Homemade Friday: Graham Crackers

I admit it.  This one came out of sheer terror at the storms that are heading this way.  You see, we are low on everything in the house: milk, snack food, bread, meat.  Except rice.  We’ve got lots of rice.  I was supposed to go to the grocery today, but it was rainy and possibly tornadomageddon so Christopher took our one and only car to work and left me stranded with two children and a dwindling supply of nourishment.  And I didn’t want to be stuck in the basement with small children again for hours with nothing to feed them.  So I thought, hmm.  I’ve seen a recipe for graham crackers before.  How hard could it be? 

Answer: Not hard.  Just time consuming.  Especially when both of your children decided to be cranky and whiny, and one of them (the littlest, meanest one) continually hits the other one, culminating in a toy pot being used as a weapon.  (I hate this stage.)  (But at least I wasn’t the one getting bopped in the head for once.) 

I’d actually thought the storms were supposed to be here this morning, which makes the fact that I decided on the spur of the moment to bake homemade graham crackers all the more hilarious, and all the more typical.

Pictures are dark because my camera battery
died right before I started this.  Of course

Cause these lovely little things are not something that can be whipped together in the time it takes your 3 year old to watch an episode of Octonauts, which is the new obsession.  (Calling all Octonauts!) (Anybody?)

I think I’ve said before that I have a history of not reading recipes all the way through before I start them.  So it wasn’t until a few paragraphs into the directions, after I’d already started, that I realized the dough would have to set for at least two hours.

Okay.  Fine.

And then, of course, once it chills and you roll it out and cut it with the cute little ravioli maker your mom got you for Christmas to ready yourself for a ravioli-making day sometime in the future, you’ve got to chill it again.

But finally, finally they were done.  And the storms haven’t gotten here yet, but I’m prepared with graham crackers we can smear our dwindling supply of peanut butter on in an emergency, and also a freshly baked loaf of bread because I am insane. 

No fruit, though.  But I think I’ve got some frozen peas that they can refuse to eat if it comes to that.

 

But the graham crackers were pretty awesome.  I didn’t have any butter (see above), so I replaced it with Butter Flavored Crisco and it seemed to do okay.  I’m sure it would be better with seven tablespoons of real butter, and when I make these again I’ll be sure to be more prepared.  Instead of using entirely all purpose flour I used 2 cups of all purpose flour and a half a cup of whole wheat.  I don’t think I cooked mine long enough because they’re a little chewy instead of crunchy, like a cracker, but that could also be because of the shortening.

Still, they’re sweet, a little salty, and I think the kids will love them.  Sebastian enjoyed the dough, so that’s always a good sign.  He also helped me cut them out a little.  He loves to help bake things and I hope he keeps that enthusiasm, even when he’s a sullen 14 year old.

All of you Catholics out there (MOM) who want to chastise me for snacking on a Friday during Lent, I refuse to feel bad.  I’ve also eaten leftover meat today, because the bread wasn’t ready and we’re running out of peanut butter.  I figure Jesus has more important things to do than send me to hell for not fasting.

(Can you tell I feel guilty?)