Trevor's Art-It

Trevor has been doing a lot of drawing recently.  He's always enjoyed drawing, but in the past his drawing has been mostly creating and decorating his own mazes, designing fun golf courses, or drawing imaginary chain reactions.  Then all of a sudden, he started asking me what I want him to draw.  After 50+ suggestions, I was totally out of ideas.  I tried having him come up with his own ideas, but he wasn't interested in that.  So I printed out some drawing games to spark his creativity, including this Monster Draw and this Roll-a-Miro.

Both are versions of art activities that have been around forever.  I did something similar with my students back in my teaching days, but it's something I've never done with Trevor. He was SO excited to try it.  Basically, there are two different ways to play.  You can simply roll one die, check the chart to see what shape you'll use for the first body part, then draw it. Or, if you use two dice, you can play a competitive game similar to Cootie.  We did the non-competitive drawing activity rather than make it a game.  Here's one of Trevor's first creatures:

 

And here's one of mine:

After we played a few rounds, Trevor announced that he wanted to make his own version of a drawing game and that it would be called "Trevor's Art-It."  We headed to the computer to make the grid.  He carefully selected the body parts and the color schemes for his chart, then we printed it out.  Then he designed each of the shapes, incorporating ideas from the two other sheets and adding his own ideas.  He asked me to copy his shapes onto the chart, as he didn't want to mess up on the paper and have to start again.  Here's his finished Art-It.

He was beyond thrilled with the final product.  We immediately played a few rounds of Trevor's Art-It. The first time, we both rolled the same color scheme:

 

Here's one more set of drawings:

 

 

We had so much fun with these!  Best of all, they have really sparked Trevor's creativity and he's no longer asking me for ideas of what to draw.  Win-win! 

Cupcake Wars (Part Two)

As you might recall, we held a family Cupcake Wars competition back in September.  Trevor and I picked 12 ingredients and printed each on an index card.  We taped a grid onto the floor and put an ingredient in each box.  One by one, we tossed beanbags into the grid to determine what each of our secret ingredients would be, then we each made our cupcakes. Trevor ended up using two additional secret ingredients for his final cupcake, which left four ingredients in the grid after our competition.  

Grandma came to visit the next day.  Trevor was so excited to show her the grid of ingredients and to have her taste the cupcakes we'd saved for her.  He suggested Grandma try throwing beanbags to see what her mystery ingredients would be.  When hers landed on pineapple and grape jelly, she said she would accept the challenge.  She hasn't delivered her cupcakes yet, but we patiently await them.

That left two ingredients unclaimed.  

I asked my mom to take the two index cards plus a lime and a chunk of cheese and leave them on my sister's doorstep with no explanation.  Mom agreed, but said there was no chance that Kari was going to accept the challenge, as she hates lime, the rest of her family won't eat cheese, and they were leaving on vacation within a week.  Mom was correct.  Kari had no interest in making a lime and cheese cupcake. Drat.

Over the next few weeks, I thought about the lime and cheese challenge on and off.  I couldn't let it go- I really wanted to see if it was possible to make a yummy cupcake featuring both lime and cheese.  So I decided to try.  Of course, I could have gone the easy route and used cream cheese or mascarpone or even ricotta.  But that isn't much of a challenge and not in the spirit of Cupcake Wars.  So I used this:

 

Again, I could have taken the easy route and incorporated the goat cheese into the frosting. But no.  I wanted to see if I could include it successfully in the cake itself.  My plan was to make a basic yellow cake batter, cut the goat cheese into small pieces, and mix the pieces into the batter.  I thought it would bake up sort of melty and swirly.  I zested some lime into the batter and baked.  The cupcakes came out of the oven looking and smelling good.  I immediately brushed the tops with a lime syrup I'd made while they were baking, then I set them aside to cool.  

