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Olive Oil Crackers
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/olive-oil-crackers-recipe.html
Now this looks like a yummy treat!

Olive Oil Cracker Recipe

If you have trouble tracking down semolina flour, just substitute white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour), it will be make a slightly different cracker but should still work. To get creative with your crackers you can top them with lots of things before baking: freshly grated cheese, artisan salts, cornmeal, a dusting of your favorite spice blend, seeds, or a wash of your favorite flavored or infused oil. You can simply cut the unbaked cracker dough into various shapes using one of those pizza cutting wheels.

1 1/2 cups semolina flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

special equipment: pasta machine (optional)

Whisk together the flours and salt. Add the water and olive oil. Using a mixer with a dough hook attachment mix the dough at medium speed for about 5 - 7 minutes. Alternately, feel free to mix and then knead by hand on a floured counter-top. The dough should be just a bit tacky - not too dry, not too sticky to work with. If you need to add a bit more water (or flour) do so.

When you are done mixing, shape the dough into a large ball. Now cut into twelve equal-sized pieces. Gently rub each piece with a bit of olive oil, shape into a small ball and place on a plate. Cover with a clean dishtowel or plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 - 60 minutes.

While the dough is resting, preheat your oven to 450F degrees. Insert a pizza stone if you have one.

When the dough is done resting, flatten one dough ball. Using a rolling pin or a pasta machine, shape into a flat strip of dough - I can usually get down to the 4 setting on my pasta machine w/o trouble. Pull the dough out a bit thinner by hand (the way you might pull pizza dough). You can also cut the dough into whatever shape you like at this point. Set dough on a floured (or cornmeal dusted) baking sheet, poke each cracker with the tines of a fork to prevent puffing, add any extra toppings, and slide into the oven (onto the pizza stone). Repeat the process for the remaining dough balls, baking in small batches. If you don't have a pizza stone, bake crackers a few at a time on baking sheets. Bake until deeply golden, and let cool before eating - you will get more crackery snap.

Makes a dozen extra large crackers.

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History At Our House

History At Our House: This is a resource for Homeschoolers related to History.

Make Your Own Cloth Napkins

Make Your Own Cloth Napkins: from The Family Homestead.com

Now this is my idea of making cloth napkins! I've been spending my evening folding and ironing (something I don't usually do anyway) and find it really frustrating spending the time to make mitered corners or rolled edges.

The best part is that I can make these using old fabric I have laying around or even work shirts that are past their prime!

How To Make Reusable Sandwich Wrap/Snack Bag

Reusable sandwich bags and sandwich wraps have been a big hit in our house.  We've played with different styles and materials.  The first ones (checkered material) were made using "ziplock" bags cut down to size with velcro, and our newest style (animals) were made like fold-over sandwich bags with rip cloth nylon (un-shinny side toward food).  My family prefers the newest style just because it is easier to get into.  I've also made some of the fold-over style without the added flap at the top and this is the MOST preferred.  Since we're still trying them out, not sure if there will be any problems keeping everything in, but for the most part all seems well.

Sandwich Wraps 

Sandwich wraps were the easiest to make once I had ripstop nylon.  Again, I experimented with the design and found that I like the closure and appearance of the wraps with corners removed, but liked the easiness and full wrap of the cornered sandwich wraps.  In the end, I ended up compromising and left 2 with corners and 2 without for closure.

 The directions for creating the sandwich wraps without corners is listed below from The Green Phone Booth.

I made mine 14" as well.  Personally, I would not go any smaller than this as a nice deli sandwich would not fit well (without being squished) in anything less than 14".

