This is my Thursday –

a good book and a bit of sewing. 

And a bit of this.

And a bit of that.

Good stuff.

ON MY BEDSIDE TABLE: My favorite flashlight (for night time book reading) and my book (same as last week… I’ve only picked it up a couple of times, am 1/2 way through, but like it.)

ON MY TV:  The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

ON MY MENU FOR TONIGHT:  Chicken Sopa

ON MY TO DO LIST: Survival of the fittest today… *yawn* I don’t plan to do anything.

NEW RECIPE I TRIED LAST WEEK:  Although I was GOING to make the ham & veggies linguini last week it just didn’t happen.  I will get on that and keep you in the know. 

IN MY CRAFT BASKET:  Dreams.  Just dreams. 

LOOKING FORWARD TO:  Girls’ Weekend in November that was booked yesterday.  Just me, good friends, and my girlie.  Its gonna ROCK!

HOMEMAKING TIP OF THE WEEK:  Cleaning wipes rule my world.

FAVORITE BLOG OF THE WEEK:  NieNie Dialogues.  Some of you might remember Stephanie from her near fatal plane crash a year ago… where she suffered burns over 83% of her body.  I can’t imagine.  I am inspired by her.  I hope you are too.

FAVORITE PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Although *I* didn’t take the photo, it is my favorite of the week, hands-down. Sooo beautiful!

LESSON LEARNED FROM THE PAST FEW DAYS:  A ring is possibly in the future for a girl who lives in my house.

ON MY PRAYER LIST:  See above.

DEVOTIONS, SCRIPTURES, KEY VERSES, OR QUOTES:

Its hopeless.  I’m addicted.  I have tried to resist for far too long, but peer pressure has gotten the best of me… and I need to get my fix.

This is undoubtedly my drug of choice…

 
My machine has always been a dud, from the day I bought it.  Sad.  Really sad.  The feed dogs chew up thread and don’t like to obey… the tension is always an issue, and the balance is way off. 

Had I not been a momma w/ 4 children under the age of 7 I would have stomped back into the store and demanded justice from my purchase.  But who are we kidding?

Anyone willing to help a girl out?  Do you have a good machine that they are neglecting and willing to send me if I pay for shipping?  I dream of embroidery, quilts, and drop in bobbins. 

(I should really own this movie… I love it.)

Bread.  In the past I have been intimidated by -  bagels (w/ their bake/boil/bake),  biscotti (w/ its second baking), and Pita Bread (just because I was clueless).  But, that is no longer the case! 

I am victorious over the Pita!  Yay!

And the kids tell me – they were GOOD! They were FAST to make!  (I love that!)

The only strangeness w/ Pitas is having to bake them on a cooling rack.  Odd. 

(<— that is what mine looks like – I was able to bake 6 at a time on my rack…but its huge, filled my oven.  Yeah, its the big bertha model.)

When I saw Tammy’s recipe, I had to give it a try!

Standard recipe is written in black and my tidbits are in red.

Homemade Pita Bread

1 c. water (warm)
1 T. oil
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. sugar
3 c. flour
1  1/2 tsp. yeast

(You will also need
2 towels – one dry, one damp 
a cooling rack for baking the pitas on

I made 3 batches at one time and found that a standard bath towel was just a bit shy of covering them… I ended up w/ a dry bath and hand sized towels for the rising stage and a damp bath towel for the cooling stage.)

1. In a large bowl, combine first 4 ingredients. Add 1 cup of the flour, along with the yeast, and stir to mix. Add remaining flour and knead to make a soft dough. (Add additional flour if necessary during kneading.)

Alternately, if you have a bread machine, you can put the ingredients in the pan in the order listed and use the dough cycle. Skip to step 3 if using your bread machine!  (Oops -  this is where I quit reading and just skipped to #3 – next time I will let it rise… I put all the stuff into my Kitchenaid w/ the bread beater bar thing and just let it go… took it out and started rolling the circles.  My pitas were perfect, but probably a bit on the ‘thin’ side because I was trying to get more ‘bang for my buck’ out of them and made them larger.)

2. Put your dough into a bowl, lightly oil the top, and cover. Set in a warm place to rise, until almost double (about an hour). I like to turn my oven on for a minute or two, then turn it off, and let the dough rise in there, since our house is cool.

