Compromise and Crackers

I meant to get back here with a recipe sooner, but once I finished canning my applesauce my sewing machine finally returned from the repair shop.  I've been back in sewing mode with trips in and out of the kitchen, too. I've been working on small attempts at keeping our kitchen stocked with basic staples for breakfast and lunch.

Ray and I differ drastically in our approaches to food. Although we both enjoy a good meal out and a good meal in, food and our kitchen is area that requires frequent compromise and tweaking of what works best for both of us. I tend to do the grocery shopping and most of the cooking and you might have noticed that I prefer to make things from scratch. Ray is more of a grab what is quick and easy and usually that isn't found at home. So I am trying to keep some extra already made meals in the fridge and a snack or two in the cupboard. Its a very evolving process for us to move toward common ground on what we want to eat. Ray is busy with work, while I have ample time to spend in the kitchen. Sometimes he forgets his lunch, sometimes my recipes don't appeal to him, and as much as I want our food budget and every meal to work out perfectly, it is a process that takes time.

It seems silly to go on and on about this but our differences in to cooking and eating has probably taken more give and take, discussion, and compromise than anything else in our relationship so far. And, I wanted to share with you a recipe for crackers that I made recently. Crackers might not seem very exciting and they are one of those things that for most of my life I though had to come in a box. It turns out they are really easy to pull them out of your oven and this recipe is full of flavor and crunch. I found it was hard to stop munching on these little triangles. These crackers make a good snack or accompaniment to a soup or salad and they go very well with hummus. They are pretty wholesome with protein from seeds and cheese and they fill that empty spot in our cupboard perfectly. I will definitely make these often.

Seed Crackers
Adapted from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison. 
These crackers keep for a few days, but you can easily freeze half the dough until you are ready to bake more. They come together really quickly (especially in a food processor) and it doesn't take long for them to bake.


1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup of seeds such as sunflower, sesame, poppy, or cumin or a combination of seeds
2 teaspoons of mustard
2 eggs
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt


Preheat the oven to 350'. Work flour into butter until the butter is in tiny pieces evenly distributed in the flour. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until they are evenly distributed in the ball of dough. Cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Lightly dust a piece of parchment paper with flour. Roll out half the dough, turning it over frequently to avoid sticking to the parchment. When the dough is about an eighth of an inch thick, cut it into desired shapes. Leave each cut piece on the parchment, slightly separated from the other pieces and place the parchment on a baking sheet. Repeat with the other half of the dough, or freeze this until you want to use it. Bake for about 15 minutes until crackers are golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes before eating.