Summer Snowman Snacktivity

We've finally gotten settled in enough at our new house to start back into our summer reading/crafting.  The girls (ages 9 and 10) read volume 5 of Carolyn Keene's Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew series.

If you remember from our earlier posts, each of the books in the series has instructions for a craft at the back.  In the "Case of the Sneaky Snowman" - in which the sleuthful friends at first believe they are being "pranked" by a snowman, and then set off to solve the mystery of who is really behind the joke, the instructions at the back are for making a beaded snowflake ornament.

I thought about using yellow and orange beads, to make sunbursts instead of snowflakes, but opted to stick with the wintery theme, and make summer suitable ice cream, snowmen treats, instead.  One of these days we're actually going to make the craft as presented in the book.  In the meantime however, this turned out to be a nice compromise.

I prepped for the snacktivity by using rounded measuring spoons to dip out a tablespoon, a half tablespoon, and a teaspoon sized scoop of ice cream for each child.  I figured D (age 12) would want to join in the fun, even though he hadn't read the book.

I placed the small scoops of ice cream into a plastic container with a lid, and allowed them to firm back up in the freezer, before presenting them to the children with candy and cookie bits for decorations.  We used pulled apart licorice ropes, mini sandwich cookies, as well as cut up wafer cookies, mini Rolos (which ended up looking like Shriner's hats), mini chocolate chips, bits of orange gummy bears, and the tips of some old candy corn I found at the back of the cupboard.

I maybe should have checked the instructions for putting together ice cream snowmen, because it turns out...

...it's pretty difficult to keep them balanced and standing, while adding candy decorations to them.

We ended up knocking ours over, and decorating them flat on the plates, before rushing them back to the freezer to re-freeze.  They were melting about as quickly as you might expect on a warm, summer's day.

In keeping with the prankish plot-line of the story though, I waited for the children to go outside to play, and then snuck back to the freezer to reposition the men.

So, when the children went to retrieve them for dessert, after supper, they not only found their treats all on one plate together...

...but standing!  Not that they stayed that way that way for long.

Of course, I feigned ignorance of the whole affair, and was as surprised as the children to find the snowman standing in the freezer - not that they fell for my act, but they're good sports, and not the sort to blame a mom for trying, anyway.

Anzac Biscuits - A Taste of Australia

I've been reading Sue Elvis' The Angels of Abbey Creek to the children, on and off, since just before Christmas.  It is a fictional story following a large, Catholic, homeschooling (or homeschool-like) family through the course of one year of their lives in Australia.  Each chapter is a short story, that can stand alone, or join together with the others as part of the larger narrative, making it perfect for a now and then kind of family read-a-loud.

The writing is simple enough for emerging readers to read themselves, with short easy sentences.  The stories are charming however, and entertaining, and surprising enough to hold the interest of older listeners, too.

As we are not Catholic, or from Australia, each chapter-story has provided us with plenty new sights, events, and vocabulary to look up, even as we've found some very familiar, if seasonally upside down, scenes through the pages.  While I have primarily been aiming my reading at the younger children, the teens have been quick to jump in and Google places and things - such as the Anzac biscuits, mentioned in the first couple of story-chapters of the book, to find out more about them.

As soon as they discovered that the "biscuits" were really cookies, I knew we'd have to make some to enjoy with more of the story.  Gathering the ingredients for the cookies proved to be a challenge, but also a gateway to all kinds of discovery.

Anzac biscuits derive their name from the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Soldiers in the corps were known as "Anzacs".   Anzac biscuits were a popular care package item from mothers to soldiers during World War I.  With no eggs, or diary, they were spoil resistant, and perfect for the long sea voyage to the soldiers European, and Middle Eastern locations.

Eggs and milk might not be called for in the recipe, but there is golden syrup, and desiccated coconut.

Golden syrup, also known as treacle (as in the main ingredient of Harry Potter's favorite kind of tart, or one of the Boxtroll's grocery list items in  Alan Snow's novel), is an amber colored, caramel-ish, liquid byproduct of refined sugar cane.  It is also extremely difficult to come by State-side.   We ordered a bottle online.

If you live in the US, are bored one day, and want a good laugh, ask a clerk at your local grocery store, where they keep the treacle - and watch the expression on their face, as they try to remain polite and professional.

As to the desiccated coconut, we settled for a bag of unsweetened, dried stuff, we found on the health food aisle, and called it close enough - the clerks were all wisely busy elsewhere in the store, at the time.

Happily, after double checking that old fashioned oats were the same thing as rolled oats - we were good to go.  The rest of the ingredients - sugar, flour, butter and baking soda, are kitchen staples in our house.

Then, the only problem we had, was deciding whether to try out a recipe for chewy biscuits, using brown sugar, or the more traditional(?), white sugar, crunchy ones.  We're all for tradition, but we really prefer chewy to crunchy cookies, and so opted for a brown sugar recipe.

The children loved the biscuits (all except for D, who doesn't care for coconut, and wouldn't try one).  They thought we should make another batch with macadamia nuts and white chocolate, and the Man of the House agreed, but...

...with the coconut and rolled oats, they tasted so much like the Gumdrop Cookies my mother used to make, at Christmastime, when I was a child (substituting candied fruit for the gumdrops - because gumdrops are impossible to chop), that I was too busy having a Ratatouille moment, to care what they thought.



Which, now that I think of it, was probably the point of mothers sending their sons cookies on the battlefield, in the first place.

