New Discoveries: Back to Basics

I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.  I have begun to embrace the country life more and more over the years and now I'm milling my own whole wheat flour and making my own bread.   Not only is it very yummy but I feel better about feeding it to my kids.  When you consider how much food these guys can eat, I believe it will really pay off in the long run.  Above is my new grain mill and below is my high powered mixer than can make BIG batches of dough at a time.  This was my Mother's Day gift and that first week my family ate 13 loaves of bread (we did have some company).  Since I've stopped buying cereal for breakfast, my family is now eating toast with eggs or oatmeal.  Add that to sandwiches for 6 people and you can see where it's all going!  I'm now going to be a regular at the bulk food Amish store nearby.

The special ingredient that really makes the bread stay soft and fresh longer is called bread enhancer.  You can buy it prepackaged (not cheap) or make your own for pennies a loaf.  It's amazing what it can do for whole wheat bread.  With my new routine, I do bake bread twice a week and the kids LOVE it!  I have to ration it or they would go through even more than we already do but I guess it would be a rather healthy snack compared to some thing we used to eat in the past.  We're really trying to reduce our white flour/white sugar consumption as a whole so this has been a big help.  Thanks for all the encouragement Kristina!

Looks delicious huh?

On a more frugal note, we began making our own laundry soap last fall and can not BELIEVE the incredible savings in cost!  I had realized the cost of laundry soap was going up quickly and I do a lot of laundry so I felt the pinch.  A friend shared this recipe with me and I've been passing it along by word of mouth.  I figure it's time to get it out there on a grander scale through my blog.  It cleans wonderfully (though it's not perfumey so if you like that, you'll want to use fabric softener), it's not hard to make and it costs just pennies a load. I found all 3 ingredients on the laundry isle at our local grocery store.   You just need a 5 gallon bucket to keep it in.  Here goes: 

LIQUID LAUNDRY SOAP

4 cups hot tap water

1 fels naptha bar of soap

1 cup washing soda

1/2 cup borax

1. Grate bar of soap into the water in saucepan and heat over low/med heat until soap is dissolved.

2. Fill a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of hot water and add melted soap, borax, and soda. Add more water to bucket until it is 2/3 full. Cover and let sit overnight to thicken.

3. Stir. Fill a used laundry container 1/2 full wtih the soap mixture and the rest of the way with water. Shake before each use, it will gel.

~Top loading machines-use 5/8 cup per load (approx 180 loads)

~Front loading machines-use 1/4 cup per load (approx 600 loads)

Doro Watt (Chicken Stew)

Here is my Ethiopian chef, Hope and her Momma Lori, my dear sweet friend. "A-wad-a-ha-low!" (I love you)

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OK, one last recipe for everyone. Doro Watt is practically the "famous" dish in Ethiopian food and a big hit with about half of our family. :) This is the second time in a week we've had this as Hope invited me over to watch her make this one from memory. All I have to do is bring the injera and that's a good deal for me. Keep in mind there is no written recipe, she just goes by what she sees and smells (which is fun to watch). After watching Hope & Spiderman devour two huge helpings, I can attest it must taste like it did "back home". Here we go....

1 medium onion, chopped

3/4 cup cooking oil (she used alot more)

Cook together on medium heat

Add 1/3 cup berbere spice (Hope uses a cup but I can tell you, it's still too spicy with this smaller amount. If you didn't get this in Ethiopia, you can buy it online or make your own)

whisk together and let it boil for awhile. This part is vague, Hope watches the sauce for the brown to turn redish. Apparently it is subtle as I didn't see a significant change but she sure got excited when she saw it.

2-3 cups water, continue boiling 5 more minutes

Next add:

4-5 lbs of skinless chicken, preferably legs (on the bone) and thighs (cut off the bone)

boil at medium heat for 15 minutes. Add:

6 whole hard bolied eggs, peeled

5 potatoes, peeled and diced

2 tsp of salt

2 cloves of garlic

Boil on medium heat for another 15 minutes

Spoon over injera and enjoy, kinda spicy!

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Now as for my unrelated comments, I have a tip for some of you. If you are adopting an older child, pray for God to bring you another family in your area (in your church is even better) who will do the same. I am still in awe of how God called Hope's family to adopt right as we were paperchasing. This journey has been so much richer sharing it with another family and knowing the kids have each other with a shared understanding. Their differences in gender and age don't even seem to matter for this. This adoption has been such a deep and wondrous experience and it is so much richer having a "mom friend" walking the joys and sorrows with me each step of the way. (For a beautiful expression of some of these ponderings, read my friend Jens post called "How can it be?") Lori has been such a gift to me and I never even thought to ask God for this. Now there are two other families at our church adding to their families from the same orphanage. ASK!

Ethiopian Shiro

If you've eaten Ethiopian food, you've probably had Shiro since it is a staple in their diet. It comes from dried, ground chickpeas. Here is the lovely cook who made our yummy shiro (vegetarian paste) and doro watt (chicken stew) for dinner tonight. I kept asking her Momma for the Shiro recipe and she told me every time, "there is none- you just have to watch her do it". Well, today I did just that and attempted to write everything down. It was truly delicious! This is my interpretation of the recipe:



boil 3 1/2 cups water
then add 1/2 cup oil and whisk together
add 3/4 cup of Shiro powder, whisk frequently and continue boiling for about 5 minutes
Add 2 teaspoons salt, 1 Teaspoon of minced garlic and 1 Tablespoon of butter.

Continue stirring over medium heat for another 5 minutes til the Shiro thickens to a thinish paste. Spoon over some injera and enjoy. Konjo!

Injera for dummies :)

This post is for my friends who are bringing home children from Ethiopia.



I was determined to learn to make injera for Spiderman in case he needed some comfort food during his adjustment to America. It sounded very intimidating when I read recipes for injera and it almost scared me off. Anyway, this is my recipe for Faux injera and to tell you the truth, both Hope & Spiderman claim they prefer it this way. It is wheat instead of teff and it is NOT fermented.

Keep in mind that I am NOT a cook, it is not my hobby or my preference to make things in the kitchen. (some of you know this) I say that so you know this really is easy or I wouldn't have made it more than once. If you want to do this, you really CAN do it. Here we go:

You will need a large skillet (preferably non-stick) and some sort of lid (mine doesn't even fit on my pan). I use a ladle but Ethiopians actually pour the batter from a pitcher.

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 cups of water, maybe more

Whisk the batter until smooth and very runny. In fact, it seems like it is too runny but the key is to keep the injera very thin, more like a crepe. See this photo.
















Heat your skillet with medium-high heat and gently coat the pan with cooking spray before each piece of injera. Pour the injera into a spiral, about 1/2 cup. This is where I thought it was tricky at first. I can't pour it spiral enough to keep it thin and joined together SO... I use the back of my ladle to spread the injera as thin as I can. Put the lid on the pan and let it cook for about 45 seconds. You can peek underneath but you don't want the bottom cooked crispy, the top is really just steamed.
















Look at this photo and you can see it isn't all cooked on top. When it is done, it will not look wet like this. Your finished injera will feel spongy and that is just right. Stack them on a plate and cover with a towel if you'll be eating soon. I usually make them early in the day and you can microwave them just fine. Wa la!

Now if you've never eaten injera before, this will give you the right texture and idea for eating but it isn't at all sour like the fermented teff version (Nat & Jen, that means it won't evoke those "memories" for you). It's really pretty good. When Spiderman came home, he liked to eat injera with his scrambled eggs (he loved eggs!). I thought it was a small gesture to show him we wanted him to feel at home.