Monday, June 9, 2008

Monday Meanderings and good bread!

It is the start of a new week and I just woke up from a wonderful nights sleep. Oh how I wish I could just sleep one morning without someone or something waking me up. I wonder just how long I would sleep? :-)

Yesterday the Mattingly family was a busy brood. Hubby finished moving rock around. Bless his heart it was about 94 degrees outside and the KY humidity brought the heat index up well above that. But he made it through and got the majority of what he wanted to do with it finished. While he was doing that the oldest was swimming and the youngest was visiting her mamaw. So that gave me a few moments to get the laundry reloaded several times. Our dryer isn't working. It isn't really the dryer it is the wiring in this old house. The box that the dryer plugs into has a short. So I am hanging clothes in the basement. It doesn't bother me and in fact it is a good thing because it is forcing me to have to hang dry the clothes. Since we have our air conditioning running now that will help some on the electric bill. But we do need to get an electrition out here to work on this old wiring!

Church was good last night. You could feel the holy spirit present and all were touched. It feels good to come to the house of the Lord! The children in my Sunday school class studied Moses. There homework this week is to memorize the first three of the 10 commandments and to complete on of the coloring sheets I sent home with them. If they complete this homework they will get a coupon for a free small fry from McD's.

I have some GREAT news! I finally found a good white sandwich bread recipe! Hubby was so excited to see those white, fluffy loaves come out of the oven yesterday! I am so happy to be able to save money by baking my own bread and show my family that I love them as I pull hot loaves out of the oven several times a week. I don't know if they realize how much love goes into every kneed and roll of that precious dough! I have posted the recipe below for you in case like me you were searching for a good white sandwich bread....

2 1/2 c warm water
2 1/2 t active yeast
1 T sugar
6 - 7 c all purpose flour
1 T salt
4 T butter, very soft

Combine 1/2 c water with yeast and sugar in large bowl. Let stand until foamy (about 10 min). Add remaining water, 5 c of flour and salt to yeast mixture. Mix with a spoon, adding the remainign flour a few tablespoons at atime until the dough pulls cleanly away frm the sides of the bowl. Knead butter in until dough is smooth and not sticky. Turn dough out on lightly floured surface and continue keading for a minute or two until smooth and elastic. Shape dough into ball and place in a large lightly oiled bowl to rise until double, about 1 and 1/2 hours. Butter two 8 x 4 inch loaf pans and set aside. Place dough on lightly floured surface and divide in two equal parts. Roll out to a 9 x12 inch rectabngle. Fold 1/3 of dough down and fold again. Pinch bottom seam to seal. Turn seam side up. Fold each end over about 1/2 inch and tuck loose ends and pinch to seal. Place seam side down in loaf pan. Cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap and allow to rise. (bread will rise over top of pan) Preheat oven to 375 and bake 36-40 min. (I baked mine at 350 because my old nag of a stove cooks a little hot and I only baked it for about 15 min)

I planned my menu for the week and my household chores. I suggest tht all moms plan their menus out at leat by the week and if you are an angel food ministries family then you will want to use that plan each week and just switch up the days so as not to get bored. This week though since our angel food ministries location decided at the last minute ( literally on the day it was due ) not to do it and we missed out on our groceries for the month, we have been using this month to clean out the cupboards and the freezer. I did manage to get to a local butcher shop and buy some meat but other than that and a few perishables from Meijer, I have been trying to use up what we have. I bought a roaster at a yard sale Friday for $5 (works okay except for temperature knob and I have no idea what temp I am cooking at! But for $5 I can deal with it. - maybe one day I will be blessed with a new roaster!) and used it to cook one large chuck roast, one small one and one small pork tenderloin. They turned out very well. I took a little water and put it in the bottom of the roaster and put the roasts on the rack. Then I cut up two large onions and put them over the roasts. I took 3 large bulbs of garlic and peeled all the cloves and put them whole into the roaster. Then I took ketchup and mixed it with quite a bit of brown sugar and spooned it over the tops of the roast. I also used some savory seasoning that I got from the local Sams and put that over the roasts. They turned out quite yummy! Well anyway here is my menu and household plan for the week....

Monday -
Breakfast - leftover sausage, biscuits and gravy
Lunch - leftover macaroni and tomatoes and roast
Dinner - Roast, peas, mashed potatoes, bread and a salad (that reminds me I need to whip up a batch of ranch dressing this morning so it will be good and thick for dinner tonight!)
***clean bathrooms and do a load of laundry. Mix up overnight coffee cake and make some egg salad. General cleaning.

Tuesday -
Breakfast - bake coffee cake and serve slices for breakfast
Lunch - egg salad sandwich, chips and a slice of cake
Dinner - salad, brown gravy with cut up roast pieces served over noodles, and bread
***do a load of laundry, clean mine and hubby's bedroom (we have accumulated about three baskets of junk that I need to go through) and general cleaning

Wednesday -
Breakfast - scrambled egg and toast
Lunch - egg salad sandwich, chips and a slice of cake
Dinner - salad (if we have enough leftover lettuce), roast beef sandwiches
*** church night

Thursday -
Breakfast - toast and jam
Lunch - peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
Dinner - hotdogs and hamburgers on the grill
*** do a load of laundry, sweep and mop floors, vacuum downstairs and rugs, and general cleaning. Try to make it to Papaw's revival at his farm which is going on all week.

Friday -
Breakfast - sugar coated muffins (homemade, of course!)
Lunch - leftover hamburgers and hotdogs
Dinner - chicken strips and fries
***oldest to a friends for a sleepover bday party, finish all household chores. I am going to try to make it to Papaw's revival at his farm again tonight...

Saturday -
Breakfast - sausage, biscuits and eggs
Lunch - at church
Dinner - garlic roasted chicken, green beans and noodles with tomatoes
*** today is work day at church so we won't be back until after lunch. Then I need to make bread, make laundry detergent and fabric softener and make a batch of cookies
Also oldest has a different bday party to go to and me and youngest will tag along to this one.

Sunday-
Breakfast - bacon, homemade pancakes
Lunch/Dinner - grilled, marinated pork chops and mixed veggies
*** Church night. Make baked oatmeal for bfast tomorrow and some egg salad for lunches.

Sounds like a good menu. I will be getting low in the pantry this week so the next couple of week's menu will be interesting. I have quite a few chicken strips in the freezer so we may be having lots of those! I think there may be one more pk tenderloin down there and a package of hamburger. I know there is some frozen ground turkey and a couple of bags of chicken. So the meat won't be hard to figure out but I am down to no cans of veggies in the cupboard, no potatoes, and there may be a few small bags of veggies in the freezer. I hope one Meijer has some tossed salad on sale this week and we will have salad each night with our meal. That would be good. I am waiting on a good canned veggies sale. Then I will stock up.

Our homeschooling this week consists of several worksheets in each of the workbooks we have for the girls. The oldest also has a news story report to do, keep reading 10 pgs a day in Where The Red Fern Grows. She has spelling works again this week and she is to learn how to create an outline. The youngest will continue working on her word wall words this week and her letter writing. Each of them will also have an art project due this week.

Well I have got to sign off now and get ready for work and get the oldest up. The youngest stayed all night with Nana (a Sunday night ritual at our house). It will be a busy day at work and it will be the oldest's first day at a new sitter (the youngest's teacher). Much prayer will be put into this day.

God bless and talk to you soon!

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