Handmade in the Heart of Winter

 I have been wanting to make crackers for a long time with my children.  I needed to show the children that they didn't just come from a box or package.  It was a great practical life lesson to make and roll dough out and cut it up into cracker size.

I am not even entirely sure the children believed me when I said we were going to make crackers.

I must confess that I follow a few blogs, and two people I love to read and follow have made crackers and I only had to read one of the blogs to know it was about time I got on it myself.  Such a simple, quiet exercise and so very rewarding.

We had the children take turns rolling out the dough and we used a pizza cutter to cut it into cracker size pieces.  Next we used a fork to poke holes in our dough and brushed it with water.  Lastly, we sprinkled with a tiny bit if sea salt, cracked pepper and sesame seeds.  We baked in a hot oven and watch the dough puff up .

 You can check out this link for a how to on CRACKERS.  There are lots of recipes online and get creative with them.  Cheese crackers would be yummy and are my next planned batch.  But mostly, let your children help you make them.  It really is a lot of fun!

 It was all very exciting but not as exciting as tasting or having with our roasted squash soup that day!

Roasted Squash Soup

Prepare all the following ingredients and place in a roasting pan:

Heat oven to 400

3 or 4 Ribs Celery

3 Onions

3 or 4 Carrots peeled and chopped

1 or 2 Sweet potatoes Peeled and chopped

5 or 6 cloves garlic, chopped

2 lbs squash, chopped

Salt and pepper

Drizzle all with generous amount of Olive Oil to coat veggies and sprinkle with herbs de provence (that is the big secret)

Once vegetables are nicely roasted place in a stock pot with 8 to 12 or more cups of vegetable or chicken stock.  Sometimes less stock or more depending on how much you bulk out on the vegetables. 

Roasting the vegetables makes this soup especially yummy!

Simmer for about 30 minutes and puree with hand blender

1 Tbsp fresh parsley for serving.