Amish Friendship Bread

I was recently given a couple of "starters" for this bread and it is REALLY yummy! I found a recipe for the starter on AllRecipes.com and thought I would share the recipe for this delicious treat with you...

Amish Friendship Bread Starter:

• 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
• 3 cups white sugar, divided
• 3 cups milk

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or flour will lump when milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Pour into a gallon-size plastic ziplock bag. Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Do not refrigerate. Continue with directions below:

Amish Friendship Bread

Do not use any type of metal spoon or bowl for mixing (the metal will kill the yeast). Do not refrigerate. It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment. Each day you mash the bag, also let out excess air.

Day 1: Do nothing. (This is the day you receive the batter. The bag is dated.)

Day 2: Mash the bag.

Day 3: Mash the bag.

Day 4: Mash the bag

Day 5: Mash the bag.

Day 6: Add to the bag 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Mash the bag.

Day 7: Mash the bag.

Day 8: Mash the bag.

Day 9: Mash the bag.

Day 10: Do the following…

1) Pour the contents of bag into a non-metallic bowl. Add 1 ½ cups flour, 1 ½ cups sugar, and 1 ½ cups milk. Stir until smooth.

2) Measure out 4 separate batters of 1 cup each into ziplock bags (1 gallon size). Label the bag with the date (this is “Day 1” above). Keep a starter for yourself and give the others to 3 friends along with a copy of this recipe. (Note: if you keep a starter, you will be baking every 10 days.)

Baking Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

2) Add to the remaining batter:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

2 tsp cinnamon

1 ½ tsp baking powder

½ cup milk

½ tsp salt

1 cup oil OR ½ cup applesauce + ½ cup oil

½ tsp vanilla

½ tsp baking soda

2 cups flour

1 large box instant vanilla, chocolate or banana cream pudding (5 oz size)

3) Mix 1/2 cup sugar with 1 1/5 tsp cinnamon in a small bowl.

4) Grease 2 large loaf pans. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon / sugar mixture in the pans.

5) Pour the batter evenly into the two loaf pans. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon / sugar mixture evenly over the top.

6) Bake for one hour. Cool until bread loosens from the sides of pan. Enjoy!

Note: You can freeze the starter. Just be sure to label which day it is on so you'll know where you left off when you want to use it. Give it at least 3 hours on the counter to defrost and come to room temperature before you use it.

Filtering the Dust...

My house is constantly dusty, and I know it comes from the central air conditioning / heating system. But I learned of a way of "filtering" the air as it comes from the vents and keeping your house a bit more dust-free (and allergen-free). You should always purchase a good-quality filter for your system and replace it regularly, as your unit recommends. The dirtier it gets, the more dust it will blow around your house (yuck). Then, use a piece of cheesecloth under the vents to filter the air before it blows into your house. Pull the register out, stretch a piece of cheesecloth over the bottom of it and put it back in its slot (checking it to make sure it covers the whole vent but doesn't stick out). Nifty, huh?

Kid-Friendly Movie Reviews

I don't know why I neglected to mention this site when I did my "Top Ten Web Links" a month or so ago... I use this site all the time!

I'm never sure what a PG rating on a movie means anymore. Some PG movies have been shockingly "nearly-PG-13" in my book. And many PG-13 movies should have been rated R by my standards! I don't take the kids to see anything that isn't rated G before checking it out first anymore...

Before I go see just about any movie (with or without kids) I look it up on this site:

http://www.kidsinmind.com/

The site has a rating system (on a scale of 1 to 10) to give you an idea of how much sex & nudity, violence & gore, and profanity there is in the movie. It even breaks it down and tells you the details of why the reviewers came to that particular rating. As a parent and an individual, you can make an educated decision whether you want to view a particular film or not.

For instance, there is one movie in the theaters right now (I won't mention names) that looked absolutely hilarious on the previews and has some of my favorite actors in it. It was rated PG-13 so I thought it might be okay. After looking it up, however, and realizing that it had a rating on Kids-in -Mind of 7.3.4 (and after reading the detailed review of the sex & nudity rating of 7), I decided I'd rather not see it. We decided to see something else instead.

