Category: cooking – er something

Cooking Adventures

One Sabbath we decided to embark on a new cooking adventure as a family: homemade bagels and cream cheese.

Since the store hasn’t carried cream cheese in over a month, I set to scouring the internet for a realistic cream cheese recipe based on our Mozambican ingredients.

The older three girls began making bagels while I researched. They’ve grown accustomed to making batter from scratch and felt confident in their ability to prep the bagels in boiling water like we do when we make homemade soft pretzels.

Then while the bagels baked, Rachael, Abi and I went to the store to buy heavy cream and UHT shelf whole milk (that’s the best shot at milk that we have here).

Upon our return, we brought the milk and heavy cream to a boil and added lemon juice to separate the curds and whey.

We used a handkerchief as a cheese cloth and squeezed out the excess whey, while pouring cold water over the curds.

On the side, we also heated up some frozen strawberries (our “worth it” big buy once a month) and mashed them as a mix-in to part of the cream cheese. We mixed it to taste at the table, leaving it a tiny bit watery (we just had to fit in all the strawberries we cooked), but full of flavor.

To the “hand mixer thing” we went for the final stage of whipping air into the cream cheese with an added dash of salt. I also put in a dash of sugar for the littles’ enjoyment. 😉

We took turns mixing the thick cream cheese, adding back in a bit of the whey (oops, we were too efficient) to make a creamier cheese spread and to give our biceps a bit of a break. Ha!

Breakfast was served some two hours later (with the store trip in there). It was a WONDERFUL little “taste of America” and it was a fun family bonding time too.

Abi even made us a peanut butter banana smoothie to top off our breakfast 🙂

We’ve discussed making bagels again during a bulk cooking day and freezing them for future spoiling opportunities. 🙌🏼 Though I’d be really happy for the store to start carrying easy cream cheese again. 😝

Now on to washing the dishes… 🤦🏽‍♀️😂

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Yom Kippur

We got the opportunity to enjoy another Biblical celebration that we observed as a part of our homeschooling.

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It was a wonderful opportunity to discuss our need for atonement and redemption as well as forgiveness from God and for each other.

We enjoyed pouring over these topics in God’s Word and sharing in encouraging and praying for each other.

 

My older girls even tried their first go at fasting while we filled our normal meal time praying and reading the Word.

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It was a meaningful observance of Yom Kippur for all.

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38 Easy Steps to Making Pumpkin Bread in Mozambique

  1. Hope to make a pumpkin pie in two years when your Mother-in-law and Father-in-law visit around Thanksgiving.
  2. After their visit, save the leftover canned pumpkin, affectionately remembering the pie you devoured.
  3. Remember the canned pumpkin randomly one day and daydream about FINALLY using your bread maker.
  4. Receive word that the only working converter is for 300 watts and under.
  5. Cross your fingers that your bread maker is 300 watts.
  6. After reading the 700 watt sticker, momentarily wonder if this is a sign of the impending end times.
  7. Sulk internally for 117 seconds.
  8. Look up a recipe online making sure to search under “the best” because of the effort you will put in and narrow your search to your limited ingredients.
  9. When your children ask if they can help, pretend that you don’t speak English.
  10. When the lightbulb comes on, also pretend not to speak Portuguese until they lose interest and stop touching all the stuff.
  11. Remind yourself that you’ll be a more encouraging, “let’s do it together” mother when it’s NOT almost kid bedtime.
  12. Wait for the heat index to barely slip below “melting of internal organs” to preheat your oven.
  13. Chuckle at the exact oven preheating degrees on the recipe while guessing what angle of the knob between on and off might possibly be 350 degrees.
  14. Sift bugs out of your flour, crop dusting your table and the remaining ingredients because of the isolating fan.
  15. DO NOT turn off the fan or this baking endeavor will instantly be over as you slip into heat exhaustion.
  16. Run out of sugar mid-mixing and retrieve the excess from the freezer where the ants can’t reach it.
  17. Crack each egg individually into a small bowl and then add it to the batter to avoid the flavor addition of “green, rotten horror”.
  18. Pound the dried cloves you found randomly at a grocery store 1.5 hours away (and paid way too much for “for such a time as this”) with a wooden mortar and pestle, guessing at a quantity that will equal 1/2 a teaspoon and spilling some on the floor while pounding too violently.
  19. Blame the floor with accusing eyes.
  20. Blend all dry ingredients together and combine them into the wet ingredients in a separate bowl.
  21. Press through the moment of realization that you will have to hand wash this eternity of dishes.
  22. Spill a little flour on the chair while stirring because the power flickers.
  23. Blame the chair with accusing eyes.
  24. Dig out two bread loaf pans.
  25. Shut a cat in the pantry.
  26. Contemplate using parchment paper in your pans.
  27. Remember that it’s a 2 day drive to replace the said parchment paper if it’s in stock or a $3,000 roundtrip ticket for a relative.
  28. Walk straight to the fridge and retrieve the butter.
  29. Move the homeschool math books aside on the table, dusting off the flour from step 14, and grease the pans with your bare hand to avoid even one more dish to wash because it’s the end of the day, people.
  30.  Wash greasy hands and test oven temperature with your face.
  31. Ten beads of sweat means it’s preheated.
  32. Two loaves go in and set a timer for three-quarters of the baking time on the recipe.
  33. Check on your loaves like a paranoid mother of a newborn at least every 2 minutes.
  34. After the fourteenth or fifteenth poke, resolve to remove the bread.
  35. Glory in the fresh smell of victory and tomorrow’s breakfast all in one.
  36. Resolve to never bake again when you turn around to the precarious mound of dishes in the sink.
  37. Remember that you don’t have any more access to pumpkin products anyway.
  38. File it away on your mental list for Stateside baking options in 15 months.

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Sabbath

This year in homeschool we are studying through history from Creation to the time of the Greeks. A part of this is studying Old Testament Celebrations and Feasts (which in many areas also correspond to Jewish celebrations/feasts).

 

Our first celebration was observing the Sabbath in accordance with Old Testament and Jewish traditions.

The week before we celebrated the Sabbath the preparations began.

We made a challah bread covering.

We made centerpiece Star of David floating candles (even cutting wick out of the center of candles so we could reuse it because you work with what you have access to).

And it was exhausting thanks to the heat index plus the kitchen heat, but we enjoyed sweating to death cooking as we prepped for the Sabbath weekend.

Then we celebrated! And it was a wonderful time of acknowledging God our Creator and Redeemer as well as understanding more fully the Old Testament observance of the Sabbath.

 

The girls are already asking to do it again. =)

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Marvelous Munchies

We “traveled” to Japan recently in homeschool studies and highly enjoyed some Japanese cuisine. 🙂

We had “cucumber sushi”, ramen noodle soup (with grated carrot, green onions and homemade veggie stock), Soy sauce corn and a Japanese jello dish.

Thank you again to all our friends and families whom have read us library books this past year’s worth of studying around the world. We have highly enjoyed learning alongside of you all. And this run through Japan we also enjoyed some YouTube videos of a little girl showing us around her Japanese apartment and breakfast preparations together. I have loved seeing the progression of “ew, that’s gross” reactions to food from some of my (once) pickier eaters to “Wow, that’s different. We should try it!”

We also enjoyed some stainglass window coloring sheets as we have studied about aspects of ocean life.

(Nevermind my handing cat window baskets [complete with cat] and their strings obstructing some of the picture views.)

It was a blast wrapping up our two weeks worth of Japanese studies. Next up? Russia, Australia and we’ll finish out the school year and our studies through the world with Antarctica. 🙂

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