The most yummy and (possibly good for you) biscuits ever!

So I was having one of my (rare) health-conscious moments the other day, and I had heard a lot about how breads made with soaked grains were better for you because somehow the soaking breaks down some of the enzymes (?) and makes them easier for your body to digest...something like that. Anyway, I had a recipe and it sounded weird but I decided to try it (plus I was out of eggs...;-)

You take 2 1/2 cups of flour and mix it into a cup of plain yoghurt. Then you leave it out on the counter overnight, "soaking." I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "soak" I think of something immersed in something else - you know, kinda wet, watery, etc. Well, 2 1/2 cups of flour into 1 cup of yoghurt didn't exactly look like it was "soaking" to me. It looked more like a thick gummy sort of paste. Like when my sister and I were kids and we would "bake" by mixing flour and water until it was thick enough to roll out and then baking it in the oven...it was never very good, by the way! But don't let this description deter you - read on. I was skeptical at first too!

So anyway I left the stuff "soaking" on the counter all night, and by morning I was even more skeptical. It looked very odd, and already kind of like dough except the top had gotten a little dried out. (Note - put a wet towel over your bowl when you soak it, and that will keep the top moist.) But I thought, what the heck, I'll try to make biscuits out of it anyway. Otherwise it would be a waste of flour and yoghurt. So I kneaded in the other ingredients - baking powder, salt, then the butter, in small chunks. And I kneeded it some more and it started looking more and more like regular dough. I had to knead in some extra flour because it was too sticky at first, but that worked ok. Finally I rolled it out and cut it with the rim of a cup (because evidently I have no round biscuit cutters, only Christmas shapes and trains...) and baked them in the oven like regular biscuits. They came out, I tasted one, and WOW! They were amazing. They tasted a tiny bit like sourdough, but not really sour, and they were really nice and light and fluffy...yumm. I was so excited. And they were really very easy.

Tonight I am trying the same starter to make homemade hamburger buns. I don't know if they are actually better for you, but they sure taste good. Why don't you try soaking your own grains and making some breads? If nothing else, it will make you feel so domestic and proud of yourself! ;-) Here's the condensed version of the recipe:

1. Mix 2 1/2 cups of flour into 1 cup of yoghurt. (I use 1 cup of white whole wheat, 1 cup of spelt, and 1/2 cup of unbleached flour but you can use any combo you want. Plus I use plain, whole milk yoghurt). Cover bowl with a damp towel and leave on the counter for 12-24 hours.

2. Dust the counter with flour and turn the contents of your bowl onto the flour. Knead in 3 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add more flour as dough becomes sticky.

3. Cut up 4 Tablespoons of butter into small bits and knead that into the dough. Add flour as necessary.

4. One dough has reached proper consistancy, roll out and cut biscuits. Leave the dough fairly thick, probably about 1/2 inch.

5. Place biscuits on cookie sheets (ungreased) and bake at 425 until golden brown (about 18 minutes). Great with butter and strawberry jam!

Why are girls NEVER satisfied??

I have absolutely no reason to complain. This has been a great day for new stuff. I got a new beautiful hand me down wardrobe/armoir from my in-laws, and am getting our new couch and chair this afternoon. But, being a girl, I have to admit I stumbled on this website while checking my email and found a whole new list of "I wants"...mainly this dress:


It is SO cute...and expensive, and doesn't come in my size. But, silly me, I still want it.

Girls are just NEVER satisfied. What's wrong with us? Honestly!

BUt you should definitely check out the website - especially you, Daniella! It has some really cute dresses.

Now I will go stare at my pretty furniature and be very very grateful.

The Great Sofa Debate

Soooo....two years ago we bought a new sofa. It was a big investment, but we figured, hey, it'll last us 5-10 years at least. We bought the one I really liked, which was double-reclining and covered in microfiber. BIG mistake...on both counts...

Sooo...here we are 2 years later, with a broken sofa that is also incredible stained and ugly, and impossible to clean. Nice. Good choice, Katya. So the long and short is that we need a new sofa - if it were just ugly, we'd live with it, but it is literally falling to pieces. So we decided on a few VERY different things this time around:

1. fixed sofa - no reclining, no mechanical parts to get broken!

2. leather cover - supposedly the most durable and easy to clean surface (although it remains to be child-tested)

So we've been shopping around a lot, and we thought we wanted a La-z-Boy sofa because they have a good 5-year warranty, but I went there twice and never found one I really liked. And then we looked at Sams and found one I really like:

AND it comes with a recliner chair (see above).

I like the lines, how it looks kind of sleek and elegant and not too modern, but still generic enough that it goes with everything. The color isn't exactly right in the picture - it looks more reddish-brown in real life, which I actually like better.

And did I mention that it's about half the price of the La-z-Boy sofas? WITH the chair included. Gotta admit, that's a pretty big selling point.

