Party Recap- Homemade Crackers

So my attempt to not spend any money on this party didn't work out so good.  But I made a really good attempt.  And my favorite success was my homemade crackers!  I found a really good recipe here, and I tweaked it a bit for what I wanted to use it for- cheese and liver pate (which I didn't get a picture of because I forgot to put it out until after the party started).  So here's what I did-

Homemade Sweet Rosemary Crumble Crackers

2 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
1 tsp. Real Salt or kosher salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp. dried rosemary, crushed
8-10 Tbs. butter
¼ c. water
¼ tsp. vanilla
1 Tbs. honey
salt and crushed rosemary for topping
Preheat the oven to 410.

Add the dry ingredients with the spices to your food processor and pulse a few times to mix, then add the butter and process until it forms a crumb.  (If you don't have a food processor, use 2 table knives or a pastry knife to incorporate the butter to a crumb) Mix water with honey and vanilla only as long as it takes to make a dough.

Then I tried two different methods to bake them.  First, I used a pizza stone.  Actually, I used an old kiln shelf that was broken, which is made from a similar clay that commercial stones are made from.  (More on this later) I rolled the dough nice and thin out on the floured stone directly while the oven was pre-heating.  Then, using a pizza cutter, I made cuts to form square crackers.  This made extremely deliciously crispy, delicate crackers.  EXCEPTIONAL!  But there were 2 problems.  First, your stone has to be completely dry or they will stick! Mine did, and I had to let it cool and dry over night in order to get the offending crackers off. Second, if you only have 1 stone, doing the second batch can be a problem.  I perfected the technique last night, but for Monday, i had to use a cookie sheet for the rest of the crackers.  A cookie sheet gives you slightly less crispy and more doughy crackers- they have less "crunch" and more "munch".  still good, and probably ideal for something like hummus.  again, i rolled the dough out directly on the floured sheet, but couldn't get it as thin because of the sides of the cookie sheet being in the way.

To reuse your stone, you have to be super careful.  First, using a metal pancake flipper, remove the crackers a few at a time to a waiting cooling area.  the carefully remove the ROCKET HOT stone and rest it somewhere safe- I have tile counter tops and that worked nicely.  Slip the already rolled out dough onto the hot, hot stone with the spatula, and using the pizza cutter, quickly score it into cracker sized bits.  Then back in the oven  until they're crispy delicious.

I left out a time- that's because it depends on the thickness of your cracker, and the heat of the stone you're working on or the cookie sheet.  I found that with the cookie sheet, it took just about 10 minutes.  With the cold stone, it took a good 10 minutes as well, and with a hot stone it was more like 6-8 minutes.  It might take longer for your, or less time, so I recommend letting them cook for 5 minutes undisturbed, and then checking on them every minute or so until you figure out how long it will take for your oven and baking apparatus.

On Pizza Stones

I've never owned a pizza stone, but always coveted them.  I was seconds away from buying one a few months back, when he noticed it in the cart and chastised me- "you know I can make that, right?"  It's true, baking/pizza stones are nothing but bisqued clay (meaning they didn't get all the way to temperature and are still slightly porous) that is UN-glazed. 

Then Joey mentioned to me that he had a broken piece of kiln shelf (which is what your mugs and bowls get placed on in the kiln that gets heated up to 2300 degrees!)  That is the ULTIMATE pizza stone.  The kind of clay that it's made out of has such a high melting point that only an industrial kiln can even MAKE it (Joey, how hot does it fire to?  thousands of degrees, I assume. Joey: Yea, um. something like 3,200 I think).  So it's great at retaining heat.

So if you can find an old kiln shelf- broken ones work fine as long as they're a big enough piece, great!  Just make sure that you scrap all the old kiln wash off (which keeps glazes from sticking to it) and that any glaze spots that are on it have an "off gassing" point that is well beyond your oven. Most do, they usually fire to at least 1000 degrees.

If you don't have a ceramicist husband like me, you can also use unglazed ceramic quarry tiles often found at hardware stores.  You can also special order a hand made one through our Etsy Store.  Just because he never made one for me doesn't me he wouldn't for you!  And think, he could put your family name indented on the top so that all your bread comes out with your own personal signature!  How cool!

Finally, I'm going to be playing around with this recipe a lot in the next couple of days- I'm in love with it!  But Joey and I have pretty much cut grains out of our diets except for treats, so I'm going to try making almond flour and coconut flour crackers and see how that works out!

Next- Homemade Cocktail Sauce- it's so simple you'll scream for joy!

Linking back to GNOWFGLINS Simple Lives Thursday.

If you have to pay, pay less.

Despite the recent upset to our plans to not spend money thanks to troubling brakes on our car the whole ordeal has become a triumph and a testament to the goal of our little experiment.

After some pulling to the left, some funny sounds and an initial estimate from a repair shop our family was looking at a bill upwards of $500 to keep our family car safe and sound.

We rely on working brakes to help promote a healthy nap routine.

I would love to say that this all has become an impetus for me to learn car maintenance and to become a journeyman mechanic overnight. Sadly this is not the case, in fact I still basically have no idea how to fix cars other than changing a tire and replacing a battery.

What I do know, from my past as a full-time researcher, is how to find information and compare facts. The first step was to check whether the parts prices were reasonable or not. On a very quick inspection of napa and autozone's websites I realized that no, in fact the parts prices which I was initially quoted were reasonably inflated. I'm not saying that it was a scam, but in the very least the rotors which I was told needed to be replaced were much fancier than I needed for tooling around the suburbs in our little family car.

Armed with this information I was prepared to confront the repair shop and point out that I wasn't entirely ignorant (at least not about parts prices if nothing else) and demand some reduction in the repair cost based on the significantly lower priced rotors I found.

Before I walked in to make these demands I also decided to check the labor costs which I was quoted. Don't get me wrong, I'm a firm believer in allowing businesses to charge whatever they please for their services, but I'm also a firm believer in not paying it unless I feel that it is justified.

The first other shop I called for a quote was a nice, small, local chain of maybe...3 shops. The guy who answered was very helpful and polite. However, the quote which I received was just a few dollars less than the chain repair shop which gave me the initial quote. The difference was that the parts prices were cheaper at the local chain while the labor costs were more. But Britt and I agreed that this is a case where I do feel it to be justified to pay more, in a small, local shop you tend to get better customer service and more reliable work (because their business relies heavily on customer referral). In the case of a large national chain, they work on volume first and foremost.

I then called another chain in town and asked for quote on the same work just to double check. This shop however quoted me nearly $150 LESS than the intial $500 Britt and I were expecting to have to shell out. But thats not all...

When we actually arrived at the shop and the mechanic looked our car over for 10 or 15 minutes he told me the typical "yea, you need new brakes, see here? this is worn, that is worn etc." but then he informed me that not only did he think I didn't need to replace my rotors, but they weren't even close to needing replaced. There was something about him needing 16,000...something to retool them and that mine had 50,000. Like I said, I don't know jack about cars, but I do know that 50 is way bigger than 16 and that was good enough for me.

All said and done (I just need to pick up our car in the morning) the cost for fixing our brakes on the car ended up being just over $225. Funny how not paying for the cost and labor to replace parts that don't need to be replaced can drop the price.

In retrospect I should have called the small local guys back with the new information and see what kind of deal they could have given me. But you have to forgive me for being a bit impetuous once I found out that I was saving $275.

All things considered, I don't feel too bad spending money today, since after all I saved more than I spent thanks to a few minutes of research and shopping around.