Why is Easter so Early?

I thought this was interesting:
Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20 this year).
This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Here's the interesting info.
This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives!
And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!).
And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier!
Here's the facts:
1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now).
The last time it was this early was 1913 ,( if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22 ,and will be in the year 2285 , (277 years from now).
The last time it was on March 22 was 1818.
So, no one alive today will ever see it any earlier than this year!

For more information about how the date of Easter is calculated, check out this article: The Astronomy of Easter

Baking Lessons: Homemade Bread

I started trying to teach the kids to bake bread. Fortunately, it went a little better for us than the Swedish Chef. They learned how to create a "sponge", but then we ran short on time and I ended up finishing the dough and kneading it in the mixer real quick because we had to leave. I guess we will just take this one step at a time. We will be baking again on Friday and I plan to let them do some kneading. That's the fun part - watching it come alive in your hands!

Here is the basic recipe we have been using:

WHEAT BREAD

6 cups flour (I use 4 cups whole wheat and 2 cups bread flour) - divided
2 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
3 tsp. yeast
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup honey
3 tsp. salt

Mix together 2 cups flour, water, and yeast. Let this sit about 10 minutes or until it gets bubbly and "spongey." (This is the sponge.)

Mix in remaining ingredients and knead until the dough becomes springy and elastic. It is hard to describe when the dough is right. You should be able to stretch the dough into a thin "windowpane" when you are done. I usually use the dough hook on my kitchenaid mixer and knead for about 10 minutes. It can also be done by hand, but it will take a bit longer.

Form dough into a ball and place in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap to rise. It needs to double in size which will take several hours.

Scrape risen dough from bowl onto a floured surface. Deflate it and press out air bubbles. Use a knife and divide dough in two. Form loaves and place into greased loaf pans. Cover and allow rise again.

After dough has nearly doubled in size bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes. When the bread it done, the loaf will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom and it will be golden brown.

Let cool in pans fo 5-10 minutes, then remove to cooling rack and let cool fully before cutting if you can wait that long. We usually lose control from the smell and cut it while it is still hot. The slices aren't as pretty, but there is nothing like eating a slice of steamy, hot bread.

Enjoy!

Wow, I'm blown away...

You have got to check out this little girl who is READING at 17 months old! I think that I find this so amazing because my little girl is the very same age and still has a very limited vocabulary. We have also faced children with very delayed reading. My oldest really struggled with reading until she was about 8 or 9 years old. Now, she is an avid reader and is reading just as well or better than her peers. Anyway, you have to see this to believe it. The parents of this little girl read to her a lot and taught her to sign from birth. These are things we have tried to do, but I am sure not to the extent of this family.

Gotta go - I better go read something to someone. ;-)

Adventures in Domesticity: Homemade Mayonnaise

We scraped the bottom of the Hellman's jar today at lunch while making tuna salad and I got the bug to try my hand at making homemade mayonnaise. As I have shared before, we have been trying really hard to eat more healthy and cheaply. I figured this might be a great way to do this. I had read a recipe in the book, "Nourishing Traditions" by Sally Fallon (which is listed in My Library down on the right side of this page). It uses olive oil. Most store-bought brands seem to use soybean oil. Since we suspect my little guy may be allergic to soy, I like the idea of having a mayo recipe that is not soy-based. I will say that unless you are big fan of the flavor of olive oil, substitute something else. We found this to seem very bitter from the oil so we added additional lemon juice and a bit of honey. That was enough to temper the flavor and we did not notice that bitterness in our tuna salad. The book says that you can substitute sunflower oil if you don't like the strong flavor of olive oil. The book is not a big fan of vegetable oil and therefore does not suggest it, but I think my basic canola oil would work just fine, too.

Homemade Mayonnaise

1 whole egg (at room temperature)

1 egg yolk (at room temperature)

1 teaspoon Dijon-type mustard

1 1/2 tablesppons lemon juice

1 tablespoon whey (optional - we didn't have any to use)

3/4 - 1 cup extra virgin olive oil or expeller-expressed sunflower oil

Generous pinch sea salt

In your food processor (we used a blender), place egg, egg yolk, mustard, salt and lemon juice and optional whey. Process until well blended, about 30 seconds. Add oil very slowly with the motor running. Taste and check seasoning. You may want to add more salt or lemon juice.

If you have added whey, let the mayonnaise sit at room temperature, well covered, for 7 hours before refrigerating. With the whey added, mayonnaise will keep several months and will become firmer with time. Without whey, it will keep for about 2 weeks.

We will continue to use this and probably try this recipe again with a milder oil. I have been trying to have the attitude of "why buy it if you can make it" when it comes to our menus. It is definitely a mental adjustment. You walk through the stores and are surrounded by processed foods. I wonder how good all of these foods filled with unpronounceable ingredients are for us. I am slowing trying to wean us away from all of this and cook from scratch using more basic staple foods. While this may require a bit more time in the kitchen, it seems to make grocery shopping simpler. I spend more time selecting fewer better-quality ingredients. Then we also suppliment with visits to a local farm stands. Just today, I swung by a farm stand on our way home from dentist appointments to get fresh eggs. They also had some locally-made, no sugar added apple syrup which was reasonably priced so bought to try on pancakes. She also had some red onions which were a bit past their prime, but what do expect in March in Indiana. I couldn't find a price, so I asked her about them. She said she was embarassed to sell them in their condition and gave me a big bag full for free! Ya' gotta love that. I am thinking that we may have to make some french onion soup for dinner. It will be cheap and oh so yummy!

