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I have another blog which I began back in 2009 also, sadly both blogs have been somewhat neglected, however I would like to remedy that and get back to writing a bit more frequently.
Focusing on one blog rather than two seems to be more practical and manageable for me at this time, therefore I am merging! I have exported the posts from here into In All Your Ways and so you will find a mix of devotional thoughts, recipes, household ideas, homeschooling, money-saving tips and more.
I will leave this blog published for a while, I hope you will join me at In All Your Ways !

Make-Ahead Cinnamon Rolls

Here is a yummy recipe for cinnamon rolls which you can make a day (or more) in advance to save you time. Thursday was my son's 13th birthday and he requested these for breakfast, so I prepared them on Wednesday afternoon, let them rise in the refrigerator and baked them fresh on Thursday morning. I have made these several times and they are so good!

A friend gave me this recipe and I'm not sure where she got it, so I can't give credit to the original creator of the recipe - it wasn't me however.

The recipe will actually make 2 pans, you could bake a pan on consecutive days if you like (I've done that), or halve the recipe if you only want one pan, which is what I did this time. Remember, they will rise in the refrigerator, you can keep them there for 12-48 hours before baking.

Here's the recipe, followed by a few pictures I took along the way!

Make Ahead Cinnamon Rolls

2 pkgs yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
2 cups lukewarm milk
1/2 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup butter (or shortening - I use butter)
2 tsp salt
1 egg
5-6 cups all-purpose flour

4 Tbsp soft butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp + 1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp flour

Dissolve yeast in warm water, let sit for a few minutes. Stir in milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup butter, baking powder, salt, egg, and 3 cups flour. Beat until smooth. Mix in remaining flour to make dough easy to handle. Turn onto floured board; knead in more flour as necessary. Place in greased bowl and let rise until double.

Mix the other 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon and 2 Tbsp flour in small bowl and set aside.
Roll out 1/2 of the dough on floured board into a rectangle shape. Spread with 2 Tbsp of the butter and sprinkle with 1/2 the cinnamon mixture. Roll up, pinch to seal. Cut into 12 slices ( I use dental floss for easy cutting), place slices in greased 13" x 9"pan. Repeat with other half of dough. Cover pans tightly and refrigerate for 12 - 48 hours.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.
Top with your choice of glaze or frosting.

An easy powdered sugar glaze recipe:
1 cup powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, a few Tbsp milk.
Mix together in medium bowl to desired consistency.

Dough rolled out on the board

Spread with butter and topped with cinnamon mixture

Rolled up

Cut in half using dental floss. I then cut each section in half again, then each of those into 3 slices. That way I get them fairly even in thickness

In the pan.

Baked the next day.

Topped with powdered sugar icing. YUMMY!!!

Hope you enjoy these as much as my family does. They are a wonderful treat and extra nice because you don't need to get up at 5 am to have them ready for breakfast!!

Produce Experiment

Since we got our Enagic Leveluk SD501 water ionizer, I have been experimenting with it's many uses. It produces water from pH of 2.5 up to 11.5, and each pH level has a variety of uses.

I have been using the 11.5 pH -also referred to as 'Strong Kangen' or Strong Alkaline' water- to clean my produce before we use it. To be honest, I used to clean most of my produce by holding it under running tap water and giving it a scrub if it seemed particularly dirty. Well, this was a real eye-opener for me. I had seen the demo for using the strong Kangen water to clean tomatoes and it was quite impressive but I wanted to try it myself. So I began soaking all my produce in a bowl of Strong Kangen water for a couple of minutes. I could not believe what was left behind in the bowl when I would remove the produce! I noticed the discoloration of the water as well as the quantity of particles of dirt and who knows all what, left behind in the bowl. The strong Kangen water strips away the pesticides etc which are on the food. I also notice great flavor and extended freshness.


Well, today I thought I'd take a few pictures. I had purchased tomatoes and strawberries at the grocery store this afternoon and was cleaning them for use. So to compare the difference between cleaning with regular tapwater and the Strong Kangen, I used two bowls - one with tap water, the other with Kangen. My pictures aren't great but I hope it gives you an idea of the difference.

Here's my bunch of vine-ripened tomatoes.

The bowl on the left is regular tap water, the bowl on the right contains the Strong Kangen water.

I placed two tomatoes in each bowl and let them sit there for a minute or two.

You can see the discoloration of the Strong Kangen water in the bowl on the right

Closer view of the tap water

Closer view of the Strong Kangen water

Then I took the two tomatoes that were in the tapwater along with the other unwashed tomato and placed them in the Strong Kangen water

As you can see the Kangen water looks pretty yellow!

 Want to see the strawberries?

Prepped for cleaning!

Half in the tap water on the left, other half in the Strong Kangen on the right.

Both show discoloration and lots of 'debris' Notice the tapwater is more pink from the color of the strawberries, the Kangen water appears darker and dirtier. I then took the strawberries which had been in the tapwater and washed them in the Kangen.

All  clean!

This is the water after all strawberries have been washed in the Kangen.

Closer view - kind of yucky!

Well, I hope that gives you and idea of how important it is to get your produce clean, and how helpful the Enagic ionizer is. Even with our best efforts regular tap water doesn't get our produce clean and free of pesticides.

Feel free to ask any questions, and I'll be sharing some more tips soon!

Don't forget you can visit our Kangen website for more information.
Also like us on Facebook and keep up to date with the latest news.

