Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Christmas Day
A few highlights.
The best stocking stuffers yet:
Unwrapping presents that have been painstakingly wrapped:
Not beer.
Check out that alignment!
No time for other gifts, must read about pokemon now:
Building your personal present pile behind you:
A brother taking true pleasure in giving a gift:
Getting the genuine Dora Backpack....complete with Map!:
Besides not allowing me to take a picture without pulling a face, seriously, he has clear eyes.
King size Kit Kats hoarded under the legs:
The first time I have truly surprised my husband:
Don't get distracted by the knife in the shoe. The point is to show that Mark can really pick a set of jammies. I LOVE them.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
The best stocking stuffers yet:
Unwrapping presents that have been painstakingly wrapped:
Not beer.
Check out that alignment!
No time for other gifts, must read about pokemon now:
Building your personal present pile behind you:
A brother taking true pleasure in giving a gift:
Getting the genuine Dora Backpack....complete with Map!:
Besides not allowing me to take a picture without pulling a face, seriously, he has clear eyes.
King size Kit Kats hoarded under the legs:
The first time I have truly surprised my husband:
Don't get distracted by the knife in the shoe. The point is to show that Mark can really pick a set of jammies. I LOVE them.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
Christmas Eve Day
The weird thing about Christmas Eve is that you think it's going to be so fun, but then you wake up and realize you have 12 hours to fill until it is actually "eve". We were supposed to spend the day delivering chocolate pretzels to friends, but there are still 8 bags of chocolate pretzels in the van, so that's how that worked out.
I just didn't want to go anywhere.
So, we made braided bread. My mom made braided bread every year when I was growing up. She wrapped it up in Saran wrap and then fold a square of wrapping paper around it and popped on a bow. Then we (the kids) delivered it to the neighbors. I love that memory.
So now I do it too. Some years I make bread for everyone (30 loaves last year). Other years I make just enough for family. This year I made one batch, which makes 6 loaves. Just enough for the 5 families that live here and one for our Christmas Eve dinner.
So here's the recipe:
Mom's Braided Bread
Scald 3 cups milk with 1/2 c butter (cut up). Do this over medium heat. In this instance, "scald" means to heat until the butter is melted in the milk.
Pour this into a BIG bowl and add 2 cups cold water. Let it cool until it feels lukewarm.
Add 1/2 c sugar and 2 Tbsp salt. Stir that until it dissolves.
Then add 4 Tbsp yeast and stir it with wisk.
Add 5 eggs, but just drop them into the mixture without whisking them first. Don't stir them in, just let them be while you let the yeast bubble...about 5 minutes.
Now start stirring in 13 cups flour. Just start stirring it. It will look gloppy. Don't worry.
Once you've got that in, put 1 cup of flour out on the table and empty your dough onto it. Start kneading and keep going until the flour on the table is a part of your dough. Get 1 more cup of flour and do this again. Just keep kneading until it incorporates in.
Now sprinkle a little flour in your bowl and plop your dough in and cover it with a dishtowel. You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl out a bit first. Whatever.
Let it rise until it doubles in size (1 hour). Then take off the cloth and punch it down. Cover it up again and let it rise for another 1/2 hour.
Sprinkle your table with some flour so it won't stick and smoosh your dough down a bit. Now take a big knife and divide it into loaves. You'll need 12 sections. I dip the sticky ends of each section in flour to keep them from sticking to stuff. Then put the dish cloth over the sections and wait 10 minutes.
Now you can start rolling each section into a long rope. The dough should hang together well.
Now do this:
Then you take the far right "arm and weave it under, over, under and then the far left one does the same thing in the other direction. It's not as hard as it sounds. Just try it. It is bread, after all, and even if you end up with a weird looking knot, it's going to rise and taste wonderful just the same.
So you should end up with this:
Put two loaves on each cookie sheet, preferably with a silpat underneath, or coat with a little cooking spray. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. I think it's best to put a sheet of tinfoil lightly over the loaves for half of that time so they won't get too brown.
When you pull them out of the oven, brush them with a little egg wash or butter. Let them cool, wrap with saran, a square of wrapping paper, and slap on a bow.
Deliver!
I just didn't want to go anywhere.
So, we made braided bread. My mom made braided bread every year when I was growing up. She wrapped it up in Saran wrap and then fold a square of wrapping paper around it and popped on a bow. Then we (the kids) delivered it to the neighbors. I love that memory.
So now I do it too. Some years I make bread for everyone (30 loaves last year). Other years I make just enough for family. This year I made one batch, which makes 6 loaves. Just enough for the 5 families that live here and one for our Christmas Eve dinner.
So here's the recipe:
Mom's Braided Bread
Scald 3 cups milk with 1/2 c butter (cut up). Do this over medium heat. In this instance, "scald" means to heat until the butter is melted in the milk.
Pour this into a BIG bowl and add 2 cups cold water. Let it cool until it feels lukewarm.
Add 1/2 c sugar and 2 Tbsp salt. Stir that until it dissolves.
Then add 4 Tbsp yeast and stir it with wisk.
