A Burst of Flavor with Cinnaburst Bread

Posted on April 12, 2012 by ada

Have you ever woken up in the morning and wanted some freshly made bread? This morning was one of those mornings. I wanted whole wheat bread, but didn’t want to open a new can of our storage wheat. I thought about leaving the girls with Steven for 20 minutes while I ran to the store to get some wheat flour. But then I decided to make do with what I had on hand. I had seen a pin for cinnamon bread on Pinterest a few days ago, and decided it sounded perfect:

A picture of the cinnaburst bread cut into and a piece sliced off

Bursting with excitement to eat this!

What I didn’t realize was it wasn’t a typical cinnamon bread. This one called for cinnamon chips. Did you know there was such a thing? I didn’t. I quickly Googled it and found a recipe to make my own:

A picture of homemade cinnamon chips

Chip, chip, hooray!

Cinnamon Chips Recipe:
1/3 C Sugar
1 1/2 Tbs Cinnamon
1 Tbs Shortening
1 Tbs Corn Syrup

Directions: Mix together until crumbly, press onto a baking sheet, and cook for 35 minutes on 250. Once done, break into small pieces.
Yields: 1 Cup

The bread turned out sooooo good. The recipe I found from Pinterest said it reminds her the the Great Harvest Cinnaburst bread. I haven’t had it for many years so I can’t compare, but I think it’s good enough to substitute. I changed a few things to allow time for me to make the cinnamon chips during the first rise.

Cinnaburst bread loaf

I loaf this bread!

Cinnaburst Bread Recipe (makes 2 loaves):

Combine:
1 C Warm Water
1 C Warm Milk
1/3 C Sugar
2 1/4 tsp Yeast
Let sit for 5 minutes, or until bubbling

Add:
1/3 C oil
1 egg
2 C flour
1/2 Tbs Salt
Mix until smooth

Continue adding flour, 1/2 C at a time, until dough pulls away from side of bowl. This is supposed to be a sticky dough so it’s soft, light bread. If you’ve added more than 5 Cups of flour, you’ve probably added too much.

Let dough rise for 30 minutes. Once risen, take out of bowl, and on a floured surface, knead in:
1 C Cinnamon Chips (see recipe above if you don’t have any on hand.)

Form into two loaves, set in loaf pans, and allow to rise 1-2 hours, until dough has risen about an inch above the pan.
Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes, until browned and hard enough that you can tap the top of the bread without it springing in our out.

A picture of the cinnaburst bread rising in the pan

Arise!

It tastes amazing freshly out of the oven with a little butter!

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Tie-Dyed Eggs. No, Literally. Dyed with a Tie

Posted on April 11, 2012 by ada

I found a fun way to do Easter eggs this year to create fun patterns with no mess: tie-dyed eggs. Sounds messy, right?

A picture of the Easter eggs after taking them out of socks

WRONG! No mess included!

All I needed was an old silk tie (everyone has one of those, right?!? If not, you can usually get them at the thrift store for a buck!), scissors to cut the tie, some old socks (three, to be exact), rubber bands (I used 12 – one for each egg), hard-boiled eggs (I used a dozen), and a large pan filled with water and a bit of vinegar (about four Tablespoons or so):

A picture of the supplies needed to make tie-dyed socks: Hard-boiled eggs, old socks, and ties

Egg-stra simple!

You cut a piece of the tie big enough to wrap around the egg, wrap it:

A picture showing the egg being wrapped inside a scrap of tie

Ready to tie-dye?

Stick it in the sock, and keep it in place with a rubber band:

A picture of the tie-encased egg being placed inside an old sock for tie-dying

Socked up!

Repeat, using the same sock until there’s no more room. Place in pan filled with water and a bit of vinegar and heat on high until boiling:

A picture of tie-wrapped eggs in pan full of water heating to set dye

Eggs boiling in vinegar-water to set dye

Turn heat down and simmer for 20 minutes. Cool completely (I used cold water for 5 minutes), and undo. Rub with a little vegetable oil and make them really shine!

Shiny tie-dyed eggs

Pretty, easy, and no dye on my hands or counters! (Or the carton!)

When trying to explain to people that it’s tie-dyed, bring a tutorial. They’ll totally not get it.

Side note: I pulled out 4 old ties of my husband’s, but only needed 1/2 of one. You may like using several to have more patterns and colors though! I also read somewhere that you can reuse them, but I didn’t try, so I’m not sure if this is true or not – but I saved these from this year just in case!
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We Went on an Egg Hunt

Posted on April 9, 2012 by ada

We’re going on an egg hunt…

A picture of Aurora on an egg hunt, Easter 2012

Egg-stremely cute hunter!

