January Comes to an End

Wow, I can't believe that January is already over. Morgan's work is going well. He's still sort of getting the hang of things, so it was nice that he had a couple weeks to work without school starting this month. School has now started and it's still going to be a busy semester for him, but I think the prospect of it being the last will help us get through it. :) Here are some pictures that Moe took of his "office"

His commute is still pretty long, but it hasn't seemed as bad as it did before and I think that's because now we really feel like things are settling down and were on our way to being "done." And I know it helps that he works with some really great people that he is learning a lot from. I really feel like that Lord blessed us with this opportunity so he could be around some really experienced Dosimetrists that would help him in his career and give him the experiences he needs to pass his boards next year.

The rest of this month/week has still really been about food storage. On Saturday I went up to the church cannery and filled a pretty big order, but I think we've basically got our 3-month supply now, minus just a few things that I'll gather this next month. I've also been focusing on learning about wheat in January and have found about 10 really good recipes that we like from pancakes, cereal, cookies, and breads. Next month the goal is to get all of our emergency water supply in order and to find 10 really good bean recipes. We did finally perfect our taco soup recipe, so now I only have 9 to go!
My first attempt making whole wheat bread actually turned out really good. My mom makes really good white bread, so I called her and had to share my success story. I've really enjoyed the whole baking/cooking thing a lot more, I never thought I would, but the more successes I have in the kitchen just lead me to have a little more confidence to experiment and we've found some really good healthy things to eat with our food storage.
And this is my new favorite kitchen item, my mixer. It wasn't cheap, but so far it's been worth every penny, especially with things where I can dump in the ingredients and take care of the boys while it's mixing. It sort of feels like cheating, but hey if it lets me spend more time with the kids AND be able to prepare more homemade meals then I'm all for it! :)

Sadly I didn't take very many pictures of the boys because Morgan had the camera with him at work, but we did get this video of Damon laughing, of course he was laughing harder before we got the camera out. The boys are both getting so big and growing up so fast. Damon has his first Dr. appointment here tomorrow, so we'll see how much he's really grown.

Oooh, one final thing. I know that I already posted a recipe this week, but I ran out of wheat flour, so I ground up a whole bunch for this week and decided to try a cookie recipe today: Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles and they were soooo good that I can't keep the recipe to myself. I actually like them better than regular snickerdoodles, I think they have a richer flavor...anyway, here's the recipe:

WHOLE WHEAT SNICKERDOODLES

1/2 cup butter (I always use the butter flavored Crisco for cookies, I think it tastes best and it can be stored in the pantry)

3/4 packed brown sugar

1 egg (I'm all about the powdered eggs these days, 1 egg = 1 TB egg powder + 2 TB water..and you don't have to mix those together before dumping it in just put in both ingredients at the same time)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

**2 TB sugar + 1/2 tsp cinnamon for the mixture you roll it in.

I doubled the recipe because cookie recipes do better in the mixer with more volume and because we really like cookies and they're easy to give away if you make too many. :)

1. Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla. Beat well. Add dry ingredients

2. Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten slightly with a drinking glass (I only did that on the last couple batches and I don't really think it made too big of a difference)

3. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes (I always do the shorter cooking time because we like our cookies soft and a little doughy)

These were quick, easy, and delicious AND have the added benefit of wheat AND all the ingredients were things that can be stored in the pantry and are perfect for food storage....oh yeah, I did get the recipe from allrecipes.com so I should thank them too. :)