Ah yes, i hear the jingle of tiny bells

It came yesterday.  Just as we were getting into the Halloween Spirit, the Toys R Us Toy catalog came in the mail. Little Ella and I bowed out of the catalog browsing for some much needed quiet time.  I did enjoy listening to the excited chatter of my three kiddos, though.  It is rare that they are so animated and polite with each other.  Char determined a price limit and they each chose toys they were "buying" and labeled them with their initials.  I love that in their dreaming, they imposed a price limit!  They are definitely my children.  Looking at what they circled, however gave me pause.  They chose toys I know they would stop playing with the same week they would receive it.  You know the kind...  the stay puff marshmallow man bank from ghost busters and the toddler toys.
   I see it every year.  They get what I lovingly call "junk toys."  These are the ones that Dan and I look at and can immediately gauge their stay at our house.  The shortest time - last Christmas, some didn't even make it to see the morning light.  I don't understand the draw to these items.  They usually are shiny, make noise and have lights, but fail to require creativity.  My children easily tire of these toys and move back to their old favorites - Magna Tiles, Autoblox and cars.
   This year I was surprised that the boys were so excited about the Toy catalog because they have already been eyeing up a parent approved toy - the awesome train table at Costco.  Though they know that we will not be buying this luxury, we would allow it and they drool over it every Saturday (Costco was a staple after soccer games this summer).  Literally drool.  In fact, I think that is why Costco very cleverly encased it in plexiglass.  And my two little boys were rarely the only children enthralled with this particular table.  Pulling them away was always (and will continue to be) a challenge.
   This magical time of toy dreaming makes me wonder.  Even though my kids know the real meaning of Christmas, they still buy into the typical Americanized holiday.  What would it look like to not receive a toy catalog every year?  What it stores didn't have huge toylands just around the holidays?  What would it take to change the mindset that Christmas if for getting and not for giving?
I'm realizing that my thoughts are still incredibly disjointed (blame the lack of sleep and the current tootsie roll sugar high from our Halloween party), but I'm sure there is some hint of truth hidden in here.  Perhaps I will find it once I've slept and been properly caffeinated.  :)

Bread Baking Heaven

Yum!!!  As I mentioned in my last post, I'm trying out new recipes from the book Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  I love these authors!  I am a passionate baker, but with 4 kiddos running underfoot (especially the newborn), it can be a bit too difficult to make bread that needs 10 minutes of kneading.  This no-knead process is incredibly convenient!  I volunteered to bring bread to a potluck tonight (can you say good timing!) so up until yesterday, I had a container of: Red Wine and Cheese Dough, Vollkornbrot Dough, Chocolate Espresso Dough and Soft Honey Wheat Dough.  Here are my verdicts:
Red Wine and Cheese Dough - I used a good merlot and sharp white cheddar cheese.  This bread has a great pink/red coloring to it, but not as much flavor as I expected.  There is a hint of wine, but I couldn't taste the cheese at all.  I may try it again with different cheeses.  It did have a nice texture to it, though.  And it disappeared rather quickly.  I'm curious to see which bread disappears the fastest tonight at the potluck.
Next up: Soft Honey Wheat Dough.  This is yummy, but crumbly.  It is Charlotte's new favorite bread.  She calls it her energy bread.  The book recommends this bread for sandwiches, but I don't think it would hold up well.  I also used it to make the Apple Strudel Bread and was not impressed.  The apples made the bread soggy around them and the flavor wasn't strong enough to be redeeming.  I don't anticipate using this dough again.
Chocolate Espresso Dough: This has a nice texture and flavor.  It is not overwhelmingly chocolate or coffeey (is that even a word?)  I'd like to try it again as muffins and their bar recipe looks intriguing.  If there is any left tomorrow, I'm planning on trying it as french toast.
Vollkornbrot:  I adore this bread!  It is a dense, heavy loaf, but full of yummy goodness.  How can you go wrong with whole wheat berries?  I'm serving this tonight (at a German potluck, no less) with butter and Brie.  Wish me luck!
After emptying these containers yesterday, I decided to indulge in the Pumpkin Brioche dough and a batch of the standard white master dough (i sub in one cup of whole wheat flour).  This morning we had our first experience with the Pumpkin Broiche as doughnuts.  This is super easy!  I rolled out a handful of dough, cut it, heated the oil and just a few minutes later I was shaking the doughnuts in sugar mixture (sugar, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice).  The kids loved having fresh doughnuts for breakfast and have already requested them for Halloween morning.  We actually ran out of my first batch, but the oil was still warm, so it only took 5 minutes to make a second batch.  This dough also freezes well.  I'm planning on freezing a doughnut worthy portion to make next weekend. All I need to do is defrost it in the fridge for 24 hours before using it!
I still have oodles of recipes from this book to try, and I'll follow up with the crowd's reaction tonight.  For now, it's off to soccer and an attempt to work off some of the bread I've been consuming!

New Cookbook Love

There is something about fall that makes me want to make soup and bake bread.  Yum!!!  Last year I fell in love with Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day.  This fall, I decided to keep the same theme (after all, with 4 kiddos I rarely have time to knead bread right now!) and try their new book, Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day. Wow.  This book has some amazing sounding recipes!!!
As I bake them, I'll give my 2 cents to save you trouble, or tempt you to try the book.  Right now I have a red wine and cheese dough in my fridge and a Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread dough.  I have their Apple Strudel bread rising in the pan on the stove as we speak.  That will be taste tested tonight and served for breakfast in the morning.  I used the Soft Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread dough and Granny Smith apples to make it.  My husband walked in as I was rolling up the goodness and he said, "What are you making, that looks amazing!"  Just wait until it's done...
Later this week I'll be trying the Volkorn Bread and maybe the Chocolate Espresso bread...  we'll see. So many options, and variations.  I love it!

Sentry Love

It's back, but revamped.  Sentry now doubles only 10 coupons on Wed and Sat, but there is still no minimum purchase.
Here's this week's best deal:
3 Yoplait Frozen Smoothie Mixes $2.49 each less $1 coupon doubled
2 Toaster Strudel - $2 each, less .50 doubled off of 2
2 Chex Mix bags - $1.49 each, less .50 doubled
1 fiber one 4 pack of yogurt $1.99 less $1 doubled
1 Yoplait Yoplus yogurt $2.49 less $1 doubled
1 Yoplait Delights Yogurt $2.49 less $1 doubled
Get $6 off (in ad coupon) for buying 10 participating products
Then we splurged and bought a Digiorno Pizza and Breadsticks $6.99 less $1 doubled
Donated bag refund
Paid $5.42 for everything.
Almost all of the coupons were found on-line... I use smartsource.com, allyou.com, coupons.com and redplum.com

Enjoy!