Rainy Day Fun

The weather last week was up and down, and we didn’t know what would happen from one day to the next.  Some days were beautiful and sunny, and the kids ran a played outdoors all day until I made them come in to get ready for the evening services. Other days, though, the rain drummed continually on the roof, forcing us all to stay indoors (six people living in an RV can really get crowded quickly under those circumstances)! 

The kids decided to get out the play-dough but found that the vast majority of the dough was rock-hard.  Great.  That meant that the remaining container had the equivalent size and value of the Hope Diamond, and whoever possessed the dough was, in effect, the reigning monarch – more like the not-so-benevolent dictator.  After many distressed cries and much whining, I decided that one blob of play-dough was not enough for all of my munchkins.  In fact, it was going to be a serious detriment to their well-being if they continued to fight over it.

So, I did the great American mom thing, and began looking for play-dough recipes online.  I have made play-dough before, in a pot on the stove, and while the end result was great, the whole process was messy and not so fun.  I ran across this recipe for Fruity Play-dough by my good friend, Laine. You can find the whole process here.

Fruity Play Dough

1 cup plus 1 tbsp.  all-purpose flour
1 package Kool-Aid (any flavor)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 cup salt
2/3-3/4  cup boiling water
Mix all dry ingredients in bowl and add oil. Pour boiling water into flour mixture and mix thoroughly. (You may need to add a few more spoonfuls of flour to get it to the right consistency.) After it has cooled a little, knead it with your hands until smooth. Store in an air tight container and keep in the refrigerator. (The play dough should last a few months.)

Let me say here, that this is an awesome recipe!  It smells so yummy because of the secret ingredient (Kool-aid) which also colors the dough, eliminating the need for messy food coloring experiments.  It takes less than five minutes to whip up a batch ( I think I made eight batches in about thirty minutes).  I also like that it does not make a batch of dough the approximate size of an elephant.  It is much smaller, more manageable batches.  Love that!  I made the first batch, and realized that it was too large to fit in the play-dough containers that we already had.  So, I halved the next batch, all but the Kool-aid packet, and it was perfect.  It fit perfectly in the play-dough containers, and I was one happy mama!  This also made the colors more vibrant, since it was effectively twice the coloring.

The kids were so excited – they kept sniffing the dough and laughing and exclaiming over the different scents.  And… I got the awesome mama award.  Hugs all around, and lots of smiles.  And a play-dough pizza.

I think that may be anchovies, but I am not sure…

What a great way to spend a rainy day!

Now We’re Cookin’!

Sometimes the toys that we have are much loved and often used.  Others are played with occasionally and ignored the majority of the time.  (These I try to eliminate as quickly as possible.)  I think the most popular toys we have owned are the play kitchen items.  My childhood kitchen items have been passed down to my children, and along the way we have added more food items, dishes, and miscellaneous junque. All of the kids have loved playing kitchen since they were tiny.  They frequently bring down new dishes for us to “eat.”

Thus, when my old tin stove crumbled into disrepair, it was a hard blow for the girls especially. The decal stickers had already begun to come off, the plastic window in the oven door popped out and was stepped on, the knobs fell off, and in general, it looked pretty ratty.  The straw that broke the camel’s back was the oven door hinge that broke, causing it to hang open perpetually. 

My husband had pity on the girls who could now only “cook” on the stovetop.  He found a plan for a little stove and, out of scrap lumber leftover from other projects, he made them a new one.  Alright, everybody say, “Awwww!”

I don’t know that any father has gotten so much pleasure out of making and giving a wooden stove to his girls as my husband did.  The girls were thrilled!  The little knobs turn and the oven door opens and closes with a magnetic latch.  Now we can once again have all the delicious baked plastic food that we can eat!

Here they are in their PJs, exulting over their new appliance!  Random thought: Did anyone else notice that Esther looks like a giant pink frog in this photo?  :) 

Faintly Fruity Pancakes

Every now and again, I try to make something in the kitchen only to find I’m out of a particular ingredient, or perhaps, just do not have quite enough for the recipe.  I hate it when that happens, because then I have to either drop everything and run to the store for one item, or substitute an item.

