Kitchen Help

I knew she could do it...and she knew it even more.  Kaelan (12) has been telling me that she is ready for more responsibility in the kitchen, but....well, um,  we have one of those narrow galley-style kitchens and if there are more than two people in there at the same time?  I start getting a little stressed and feel a little squished!!  And she is my fifth child and I seem to be getting lazy in the training of responsibilities with the younger children.  Bad momma!!  But, yesterday, even though my kitchen was crammed full of produce bags and boxes, cartons of canning jars and so much more, Kaelan got in there and made bread for this week.  I have fallen behind in the bread making department as of late and Jeff has noticed....and he let me know that he noticed.

Kaelan ground the wheat and made a double batch of bread dough which means there was enough dough for four loaves.  Which would be great except I only have 2 loaf pans now after Caedmon accidentally broke the third one.  So, she made 2 loaves, a large pan of rolls and a braided bread as well.  And no, I don't have pictures.  Why?  Because we devoured the first loaf as soon as it came out of the oven.  It was well-matched with a jar of freshly prepared strawberry jam.  The rolls soon disappeared at dinner.  I won't tell you how many Lauren, my oldest married daughter, ate.  She has missed out on much of my great milk experiments and decided to make up for it last night....with a tub of butter!  As small as she is it won't matter and as she and her husband own two gyms, whatever she gains from her indulgence will quickly be worked off.

Kaelan also made a batch of Caedmon's special wheat-free, dairy-free, egg-free cookies and a big bowl of fruit salad with strawberries and blueberries from our own backyard and peaches and watermelon from the local produce market.  Her nephews greatly enjoyed their snack bowls yesterday afternoon and the rest is for breakfast this morning.

Today she is planning on making our cinnamon rolls for Sunday which will be frozen.  She is also planning on sending some home with Lauren and sending some with my sister who will stop by here tonight and travel up to my other sister's home tomorrow  (which is where my sorely-missed Devin is staying this week).

Last night mashed potatoes were on the menu...for 10 people!  Aaron was in charge of peeling potatoes, but these younger men (I called them young men and Chase quickly let me know he was not a man, but a boy!) asked to help out.  I was hesitant to give them a knife, so they took turns using the potato peeler.  Half of Chase's potatoes wound up in the garbage can carefully scraped away, but I think allowing young children to help out makes them more eager to do real work when they are older.  Now if I could just get them excited about cleaning up the mess!

Soon-to-be four Grandson Chase and soon-to-be seven son Jackson

And this is my newest kitchen gadget...an old Corelle stove-top coffee percolator!  I have really disliked having to clean out the reservoir of the automatic drip coffee maker...especially when I find all kinds of yuckies coming out in the cleaning vinegar solution.  My mom found several of these Corelle pieces and picked up a few.  Now the coffee maker has been tossed out and we are enjoying percolator coffee.  The coffee takes a little longer to perc than drip, but it is stronger (which means we can use less coffee) and stays much hotter than the drip coffee.  And I now have a little more counter space which is a good thing!

    

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