Left Over Ham = Magic

    Oh blissful silence.  The house is so quiet that I can actually hear the clock ticking.  I had forgotten what silence sounded like.  The holidays are over and my little darlings are back at school.  I had made myself all kinds of promises as to things that I would get accomplished while the kids are home, and may have done one of them.  I was going to work tirelessly and teach the big kids their times tables (they don't teach them their times tables in school anymore).  I had bought prizes and we were going to have drills.... but they were having too much fun and we ran out of time.  I was going to redesign my laundry room and make it more efficient for space... nope.  I promised that I would be organized for back to school, have a weeks worth of snacks and muffins and meals... nope, we went to a friends and ended the holidays having fun tobogganing and drinking hot chocolate.

    Last night I tucked the kids into bed and made my way downstairs, wanting to collapse onto the couch to watch TV, but knowing I had lunches to get ready, and actually debating with myself that perhaps for the first time in history I could just get up early and make their lunches.... bad idea.  I pulled open my bread drawer, I had wraps.... yes.  The next big question was what do I fill the wraps with?  I had forgotten to pick up lunch meat.  I opened the fridge, and there peeking back at me in pink delight was last night's left over ham from dinner.

    I cubed up the ham into small pieces.

I finely chopped up some celery and added it to the chopped ham.

    My next step was to take a little more than half a cup of mayonnaise and mix it in a small bowl with about a half a teaspoon of mustard and half a teaspoon of honey.  I whisked that together and then mixed it into the ham.  The final step, roll up those wraps.  Let's hope the kids like it.  With my kids it's a bit of a crap shoot.  Some will come home raving about it, some will tell me it was disgusting and because of my incompetence they are starving (o.k. none of them have ever used the word "incompetence", but I could tell from their eyes they were thinking it).  I have decided at least with my kids I can always win, so why not just roll the dice.

Breakfast For Dinner / How to Make Your Own Baking Powder

    It's HOT!  I don't remember a hotter summer than this one.  I did not feel like cooking dinner, but I had to, my family still likes to eat, even when it's hot. I decided to make something fun for dinner... rainbow sprinkle pancakes (plus pancakes don't heat the kitchen up).

    There was one small problem with my plan... I did not have any baking powder, and the stores were now closed.  I had already measured the flour and sugar into my bowl... what could I do?  Enter the trusty computer i.e. the internet.  I typed in "How to make baking powder".  It turns out baking powder is baking soda mixed with two parts cream of tartar.  I am a doubting Thomas.  I checked three different sites, each confirming the other.  In the end I had no choice, but it worked.

My Pancake Recipe...

(or should I say, Company's Coming "Muffin's and More")

 1/2 cup all- purpose flour                                       1 Egg, beaten

1 Tbsp Sugar                                                          2 Tbsp Cooking Oil

1 Tbsp Baking powder (one part baking soda to two parts cream of tartar)

1/2 tsp salt                                                              1 1/2 Cup of Milk

Mix the dry ingredients, then whisk in the wet ingredients.  Don't over mix it, or it won't be fluffy (trust me on this one, I know from experience).  I added the sprinkles at this point. The key to great pancakes is a hot pan.  Turn them when they start to bubble.  

    So now you know, if your recipe calls for "baking powder", and you don't have any, make your own.  All this time I have been spending an arm and a leg on baking powder, and I could have just been making it myself, who knew?