Pancake numbers
14 adults and 16 kids. 10 batches of pancakes, and 1 of chocolate pancakes (choc milk instead of milk). 2 batches of crepes left for sometime this week, and 1 batch of chocolate pancakes sent home with someone:-)
The Genial Hearth
I’ve just put the kettle on, join me for a cuppa and a chat.Archive for Food
Geography: India
First Monday: Location. (I’ve found a world map I’ll use, and just set him to find the country in the atlas, and identify it on the map)
First Tuesday: Flag.
First Wednesday: Language.
First Thursday: Animals. (Asian Elephant, Bengal Tiger, King Cobra, Indian Walking Stick, Peafowl, Dhole)
First Friday: Music. (Folk songs/dancing)
Second Monday: Features. (Cities, Mountains, Rivers)
Second Tuesday: Famous People.
Second Wednesday: Language.
Second Thursday: Culture. (Currency, festivals, population, religion)
Second Friday: Art/Craft
Second Saturday: Food.
Books
(Still to be added, once I’ve looked at all the books I’ve reserved:-) )
Lemon and Sultana Friands
For years, I’ve made Friands. I love the recipe—it’s really easy, it’s very scaleable, and it’s easy to change flavours:-) I’ve been trying to be consistent about Fine Art Friday, and Afternoon Tea, so today, I decided to make these:-)
Friands
Makes 6 (although, I made them a little smaller, and made 8… so all of us got a pair:-) )
12 grams flour
20 grams almond meal
40 grams sugar, icing
30 grams butter, melted
1 egg, white, lightly beaten
1 teaspoons flavouring (today it was grated lemon zest)
1 tablespoon flavouring (today it was sultanas)
Sift flour and icing sugar into a bowl, add ground almonds and flavourings, and mix well.
Stir in butter and egg whites and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth.
Spoon mixture into mini-muffin tins and bake at 200°C for 15 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch. Cool in tins for 5 minutes before turning out on a wire rack to cool. (I’ve had trouble turning these out of late… if appearance is going to matter, you might want to put them in patty pans).
They will keep in an airtight container for up to 3 days (but I’ve never had them last that long! If I put some out of reach, I can usually keep a couple for Paddington—but only until a couple of hours later! They just go.)
Serve dusted with icing sugar.
Carrot and Sultana Muffins
Further to my experiments yesterday, I attempted a new muffin today:-) I based them on the recipe here. I halved the sugar, and they were still probably sweeter than they needed to be! I also did them in mini-muffin tins (I like that size for the kids:-) ), but forgot that when I cooked them… so they were a touch too cooked. But still, they were quite acceptable:-) I’ve also learnt that it’s not worth cutting carrot sticks to eat for lunch, chunks are better! That way if they don’t eat them, they’re easier to grate:-)
Carrot and Sultana Muffins
Makes 24
¼ cup sultana
¼ cup water, boiling
½ cup sugar, caster
⅔ cup oil
2 egg
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla
½ cup flour, whole wheat
1 cup flour, plain
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarb soda
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon cinnamon, ground
½ teaspoon nutmeg, ground (I had run out of nutmeg, so I just used some mixed spice… I think it would have been better to just stick with the cinnamon)
Oil mini muffin pans. Add the sultanas to the boiling water.
In a mixing bowl, beat sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until well blended. Combine the dry ingredients and add to first mixture, mixing just until ingredients are moistened. Drain sultanas and fold into the batter with the grated carrots.
Fill muffin cups about 2/3 full; bake in preheated 190°C oven for 15 minutes, or until the muffins bounce back when lightly touched with a finger. Allow to cool slightly, and then remove.
Cheese and Chutney Muffins
Cygnet woke early this morning… and I had meant to make muffins (or something) to take to co-op today (I was leaning towards muffins because we had yummy muffins at a friend’s place yesterday:-) ). So I searched online, and finally found these. I did fail to read the comments before I began though, and I should have made a couple more changes than I did (they were a touch dry—although I did intend to add some more milk, as the wholemeal flour is likely to have that effect… and the 10 minutes advised was definitely insufficient. I think they’d also be better with more cheese:-) Below is what I intend to try next time.)
