Discovering KETCHUP!!

 

                                                    

Corn Chowder and bread bowls

I have had several people ask about my recipes for chowder and bread bowls so here it is!

 

Corn Chowder – a Karen Illian Classic (thanks, friend)

1 large bag of frozen corn  

6 slices of bacon

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup cubed potatoes (I use MORE)

1 cup water

2 cups of milk (divided)

1 t sugar (or more!)

1/2 t thyme

salt and pepper

1 T cornstarch

 

Cook the bacon in a dutch oven until it is crisp.  Remove and set aside.  Crumble.

Cook onion in bacon drippings until they are tender.  Stir in corn, potatoes and water and bring this to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to simmer for 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally.

Stir in 1 1/2 cups of milk, the sugar, thyme and salt and pepper.

Combine and cornstarch and 1/2 cup milk and add to the soup to thicken.  Cook uncovered 15 minutes until it is thick and bubbly!  ENJOY!  Makes 6 cups (or more if you add more potatoes).

 

Bread bowls 

2 packages of dry yeast

2 1/2 cups of warm water (110*)

2 t salt

2 T vegetable oil

7 cups flour

1 egg white

1 T water

In a large bowl dissolve yeast in the warm water.  Let stand for 10 minutes until it is creamy.  Add salt, oil, and 4 cups of the flour and beat well.  Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time (an electric mixer is recommended).

When the dough has pulled together, turn it out on a floured surface and knead it until it is smooth and elastic.  Place in a bowl and coat the dough with oil. Cover with a towel and let it rise until it has doubled – about 40 minutes.

Punch dough down and divide into 8 equal portions – for 8 bowls.  Shape them into round loaves.  Place onto a lightly dusted and greased baking sheet.  Cover and let rise again until doubled – about 35 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 400* and brush the top of the risen loaves with an egg and water mixture.  Bake in the oven for 15 minutes; check them and then bake for an additional 5-15 minutes depending on the doneness you desire and the crustiness (is crustiness a word?) you want. 

To make the bowls, simply cut off the tops of the bread – just a thin slice – and then scoop out the centers.  Leave 3/4 inch of bread in the shells.  Fill the bowl with soup and use the bread you scooped and the top of the bowl as “dunkers”.  ENJOY! 

I like to make more than I need so I can freeze some for next time.  They freeze well,and I don’t’ have to go through making the recipe all over again!  :)

Helping Daddy and actually HELPING

Josiah has been getting into one of our cabinets that has cereal and crackers in it.  He knows how to open it and helps himself to Lucky Charms, Cherrios or Animal Crackers!  I will often catch him red-handed with his sweaty palms deep into a box of Cherrios with a HUGE grin on his face!  What a kid!

SO… I have been begging Danny to put locks on those cabinets, and he finally got around to it.  Josiah helped him… I don’t think he knew that he was locking up the very cabinets that he LOVED opening, but he was helpful.  He held Danny’s drill and watched intently.  He gave Danny the tools he need when he needed them and he didn’t even eat any parts!

There IS more to my life…

Some of you may think that my life is CONSUMED with my children – since 99% of my posts are about them!  I DO love them, but there IS more to my life – cooking, cleaning, crafting, picture taking, serving at church, couponing, MOPS, etc! 

Danny and I love eating soup on cold days and we LOVE eating bread bowls, too!  We have a great recipe that makes yummy bowls, so I made them this week with chicken corn chowder inside… what a delicious dinner!!!  I even made a few extra so we could freeze them for next time!  Can’t wait!

Don’t drool all over my pictures, please!

Cutie in 5T

Grace LOVES the fact that she is now in 5T clothing!  She comes down in the morning after she has changed and asks her daddy, “What size do you think this shirt is?  Do you think this is 4T?”  She proudly announces that she is wearing ALL 5T clothes!  She just loves it!  Many of her 4T things do not fit any more, so Nanna graciously sent some ADORABLE things in Grace’s new size!  (She “needed” some new things for church!) We got many things from Yard Sales this summer, but there were a few holes to fill!

So.. Nanna… Here she is!

