kids in the kitchen -- three colored salad

Will be a bunch of updates today to get us all caught up, so keep checking back so you don't miss anything!

The kids decided to create a salad for us during their cooking time last Wednesday. Here J tosses romaine, radicchio, and spinach (they had hoped to use arugula, but we couldn't find it so they had to substitute), while Zoo Boy whisks up a honey balsamic vinaigrette dressing.








They served their salad with leftover chicken lo mien as their entree. It was a delicious meal!

back on line!

Ok, I've got limited access to the Internet again, still trying to figure out if this borrowed computer is going to work for me.

My email address book is all locked up on my other machine, so if friends and family who see this can email me when you read this, I'll add you to my new address book. Thanks!

Will do some catchup blogs as soon as I figure out how to get my photos on this machine....

dead computer

Hey everyone -- my computer breathed it's last breath last night and is now dead. Funeral services will be held privately. A replacement will be brought in after an appropriate period of mourning.

So no blogging, and I won't be able to moderate/approve comments, until further notice.

Hope to "see" you all soon!

The Ribbon -- painting

The Ribbon

by Emily Dickinson

I'll tell you how the sun rose -

A ribbon at a time-

The Steeples swam in Amethyst -

The news, like Squirrels, ran -

J's painting is on top, Zoo Boy's above this, mine at the bottom. This was a really simple, yet really fun painting, just to play with color and blending. Here's how we did it:

I set out a jar of each color in our watercolor paint collection (Prussian Blue, Ultramarine, Cobalt Blue, Crimson, Vermilion, Golden Yellow, and Lemon Yellow) and we all shared them, dipping our brush only once for each color (and of course cleaning thoroughly in between).

I started out by reciting the entire poem. Then I said "A ribbon at a time" and, with the kids following my lead, I dipped my paint brush into the first color (Prussian blue) and painted a single line with a single stroke across the top of my paper. I repeated "A ribbon at at time" again and moved on to the next color, and so forth, until we got to our last color (lemon yellow), to which I recited the entire poem again and filled the rest of my paper with yellow.

Then we cleaned our brushes and filled them with just water, and, starting at the bottom of the paper, and using long horizontal brush strokes, worked the entire page from bottom to top, blending all of the colors as we went.

The results were simply lovely.

Harriet Tubman, chapter 2

Above is J's chapter 2 drawing from our Harriet Tubman sage story, of Daddy Ben and Harriet walking in the woods near their cabin. Zoo Boy's drawing is below, of the family inside the cabin, with Old Rit and Daddy Ben at the head of the table, and Harriet at the foot of the table, thinking about the creek singing about running away.

Above is J's chapter summary, below is Zoo Boy's simplified one.

Below is my drawing, of Harriet, in bed with her siblings under the pacthwork quilts, asking Old Rit about the conversation she overheard about being sold, and Old Rit responding "You a slave, chile, and there ain't nothin you can do about it."

Harriet Tubman, chapter 1

We began our sage cycle this week, reading the first two chapters of the Harriet Tubman story from Enki Education. Above is J's story drawing from the first chapter, of Harriet walking in the woods, listening to the birds telling their story. Below is Zoo Boy's drawing of Harriet and Lucinda, the slave who was assigned to watch the children while the parents were working at their respective jobs (Harriet's mother in the Big House, her father in the woods and fields).

J's story summary is above, Zoo Boy's simplified version is below. (Note how much progress Zoo Boy has made not only with his drawing, but also his handwriting!)

Below is my drawing of Harriet listening to the birds and Brer Creek singing about running away.

kids in the kitchen, blanket in a pig?

Here's the kids' meal creation for our "Kids in the Kitchen Wednesday" dinner this week -- blanket-in-a-pig (a reverse on the old standby, pigs-in-a-blanket), selected and created by the kids.

They started with a can of prepared bread stick dough. They grated (with my help, of course) Parmesan cheese, then rolled the dough in the cheese and baked according to the instructions on the package. (Note: probably better to just cover 3 sides of the bread sticks with cheese, we had a bit of a problem with them being glued to our pan.)



Then they mixed up some honey mustard (ok, we cheated, it was honey butter, none of us are mustard fans) and spread it on one side of a slice of deli ham.

(By the way, if you've never had honey butter before, you're missing out, it's heavenly! I was running around spreading it on everything....)






Then they took a cooked bread stick and rolled it up in the slice of ham, and served it.

It made for a bit of a messy finger-food, yet too awkward to eat with a fork, so we just got messy.

I thought they were OK, I liked how simple they were to make, the kids could basically do everything themselves without much help from me. The Map Man liked them (then again, he's ridiculously easy to please). The boys thought they were gross. Ah well, at least they both tried them enthusiastically! As well as the veggies they chose to serve with their meal, an "antioxidant" mix of broccoli, carrots, and red and yellow peppers.