Greek Koulari

Almost every day we were in Greece, I had a koulari, a sesame bread round. I ate it for breakfast or for a snack, always with a cup of strong coffee. 

I so enjoyed koulari, in fact, I was sad to come home, because I may never have it again. But then I wondered if I could learn to make these for myself someday. 

I have been doing a lot of bread-making as I bake my way through Bernard Clayton's Complete Book of Breads. So I have gained knowledge and skills (and weight) that I didn't have a few months ago when I first dreamed of making koulari for myself. 

I found a recipe online yesterday, and it was actually easy to follow, and I had all the ingredients and equipment, because of all I had learned through bread making. 

And it was fun! 

The girls pitched in, especially Adele, who loves to cook and bake. 

We made traditional koulari with sesame seeds, but then we ran out of sesame seeds, so we also made a few rounds with Everything Seasoning. 

Everything Seasoning has white and black sesame seeds, along with other delicious salts and spices. Avril and Adele actually ended up preferring the koulari bread with Everything Seasoning. 

This homemade koulari is delicious! Especially since it came to me fresh and from my own oven! 

I'm so grateful to be able to enjoy koulari at home in Connecticut of the USA.

Even though it's the middle of winter here, I can close my eyes, bite into this bread, and it takes me right back to Greece and its constant warm breezes. 

 

Creamy Eggs

Adele and I made creamy eggs for breakfast today. 

We adapted a recipe from Jessica Fisher's Good Cheap Eats: Dinner in 30 Minutes or Less!

We greased our ramekins, added a tablespoon of heavy cream to the bottom of each, then cracked two whole eggs into the bottom of each. Then we added a bit of cooked bacon, chopped, that we had left in the fridge, shredded cheddar cheese, and green onions. 

We put the ramekins on a baking sheet (just in case they bubbled over.) We baked these at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. The whites were hard and the yolks were firm but still soft enough to smear on toasts.

These were amazing! 

We'll definitely have them again! 

These would also make a nice brunch for weekends or breakfast-for-dinner idea. 

Sourdough Cont.

With temps in the single digits here, my sourdough wasn't quick to rise. So I gave it more time. +

I also turned on the oven and put the dough on the stovetop, so it had a warmer environment. +

The colder environment created a tighter boule with more tension. +

I also used a banneton for my second rise this time, 

so it had the beautiful, concentric circles on the bread. +

And when I scoured, I kept the razor almost horizontal this time. +

= 

one beautiful loaf! 

And many things learned in one day! 

Learning Chemistry at Home

Avril's doing Chemistry in our homeschool this year. 

We use Apologia's text. 

She reads one module (or chapter) every one or two weeks, and she completes all the On Your Own Questions for every module. 

She or I or both of us together will check her answers to the On Your Own questions in her notebook with the text's answer key, and then she makes corrections as needed until she gets all the right answers. 

But she usually has very little corrections to make, because she read the material carefully to begin with. 

How quickly I make her move through the modules depends on how much time we have, which depends on how much vacation we've been taking. 

Right now, she's reading one module a week for the next few weeks to make quicker progress through the text, since we just took a few weeks off of school to go to Florida. 

I make her choose one lab from each module to complete. She gathers the materials and/or tells me what she needs if it isn't in our homeschool closet or kitchen. 

She makes a record of each lab and the results in a lab journal that I assess every week. 

She's using the same lab journal she used for Biology last year. 

I don't really believe in tests for Chemistry, so I don't make her take them. 

It's more important to me that she learns the virtue of steadily reading and working through the huge text and completing all the assignments and labs to gain and demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the subject. 

I want her to learn how to learn a subject like Chemistry as much as I want her to learn Chemistry.  

And I'm certain that since she's actually steadily working through the material, she's learning it. 

I can't tell you how often in public high school, I passed a class like Chemistry having never read the textbook or engaged with the material much with my own mind, but rather, the expert teacher lectured and gave tests on the lecture notes, and I just passed those tests on the notes and forgot everything before the next test.  

So I never really learned Chemistry. 

I believe I would have been better served by a Chemistry textbook and consistent time and quiet to read it and let the information become a real part of my soul.

So, Avril's grade, at the end of this year, will be based on whether or not she did all the reading and questions and assigned labs, whether or not she actually did the very personal work of learning Chemistry. 

She will, most likely, get an A, because she doesn't move to the next module until she has completed all the reading, questions, and labs and gotten the right answers to the one before. 

Homeschooling through a subject like Chemistry doesn't take an expert; It isn't rocket science. 

It just takes consistent reading and engagement with the outstanding Chemistry textbook we have.  

Mastery of anything, even Chemistry, usually comes easily enough if you are simply willing to show up and actually do the work. 

Snow Sabbath

A snow storm covered us (and a lot of the United States) in snow last Sunday. 

It's a good thing church was cancelled and only online that day, because if people had been out at church or anywhere else, the roads would have gotten too bad too fast. 

Everyone knew the snow as coming for a while. But once the snow started, it came down fast and steady and kept falling all day and night. 

So, we started a fire for the first time this winter, gathered in the living room and watched church, and we got a lot of rest on that snow sabbath (unless we were out shoveling). 

The plow came Sunday and cleared the driveway, but the snow just kept coming.  

On Monday morning, it was as if the plow never came; There was so much snow! 

The girls had work and/or homeschool work to do on Monday, so they weren't free to play until Monday evening, about the time the sun went down. 

But they went out anyway. They turned the outside lights on and explored the yard and edges of our woods and built a snow fort inside the massive pile of snow the plow made on the side of the driveway. Below is a picture I took from the warmth of the inside while I was making dinner. 

I imagine they won't always want to play in the snow, but I'm glad they are still young enough, or young enough at heart, to want to play in the snow. 

And I'm thankful for the pockets of quite stillness and rest winter provides. 

Winter can be, in a sense, one long sabbath if we are apt to observe it. 

An Element of Chaos

Arcus brings a lot of joy and an element of choas to our otherwise orderly days. 

 He's a fun friend to have hanging around. We're so thankful for him. 

Braces Off!

Avril got her braces off! She celebrated by immediately chewing a piece of gum on the way home from the orthodontist.