I think I have funder on my head!!

My sister Grace had been working hard at playing outside. Upon looking at her sweaty hair in the mirror, she exclaimed, "I've got funder (thunder) on my head!!" HUH??? Don't ask me how a 4 yo thinks... only the good Lord knows.

A movie that we kids did...

OK, so quite a while ago we kid did a movie about racing horses. Now, we don't have horses but we do have dogs so the they filled that role in for us. My sister posted it on her blog a while ago but I figured I'd give you the link if you wanted to see it.... HERE it is! (be sure you you turn the music off at the bottom of her blog ;) Enjoy...

Another Giveaway!!

My good friend Bess is hosting a giveaway... be sure to go check it out!

Some giveaways!

Eldarwen @ The Faithful Elven Princess is having a giveaway! Check it out HERE (she isn't shipping out of the USA :(

And Elisheva @ My Handmade Blessings is giving away the cutest doll EVer! Take a peek HERE.

I hope that y'all have a great day!

Shoo Fly and Club Pie

On Sunday we didn't go to church because of a cold that some of us have. We were just having a lazy day. I, however, needed something to do. So, I decided to practice pie making. This time I wanted to do something different from the usual lemon meringue and apple. So I picked shoo fly pie (don't you just love the name?!) and club pie. Here are the recipes that I used.

Pie Crust:

• 2 & 1/2 cups of flour

• 1 cup unsalted butter, very cold, cut into 1/2 in. cubes
  

• 1 tsp. salt
  

• 1 tsp. sugar
  

• 4-8 Tbsp. ice water

Directions:

1. Cut the sticks of butter into 1/2 inch cubes and place In freezer for 15 minutes to an hour, so that they become thoroughly chilled.
   


2. Combine flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor: pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse 6-8 times, until mixture resembles coarse meal, with pea size pieces of butter. Add ice water 1 Tbsp at a time, pulsing until mixture just begins to clump together. If you pinch some of the crumbly dough and it holds together, it's ready. If the dough doesn't hold together, add a little more water and pulse again.
   


3. Remove dough from machine and place in a mound on a clean surface. Gently shape into 2 discs. Knead the dough just enough to form the discs, do not over-knead. You should be able to see little bits of butter in the dough. These small chunks of butter are what will allow the resulting crust to be flaky. Sprinkle a little flour around the discs. Wrap each disc in a plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
   

4. Remove 1 crust disk from the refrigerator. Let sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes in order to soften just enough to make tolling out a bit easier roll out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface to a 12 in. circle: about 1/8 in. thick. As you roll out the dough, check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. If necessary, add a few sprinkles of flour under the dough to keep the dough from sticking. Carefully place onto a 9 inch plate. Gently press the pie dough down so that it lines the bottom and sides of the pie plate. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to trim the dough to within 1/2 inch of the edge of the pie dish.

Okay, now that is what the recipe said. I do it a little differently. For on thing, I used Crisco instead of butter. And I don't get the butter as cold as they say. Also, I tend to mix the dough longer and I use more water. The pastry does come out a bit tougher, but it is a lot easier to handle.

Shoo Fly Pie:

• 1 (9 inch) unbaked pastry shell
  

• 1 egg yolk slightly beaten
  

Filling:

• 1/2 c. packed brown sugar
  

• 1/2 c. molasses
  

• 1 egg
  

• 1 & 1/2 tsp. all-purpose flour
  

• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  

• 1 c. boiling water
  

Topping:

• 1 & 1/2 c. all-purpose flour

• 3/4 c. packed brown sugar
  

• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
  

• Dash of salt
  

• 6 Tbsp. cold butter

Directions:

1. Line pastry with double thickness of heavy-duty foil. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Remove foil. Brush crust with egg yolk. Bake 5 more minutes: cool on a wire rack.
   

2. For filling, in a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, molasses, egg, flour, and baking soda; gradually add boiling water. Cool to room temperature; pour into prepared crust.

