Digging out of a Winter Wonderland (Winter 2008/2009)

I just took this out my front door. It's 18 degrees out and Spokane just had the biggest overnight accumulation since the winter of 1968/1969!

Italian Pizzelles

Today I made these cookies for the first time. Read the end of the recipe to find out my story.

Italian Pizzelles
72 cookies
• 6 large eggs (I only had five today and it was fine)
• 1 cups granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup salad oil (canola oil)
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons anise flavoring or anise oil
Note: I used a full bottle of Anise flavoring and added enough (Watkins White) vanilla to make up the 3 tablespoons.
Beat eggs until thick and lemony colored. Add in, beating well the sugar and beat until thick. Beat in the oil and continue beating. Add in the flour. Add in the flavor.
Heat the pizzelle maker on stove top, or if electric plug in unit.
Drop tablespoon of batter onto iron and bake until golden light brown in color. I like mine very light.
Remove and cool on wire rack. Place cooled cookies into tin cans.
If you are using anise oil, use less than you would the flavor, as oil is stronger. But taste a few after been cooled and you can always add more flavoring as you go. I have also added a few tablespoons of cornstarch in place of some of the flour, so they stay crisp in those humid days. Hope you do try and like this heirloom recipe. Amount of cookies depends on the size you make them also. Also the batter can be covered and placed in the fridge for a few hours or overnight too.
My Story: I have a friend who used to make Pizzelles, I have a cousin who uses her grandmother's recipe. I love these light crispy, thin cookies, and I absolutely had to force myself to stop eating them. I wanted to make them myself, so I wouldn't have to beg my family and friends,but I didn't have a Pizzelle Iron. So, because I am a frugal person, I put an RSS feed onto craigslist for an iron. It took about 9-months, but finally someone had a Pizzelle Iron for sale for $25. They are normally $65. It had never been used! I snapped that right up! And I'm pretty proud of the results. My older son took most of them to a Boy Scout Court of Honor dinner tonight. I wasn't able to go, but they didn't bring any home with them. I guess someone asked if they could take the rest for their work tomorrow. That's a real compliment.
(Sure hope the chickens lay enough eggs tomorrow so I can make more.)

A Hope and A Future, Foster care and Adoption

I want to take a moment to tell you about a cause I believe in:

A Hope and A Future

My incredible husband and I were foster parents from September 2002 until September 2008. Two of our four children were placed into our home as foster children. We provided love, stability and practical care for them. We then chose to adopt them, as each of their individual cases eventually dictated and allowed. One of our children was placed into our home at three days old, and the other was placed at 3-months old.

The United States Foster care system is a cause that I believe is of vital importance; and one which needs a complete overhaul. Our current system is still not child protective. It is abuser/offender protective. I will share what I mean by that at a future date.

Foster care was our solution to the problem of placing disadvantaged children in orphanages. In the United States we place children into homes who have volunteered for this honor.

These homes are given a small reimbursement, to help compensate for the cost of housing and raising children that are not from their nuclear family. The average reimbursement for Washington State is still less than $400 per month, for food, clothing, electricity/heat, rent, diapers (if needed), etc. In addition foster children receive a one-time clothing voucher of $100. Now least you have additional information, such as law, what I am giving you is the factual reimbursement received by us for the past six years, with very little exception.

You'll notice that I use the term reimbursement. Foster parents in Washington State are not paid. Ever. They are reimbursed at less than 47% of the cost to raise one child per month. Each month 53% of the cost to raise these children are being absorbed by families who are not necessarily related to them. The majority of these families are lower middle-class families. Generally speaking, those of middle-class, and upper middle class do not typically choose to become foster parents.

Because this particular post is about A Hope and A Future, I don't want to continue to talk about the details of Foster care or adoption facts.

A Hope and A Future is a non-profit organization which helps licensed Foster and Adoptive families in Spokane and the surrounding areas. We started A Hope and A Future in order to help the families who choose to temporarily (or sometimes permanently) add these children into their homes. We seek donations of new and gently used clothing and household items for these families and distribute them to licensed Foster and Adoptive families via our once-per-month "Donation Station."

A Hope and A Future is also available to the families who adopt children, whether from the U.S. or world wide.

One of our largest community partners is Just Between Friends, in Spokane, WA and North Idaho. Your participation in one of the local JBF sales, helps A Hope and A Future.

If you want more information about A Hope and A Future, please feel free to reply to this post.

A Hope and A Future is a non-profit public charity 501(c)(3). We rely on the donations of businesses, churches and individuals in our community. Your donations are tax deductible.

GoodSearch-GoodShop for A Hope and A Future

Here's a new easy way to raise money for A Hope and A Future. Just start using Yahoo! powered GoodSearch.com as your search engine and they'll donate a penny to A Hope and A Future every time you do a search! In addition, do all of your shopping through their online shopping mall, GoodShop.com, where you can shop at more than 700 top online retailers and a percentage of your purchases will go to A Hope and a Future. You pay the same price as you normally would, but a donation goes to this wonderful cause that helps out foster and adoptive families... the entire family!

