Wholesome(er) Whole Wheat Cookies

My craft-night friend, Becky, wrote out her very yummy chocolate chip cookie recipe for me a while ago and I've been experimenting with it to make a healthier version for the littles.  Here is what I've landed on.  Keith even liked them, so I think I'll stick with this version.  I've been trying to get a picture of the finished cookies for ages but they never last long enough for me to take one.

1 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup combination of raisins, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, oatmeal, coconut, dried cranberries or any other add-ins you'd like to try.

Cream together shortening and sugars.  Beat in eggs and vanilla.  Add flour, baking soda and salt.  Combine well.  Fold in chocolate chips and other add-ins.  Drop by heaping tablespoons onto cookie sheets.  Bake @ 350F for 10-12 minutes. Cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet before removing to wire cooling racks.

Thanksgiving Weekend

One of my favourite times of year; Thanksgiving.  I wasn't cooking a turkey dinner this weekend since we're having a Fall Potluck for some of the refugee claimants we've been working with, but the kitchen at Matthew House was not idle :)  We've made cinnamon buns and pumpkin pie, apple sauce and bread pudding.  Quite a tasty weekend, if I do say so.

Keith's parents are here visiting, having made the drive to Ottawa yesterday afternoon.  Today we drove to Perth for the Autumn Studio Tour.  It is always neat to see where artists hone their craft, create, and display their work.  We ordered a beautiful print on canvas by David Zimmerly.  I can't wait to put it up in our room at Matthew House.

I hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Granola and Yogurt

 My favourite breakfast :)  Ever since I worked in the kitchen at a Christian "behaviour modification" (aka boot) camp back in the Summer of 2001 I've loved having homemade granola and yogurt for breakfast.  It was the meal I most enjoyed to prepare and it just felt so hearty to eat. Admittedly, after that summer it wasn't until I had kids that I tried to make it again from scratch.  And until last week I had only made the yogurt from skim milk powder (since that's what we had to work with at the camp).  But oh, how yummy yogurt is when made from milk :) Thank you, Soulemama for posting your recipe.  So simple. My recipe for granola is Keith's mom's that I've tweaked with over time.

Yogurt - Soulemama

The amount of milk you use will roughly equal the amount of yogurt you make.  If you'd like to make a quart of yogurt, you'll need a quart of milk.  You'll also need some starter yogurt.  You can use the leftovers from the previous week's yogurt or store-bought yogurt that has active bacterial cultures.

In a saucepan, heat your milk to 180 degrees F (I don't have a food thermometer so I heated it until it was just about boiling or scalded.  You then cool the milk down to 110 degrees.  You can do this more quickly by putting the saucepan in a bowl of cold water or in a sink of cold water (be careful not to get any in the saucepan).  When the temperature reaches 110 degrees (or when you can put your finger in the milk comfortably), stir in your yogurt.  Soulemama figures it is 1/4 cup per quart or 2 cups/gallon. You can then ladle the mixture into mason jars (be sure they are very clean). Don't put the lids on yet.  Place your open jars in a cooler and wrap a towel or blanket around it and close the lid of the cooler.  Incubate the yogurt for 7-10 hours at 110 degrees.  When it has thickened, put it in the fridge (it will continue to thicken up a bit).  There are lots and lots of ways to incubate your yogurt (in a gas oven with the pilot light, etc.) check out Soulemama's post for more ideas.  You can eat your yogurt with some honey or maple syrup mixed in - or just plain.

Granola - I sometimes half the recipe depending on what the supply and demand is around here.

8 cups quick oats (not instant)
1 cup wheat germ
1 cup wheat bran
1 cup oat bran
1 cup shredded coconut
chopped or slivered almonds, sunflower seeds, any other nut or seed you'd like to toss in.
2 cups water mixed with 2 cups oil
1/3 cup honey
In a large roasting pan mix together dry ingredients.  Stir in oil mixture and honey until well coated. Bake uncovered in oven at 250 degrees F for 2 hours; stirring every 30 minutes.  Add raisins and leave pan in oven while it is cooling down (this will plump up the raisins).

If you'd prefer, you can use 1/3 cup maple syrup or 2 cups brown sugar instead of honey to sweeten.

Add some fresh or frozen berries and you've got yourself one delicious and nutritious breakfast!

Kitchen and Crafty Goodness

The kitchen at Matthew House has been a busy place even though we haven't been able to house any refugee claimants yet.  I've been trying out some new recipes in hopes of incorporating them into the weekly menues.  A special thanks to all of you who have sent your favourite recipes my way (Diana, that Kickin' Chicken was a big hit with the whole family!).

In addition to mealtime dishes, I decided to try my hand at canning jam and salsa as well.  My dear friend, Heidi, came for a visit and we diced tomatoes and hot peppers until our fingers burned (and kept burning well into the evening).  The jam was a modification of SouleMama's Strawberry Rhubarb Jam.  I say modification because I had roughly twice as many strawberries, the right amount of rhubarb and not nearly enough sugar.  I actually had to re-can it the following day after adding more sugar and pectin.  The salsa I ended up re-canning as well.  It didn't turn out as hot as we thought it would be since we seeded the peppers.  I added some more red tomatoes, some red hot peppers and a few jalapenos (with their seeds) and a bit more of a secret ingredient along with cayenne.  It is apparently very good and hot.  I won't dare taste it, but Keith is quite pleased :)

I've also been on a bread-baking kick which has the family eating a lot more white bread than is healthy.  We ran out of bread the other day and so I whipped up a batch of white bread, since we only had white flour in the house. Yesterday we started into the second loaf so I made another couple of large loaves along with a mini herb and cheese loaf and another cinnamon sugar loaf. Yum.

Raspberry Lemon loaf and Pumpkin loaf have also been churned out in the kitchen along with Sheila's Pudding - my favourite Jamie Oliver recipe.  Seriously, with hot custard it is nirvana.  We went Pumpkin picking on the weekend (material for another post) so next on my baking to-do list is making the Keither his pumpkin pie.

On the craftier side of things - I've had three sweaters, one leg warmer and a pair of mittens come of the needles in the last month (it took much longer to knit the sweaters).  I've also completed the 3 pairs of Christmas Eve pajama bottoms for the kidlets and 5 log cabin squares for my mom's Christmas present.  I'm working on a couple of things for baby shower gifts (both due around Christmas) as well.  There has been a whole lot of crafty-goodness going on here!

In the midst of all of this though, I tend to get focussed and serious and my long-suffering husband gets a bit neglected because he isn't being wrapped up (or put into a reusable, homemade cloth Christmas bag..oh brother, somebody stop me!) and put under a tree in three months.  He is quite understanding about all of this, but occasionally offers me gentle reminders about the importance of putting down the knitting and being silly with him from time to time.  Maybe those cloth Christmas bags can wait until next year. :)