What Now?

Well, I've been done student teaching for 19 days now and I consider today my second official day of unemployment since the holidays have now passed. In the days before official unemployment, I treated them as any other college holiday break. But now that I'm faced with official unemployment, I'm getting a little nervous of the future. Though I've completed student teaching (and since that's what this blog is for), I've decided to update anyone who chooses to read this, on my life in the past 19 days and what might be coming up in the future. Here we go...


In my days of "break" I went back to good ole Gypsum. Unfortunately I wasn't there much because we always had something to do. If we weren't in Salina shopping, we were somewhere else shopping. We made a trip to Wichita and KC as well as about 1598 trips to Salina. We did our usual holiday traditions: Christmas Eve Church at First Baptist in Salina, Christmas light looking, Georgetown Santa's, etc., etc. I made a big purchase as well: a new Canon Rebel T2i. I love it. If I'm ambitious enough I will do what I've always wanted to do: start a business. I also made time for some baking. It's not the holidays without some baking. I made the annual Cromwell Family Poppy Seed Loaf. My grandma and mom would make about 50 loaves a year and deliver them to friends and family, so I like to keep up the traditions, however I only got 17 loaves made. Even the batter is good. :)

Here's the recipe:


3 c flour   

1 1/2 tsp salt     

1 1/2 Tbsp poppy seed

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

2 1/4 c sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 c milk

1 c oil (i usually just use 3/4 c)

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp almond flavor

1 1/2 tsp butter flavor

Blend dry ingredients with fork.  Mix eggs, milk, oil and flavorings;  add to dry ingredients.  Beat for 2 minutes.  Pour into greased and floured pans.  Bake 1 hr at 350.

Glaze topping:

1/2 tsp butter flavor

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond flavor

3/4 c brown sugar

1/4 c orange juice

1 stick butter

While loaves are hot, poke with fork.  Pour glaze over loaves.  Cool.  Remove from pans.

I also got very domestic and decided to teach myself how to do the lattice top to a pie. It's a smidge tricky, but not too bad. Kind of fun actually. Here you go...

1. Start with a pie crust. I like to use the Jiffy crust where you just add about 4 tsp. of water. That's the best I think. Unless you're super domestic and make your own. Lay it out and cut about 1 inch strips. I used a ruler to measure out - but you don't have to. (See the upper left of this picture for the example)


2. (Refer to the same picture for this step) Start by doing about two or three strips going the same way. Use every other strip to lay across the pie going the same way. I started with three (they are the ones going horizontal in the picture). Then using the strips that you skipped, lace them with the others, only going the other direction (they're the ones  going vertical in the picture).


3. Keep doing this for all of the pie. HINT: keep your scrap dough if you have any. You might need to make additional strips.


4. Once the lattice top is finished, go ahead and edge the pie like normal. This is a bit tricky. I just kind of folded the edge under.

5. It takes a bit of practice - but not to bad! Once you've done all that, top it with some sugar and put foil around the edges (remove for the last fifteen minutes) and stick it in the oven! Easy!


If you have scrap dough, just make some dodgers! It's what my grandma always did. Lay out the extra dough, coat on some melted butter and pour on the cinnamon and sugar. Bake for about 8 minutes. Oh yum!

And those are the things I like to do the most. :) If you need help with the lattice top see this YouTube video!