3. Punch dough down and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, roll each ball into a 6- or 7-inch circle.

4. As you roll the rounds, set them aside on a lightly floured counter top or table, and cover loosely with a towel. Let rise for about 25-35 minutes, until slightly puffy. (The rounds will still be thin though! )

5. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Place 2 rounds, side-by-side, onto a wire rack, such as is used for cooling things. Place rack in the middle of the oven. Bake for 4-5 minutes, until puffy and just slightly browned. (If bread is too browned, it will be dry and not pliable.) (4 min wasn’t quite enough in my oven, 5 was perfect… but keep an eye on them, you machine might run hotter than mine does.)

6. Remove rack from oven and immediately wrap/layer pita breads in a damp towel, to soften. Continue baking the remaining breads, layering them between damp towels as soon as they’re baked. Allow breads to completely cool.  (I allowed ea batch to cool while the others were baking… and then transfered them into a gallon size zip bag that I left open while they cooled the rest of the way.)

7. Cut pita breads in half, or split the top edge, and fill as desired.

8. Store pitas in a plastic zipper bag in the fridge for a few days, or place in the freezer for longer storage. To re-warm pitas, wrap them in a damp towel and then wrap in foil. Place in a warm (200-250 degree) oven for about 20 minutes.

Pitas puff while baking!  Super fun to watch for kids!  Remember though to be careful because of the high heat  – give yourself a second after opening the oven to allow the steamy heat to escape before stickin’ your face in there!

I love pitas…

We used ours for falafels yesterday.  Yum!

ON MY BEDSIDE TABLE: The Darkest Evening of the Year, by Koontz.  I found it at a yard sale this weekend for a quarter.  I would much rather buy a book at a sale than to get it at the library… I can’t stand the nagging guilt of even coming close to being late to return a book.  Works for me.

Confession – I love Koontz.  I do.  He’s a fantastic writer, I just choose to not pick out his thrillers that have a spiritual side to them.  I try not to do the hacker/slasher books either… like Intensity (I couldn’t sleep til I got to the end of the book… the ONLY book I stayed up all night to read!  ACK!  Scary stuff.)

ON MY TV: Same stack of movies, different week…

ON THE MENU FOR TONIGHT:  Ham & veggie linguine

ON MY TO DO LIST: Email broker, write a donor letter, basic cleaning, & spend so much time on Facebook that my eyes bug out.

NEW RECIPE I TRIED LAST WEEK:  Pita Bread

IN MY CRAFT BOX:

I am going to try my hand at making some personalized washer necklaces.  I love the idea of them (and I LOVE a circle necklace).

Here are a couple examples I found.  LOVE the idea!  Has anyone made them?  Have tips?  Hints?  DO TELL!

LOOKING FORWARD TO: My girl coming home… she’s been gone for a day and I miss her terribly.

HOMEMAKING TIP OF THE WEEK: Mondays are already bad… right?  Get the bulk of the week’s cleaning done on Monday and the rest of the week is smooooooth sailing.

FAVORITE BLOG OF THE WEEK:  Not So Idle Hands  She has a FANTASTIC ‘gift wrapping’ idea here. And I love the idea of her photo block puzzle.

FAVORITE PHOTO OF THE WEEK:

My fav flower from the fair (photo taken on my Blackberry)

LESSON I LEARNED FROM THE PAST FEW DAYS:  Step out of your comfort zone… you just might like where it leads you.

ON MY PRAYER LIST: My good friend Reba, who lost her grandma this week.  And my friends Dena and Megan whose grandma is failing as well.

DEVOTIONS, SCRIPTURES, KEY VERSES, OR QUOTES:

Remember when Redbook thought Faith Hill was too fat and altered her for a magazine cover?  Now Self magazine has done it with Kelly Clarkson.  Mind you Kelly is a far cry from Faith, but why? 

Honestly -This full-front photo of Kelly is horrible, there is no other way to put it.  Although she looks like she’s about 8 months pg (and all info I find says she is not pregnant at all) and she should be a candidate for TLC’s What Not To Wear, who has the right to photo-mutilate this woman?

Here is another shot of Kelly, same day – same outfit…

Lucy Danziger, editor in chief, defends the retouching on Self.com “Yes. Of course we do retouching,” she writes. “Did we alter her appearance? Only to make her look her personal best.” (emphasis mine)

Just makes me Shake.  My.  Head. 

We belittle ourselves for not being like what we see in magazines and

As much as we try here, we won’t be perfected til the Perfect comes.