The Green Phone Booth: How To Make Reusable Sandwich Wrap/Snack Bag:

From The Green Phone Booth Blog - 
Reusable Sandwich Wraps:


What you need:

• a square of plain cotton or cotton-poly fabric, 13" or 14" on each side. (The Wrap-n-mat is about 12.5"; I personally like to make them bigger, 14" is a nice size for bigger sandwiches but still works for smaller ones.
• a square of water-resistant/repellent fabric or plastic, the same size as the cotton one. I used rip-stop nylon, the kind used for making tents,, at about $6.99/yard at the fabric store, and 1 yard at 58" wide will make 8 of these. You could also probably use the stuff that backpacks are made out of.Pre-wash your fabric! I don't know what they treat these with at manufacturing. Another solution is to--no kidding--use a large cut-up ziploc bag for the inner layer. They sew fine, they wipe easily, and I'm told they even go through the wash with no problem. If you're very concerned about chemicals and don't want anything even vaguely synthetic touching your food, there are some folks who make these wraps just out of natural fabrics, without any water-repellent layer; I'd think this could get messy, depending on what kind of sandwiches you make, and/or they'd dry out fairly quickly, but YMMV.
• Sewing machine and thread
• Velcro strips (Strips, not dots. We'll explain why later.) (Important: if you're using iron-on velcro, read step 5before you sew anything!)

How to make it:

1. From each corner of your squares, cut off about a 3-inch triangle so you have a non-equilateral octagon. (Just a fancy way of saying that the main sides of the "square" will still be longer than the newly-cut-off ones. Doesn't really matter--if the symmetry appeals to you, make 'em all the same...
2. Starting on one of the long sides, sew the two fabric octagons together around seven sides, leaving one short side unsewn for turning. If your fabrics have a right side and a wrong side, you want the wrong sides out for this part. Also: these fabrics tend to be slippery, so you'll probably want to pin them together--it should be obvious, I guess, that if you're working with impermeable plastic, you don't want to poke pin holes in it or they'll be there forever!
3. Turn the wrap right-sides out. If you're less lazy than me, it would be a good idea to press them (take into consideration your non-cotton fabric--you'll need a low heat for this!) flat before the next step, and make sure all 8 of your corners are nice and crisp. For the lazy-posteriored like myself, I get a lot of mileage out of a squirt bottle of water instead, which enables a sort of faux "pressing" of seams.
4. Fold under the open edge of the octagon and sew it closed using a "topstitch" effect; continue topstitching around the entire wrap. OR: if you wish, especially if you're using a plastic layer you can't easily sew velcro onto,, you could insert the end of one of your velcro strips into the open section before stitching it closed (the "sticky" side should face the nylon-plastic layer of your wrap); that's how the Wrap-N-Mat does it. I tend to wait till it's done and put the velcro flat on the fabric.
5. At this point it's time to attach your velcro. The reason you want strips instead of dots is that sandwiches come in numerous sizes and even shapes; having some flexibility on where to close it enables you to snugly wrap sandwiches of various sizes. (This is probably the only area where the original wrap-n-mats leave me a little high and dry; I tend to make a lot of "artisan" type bread, which is generally pretty irregularly sized, and I often need more flexibility than the wrap-n-mat even gives. That's why I opt for the larger 14" wraps; it just works better for me. The Wrap-N-Mat itself is in the 12"-13" range and is folded/manufactured in a very "square sandwich" kind of way.) Hand-sewing is the way to go here. Fold your sandwich wrap closed so you can see where you want the velcro to go. Sew it in place. (Important: If you are using iron-on velcro, you need to attach the velcro to the cotton before you sew the thing together! An iron hot enough to fuse the velcro will melt your nylon!)
6. If you're giving this as a gift, here I actually would (and will) break out the iron and iron it all nice and flat and pretty.

Reusable Snack Bags

What You Need: This is actually a lot more flexible than the wraps, because you can pretty much use whatever size fabric you have, depending on what size bag you want to make. Let's just say you want a snack bag that's 5 inches wide and 4 inches high. (In the pictures, you see the one I did that's a good bit larger, because that's I suspect what my mom is more likely to find helpful--she usually does picnics for more people than just one kid's lunch!)

• a rectangle of cotton fabric that's about 11 inches high by 6 inches wide.
• a rectangle of water resistant fabric (nylon, ziploc bag parts, see above) the same size.
• velcro strips or dots. (Important: if you're using iron-on velcro, it must be attached before you sew things together, or you'll melt your nylon/plastic!)