Cheese and Chutney Muffins
⅔ cup flour, whole wheat
1 ⅓ cup flour, plain
5 teaspoons baking powder
¾ cup milk, (needs a bit more… 2 or 3 tablespoons?)
½ cup oil, olive
2 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup parmesan, finely grated (could possibly do with more)
pepper, freshly ground
2 tablespoons tomato chutney
Preheat oven to 190°C. Spray 2 mini muffin trays with a little oil spray. Set aside.
Combine flours and baking powder into a large bowl, stir through grated cheese and pepper. In a separate bowl, combine milk, olive oil and eggs and add to the flour mixture. Be sure not to over stir.
Place a spoonful of mixture in each muffin hole, coming about 3/4 of the way up the side of each hole. Make a little well in the centre of each muffin hole and divide tomato chutney between each hole. Using a skewer, gently swirl the chutney into the muffin mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and cooked through. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
They were pretty good:-) Certainly worth repeating with a few changes. They haven’t all gone, but the kids ate them cheerfully—although Puggle did tell me he ‘liked them, but didn’t like them!’:-)
Geography: China
First Monday: Location. (I’ve found a world map I’ll use, and just set him to find the country in the atlas, and identify it on the map)
First Tuesday: Flag.
First Wednesday: Language. (I need to remember to use youtube… I’m sure there must be some basic language lessons there—and particularly with the asian languages, I have not a clue:-( )
First Thursday: Animals. (and the panda)
First Friday: Music. (Folk songs/dancing) (Hmm… haven’t done this)
Second Monday: Features. (Cities, Mountains, Rivers)
Second Tuesday: Famous People. (well, inventions)
Second Wednesday: Language.
Second Thursday: Culture. (Currency, festivals, population, religion) (Something on Chinese New Year—how’s that for happenstance! It’s in the week after we finish, which is break week! Maybe we’ll just see what we can find then.)
Second Friday: Art/Craft. I’ve printed the instructions for lanterns, fireworks and a dragon. He can choose what he does. (if there’s a related ‘My Family Feast’ episode, we’ll watch it)
Second Saturday: Food. We’re going to cook Fried Wontons with Dipping Sauce, Steamed (perch) with Ginger, Chicken in Vermicelli Fried Nest, and Watermelon and Lychee with Ginger Sauce (or some variation thereof).
Books
Ancient China
Beijing
China
China: The Culture
Chinese New Year
Marco Polo
Taste of China
People’s Republic of China
Tibetans
Geography: Japan
First Monday: Location. (Continent, Bordering countries/oceans, hemisphere)
First Tuesday: Flag.
First Wednesday: Language. (I need to remember to use youtube… I’m sure there must be some basic language lessons there—and particularly with the asian languages, I have not a clue:-( )
First Thursday: Animals.
First Friday: Music. (Folk songs/dancing) (ETA: See in the comments for some music links! Thanks Purrdence!)
Second Monday: Features. (Cities, Mountains, Rivers)
Second Tuesday: Famous People.
Second Wednesday: Language.
Second Thursday: Culture. (Currency, festivals, population, religion)
Second Friday: Art/Craft. (if there’s a related ‘My Family Feast’ episode, we’ll watch it)
(This book appears to cover a large number of the topics I want, and seeing as we’re starting later than I’d anticipated, it will be ideal:-) )
Second Saturday: Food. We’re going to cook Chicken Kuwayaki, California Rolls, and Monkey Maki. We’ll probably use the leftover sushi rice, and bits of the chicken to do Onigiri the next day. (We use an egg-cup to help shape the balls.)
Books
I was surprised how few appropriate books I could find (mind you, I failed to do my prep work, so I was searching at the library, and remembering dewey codes, and chasing kids).