Lookybook

How cool is this! I just discovered this great site with many complete picture books to read online. I was browsing around and found this one by Lemony Snicket. My kids and I love his "Series of Unfortunate Events" so I read this. Kinda of funny and educational in a bizarre kind of way. My only complaint about the site is that some of the print in the books is a bit small to read. I do have my computer's resolution set a bit high and that could be part of the issue, though. It is definitely worth checking out!

Great Inspiration

The kids and I just pages through the book "America Wide: In God We Trust" which is full of panographs (panoramic photos) by Ken Duncan. The photography is beautiful and gives you a wonderful yet brief tour of the various terrain across our country. I have to say what inspired me most in this book was in the section at the back of the book called "Photographer's Notes." Because I love taking photos myself, I really enjoyed his tips, especially this one,

"I believe there is a force at work much bigger than you or I. The
key is to tap into the Creator's power rather than your own technical
understanding, which by comparison is very limited. This is a hard pill
for many to swallow (especially'techno-heads') because people love to be in
control. Personally, I would rather be out of control. I'm just an
average photographer with a great God.
I have definitely not perfected this area of
reliquishing control, but I'm working on it. It's exciting! How
small we are and how big He is."

Wow! Couldn't that be said for many areas of life - not just photography? For example, when people find out that I have 5 kids, I often get the "So, how do you do it?" question. Many are very serious and wait expectantly for some profound wisdom to come from my mouth. Frankly, I don't have any. To be honest, some days I have no idea how I mother 5 kids and do all the things that I do. I suppose that I am just an average woman with a great God.

I found this on Ken's website: Enter the Sanctuary

Homemade Eggrolls

We attempted a new culinary experience last night. We made homemade eggrolls. It was fun and pretty easy, so we will probably be attempting it again. What made me decide to do this? I was shopping for some bean sprouts to throw in a salad and right next to them in the produce department was this package of eggroll wrappers for $1.19. I bought them on a whim. Then they sat in my fridge for several days while a contemplated what I was going to do with them and what was I ever thinking when I bought them. There was an eggroll recipe on the back of the package and I decided that I would buy the necessary ingredients next time I was at the store.

Amazingly, the whole process of making these was fairly simple. The hardest part of making the filling was cutting up all of the ingredients really small. I used a Salad Shooter for the cabbage and carrots and some kitchen shears for the chicken.

Here is the recipe:

EGGROLLS
1 lb. lean ground beef, pork chicken OR firm tofu drained and crumbled (I used chicken)
1 tsp. minced ginger
2 cups finely chopped cabbage
1/4 lb bean sprouts
1/2 cup shredded carrot
3 green onions
2 TBSP Oyster Sauce
1 pkg eggroll wrappers

FILLING:
Stir-fry meat or tofu and ginger in a wide skillet over high heat until lightly browned. (2-3 minutes)
Add vegetables and cook 2 minutes.
Stir in Oyster sauce.
Let mixture cool.

MAKING THE EGGROLLS:

Use 2 TBSP filling for each roll.
Follow folding instructions.
Deep fry at 350 degrees a few at a time, turning occasionally, until golden, 2-3 minutes.
Drain on paper towels.
Serve warm with mustard and catsup or sweet and sour sauce.

I don't have a deep fryer, but used my big cast iron skillet with about an inch of hot oil. I made some homemade sweet and sour sauce, but I won't share the recipe because I was less than thrilled with it. It tasted too strong of vinegar and didn't thicken up well. I am not sure if I messed it up or if it was the recipes fault. For now, I think I will just blame the recipe. ;-)

Assembing these babies was fun and easy. I got Elizabeth to help me and found that she is a much prettier eggroll maker. (And her egg rolls looked better that mine, too!) I followed the filling recipe rather loosely and made way too much for one package of wrappers, so I guess I will have to buy some more and do it again!

Interestingly enough, there was a recipe for Cannelloni using the eggroll wrappers inside the package. Sounds like another fun recipe to try.

I know I have been quiet for about a week. I guess I just had too much on my plate to organize my thoughts into writing. I had shared that I was overwhelmed last week with Patrick's allergies. I am feeling less overwhelmed. The no dairy thing is really not fun. I keep running into things that he can not have. At first I thought it was helping with his tummy aches, but by the last half of the week, he was still having some. Some appeared to be food related because they were during or right after eating and some were after he had spent a night in bed which makes you think that they have to do with inhalent allergies. We will continue on the no dairy for one more week and I will be thoroughly cleaning his room (again).

We got a good amount of beautiful, fluffy snow last week and I got some photos of the kids outside. Rachel had not really experienced playing in the snow and she loved it. The scrapbook page here is of Abi. She, too, has always loved snow. After her broken leg incident last year she has an ice phobia, but her affection for snow has not been diminished. Credits and details about the page can be found here.

I have spent the last couple of day creating a video for our church's Upward Basketball nd Cheerleading Awards Ceremony. Sadly, after many hours of work, I was unable to burn it to a disk and share it. I was working on my old computer (because that is where all of my files are) and it just doesn't have enough memory. I threw together a pitiful slideshow of some of the photos I had in Windows Movie Maker and that is what got played at the Awards night last night. When I have time this week, I will transfer the files to the new computer and finish the video up. At least I will be able to post it on the church's website. [Sigh] Computers! Ya' love em' but you hate 'em! It was a frustrating experience. When I get it done, at least I will get to share it with you all.