P.S. Just recently created a new blog devoted to our Kangen water because we love it so much! Please follow us there Your Body Is Water

Choosing the Right Water

My family and I recently began drinking alkaline water after a friend brought it to my husband who has suffered with moderate - severe gout for the past 10 years. We have tried every 'cure' I could find, but nothing worked. I was extremely skeptical of the water because I felt sure that  it was just a money-making scam. However after drinking the water for approx. 6 weeks my hubby has had a huge improvement in his feet and lab results showed his uric acid level has significantly dropped. Also his cholesterol levels have dropped dramatically. 

When I realized that this water ionizer could restore the use of my husbands feet and release him of the constant pain, I was convinced it would be worth it for us to buy a machine. Now we are sharing this water with literally dozens of people, letting them try it free to see the health benefits for themselves.

So, I would love to share it with you also, there is too much information for me to share here so please visit our website when you have a chance. Also, we just got our Facebook page started but really needs some likes. If you would be so kind as to 'like' our page, I would be glad to return the favor by liking yours on FB, or following on Twitter, or following a blog. 


You can also follow on Twitter if you like.

Thanks!! I would love to hear from you :) 

P.S. In the coming days I am going to share some tips with you on how to use the different types of alkaline water for many uses other than drinking! Check back soon!

Be Scam-smart.

Eeek! It's really been months since my last post?? What's up with that? Why is it that you can lose touch for so long? I have a whole list of valid reasons.... umm .. ok.... excuses, but I won't bore you with all those.

This week was a real trial for me as I experienced having my e-mail and Facebook accounts hacked and all my contacts spammed. What a nightmare, I spent hours getting my internet life back in order; however through the experience I learned a few valuable lessons which I'm sure all you smart moms already know, but I figured I'd share them anyway.

BACK UP YOUR CONTACT LIST!
I am not always diligent about backing up my important information, we all know we need to do it, but it's easy to forget or think you'll do it next time 'cause you're in a hurry right now. DO IT.
I don't typically make a backup of my e-mail contacts. Fortunately this week when my e-mail account was 'hijacked' I had an alternate account in place with a relatively current contact list. My hackers changed my e-mail password and other vital information, sent a scam message to all my contacts, forwarded all my mail to their address and then deleted all the contacts in my account. With my alternate account I was able to quickly send out a message to my contacts notifying them that the previous message was fraudulent.

• Create a free alternate e-mail account (eg. gmail, hotmail etc.)
• Import your contact list
• Include your own, other e-mail address in the contact list, that way you will also receive any message sent to your entire list.

KEEP YOUR INFORMATION PRIVATE
I feel like I'm pretty careful about this, but even just entering your name and e-mail address on an unknown website can put you at risk. I'm not ready to give up my internet use, but I am consciously reducing my presence and visibility. I have cancelled a number of subscriptions and membership accounts that are not so important to me.

USE A VARETY OF USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS
This is one I have been careless about; I have a difficult time remembering which username/password I chose for a particular website, so I got in the habit of using mostly the same characters repeatedly. I can see this is not so smart so I am working on changing this. Keeping a list may be a good idea. Also, changing your passwords regularly can help.

It is a sad truth that we have to be on guard so much of the time. Hoping for safe, happy web times for you!!

Smart Mom




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Perfect Pumpkin Pie

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

So, I haven't made this pumpkin pie recipe before but this is the one I am going to use next week. It is the number 1 rated pumpkin pie recipe on allrecipes.com, it uses condensed milk rather than evaporated milk so be sure to purchase the correct one if you decide to try it.


Here's a short Thanksgiving poem which showed up in my inbox today. Thought you might like it!

A Thanksgiving Poem

May your stuffing be tasty,
May your turkey plump,
May your potatoes and gravy
Have never a lump.
May your yams be delicious,
And your pies take the prize,
And may your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off your thighs!

Have a wonderful day,
Smart Mom






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Classic Pecan Pie

This morning my kids and I planned our Thanksgiving dinner menu, it was pretty easy because we tend to like the same menu each year but it is fun to talk about it and anticipate the yummy flavors. So, you're right I haven't shopped for Thanksgiving yet, I'm planning to do that later today or tomorrow. I really don't stress about Thanksgiving, I find it a fun meal to prepare.

Anyway, after giving you a recipe for pie crust a couple of days ago, today I want to share my favorite Pecan pie recipe. It is on our menu for next week and I am so looking forward to it. Before I made pecan pie for the first time I thought it would be really difficult to make so I was hesitant to try it. I was so wrong! It is delightfully easy to make, and mine have always turned out good. Most pecan pie recipes are pretty similar, I have always used the one from the Better Homes and Garden New Cook Book (not so new however, mine is almost 20 years old!). Here it is:

3 eggs
1 cup corn syrup
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup margarine or butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups pecan halves
Pastry for single crust pie

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Prepare pastry for single crust pie according to directions, line pie plate with pastry trimming to 1/2 inch beyond edge of plate; fold under extra pastry. Make a fluted or scalloped edge.

For filling, in a mixing bowl beat eggs lightly with a rotary beater or fork till combined. Stir in corn syrup, sugar, margarine or butter, and vanilla. Stir well. Stir in pecan halves.
Place a pastry-lined 9-inch pie plate on the oven rack. Pour the filling into the pastry-lined pie plate. Cover edge of pie with foil. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 25 minutes.
Remove foil; bake for 20-25 minutes more or till a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool pie on a wire rack. Cover and chill to store. Makes 8 servings.

Smart Mom's notes:
I always use extra pecan halves, probably about 2 cups total. Also, I typically pour the filling into the pie plate, cover the edges with my pie crust shield or foil, then carefully transfer it to the oven. I don't like trying to do all that over my hot oven. Sometimes I leave the edges covered for longer, and just remove the shield/foil during the last 10 minutes so that the crust doesn't get too done. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice-cream!

Enjoy!
Smart Mom



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