I make a very good lemon buttercream frosting, so I substituted lime juice and zest for the lemon in my usual recipe.  Then I candied some lime slices for garnish.  Here's the finished lime and cheese cupcake:

So, how did it taste?  Well, let's just say that the frosting was fantastic but the cupcake itself was definitely not.  While I'd expected the goat cheese to melt and swirl, it actually dried up into chalky little chunks that clumped up in the otherwise tasty cupcake.

Eaten on its own, the cake part was not very good.  However, the frosting was excellent and did a good job of masking the weird cake when eaten together.  All in all, a fun experiment! I'm just glad I didn't actually get lime and cheese for our original Cupcake War, as I would have lost for sure.  (Oh yeah... I lost anyway....)

Cub Scout Astronomy Night

Back in my teaching days, our school had Space Week each December.  The whole school got into it and we had so much fun.  It was definitely one of my favorite weeks each year.  My 5th grade students did an in-depth study of our solar system, then each wrote and illustrated a children's book.  They then read their books to the K-2 students.  I really regret not scanning (or at least photographing) my students' work.  Some of the books were stunning and incredibly impressive for 5th graders.

There are a lot of things I miss about teaching.  Space Week is one of them.  So even though I have a zillion things to do this month, I pushed all those commitments aside and volunteered to plan and run an Astronomy Night for our Cub Scout Pack.  I planned the evening around the three requirements the boys needed to do to earn an Astronomy belt loop:

1. Demonstrate how to focus a simple telescope or binoculars.
2. Draw a diagram of our solar system, labeling planets and other objects.
3. Explain the following terms: planet, star, solar system, galaxy, Milky Way, black hole, red giant, white dwarf, comet, meteor, moon, asteroid, star map, universe.

We started the evening with Space Bingo.  I took the 14 terms from Requirement #3 and added 11 more space-related terms to make 25-item bingo cards.  However, this wasn't ordinary bingo.  I didn't call the actual word- I read its definition and the boys had to figure out which word to mark on their cards.  By the end of 5 rounds of bingo, the boys were fairly confident with what each term meant. 

   

Next, I divided the boys into two groups.  One group headed outdoors with Steve and his telescopes.  Steve is an extremely knowledgable amateur astronomer and was able to share so much information with the kids.  We were blessed with a beautifully clear night and a great view of Jupiter.  The kids loved it.  Each boy had plenty of time to practice focusing a telescope (Requirement #1).     

Meanwhile, I stayed inside with the second group.  I used the boys to create a living model of the solar system.  One boy, representing the sun, stood still in the center of the room holding a big hula hoop over his head.  Another boy, holding a globe, rotated and revolved around the sun.  We talked about what each rotation represents (day/night) and what each revolution means (a year).  We added a moon (holding a ping pong ball), who revolved around the earth while the earth was revolving around the sun.  We talked about what each moon revolution represented (a month).  The remaining boys represented other planets in the solar system. We talked about our living model, then drew a diagram on paper (Requirement #2).

Finally, we discussed what astronauts take with them into space.  They quickly mentioned there is not a lot of room to pack.  One way to conserve space is to pack dehydrated food.  I told the boys that we'd be having a pretend space launch at the end of the evening and that they'd each be packing a dehydrated snack.  Each boy carefully measured 2 T. of a mystery dehydrated substance into a baggie.  They were dying to know what they'd be eating!
 

After each group had done all the indoor and outdoor activities, we came together for a game of True/False tag.  I explained to the boys that I'd say a sentence using one of the 14 key terms from Requirement #1.  If it was true, they would run one way.  If it was false, they'd run the other.  Each team tried to tag the other members.  They boys loved it and it really reinforced the information they'd learned during the bingo game.

Next up was an award ceremony.  All of the boys successfully met the three requirements, so they each received their Astronomy belt loop.  Hurray!

Finally it was time for our snack, but first we had to pretend to blast into space.  We talked about the fact that water is a by-product from the fuel cells on the space shuttle.  We also discussed the difficulties of pouring water in an environment without gravity.  So instead of pouring the water, the boys had to use the syringe to suction it and carefully add it to their mystery snack.

