When Your 13 Year Old Can Make Bread

Home made, by hand bread.

All the Little Bits and Pieces to Make a Salad

I think that the best salads are the ones that are mostly by and large comprised of many little pieces for taste.

Last night we made a pretty regular salad at our house:

It has green leaves / lettuce leaves, cabbage, and beetroot underneath where you can no longer see.

It also had:

capsicum

onion

cucumber

cilantro

carrot

cherry tomatoes

sweet gherkins { or pickles can't remember }

All I had to do then was add a dressing { ranch } and mix.

It didn't take long to cut up either, which is nice.  Maybe 20 mins??

But super good for us.

Cooking Bread Buns for Dinner

I let the girls help with making the dinner rolls.  Bread is an easy thing to prepare and make.  Anyone can do them.

We use a bread flour specially designed for bread making.

Then we add a little yeast and sugar.

We also add about 400 mls of water and start mixing.

Soon the girls had a ball.

We covered it with some cling wrap.

After a few hours of sitting, and the occasional visit to roll the air out, we do our last one and set them for their final rise in the trays.

Then we put them in the oven for about 35 mins.

They're actually quite big rolls in real life - enough for a full hamburger or what not.  We put ham and tomatoes on ours this night.

March 21st in the Year 2018

Here are a couple of high lights from today.

The things I get to take part in.

Making Home Made Apple Dumpings

Yes, Home Made Apple Dumplings..... Delicious!

You'll have to make your own dough for it though.

3 cups of bread flour

2 teaspoons yeast

300 mls water

4 teaspoons sugar  { you want a sweet bread }

Combine your dough ingredients, then put it into a plastic bowl and cover with some plastic wrap.

Every hour or so give it a bit of a rough up and let sit again.

When you are ready to do your dumplings, peel and cut about 6 apples.  Give them a quick wash.  They will go into your dish NOT cooked.   Yep, they need to be RAW when you roll them up in your dough.

Roll your dough out - long is preferred.  Be very generous and lather on a TON of butter { a couple of good tablespoons worth in fact }.   Cake it over with a TON of brown sugar.  Be generous with that too.  Then add your chopped apples all over the top.  Now, roll up your apple dumpling roll.  Cut into large and generous { yes, that seems to be the key word to this whole process, and it works, so definitely use it } portions.  Somewhere between 1 - 2 inches.  Line your buttered baking dish with these cut rolls.

Place into the oven for about 35 mins or until the bread portion looks cooked and golden brown.

Let cool on oven top.

That's it.  A little time consuming if you are waiting on the dough rising etc...  But it will all be worth it - you want your bread portion to be really, really, really good.  And it needs that time to develop the gluten etc.. for a good bread. 

After that you will be praised as an amazing cook!

The crowds will beg you for more!

You will become a legend in your own kitchen!

Buffalo Wings and Rice

Here's another meal I've recently prepared.

{ Buffalo Wings and Rice }

I started out with 2 kg's of chicken wings.

Then I chopped off the little wing part on each one so it was more of a wingette.  Then I coated them in plain flour.

Then I dipped them in a buffalo sauce and bbq sauce.  I went 50/50 because I had to feed them to the children and I didn't want them to be too spicy.

Then I popped them into the oven for about an hour, until they looked really lovely and caramelized.

About half an hour before they're done grab 2 cups of rice and get that going.  Add some cilantro to the rice.   Just before you think the rice is going to be done grab about a cup and half of peas and corn and get them boiling.  Don't over do them though.  When the rice is done mix the peas and corn in.

Then you'll have an awesome meal ready, set, go.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Today I am sharing my Slow Cooker Beef Stew recipe.

{ Slow Cooker Beef Stew }

Just serve with a fancy toast like Helgas Wholemeal and real butter.

Ingredients:

Beef { 500 grams }

1 litre of beef stock

4 medium potatoes

1 green capsicum

5 small carrots

4 small stalks of celery

some cilantro

some shallots

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon parsley

4 heaped tablespoons corn flour

Place on low heat on slow for 6 hours with occasional stirrings and sniffings of the divine smell that will melt your taste buds with desire.

Of course, feel free to substitute the flavors with your own favorite flavorings.

What it looks like when you have all the ingredients in your slow cooker at the beginning.

Happy stew cooking!

Chicken Noodle Soup

Imagine having a Chicken Noodle Soup like this, accompanied with a home made artisan rustic and crusty bread.

You know you want some winter comfort food.  We all do, so you are in excellent company!

So delicious.

So nutritious.

Simply divine.

Let your mouth start salivating while I tell you how EASY this was to put together.

