graham cracker recipe

Graham Cracker Recipe

from The Prepared Pantry

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups graham flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

3/4 cups butter
1/3 cups granulated sugar
1/4 cups brown sugar
1/4 cups honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg

Sugar and butter for optional topping

1. Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.

2. With the paddle attachment of your electric mixer, beat the cold butter until it is soft. Add the sugars and continue beating. Then add the honey, extract and egg and beat until combined.

3. Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl and beat until a fairly firm dough is made. Wrap the dough in plastic and place it in the refrigerator to chill.

4. When the dough is firm enough to roll, lightly dust a countertop and a rolling pin and roll the dough 1/4-inch thick. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

5. Use a ruler to mark 3-inch squares. Cut into squares with a sharp knife using the ruler as a straightedge. Use a thin metal spatula to scrape the crackers from the counter. [Alternatively, you can use cookie cutters.] Place them on a well-greased baking sheet with a margin of space to allow for spreading. Use a fork to pierce the crackers as shown.

6. Bake the crackers for ten minutes or until the edges just start to brown. Remove them to a wire rack to cool.

These crackers are only lightly sweet. For a sweeter version, just before baking the crackers, brush the tops with melted butter. Sprinkle granulated sugar over the buttered tops.

Baker’s note: Graham flour is a whole wheat flour with lots of fiber from the wheat hull left in. You can substitute your favorite whole wheat flour if you prefer. Different wheat flours will lend a little different texture to the crackers.

what's been going on

I can't believe summer is almost over. So many plans, so little of it actually accomplished. Que sera sera! Just don't know where the time goes, and once again I find myself with just a scant 5 minutes before I need to be out the door. So, here's a little review of what's been going on... in pictures...

a trip to the circus!

my first run of fabric from Spoonflower

and this is what i did with it...

harvesting sunflower seeds

my second run of fabric from Spoonflower (i like this one MUCH better - getting a better sense of how colors will translate from my computer screen to textile)

(a bad picture... sorry... too hot to iron today)

and - in this heat - some baking... i've always wanted to make graham crackers (i cut them as circles and think that graham cracker S'more cookie sandwiches with marshmallow fluff and nutella are in our future)

Okay, this took longer than 5 minutes and now I'll be late. (but only late for the insane time keeper in my head) I just can't get over how fast the Summer went by. Didn't get nearly as much done as I had hoped. This is becoming the story of my life. The past few weeks I've been working on projects for myself - sewing shirts/pants/skirts for me, gardening and scrapbooking. I'll jump back into things to sell again soon, but for now it's fun to enjoy the fruits of my labor for myself. (the little bag I pictured up there is perfect for holding my new sketchbook)

Oh, and I've been wasting time on Facebook. Look me up if you're there. (why do I do this?)

spooky, right?

Okay, first of all, please know that every word I am about to type is completely and totally true. So... I got this cute little box-of-words for scrapbooking from my sister for my birthday. It's been sitting in a gift bag hanging by the door all of July because I kept forgetting to put it with my scrapbooking stuff. A couple Fridays ago, when I found myself out scrapping, I realized I had forgotten my fabulous box-of-words and made a note to myself to put it in my scrapbooking bag so I wouldn't leave home without it again. Today, in an attempt to tackle my seriously long to-do list, I went about retrieving the box-of-words, and what do I find when I lift the box out of the bag? I found one word left behind - the word, "vista". So unless someone (the husband) is seriously trying to creep me out, there is something strangely mysterious going on here.

I live in Vista.
I grew up in Vista.
My parents grew up in Vista.
I actually had a teacher in high school who also taught my parents and my aunt.
Yeah, small town.
A town the husband and I never imagined living in again.
But, here we are.

And, as it appears by today's discovery, it was destiny.

Strange, right?

(please note that the box-of-words claims 4500 words - out of 4500 words, "vista" ends up staring right back at me in the bottom of the bag. spooky. should i go out and buy a lottery ticket or should i go hide under the covers in bed?)

spoiled rotten

Child's Backpack
now in the Etsy Shop
*

It was a nice, lazy weekend for me. The husband took the kids to the beach, he took the kids to the museum, he took the kids out to eat. (I was spoiled rotten by the husband) I actually got some sewing done! I watched movies on hulu.com! (Have you checked out hulu yet? I love that you can watch old episodes of just about every TV show there ever was.) I even got a chance to design some more fabric to get printed up by Spoonflower. I have yet to share my first run of Spoonflower fabric. Next time.

apples

my little boy will not eat apples that are all red.

my little boy will not eat apples that are all green.

apples must be the perfect blend of red and green.

the strangest part of this story is...

the apples must also be peeled.

soul search

Pillow in the Etsy shop!

