This is one persistent snail. Despite its house weighing it down, it continues the trek across the glass of our back door.
Hanging heavy
Author: Caryn
Gingerbread cookies
Heritage wheat wins again. I was able to go back to my favorite gingerbread cookie recipe, but make it with Heritage Wheat All-purpose flour from Sunrise Mills. They came out so nice! I do roll out my dough on parchment paper, then pop it in the fridge (because I am never patient enough to put it in the icebox for three hours). I cut out the shapes on the parchment paper, then remove the excess, so the cookies stay the right shape. By the end, I’m sick of cutouts, so roll out the remainder and use a pizza cutter to make squares. We tried buttercream frosting, but it overwhelms the cookie, and is a pain to store (no stacking!) They do go very well with cranberry jelly, or lemon icing.
Dog identity crisis
When you bark like a dog, but identify with cats.
Crescent rolls
Next on the list of things to bake with Heritage Wheat was crescent rolls. I missed these holiday staples during the 17 years of gluten exile! I tried a recipe from the internet (I should know better by now, but it had good ratings, and the reviews didn’t change the recipe, but alas), they were horrible. The whole lot went in the trash bin. The next day, after some research and soul searching, I selected a milk bread recipe from Paul Hollywood’s 100 Great Breads book. Rather than forming the loaves as in the recipe, I divided the dough in two, rolled each half into a thin circle, spread the circle with butter, and used a pizza cutter to make 12 slices. I then rolled each slice from the thick end to the tip, tucked the tip under, and placed it on parchment paper for the second proof. I baked per the recipe, and the rolls came out wonderfully! My family agreed, as the batch didn’t last long.
Binding the binder
Poster board, duct tape, webbing straps, elastic, thread, and command strips. These are the supplies that went into a new music holder on the side of my youngest’s coronet case. The previous pouch secured with command strips was fine for a music book and a couple loose sheets, but couldn’t hold up to the pressure of a binder. The poor binder hung out in the backpack, lost and forlorn during band practice. To reunite music and instrument, I built a new pouch on the side of the case out of odds and ends from around the house. The bottom of the poster board folder is secured with a strip of pink webbing, looped around the lid, sewn together at the ends, then duct taped inside the folder. The top utilizes wide elastic so it has some give and grip, also sewn together, then duct taped to the outside of the poster board. A couple more pieces of duct tape make guards to keep the binder from sliding sideways, and the command strips now have a minimal job of keeping the whole unit from sagging down the case an inch. The previous command strips removed easily from the case, and they way the new holder is constructed should leave no damage to the case when removed.