Recently, I have discovered the wonderful qualities of buttermilk in my cooking.  I have made several delicious batches of cat-head biscuits (yes, that’s really what they are called) and the whole family loves buttermilk pancakes for breakfast.  I forgot to pick up buttermilk at the store the other day, and although you can adjust the recipe to use regular milk, it just isn’t the same.  I began making pancakes the other morning, and I decided to experiment – not always the wisest thing to do first thing in the morning when you have a whole crowd of hungry people, but I did it, nonetheless. :)

What could I use instead of buttermilk.  I have tried adding vinegar to regular milk, and while it does curdle a bit, the consistency is not thick and creamy like that of buttermilk.  I opened the fridge, and had an epiphany!  I snatched a carton of fruity greek yogurt, and debated whether or not this was a good idea.  In the end, my creativity won out over my caution, and I dumped the yogurt into my batter bowl. 

To my great surprise, the pancakes had a very similar texture to the buttermilk version, but with a slightly fruity flavor due to the mixed berries in it.  It also had the added benefit of a little extra protein, since I used the greek yogurt.  Everyone loved them, and I now have another recipe to share!

Faintly Fruity Pancakes

2 eggs

2-1/2 c. Yogurt/milk mixture (Place the whole serving of Greek yogurt in the measuring cup and add enough milk to make up the rest of the measure)

1 tsp. baking soda

2-1/2 c. flour

2 tsp. sugar

1/4 c. oil

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

Preheat skillet or griddle to 375 F.  In a large bowl, beat the eggs well.  Add the yogurt/milk mixture and baking soda and blend together until creamy.  Add flour, sugar, oil, baking powder, and salt, and beat until smooth.  Cook, turning once when bubbles begin to appear on the uncooked surface, but before they pop.  This recipe makes 16-20 pancakes.  The recipe can be halved, but it will affect the thickness of the yogurt/milk mixture, so you will have to compensate.

I love trying a new recipe and actually succeeding with it!  If you try these, let me know what you think!

Home-Grown Decorations

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was pleasantly surprised by some spider lilies that were growing in our back yard this summer.  Yay for good surprises!   I had another good surprise this fall when we returned from nearly six weeks of meetings.  There was a giant bush taking over the back yard close to the fence, and I had trimmed it back this summer.  It had sharp, pointed leaves, and I had to be careful about getting too close, but I shaped it a little and had fun playing gardener.
When we came back in the fall, though, it was covered in bright sprays of red berries – it was some type of holly bush!  I was thrilled with how beautiful it was, and decided to bring some of the boughs in to decorate the house!  There’s nothing like growing your own decorations, right?

The best part was that they last forever – I guess because it is they are a type of evergreen. So a little water in my jar kept things bright and cheery in my kitchen!  I have a new favorite centerpiece!  I also put a few little sprigs in a jar on the window above my kitchen sink – makes me smile while washing the dishes, and that really is a feat.  :)

Blessings

For many years, we lived solely in our fifth wheel trailer.  The scaled-down kitchen necessitated a very economical use of space, and therefore, only a select few kitchen appliances were brought along for the ride.  One of these was my handy-dandy Sunbeam hand mixer – a wedding gift 12+ years ago.  When we purchased our first house, we had to tote often-used items back and forth from the trailer to the house.  These items were usually things like a can opener, measuring cups, the mixer, etc.  Eventually we accumulated double sets of the most frequently used items so that the traffic  was reduced greatly. 

I was perfectly satisfied with my hand mixer, but I had my heart set on one day getting that paragon of all kitchen appliances – the Kitchen Aid mixer.  A red one.  Power.  Quality.  Big money.  Totally out of my budget and only on the “wants” list as long as my hand mixer still worked.