We’re going to catch some pretty ones…We’re egg-cited! It’s an Easter egg hunt:

Cassie excited to find an Easter egg

Egg-strememly egg-cited to find an Easter egg!

Look! A tree! A happy, trappy tree! Can’t climb under it, can’t climb around it, we’ll have to climb…Up it:

Megan boosting Paul up to get a present out of a tree

Climb, climb, climb, climb...

We made it! Look – some grass! Some egg-stra green grass! Can’t climb over it, can’t climb under it, we’ll have to go through it:

Cassie walking through the grass during the Easter Egg hunt at Barnes Park 2012

Tromp...Pick...tromp...pick...

We made it! We found…A BOOK! A funny, punny book! Can’t climb over it, can’t climb under it, we’ll have to read through it:

Aurora finds a book on the egg hunt

Read, read, read, read...

We went on an egg hunt, we found some brightly colored ones. I was so egg-cited!…weren’t you?

Aurora placing an egg in her extremely full Easter basket

Egg-stra full!!!

Hope you had a happy Easter! Tell us about your egg hunts and other fun Easter traditions!

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YW Easter Lesson Handout: Christ is the Balm of Gilead

Posted on April 6, 2012 by ada

I have the privilege of teaching the Easter lesson to the Young Women this Sunday. As I contemplated the message I was to give the girls, I decided to go with the Easter theme of the Atonement and Resurrection with an emphasis of the Savior’s empathy towards us because of His death and Resurrection. I want the girls to come away knowing that the Savior can comfort and heal them – physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I had seen tutorials on making your own lip balm, and decided it would be a fun reminder of the lesson:

A picture of the lip balm handouts in a basket

Ready to go!

After researching lip balm recipes, I came up with one that I liked (makes 20):

Lip Balm Recipe

I like the element of Christ – or His Atonement, really, being our Balm of Gilead, since it was known for it’s healing and comforting powers. I’m hoping that when the girls use the lip balm they will remember the Atonement in their lives.

You can use the label too! PDF, PNG and SVG (can only be opened in Inkscape.)

A picture of homemade lipgloss to give the Young Women for Easter

Christ is the Balm of Gilead for our sin-sick soul

Side note: I got my containers from Michaels in the bead container section. I used their weekly ad for a 40% off coupon, costing just over $6 for a set of 24. I got the Beeswax for free from one of my husband’s co-workers who owns beehives, and I had the olive oil and coconut oil (it’s yummy to use to make popcorn!) on hand. Our Young Women’s President helped me make the lip gloss, and also printed the labels onto sticker paper she already had. So the total cost to make 40 of these was $12.

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How to Care For Children During a Natural Disaster

Posted on March 14, 2012 by ada

I had the opportunity to teach a Family Home Evening lesson Monday night, and I feel it’s useful information others would find interesting. I found most of the information here, here, and here.

“In any disaster it is children who suffer the most” according to UNICEF’s Emergency Response: Issues and Actions: April 2007.

Toddler holding large nurf gun

Survival of the fittest - the one with the biggest gun wins!

Photo credit: Rickety

Children look to adults for protection, security, and care. They expect their parents to make decisions necessary to bring their life back to normal as quickly as possible. Adults will likely be struggling to come to terms with the disaster themselves and it can be difficult to give children reassurance that they are safe and that nothing will harm them. However, here is a list of things to do with a child in a emergency situation:

  1. Stay near; listen; address questions and concerns simply, calmly, and truthfully.
  2. Create safe, child-friendly areas to play. Provide toys and activities.
  3. Gather children together to play and verbalize what’s happening. Maintain close supervision.
  4. Bring favorite cuddly toy and have a back-up ready for them to take care of.
  5. Maintain a “normal” routine of mealtimes, teeth brushing, dressing, and sleep to maintain normality and stability.
  6. Allow expression without judgement or fear of rejection. Take child aside for quiet, private and restful time to cope with feelings.

Coping With Feelings:

  • Let the child know she’s safe.
  • Offer reassurance that the events are not her fault.
  • Encourage children not ready to talk about events to draw or tell stories about what happened.
  • Provide safe outlets for aggression: kneading playdough, yelling into a pillow, exercising, etc.
  • Increase family and friend time.
  • Deal with parent’s feelings.

Keep in mind:

  1. Children are more sensitive to temperature and have a faster metabolism, and their condition can shift from stable to life-threatening rapidly.
  2. Treatment needs to be immediate. Relatively small blood or fluid loss can lead to irreversible shock or death.
  3. Children become dehydrated faster.
  4. Children don’t have motor skills needed to escape, and lack decision-making skills needed to flee from danger and follow directions.
  5. Children are more sensitive to chemicals.
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