Japan in Colors
Geography
Last year at Co-op, one of the mums ran a series of activities focussing on different countries. Puggle loved it! Another mother mentioned the existance of My Family Feast which was on TV at the time, and we watched that week’s episode—Puggle was hooked (even asked for it for Christmas, and Uncle R. kindly gave it to him:-) )
I figured that we needed to do some sort of exploration of the world, because he was obviously keen:-) So I decided that we’d spend two years and ‘do’ a number of different countries. I’m sticking with the continents (we’ll skip Antartica, there’s not so much of the culture side… Certainly not enough for the three months each of the other continents will take), and doing three a year. This year we’ll do Asia (Japan, China, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma), Europe (France, England, Germany, Hungary, Norway, Scotland) and Africa (Egypt, Morocco, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Congo). Next year we’ll do North and South America, and Australasia (I still need to fine tune our country choices). At the same time, I’m trying to make/aquire some of the Montessori-type materials to do with Geography (I’m drooling over the puzzle maps, but haven’t done anything about them yet), and I plan to put together a continent box for the continent we’re covering.
Given he’s in year 1, and this is only part of what we’re doing, I didn’t want it to be too heavy, so we’re staying in each place for two weeks, doing a little bit each day. I’m also going to borrow a stack of library books on the country, so they can be accessible (thank goodness for online reservations! I request everything that looks ok, then flick through the stack and only borrow the dozen or so that seem most interesting—and I don’t have to wander the shelves with the kids in tow:-) )
First Monday: Location (Continent, Bordering countries/oceans, hemisphere)
First Tuesday: Flag
First Wednesday: Language (I need to remember to use youtube… I’m sure there must be some basic language lessons there—and particularly with the asian languages, I have not a clue:-( )
First Thursday: Animals
First Friday: Music (Folk songs/dancing)
Second Monday: Features (Cities, Mountains, Rivers)
Second Tuesday: Famous People
Second Wednesday: Language
Second Thursday: Culture (Currency, festivals, population, religion)
Second Friday: Art/Craft (if there’s a related ‘My Family Feast’ episode, we’ll watch it)
Second Saturday: Food (we’ll go to any specialty stores, and then we’ll cook a feast—and eat it of course:-) )
Fortunately, countries are often used as themes, and with the internet, it’s really easy to do a search and find all (or most) of these things—at an appropriate level! It does take a little while… but not too long. I print them in one hit, and file them in the appropriate folder, ready to go. And if I come across something for one of the other countries we’re planning to do, I can print it then and put it in that folder.
2010, I resolve…
I’m sticking quite close to the resolutions of the past couple of years. They haven’t been resounding successes (probably because they’re not SMART:-) ), but I am still referencing them.
So, in 2010, I plan to Make More Music, and Play More Games. In some ways, these both get easier as the kids get older:-)
I plan to add Make More (interesting) Bread. (I do a couple of loaves a week, but they’re a pretty standard loaf. I have a few specialist loaves I’ve been meaning to experiment with, so i reckon one every couple of months would be a good effort. Turkish Bread, Ciabatta, Naan, Pita… I have a feeling there was another I was considering [Paddington has suggested Parathas:-) ]. Basically though, if I can master the first two, I’ll count it as a successful year:-) )
I need to Drink More Water, and I really do need to do something to get more fit (hmm… I didn’t even deign to capitalise that… that says a lot!)
I’m hoping to start reading (well, if we’re doing Don Quixote, I’ll be listening!) through some Great Books with another Home Schooling mum:-) We’ve been talking about it… but maybe it’s a good time to start:-)
That’s quite a bit! So a good place to stop:-)
Christmas 2009
A couple of years ago, the Advent season was when I started blogging daily (or nearly so). I maintained it until probably May-ish last year, and then a few times a week for about another 12 months. This year? I think I managed a couple of Food Posts through Advent, and that’s about it.
Mind you, this Advent has been lacking in a lot of my usual preparations! I have Ice Cream Plum Pudding in the house, because that’s essentially what I was doing for our family Christmas dinner. I have Gingerbread Dough in the freezer, because I made a double quantity when we made gingerbread houses at Halloween. I have the makings of Fruit Mince Pies (pre-rolled pastry in the freezer and a bottle of mince). We’ve read a pile of Christmas books. We made an Advent Chain. But that’s about as far as any similarity to previous Christmasses goes.