Not long ago, I was discussing kitchen stuff with a friend.  She was talking about her blue Kitchen Aid, and if she ever got another one, it would be orange.  I laughed and said I would get a red one someday, and then we were off to another subject.  Two days later she asked if she could talk to me in private while we were at church.  I worried that I had somehow said or done something to offend her, and though I racked my brain, I could think of nothing that would warrant a private conversation.  To make a long story short, I was amazed and greatly relieved that I had not offended her at all.  She simply wanted to tell me that she would be ordering a red Kitchen Aid mixer and having it sent to my house – just in time for my birthday!  I was totally flabbergasted!  I just looked at her and said, “Are you serious?!”  She was, and when I picked myself up off the floor, I had a hard time not dancing around the room (we were in church, after all)!

So when we arrived back home in two weeks, there it was, waiting for me.  Beautiful!  I have been so excited about using it for all my holiday baking, not to mention my everyday uses for it!  I am so blessed to have such a thoughtful friend, and a wonderful Lord who laid it on her heart to bless me in this way.  I am so grateful!

Vintage Tins

I like vintage things, especially if they are practical and useful.  I am not in the habit of collecting junque just because it comes from a certain era.  I suppose that comes from living in a 36’ travel trailer with five other people.  You just learn to live with the necessities and longingly glance at the “pretties” as you walk past them in the Goodwill, flea markets, and yard sales. 

Mwahahahaha!  Now I have a house!  Look out!  I am on the prowl for those perfect items that will both meet a need and be that perfect piece of eye candy, too.  Not long ago, I found a whole set of vintage kitchen tins at the Goodwill for only $4.  I already had a set of round vintage tins in my kitchen, which I absolutely adore, but with the special food needs of some of our family members, I have more than the usual variety of flours, sugars, and other staples.  I debated on whether or not to get this set of square tins, but in the end, they not only went into my cart, they went home with me.  I love them, too!  I set them on the other end of the counter, and they look as if they have always been there.

I already posted this picture of my kitchen, but you can see again how nice the tins look on the end of my counter.  The round tins, along with my blue glass canning jars are on the other side of the stove.  A thing of beauty is a joy forever… Ahhhh.

Kitchen

The kitchen is the heart of the home – at least, that is what my family seems to think.  In their opinion, all of life revolves around the table and the food that is prepared and regularly place on the table.  I can’t say that I disagree with them too much, since a lot of my memories were made around the table with family.

The kitchen is long and skinny, and the hallway leads to the laundry/scrapping room.  It has doorways that lead into the dining room, living room, sunroom, and garage as well.  It was very dark and heavy in the room, due to the dark wallpaper, dark paneling, and dark cabinetry.  The totally retro light fixture was a trial to my soul, but I was determined to deal with the hard things first.  Like wallpaper.  Three layers.  Plus two layers of border. 
The first order of business was to remove the wallpaper.  That was fun.  Under the wallpaper, we found evidence of terribly shoddy sheetrock jobs, and the added bonus of termite colonies.  Suffice it to say, we did a lot of sheetrock mudding, sanding, and smoothing in the kitchen.  It still isn’t perfect, but it is tremendously improved, and I have no complaints. 
Next, we primed and painted all the dark woodwork (except for the cabinets) white.  It is amazing what a good coat of paint will do to a room.  We actually painted all the trim in the house white.  What a remarkable difference!  I picked out my paint colors, and the kitchen is painted with Patience.  Really.  That was the color of the paint.  I thought it was a very appropriate color for the room in which I would spend a great deal of time.  Actually, I still have an almost full can of Patience sitting next to my cabinets, in case any of you are running low on that particular virtue.  :)
After painting, we had new linoleum installed, and it is wonderfully different.  We have a Habitat for Humanity ReStore not far from us, where they sell used construction/household items rather than junking them.  I found some new glass globes for my light fixtures, as well as the 2” blinds for the windows.  Total cost of the blinds and globes was $8.  Eight dollars – you got it!  You can’t do better, unless it is free!  I love the ReStore!
These are the renovation pictures along with a few of the finished product. 

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