Cheese Crackers To Go With My Whine....

If you know a man or two you probably have figured out most of them are not most observant creatures on our planet.

If you've known me long you know I walked down the aisle to be married to such a creature man.

We don't work well together. I suppose we also don't play well together. But this blog is not about that whine. It's about the former whine.

I have wanted to get our family eating more healthy. To do this I have been trying to make and buy more food that is called "real food" or "whole food".

Did you see that I said, "I".  NOT "we".

My husband is not on board. He says there is nothing wrong with bologna, white bread and Miracle Whip sandwiches. Every day. For the rest of his life. Some have been known to say, "why do you care he'll just die faster and then you will have nothing to whine about." Well, I rather LIKE whining! In fact I must love it. I married a reason to whine. Didn't I, eh?

Mr. Oblivious fails to notice when the kids are up all night sick. Such as last night with sore throats. So, they weren't going to church this wonderful Sunday morning. He also failed to notice that my almost 2 year old great niece was here staying the night because her mother went to the hospital last night. So, Mr. Oblivious proceeds to yell the middle child out of bed to get ready for church. With all in the house asleep but him. Do you see the problem? Cause he didn't. So words were exchanged and it wasn't pleasant.

Well after all that going unnoticed, he returns from church. I am starting a batch of these Cheese Crackers for the first time. The recipe says to use a food processor. We do not have one. So Mr. Oblivious is watching me, rather closely I might add, attempt to use the blender to make these. I think its the word CHEESE that caught his attention, but I am going to pretend he just wanted to pay attention to things I am interested in doing. You know, study me. So, it was nice to have him spend time with next to me in awe of my mad skills.

They are 3 ingredients. Whole wheat flour, cold butter and cheese. When whirled in a food processor they become a nice ball of dough. When whirled in a blender, they become....well nothing. They sit there doing nothing as if the blade is not even turning.

So, I have a failed attempt at seeing if a neighbor has a real food processor I can borrow.

Then I move on to option three, my Kitchen Aid. I figure it doesn't need to actually chop up the ingredients, just make them one consistancy. SUCCESS! I had to start on low and work my way up to high speed to smash it all together. Then back down to low to allow it to combine and make a ball. But it will work! So try it!

Cue Mr. Oblivious coming back into the kitchen to see how the cheese crackers are coming along. I am just starting to make them into a log for cutting. Its like making a playdough snake. And I took a picture!

While rolling these I thought it would be cool to do it on a piece of wax paper. Did you know that stuff moves around really easy making it more difficult to roll the dough into a snake? Well now you do. Cue Mr. Wonderful, formerly knows as Mr. Oblivious, with out prompting places his hands on the wax paper to hold it still. I still think its cause I used the word CHEESE, but we will still give credit where credit is due. So, kudos to Mr. Wonderful for the part he played in making this wonderful cheese cracker snake.

Then, I sliced the snake up into 1/4 inch thick crackers. They weren't looking as nice as the one in the recipe I was following. They were crumbling a tiny bit and not uniform in thickness.  So, I had to smash them a bit with the tip of the table knife I was cutting them with. I also used my fingers to mold them into better circles.

Like this...Before I smooshed it.

After smooshing...see why I said, "better" circles. Yeah, very random in size and shape. I was most concerned with keeping the same thickness so they would crisp up at the same time.

Then this is the final product after baking at 350 degrees F for about 14 minutes. The recipe says 8-14 min. depending on the thickness. So, mine must of been thick or I like mind crispier than the average Joe. The first round in the oven came out softish after 11 minutes, so opted to go longer with the second round. I couldn't tell ya how many exactly the whole batch made as I have ate an undetermined amount of them already. YUM!! Though my family would say they need salt. So, if you are truly a salt loving family sprinkle some salt on top before baking and smosh it in a bit to make it stick. I think that would do the trick. My family likes to see their salt. Silly family.

 Note that the color does not change much, they just crisp up. Don't be afraid to go the full 14 minutes or longer if u want crispy crackers. Just watch them for changing to dark brown or black. That would be called chicken food then. AKA burnt.

So, in conclusion you can see how if I use the word CHEESE I can get Mr. Oblivious to turn into Mr. Wonderful and all is well in our world once again. (Grin)