Add 5 eggs, but just drop them into the mixture without whisking them first. Don't stir them in, just let them be while you let the yeast bubble...about 5 minutes.
Now start stirring in 13 cups flour. Just start stirring it. It will look gloppy. Don't worry.
Once you've got that in, put 1 cup of flour out on the table and empty your dough onto it. Start kneading and keep going until the flour on the table is a part of your dough. Get 1 more cup of flour and do this again. Just keep kneading until it incorporates in.
Now sprinkle a little flour in your bowl and plop your dough in and cover it with a dishtowel. You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl out a bit first. Whatever.
Let it rise until it doubles in size (1 hour). Then take off the cloth and punch it down. Cover it up again and let it rise for another 1/2 hour.
Sprinkle your table with some flour so it won't stick and smoosh your dough down a bit. Now take a big knife and divide it into loaves. You'll need 12 sections. I dip the sticky ends of each section in flour to keep them from sticking to stuff. Then put the dish cloth over the sections and wait 10 minutes.
Now you can start rolling each section into a long rope. The dough should hang together well.
Now do this:
Then you take the far right "arm and weave it under, over, under and then the far left one does the same thing in the other direction. It's not as hard as it sounds. Just try it. It is bread, after all, and even if you end up with a weird looking knot, it's going to rise and taste wonderful just the same.So you should end up with this:
Put two loaves on each cookie sheet, preferably with a silpat underneath, or coat with a little cooking spray. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes. I think it's best to put a sheet of tinfoil lightly over the loaves for half of that time so they won't get too brown.
When you pull them out of the oven, brush them with a little egg wash or butter. Let them cool, wrap with saran, a square of wrapping paper, and slap on a bow.
Deliver!
Shepherd's Night
I steal ideas.
I'm an idea stealer.
My sister, Lara, does a "shepherd's night" in which you eat shepherd food (Shepherd's Pie, duh!), and then sleep out under the stars (Christmas tree). So naturally we do it too.
Only, this year we opted for Shepherd's Pizza Pie....bought from the store (It was a crazy day!)
I wasn't always this practical. The first year we celebrated Shepherd's night, I made homemade stew and bought expensive bread bowls from Atlanta Bread Company. I'm fairly positive the shepherds were big on bread bowls...no dishes to wash! My little babies stared at them and said, "I don't like this". Dinner was a bust and I'm pretty sure they had cereal. I did my best to eat all the bread bowls in order to get my money's worth, but just couldn't put away 5 full bowls filled with stew in one sitting. Disappointing.
So now we have pizza and we watch a movie until they pass out somewhere in the vicinity of the Christmas tree. It's fun...and 100% shepherd approved (don't tell me shepherdesses never gave their kids froot loops...okay, wheat loops.)
I'm an idea stealer.
My sister, Lara, does a "shepherd's night" in which you eat shepherd food (Shepherd's Pie, duh!), and then sleep out under the stars (Christmas tree). So naturally we do it too.
Only, this year we opted for Shepherd's Pizza Pie....bought from the store (It was a crazy day!)
I wasn't always this practical. The first year we celebrated Shepherd's night, I made homemade stew and bought expensive bread bowls from Atlanta Bread Company. I'm fairly positive the shepherds were big on bread bowls...no dishes to wash! My little babies stared at them and said, "I don't like this". Dinner was a bust and I'm pretty sure they had cereal. I did my best to eat all the bread bowls in order to get my money's worth, but just couldn't put away 5 full bowls filled with stew in one sitting. Disappointing.
So now we have pizza and we watch a movie until they pass out somewhere in the vicinity of the Christmas tree. It's fun...and 100% shepherd approved (don't tell me shepherdesses never gave their kids froot loops...okay, wheat loops.)
Magnifying your calling
I promise you that, as a sunbeam teacher, it never once occurred to me to enlist Mark and get dressed up as Mr. and Mrs. Claus to go visit each of my sunbeams. Not once.
These two show up at our doorstep on the Monday night before Christmas and my kids were absolutely jumping up and down excited.
And if love is in the details, they brought strawberry candy canes. Strawberry! Does any 4 year old like peppermint? Megan was finally convinced to try one, fully expecting it to be "spicy". Her eyes lit up and she exclaimed, "I do love candy canes, I do!"
Also, while the others were incapable of looking at the camera, please notice Mathew. He's doing his "soccer pose". (It's like 'Blue Steel' on bended knee.) Fantastic!
Lastly, Brother and Sister Edwards are rockin their calling.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Live Nativity
For Family Home Evening we did our version of the story of Christ's birth. I say "our version" because it included 2 Marys, a very happy donkey,
And a highly dramatic shepherd/angel scene
By the time we got to the wise men, Laney was trying to beat up Megan and I had lost the reverent spirit of the narrator. It went something like this: "So then the wisemen came and gave the baby their gifts. Anybody want refreshments?"
There's always next year.
And a highly dramatic shepherd/angel scene
By the time we got to the wise men, Laney was trying to beat up Megan and I had lost the reverent spirit of the narrator. It went something like this: "So then the wisemen came and gave the baby their gifts. Anybody want refreshments?"There's always next year.
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