(And All My) Work Be Praise

I finally  got to the baking I've been planning for weeks. First a full dehydrator and instant pot full of apples (for rings and applesauce, respectively), and then apple biscuits , orange zucchini bread and apple pecan bread . I made up the apple biscuits through cutting them out, then flash froze on a cookie sheet, to be stored in a ziploc bag for baking in the future. I doubled the apple pecan bread, and the orange zucchini bread made two loaves as written, but I only have three loaf pans. So I did half the zucchini batter as muffins. And, the exciting part for me, this week we replaced our toaster oven [the old one died] with a larger one that can fit an entire 9x13 pan. You know you're a dedicated homemaker when a new toaster/convection oven is the highlight of your week! So big and so shiny! And it fits my big stoneware pans! Baking haul, plus messy counters behind. The truth is, with my crew, three loaves of bread and twelve muffins is probably only two or three breakfa...

As I mentioned in my homeschool curriculum post , Silas and Toby are using Galloping the Globe  as their core guide this year. We're learning a lot about animals and their habitats, a few key people and people groups from each country, assorted facts about assorted other things . . . and food! The Galloping the Globe  text has a few recipes included, and I purchased Eat Your Way Around the World   and the Usborne Children's World Cookbook . (Note that the latter, while a beautiful book as Usborne books always are, is not terribly helpful for unique recipes.) Our first continent to study was Africa. Here's what we ate: Kenya : peanut bread Morocco: couscous with chicken, orange and date salad, honey-glazed carrots, date bars, mint green tea, square flat bread rgaif Bonus: we sat on the floor and ate off the coffee table! Nigeria: banana fritters Egypt:  shish kebabs and rice casserole biram ruz beef and onion kebabs, plus watermelon (which is grown there) Stay tuned f...

Apples, apples, apples. I got through all the pears, but still have probably 20 pounds of apples in the garage -- and that's after  making a sizable dent today! In a whirlwind of multi-tasking, I made, in this order: * apple cinnamon rolls (currently rising in the fridge to bake tomorrow)  *peeled and sliced rings for the dehydrator (ours has four trays, so however many apples that is . . . ) *a stock pot of chicken broth using the carcass from roast chicken earlier in the week (which of course has nothing to do with apples, but needed to be done) * apple butter (about a quart and a half, after it was all blended up) I spent the afternoon working on food for our geography studies, but I intend to post about those foods separately! A busy busy day in the kitchen -- so, as a side note, special thanks to whomever it was on Facebook who mentioned that there's a new season of the Great British Baking Show out. I don't remember who you are, but I'm grateful!

Technically, this isn't a *Friday* cooking post. Last Friday we took advantage of the glorious weather go to to the zoo . That turned out to be a great decision, as this past Friday, we had our first snowfall. Seven days from t-shirts and shorts to snow.  At least it melted by the afternoon! I did want to share quickly, though, about my favorite homemade hamburger buns  that I baked last week. I double the recipe to make 24, which lasts us three meals. I use all white whole wheat flour, freshly ground, and they are soft and delicious!  I also made two more batches of pear-apple sauce, and a big pot of these cinnamon pears  for the freezer. And lastly, this afternoon I whipped up this apple twist bread on a whim, for the sheer joy of baking something yummy! (Well, and because I still have dozens upon dozens of apples left in the garage.) I did one as the recipe said and one with pizza sauce and cheese . . . except that the cheese turned out to be moldy so I had to cu...

Between the boxes of apples we picked from my parents' neighbor's tree and the boxes of pears gifted to us by a dear friend at church, my Friday cooking is now more about using the produce than filling the freezer! (The freezer is getting pretty full anyway, and we have half a hog coming next month. We've been getting a quarter cow from farming friends for a few years, but this is our first time buying bulk pork!) I did another full pot of applesauce, but in the crockpot, and I swapped out about 1/3 of the apples for pears. It's delicious . However, I didn't peel the fruit, and the pear skin is a bit tougher than the apple skin. I don't mind it, but I think some of my kids will protest. I'll probably do another batch this week (soon, since the pears are starting to bruise!) and peel the fruit first. Much better than apple-pear sauce, though, is the pear fruit leather . We have a dehydrator, but it only has one solid sheet for drying purees, so I used two big...