Angel and Shelli Make Cookies

This last weekend, Angel and Shelli did some baking.

Shelli made Ginger Snaps: They are spicy and taste like gingerbread.  They have molasses, ginger, and vanilla.  You have to stir a lot and roll them into little balls.  You put them on the pan and make sure they are all separated from each other.  I had to make two batches of cookies.  I had to put the first cookies in the oven and when they came out I made the next batch.  

Angel made Peanut Butter Blondies:  These cookies have peanut butter and peanuts sprinkled on top.  They are baked in a square dish and I cut them into squares.  They were delicious!

Peanut Butter Blondies are delicious!

Sunday Feast

While Angel and Shelli, who are fighting colds, watched Sci Girls, a movie on Sacajawea as well as Sean the Sheep, I decided to try out some new recipes.  

The new Vegetarian Times magazine had a few interesting recipes that I needed to try.

The first one was a Potato and Leek Soup.  It turned out really delicious.  It was made with potatoes, leeks, celery, as well as some cashews and spinach.  Amanda said it tasted like Christmas.

Next was the Soda Bread.  My first idea was to have Angel and Shelli make the bread but they were too sneezy. So I made the bread alone this time.  

I made two loaves, one gluten-free and the other with regular flour.  They turned out really delicious, even the gluten-free one.  The bread went perfect with the soup.  We like to dunk pieces in the soup.

Next, I made a Sweet Potato Pie.  This recipe also came from the newest Vegetarian Times. It was super easy to make!  After boiling the sweet potatoes you put them in the blender along with the other ingredients and then just pour it in the crust.  

We weren't sure if we should eat it warm or after it had been refrigerated so we tried both.  It tasted better after it had been in the refrigerator over night.

It is so rewarding to cook healthy delicious food that everyone else loves too!

Taking Out the Tools

Today, after reading 2 chapters of Anne of Green Gables and 2 chapters from Life of Fred, we decided to take apart our old George Foreman Grill.

Our grill was really old and not cooking like it should.  I had made a quadruple batch of waffles on Saturday and it took 10 minutes per waffle and the waffle was still floppy.

So after ordering a new waffle iron from Amazon we got our screwdrivers out and went to work on the old waffle maker aka the George Foreman Grill.

There were a lot of screws to undo.  We had to find the right screwdriver to fit in the screws.

Once opened we could see all the electrical wires inside and the heating element that cooked the waffles.

Angel and Shelli do a lot of electrical circuits so they knew all about the wires inside.  It was pretty interesting.

Now it is the end for the waffle maker/grill. We took it all to the garbage can.  Now we are looking for the Post Office to deliver the new waffle maker sometime today.

Pizza From Start to Finish

This week we decided to make pizza from scratch for lunch.  We do a lot of baking around here!  You can learn so much from following a recipe - reading and following directions; measuring ingredients; life skills of cooking; chemical reactions (in this case yeast); making something look appetizing and appealing!

So we started with making the dough - measuring and kneading.

Then we rolled out the dough onto the cookie sheets.

After we baked the crust for a few minutes, we pulled it back out and put on the toppings.  Some of us are allergic to cheese so I didn't even think to look if we had any before we started making our pizza!  So we made our pizza cheeseless!

But we had wonderful toppings such as mushrooms, bell peppers, olives, zucchini, and sauce.  

After baking it was time to enjoy our pizza lunch!