Also on the table, next to what we are now calling a grease lamp, at the Old Trail Museum was another item that caught our attention. This time, it was not because it was oddly named (although I'm pretty sure they spelled it wrong, and mislabeled it as "hardtack", which it is not - but who am I to argue with the museum people, maybe they know something I don't), but because it looked like it might be something we could eat...
...at least, if we mixed up a batch, at home, ourselves.
Originating in Scotland (the name coming from the Gaelic bhannag, bannach, or bonnach), bannock was adopted into North American Native American culture, becoming fry bread.
There are a number of different variations on the recipe, but basically, it is just a biscuit type bread mix - consisting of flour, salt, baking powder, and water, kneaded together, and fried in a skillet with bacon grease.
I'm imaging an old mountain man frying up a serving of bacon, plopping some of the dough into the still hot grease, to make a biscuit, and then scooping it up, adding a little more flour and water to the pan, for biscuits, bacon and gravy (we have to try that too).
It can however, also be baked in an oven (or for that matter, wrapped on a stick and roasted over a camp fire - another method we would like to try).
We found a child-friendly, oven baked bannock recipe, provided by Chief Earl Old Person of the Blackfeet Nation, on Montanakids.com.
According to the chief, his people traditionally enjoy the bread with a meal of fried beef roast and potatoes, and chokecherry jelly, washed down with coffee or peppermint tea.
We cut the recipe in half, added a tablespoon of sugar (because we could), and enjoyed our bannock warm, with blackberry jelly and lemon curd.
I was looking at a couple of Jell-o Jigglers Mold Kits that have been in my cupboard for a while (an impulse buy from some previous trip to the store, or other)...
...when it occurred to me...
Melted milk chocolate chips
...that while Star Wars and Jurassic Jello-O Jigglers...
spread evenly
...might be nice and all...
peanut butter mixed with powdered sugar and butter
...I'd really much rather have...
topped with more melted chocolate tapped to make smooth.
Several mid-year moves in high school, coupled with a few rigid and unimaginative school administrators, led to my taking a higher than normal number of home economics classes through my teen years - standard home-ec, creative cooking, sewing, interior design, and such.
And while they wouldn't have all been my classes of choice, they were informative and, as it turns out, practical for my current lifestyle. All the same, for the first few years of my married life, when it came to applying classroom knowledge to daily lunches and dinners, I found the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, I received from some knowing aunt as a wedding gift, invaluable. It seemed very natural then, when my teens asked to add a home-ec element into their schedules, to turn back to Better Homes and Gardens.
I was very happy to find to find just what I was looking for too, in Better Homes and Gardens: Anyone Can Cook...
...not to be mistaken for the fictional cookbook from Disney's Ratatouille.
The Better Homes and Garden title is more than just a cookbook. It's more like a cooking class in a book. There are plenty of helpful hints, and "ask Mom" type instructions at the bottom of each page, with advice on everything from "how do I measure butter?" to "how do I cut a pineapple". The accompanying video has additional classroom type lessons on things such as the difference between liquid and dry measures, and which knife to use when. And, as a bonus, the cookbook comes with a free, one-year subscription to the Better Homes and Garden magazine.
The recipes are rated by difficulty, and progress nicely from easy to difficult. My oldest girls (who have decided to prepare Monday dinners for the family) had no trouble finding a recipe they wanted to try out - "mashed potato chowder" - the results of which, you can see at the top of the page.
Other than all the teaching portions of the book, the recipes are the what you'd expect from a basic cookbook. There's a nice variety, but nothing too exotic - no ratatouille, for instance. For that, you'd need the Disney approved cookbook for the movie (strangely enough, not titled Anyone Can Cook) which we haven't tried, but which I did notice has gotten very good reviews on Amazon.
Anyway, my teens were just as happy to choose a recipe from a cookbook without rats on the cover, though I think my younger girls might get a kick out of movie-go-along. However, the Better Homes and Gardens' cookbook is straightforward enough for the younger children too (mine are 9 and 10), and in fact I will probably use it with them, as well.
I would have had all the children cooking together to save teaching time, but you know the old saying about too many cooks...
...which strangely enough is the title of one of the Ratatouille picture books.
I, however, have my eyes on another Better Homes and Garden title, that I think has the potential to become a family favorite.
Before we run out to the store to gather our holiday baking supplies, I decided to put together a quick list of easy, mostly no-bake type treats (and their ingredients), so I could be sure we have all the things on hand for those simple, do-on-their-own or we-want-to-bake-but-Mom-needs-a-nap, quick and easy Christmas treats.
We probably won't be making them all. Honestly just the thought of consuming that much sweetened condensed milk and butter in one month makes me queasy. Still, it can't hurt to have the ingredients on hand, just in case, you know...
1. Rice Krispie Treats - Divide them in half and add red food coloring to one half, and green to the other before pressing them into the pan, for festive squares, or choose from one of the many decorated ideas from Google images.
Butter, Rice Krispies, a package of marshmallows, food coloring, optional candy decorations.