A Season of Change

We took a break from our traditional schooling to learn about the seasons and review all of the things that we have been learning at school.  Grace has done an amazing job and LOVES to “do school”; she often BEGS to do more work when we have finished what I have planned for each day.  She is a teacher’s dream!

We started off learning about how the seasons change and why they change and then reviewed fall. Grace wrote vocabulary words for each season, made a special craft for each season, decorated a bare tree for each season, read books for each season, and had several math, writing and phonics activities for each season to reinforce what we have been learning.

              

              

Here is the whole season display on our wall in the school room (the basement)!

This is just one of the many units that we will do this year!  Our creative little Gracie LOVES all of this activity while learning…and so does her mommy.  Keep checking back for the next mini unit on Thanksgiving!

Freezer Cooking

I am just fascinated with Freezer Cooking.  I really want to get started HARD CORE, but I will have to wait until after the holidays.  Here is a great E Book that explains all about it.  It is from a blog that I follow... Money Saving Mom.  I have learned a lot about her budgeting techniques, stories, and helpful coupon ideas.  You really should follow her too.Money Saving Mom

You can buy it online as well:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1451646208/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=monsavmom-20&linkCode=as2&camp=217145&creative=399373&creativeASIN=1451646208

Like father… like son…

When Danny was a little boy, he loved to pretend to be Superman.  There are even pictures of him pretending to fly on top of their motor home!  He has always loved Superman and has sported a Superman tee shirt ever since I met him. 

Here is his little boy… posing as Superman…. I didn’t teach him the moves… they must be in his genes. 

Operation Christmas Child

Every year since I the years when I was teaching, we have been involved in Operation Christmas Child.  It is one of those ministries that really touches my heart… KIDS!!  I can’t imagine living in the places that some of these kids do, in the conditions that they do, with the few items that they have, with hardly any food, with a small cup of water for a full day,  It brings tears to my eyes.  I am a spoiled mommy with so many things to offer my kids, don’t want to think about what if I had to choose who would eat what in a certain day… who gets a full piece of bread and who gets to share… who gets clean water and who doesn’t.

Through OCC we are trying to teach our children about the luxuries that we have and the needs that others have.  The need is great and we are SO BLESSED here in the states.  We even have a choice of what to have to dinner, which toys to play with, which clothes to wear, and what drink to have.  WE ARE SPOILED!  We have SO MUCH TO GIVE!!!

Here is the family putting the box together… it was fun shopping for it at the Dollar Tree and then packing it with love and prayer.  Our church’s collection day was Sunday, and we had over 630 boxes just on Sunday, but there were many that still needed to be collected.  Our goal was 700!

                       

Josiah wasn’t a big help, but he is cute! 

Walking Boy

Here is Josiah walking 2 weeks ago....

He has made a lot of progress.... here he is tonight!

Snowy morning in Iowa

We woke up to a snowy morning here in Iowa!  It has been great weather for weeks and weeks, but it looks like a little taste of winter is upon us! 

The first thing that we said to the girls was… “Go look outside at the snow!”  They were so excited.  Danny went to shovel the driveway while the kids and I ate a quick egg breakfast so we could have full bellies to go out in the snow!  Josiah really didn’t go out in it last year, so we had to be sure he was in the snow playing this time.  I am not sure what the girls were most excited about – playing in the snow or getting the hot chocolate when they were done!  :) 

Terribly excited sisters!

What are they doing, mommy?  I want to go too!

  

      

Yup… he likes it, but don’t try to put his mittens on!

      

Snow angel…

Eating snow… at least it is fresh and not yellow!

Warming up with hot chocolate by the fire! 

A lazy afternoon in the Toy Room

We had a rainy day yesterday… the kind that you have to stay inside… the kind that you want to stay in your PJs all day… the kind where soup and Aunty Rachelle bread sounds amazing… the kind where a long nap is the perfect thing to do even though the house is a mess and there are emails to answer!  Well, I wish it was like that at our house.  It wasn’t.  We had MOPS so I was out of the house at 7:30 with all of the kiddos and we were back for lunch.  We had a great time, but I was ready to be home in the warm house!

Here is how we spent the afternoon until Danny got home!

               

          

Giving up TV?

Hope you enjoy this article written by DANNY for our church's blog.  I know he won't mind you reading it too!

