Quiet, busy... (making sushi with kids)

Today...

Lots of rain... lightning and thunder

Cozy blankets

Breakfast and movie in bed... "The Wiz" (emerald city in NYC) and apple cider donuts...

Some quiet stillness...

and when our belly's rumble ...

We head downstairs to make sushi.

(below is a quick visual tutorial)

A good adventurous project for little hands... but try it yourself before hand to get the hang of it. I used ingredients Honeypie was familiar with, egg, cucumber, cheese and ham... only because that is what she requested...

but use what ever your child loves.

This is a great book to read to children if you would like to introduce the eating of sushi. Yoko is a kitty from japan and she loves to eat the sushi her mama makes her in her lunch box but the kids in her class think she is weird and make fun of her until ... they actually taste the yummy goodness! A good book that deals with diversity.

and beautiful drawings too by Rosemary Wells.

The book below is a great book on sushi making for a beginner.

Its is just like the title says... easy!!

Tuck in your fingers and use carefully!!

Egg omelette

Nori and vinegar/sugar seasoned rice

rolling forward

Mama cuts them

mmm...tamago

cradle rice in your hand like small bundle

Wet the cutter lightly so rice does not stick

Press deeply

Delicious!

Hope you might try this... Honeypie ate it all!

^-^ ~birdycake

Sea shell memory game

"MOD PODGE STINKS!!!" says honeypie

We participated in this weeks theme at unplug your kids which was "OCEAN". It has been a while since we visited... seems we have been cooking together alot instead of crafting and we had fun!

We got the idea for this project from last months "Family Fun Magazine". It was to create a memory game using sea shells and stickers. So perfect for this weeks theme and the idea of saying goodbye to summer.

Well, this summer has been quite a wet one and the times we were at the beach, the waves were so rough, I am sure that is why we could only find shell bits on our sea shell hunt.

So, we visited our local craft store and purchased some.

All you need for this project is some sea shells, some cute ocean stickers, doubles of each picture since it is a matching game, and mod podge (though honeypie HATED the smell of it). I suggest using this only is you want to seal the stickers. It adds a glossy affect to the shells. Though i wonder what acrylic medium or regular elmers glue would do. Mod podge does stink!!

You can store your game in a cute box and pop it out on a rainy or snowy day, to be reminded of summer days.

This was a fast project and not complicated at all, great for little hands.

^_^ ~ birdycake

Figs

Today honeypie and I are fighting over the Brie ... Cheese that is! We only have a sliver left and it will taste soooooo good with our farmer's market find of the day... FIGS !!
Honeypie would rather have the cheese alone all to herself and today will be her first taste of figs...
I slice them in half, place a small piece of Brie on top, and top them off with a drizzle of honey.
It is HEAVEN for me...
It is delicious, she says, Devine! I kid you not... She said "DEVINE"! Little gal after my own heart.

2 over ripe bananas hanging on the kitchen stand stare at me... Honey? Figs? ... Bananas?
We grab 6 figs and make delicious banana, honey and fig muffins... Totally inspired.



















And what did we do with the rest of our farmer's market bounty?
We painted stilllife's ofcourse. The temptation of all those colors was too hard to resist !








Honeypie added happy faces to the vegetables... Because "the veggies are happy to be so good for you!!"




- Post From My iPhone
^_^ birdycake on the go!

homemade butter and orecchiette

Honeypie and I have been reading "My first little house books" by Laura Ingalls Wilder, which are smaller versions, more picture based stories taken from the "Little house on the prairie" books and we love them!

They are a great introduction for little ones into the life during the prairie/ pioneer times in the woods of Wisconsin and I can't wait until Honeypie is ready for the chapter books.

Today I am mary (not Ma) and she is Laura. Baby Carrie is sleeping in a crib in the other room and we can't wake her! Ma has told us our job is to make the butter, so off we go to do some kind-of butter churning...

(These are the ingredients plus a marble you toss in for easier shakin'!)

Shake ...shake...shake... (for a looooong time) maybe 15 minutes...

Its getting there...

All Done!

Delicious!

And now for some Homemade pasta dough... nothing to do with pioneer times but we want that butter with a little parmesan cheese on top of Orecchiette!

(By the way a great pasta to make with little hands! Honeypie had alot of fun making them all by herself!!!)

Add 2 cups of flour

(i used half white and half whole wheat which makes for a slightly denser pasta which will need to cook a bit longer)

Blend both flours

Add 3 eggs

A nice pinch of salt

a tablespoon of olive oil

Begin mixing the dough. (Add a little bit of water if the dough is not soft enough)

When the dough forms nicely into a ball... have your little one pinch a bit off the size of a marble. Roll it into a tiny ball and then press it between thumb and finger to form a dent like an ear... thus the name orecchiette...italian for ear, which is a fun little fact for little ones.

Once the orecchiette was done we played around with the extra dough...

We picked some basil from the garden

We boiled the orecchiette in some salted water and added the basil, our homemade butter and a sprinkle of parmesan...

Tasty!

We also played around making some ravioli with homemade spinach pesto...

but i think i need a pasta maker for the rolling...

mmmmm, I am sensing new adventures...!