Cooking away!

Well, we got a lot of cooking done this weekend.  Hopefully, this will help us avoid eating out during the busy beginning part of the week.  Also, I got some of the prep work for Thanksgiving done.  HURRAY!!!





I got 3 quarts of cranberry sauce, a gallon of granola for breakfast, and simple syrup made.  We use simple syrup in place of corn syrup in recipes, since two family members are allergic to corn syrup.




I also made 4 dozen sugar cookies, 2 dozen frozen yogurt cups for snacks and breakfast, and 1 dozen deviled eggs.  Also not shown is the HUGE pot of Grandma's homemade vegetable soup.  It is sooo good and should last about 5 meals.


The kids finished their thankful wreath.  They had a lot of fun studying leaves in the past 2 weeks.  We made a fun book about leaves, and the kids had fun making leaf people.  We are working on the character trait, thankfulness, for the next few weeks. 




I can't wait until tomorrow, because we will be starting the FIAR book, Cranberry Thanksgiving.  It looks like a wonderful story, and the science projects are going to be really fun.  Can you tell I love school as much as the kids do?


The big teen did 8 hours of community service with our church youth group this weekend.  He worked at the food bank, preparing for Thanksgiving and helping build a disaster kitchen so that they would know how to make one in an emergency.  Then on Sunday after service, the teens sold food they made in the disaster kitchen to church members to help raise money for relief organizations in New Orleans.  He thought it was a really cool experience.


I have been asked how to make simple syrup ~ Combine 2 cups of sugar to 1 cup of water.  Cook on low heat, stirring often, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is clear.  Store whatever you don't use in the refrigerator.  I often make soda out of it, since all non-organic sodas have corn syrup and the organic ones are expensive.  Our fave soda is lemon-lime soda.  To make, mix 1/4 cup simple syrup to 12 oz of seltzer water and then add 3 tablespoons of lemon juice and 1 1/2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice.  Yummy!!!


While I was posting the simple syrup recipe, Duckygirl asked about the granola recipe!  LOL.  So here we go.


Combine ~

• 8 cups of oatmeal
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups honey
• 1 cup maple syrup

Mix well and spread on greased cookie sheets.  Bake at 250 degrees for about an hour.  Sometimes after an hour it doesn't seem clumpy enough ~ probably because I have too many little helpers so the ingredients aren't exact.  If this is the case, I add some more honey and stir it around in the pan and bake for 20 more minutes.  Place in big bowl and add nuts and raisins to taste.  I used 2 cups of raisins and 2 cups sliced almonds.

Blessings,
Dawn