Basic Food Prep Skills

Yesterday we had to have a fire during our history lesson because the weather dropped down into the 60s!!!

Lately I've been trying to make more of an effort of teaching my children basic food preparation skills.  The girls are very motivated and excited to learn, Luke not so much.  I need to get that boy a little bit independent so that we can kick him out of the house when he turns eighteen.  (When I told Luke to curl his fingers of the hand holding the lemon he said, "Don't worry, I play the piano."  I guess meaning, Don't worry I know the drill of having to curl my fingers.)

Here is Sylvia squeezing some lemons on the turkey.

Quite a few years ago a friend gave me this turkey brine recipe and I've used it ever since.

1 cup kosher salt 1 cup brown sugar 2 oranges, quartered 2 lemons, quartered 6 sprigs of thyme 4 sprigs of rosemary

Put turkey in 2 kitchen garbage bags in 5 gallon bucket.  Add ingredients and enough water to cover the turkey.  Let soak for 4 to 24 hours in refrigerator.  Rinse well after taking out.

Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts

Almost a couple of years ago I emailed a publisher complimenting a book I really liked that they had published (Fairy Tale Feasts by Jane Yolen, Philippe Beha and Heidi  E. Y. Stemple.)   She replied to me, then passed my email along to the authors and illustrator.  The other day I received an email from Heidi E. Y. Stemple.  She created the recipes for the book. Hello Sabrina--

A long time ago you wrote to Interlink books to compliment my book Fairy Tale Feasts.

You said you hoped there was another book like it.  I came upon your email in my inbox today while cleaning out the (oops) 374 saved emails and I thought I should write to tell you that we are, right now, working on a Jewish Fairy Tale Feasts.

It will take a couple years to come out (I'm just working on the recipes) but, it will eventually show up at a bookstore near you.

Back to the kitchen!

Heidi Stemple

Maybe she was just trying to advertise the new book, but still, I think it was very nice of her to email me!

Five Chimpanzees and "This Word Called, Wonder"

Luke was working on a few pages in his workbook that taught about the dictionary which he already knows about but I thought it would be a good refresher.  On one page he had to look up and write down the definition of three words and then use each word in a sentence.  Here are Luke's sentences.  The words are in italics. 1.  I had to look up the word chemical. 2.  I had to search for electric too. 3.  I even had to look up this word called, wonder.

Sheesh, but I don't blame him.  I remember in school thinking that making sentences for our vocabulary words was lame.  I would even try to make each sentence somehow be about vitamins just to make it more interesting.

Luke and Isabel made up their own lyrics for the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas...very creative...and weird.

On the Twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me... 12 monsters chomping 11 mustached men 10 happy people 9 pencils writing 8 boxes of candy 7 hopes of happy 6 trampolines 5 chimpanzeeeeeeeeees 4 toy soldiers 3 packs of gum 2 Lego games and a baby in a bassinet.

We also made this N0-Cook Recipe: Peppermint Fudge.  (I love how you throw it in a Ziploc gallon bag and let the kids mix it with their hands.  And of course the No-Bake part)

Peppermint Fudge

Several Candy Canes 3 one-gallon reclosable bags rolling pin 1 pound of powdered sugar 1 stick of butter (or margarine) 1/2 cup baking cocoa 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1.  Place the candy canes in a reclosable bag.  Use a rolling pin to crush them.

2. Place the remaining ingredients in a second bag, add the crushed candy, and zip it.  For extra protection, double-bag the ingredients by placing the zipped bag inside a third bag.

3.  Pass the bag around and have each child squeeze and knead until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed and pull away from the sides of the bag.  Spread the mixture in an 8-inch-square pan, refrigerate until cool, then use a cookie cutter or knife to cut into pieces.