Setting the Scene

Isn't this a pretty breakfast setting?

p. 122
Dishes should be a part of the background for the colours of the food, and as one chooses dishes there should be some variety -- even if the dishes are polished peices of wood, shells, or large leaves from the jungle! Not only does this give interest, atmosphere, and pleasure to the meal, but it gives dignity and fulfillment to the one who prepared it.

Source: Living Well on Less: Breakfast

In addition to ideas on how to dress up the table, Meredith also has tips for breakfast cost-cutting.

Food ~ My First Recognized Hidden Art

Confession. Growing up I thought I was a 100% left-brained, math whiz, without a stitch of anything artistic in my bones. I had help thinking that. My family told me so. Frequently. Yet, all these artistic ideas were whirling around in my brain. I didn't know how to get them out and, even worse, I was afraid to tell anyone about them.

The first time I filled my creative need I made spaghetti sauce from a recipe in The New Basics Cookbook. The fact that I even owned such a cool cookbook was amazing. It was actually a huge matter of chance. I had bought a copy as part of a wedding gift for a college friend. On our way to the wedding, my dear husband and I got stranded at the airport for five hours (we could have driven to the wedding faster, but I digress...) What else was there to do but read this fascinating cookbook? I was so enthralled that as soon as we got home from the trip I went out and bought the cookbook. Several months later I was no longer merely enthralled, I WAS ENCOURAGED and my culinary adventures began. To this day, I find my most creative spirit in the kitchen, so you can expect lots of food posts and pictures on this blog.

I think the chapter on cooking is what drew me to Mrs. Schaeffer in the first place. I knew I had a creative spirit, I just hadn't found the courage (or had the encouragement) to explore and develope my Hidden Art. When I read the chapter and realized that I had been doing just that all along in my cooking, I suddently had the encouragement I needed to try new areas. I also started playing the piano more, joined a choir, and bought a new alto recorder. No, I'm no virtuoso, but making music gives me pleasure!

As an adult, I now realize that I was a repressed RIGHT-brained person. I really hate math and logic.

Anyhoo, there is a point to all of this. I love to try new recipes in my kitchen and thought I'd share this recipe that my sister and I searched for after buying a couple at a Mennonite shop near where I live. This bar is a wonderful marriage of vanilla cake with creamy chocolate filling. YUM!


Can't Leave 'em Alone Bars (picture above)

1 box WHITE (not yellow) cake mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 cup butter
1 cup semi-sweet
chocolate chips

• Stir together the cake mix, eggs, and oil.


• Press mixture into the bottom of a 9"x13" pan, saving about 1/4 of the mixture for topping.


• Melt butter, condensed milk, and chocolate chips together in the microwave in a glass bowl. (Be conservative... nuke for 15 seconds, stir, nuke another 15 sec, stir, etc. until mixture is creamy chocolate.)


• Pour this over the top of the cake mixture.


• Sprinkle remaining cake mixture on top.


• Bake for 25-30 minutes at 350 deg F. The top of the cake should be nicely browned.

Fresh Bread

I come from a long line of breadbakers. Even after my immigrant ancestors had settled down to modern life in the suburbs, my grandmother and then my mother continued to bake their own bread. My mother, now on a potassium-free diet, still bakes every other week.

My mother, however, was determined to mold her girls into career women who would have no need of typical domestic skills. Like bread baking. In her world, there was no Hidden Art, only drudgery and dependence (in her opinion) on men. And thus, not one of us ever learned how to bake bread.

Eventually I read the label on a loaf of store-bought bread and the desire to learn this mystery for myself was born. Fortuitously, at the same time this desire was kindling, there appeared in a national women's magazine an interview with Martha Stewart making, you guessed it, homemade white bread. It was a very basic white bread recipe with four ingredients: flour, water, yeast, and olive oil. Within no time, I had the basics down pat. Fast forward several years and I started experimenting with whole grain recipes. I found one (very complicated) recipe that worked perfectly in my Philadelphia kitchen, but flopped horrifically in my Arkansas and Kentucky kitchens. After several lousy loaves, I gave up baking and only ground soft wheat for cookies and quick breads in my Nutrimill.

