Blessed Monday - Onion Bread, Animals, Schoolwork and More

WORDS TO LIVE BY

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God;
I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever.
 I will praise You forever,
Because You have done it;
And in the presence of Your saints
I will wait on Your name, for it is good.
Psalm 52:8-9

TODAY'S QUOTE

Good timber does not grow with ease; The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.  
J. Willard Marriott

ON MY MIND

IN THE KITCHEN

Recently I've pulled my bread machine out and started using it again. I love putting in all the ingredients and then getting the rest of my work done while it makes us a loaf of bread. Here is the bread we had for dinner today. It was so good warm with lots of butter.

Onion Bread

1cup water

2 Tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup finely chopped onion

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon parsley

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon turmeric
3 cups flour

2 1/4 teaspoons yeast

In bread machine pan place ingredients in order listed. Select basic bread setting. Choose crust color or loaf setting if available. Bake according to bread machine directions. Check dough after 5 minutes of mixing; add 1-2 tablespoons of water or flour if needed.

YARD AND GARDEN

There's not much going on in the garden right now. It did not live up to my great expectations this year. There are finally some tomatoes ripening and there is a row of okra I need to pick.

There's a small apple tree in our backyard that has produced loads of apples this year. They are small, and knotty and just not very good for canning or even for eating for us but the animals love them. The rabbits also really like the chicory that grows wild wherever we let it.

ANIMAL UPDATES

Since we've started school I've taken over the morning care of the animals so Austin had more time for his studies. I enjoy having that time each morning outside.

Miss Piggy was waiting, somewhat impatiently, for me to bring her some apples.

HOMESCHOOL

Michael decided to wear his play glasses while he did his work this morning. I think they look pretty good on him.

Since the kids are working so hard I thought it was time for me to stretch my mind a little too. So I've started listening to these two books on Librivox while I work. I love the convenience of audio books and on librivox most of them are free. 

OUT AND ABOUT

We were so blessed to be able to go to a camp out in the yard of friends from church Friday evening. This is the third year they've hosted this camp out and the third year we've gone. As it turned out we were the only family that actually camped, others came for the evening and then went home for the night. 

Michael and Austin helped set up the tents. I was surprised at how well the kids slept. Michael did get up in the middle of the night and come get in the tent Doug and I had but other than that it was quiet. 

I love this big metal rooster and the ducks swimming in the pool!

There was lots of good food. There was stew, biscuits and cobbler cooked over the fire and S'mores to finish the evening. Also most people brought food along to share so there were also apples, oranges, bananas and chips.

And there were lots of kids if all ages to keep each other occupied. I'm so glad we went and I'm hoping we get to do it again next year.

AND MORE

Just a few more glimpses of Monday - bus, first cup of coffee, reviewing my schedule for the day, geese flying over, laundry on the line. What a blessed day!

READING AROUND THE WEB

3 Life-Changing Principles That Help Me Overcome Critical Attitudes

Redeeming Ruby: A Dad's Homeschool Project at The End In Mind

Sorry For Angry Texting You at When At Home

DAILY DEALS

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small compensation if you make a purchase using these links.

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LINKING HERE
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Baked Ham & Cheese Sandwiches With Homemade Bread

I love my bread machine that Doug got for me. Lately I've been using this recipe - White Bread for the Bread Machine. It's a very simple but tasty recipe and is great for butter bread and sandwiches. And it smells so good while it is baking!

Tuesday I made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch using this bread. The bread slices are bigger than a store bought loaf of bread so I used two slices of cheese and two slices of ham for each sandwich. I prepared them just like I normally would for grilled cheese sandwiches but but instead of putting them in the skillet I put them on a cookie sheet in the oven at 350 F, I turned them halfway through baking so they would be browned on both sides.  These sandwiches, served with a bowl of tomato soup were a yummy lunch.

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Mock Pot Roast and Sides

Yesterday for dinner I tried a couple new recipes as well as one of my favorite bread recipes -  Cottage Cheese Bread. The new recipes turned out wonderful but the bread was another story. I have made this recipe many times before and the end result was always a very nice loaf of yummy bread. This time when I went to open the bread machine it was stuck to the lid and had run over the sides of the pan. After letting it cool so I could wrestle it out of the pan . . .

. . . I had this. It looked strange on the outside but inside it was really light and fluffy and the flavor was good. So I'm really not sure what happened but I hope it doesn't happen again because the bread machine was a pain to clean after that.

The two new recipes I tried were Mock Pot Roast and Orange Gelatin Salad.

I made a few changes to the Mock Pot Roast recipe. I didn't have any prepared horseradish so just left it out. And I left our the peas because my family doesn't really like peas much. I thought it turned out really good. It was somewhat like meatloaf although a little drier and denser than the meatloaf I usually make. I would like to try it with horseradish as well as I think that would add a lot to the flavor.

The orange gelatin was a definite hit with my husband and oldest son and will be a recipe I use again.

I enjoy trying new recipes and I think this trial was a success.

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In the Kitchen - Making Homemade Croutons

I love to make bread with my bread machine. Freshly baked bread served with our meals has been a real hit. But we always seems to have a few slices left over that no one would eat later. I felt like I was wasting so much good food.

We also love chef salads and croutons are a necessity for a good chef salad.

So I started brousing through one of my favorite recipes sites - allrecipes.com after reading through a number of recipes decided that making croutons from the leftover bread would be pretty easy to do. Basically I simply cube the bread slices (I also use the crusts from the loaves of whole wheat bread that we buy for sandwiches), pour melted butter over the cubes, and sprinkle it all well with Italian Seasoning, and put it in the oven preheated to 350 degrees. I let them bake until they are nice and crispy and then serve them with salads. My family loves them and often just eat the croutons as a snack without any salad.