To make the Chicken Noodle Soup you will need a Slow Cooker - cook on high for 4 hours - and:

{ Ingredients }

3 Chicken breasts
1 litre chicken stock
1 cup corn
1 cup peas
1 green capsicum
4 stalks celery
4 carrots
1 head of broccoliWhen the meat is cooked - about 3 hours in - pull it out and shred it, and put it back in.

Add 250 grams of short angel hair

to be added half an hour before the very end with 2 cups of water.

And that is it my friends.  Just do the occasional stir and you will be all set to go.

It will feed about 8 people.

Now........ we are going to NEED some good old artisan rustic home made bread to go with it too.

This one is pretty easy as well.  A little time consuming overall - you know, with the wait times in between while the bread does all its rising, but it is worth the wait.

To make the bread you will need:

{ Ingredients }

3 cups of bread flour

1 cup of plain flour

1 tablespoon of yeast

1 tablespoon of sugar

410 mls of warm water

Use a plastic bowl.  For some reason it will rise better than if it was in a glass bowl - that has been my experience.

Mix by hand or spatula, cover with plastic wrap.

After one hour come and give it a gentle tap down, pick it up and roll into a ball again and cover again.  Use water, not extra flour on your hands. Don't over handle it.  Just a 10 second handle will be enough.

After the second hour repeat.

After the third hour repeat.

Pre-heat your oven at 200 Celsius about 20 mins before this last stage.

At the 4th hour you are going to prep your baking tray.  Try and aim for a flat pan - there's something about the thermal physics with that one.  I lined mine with olive oil and put on some wholemeal flour.  Just something to make it not stick there.

Now prep your dough.  Very carefully tip her out onto the tray.  You don't really want to bump or touch her much.  Put some sesame seeds on the top, then sprinkle some wholemeal flour { others usually use more finer flours } over the remaining exposed dough.  When it cooks it will give it that flour feel at the end.  Use a sharp knife to criss-cross across the top.

Pop her into the over and wait at least 40 mins.  Add some water underneath in a tin - that will give you a good crust.  Just have a look every now and then.  You can always check to see if she is cooked by sticking a kebab stick in the middle - and if it comes out clean - she's done.  I usually wait till she is nicely golden brown before I check.

{ Serving the children }

Generous servings of bread and butter { real butter }.   Everyone is forbidden to use anything less.  Butter is divine, nutritious, and the most amazing fat that can be paired with a decent bread.

With compliments like, 'My mum is a master chef' and about the bread, 'This is divine.'  You can't go wrong, I'm telling you.

Yeah, so there you have it.

I imagine winter will bring this dish around many times.

Thanks so much for visiting.

Challah in a Bag

Even though I'm giving up bread for the most part - my children aren't....  and they want bread:

Challah in a Bag

Macaroni and Cheese

Every now and then you get an awesome recipe that you never want to lose.

Seriously, this is going to be on your top 10!

Macaroni and Cheese

500g macaroni

500g kraft box blue

4 cups milk

4 cups water

150g butter

near the end add:

1 tin corn kernels

optional:

fried bacon

Here's a video on how to make macaroni and cheese:

Thanks for visiting chookies.

Whaaaaaaaaat, a video?

Yes, I made a video.  Ok, that's not what is so amazing, what IS amazing is that I am in it!!!!

No, sit down!  You're in it?

Yep.

This week { week 33 - Yay }

We went back to doing MOH II with all seriousness.

A copywork - coloring - worksheets

Chloe went back to work in here:

I kept food experimenting.  This one turned out great - pizza pockets, essentially.  { But done like Korean Hotteok }  So it's in a bread dough.

Phebe started Grade 5 Bible.

Charlotte is nearly finished her beginning sounds book.

Most of her maths this week was simply counting and writing to 20.

And the big ticket is that we are doing Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons.  Doing awesome!!

I made a little sticker chart to keep track of them.

Chloe went back to doing essays for Science.

and Charlotte had a go at this little gem.

Ok, my chookies.  

Hope you enjoyed the video. 

Thanks for visiting.

More Bread Details

Ingredients:
bread flour 600g, 1.5 tablespoon sugar, 1.5 tablespoon yeast, 400 mls water.

How to:
Ignite yeast with sugar and 200 ml of the tepid water allotment and 1 cup of the flour. I place these in a plastic bag for about 10 mins. Then I snip a corner off and pour out into mixing bowl. Add remaining water and flour. Mix until you have a nice dough ball.  Place dough ball in an oiled bowl.  Flip over - so that the dough ball has a little oil all over, so that when it rises and hits the plastic wrap on top it won't stick to it. Cover with loose plastic wrap and tea towel. Rise 40 mins, separate and roll out and put in oiled baking tins, rise again 40 mins - they will be at least double in size, place in oven at 190 degrees C. until golden brown.