    

They zipped their bags closed and kneaded it to rehydrate the mystery food.  Then we snipped the corner off each bag and they slurped their food.  At this point, most of them still had no idea what they were eating!  In fact, if a big sister hadn't told them, I don't think any of them would know that they were enjoying vanilla pudding.

What a fun night!

Gingerbread Birdhouse

I love decorating gingerbread houses, so when I saw that the latest Fiskateer challenge was to decorate a wooden birdhouse gingerbread-style, I knew I wanted to play along. By happy coincidence, Trevor and I had bought some super cheap wooden birdhouse ornaments on clearance recently, so I had all the supplies I needed already.

I started by painting the birdhouse with a base coat of brown paint. When that was dry, I carefully painted white everywhere the icing would be on a real gingerbread house. Then it was time to decorate! Here's my finished gingerbread birdhouse ornament. 

I made the candy cane perch by wrapping a teeny sliver of red paper around the white post, carefully gluing the ends in place. The shingles were made with the Scalloped Sentiment border punch. The small and large circles were from the Bubbles border punch. I added Glossy Accents over the top to make them shine like candies would.

 

Trevor hasn't finished his birdhouse yet. After he painted a base coat of red, he started on another project and worked on that while I did my birdhouse.  

 

He'll probably end up finishing his birdhouse in the next few days. 99% of the time Trevor finishes what he starts. For those rare times he just isn't in the mood or wants to work on a different project, that's ok with me. 

The Top 10 Jewish...

My friend (and former dance partner) Adam Diament is incredibly awesome. What I love most about Adam is that he is always challenging himself, always learning (he has a PhD and a law degree), and is always accomplishing something new. I blogged about him and his super cool counties project here. His latest project was writing a book.

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The Top 10 Jewish... contains over 100 ranked lists, ranging from the Top 10 Jewish Summer Olympians (Marc Spitz, Mitch Gaylord, Kerri Strug), the Top 10 Peculiar Commandments ("Do not destroy fruit trees, even in time of war"), and the Top 10 Gentiles Who Seem Jewish (Joy Behar, Jason Biggs, Robin Williams). The lists are fascinating. Some are informative, some controversial, and some hilarious. Many prompted me to head to Google to learn more.

But of all the lists, the one that interested me the most was the Top 10 Jewish Foods. When I made my list of 40 Things, I decided that one of the things I wanted to do was try any of the foods on the list that I hadn't had before.

In case it isn't obvious, I'm not Jewish. But between my years of studying the Old Testament in Sunday School and an incredibly challenging Jewish Studies course in college, I feel like I have a general idea of the basics. I've attended three Jewish weddings (including Adam's), I've been to a seder, and I was at a friend's baby-naming ceremony at a synagogue, so I've had a number of opportunities to eat Jewish food. But there were still a few foods on the list that I had never tried. So, without further ado, here is my attempt to eat the Top 10 Jewish Foods.

Top 10 Jewish Foods

1. Latkes

I've had latkes before many times. I've made them several times. They are, in a word, delicious.

2. Matzah ball soup

Believe it or not, I had never tried matzah ball soup until last month! I've always wanted to try it but never specifically made plans to make it or seek it out. We recently ate at a New York style deli and there it was on the menu. It was so good!

3. Bagels, lox, and cream cheese

I *love* bagels, with or without cream cheese. Lox, no. I've tried it before - a teeny, tiny, itty bite to get someone off my case about not trying it. I am open to trying most foods, but there are two categories that repulse me: insects and seafood. If you gave me a choice between eating a cockroach or eating catfish, it would be a tough decision. There's a good chance I'd choose the insect, as the thought of seafood absolutely nauseates me.