Until today.

Returning to that basic white bread recipe, I was able to make two perfect loaves of bread. Beautiful and tasty. And I can't even begin to describe the joy I feel at renewing this long lost passion!

BASIC WHITE BREAD

3 cups hard red wheat, freshly ground

2 1/2 cups warm milk

1 Tbs yeast

1 stick butter, melted

Mix together these ingredients and let stand for one hour. (Note: I measure the 3 cups of grains and then grind them into flour.)

3 cups white bread flour

Mix into above dough and knead until soft and supple.

I used my Kitchen-aid to knead and had to add about a tablespoon of olive oil because my dough was too dry.

I let it rise twice before shaping and placing into the loaf pans. After the final rise in the pans, I baked them for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Rubbing a stick of butter over the top of the loaves while they're still hot will gave them the shine you see in the picture.

I can't believe how easy this was! I can't believe that I wasted THREE years of my life eating yucky store-bought bread!

Fresh Bread

I come from a long line of breadbakers. Even after my immigrant ancestors had settled down to modern life in the suburbs, my grandmother and then my mother continued to bake their own bread. My mother, now on a potassium-free diet, still bakes every other week.

My mother, however, was determined to mold her girls into career women who would have no need of typical domestic skills. Like bread baking. In her world, there was no Hidden Art, only drudgery and dependence (in her opinion) on men. And thus, not one of us ever learned how to bake bread.

Eventually I read the label on a loaf of store-bought bread and the desire to learn this mystery for myself was born. Fortuitously, at the same time this desire was kindling, there appeared in a national women's magazine an interview with Martha Stewart making, you guessed it, homemade white bread. It was a very basic white bread recipe with four ingredients: flour, water, yeast, and olive oil. Within no time, I had the basics down pat. Fast forward several years and I started experimenting with whole grain recipes. I found one (very complicated) recipe that worked perfectly in my Philadelphia kitchen, but flopped horrifically in my Arkansas and Kentucky kitchens. After several lousy loaves, I gave up baking and only ground soft wheat for cookies and quick breads in my Nutrimill.

Until today.

Returning to that basic white bread recipe, I was able to make two perfect loaves of bread. Beautiful and tasty. And I can't even begin to describe the joy I feel at renewing this long lost passion!

BASIC WHITE BREAD

3 cups hard red wheat, freshly ground

2 1/2 cups warm milk

1 Tbs yeast

1 stick butter, melted

Mix together these ingredients and let stand for one hour. (Note: I measure the 3 cups of grains and then grind them into flour.)

3 cups white bread flour

Mix into above dough and knead until soft and supple.

I used my Kitchen-aid to knead and had to add about a tablespoon of olive oil because my dough was too dry.

I let it rise twice before shaping and placing into the loaf pans. After the final rise in the pans, I baked them for 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Rubbing a stick of butter over the top of the loaves while they're still hot will gave them the shine you see in the picture.

I can't believe how easy this was! I can't believe that I wasted THREE years of my life eating yucky store-bought bread!

Bread Baking

Click on this link first and then use the "back page" button to read the rest. :) (I didn't want to copy the picture into my post because I'm trying to avoid copyright infringement.)

Have you ever walked into a home and smelled the aroma of fresh-baked bread wafting from the oven? Boy, I have, and that smell can reach out and touch my very soul. (Even my many mistakes smelled much better than they tasted. :) ) No, not everyone will have time or energy to make their own bread every week, but why not give at least a try?

p. 119

Just as it is good to get one's fingers into the soil and plant seeds, so it is good to get one's fingers and fists into bread dough to knead and punch it. There is something very positive in being involved in the creativity which is so basic to life itself.

Because we are each uniquely created by God, that Hidden Art that releases our creativity won't be the same. It could be that making your own bread is your very own Hidden Art!


In my own web wandering, I stumbled across this blog today. If you think you might like to try baking your own, check it out. Even if you don't want to try baking your own bread, still check it out. The pictures are absolutely to drool for!

Do you yearn to to bake your own bread?



We're going to spend the next year sharingbread-baking tips, techniques, resources, and recipes.
We'd love to have you bake with us.