Before I get too disappointed though, I should point out that we have made quite a few presents this year! There should (I hope!) be several individual posts, once I download photos, but Puggle and I have been woodworking, and Bilby and I have sewn. Puggle made a small wooden boat for Cygnet, and a set of stilts for Bilby (as well as a pair of stilts for his Secret Santa, and he helped to sew an apron for Cygnet’s Secret Santa). Bilby made a woodworking apron for Puggle, five balloon juggling balls and a grab bag for her Secret Santa, and some Chocolate Coated Almonds for her grandparents. Me? I have finally finished the Pink Tower and (almost! still have to put the finish on) the Brown Stair. I’ve made (with some help from Puggle) several sets of Tree Blocks for some of the smaller children of our acquaintance. I have made three Bench Hooks (two to suit western saws, and one for japanese saws). And I’ve made a wooden forest (barring the dye-ing and finishing) (like blocks, but shaped like trees, rather than trees made from tree branches). I’ve sewn bags for the tree blocks (I still have one more to go, and a similar bag for the wooden forest), and three apron/chef’s hat sets… with accompanying bag. I’ve also been painting the IKEA abacus we got for Cygnet, to match the colours of the Right Start one:-) We did also make jam as part of our Christmas preparation.
I’m still anticipating doing our usual family calendar, and I’m hoping we’ll get to the cards—but obviously that won’t be happening by Christmas time!
So, a bit of a hit and miss. I keep reminding myself though, we can’t do everything! And we have been doing a lot of French during this time:-) Reminding me of more posts I have been meaning to write!
Hope your Christmasses were all lovely, and that the rest of your Festive Season is safe and joyous!
Food Post Friday
Food for the Week
Friday: Pies
Saturday: Slow-roast Pork Belly with Lentils
Sunday: Chicken Biryani
Monday: Vegetarian Lasagne (from last week)
Tuesday: Gnocchi with Roasted tomato and Capsicum sauce
Wednesday: at Grandma and Grandad’s
Thursday: Steak and Chinese Fried Noodle Salad
Meat: 4/5 (Almost certainly dinner with the folks is meat) Vegetarian: 2 Fish: 0 (not doing so well at the moment)
Food Post Friday
Friday: Home made Pizza
Saturday: Out to dinner with the siblings
Sunday: Lamb and Spinach Curry
Monday: Dinner with Granny and Grandpa
Tuesday: Sushi, probably Tamago and Spinach, and California Roll
Wednesday: Vegetarian Lasagna
Thursday: Vegetable Kebabs with Pesto
Meat: 2 (probably 4), Vegetarian: 2 1/2, Fish: 1/2
Food Post Friday
Friday: Freezer (Potato Curry), Banana Split
Saturday: Birthday dinner for Grandad
Sunday: Roast Chicken with Roast vegies
Monday: Chicken Spaghetti, Syllabub with Raspberries
Tuesday: Broccoli and Anchovy Pasta
Wednesday: BBQ—Sausages and Potato Salad
Thursday: TFC
Meat: 4, Vegetarian: 1+1 ish, Fish: 1 and a bit
Food Post Friday
Friday: Poached Eggs and Asparagus
Saturday: Parmesan Chicken Breasts with Crispy Posh Ham, mashed potato/sweet potato and Spinach
Sunday: Indian with friends
Monday: Something from the freezer, Red Beans and Rice?
Tuesday: Pasta with Pesto (and I’ll bake something for dessert and coffee… we’ll see what inspires me closer to the time)
Wednesday: Chickpea Tagine With Figs
Thursday: BBQ Ribs with Beans, and Peas with Marjoram Dressing (that’s right, I haven’t blogged that! Maybe this will be the week:-)
Tally: 2 meat, 3 vegetarian, 0 fish (2 to be decided later… makes me lean towards the Green Curry in the freezer, it has fish)
Food Post Friday
Friday: Quiche (bottomless quiche… I chop up some vegies, stick it in a dish, beat up some egg, pour it over and cook it)
Saturday: Beef Stifado (this lives again… I think we might actually cook it this week!)
Sunday: Roast Lamb with Roast Vegies
Monday: Tasty Fish Bake (from Jamie’s Dinners) with Granny and Grandpa
Tuesday: Pasta with Eggplant
Wednesday: Dinner with Grandma and Grandad
Thursday: Kebabs with Greek Salad
