jennifer, Author at Hopeful Homemaker

Shades of White

August 1, 2009 jennifer Color

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Someday I will have a clean house, all the time. Right now I have a clean house, some of the time, and it lasts about 20 seconds or less. Less, usually, because my little ones just go play in the clean rooms while I work in the dirty ones.

So when I’m craving the feeling that things are tidy and relaxing, sometimes I have to take myself on a little tour and just pause to enjoy the spots and corners that are inviting.
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I realized that one of the things I appreciate the most is the color white. I love the way white lets you appreciate texture so much. I love how calming it is. And I love the way it looks with blue. So I decided to snap a few photos of different shades of white in some of my favorite little spots.
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Mirrors, linens, frames… I love the simple beauty of white.
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I think that patterns, texture, lines and so forth all show up better on white, where there’s no color to interfere with my appreciation of it all. This is a vintage runner that I bought for around $5. It’s not a fine linen, but I really like it.
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This star hangs over my front door, which happens to be where my boys most love to throw balls (go figure). So….. every so often, the wonderful vintage star comes crashing to the floor, gouging walls and floor, losing countless pieces of paint, and getting all bent up on the points. At this point there is always much apology, much discussion over the fact that we have bedrooms, basement, toyroom, and, heaven forbid! the outdoors in which to throw balls instead of in the entryway, and I always walk away shaking my head a little at the workings of a boy’s brain. So we’ll just say that I really appreciate what white is left on this star and I sincerely hope we’ve learned our lesson. I suppose I could give in and move it, but it’s really quite perfect where it is, and I’m really quite certain that we can learn to throw balls in more appropriate locations.
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For Mother’s Day, my sweet parents bought us an old, used piano. It is wonderful. Somebody painted it white.
In any other room, in most any other house, it would look out of place. But in this room in this house, it is perfect.
I love it. I love the legs on it. And my kids love to play it.
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I love little spots that are serene and attract light.
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If you were going to wander your house in search of happy glimpses, what color would you pause most often to gaze at?
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For me, today, it was definitely white against a blue backdrop. They’re both lovely colors!

Beef Tips and Rice

August 1, 2009 jennifer Main Dishes

This is the simplest, fastest, most delicious crockpot dinner that I know of. Bless my Mom’s heart for sharing it with me years ago. My husband and children love it as it is always tender and filling. I love it because it takes me about 3 minutes to assemble. Then all I have to do is cook the rice later and dinner is done!

It contains 4 ingredients: Beef stew meat, cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, and cooked rice. Sound easy enough?

First, put at least 1 pound of stew meat into your crockpot.
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Then add a can of cream of mushroom soup IMG_5306 (Large) Mix well.
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Pour 1 envelope of Lipton’s onion soup mix over the top.
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Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours, or longer if you’re cooking a lot of meat.
Cook some rice, and serve!
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This isn’t a fancy meal, but it is always tender and delicious. I’ve served it many times for company, and they always love it.

Beef Tips and Rice 1 pound beef stew meat 1 can cream of mushroom soup 1 envelope onion soup mix cooked rice Note: for my family I usually cook about 2 1/2 pounds of meat and add 3 cans of soup. But I still just use one envelope of soup mix. Just one seems to do the trick just fine.

Whole Wheat Rolls

July 30, 2009 jennifer Breads and Rolls

Think freshly ground wheat transformed into delicious warm rolls!
It can’t get much better than that.
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In my Bosch, I combined 3 cups warm water, 2/3 cups vegetable oil, and 4 large eggs.
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Blend together, then add 1/2 cup powdered milk, IMG_6312 (Large) and 1/2 cup honey. (I didn’t have time to go get honey from my basement, so I used honey powder. Just pretend this is a nice gooey pile of honey going in. The powder works fine, too, in case you have some. I really like it.)
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and 1 Tablespoon salt IMG_6314 (Large) Mix well, and now it’s time for the whole wheat flour.
This flour is straight from my grinder. It doesn’t look very dark because it’s white wheat.
Using white wheat means I don’t have to add any white flour to the dough because it will be nice and light on its own.
If you’re using red wheat, you will probably want to have at least 1/3 of the flour be white flour.
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I digress. Add about 4 cups of wheat flour to the mixer.
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And 2 1/2 tablespoons SAF Instant Yeast.
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Turn on the mixer and blend until well incorporated.
Add another 3 cups of flour and watch so see the consistency of the dough.
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You might need to add another cup or two, but you don’t want to add too much.
You want the dough to begin pulling away from the sides of the mixer.
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Cover and let knead for 5 minutes. Remove the dough hook and cover again.
Let rise for 10-15 minutes. Then remove dough from mixer, divide into 4 pieces, and roll each piece out (one at a time, of course) into a large rectangle.
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Using a pizza cutter, cut in half lengthwise.
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Then cut each half into triangles.
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Roll into crescent roll shapes.
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Place on baking sheet to rise. Cover and let rise another 10-15 minutes.
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Bake at 400 for 8 minutes or until tops are just beginning to brown.
Remove from oven and brush with butter.
Enjoy with butter, or in our case this time, homemade cherry jam.
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Talk about homemade goodness! Yum!
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Whole Wheat Rolls 3 cups warm water 2/3 cups vegetable oil 4 large eggs 1/2 cup powdered milk 1/2 cup honey 1 Tb. salt 7-9 cups freshly ground white wheat flour 2 1/2 Tb. SAF Instant Yeast In mixer, combine water, oil and eggs. Mix well. Add powdered milk, honey and salt.
Mix well, then add 4 cups flour and the yeast. Mix again and continue adding flour until dough reaches proper consistency. Let knead 5 minutes. Remove dough hook and cover. Let rise 10-15 minutes. Roll into rolls, cover and let rise another 10-15 minutes. Bake at 400 for 8-9 minutes. You can also bake at 375 for a few minutes longer depending on your tastes. They’re delicious either way!