spray bottles so I used old mustard and ketchup bottles I also use for homemade chalk during the summer because jj isn't ready to have to paint it all over he loves to squirt it and make designs)

our painted snowman

Freezable Sugar Cookies (we made the drop cookie version today and froze more then half of the dough so we have some ready for other days)

Freezable Peanut Butter/chocolate chip cookies (we added the chocolate chips to the recipe)

Slow Cooked Chuck Roast (I didn't use sour cream, I used our homemade plain yogurt instead)

Spinach Pesto chicken with noodles (this is where I got the idea. I honestly didn't use a recipe and just made it to taste. I decided to add grilled chicken to my pasta and mix it all together. FYI Jaedyn LOVES this recipe and just thinks this is how we make pesto) 
Homemade liquid Laundry Soap (FYI I LOVE THIS SOAP, but I don't put it in a 2 gallon bucket, I put it in a large yogurt container, well two to accommodate it and only make about 1/3 at a time, then I have one under the sink for later and one I use in the laundry room at a time)

Those are just the things we got done. We are still working on our crate paper flowers to decorate for Valentines Day. I will be posting more details and pictures later! :)

HOMESCHOOL DAY #1

  First we made a few more weather descriptions  and the days of the week to go along with the ones we had. (month, date, and some weather descriptions) Making them required JJ to help me type them up, we printed them, cut them out, and then we put them through the laminate machine. It took quiet a while and now I need to buy some more Velcro but all in all its nice to have more options for him to choose from.
  Then we just made out letter tracing papers A-Z after a few mess ups and changes, I made them black and will let him trace using homemade paint the color of the week so we can use these same tracers week after week.
  I decided to start with the Zoo as our main subject. So this month we have A-alligator, B-bear, C-cheetah D-duck, E-elephant, F-fox, G-giraffe, H-hippopotamus I-iguana, J-Jaguar, K- kangaroo, L-lion, M- meerkat, N-newt, O-ostrich, P-penguin, Q- quail, R-rabbit S-snake T-turtle U-urchin V-vulture W-wolf X-Xenopus: a frog Y-yak Z-zebra. that list was actually kind of hard to come up with. I did my best to pick animals that we can see at the local zoo or science center. I also wanted all real animals that I can show him online. I think this will help him start to connect with the letters.
  I picked out some of his books that have to do with the zoo and animals to read each day as well as our nightly books that are now focused around the animals he will be learning about.I plan to take this month as a trial to see how in depth he is ready to get into each of the subjects.


I am excited to say that we are going to make a felt board soon as well as some felt letters and numbers. I am pretty excited.

HERE GOES NOTHING!!! :)

homemade ritz and ricotta cheese.....cheeses #1

Today we made some homemade ricotta and Ritz crackers. I will make both of these again because they are pretty easy to accomplish. I have some notes for myself now concerning both of these recipes.

Lets start with the ricotta. Which I got from here. I have to give this blog some credit for their recipes and the ease of understanding instructions. I love quiet a few things from here.

Makes about 1 generous cup of ricotta
3 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream (see Note above about using less)
1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

• Pour the milk, cream and salt into a 3-quart nonreactive saucepan. Attach a candy or deep-fry thermometer.
• Heat the milk to 190°F, stirring it occasionally to keep it from scorching on the bottom.
• Remove from heat and add the lemon juice, then stir it once or twice, gently and slowly.
• Let the pot sit undisturbed for 5 minutes.
• Line a colander with a few layers of cheesecloth and place it over a large bowl (to catch the whey).
• Pour the curds and whey into the colander and let the curds strain for at least an hour.
•  At an hour, you’ll have a tender, spreadable ricotta. At two hours, it will be spreadable but a bit firmer, almost like cream cheese. (It will firm as it cools, so do not judge its final texture by what you have in your cheesecloth.)
• Discard the whey, or, if you’re one of those crafty people who use it for other things, of course, save it.
• Eat the ricotta right away or transfer it to an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use.

Today, I did not have whole milk and with Kevin at work all day I didn't want to take the kids to the store. I used 1/2cup cream and 3 1/2 cups 2%. The ricotta worked like a charm and now that I have confidence I will make sure to have the right ingredients next time because while it tastes good and is so going on pizzas tomorrow I would have liked it to be creamier. There was just not enough fat with 2% to achieve that. I would like to make it like this those to make some manicotti soon though.
Side note, I WILL NEVER THROW AWAY MY WHEY AGAIN!!!! This is an amazing site to let you know where to use up that left over whey.