There are only 2 potential drawbacks. First, it doesn't come with a warranty. And it's made in China, not the USA like the La-z-Boy sofas. Bummer. But for half price, what do you expect? We are hoping that since it has no mechanical parts to fail, it will last for a good while. And even if the leather gets ugly, we can put a slipcover over it if the structure is still intact. I don't know...after the last debacle I am kind of afraid to make a decision. I'm afraid whatever I decide will be wrong. Grrr...I hate being so indecisive. And such a chicken!

The other drawback...which could effectively end the entire debate - is that according to Sam's website, they are all out of stock. In all 3 Sam's. Which is odd because we were there yesterday and we saw at least one set in stock, aside from the display model. Hmmm....hopefully just an incongruity between the store and the website's inventory???

I guess we will go on Sat and if they have it, we shall buy it, and if not, we won't. Simple, right?

I will keep you posted.

Pilates Day #2

OW.

OW OW.

OW OW OW.

OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW OW!

I am pathetic.

BUT....I did it 2 days in a row.

It can only get better from here.

money burning a hole in my pocket...

We got our tax return on Monday (it's a long story but I won't go into it) and needless to say, we have lots and lots of things we need to do with it: remodel our bathrooms, get a new couch, replace the carpets, fix our car, etc, etc. But that night we went to Sams Club and I found one more thing I really really really want:


This beautiful arbor/archway! We have been talking about planting a rose garden along the side our our house, and what I really really want to do is buy this, plant climbing roses in the two side planters, and then get them to climb up and over the archway. I think that would look SO pretty and we could put it at the entrance to our rose garden, and it would be just beautiful. Like the rose garden at the library on Wyoming, which I love.

So I've pretty much been coveting this since Monday, in spite of the fact that we have more things to use that money for than we have money to spend.

Did I mention it's only $129???

yoghurt!

My children adore yoghurt - it's one of the few things they will always eat, even my picky 2-year old. But I hate to give them most brands of yoghurt you buy in the store, because they are so full of sugar. One 4oz container has as much as 30 grams of sugar! Yikes! Trader Joe's has a kind of Greek yoghurt that's sweetened only with fruit and fruit juices - it's really yummy, but at $1.25 a container, it gets kinda pricey.

And then I discovered a fabulous alternative that's just as good and much cheaper: I bought a large container of plain Greek yoghurt - Smiths sells a brand called Greek Gods that's really good. I then spooned out an individual serving, added slightly-thawed frozen strawberries, a dribble of honey, and a dash of vanilla. Mixed together and chopped strawberries slightly with a spoon; it tasted delicious! And it is so much better for you this way because you get to control the amount of sugar that ends up in your yoghurt. The fruit is so sweet and the yoghurt is so rich and creamy that you hardly need any honey at all - or you can forgo it altogether.

Try any kind of fruit - strawberry, mango, pineapple, blueberries, raspberries, banana, peaches, etc; you could use fresh or frozen. I like mine with chunks of fruit, so I just chop it with a spoon, but if you like it smooth you could put it in the blender. Or, if you don't have any fruit, you could use fruit juices to make it sweet and flavorful. Or you can make just plain vanilla, or honey and almond (add a drop of almond extract).

You could also put the fruit and yoghurt in an ice-cream maker and have frozen yoghurt for a summer treat!

Plus, the Greek Gods website has all kinds of recipes that you can make with yoghurt. They were right: after Greek yoghurt, I can't go back to the regular kind!

crown for a baby princess sequel

Amazingly enough, I actually followed through on something. I did get around to making Ellie's crown for Easter. And she actually wore it. And I got some great pictures of her wearing it. So, as promised, here are the pictures of my version of "Crown fit for a baby princess:"




The tulle was a little whiter than the ivory of her dress (but the ivory tulle I found was too dark), and the roses weren't exactly the right shades of pink as the shades in the roses on her dress, but still, there is only one word these pictures evoke:



AWWWWWWW!

What can I say? With such a model, you can't go wrong.

From one April Fool to another

I think April Fool's Day is really "let's exploit guillable people" day. Which doesn't work out so well for me, since I am guillable. I like to think of it as "trusting." or "honest." But really, that just means I'm credulous and others (namely, my evil husband) can turn that to their advantage. Observe:

This morning, I was awakened from a lovely sleep by my husband tearing into our room and shouting "Katya, get up!" in a panicked sounding voice. Terrified visions of bleeding, injured, and possibly dying children and trips to emergency rooms tore through my foggy brain and I sprang out of bed, only to find my husband rolling on the floor in laughter.


"I was going to say 'the house is on fire,' " he gasped out between chuckles, "but you panicked before I could even get it out. I've never seen you move that fast!"

Needless to say, I murdered him. And buried his body in the backyard. And danced on his grave. And it served him right.

You just do not mess with a mother's head about the safety of her children. Some things are sacred.