Enjoying the Chaos

We have had such an exciting year. Visiting the 'Major Oak' Sherwood Forest where Mom and Dad got engaged  Lighthouse at Flamborough Head (read about the battle here ) Favorite Food Meeting a Bobby in London Tower of London  Resident ravens at the Tower of London check out the legend here   Follow the Raven Master on twitter  here London Bridge read about it  here   Changing of the Guard The hill from 'Princess Bride' with their cousin read more about the area here Mom and Dad also spent part of their Honeymoon in  Castleton, North Yorkshire. (A long time ago) Trying out new 'Beauty Treatments' Big Ben A Yorkshire Coalmine Houses of Parliament York Minster Stone Henge learn more from the English Heritage website  here Disney Family Reunion    Our Beach Vacation turned into an amazing science lesson seeing a large S...

This week we all got in the kitchen to make Bread Cobs. It is the kids favorite thing to do (in the kitchen). We use Nana's recipe. (We normally double this recipe and use my mixer). Bread Cob's 1 1/2 lbs Plain Flour 1 1/2 teaspn Salt 1 Tablespn Oil 2 teaspn Sugar (rounded) 5 teaspn Yeast 15 floz Milk and Water 1. Mix together and knead well (approx 10 min) 2. Cover with cling film and allow to rise until doubled (approx 1 hour) 3. Knead again (5 minutes) 4. Cut into 16 pieces and shape in circles by kneading (unless the kids are helping then whatever shape they choose) 5. Place on a greased baking sheet and cover with cling film. 6. Leave to rise again (approx 30 minutes 7. Remove cling film 8. Cook in hot oven (450 degrees) for between 12-17 minutes depending on your oven. Check for golden brown hollow sounding cobs. This time we decided on knots - Unfortunately before I got round to taking a 'after they are cooked picture' they wer...

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

My daughter was happy we had snow before Christmas. Luckily we had help to clear the driveway. Grandma helped and then Grandpa came (I had put my camera away by then). Clearing snow is always more fun with family.

We have been having a lot of fun this week. My kids have been learning how to make some of their favorite recipes. Coming from England a lot of our holiday food we took for granted now has to be homemade - from scratch. My cooking skills have seriously improved in the last 13 years. So this week we have been making Quiche, Sausage Roll, and Jam is still begging for Pork pies and scotch eggs. My husband still has to make a stop at a grocery store he passes on his drive home that luckily sells the few things we just HAVE to have that I can't make ...Branston Pickle etc...  We even have to buy Pickled Beets this year as we lost all our beets with the crazy heat this summer. (I know you can buy them stateside but I don't like sugar etc in mine). SO today we had great fun decorating Gingerbread houses. Well the easy cheat way - with Graham Crackers. Little J had fun too! especially eating the icing. Such a fun afternoon.

One of our favorite things about this season is the food. Now we love Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner as much as the next person. However if my husband and I were really honest we would say we love the left-overs of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners even more. Since we had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house this year we didn't have any Turkey leftovers so this weekend we decided to cook some of our own. My husband made some wonderful stuffing. I will have to post his recipe soon as it is wonderful with sausage, cranberries, and pecans. (I think in the US you call it dressing). We cracked open some cranberry sauce (my homemade is better but we had to make due) and... PERFECT

When my husband and I first got married and celebrated our first Christmas together. He said that he always wanted our Christmas tree to look matching and beautiful. I couldn't find a picture of our very first tree but here is one when I was expecting our first child. We were on quite a tight budget but as you can see it is very color coordinated and classic. Twenty years later our tree looks quite different covered with homemade decorations and mismatch ornaments that have special meanings. The funny thing is that my husband said this year "You know I love our tree, it's perfect!"

We spent this afternoon dropping of homemade candy to some of our friends and wishing them a Merry Christmas. We had a wonderful time. Boo and Jam did an excellent job singing 'Oh Come all ye Faithful' in Latin. (Little J even joined in). My wonderful mother in law gives them Latin lessons once a week. The amazing thing is that she lives in England and we live in the US. Yes that's right once a week my oldest children have a Latin lesson via Skype and it works wonderfully. They have even learned how to use Skype all by themselves which I think is pretty good computer skills. Their Skype account (well our special family one for the kids to use) is very limited only Nana and Grandpa and Grandma and Grandpa. They have really enjoyed their lessons and the time with Nana and Grandpa. Even Little J gets to interact with them weekly. Skype is so much better than the telephone to help children build relationships with relatives that live so far away. Just in case you are i...

I love Amish books. I don't know why but I do. In fact my local librarian would probably agree (besides school books for my kids) I normally check out some kind of Amish fiction. Maybe I am intrigued by the lifestyle I'm not sure. However my Mom love's them too so maybe I inherited it (lol). Anyway what ever the reason I recently read the book. An Amish Kitchen by Beth Wiseman, Kelly Long, and Amy Clipston I thoroughly enjoyed it. It contains three short stories that lived up to my expectations. Simple, Amish love stories...the best kind. The first book is called "A Taste of Faith" it is about a girl called Fern who I would call a 'Herbalist'. The second book is called "A Spoonful of Love" is an interesting story about forgiving ourselves. The third story "A Recipe for Hope" is about love between a mother and daughter. I found the Amish recipes included very interesting...I am going to have to try some soon. There is also some...