3. For topping, in a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over filling.

4. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and filling is set

I really didn't like this pie. Maybe it was because I baked it too long (which made it sort of dry).

Not very pretty :P.

Club Pie:

• 1/3 c. of butter
  

• 1 c. sugar

• 2 eggs separated
  

• 1/4 c. of milk

• 1/2 c. chopped walnuts
  

• 1 c. raisins

• 1 (9 in.) baking shell
  

• Whipped Cream

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add egg yolks; beat well. Blend in milk. Stir in nuts and raisins; set aside.
   

Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form;


fold into the raisin mixture. Pour into pie shell.

Don't worry if the filling doesn't fill up the pie shell all the way. The filling rises as it bakes.


2. Bake at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 300 degrees F; bake 40 minutes longer or until lightly browned.


Cool. Refrigerate. Serve pie chilled with whipped cream if desired.

All of us really liked this pie. Much better than the Shoo fly pie!

After I baked, I got some much appreciated help:

Grace and Joy helped 'rinse' the dishes...

...and Pepper acted as vacuum.

I must tell y'all that I had quite a bit of pie dough that was... (lightly put) not right. So we made lots of crust cookies. YUM!!

If you want to make these pies here are the links to print out the recipes:
Shoo Fly Pie: click HERE
Club Pie: click HERE

I've got some awards!

Thank you so much Bess! The 'Lovely Blog' one is my favorite. I'm awarding this too:

• Eden at Growing in Him because all of her ideas are lovely

• Elisheva at My Handmade Blessings because I love her ability to craft.

And I award these to those of you who are bookworms and love to write down all of your personal thoughts.

Changing the subject a little, my friend Mimi commented about some ideas on midwifery HERE is the link that she provided... and here is what she says about it:

Hey there, just so you know. That is not the only route to go. You can also be a lay midwife. You can become a student to a birth center and begin training with only a high school diploma. It takes a few years but it is all hands on training, with no schooling. It depends on what you want to do. If you want to work for a doctor or hospital you become a CNM but if you want to work for a birth center or do home births you become a lay midwife.

This sounds pretty good! It might be better than going 'all out'. I bet that you could go to a school if you felt like you wanted some book experience in addition to hands on experience.

Here's some info on Midwifery

I have been interested in nursing for a while... ever since I was a little girl, in fact. However, I wasn't sure what kind of nursing I wanted to do. There were soooo many different types of nursing! My aunt bought me a book on nursing and I looked through the book, but nothing seemed to 'pop' out at me. I put the book away until a year ago... and then Certified Nurse Midwifery 'popped'.

Here is my understanding of what it takes to get a CNM title. First of all, you have to get your Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN). Then, you take the National Council Lisensure Examination-Registered Nurse Test (that came right off Google, BTW!) to get your RN. You can read more about that HERE. Then, you go to a school for midwifery for two years. I think that while in midwifery school you are under a real CNM's supervision... I'm not sure about that though. Before taking the final test from American College of Nurse Midwives, you have to meet certain qualifications. Such as, being an active participant in 90 births and other things like that. I hope that all that made sense!

I haven't looked into schools or anything like that. Well, I did look into College Plus but, they don't have a BSN program :(. After I found that out, I figured that I'd just go the University in our city. But, all that is just speculation.

I have only researched going into the Certified Nurse Midwife thing, but I think that I should research other options. The above just sounds like a lot of work! I'm (Lord willing) going to take sign language classes and take the test to be a certified sign language interpreter. After that, I'll seek the Lord whether to go ahead with midwifery. I am glad that I know what I will do after sign language, though. That way, I won't be in the dark!

Update

The girl that I posted about in the previous post is doing a lot better. She did have to be sedated to set her arm, and also had to have some pretty heavy pain killers. But, even though being sedated doesn't sound good, her arm is healing well because the arm was set so well. The main thing now is that she wants to get a water-proof cast so that she can go swimming! LOL she can't be feeling to bad, right?!!

I changed my background so that it would be easier to read... hope it is a bit better!