Next up was the Ritz crackers. I will make the dough with store brand butter that firms up better and not my expensive real cream butter next time. It was a bit sticky. I will also roll them out in a few smaller batches and as thin thin thin as I can. They taste really yummy and I have eaten quiet a few with the ricotta I made spread on top with roasted garlic. YUMMY! I love this blog! I am so also going to make her graham cracker recipe later this month with these homemade marshmallows ( I also love this blog).

This recipe is made in a food processor. If you cut the recipe in half, you can fit it in a mini food processor.

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp + another 1/2 tsp salt for topping
• 6 tbsp cold unsalted butter + 3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2/3 cup water

1. Preheat oven to 400 F.
2. Put the flour, baking powder, sugar, and 1/2 tsp of salt in the food processor.
3. Pulse to combine.
4. Add cold butter a few small pats at a time, and pulse to combine.
5. Add vegetable oil. Pulse to combine.
6. Add water a little bit at a time. Pulse to combine after each addition. The dough should start to form a ball.
7. Roll dough out as thin as you can. Mine ended up being all different thicknesses. Don't sweat it. They are homemade! If you are really concerned, Jeffrey had luck using a pasta maker to make the dough all one thickness - great idea!
8. Use cookie cutters to cut the dough out. You can make them "Ritz" shaped or any shape that you like.
9. Bake the crackers on a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet for ten minutes or until the crackers just begin to brown.
10. While the crackers are baking, melt the remaining butter and mix in the remaining salt (Some people said that the crackers weren't salty enough. Add more or less salt to your taste.)

As soon as you remove the crackers from the oven, brush them with the salty butter.

Final products together. The ricotta was mixed with freshly roasted garlic and some Italian herbs.

Homemade Cheeses!!

I am going to start a couple week long post where I am going to experiment making different types for instance mascarpone, ricotta, cream cheese, hopefully eventually ending with harder to make cheeses like mozzarella and cheddar. I will also be spotlighting different ways to use each cheese. Meaning I will pair making crackers and puff pastry ect… with the different cheese I make. This weekend was yogurt and we are going to try to make some homemade frozen yogurt tonight. I am thinking mascarpone is next week’s venture with homemade graham crackers to enjoy it with.


YUMMY!!!

Homemade Cheese Its!!

I am not a fan of all of the crap that is in the crackers the my kiddos LOVE to eat. If I let Jaedyn and Evelyn they would eat some sort of cracker for every meal. Obviously, I don't and wouldn't but it would be nice to be able to name everything in the crackers and also not have to spend an arm and a leg buying the special organic ones that honestly don't always taste that great. This is the awesome cheese it recipe I am trying today. There are a lot of different recipes available and I just picked this one because I have made some other things from this site with some success.

Jaedyn loves them! I could use a bit of stronger cheese since I used half sharp and half medium cheddar. I also think there would be great made with Parmesan. Maybe even a mix to eat with some Italian soup! ooh ideas!! :) anyways they are great and I am so going to make these again.

Hot/Cold Packs

I am making some more hot/cold packs today, I got the tutorial from here . I changed it a little and since the ones we have made so far have been such a big hit with JJs friends, we are going to make some more for birthdays.

start with the shape of material you are looking to have the final product look like. I started with a large rectangle for this one. (I have made circles and squares)

Then fold inside out and sew along the sides.

Then turn right side out and fill with rice about 3/4 way full (if you want it really full and tight or 1/2 if you want it a bit more loose) you can add a line down the middle stitching to make two pockets like I did as well. (I just forgot to take a picture of this part)

Then once full sew the top closed. I had to hand sew this part because I chose to fill the bags pretty full and I didn't want to break a needle if a piece of rice got in the way.

 You are done! I have added loops with ribbon to the side of some of these so the kids could carry them around and other fun little embellishments. This one is just for Jaedyn and it is not quiet as lopsided as the picture shows but I was not quiet as concerned with perfection here.

Homemade Yogurt! YUMMY

I love making this homemade if I can. I have used this easy Crock Pot Yogurt Recipe before and love it. I like a lot of the things Our Life Simplified (In the kitchen) has on her blog. I only made a quart of the yogurt because we are currently not using it fast enough and I would rather make it more often then waste any. I didnt use my saved cup of yogurt fast enough so I had to start over and use from store bought to get it started again as well.

My yogurt is currently all wrapped up (just to keep it warm) as its cultures away. It should be done by 9pm tonight. I am excited to have a yummy snack tomorrow am with some homemade strawberry jam mixed in. I am also going to try to make a small batch of homemade frozen yogurt with this for a dessert for tomorrow night. I will update tomorrow with how that goes.


UPDATED!!!

yogurts done

almost done frozen yogurt one hour into freezing



frozen yogurt after two hours

trick to frozen yogurt is glass or metal bowl/container and stir every 1/2 hour to break up ice crystals and keep it smooth.