Princess S'mores Take Two

We agree wholeheartedly with Gillian Rogerson's deliciously, chocolaty, intergalactic adventure, "You Can't Eat a Princess!"

However, we still say, a princess s'more...

...made with vanilla wafers, pieces of white chocolate candy bars, and strawberry marshmallows...

 ...roasted over a fancy, princess type, birthday candle, in front of a pink and purple pavilion, or makeshift princess tent (if you don't happen to have a pink and purple pavilion handy) ...

...well, that's another matter, entirely.

Of course, you'll want to take proper precautions with children around an open flame - adult supervision, and such.

And, in hindsight, I'd have to say this is probably a better 70° weather (or inside) story activity, rather than a mid-summer, into the 90s, sort of thing.  Our chocolate was melting faster than we could roast the marshmallows.  But then, wanna-be-princesses...

...are nothing if not adaptable, and always ready for a happy ending.

It's great to be homeschooler.

Dandelion Delights

You know what they say, when life (or your five year old) gives you dandelions...

...make dandelion lemonade!

Okay, nobody actually says that.  But, they should, because dandelion lemonade is tasty (honestly), and easy to make.  All you need is about two cups of dandelion flowers (just the heads, no stems - harvested from a clean spot, growing free from herbicides and pollutants, such as car exhaust or dog interference), washed...

...and dried...



...to add to a picture of lemonade, made anyway you like. I noticed the folks over at learningherbs.com (who put out a terrific wild-crafting board game, by the way - I'll tell you more about later), recommend the juice of four lemons for a gallon of lemonade, sweetened with honey.

We prefer the juice of five lemons for two quarts of lemonade...

...sweetened with a cup of sugar, that has been dissolved in two cups of the water that will make up the two quarts, stirred constantly for a few minutes, over medium heat on the stove, and then cooled before being added to the pitcher. That was a tip from Grandma...

...who also taught us to microwave our lemons for 15 to 20 seconds each, before cutting them, to make them easier to juice.

Grandma was a little surprised when we dumped the bowl of dandelion heads right into the lemonade...

...but she did admit it looked bright and sunshiny.  We let it steep in the fridge for a few hours before serving it, through a strainer, into glasses.

Grandma thought it was delicious, with only the lightest hint of dandelion - which as it turns out compliments the lemon quite nicely.  We enjoyed ours with a plate of dandelion scones...

...just regular sour cream scones, with a teaspoon of vanilla, and a cup of dandelion "petals" - or flowers, removed from the stems, added in...



...this time for a touch of color, rather than taste (similar to adding culinary lavender to scones).

Grandma enjoyed those too, and even listened along (with Grandpa) to our snack time story, about the dangers of wishing too wildly.

But really, with grandparents, stories and a dandelion "tea" time to be had - what more could we wish for, anyway?

It's great to be a homeschooler.

Sunday School Easter Snacks

I've been so busy sharing our Easter crafts this week, I thought maybe it was time to mention a few of the snacks we've enjoyed along with them.


30 Pieces of Silver - Cookies

Matthew 26:14-16

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I deliver him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.


Tint 1/2 a batch of sugar cookie dough (1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/2 a stick of softened butter creamed together, and mixed with 1 cup of flour) gray with a few drops of food coloring. Or, in a pinch, you can use 3 drops of green, and 2 drops of red, like we did for these, but it's tricky - too much red will turn the dough brown, instead of gray.

Roll out the dough, and cut 30 "coins" with the center of a donut cutter, or the (clean and dry) cap of a soda bottle.


Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 13 minutes.

Read: Matthew 27:1-10

Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people made their plans how to have Jesus executed. So they bound him, led him away and handed him over to Pilate the governor. When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.

“I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.”

“What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.”

So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself. The chief priests picked up the coins and said, “It is against the law to put this into the treasury, since it is blood money.”

So they decided to use the money to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners. That is why it has been called the Field of Blood to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel, and they used them to buy the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.”




Dipped Pretzel Crosses


I found this idea from As the Deer through Google images. There isn't much in the way of instructions on the site, but the concept is simple enough, they didn't prove to hard to bumble our way through.

We prepared two pretzel rods for each cross, breaking one, to make a shorter cross beam.


Then, we melted vanilla flavored almond bark in the microwave, according to the directions on the package. Half the package, or six squares, ended up being enough to make fourteen crosses.


We poured the melted almond bark into a mug, to make it a little easier to dip the pretzels into. Then, we dipped them, long ones first...


...with the short pretzels going across on top...


...followed by a tap or two worth of candy sprinkles, before the candy coating had a chance to harden back up.



Pretzel Nets Full of Fish
(from Catholic Icing to go with John 21:1-14)


Since I was in the pretzel aisle anyway, I decided to grab a bag of Snyder's "Butter Snaps", along with a bag of Hershey Kisses®, and a box of fish shaped crackers, for these yummy little treats, as well.

We had a great time making these, and they were so simple. Just line up the pretzel "nets" on a cookie sheet...


...and top each one with a Hershey Kiss®. Place the pan in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven, for a minute or two, until the chocolate is shiny, indicating it's melted (don't overbake, or the chocolate will burn and turn hard and crumbly).


Then, press a fish cracker down into each melted chocolate, and place the entire pan into the fridge for a few minutes to cool.


While your waiting, read the passage from John 21:1-14 about Jesus appearing to the disciples, while they were fishing, after the resurrection. Or, enjoy Peter's Easter Story from Arch Books (we're really loving this series, this year).



It's great to be a homeschooler.