Bread Baking

Click on this link first and then use the "back page" button to read the rest. :) (I didn't want to copy the picture into my post because I'm trying to avoid copyright infringement.)

Have you ever walked into a home and smelled the aroma of fresh-baked bread wafting from the oven? Boy, I have, and that smell can reach out and touch my very soul. (Even my many mistakes smelled much better than they tasted. :) ) No, not everyone will have time or energy to make their own bread every week, but why not give at least a try?

p. 119

Just as it is good to get one's fingers into the soil and plant seeds, so it is good to get one's fingers and fists into bread dough to knead and punch it. There is something very positive in being involved in the creativity which is so basic to life itself.

Because we are each uniquely created by God, that Hidden Art that releases our creativity won't be the same. It could be that making your own bread is your very own Hidden Art!


In my own web wandering, I stumbled across this blog today. If you think you might like to try baking your own, check it out. Even if you don't want to try baking your own bread, still check it out. The pictures are absolutely to drool for!

Do you yearn to to bake your own bread?



We're going to spend the next year sharingbread-baking tips, techniques, resources, and recipes.
We'd love to have you bake with us.

Homemaking

home
- noun
1: one's place of residence
2: a familiar or usual setting : congenial environment.
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

homemaking
- noun
The establishment or management of a home.
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

at home
1 : relaxed and comfortable : at ease
2 : in harmony with the surroundings
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary


Homemaking is the establishment or management of a familiar setting, a congenial environment. When we are "at home" we shoud be relaxed and comfortable, in harmony with our surroundings.

I don't think that definitition precludes anyone from becoming a homemaker. Everyone has a place where they reside, whether that place be a single room in dormitory at college or a 5000 sq ft palatial estate. Even when we still live in our parents home, we have our little corner of space called a bedroom.

When we work to make our homes a reflection of ourselves, it becomes a place of refuge from the rest of the world. The place where we can sit back, relax, and recharge our batteries.

I want to challenge every reader, regardless of age, sex, marital status, or income level to commit themselves to one small step towards making their living space a home. I won't choose what that step should be, because it should be a personal choice. Here are a few suggestions:

• hang a family picture on a wall
• start an indoor garden in a corner
• paint a wall or door in your favorite color
• place fancy candlesticks and placemats on your table
• put a bowl of fruit on the dining table
• display your favorite books on a shelf
• start a collection: e.g. spoons, serving bowls, salt & pepper shakers, flowers
• make homemade bread and soup one night a week; invite a friend to share

This is only the tip of the iceberg. I'll be posting more ideas as they come to me and I hope that my readers will post their suggestions in the comments. We are only limited by the extent of our imaginations!

Hidden Art

I’ve shamelessly borrowed the title of this page from the book written by Edith Schaeffer of the same name. Mrs. Schaeffer and her daughter, Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, are my much loved mentors and encouragers and I’ve only met them through their writing. The fact that I’ve never met them and yet they’ve had such a profound impact on my personal life, gives me the courage to share what I write publicly through this blog. If only one person is encouraged then I will say “job well done” at the end of the day! If I only introduce one person to the writings of these great ladies, I’ve done well.

Mrs. Schaeffer defines “Hidden Art” as:

“… the art which is found in the ‘minor’ areas of life. By ‘minor’ I mean what is involved in the ‘everyday’ of anyone’s life, rather than his career or profession. Each person, I believe, has some talent which is unfulfilled in some ‘hidden area’ of his being, and which could be expressed and developed.”

I consider these areas of life to be the ‘minor’ areas that have ‘major’ impact! Whether one is male or female, married or single, has a primary vocation inside or outside the home, or young or old, we all share the deep desire for enriching our everyday lives. It doesn’t have to be an “if” or a “when”, we all have the ability to make it a “now”. Created in the image of The Original Creator, we all have the desire and ability to create within us.

I’ll be writing about where I’ve found my own ‘hidden artist’ as well as ideas I glean from other sources and everyday living.

If you like what you’re reading on this blog, I highly recommend the book The Hidden Art of Homemaking: Creative Ideas for Enriching Everyday Life, by Edith Schaeffer.