People always assume I grew up in a family that didn't eat seafood. Sadly, that is not the case. My parents love it and we had seafood at least once a week growing up. I was repulsed by it then and continue to be repulsed 40 years later. "But _____ is so good!" people tell me. I don't care. It's disgusting and shouldn't be a food and I don't want to eat it. I hear that grasshoppers are tasty, but I have no more interest in trying your calamari or salmon or mussels or trout than I would in trying your plate of grasshoppers, beetles, moths, or crickets. I have eaten a tiny bite of every seafood that exists to get people off my case. (A surprising number of people over the years have been bothered by my not eating seafood.)

4. Challah

What's not to love about challah? Bread is my favorite food, so of course I've had challah many times. I've made it once or twice as well.

5. Knish

I had a vague idea of what a knish was when I read the Top 10 list, but I'd never had one. I did a bunch of research and chose this recipe to make my own. There were a lot of steps - making the dough, making mashed potatoes (enter the Rotato!), rolling out the dough, filling and shaping the dough, then finally baking. At one point, I swore I'd never make them again no matter how good they tasted. But then I actually tasted the finished product. They were absolutely delicious. Imagine a thin, biscuit-like crust surrounding smooth and rich mashed potatoes. Fantastic. I'd planned to freeze the leftover knishes but we ended up eating them for dinner three nights in a row. Yum.

6. Gefilte Fish

I can't swear that I've tried gefilte fish, but it's highly probable (see #3). If I've never actually tried it, oh well. I will not be eating it in the future.

7. Hamentashen

When I first read the list, I had to Google hamentashen to find out what it was. Turns out it's a triangular-shaped cookie with a fruit filling. I *might* have had them before, but unlike the gefilte fish, I'm more than willing to try it again just to be sure. After reading a bunch of recipes, I chose this one to make. I added lemon zest to the dough (most of the other recipes suggested that) and used raspberry jam as the filling. They were SO good.

8. Matzah brei

Back to Google for this one. I know what matzah is, obviously, but I didn't know about the brei part. Well, it turns out brei means "fried" and that matzah brei is essentially softened matzah in scrambled eggs. I like matzah and I like scrambled eggs. As I read on, I learned that there are two factions when it comes to matzah brei: those who like a savory version with onions and those who like a sweet version with cinnamon sugar or jam. Wait, what?! Cinnamon sugar on scrambled eggs?! Sounds like crazy-talk.

I was wary about the sweet version and decided I was firmly in the savory camp. But the more that I thought about it, the more I realized I needed to try both versions since they are equally popular. I announced to my ever-tolerant family that we'd be having matzah brei for both dinner and dessert. Neither my husband nor my son was particularly enthusiastic.

Following these recipes, I carmelized some onions, soaked some matzah in water, and added both to eggs. A little salt and pepper, then I scrambled them up and served them for dinner.

I thought it was pretty good. Steve and Trevor both picked at it, but eventually ate it and declared it ok. Then I returned to the stove to make the sweet version. This time, I soaked the matzah in milk, added a pinch of sugar, cracked in eggs, and scrambled that up. I got out raspberry jam and cinnamon sugar. I tried both the jam.....

.... and the cinnamon sugar.

I was worried that sweet eggs with mushy crackers in it would be awful, but I actually loved it. The jam was good, but the cinnamon sugar was outstanding. Trevor agreed and ate every bite. Steve had the opposite experience. He could barely choke down the three small bites I'd served him. He absolutely hated it. Of course, he doesn't have a sweet tooth, while Trevor and I love anything and everything sweet.

9.  Falafel

I've had falafel a handful of times. I like it. I've never made them though - something to try in the near future.

10.  Hummus

I've had hummus many times and like it too.


So there you go! Goal #33 accomplished, just in time for (C)han(n)uk(k)a(h)! (You can find out the Top 10 Ways to Spell (C)han(n)uk(k)a(h) on page 5 of Adam's book.) Thanks to Adam for the awesome book and the inspiration for this goal. I strongly recommend his book to any of you, Jewish or not. It's a really fun and interesting read!