*

Continuing to update the Etsy Shop this week. (I'm completely stuck on what to draw for "J" of my ABCs - any suggestions?) I'm finding myself in the middle of a soul search today. I'm so happy for a friend of mine that just completed her final architectural registration exam - something I've yet to tackle myself. Once these munchkins are off to grade school, do I go back into architecture? If so, I should start studying and taking those exams. Do I want to really try and make a go of what I've been doing here at home (designing, sewing, painting, etc.) - take on consignments, more wholesale, a booth at a Gift Show? Big question - what do I want to be when I grow up? It's funny - a few weeks ago I decided that I was going to put as much time as I could into Out of the Box for the next year and see where that takes me. I wasn't going to allow myself to feel weighed down by those looming exams. I was going to put them out of my mind - I still have 4 years left. But now with this news, I've allowed all those concerns and all the guilt of completing all that schooling and doing nothing with the degree to lurk back in. Can you hear Pooh's sweet sigh, "oh bother" ?

don't know why this was such a tough one

*
Finally.
So much for 26 days, right?

dragging my feet

This mobile is now in the Etsy Shop. It had been hanging in the kitchen for the past month or so while I finished it up - I kept running into it because it was hanging low enough for me to finish stringing it up. About time that it's done and out of the kitchen. I'm still dragging my feet on drawing "I"nsects for my ABCs. Maybe tonight.

zippered pouches

Since I was having such a hard time coming up with subject matter for "I" in my ABCs (I think I've finally decided to go with "insect"), I decided to take a little break and work on getting some things in the Etsy shop. Over the weekend I'll be uploading my inventory of zippered pouches. Took advantage of the sunlight today and got everything photographed...

Maybe I'll also get around to drawing those insects. Have a great weekend!

hummingbird

avoid the Walmart

Took a little break from the ABCs.

I'll get back on board, but some baking was in order (this packaged-up-bit goes off to the father-in-law... I really need to bake for him more. Whenever I do, he tells me I've missed my calling in life and should be running a bakery downtown. And, I'm always inspired by the way Alexis Stewart packages up her yummies. Also impressed by how much baking she does and still manages to be rail thin - she packages up all the goodies and gives them away! Oh, I get it, more baking, less eating. Yeah, I'll have to give that a try)...

And some gardening - this glorious stem broke off from my Dill plant while watering yesterday (it looks like a fireworks explosion!)...


And then a little sewing. Was tired of fishing around for sunglasses in the bottom of my bag only to find them smudged, scratched and bent. So, voila, sunglass case...

And now, it being a Saturday and the husband out with the kids, I need to catch up and get stuff done. A schlew of toys to pick up and a trip to the Walmart. Yeah, I don't like it either. Believe me, I avoid the Walmart as much as I can. (Target rules!) The only time I'll go is when I can justify the time, energy and gas it would take to go to more than 2 other stores to get my shopping done. Unfortunately, with koi food, kitty litter, window screen parts and tortillas on my list, it will save me time, energy and gas to just hit the Walmart. So forgive me, hard working family owned shop keepers of America, but the Walmart wins today. It won't happen again, I promise.

2 hours later...
Another lovely visit to the local Walmart. It's always such a pleasant experience! First of all, I always go in and out through the garden department - it's just less depressing that way. So there's this young, punk Walmart employee yelling at the 65+ year old greeter woman because she has a shopping cart parked adjacent to the garden center gate where she trims plants while doing her "Hello! Welcome to Walmart!!!" bit. I'm always so uncomfortable with those greeters, but I'll admit that it is pretty decent of Walmart to have such positions for these retirees who probably need the money but can't really handle much more. So, this punkass is telling her it's a tripping hazard to have her cart there, and she rattles off something in Spanish to the cashier which just sends the punk employee off. "Don't talk behind my back!" Give me a break. He makes a big old stink of it, yelling, "Don't talk behind my back," the entire walk back into the store. First of all, this woman has been doing this for at least the past 4 years that I've had the pleasure of shopping at this particular Walmart and I don't think that there's been a tripping incident in that time or she wouldn't still be doing it. Secondly, she's actually doing something with the time she's working rather than walking around picking fights with co-workers. Third, she's trimming off the dead flowers/leaves and probably making these plants desirable, whereas they wouldn't sell if she didn't. Fourth, every friggin' time I go to Walmart there are ladders or carts or what-have-you sitting in the middle of the aisle from employees who have decided to take a break in the middle of stocking the shelves. Talk about a tripping hazard! So, Mr. Punk This-Is-My-Summer-Job Walmart Man, leave my Walmart greeter alone! To top all this off, while I'm unloading my cart in the parking lot (listening to a man a few cars down scream at the top of his lungs at his kids), Mr. Diesel-Truck fires up his engine right next to me while unloading his cart - presumably so the cab would be nice and cool when he got in. Thanks, I haven't had my shot of carbon monoxide yet today. Give me a break! Have you heard about a little thing called the ozone layer?!?!? As God as my witness, I will never shop at Walmart again!!! These people come out of the woodworks and they all end up at Walmart.