I made a test batch of rolls, earlier this week, following a recipe by Karen Rummer from AllRecipes.com and shaping according to a tutorial from Beyond Kimchee (lots of fun for kids to help with) except that I skipped the egg wash she called for before baking, because according to Paul Hollywood (of the Great British Baking Show) an egg was can make the rolls appear done too early, and lead to rolls that are golden brown on the outside but doughy on the inside.
With the pumpkin already adding moisture to the rolls, you really don't want doughy. So, instead of an egg wash, I rubbed the rolls with butter as soon as they came out of the oven, to make them shiny and soft.
They smelled fantastic, and weren't doughy at all - though hot out of the oven, they were a little too moist for my taste. However, allowed to cool overnight (cooled first, then stored in plastic baggies) they were pretty perfect. These are really good as day old rolls.
They are on the sweet side of savory rolls - think Hawaiian sweet rolls, but with a pumpkin flavor. We liked them quite a bit though.
The only down side is the recipe (which make 32 rolls) is too large to mix and knead in a bread machine. I know because I tried, and ended up having to glop the whole mess out on the counter to knead by hand. The rolls still, amazingly, turned out. I like a dough that can handle some missteps.
They are on my bake list again today, for Thanksgiving. But this time, I'll be mixing up a half batch in the bread maker, and turning them over to the teens with the kitchen scissors for shaping.
What about you? Do you have a favorite, go-to roll recipe?
My mother's 84th birthday gave me a good excuse to try out a fall tea party idea (with the girls' help), that I had been thinking about since first seeing...
...the Duncan Hines "Perfect Size" cake mixes on our store's shelves. The mixes come with their own disposable baking pan, and enough cake and frosting mix to make a small cake meant to serve 2 to 4 people (perfect tea party size).
We made 4 cakes in all - one vanilla with chocolate frosting, and three lemon. Before we frosted the cakes though, we added a few drops of red and yellow food coloring to one of the lemon frosting mixes, and a whole lot of red to another, giving us brown, yellow, red (or a reddish pink), and orange frosted cakes.
We sliced each cake into eight small pieces...
...and then removed slices from each cake, piecing them back together on fresh plates, into pinwheel patterns.
We used a butter knife to gently slide the pieces together, before cleaning any stray frosting smears from the plates with a clean, damp rag...
...and we were all ready to celebrate a fall birthday with Grandma.
I was worried that cutting the cakes several hours ahead of serving, would cause them to dry out where the slices weren't pushed completely back together, but the little mixes are quite moist, and our pieced together cakes stayed fresh and nice even into the next day, when we finished off the leftovers.
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day. He recognized ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by over 90 percent of the nation's population. In the proclamation, President Reagan called for all people of the United States to observe these events with "appropriate ceremonies and activities." The International Ice Cream Association (IICA) encourages retailers and consumers to celebrate July as National Ice Cream Month. In 2015, National Ice Cream Day will be Sunday, July 19. (source)
Back in July, while it was still National Ice Cream month, and while we had company to help us eat up our experiments, we decided to try out a couple of ice cream themed recipes floating around online.
The first - a two ingredient, ice cream bread recipe, we found on Myrecipes.com (though it's been posted and reposted often enough, I'm not sure where it originated) turned out to be not too bad.
All it calls for is a pint of the ice cream flavor of your choice, softened...
...mixed together with 1 and 1/2 cups of self-rising flour (cheating just a little to meet that "two ingredient" claim).
We chose butter pecan ice cream for our bread, which we baked according to the recipe for 45 minutes at 350°F in a sprayed 8x4'' loaf pan. However, I happened to see someone else using a pineapple coconut ice cream, that also sounded very yummy.
Our bread didn't rise much...
...but served with warm, with cinnamon honey butter (softened butter with cinnamon and honey stirred in to taste)...
...it was, as I think I've already said, not too bad. We will keep this recipe to try again. If nothing else it's quick and easy, and makes a passable quick bread, which will be nice on snowy winter afternoons, with a cup of hot chocolate.
As for the second recipe we came across - ice cream cake - which calls for a cake mix, three eggs, and a softened pint of ice cream (we opted for chocolate cake, and cherry cordial ice cream)...
...we missed the moistening effect of the oil called for on the cake box. The cake was dry, and quite frankly, a little blaw. Maybe it was our flavor choices, but we all agreed, the ice cream would have added more flavor, and better texture, served along with, rather than in the cake. After a few sample pieces, we tossed the left-overs (which says a lot in a house with three resident, and two visiting, teenagers). Still the mind-boggling number of ice cream and cake mix combinations out there, might yet tempt us to try this one again.
I'm a homeschool mom of six. My family has been homeschooling for about seventeen years. And, each year, we've learned a little more about having fun, and spending less, while learning more. It's great to be a homeschooler!
I'm very happy to share ideas, and thoughts with you. I try to give credit to others when they inspire, or add instructions to a project, and ask that you do the same for me. You may copy ideas and pictures from this blog as long as you give credit and link back to the original post. Thanks
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