The Leen

Well then. That was a slightly longer break than I’d intended on taking, but life just got going and I sort of let blogging fall off my radar.

Elanor’s sick again, or is sick still, if you prefer. I feel really sad for her. She’s got a cough and is all sniffly and is getting about four more teeth (yes, again) and is just generally kind of clingy and miserable. She hasn’t been sleeping much at night, either, which is really hard on me. For the first time in our parenting career — not to mention our marriage — Brett slept on the futon downstairs this week, just because Elanor was so wakey and restless that she was keeping both of us awake, and, well, one of us might as well get some sleep, right?

Aside from that, I’ve just been enjoying having Brett home. Thankfully, he’s done traveling for the next while and should be working regular hours, which is quite a treat.

I had a post written about how I’m feeling sort of crumudgeonly and Scrooge-ish this Christmas, but I didn’t post it because I read it again and it was just whiny. I’ll try to figure out in the next couple of days how to write more about how I’m just not feeling the Christmas spirit without being whiny.

Let’s see, what else?

Oh, yes! I have been talking with my sister about eating, and recipes, and meal planning. As a working, single mom to three kids, her time to do things like meal plan is nonexistent. She wants to eat better, both simply for her health and her kids’ health, but also to lose weight. We got to talking about it while she was here for Thanksgiving, and I offered to email her every week with our meal plan, recipes, and a shopping list. I’ve actually been thinking that perhaps I’ll just post it here, meal plan, recipes, and shopping list. Is that something anyone would be interested in seeing on a semi-regular basis? Leave a comment for me if you’d find it useful, and if there’s interest, I’ll post it here.

And, speaking of recipes, I’m going to post one for my sister-in-law, Amy. I’ve been meaning to give it to her for a while, but she’s having guests from out-of-town this week and wants to make it while they’re here.

So, Amy, here you go — the beer bread recipe. I should, however, give credit where credit is due and say that I found this on allrecipes.com. I made one change, which several people suggested in the comments on allrecipes: adding butter on top before it goes in the oven. It’s best fresh, but if you don’t eat the whole loaf at dinner, it makes really good toast the next day.

Whole Wheat Beer Bread

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 (12 fluid ounce) can or bottle beer
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and lightly grease a 9×5 loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt and brown sugar. Pour in beer, stir until a stiff batter is formed. It may be necessary to mix dough with your hands. Scrape dough into prepared loaf pan and pour melted butter over the top.

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.