***"Branded"*** I don't think I've ever been so moved by one person's simple blog post. Have your kleenex handy, folks.
***"Profitable for Mom"*** I felt as though I'd been "spanked," but I had it coming, to be sure.
***"Carrying Burdens that Don't Belong to Us"*** Oh, how I needed this! I'm working on a reasonable daily schedule as a result.
And, for fun...
... this! At a meager $84, I think I'll get a couple of them to deck my halls this season!
Boy, I am lovin' me some homemade eats! Can you tell?
When Susie was here, she taught me how to make tortillas, and I've been craving them ever since. They're so much easier to make than I anticipated--want to try? Behold, a tortilla tutorial. (Whew! Say that 5 times fast!)
In a large bowl, measure 4 cups flour, 1/2 T. baking powder, and 1/2 t. salt. Mix together.
Cut in 1/2 c. shortening. Believe it or not, this is what it looks like. You'd never know this had shortening in it!
When you grab a handful of the mixture and then open your hand, it looks like this. Very crumbly.
Add 1 c. hot water. Susie heats hers on the stovetop, but my tap water gets rrrrrrreally hot, so I just use that.
Turn your dough onto a floured surface to knead. It won't be nearly as sticky as the egg noodle dough!
Knead until smooth and elastic. Like my midsection. (Heh.)
Place dough back in the bowl & cover with a clean, cute towel.
Question: Why do people feel the need to specify a clean towel? Do people really try to cover their tortilla dough with a dirty towel? These things mystify me. Let dough rest 10 minutes.
Pinch off a piece of dough--perhaps 1/4 cup--and tap lightly into a flour-filled bowl. Keep this flour bowl handy. You'll need it.
Work dough into a flattened round, like so.
Do this with all of your dough. My batch made 17 tortillas. I make mine the size of the skillet. Whatever you don't use right away, you can refrigerate for several days.
Ready to roll?
Place one of your rounds on your lightly floured surface. Now roll it.
Yep, that's it! I have yet to roll a perfect circle-shaped tortilla. Mine always end up looking like Iowa. Or Ohio. But that's not the point.
You'll place the rolling pin in the middle of the round and roll to the outside, every time, rather than rolling back in to center. I found it to be to sticky.
Yep, starting to look like Ohio already. So I'll just roll a couple times from center to left, and then from center to right.
Occasionally, you'll need to pick up the tortilla and flip it, re-flouring the surface, the tortilla itself, the rolling pin... your hands, your nose, etc...
...and just roll until the tortilla is the size you want it.
Wow! It's a circle, and a pretty good one at that!
Now, Susie is such a quick tortilla-roller that she can roll while cooking 2 or 3 at the same time! I'm not so fast. I prefer to roll out however many I think I'll need, and cook them later.
Just fry them in a medium-hot skillet (I use cast-iron) until just done on both sides!
Keep them warm in a tortilla-keeper. Or, if you're cheap, just place a sheet of foil inside a (clean) towel.
And that's it! Happy tortilla making!
I told Brienna that Christmas was right around the corner.
This was her reaction:
Brienna had her 2-month checkup yesterday; she's doing great!
In fact, the doctor called her "Chunker."
Doc was impressed with how quickly she's been growing and developing. I was pleased to inform her that Brienna falls asleep on her own, rarely uses her pacifier, and eats very efficiently. She generally sleeps from about 9:30 p.m. until 8, with one quick feeding in the wee morning hours. The pediatrician kept saying, "She has great sleep hygiene!" She definitely thrives on her little routine of eat/play/sleep.
The only cause for concern was an ingrown toenail that has become infected. Not surprisingly, the doctor immediately prescribed an antibiotic. Being the difficult--er, cautious person that I am, I'm going to try a couple natural things first. Hopefully we can resolve the issue quickly and avoid antibiotics.
It is so fascinating to watch Brienna's little personality come through. She's incredibly sweet and sensitive (in a good way!), and she's starting to get quite responsive, with her little squeaks and squeals. She's an absolute sweetheart.
We're adjusting wonderfully! Brienna has just eased right into our daily schedule; in fact, she's the easiest of our three little women at this point!
Last week we had chicken noodle soup, made with homemade chicken broth.
I also made homemade egg noodles, which are so good, and surprisingly easy!
Start by measuring 2 cups flour into a bowl. Make a well in the center and add 3 egg yolks, 1 egg, and 2 t. salt. Mix thoroughly with hands. Add water, a little at a time--1/4 to 1/2 cup.
Add only enough water to form dough into a ball.
Turn dough onto a well-floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic. In my experience, it takes a considerable amount of flour to keep the dough from sticking to my hands and kneading surface.
This looks great! Return the dough to the bowl and cover with a clean towel. Let it rest about 10 minutes.
Divide dough into 4 equal parts. Roll each part into a paper-thin rectangle.
Or oval. Or whatever shape pleases you. It matters not.
I chose to roll this one to resemble a Christmas ornament.
Cut dough into strips. The size will depend on how wide or narrow you want your noodles. Don't forget that the noodles will plump up quite a bit as they cook. I use a pizza cutter, and obviously I don't care about the width. I've got all sizes!
You can use your noodles immediately, if desired, by boiling them in salted water until tender--just like any other pasta.
Or, you can lay them out on a clean, lightly floured towel, like this:
...and then you can break them into smaller pieces if you like.
