Just a quick post this morning. Before Grandma and Grandpa got here yesterday we made a big batch of pumpkin muffins. YUMMM!
And here is the evidence of the kids helping. LOL! They haven’t quite figured out how to mix without flinging stuff out of the bowl. Size of bowl, size of spoon, sitting on a chair, sitting on the table… it just doesn’t matter. Oh well, they were happy to help clean up.
The recipe is on my Pumpkin Pumpkin post.
We are going to be focusing on one of our favorite books this week, The Little Red Hen. We have several different copies but the one by Paul Galdone is our favorite. In this version the Little Red Hen bakes a cake instead of bread which works out nicely since the Fairy is celebrating her fourth birthday this week. We will be making her birthday cake!
Week Six (Oct 6-11)
The Little Red Hen
Chicks and Chickens
F is for Fuchsia
We will be coloring the Fuchsia page from our Flower Fairies Alphabet Coloring Book and reading the accompanying story in the Flower Fairies Alphabet Book.
Bug told me he had a book he wanted to write this week. OK, sounds good to me. It sounds like an elaborate plot involving knights, wizards and an evil king. I will definitely let him run with that this week. For the Fairy girl, I will probably design her some story cards to color to go along with The Little Red Hen.
I also have an idea for a Big, Messy, Outside Art Project. I will post more about it… if it works out the way I’m imagining it.
At playgroup last week, the hostess had chickens. Pixie was especially excited. She loves all the farm birds… chickens, ducks, turkeys. We haven’t been to our local petting farm in a few weeks so we will probably head there. (Fur & Feathers Field Trip)
This is a cake recipe that resembles the ingredient list in the book.
INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter softened
1 tsp vanilla
5 large eggs
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350. Grease & flour bottom of 2 loaf pans or bundt cake pan.
Beat sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs in large bowl. Mix flour, baking powder and salt. Beat flour mixture into sugar mixture alternately with milk. Spread in pan.
Bake bundt about 1 hour – 1hr 20min (check with toothpick), loaf pans 50-60min.
Harvest
Now all the farmers from far and wide
Have gathered their bounty of countryside:
Corn and barley from field and wold,
Honey from beehive and wool from the fold,
Fruit from the orchard all ripe, red and gold,
Log for the fire to keep out the cold.
by Dorothy Hancock
The Little Red Hen’s Song
This is the way I plant the seed,
Plant the seed,
Plant the seed,
This is the way I plant the seed, Early in the morning.
Repeat using the following verses:
…cut the wheat
…go to the mill
…mix the cake
…eat the cake
Kindergarten/Preschool Term One Overview: Harvest Time
Nothing like homemade Apple Pie! Both Bug and Daddy share a love of pies and this one is a very close second on both their lists… Pumpkin always takes the top spot.
To get the kids really involved in the pie process I had them use the Apple Peeler, Corer, Slicer to prep the apples. Note: this fun little gadget does 2 of the 3 so named things quite well… it leaves a lot to be desired in the peeling category though (unless you have a perfectly shaped apple). I don’t normally use it for pie apples but the kids had fun with it and the girls really liked eating the springy, twisty, sliced apples.
Ha! This was one of the baking episodes that you get started only to realize that you are missing some key ingredients. My husband refuses to buy in bulk. Just not his nature and I will agree tends to lead to wasted food (at least around here). He prefers to shop on a daily basis. I’m not going to complain since he does do all of the grocery shopping! But it does mean my pantry and fridge are fairly meager looking, especially in comparison with my mom’s which is always busting at the seams, leaving her ready to cook anything on a moment’s notice. But back to the cookies, I ended up having to cut the recipe in half to pull it off.
These are our favorite cookies. Everyone likes them (cooked or right out of the bowl) and their oatmeal and grape nut content allow me to ‘believe’ that they are practically a granola bar and therefore good for you ;).
Grape Nut Cookie Recipe
INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 1/2 c. (3 sticks) margarine
2/3 c. firmly packed brown sugar
2/3 c. granulated sugar
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
2 c. Post Grape-Nuts cereal
2 c. oatmeal
1 c. dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, etc.)
DIRECTIONS
Mix flour and baking soda in small bowl. Bear margarine in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed to soften. Gradually add sugars, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well after each addition. Stir in cereal, oats and fruit. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake in a 375 oven for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool 1 minutes; remove from cookie sheets. Cool completely on wire racks.
Umm… baking day! This is quickly becoming our favorite day around here. It is laid back and quiet. Everyone has some time to do their own thing in the morning (I can actually get some laundry done) with me calling the troops into the kitchen every so often to help. Yummy smells and yummy treats.
To go along with our Week Two activities we made our own butter. Of course we started by getting a loaf of bread going in the bread machine (ohhh do we love our bread machine). Then it was an epic battle of man vs machine. We poured a little bit of heavy whipping cream into a mason jar, the rest went into the mixer bowl with a bit of salt. And they were off. Guess who won? The boy! I was actually amazed at how he never tired of shaking that jar (just shows the boundless energy of a 5 year old boy).
For those of you who try this, you know you have butter when the cream transforms first to thick whipping cream (forms peaks) and then to what I can best describe as scrambled eggs in milk. It will totally pull away from the sides forming solid clumps in the middle, in a pool of buttermilk.
After I strained the butter I couldn’t bring myself to just throw away the buttermilk so instead I googled ‘Buttermilk Recipes.” I found one for ButterMilk Sugar Cookies that I highly recommend. We didn’t make the glaze but the cookies were very yummy with a more cake like texture.
What a yummy way to cook with veggies! We made Carrot Cake to correspond with our Veggie Unit this week.
This is an old family recipe and a favorite of mine. Hard to argue with a Cream Cheese frosting. Bug got to help Gammy with the carrot chopping by using the food processor. Pretty cool! And the girls helped me with the mixing while eating their weight in carrots.
Carrot Cake
INGREDIENTS
Cake:
1 1/2 c. sugar
1 3/4 c. mazola oil
4 eggs
2 c. flour
2 t. soda
3 c. grated carrots
1/2 c. chopped nuts
1 t. vanilla
dash salt
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
Icing:
1 4 oz. package cream cheese, room temp.
2 t. vanilla
1/4 c. butter
powder sugar
DIRECTIONS
Mix all cake ingredients together. Pour into greased and floured 9×13 pan. Bake in 300 oven for 1 hour or until done. Let cool. Blend all icing ingredients together and frost on cooled cake.