How To Make It:

1. (optional) With the top two inches of each rectangle, cut your flap. This could be curved, decorative, or even just left as-is.
2. Assuming about a three-inch flap at the top of your bag: with right sides together, sew just around the flap. Turn right-side out and press the seam neatly. (Or be lazy like me and don't.)
3. Your nylon/plastic layer is going to be thelining of the bag: fold the bottom up so that it overlaps the bottom of your "flap" sewing section by about half an inch, with the right sides together. Sew up the sides (using the same seam allowance you did for the flap). Make sure you don't catch any of the flap stitching in these seams.
4. The cotton layer is the outer layer of the bag: fold the bottom up as in step 3 only on the opposite side; repeat side seam sewing.
5. 5. Flip the outer layer so the right side is facing out, and tuck the lining layer into it. Youshould now have what looks clearly like a snack bag only with raw edged sticking up in front. Fold these inwardly to hide raw edges, and sew across the opening to close it, and continue topstitching around the flap as well.
6. Attach velcro as desired.

You could probably vary your attachments too--I bet for either the bag or the wrap you could do a button and elastic loop, which also would leave room for varying-sized sandwiches/snacks. (This might take some experimentation; I wouldn't want to squish my sandwich!) A long elastic loop to wrap around the whole sandwich would also probably work, as would ribbon or string ties...if anyone tries this, I'd welcome info on the variations you used!

Reusable Sandwich Bags | Craft Buds

Reusable Sandwich Bags | Craft Buds:
An important item to note.... oil cloth is not considered food safe.  You can substitute the oil cloth with any of the following:

• PUL Cloth (this is used to make cloth diapers & is considered food safe)
• Rip Stop Cloth & your choice of fabric
• Ziplock bag & your choice of fabric

To wash these you can either do a quick wipe down with warm soap and water and let dry (don't soak or they will take forever to dry), or toss them into the washer & dryer (warm wash, tumble dry)

'via Blog this'

Oreo Truffles

This is a quick treat that is chocolate rich!!  It comes from Instructables.com

Ingredients
1. One 8oz package softened cream cheese
2. One 16 oz package Oreos
3. 12 oz of bittersweet baking chocolate

Other items
1. Cookie sheet
2. Waxed paper
3. Microwave safe bowl
4. Large mixing bowl
5. Wooden spoon
6. Two forks

Yield: About 30 truffles

(1)   Take all of the Oreos out of the package and crush them into fine crumbs. Include the cookie and the cream filling.

Place the cookies into a gallon sized Ziplock bag, using a rolling pin to crush them.  You may also use a food processor on low speed.

(2) Pour crumbs into a large mixing bowl.

(1) Take out 1/4 cup of the crumbs and set aside for later. 

(2) Place the softened cream cheese into the mixing bowl with the Oreos and use a wooden spoon to mix it until creamy.

(3) With your hands, take bite-sized pieces of the mixture and roll into a small ball. Place each ball on a waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

(4) When all the balls have been formed, place the cookie sheet into the freezer for about 45 minutes or until the balls have hardened.

(1) After the truffles have hardened, break up the chocolate squares, place in a microwave safe bowl, and melt according to package instructions. 

Generally this is on low power for 30 seconds at a time, stirring often.

1) After the chocolate has been melted, place one or two truffles into the bowl at  a time.

(2) Roll the balls around until they are completely covered in chocolate.

(3) Using two forks, remove one truffle at a time and replace it onto the waxed paper lined cookie sheet.

(4) Immediately sprinkle some of the remaining Oreo crumbs onto the wet chocolate.

(1) When all of the balls have been covered in chocolate and Oreo crumbs, place the cookie sheet back in the freezer for 5-10 more minutes, or until the chocolate has hardened.

(2) Remove the truffles from the cookie sheet and display on a plate for everyone to enjoy.

(Or you may want to hide them, because they tend to disappear quickly.)