Cake Mix
1 c. butter (I used 1/2 reg and 1/2 soy marg because it was what I had on hand)
2 c. white sugar
2 eggs
1 c. sour cream (eh, maybe a cup, maybe a bit more)
1/2 tsp vanilla (1/2 – 2 tsp)
2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

Filling
1/3 c flour (1/3 – 3/4 c)
1/2 c. brown sugar (1-2 c)
2 T. melted butter (1 stick)
1 tsp. ground cinnamon (1 tsp – 1 T)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch baking pan. (I don’t grease my stones and w/ all that butter in the mix – please, as if its really needed?)
2. In a large bowl, cream together 1 cup butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the sour cream and vanilla. Mix in 2 cups flour, baking powder, and salt. Spread 1/2 of batter in the prepared pan.
3. Prepare the filling: In a medium bowl mix 1/3 cup flour, brown sugar, 2 tablespoons melted butter, and cinnamon. Sprinkle cake batter with 1/2 the filling. (Guess I should have read the recipe better LOL I just dumped all the filling in)  Spread second half of batter over the filling, and top with remaining filling.
4. Bake 35 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

I hope you love it as much as my kiddos did! 

Til tomorrow.~G

ON MY BEDSIDE TABLE:  Zip.  Nada.  I suppose I should put something on there to make this answer more interesting. 

ON MY TV: Netflix & and about 5-7 stacked up movies that need to go back on the shelf.

ON THE MENU FOR TONIGHT: Creamy garlic chicken, broccoli

ON MY TO DO LIST: Get the house into ‘show worthiness’ (although no one has come but that ONE TIME!  UGH!  Wasn’t getting a broker suppose to HELP!?!?!)

NEW RECIPE I TRIED LAST WEEK: Sour Cream Coffee Cake (recipe tomorrow)

IN MY CRAFT BASKET: TONS!  I am working to get the Etsy back up and running by next Monday!

LOOKING FORWARD TO: A week of 78 – 80 degree weather. 

HOMEMAKING TIP OF THE WEEK: Have more children… if you can make it through the baby years, they become really good helpers later on. 

FAVORITE BLOG OF THE WEEK: The Eck Life  I love, love, love the creative (and frugal) things she has done to decorate her house!  Check out her hall mirror re-do, she took it from ghastly to gorgeous!

FAVORITE PHOTO OF THE WEEK:

I took this while out w/ our friends at Omsi this weekend… they are sleuthing around and trying to figure out a murder – CSI @ Omsi.  Not the best photo in the world, but I love it.

LESSON LEARNED FROM THE PAST FEW DAYS:  Apparently, when you hit the return key while blogging, it publishes what you are doing.  Weeee… whether you are done posting or not!  LOL!

And – the week doesn’t feel right and my days get shifted in my head when I don’t make it to church on Sunday.

ON MY PRAYER LIST:  Sell & find a house.

DEVOTIONS, SCRIPTURES, KEY VERSES, OR FAVORITE QUOTES: 

Summer afternoon – summer afternoon;
to me those have always been the two most beautiful
words in the English language. 
                                                      ~Henry James

My experiment with a full month’s menu really paid off in July!  I decided to give it a go for August and see if it was a fluke, or if its something I am going to make a habit.   There were only 3 days that we didn’t eat what was scheduled  (swapped for a diff day because I didn’t’ have a main ingredient, or weren’t home) -  Pretty amazing.

Here is my plan of attack for August:

8.1 – Pulled pork sandwiches, german potato salad
8.2 – Thai cucumber salad w/ chicken
8.3 – Tuna Stuffed Shells
8.4 – Breakfast dinner – asparagus quiche
8.5 – Grand paresean salad w/ chicken
8.6 – Nachos
8.7- Chili & cornbread
8.8 – Tuna casserole, green beans
8.9 – Chicken casserole
8.10 – Creamy garlic chicken, broccoli
8.11 – Breakfast dinner – chili relleno casserole
8.12 – Falafels & fruit salad
8.13 – Chicken cheese lasagna
8. 14 – Fire pit hot dogs, grandma’s baked beans
8. 15 – Tuna patties, green beans
8.16 – Chicken royale
8. 17 – Ham & veggie linguine
8. 18 – Breakfast dinner- pork steaks, eggs
8. 19 – Sweet and sour meatballs w/ rice
8. 20 – Baken potato bar
8. 21 – Greek pasta salad
8. 22 – Pizza, salad, cookies
8. 23 – Ratitoulle & home made bread
8. 24 – Chicken sopa
8. 25 – Breakfast dinner – Ham and cheese muffins, fruit
8. 26 – Grilled cheese and tomato soup – OR – BLT’s w/ soup (kid’s choice)
8. 27 – Sesame chicken strips, mashed potatoes, veggies
8. 28 – Dirty rice, broccoli
8. 29 – Chicken salad sandwiches
8. 30 – Meatloaf
8. 31 – Turkey burgers, potato salad, jello

What’s on your menu?~G