Over the past month we have been getting used to new realities. We can’t always find what we are looking for at the store. We are limiting how often we go out to get what we need. It is harder to find some items online to have shipped to the house. Shipments on products are delayed and not getting to us as quickly as they used to. I don’t mind these things because I know that times are not normal and everybody is doing the best they can. I am happy to have these inconveniences if it means that needed supplies are getting to someone and someplace that need their items more urgently. The extra time at home, however, allows us to use our problem solving muscles a little more and some of the solutions I come up with make me chuckle. Here’s one I would like to share with you that made us laugh at our house because...I made doggie waste bags. About the same time that states were starting to close schools and social distancing restrictions were put in place I noticed we were running low on our doggie waste bags. So, I ordered some thinking they’d get here in plenty of time...3 weeks later and they weren’t at the house and we were running out! I wasn’t too worried because we, like many, have an impressive collection of plastic grocery bags. I usually donate them to church for our food pantry to use, but with the social distancing restrictions in place and church services being televised I haven’t taken them in for a while. We have a small dog, so a whole plastic grocery bag seems overkill. I feel bad enough as it is using a small plastic doggie waste bag to pick up and throw away something so biodegradable, but I have to be a responsible pet owner! So the thought of using a WHOLE plastic grocery bag for a little dog’s needs wasn’t sitting right. I began to wonder if there was a way I could fashion more than 1 doggie waste bag out of a grocery bag. Here’s what I came up with. So, there you go! If you are low on doggie waste bags or simply want to find a good use for all of those plastic grocery bags you have laying around. Give this a try!
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Sixteen years ago I was in college and my little brother was in elementary school preparing for his First Holy Communion. My parents had to be out of town for some reason the weekend of his First Communion retreat, so I came home and went with him to this day-long sacramental preparation. During the day they showed a video called “Grandma’s Bread” that tells the story of a little boy named Mario whose grandmother passes away unexpectedly a couple days after they make Easter Bread together (13 years later, I laughed out loud as I watched the same video in a different church hall as my daughter prepared for her First Communion). At the end of the retreat that day, they sent everyone home with a recipe for Easter Bread. When I made Easter bread and brought it with me to Easter dinner at my grandparent’s house that year my Nanna smiled and told me that her grandmother used to make Easter bread and she hadn’t had it in years. That sealed the deal, a tradition was born and for the past 16 years, I have made Easter bread to go along with our family Easter meal every year. Over the years I have taken the recipe they shared at my brother’s First Communion retreat and I’ve made it my own and I am sharing it with you below. Enjoy! Ingredients: Yeast mixture: ¼ cup warm water 1 tsp sugar 2 ¼ tsp active dry yeast Dough: ½ cup sugar 1 cup scalded milk ⅓ cup butter (soft or melted) 2 beaten eggs Pinch of salt 4 cups flour** Egg Wash: 1 egg 1 tbsp water sprinkles (I typically use colored sugar sprinkles)
*Traditional Easter bread typically includes colored hard boiled eggs folded into the braids and the bread is often braided in a ring. While many recipes tell you that you don’t need to hard boil the eggs first, I have found that they sometimes are more soft boiled after baking them in the bread when raw and suggest soft boiling them before you color them if your family prefers hard boiled eggs to soft boiled eggs. **I have made this recipe using gluten free flour. The consistency of the dough when gluten free flour is used makes the dough more breakable and harder to braid. It is doable, just go slow and pinch it back together if a “dough snake” breaks. The loaf also does not rise quite as much with gluten free flour in my experience. |
My Homemaker hat
I imagined that I would be like June Cleaver, only work outside the house and maybe get caught vacuuming in heels and pearls a little less often. Turns out I'm a little more like a mix of June Cleaver and Frankie Heck...most days it feels like I've got more Frankie going on than June. I'm definitely a work in progress. :) Archives
November 2020
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