Tackle It Tuesday – Treasuring the Moments

Tackle It Tuesday #157

Elisabeth — Tue, 19 May 2009 08:27:00 +0000

This week I finally made bread – 20 loaves. I have been procrastinating this for months. I usually like to make only 10 at a time – any more than that and it seems as if the whole process drags on too long. I decided to make the extra since I was going to give away a few loaves and our family seems to be devouring a lot of bread lately.

Here is the recipe I use. I don’t have it perfected – it’s a bit crumbly. It’s definitely not sandwich bread worthy but it does make a delicious toast.

14 Grain Bread

Use your Bosch mixer if you have one. One batch of this dough yields 5 loaves.

6 cups warm water (approx. 115°F)
¨ø cup canola oil
¨ø cup honey
2 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp dough enhancer
3 cups high gluten bread flour
3 Tbsp instant yeast
6-8 cups fresh ground flour (approx. 10-11 cups of un-ground flour is enough for this recipe)
2 cups nine grain cracked cereal
1 cup sunflower seeds
¨÷ cup millet
¨÷ cup flax seed
¨÷ cup sesame seed
¨÷ cup amaranth OR
1 pkg. 14 grain mix

Use the momentary switch to mix well. Turn the machine to speed 1 and continue to add wheat flour only until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. When you can see the sides pull clean, as well as the dough coming clean from the bottom of the bowl, you know you have enough flour. Be careful not to add too much or it will cause it to be heavy and dry. The dough should be very sticky and does not come together at this point, but the bowl is clean.

Knead on Speed 1 for 8-10 minutes or until the gluten has been developed. If you feel your dough is too dry add a few tablespoons of water to moisten. If dough starts sticking, simply add a little white flour to take up the moisture.

Oil your hands, remove dough from mixer and place onto a slightly oiled counter. Divide your dough with a pastry scraper, if you have one, into 5 loaves (depends on your pan size).

Shape loaves and place in a well greased or sprayed pan. Never use oil. Cover with a dry towel and let rise until dough has doubled or is about 2 inches above the rim of the pan. Depending on the room temperature, this could take 30-60 minutes.

Bake in preheated oven at 350°F for 30-35 minutes or until the inside temp. is 200°. An instant read thermometer is very useful in telling whether your bread is done.

Cool on cooking racks before putting into bread bags. The bread can be frozen.

Yields: 5 loaves

Time to make: 1½ – 2 hours

Tackle It Tuesday #156

Elisabeth — Mon, 11 May 2009 23:33:00 +0000

This week it was all about taking something old and making it new (in a different fashion).

Take this old kitchen drawer…

It now has a new look. Still a little crowded but better.

This drawer was crying out for some attention too…

Yes, this will do just fine.

I found these inexpensive drawer organizers at Wal-M*rt.

Next up was some old shriveled grapefruits that my father-in-law gave us. A little cut with the knife and some squeezing and we had the most delicious and refreshing grapefruit juice.

How about this? Have you seen these lately in YOUR freezer??

I finally dug mine out and added still more from our fresh fruit basket. (If that’s my fresh fruit I’d hate to think what it’s like when it’s gone bad.) Thankfully, something good came out of these well ripened bananas.

To see what others tackled this week go to Tackle It Tuesday.

Tackle It Tuesday #155

Elisabeth — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:21:00 +0000

I went on a decluttering spree this week of my bedroom bookcases. I’m now less bundles of homeschooling magazines and oodles of books. What a great tackle! Normally it’s very difficult for me to part with books I own but not that day. I was on a mission and very single minded about it.

Here are just a few of the books that I cleared from my shelves. If you or someone you know would be interested, please contact me at timbuck2mom@yahoo.com. All prices include shipping.

The Philosophy of the Christian Curriculum by Rousas John Rushdoony – This book has some highlighting and underlining the first 16 pages, otherwise in very good condition. $15.00

The Language Wars and Other Writings for Homeschoolers by Ruth Beechick – This book is creased in upper right corner. Pages are clean with no writing or underlining. Very good condition. $5.00

For Instruction in Righteousness: A Topical Reference Guide for Biblical Child-Training by Pam Forster – This spiral-bound book has crease in bottom right corner. Pages are clean with no writing or underlining. Very good to Like New condition. $25.00

Encyclopedia of Bible Truths for School Subjects by Association of Christian Schools International – Name stamped inside otherwise no markings on pages. Like new condition. $45.00

Simpler Times by Thomas Kinkade – Dust Jacket has small tear on back otherwise book is in very good condition. $5.00

The Whole Hearted Child by Clay & Sally Clarkson – This book is well worn with highlighting throughout. Acceptable condition. $7.00

The Christian Mom’s Idea Book by Ellen Banks Elwell – Cover shows slight wear. Pages clean. Good to Very Good condition. $5.00

Mr. Pipes and the British Hymn Makers by Douglas Bond – Cover shows shelf rubbings. Very good condition. $5.00

When You Rise Up by R.C. Sproul Jr. – Cover shows shelf rubbings. Very good condition. $5.00

Boys and Girls Playing and Other Addresses to Young Children by John Charles Ryle – Very good condition. $5.00

Reminder – All prices include shipping.

To join Tackle It Tuesday #155 go here.

Tackle It Tuesday #152

Elisabeth — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:41:00 +0000

I think I tackled a little bit of everything this week as I’m planning for a rehearsal dinner and guests in my home for my sister-in-law’s upcoming wedding. Even so, there is one particular area that I cleaned that I will post for my tackle this week.