Another site with family-friendly movie reviews is Parent Previews. While the information on Parent Previews is not as detailed as Kids-in-Mind, it still offers reviews that can help you determine whether a movie is one you want to see or not.

"A Stanford University psychologist, Albert Bandura and a number of associates have amassed a great deal of evidence that has repeatedly and powerfully shown how models on TV and on the theater screen can teach new behavior patterns and influence or even change opinions, attitudes, and values." source

I choose not to give that kind of power and influence on my children and family to Hollywood. No, thanks!

Chemical-Free Weed Killer

This really works... It's great on those weeds in between the cracks in your sidewalk or driveway.

It's as simple as this: pour boiling water on weeds.

Yup. Crazy, isn't it? But I've tried it and it really does the job. No yucky, stinky, dangerous chemicals necessary. :)

Honey-Butter

Another "recipe" for the perfect proportions...

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 honey

Whip until well blended. Store in refrigerator in a tightly covered container.

Excellent on cornbread or any kind of warm fresh-out-of-the-oven bread. Yum!

Cinnamon-Sugar

The perfect proportions for your homemade concoction of cinnamon and sugar:

1 T. cinnamon to every 1/2 cup of sugar.

Mix well and store in an airtight container. Sprinkle on warm, buttered toast or use it to roll snickerdoodle dough in before baking. Yum!

Summer Enrichment

Around here we subject our children to something we call "Summer School." We started doing it the summer before our oldest (who is going into 6th grade this year) started kindergarten and we've done it ever since. We just felt it was really important that our kids not loose what they learned during the year over summer break.

In the beginning, we used homemade flashcards and workbook pages. Now, we have combined the benefits of multiple sources, such as:

• Summer Bridge Books (daily worksheets that last the entire summer) Published by Rainbow Bridge Publishing ~ check half.com, Amazon.com, or your local Barnes & Noble
  
• Flashcards (store-bought and homemade)
• Workbooks (for the grade they've just completed, purchased just about anywhere)
• The internet: worksheets and websites for learning as well as ideas for activities (see below)
  
• Field Trips to local museums, art exhibits, etc.

Some of our favorite websites for kids' learning:

• Starfall.com
• Utah Education Network
• Read.Write.Think.
• Rainforest Maths
• Handwriting for Kids
• Summerbrains.com (coordinates w/Summer Bridge books)
• PBS Kids ZOOM
• Kids Science Experiments
• Family Fun's Summer Ideas
  

[Have I missed any good ones??]

We spend about 30 minutes a day on "schoolwork." I start them each with Summer Bridge Activities worksheets. When they're done, the younger ones do flashcards, games, and/or reading with me while their older sister reads a book on her own from the suggested books her teacher gave her or from the library's list of recommended titles for her age group.

Summer reading is something I want to be fun. We aim for about 30 minutes of reading each day in addition to our school work. We usually stick to something that is fairly easy to read and is a topic of the child's own choosing. My middle child (who just graduated from Kindergarten) chose a few books at the library that are good ones for me to read to him, and we are continuing to make our way through the McOmber Readers that he reads to me. My youngest (3) and I read picture books together. Sometimes my daughter reads to her brothers, which gets all three kids to do their reading at the same time. :) It just depends on the day.

We are also planning a once-a-week outing to somewhere fun but with a purpose. For instance, my kids love the Bean Museum on BYU campus. It has lots of "stuffed animals" on display. We talk about where the animal lived, what it ate, what kind of noise it made (if applicable), and anything else interesting about it. We are also planning on visiting the Paleontology Museum at BYU and the BYU Art Museum's Walter Wick exhibit.

Here's to a fun summer of learning!!




p.s. And just so you don't think I'm all work and no play, we'll be spending plenty of time at the local playgrounds, running through the backyard sprinklers, and catching a matinee show at the movie house every once in a while. :)