Here's the web site that will pre-select A Hope and A Future. Then you can make GoodSearch your homepage:

GoodSearch: http://www.goodsearch.com/?charityid=845670
GoodShop: http://www.goodshop.com/?charityid=845670

You can also read about GoodSearch in the NY Times, Oprah Magazine, CNN, ABC News and the Wall Street Journal.

Buttery Bread Machine Rolls

This is one of the recipes I made and took to our Thanksgiving dinner at my cousin's home.

1 cup warm milk (70 to 80 degrees)

1/2 cup butter or margarine

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1-1/2 tsp. salt

4 cups flour

2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

In a bread machine pan, put all ingredients in order suggested by manufacturer. Select dough setting.

When cycle is complete, turn dough onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 24 portions. Shape dough into balls.  Place into a greased 13X9 inch baking pan. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 15 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown.

Skillet Granola

I have made this without any additional nuts or dried goodies. It is great plain, and my kids love it as a snack any way I fix it.

2 Tbls. Olive Oil

4 cups Rolled Oats

1/2 cup Butter

1 tsp. Vanilla (or other flavoring of your choice)

4 Tbls. Honey

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup chopped Almonds (or any nuts you have/prefer)

1/2 cup dried Cranberries (raisins, blueberries and/or cherries)

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add Oats then cook and stir until starting to brown and crisp about 5 minutes. Push the Oats around in the pan and stir to combine. Cook and stir for another 5 minutes or so to make sure to coat thoroughly. Pour out onto the cookie sheet and spread to cool.

Once cool, transfer to an airtight container and stir in the "goodies." You can add about 1/2 tsp. cinnamon or nutmeg if you'd like. You can change Vanilla for Maple flavoring or add equal parts (Yummy!). This recipe is very forgiving.

I never make small batches, because I can always put additional in small bags and store in the freezer. It makes better use of my stove. I like to thaw them in the microwave, and eat while warm.

Gardening: In November?

Yesterday on Thanksgiving we got our first really hard frost. It's late this year. Even got a touch of snow. Today is a frosty day, about 32 degrees. My son just told me it's snowing lightly. I should be listening to Christmas music, baking, decorating our house for Christmas (what little room we have for decorating, that is.) So why would I be thinking about next years garden?

I am really wanting to grow a garden next year to help with our family food costs. We'd also like to see if we can sell some of our produce, locally. We've tried gardening before, and the deer eat it (duh, we live in the country. What were we thinking?) I've done container's of Tomatoes on our deck, and caught our three-year old feeding the "pretty" red ones, to our chickens. Hmm, how to explain to a three-year old that the tomatoes shouldn't be fed to the chickens just because they like them. This year, we've bought the material for an eight foot "deer/toddler fence." We bought enough (we think) to surround one of our ten acres. Not a small purchase, mind you! However, the goal is to start our landscaping tree farm and my home garden, all nicely protected from huge long-legged rats.

Now, why am I thinking so far in advance? I mean it's November after all. Good question! And the answer is, I hope just as good. I am starting a business January through April 15th. Can anyone guess? Yes, I am going to work from home through the tax season doing Personal and Business Taxes. This falls in line with my accounting degree and I am busy right now, re-familiarizing myself with current tax laws. I am working towards being busy enough that it would be a good idea to have my garden strategy all planned out before tax season starts.

So, I am attempting to have my home, berry, and herb garden plots all designed, and the seeds/plants purchased, before the tax season busyness starts. I will need to pre-plant my starts sometime mid-March, so I can't procrastinate now.

If I can figure out how, I will be posting my garden design on this blog, and you all can encourage me, and maybe help me improve.

Now before I post anything further, let me assure you that I grew up gardening, cooking, freezing, and canning homemade foods. I added dehydrating in my twenties and thirties. The only thing I am not proficient at is root cellaring, but since I don't have a root cellar it's not a problem. (I am working on that, husband is not cooperating, yet.) We will at least need a larger, cool and dark, storage room. I may need to get creative on that (under the beds?)

I got my husband out on his 1940-something Ford 9-N tractor to plow up the tree/garden space about a week ago. I am pretty excited that he did it this fall, rather than waiting until Spring. I'd still like to see some manure spread out this fall, however, I don't think I'm going to get that. So working on the compost piles of leaves, is a good start. I am asking the kids to rake up the leaves into bags, and set them next to the chicken coop. Then as the snow falls, they can spread out the leaves in the outside chicken pen. The chicken's should love to scratch around in, and poop in the leaves, and it should make some might fine compost to add to our garden in the Spring.

I am adding some links to some great websites and blogs I follow:

Garden Plans Internet Software
In My Kitchen Garden: Blog
Better Homes & Gardens: Gardening Plans

Thanks for listening!

Freedom Gardens