goldfish

*

I know I missed a day - don't think I'm trying to let that one sneak by. Some days are harder than others to squeeze in a little creative hour or two. I've finally given into something I've been tempted by for a long time... getting groceries delivered. Albertsons just dropped off all my bags of groceries and I feel like it's Christmas. TOTALLY worth the $10 delivery fee. Figure in the time it takes to get the kids motivated and ready to go shopping (making sure they both have shoes -- how many times have I ended up at the store and realized I forgot to grab shoes?), the time to strap them in and drive to the store (not to mention the gas), the time to thoroughly wipe down the grocery cart with antibacterial wipes, the time I spend putting things back on the shelves after being swiped down by little hands, the fussing and whining and screaming (the 1-year old loves to hear his echo when he screams at the grocery store), the hassle of loading up the car and strapping the kids back in before driving home... yeah, totally worth $10. That's not even mentioning the impulse buys and the snacks that inevitably end up in the cart because I always find myself shopping while hungry. I'll bet I save $10 simply by ordering only what I need and not what I get suckered into buying. Our delivery guy even played a little tune on his harmonica for the 4-year old. (it just occurred to me, I probably should have tipped the guy - how tacky of me not to tip him!)

*

Waaaaay back during the HomeGrocer.com days, I loved ordering all my groceries online. I LOVED HomeGrocer.com. I miss seeing those cute vans running around town and I wish I'd kept all my paper bags with their cute logo...

Now if only Albertsons would come pick up my re-usable grocery bags first and use those instead of plastic. That would make the whole thing perfect.

flowers

maybe

*

I guess I should have been a little more realistic in setting my goals and said straight out that weekends would not be included in "the next 26 days". Somehow, in my crazy head, I actually thought I might be able to include weekends. But, no. Too busy, too crazy, too kid-focussed. That's just where we are right now. The husband and I often reminisce on times where we'd eat when we're hungry (as opposed to, "Oh shoot! It's almost 8 o'clock and the kids haven't eaten - I guess they should have dinner... right?"), where we'd go where the wind takes us (not hindered by, "I have to go stinky poop RIGHT NOW!") and where weekends consisted of just sitting in the sun and slurping a mai tai. Sea World was a barrel of laughs yesterday, but, I think the husband and I would have had just as much fun with a pitcher of margaritas, chips + queso and a couple lounge chairs out in the backyard. Can't believe I sacrificed myself to prove to the kid that Shamu really and truly would splash everyone in the first few bleachers. That's just one demonstration of how much that little guy and I are way too much alike and often butting heads-

Him: "No, mommy, no one gets wet down there!"

Me: "Yes, sweetie, you'll get wet down there. Why don't we sit up there???"

Him: "I just want to SEEEEE if we get wet."

Me: "Ok, fine, we'll sit down there and we'll get soaked!"

Him: "Well, I just want to seeeeee if we get soaked."

Me: "Ok, you'll see..."

Instead of just giving in and saying, "Yeah, maybe you don't really get wet... how 'bout we sit up here so we can see if those guys down there get wet?" - I said, "Okay, I'll show you!" So the kid and I sit in row one, we get hit with the first wave, his little face turns to mine and it just about breaks my heart because I can see he's horrified. I swoop him up and start heading for the aisle when the second wave comes and hits me in the back. By the time we're in the safe zone, I'm drenched in killer-whale-salt-water. Nice. So maybe I'll stop being so stubborn. Maybe I'll let the kid have the last word. Maybe I'll stop feeling like I have to prove something to him. Maybe. You'd think I would have learned by now.

note to self

Woke up a little bit ago smelling popcorn and hearing what sounded like the puff-puff of a train. When I jumped up off the couch, I ran to the kitchen half-asleep exclaiming to the husband, "That sounded like a popcorn...I mean...It smelled like a choo choo...I mean...I thought that was a train!" He smiled and suggested that I go to bed. "Okay, I'll close up the house." Even though I practically tripped over the dog while rushing to the kitchen, the husband had to inform me that the dog was in and he'd lock up. "You'll probably have to wake up early anyway (the 1-year old)... why don't you just go to bed?" So, reluctantly (but not so much), because that popcorn smelled SO GOOD, I'm off to sleep. Note to self: get a big bucket of popcorn at Sea World tomorrow.