5-minute Chocolate Balls

This recipe is from Instructables.com

A food processor will help you cut through this recipe in a cool five minutes or less!

·                               1 1/4 cups (120 grams) vanilla wafer cookies, shortbread, or graham crackers (about 35 Nilla brand wafers)

·                               1/2 cup (55 grams) powdered (confectioners) sugar

·                               2 tablespoons (12 grams) cocoa powder (Dutch processed or regular unsweetened cocoa powder)

·                               2 tablespoons light corn syrup

·                               1/4 cup (60 ml) COLD* liquid: juice; rum; water + rum extract (or your favorite); or whatever else you can imagine -- I did one batch with OJ and one with rum

·                               1 1/2 cups (140 grams) pecans (hazelnuts, walnuts, or almonds can be used - and toasting them beforehand makes them awesome! but will probably result in longer than 5 minutes)

·                               1/2 cup (55 grams) topping - crushed nuts, powdered sugar, cocoa powder, flaked coconut, go crazy

Makes about 2 dozen decent-sized chocolate balls.

*the liquid being cold will help the balling process and reduce or even eliminate the need to refrigerate before shaping

Pinto Bean Fudge

Mash 1 cup of warm cooked pinto beans. Add 3/4 cup melted margarine or butter, 1 cup of cocoa powder, and 1 TB of vanilla. Mix in 2 pounds (usually 1 bag) of powdered sugar gradually. Add 1 cup of chopped nuts, if desired. Pres into a 9x13 nonstick or oiled pan, and store in the fridge.

Don't let the name fool you.  If you didn't know what was in it, you would think it was just yummy fudge!  One thing to note...it is REALLY gooey.  Let it sit longer in the fridge to harden up a bit to your taste preference.

Genius Blondies

Genius Blondies

(makes 15-20 squares)

§                     1 1/2 cups chickpeas (1 can, drained and rinsed) (250g)

§                     3/4 tsp baking powder

§                     1/8 tsp baking soda

§                     heaping 1/8 tsp salt

§                     3/4 cup brown sugar*

§                     1-2 tsp vanilla extract

§                     1/4 cup ground flax (20g) (see nutrition-info link below, for substitution ideas)

§                     1/4 cup peanut butter (or other fat source) (see nutrition-info link below, for lower-cal options)

§                     optional: 1/3 cup chocolate chips (Not “optional” if you’re CCK!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend all ingredients (except chips) until very smooth. Mix in chips, and scoop into a greased (or tinfoil-lined) 8×8 pan. Bake for 38-40 minutes. You want the blondies to look a little undercooked when you take them out, because they’ll firm up as they cool, and you don’t want them to get hard. (Note: you can probably sub any white bean for the chickpeas)

§                     Calories: 74

§                     Fat: 2 grams

§                     Sugar: 6 grams

§                     Protein: 2 grams

Pinto Bean Pie

Pinto Bean Pie

·                                 1 teaspoon cornmeal

·                                 1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

·                                  

·                                 2 eggs

·                                 1 1/2 cups white sugar

·                                 1/2 cup butter

·                                 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·                                 1/2 cup pinto beans, drained

·                                 1/2 cup pecan halves

1.                            Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C.) Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of cornmeal in pie crust and set aside.

2.                            Beat eggs in a large bowl. Beat in sugar, butter, vanilla and pinto beans. Pour filling into pie shell. Place pecans decoratively on top of pie.

Bake in the preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until golden brown and filling is set.