This is what my dough looked like at the end of the FIRST rise.

The bowl was FULL and lifting over the top.

I took the dough out and rolled them up.

I also made this little video to show how I roll my dough.

What they looked like after the SECOND rise, just before I put them in the oven.

Thanks for visiting.

Cooking & Kitchen Catchup

This week we got a new oven!!

It's a little bigger than the last one, but the main difference is that the door actually closes - so I think future baking will be better as a result. :o)

This morning I was back to bread experimenting but decided that I wasn't going to do all that mixing by hand, nope, so I pulled out the chef instead.

Here is a 15 second video of the 5 littles checking out the Chef while the bread dough is being mixed.

How the bread came out.  A complete success!!  Best home made bread I have ever done.

Just slipped out of the pan.

The extra buns we got as well.

They were a complete favourite with all the children including my 20 year old who came out and finished them all off.

I also attempted double fried crispy chicken too - and that was also a success.  Yes, it was a little bit of work in the kitchen this morning, but all good.  :o)

Thanks for visiting.

Making Bread

Today I thought I would try out some more bread making.

This first one was a sour dough flour with water and oil  It rose a LOT; what you see is the top halves of the loaf.  The loaf had to be divided from top to bottom because it got jammed in my glass tray when I tried to get it out.  Yes, I oiled it, but it grew so much that it went over the rim.  At any rate, next time I shall use some cooking paper to prevent that from happening again.  Oh, and this particular loaf was done by starting it in a plastic bag.  I just love how easy the plastic bag method is.  It truly is amazing.   I also noted that it became a lot more fluffier if left to sit and rise longer.   Perhaps the extra kneading also helped { the removal of all the gases }.  Either way, This is a sure winner.

While I was experimenting with the above loaf I made the following one as well.  It differed by adding milk instead of water; butter instead of oil, and I also added an egg.  It came out much smaller - still quite good for a bread though.  It was also sweeter to taste even though they both had the same amount of sugar / yeast in there.  This loaf was started in a pot on the stove with all the little ingredients being added and the yeast ignited - then left for 10 mins, after which I then added the flour before leaving to sit for an hour, in the pot no less.

I think my oven cooks at a high temperature and I will be sure to lower it just a tad for the next round.

Thanks for visiting.

Week 26

I'm back and refreshed from my holiday over to the other side of Australia.  I went to see my oldest boy for 8 days + 2 travel days.   We also weaned Noah, who stayed home with daddy - I think it was perfect timing.  

Today I tried out making sour dough bread in a bag and here is the result:

The most success I've had with bread making, so I'm super happy with that.  It was also the EASIEST to do as well - so I'll definitely be doing re-runs and experiments with different types now in the future.

This week we are still doing the Robinson Curriculum and rather than just give you a chart of what the girls are reading I thought I'd give you a visual instead.

Chloe { 11 }:

Saxon as usual - one lesson a day.

And I swapped the writing portion out for this textbook usage this week.  

Just laying the foundations for Shakespeare with Tales from Shakespeare { Lambs }.

This book is huge, and has the complete collection.

Another huge book.  I've slipped it in under my science tab.  Just two chapters a week at this point, but we can always change it up as we go.

Yes, even text books can be used as readers - just do all the reading without having to exhaust yourself with all the busy work.  :o)  

And then a couple of times a week do a country as well:

For fun we're also including this as well, this week.

And this gorgeous collectable old time book as well.

And I think that  is pretty much what Chloe will be reading / doing this week.

Ok, let's move onto Phebe { 9 }

Saxon Math as usual { sorry no photo today }

And the writing was swapped out for this:

I just love OLD books.

From the RC list.

Good social studies reading.

From the RC list { Henty }

For science reading:

Hannah { 7 }

Saxon

And like the other girls, I swapped Hannah's writing out for work from this book as well.

I have a heap of illustrated classics - not considered RC by any means, however I like them, so we use them.  :o)  

Another children's Bible - I can't even tell you how many different children's bibles we keep, it's probably criminal and very greedy, but it makes it super easy to keep re-visiting those stories with slight variations.

Another old time GEM I managed to score along the way - Great Events and Famous People.

Today she read about the Boston Tea Party.  Tomorrow it is Paul Revere's Ride by Longfellow, yes, Longfellow - at the precocious and tender age of 7.  That is what RC does for you.  It doesn't hold you up till your old and grey - oh no sir it does not, in fact, it does the opposite, it opens the world like a rare and beautiful flower and let's you taste the honey before the bees make off with it.

And boring science - for the time being.  ha!

This week I'll be linking up with:



I hope you will join us.

Thanks for visiting!!