Heinz, Log Cabin, Stay-Puft, Grey Poupon...or my own?

I have come to the conclusion that there was a food conspiracy that took place over the last half century.

Power was taken away from the people of the US and given to the processed food industries. It was a slow process, and it was probably not planned out long term, at least in the beginning. I'm guessing it started with convenience, but the long term event was a considerable loss of our culinary cultural knowledge.

I never questioned most of the things I bought until Isabella and Vincent started having problems after consuming foods with corn syrup in them. That stuff is insidious. The number of foods with corn syrup is insane, and in order to allow them to eat, I had to learn to cook foods that I had never even considered making myself before. Syrup. Graham crackers. Marshmallows. Hamburger buns. Ketchup.

Sure, I could have bought most of these things without the corn syrup in them, but the price on the natural, organic processed verions is wicked high. Sorry, I am not going to pay $5 a box for crackers or $8 for a couple of marshmallows.

So, gentle reader (channeling Bronte from Jane Eyre there), should you have the desire to make your own staple foods, I promise you that they are actually very easy to do. Insanely easy.

Pancake Syrup:
3 c sugar
3 c water
a glug of molasses, vanilla or other flavoring agent

Boil about 15 minutes or so until thickened. Cool and pour into a jar. Keep in the fridge. I'm sure there is a technical temperature to heat to for the proper thickness, but I can never find the candy thermometer, so I just go until it looks good. Yes, once I cooked it too long and it crystalized and a couple of time I didn't cook it quite long enough and it was thin. 95% of the time, though, I get perfect syrup with zero effort and no nasty corn syrup in it.

Marshmallows:
I like this recipe. It is so easy you will fall over yourself for having never made marshmallows before. I mean really, mix water and gelatin in a bowl. Boil some water and sugar on the stove. Dump them all together and let your mixer do its thing for the next 20 minutes. How easy is that? It roasts nicely for a s'more and it makes a good rice krispie bar too.

Graham Crackers:
There a lot of recipes on line. I like this one from Vegan Cupcakes take over the World. You can be eating homemade crackers in less than 30 minutes from the time you start. They are easy to roll out, even if you are like me and don't follow the insructions perfectly. I generall just roll them, square out the edges and cut with my bench knife to the size instead of rolling them out twice for perfectly shaped crackers like the recipe calls for, but I'm lazy that way.

Mustard:
Mustard seeds, check. Water, vinegar, bit of sugar, check. Puree in a food processor and you have mustard. Okay, there is a day or two for soaking the seeds in there, but really, mustard is easy peasy.

Ketchup:
Recipes abound for this one, so have fun finding what fits your preferances. Basic recipe is tomatoes, onion, garlic, little bit of oil, some spices, brown sugar and vinegar. Puree, cook until it as thick as you like.

It is rather funny how easy making your own food is. Mac and cheese, hamburger helper type foods, taco seasoning mix - these are not hard foods to make. Once we start thinking outside of the processed food aisle, it is interesting how perspective changes.

Time + Kids = Creativity

Question #1

What do you get when you mix one pile of scrap wood, one determined kid who is mechanically inclined and lots of free time?

Vincent's fort

This has been his project of the week, built with his own tools. He took out the screws that were already in the wood so that it would be safe for everyone, then reused the screws to hold everything together. He hung the tire on there as a doorknocker, and he put the turtle shell on top for shade. He is trying to figure out what he can use for sides because our scrap wood pile was rather low. I'm sure he will come up with something interesting.

Question #2

What do you get when you mix one toddler who got the morning munchies with one 6 year old boy who often forgets to put away the cereal and milk after he is done with breakfast?
Looks so sweet and innocent doesn't he? Well, the highly classy ricotta cheese container bowl made its appearance in front of him after I discovered what he was doing. Notice the white line on the bottom of the cereal container? Those are not Frosted Flakes, and that is not sugar. Here, take a closer look:
Yes, he put the milk into the cereal container. Good gravy. Let's just say that all of the kids had a quick snack of cereal before it was mush. That was a brand new box of cereal that I had just put into the container the afternoon before too.

Happy days!

Breaking News:

Isabella is reading for pleasure! Daily!

I have actually had to tell her to put the book down in order to do something.

Given her struggles and the fact that she is so into visual images like Luis, I was not sure that this day would ever come. This is so cool.