Pinto Bean Wheat Bread

Pinto Bean Wheat Bread

1 cup bean puree made with pinto beans (you can also use reconstituted refried beans for this recipe)

1 cup lukewarm water

1 T. honey

1 pkg. active dry yeast

2 T. vegetable oil

1 t. salt

3 cups whole wheat flour

¾ to 1 ½ cups all purpose flour

In a large bowl combine water and honey, stirring to mix together completely.  Dissolve the yeast in the honey/water mixture.  Let stand until mixture appears foamy.  Stir in bean puree, oil, and salt.  Gradually add whole wheat flour, stirring occasionally.  Add all purpose flour the same way.  Mix until dough is stiff.  Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic.  (I presently do this recipe in my Bosch or Kitchen Aid mixer for about 7 to 8 minutes knead time.)  Return dough to bowl.  Spray non-stick spray on a piece of plastic wrap big enough to cover the bowl.  Place plastic wrap with the non-stick side facing down to prevent the dough from drying as it rises.  Allow dough to rise until doubled in size.  Form loaf, place it in your bread pan, and let it rise again to double in size.  (Still cover it with the sprayed plastic wrap.)  Once it’s risen, bake it at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes, or until golden brown.  Immediately remove from bread pan and allow it to cool on its side.  (Note: if you cook this in a solar oven it will not get “golden brown” but you can use the “hollow thump test” to ensure doneness.  Cooking time will take approximately 2 hours in a solar oven.)

Yum Yum Homemade Bagels!

Homemade bagel recipe

4 cups bread flour

1 Tbls sugar

1 1/2 tsps salt

1 Tbls vegetable oil

2 tsps instant yeast

1-1/4- 1-1/2 cups of warm water.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. You don't have to worry about soaking the yeast when you use instant yeast (most yeast sold these days is instant yeast). The dough should feel stiff, but add the extra water if it's really stiff, or you can't get all the dry flour incorporated.

Plop the dough down onto the counter, and knead for about ten minutes, or until the dough is uniform and smooth.

Cut the dough into 8 equal sized balls, and let rest for 10-20 minutes.

Pre heat your oven to 425.

Now, take each of the dough balls and using two hands, roll it into a little snake on the counter. When the snake is longer than the width of your two hands, wrap it around your dominant roiling hand. The dough rope should be wrapped so the overlapping ends are together at your palm, near the start of your fingers. Now take the two overlapping ends, and use your palm to squish/roll these two ends together. Once the dough is fused, you should have a perfectly circular bagel-to-be! This is the only part of the process that can take a little practice before your bagels will look really professional. Don't get discouraged if they don't look perfect, it just takes practice!

Let your bagels rest on the counter for about 20 minutes, and meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil, and grease a large baking tray lightly. You can just rub a splash of vegetable oil and rub it around.

After the 20 minute wait, your bagels will start to look puffy, and it's time to get them boiling! Add them as many at a time as you can to your boiling water without crowding them. Boil for about a minute, turn them over, and boil for another minute. Take them out a let dry for a minute and then place them on your oiled baking tray. Repeat until all the bagels are boiled.

Add the tray to the oven, and after 10 minutes, flip the bagels over, bake for another ten minutes; and they're done!

Let them cool for at least 20 minutes, get the cream cheese ready, and feast on what's got to be one of the best weekend brunch treats possible!

5 Minute Bread

Recipe for Homemade Artisan Bread 
makes 3 loaves

§                    3 cups lukewarm water

§                    1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast

§                    1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other course salt

§                    6 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour

§                    cornmeal for pizza peel (optional)

1. In a very large bowl, add your flour, yeast, and salt.

2. Pour in your water and stir until combined, just a few minutes.

3. Cover your bowl with foil or greased plastic wrap for 2-5 hours. We left it for 5 hours and it turned out just fine, yay!

4. Divide your dough into 3 loaves with a knife. Cover each loaf with flour and form it into a ball.

5. Lay onto a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat or onto a pizza stone sprinkled with cornmeal. Let this dough rest for about 30 or so minutes.

6. With a sharp knife, slash the top of each loaf into 3 lines or a criss-cross pattern. This helps let out some steam in the dough. If you don’t slash your bread, the bread will most likely make it’s own tear somewhere during cooking.

7. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees and add a small pan filled with 1 cup of water on a lower rack for a water bath. Bake for 30-35 minutes.

8. Place your baked bread on a baking rack to cool.

Once you’ve let it rise for a couple of hours, you should be able to keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks.