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After posting our changes to having limited electricity in our home, I have been surprized at the number of emails I have received. It is humbling to realize how many actually read my blog. Thank you for the emails. I enjoy and am inspired by them.
As the days are slowly becoming shorter, we have now faced a new issue. We find that at the end of the day, we are exhausted. Even my husband, who is in very good physical condition feels it. Some days, by 8:00 pm, he is ready to drop into bed for the night. We realized tonight that with our having to get everything done by nightfall, we are working harder during the daylight hours to make sure we get all the tasks completed for the day.
I have been sticking to my baking only twice a week. Mondays and Thursdays are the only days the oven is being used. I love it! I preplan all the baking and then I work on it all day. Breads, cookies, muffins, and anything else that needs baking are all done on those days. I also enjoy that I am able to utilize the oven and not be wasting energy by letting the oven go cold and having to heat it back up again. Most of my baking is done at the same temperature. I start by mixing my bread dough and setting it aside to rise. Next, I mix up the cookie dough and place it in the refrigerator. While the dough is chilling, I mix up the muffin batter and bake it. About the time the muffins are done, the bread dough has doubled in volume. I punch down the bread dough, shape the loaves, and place them in the pans. While the bread is rising the second time, I start baking cookies. On a normal recipe of about 6 dozen cookies, I can have them all baked by the time the bread is ready to be put into the oven. As the bread bakes, if a casserole is on the menu for dinner, I can assemble it and have it ready to pop into the oven as soon as the bread is finished. Baking this way makes for a full day, but I get much accomplished.
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5 comments:
I love the idea of getting all the baking done in 1-2 days. It is funny that you mention getting things done before dark. We were just talking about that tonight. God made the dark for sleeping and the light for working. I wish we were more in the habit of doing things this way. If we work to get everything done before dark, then of course you will be tired when the sun goes down, it is just as God planned.
Doing the baking this way makes it so much easier. I bake enough bread and snacks to last 3-4 days at a time. This includes snacks for my husband to take to work. Muffins are made to have for breakfasts and also a snack.
One tip that I love to do is to bake some of the muffins or cookies in the mini muffin pan. Doing this gives you muffins & cookies that are bite size. This is the perfect size for snacking on the run or for little toddlers or preschoolers!
That is such a good idea!
I love baking in the winter because it warms up the house, but I've started buying bread in the summer to avoid heating up the house- maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I only did it one day a week.
I'd have to be more organized with my meals though.
:)
What a wonderful idea! Both my husband and I work out of the home, so unfortunately it doesn't work for us to bake quite like this, however we have found that Sunday is a great day to be in the kitchen and get all the food for the week ready. Another thing we've been doing much more of (which would be impossible without electricity) is preparing many meals for the month and freezing them. It's efficent with cost and also easy since we can just defrost the meal the night before. We have found this method to be useful with busy out of home schedules. We also do this with bread. Making several loafs and cutting them, then packaging and freezing them.
Thank you so much for your useful hints!
-Lisa (onthefox.blogspot.com)
I have just discovered your blog and I'm enjoying it very much. Thank you for posting details about the way you use your oven on your baking days. I've never thought of doing it that way and by using your ideas, I now see how I can accomplish more baking during the course of a day. I've been feeling frustrated because I haven't been getting the amount of baking done that I'd like to - especially with the cost of food going up all the time.
It's one of those things that seem so obvious, once it's been pointed out, but is a method I've never thought of. I can see that I'm going to be a regular reader of your blog.
Blessings,
Mary
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