The Bread

No Knead/Artisan Bread

If you've looked at my facebook page, you'll notice I've began trying my hand at bread creation but, I didn't like the way it was turning out. I swore I'd share my recipe after I had it figured out.

These are my first attempts at the no knead bread. Still delicious, but super flat. 

To my surprise, I'VE FIGURED IT OUT!

The best part about this bread is obviously how delicious it is, but also, how easy it is!

You'll need:

3 cups of flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of yeast

1 2/3 cups of water

THAT'S IT! Now the crafting portion of the bread is the hardest part.

You'll need a bowl that will hold all the ingredients. Start by adding the yeast and the warm water. (Between 100'F and 150'F) I went on to measure my salt and adding that also. The yeast is supposed to sit in the water for about 10 minutes. Then dump in the flour, be sure to use measuring spoons so you can scrape off the extra. Mix it with a wooden spoon (I'm not sure if there is anything scientific about the wooden spoon, but I've read that on many different recipes) until it's all wet. Cover with a towel and let it sit for 4 to 24 hours.

Once the dough has sat, preheat your oven to 450'F. Once it reaches temperature add your cooking vessel, empty, to the oven for 20 minutes. Most recipes recommend a dutch oven, I've been using a pot and aluminum foil.

You can turn out the dough onto a floured surface and proceed to form a ball, only by tucking the dough under until it's round. DO NOT OVER WORK THE DOUGH! It is key to not work the dough too much. I prefer to flour my hands and turn the dough in my hands while flouring the lump. Cover the dough and let it sit some more while everything is warming up.

Once the vessel has warmed and the dough has been formed stick it in the cooking vessel and cover. Bake for 25 minutes, then remove the cover and bake for another 15 minutes or until it is golden brown. (My oven averages 7-10 minutes)

I managed to ask a woman how she makes her dough, she said I should let it sit for at least 48 hours! The extra long sitting helps with fermentation and flavor, I have yet to try this. For this particular batch I used Whole Wheat Flour, rather than all purpose. Whole wheat does indeed give you a much more dense product, but it is so delicious. Top with some home made butter and chow down!!!

PS: the water temperature needs to be fairly specific. Hotter than 150'F and you'll kill the yeast, cooler than 100'F and the yeast won't activate.

When Medicine as We Know it Fails.....

A bit of a backstory.

My sister is sick, with something no doctor has diagnosed or even attempted to treat. She is up in the wee hours of the night, she struggles to function at work. The illness makes her nauseous, causes her to vomit, and have diarrhea. She has eliminated dairy and gluten in hopes her stomach suddenly decided it can not handle those items. She has been in and out of the hospital for a year with this, blood is drawn, she is sent to a specialist, none of the tests match up with their normal diagnosis, so they say there is nothing wrong and she is sent on her way, for a year now.

I didn't get into herbs to help her specifically, but she has been my guinea pig for herbal remedies, and she's usually willing to try, because, like I said, the doctors are not doing anything.

Now with all that out of the way.

I bought ginger at the farmers market and made my little sister a ginger infusion. I have frequently bought her pre-made tea packets, one time I bought a ginger peppermint tea, it had quite a bit of bite to it, but this time I bought the fresh ginger.

The ginger was approximately 4 inches long, I boiled a kettle of water and sliced the ginger. I then tossed the ginger into a clean mason jar and poured the boiling water on top, closed the lid and turned it upside down to ensure every piece of ginger was being used, then I set it on the window sill for about 3 hours (I forgot about it, whoops). Then I drained it into another mason jar. She's informed me it's really strong, but ginger is a fairly strong herb any ol' way, I'm sure the steeping time has a bit to do with it. haha

Ginger is excellent for stomach woes, nausea, upset stomach, irritable bowel syndrome, colic, and loss of appetite. 

While this may help the pain and annoyance it still doesn't solve her problem, and to be completely honest that is not very holistic of me, to treat just her symptoms, but I am not a doctor of any form. (If I was) I would most likely recommend a lot of meditation and/or possibly yoga to assist with stress that generally causes gut issues (other than parasites). However, she's a busy young lady and down time is neither here nor there.

So, all of these things aside, where is the doctor who studied medicine for many years and is an expert? Where is the doctor who studied and has been practicing for many years? Why has not one single, medical professional offered an option? Because the blood work comes back normal, because everything seems normal. Meanwhile a 19 year old has an eroding esophagus, eroding teeth (maybe not yet), swollen and inflamed intestines and can't eat without feeling ill. This is where modern medicine fails us, when every test taken looks normal so there can not possibly be something wrong. Wouldn't you agree that there is?

How many people out there are experiencing medical issues but are not being treated? Not because they chose to not utilize a doctor but because everything seems normal? Medicine has always been something I've believed in, it saved my life when I was 3 years young, and again throughout adolescence as a child with asthma. Now, I still believe in modern medicine and all the amazing technology, but I see the flaws, if it doesn't come in a pill from a scientist, it's no longer medicine. At no fault of a medical professional, but at the education that they receive. This drug helps that symptom...etc. What about the medicine that grows in our backyards, that may actually be quite helpful and less dangerous. I have never heard of a doctor referring their patient to a hibiscus flower for high cholesterol, it's usually, diet, exercise and this pill (or plethora of pills).

One more brief example and then I'll stop. My daughter was 18 months old with Hand, Foot, Mouth disease from daycare. As soon as I noticed I took her to the doctor and I remember them saying "It's a virus, there's nothing we can do, but let it run it's course" (they did give me Tylenol for her fever). Insert first time mommy panic attack. I went to the internet for treatment, which suggested Elderberry Syrup and a Probiotic, I raced to the store and picked it up, with in a few days it was gone. Of course, that's the norm for virus', to let them run their course and that's fine.

Give me your feedback!!!!

Have a wonderful fall weekend!

The Stuff

For our school day

I thought I might write a bit about what curriculum and extras we use and how we use it.

To begin with we use Abeka for reading/writing and math. It is an older version and it teaches the kids cursive handwriting, mind you, I only have the cirriculum/lesson plan books, I use the cirriculum as a guide for daily lessons.

Along with the curriculum books I received a few of the extras. I have several of the "learning to read" books, and flash cards for learning how to blend letters to form words.

I purchased this little book at Staples, it features each letter of the alphabet in uppercase and lower case as well as words. I like to rip apart work books and make copies, for reuse, because I am sure I will be using these again next year for the younger two, who don't start Pre-K until next year.

I picked this up when I picked up the curriculum (at a local used curriculum sale). This is really geared toward much older children, but we still sing the songs, tell the stories and participate in the discussion, this usually blends with our culture education (which is not as fancy as it sounds). I appreciate this book because it really does attempt to create wonderful humans.

Everything is color coded. My son (youngest), loves blue, my middle loves pink and green and my oldest loves purple. This is my son's box, and that little folder is his work for the week, separated by paper protectors, typically I try to put the days work in the front left pocket so as soon as they open their folders their work is right there.

These are the station regulators, if you will.

They're attached by Velcro so I can change things up, on Friday's there are no stations in their folders (Friday's are dedicated to review and crafts).

3 is science station

2 is math

1 is reading/writing

6 is the TV (culture class usually)

4 is their easel

and 5 is the reading station.

Eventually I will share the station set ups (and school room) you can get a small glimpse of the stations from this blog post I made. Station 5 also acts as a calm down corner, it has a lot of windows and there are calm down bottles (water bottles with glitter in them).

Thanks for taking a peak and tell me, how do you home school?