Giving up Television?

Every time our cable TV contract is about ready to expire, and the choice must be made to re-up our contract or not, there is always debate in our home. Not verbal debate, but mental debate. I begin to wonder: “Is this worth the money? We have 117 channels, but we really only watch 10 of them consistently. There is so much trash on TV, I should really get rid of it. But there is also so much I learn and enjoy from TV as well! What do I do?” And then I do what I have always done—bite the bullet and sign-on to another year of TV so I can debate it again next year.

 There’s been somewhat of a stirring in my Life Group recently concerning this topic, mostly amongst the men actually, which might surprise you. One family decided several months ago to put their TV in a box in the basement, and recently the husband/father told me, “We’ve had really great family times since we’ve made that decision.” While I respected that family greatly for that decision, and VERY BREIFLY considered trying it in our family too, I had all these conflicting voices in my head:

 “What would you do without ‘Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives’?”

“And what about all those On-Demand shows that your kids like to watch. Could your kids really survive without Curious George?”

And the loudest voice in my head was asking, “What about all those sports programs that you like to watch--could you really do without sports? Monday Night Football is only on ESPN Bub, and you can’t get that with rabbit ears.”

But then I had another conversation with a different husband/father in our Life Group. He came to Life Group one night all stoked that he was getting Direct TV, and was going to be able to watch any NFL game he wanted during the season. After I stopped drooling into my nachos, I tried to muster up as much happiness as I could for him without the envy showing. But then we had lunch together a few days later, and he said something that almost made me choke on my burrito while sitting outside of Chipotle: “I’m having second thoughts about this whole Direct TV thing.” His reasons centered around not wanting to be the “invisible dad” in his home, physically present, but not really there for his wife and kids. He had a couple days to decide until the installer was scheduled to come to his house, and I found out a couple weeks later that he decided AGAINST Direct TV, and he doesn’t have any cable either. And this is a guy who LOVES football, and now he can’t watch his beloved team on a regular basis.

“What would cause a guy to do that?”, was my first reaction. But now, surprisingly, I’m starting to catch the same “say no to TV” bug that my other brothers in Christ are catching. I don’t know all the reasons why my friends packed up their TV’s, but I’d like to share a quick synopsis of the reasons I AM seriously considering NOT renewing my Mediacom subscription when it runs out in a few months:

1.   1. I know that TV is a source of corrupting influence for MY OWN spiritual life. While there ARE some good, wholesome programs that are edifying, when I am honest with myself, I know those programs are few and the vast majority of shows (even previews!) cause my mind to go places I know it should not go. To a degree, TV has desensitized me to sin and pain while filling my mind with unreality (which is very ironic considering the number of “reality” TV shows that exist today).

2. 2. TV is a source of corrupting influence for MY FAMILY MEMBERS’ spiritual lives as well. I am learning, through God’s Word and Men’s Fraternity, that as the leader of our household, God has entrusted me with the responsibility to display righteous energy and fight for my family’s souls. I am the gatekeeper of what my family learns, and it is my job to shape the worldview of my children. I can’t afford to let TV shape the worldview of my children, because THAT worldview is ANYTHING BUT BIBLICAL.

 3. Watching TV is not the best use of the time God has given me. EVEN IF everything on TV was wholesome, watching it would still be a waste of time. There are so many people in this world who could tell you everything that is going on in the life of the most popular celebrity, but they don’t have a clue about their own life—i.e., they have no idea how much money is in their own bank account. If I spend all day away from my family while I’m at work, and then I spend several hours in the evening in front of the tube, I am wasting away that precious little time I have to instill the Kingdom of God into my kids.

I know most of you who read this will probably have 1,000 reasons why you shouldn’t pack up your TV either, just like I did initially. And I still have all those reasons in my head, by the way, as they certainly haven’t disappeared—the battle between the flesh and spirit rages inside of me just like anyone. But right now, God has brought me to the place where the 3 reasons stated above have taken precedence over Guy Fierri, Curious George, and the Dallas Cowboys. Will my resolve to give up TV be as strong tomorrow as it is today? I hope not. I pray it will be stronger, because I desperately need to feed the life I’m trying to live, and starve the life I’m trying to leave.