Things have been a little mixed up here the last few weeks. Lee has been between jobs so he's been home a LOT more. This, of course, is a wonderful thing. However, he also poses as a distraction to the very new rhythms and routines the girls and I had been working on to get homeschooling underway along with our usual daily rhythms. How ever wonderful it is, it's been feeling a little, well....mixed up!
Having Daddy home means there are lots more opportunities to drop any type of plans and go on an adventure, which of course, the littles love. Seraphina would be happy to solely exist in her backpack. There are so many wonderful places to visit on the land we live on; tent platforms, streams, fairy ponds, sheep, deep woods, neighbors, and secret passages that lead from one end of the land to the other, each one rich with treasures to be discovered.
Since any type of "formal"schooling has been put on the back-burner (for now) we've been taking every opportunity we have to use as a learning experience. Such is our life, really. This is one of the reasons why I so love homeschooling....even if book work isn't accomplished I can guarantee we have all learned something wonderful, crossed paths with some beautiful people, played and laughed. Like this little moment above. We've been researching and connecting with area beekeepers because we wish to have a beehive in our midst. We dream of having one right in the center of our garden, the heartbeat of the space that produces and nourishes our bodies and souls. We hope to move a hive to our home next spring. I've found plans to make a homemade skep.....they are beautiful. Anyway, this was one of the stolen moments where accidentally we all had a lesson on bees.
Having Daddy home also means that I'm able to spend a bit more energy than usual baking and learning new techniques for our gluten free pantry. My usual crutch has been using an already mixed gluten free all purpose flour. It hasn't been my favorite to work with and the results are usually not very exciting. The taste isn't all that great and well, it's made those of us who aren't gluten free really dislike the idea of gluten free anything. As a result, I took the plunge this week and experimented with a gluten free cookie recipe that blends two different flours as it's base as well as a gluten free all purpose flour blend that I mix myself using several different gluten free flours. The *new* gluten free all purpose flour I tested with homemade cheese crackers. Each new recipe has (so far) turned out to be far superior than what we've used in the past. I now have 5 - 1/2 gallon mason jars filled with my new gluten free flours that will be the foundation of all my baking moving forward. It wasn't easy to stray from the norm. I've always been a bit nervous and unconfident when taking risks in gluten free baking, it's science after all, and I find a bit less forgiving than baking with wheat flours. Either way, it's been a very successful couple of weeks.
Who can resist a golden, buttery, cheesy cracker?
I'm sure when Daddy goes back to work we'll see more of this kind of work but for now......we'll be seeing much more of this...
and this.....
If you're interested in what recipes inspired me, I've listed the links below :) xoxo
* I did augment this a bit by adding more salt, cheese, and dry mustard. My next batch I will use a spicier cheese and a bit more salt, still! Overall, it's a really yummy cracker and I found that the crackers are done at around the 8-10 minute mark rather than 12-16 minutes that was listed in the original recipe.
how cool would it be to have homemade cheese crackers and homemade tomato soup? yum. i shall have to give those crackers a test run. thanks for the recipe links.
ReplyDeletesuch a beautiful life you all lead. :)
I've been craving tomato soup with grilled cheese. It's been getting cooler here but not quite "soup cool" if you know what I mean :) I'll keep that in mind when I finally break down and make a batch of soup xoxo I hope you are all well, love.
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