The hardest part is trying to convince your kids that the veggies are just as good as the noodles. But even I don't believe that.
What do you make that gets a "Wow!" from other people?
Do you get tired of seeing my children?
**Brienna and Daddy have a little chat.**
Not that I intend to change the content of my blog.
It is, after all, entitled "My 3 Little Women."
**Livvie & Ellia are super helpers! (Meaning: they "help" to pick as many butterscotch chips out of my cookie dough as they can.)**
And it's also my blog. Which means I can put anything on it that I please.
My children (usually) please me.
So there.
P.S.--If your answer to my aforementioned question happens to be "yes," then just indulge my sensitive feelings and don't comment.
P.S.S.--My sensitive feelings don't really care all that much.
P.P.S.S.--But seriously, just don't comment.
P.P.S.S.S--Thank you for your participation.
I love it when babies first start to coo. Seems like it takes all their concentration to squeak out each little sound!
Am I the only one who thinks this little darlin' looks JUST LIKE her daddy?
Wow, and I mean wow.
I made a batch of refried beans last week; thanks to Susie for teaching me the "art!" I was so impressed when she first talked about making them, but make no mistake: there's absolutely no skill involved! If you can stir, you can make refried beans!
Once again, I was partway through the process before it occurred to me to snap photos.
First, you need to make the beans of your choice. I used pinto beans.
*You could just open a can of pinto beans and move on to the frying part, if you're in a pinch. But I prefer to make my own. The feel-good-about-what's-in-your-food thing. :)
So first you soak your dry beans according to the package instructions. I prefer to soak mine overnight. I rinse and sort them and then empty the whole 1-pound-bag in the crock pot, filling it to the top with water. In the morning I just turn the crockpot on low and throw in a clove or 2 of crushed garlic. Beans don't have much flavor on their own, so the garlic helps.
When the beans are nice and soft, remove the garlic. Now you can fry them! I use a cast-iron skillet, and I fry them in bacon grease, if I have it. Or shortening. Even though neither of these is healthy, I still think the beans wind up being better for you than the canned variety.
When your bacon grease or shortening--whatever frying agent floats your boat--has melted, place 1/3 to 1/2 of your beans in the pan. Notice I've included the liquid from the crockpot! It's got all that garlic-y goodness--don't throw it out!
The heat should be hot enough that your beans & liquid bubble, but not hot enough to scorch them. Mmm! Keep frying!
You can use your spoon to smoosh the beans. We like ours fairly well-smooshed, but you can leave them un-smooshed if you like. ("Smooshed" is the official term here.)
At this point I add a little garlic salt and a bit of cayenne pepper. Again, the flavor factor. Looks great! Smells divine, too.
If you don't plan to use them right away, transfer the beans into ziploc bags. This is my best estimate at the quantity you'd find in a can of refried beans. My 1-pound bag made 3 "cans." They freeze wonderfully!
Then, when you're ready to use them, just heat up your skillet and fry them again! And if you have leftovers, fry them again! They're delicious!
I found "princess makeup" marked down to $0.37 after Halloween.
What on earth was I thinking?
(My couches are wondering the same thing.)
Homemade chicken broth is infintely tastier and healthier than storebought! It's one of those things that makes ya feel really good--you know exactly what's in it! I got halfway done with this batch yesterday before I thought to take photos, though. I'm on the ball like that.
Start by placing a whole chicken in the crockpot and cooking on low most of the day. Unless you are pregnant, in which case you should most certainly buy chicken broth at the store. The end.
When your chicken is falling-off-the-bone tender, remove it. After it's cooled, take the meat off.
Place the bones and other yucky stuff (the technical term for those things I'd rather not think about) back into the crock pot. Add a coarsely chopped onion, some parsley, a bay leaf, a bit of salt, and the veggies of your choice. I added celery but was running low on other veggies, so I added a can of mixed veggies. Under normal circumstances, I don't use canned vegetables, but since they get discarded anyway, it's okay. They're just for flavor, and I simply omitted the salt. Add several cups of water, too. I don't measure, but I guess I added a good 5 or 6 cups. Cook on low several hours, or overnight.
Voila! It looks and smells delicious! 
Strain the broth into a large bowl. Discard the contents of the strainer, unless you've got nice chunks of chicken in there. I didn't want to sift through the yucky stuff, so I made sure to get all the chicken beforehand.
Idn't it luuuuv-ly?
(That's my attempt at a southern accent.)
Just for kicks, I poured mine into a measuring bowl. Just shy of 8 cups. And, since I'm just a bit fussy about these sorts of things, I added enough water to make it 8.
I used up all my broth for chicken noodle soup, but you could pour it into individual one-can-sized servings and freeze it. There you go!
I can't have homemade chicken noodle soup without also making homemade noodles. It sounds impressive, but stay tuned: it's as easy as cut-out cookies! But with fewer ingredients!
Please pray for us--we felt it was time for Nate to move on from his job with DISH. Mostly, it was because his arrival times at home were unpredictable at best, and terribly late at worst. The 2 big girls were really missing him, and so was their mama! We consider dinner time to be an important family event, and holidays, too. (He was home for neither.)
Thankfully, his construction boss has agreed to bring Nate until he can find something more permanent.
Thanks for your prayers! We're so excited to have our castle's king home more!
