I swear, you don’t have to be a baker for this one. It’s so simple, you can do this between meetings.
3 cups lukewarm water
1.5 packets granulated yeast
1.5 T salt
6.5 cups all-purpose white flour
Add the yeast and salt to the water in a mixing bowl. Mix in the flour. No need to knead! You are welcome to use a food processor if you are as addicted to kitchen gadgets as I am.
Really, don’t knead. Return three phone calls instead.
Cover the bowl with a lid but don’t make it airtight or you’ll be sorry about the ensuing explosion in the kitchen. Let it rise for 2 hours, up to 5 hours if you have to tend to carpool. You can refrigerate it overnight “for better results” (i.e. for more e-mailing time).
Sprinkle water on top and then shape it into two loose balls in 30-60 seconds on a cookie sheet. Add a little flour if too sticky. Let it sit on the counter for an hour and clean your desk up a bit, will you?
Preheat oven to 450. Dust the tops with flour and bake for about 30 minutes until the crusts are brown.
It’s delish! And it fed my family for two days straight.
My New Year’s resolution was to find a volunteer gig that would get my brain back into the work world. A good way to get my groove back, right?
I recently joined the board of a non-profit organization that supports Fair Trade and economic justice in Third World countries. I am thrilled to be working on this issue and relieved to be back among grown-ups who, unlike me, have not potty trained anyone recently.
The other day I received an e-mail from a fellow board member commenting on my expertise.
What expertise?
Sure, I have expertise in tantrum calming, in stroller folding, and spit-up stain removal. But professional expertise? Seems like something I had in another life.
Motherhood can suck the lifeblood out of me until I feel like a sippy-cup-washing zombie. But with nearly a good night’s sleep, I apparently still have killer ideas and business chops that weren’t lost forever in the depths of the diaper aisle at Target.
Every momtrepreneur needs to have this tool in her toolbox. Just made it myself, and it’s a glorious kidistraction for maximum e-mail time.
3 cups flour * 3 T oil * 3 cups water * 1.5 cups salt * 6 tsp cream of tartar
Dissolve the salt in the water, then pour everything into a large pot. Stir over medium heat until a ball forms and it starts pulling away from the sides. Then knead that dough until the texture matches Play-Doh. I’d recommend splitting up the batch into 4 balls and adding a few drops of food coloring to each.
Time to make it: 10 minutes.
Time it takes your kids to make this: 273 minutes.
P.S. Save it in a Ziploc bag, it can last up to four months.
If you have not yet heard about the Consumer Protection Safety Improvement Act that passed last August, here’s a summary: ”Starting on February 10, 2009, consumer products intended for children 12 and under cannot have more than 600 parts per million of lead in any accessible part,” although a one year stay will offer limited compliance relief to certain toy manufacturers and importers.”
This overly broad, poorly-written law is affecting thousands upon thousands of momtrepreneurs and their small businesses. Moms will literally go out of business today; too many of us cannot afford the thousands of dollars that it costs to test the goods we sell.
Check out the Handmade Toy Alliance’s easy-to-follow instructions about what you can do to reach out to your Senators and Congresspersons to have them amend the law. And by amend, I mean repeal. Go go go!
There are only 375 qualified interpreters in the UK for over 70,000 users of British sign language. To whom did it occur to do something about the lack of education for the deaf there? Who set up a sign language school and raised lots of money for it all? A mom.
Debbie Reynolds, a single mother of two, is hard of hearing. As YouTube explains, “In 2003 she was in debt, had no qualifications and was struggling to make ends meet. In spite of her problems, she enrolled as a volunteer for a local deaf charity and in April 2006, set up the School of Sign Language which now employs a staff of 28 deaf and hearing workers and volunteers.” She discusses putting together a business plan, getting grants, and fortunately for us Anglophiles, has the best accent ever.