My coat closet. Oh, my! The good news is that even though it looks quite bad it only took about 5-10 minutes to clean up.

I think Flylady would be proud of me.

To see what others tackled this week go here.

Tackle It Tuesday #150

Elisabeth — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:21:00 +0000

I’ve been out of the tackle loop for awhile but I’m back for this week’s Tackle #150.

This week’s tackle was all about the

Kitchen

where I spend an inordinate amount of time.

First off was to juice these wonderful lemons a couple of friends gave me and freeze it for future batches of fresh lemonade. I freeze the concentrate in 1 cup portions which makes 1/2 gallon when I reconstitute it.

I think it is just great that they can grow all these lemons on their own tree. I would love to do that but we haven’t had too much success with the apple and plum trees we planted around here. Still working on it though. Can’t give up.

Baking & Picnic Food

was also part of my tackle this week. My SIL will be getting married in a few weeks. She does not want a traditional wedding cake but instead wants to have a dessert bar with a variety of tasty items. She has enlisted my help for which I feel quite honored.

So, after trial and error I finally finished up yesterday with

3 lbs. peppermint bark

92 nougatine wafers (don’t these sound fancy? they’re soo easy to make)

63 cream puffs

I made her a tasting tray with a sampling of the various things I have made so far; she was quite happy with it all.

These were my two wonderful assistants who were always so very willing to help sample. (You wouldn’t have guessed, I know.)

I also was asked to bring potato salad to a family supper we went to last night. I don’t usually make the stuff but I found two recipes online that turned out quite well.

Potato Salad by Food Network – This recipe could probably stand to be pepped up some but I thought it was good (with some more salt & pepper added as well as garlic powder & paprika).

Baked Potato Salad at All Recipes – This recipe is the one I received the most compliments on. You serve it hot and it has cheese and bacon so how can you go wrong? The cheese caused it to have quite a bit of oil on the bottom. Does anyone have any ideas on how to eliminate that problem?

That’s it folks. Now, I’ve just got to go tackle that kitchen. Eeooww!

To see what other tackles have been done this week, go here.

Tackle it Tuesday #142

Elisabeth — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:09:00 +0000

An old trunk. What treasure? What heirloom could it be holding? Oh, I must find out!

Aggghhh! What is this MESS?!

A game trunk that needs Organization. It happened one evening my little ones and some other small visitors had a lot of [choke, choke] fun seeing how many games they could pull out. Havoc was wreaked.

This has nagged me for weeks but I determined to tackle it this week. I bought a few plastic storage containers. Two big ones that will store 2 or 3 games each (depending on the size) and a smaller shoe box size one to hold card games. My thinking is that if they need a game on the bottom of the trunk it will be much easier to lift out a container holding several games instead of removing one at a time – which hardly happened. Instead games were turned on end to try and get to the bottom.

What a relief to get this job done!

To see what others have tackled this week go here.

Tackle It Tuesday #141

Elisabeth — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:54:00 +0000

My tackle this week was to get some bulk cooking done for different guests we have coming to visit. Who wouldn’t want to visit Arizona with all the sunshine and nice temperatures we have in the winter?

I decided to make lasagna. First, I had to make the sauce. Lots of onions and garlic. Good stuff.

I tried a new sauce that called for fresh and canned tomatoes. After the simmering process, I then put it through the blender to puree.

Twelve pounds of ricotta was used as well as mozzarella and Parmesan. Whoa! That’s a lot of cheese!

The finished products. Enough lasagna to feed at least 45 people.

But my tackle wasn’t over. I had to take on this. Ugh. It went pretty fast though since I had already rinsed everything out.

I know what’s on the menu for at least 2 times this month. Wanna join us?

Tackle It Tuesday #140

Elisabeth — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:10:00 +0000

I looked in this cupboard one evening and the utter untidiness of it all struck me. What a mess! This has got to change!

Hmmm, how could I improve it?

Then I had an aha moment. I remembered these little organizers I had tried to sell for $.25 at my first ever garage sale and nobody had wanted them. Thankfully – since now they would come in very handy.

Oh, yes. Muuuch better. I love it! The trays on the left are used very infrequently so it matters not that they’re stacked because when I do need them, I’ll just slide them out, choose my paper and then slide it right back in place.

A simple solution. So why did it take me so long to figure it out? No, please! Don’t answer!

To see what others have tackled this week go here.

Tackle it Tuesday #139

Elisabeth — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:07:00 +0000

Another task completed that’s been hanging over my head for probably a few years. Oh, the shame of it! But no longer!

This week I tackled a bit of mending. The binding on a quilt that my grandmother had made had came undone in an small area but had got worse since I had neglected to stitch it up promptly. I have another one that needs my attention as well, but at least this one is done!

To see what others have tackled this week go here.

Tackle it Tuesday #138

Elisabeth — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 05:40:00 +0000

I was determined to get it done – although as the deadline for Tackle it Tuesday neared I almost caved in and didn’t complete it for yet another week. What am I talking about? Two little letters – one a thank you note that’s 1 1/2 months overdue, and one an email that should have been sent 4 months ago. Talk about procrastination! I love writing on my blog. Why can’t I be timely in my letters? I don’t know but thanks to Tackle it Tuesday it is now done!!

Want to see what others have tackled this week? Go here.