Savory Squirrel Bakes

Today is a fun day for reading blogs... you know in the cracks when we're not celebrating a birthday!

I contributed several of my posts to both the Charlotte Mason Carnival of Blogs and the Carnival of Homeschooling, both are up today.  Grab a cuppa something and have a read ;)

Today for Cullen's birthday, Javen's contribution was a special lunch!  See what he made for his brother?!

Savory Squirrel Bakes

For the last couple years the boys have been REALLY into reading the Redwall series.  While this series may be classified as 'twaddle' by CM purists, it certainly isn't dumbed down.  The animal characters all have unique accents and tendencies, for example the rabbits throughout the series are always a favorite, because according to Javen, 'they're hilarious and they've got English accents'.  Uncle Stevie and Aunt Bethany (more fotos here) bought Javen The Redwall Cookbook when they came to visit and he's been begging ever since to cook something from it.  Today was the day.  How much more special of a birthday present could you conceive of on your 11th birthday than a special meal cooked by your 12 year old brother?!  Well, I thought it was pretty special indeed.

It was also kind of an educational experience as well.  Here's how:

• First, he had to make a shopping list (he copied down all the ingredients),
• he helped me translate it to Spanish to take to the market,
• then he had to translate the whole recipe in order to tell Marmee (our house helper) how she could help (peel, grate, etc.) in Spanish,
• he had to follow the recipe... measure, use the timer, etc.
• and he got cooking experience!  

Now, the meal was a little plain and wouldn't have been enough if I hadn't thrown a couple of chicken breasts on the grill... but hey, for a first meal, he did GREAT!!  :)  And I was SO proud of him as the idea was entirely his own... ahhhh.  So perfect.

PS. Be honest, how many from the title actually thought we'd cooked squirrels?! hahahahahah!

Free Stuff

At HomeschoolEStore.com they give something away every week: This week they are giving away some Patriotic Holiday Notebooking Pages by Amanda Bennett. Go check them out. They have some good discounts on stuff too. I also just found the recipe for the most yummy dessert in the world that I haven't had in a long time!! STRAWBERRY PRETZEL DESSERT -------------------------- 2 c. crushed pretzels 3 tbsp. sugar 1 stick butter 1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, room temperature 1 c. sugar (powdered or regular) 12 oz. Cool Whip 2 c. boiling water 2 (3 oz.) pkgs. strawberry Jello 2 (10 oz.) pkgs. frozen strawberries Mix crushed pretzels with sugar and butter. Press into 9"x13" pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool. Mix cream cheese and sugar. Fold in Cool Whip. Spread over pretzel mixture. Add frozen strawberries to hot Jello (Jello and water). Stir until strawberries thaw and Jello starts to thicken. Pour on top of rest of dessert. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit Cooks.com Recipe Search for the most recipes! http://www.cooks.com So, there you have it. Free stuff everyweek from HomeschoolEStore and a free recipe! I'll see ya around! :) Amy

Wednesday, July 5, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by nsremom (209.218.200.194)

I just had that dessert for the first time YESTERDAY. I dislike pretzels, but they were fabulous in that dessert. Yummmmm. I ate too much. Did you still celebrate the 4th there??

Wednesday, July 5, 2006 - recipe

Posted by Jimmie (219.141.3.10)

Waa waaa... I love that dessert too! You can make that??? I can't find half of those ingredients here! Cooking western foods can be a real chore. Last night we had soft tacos. I was thinking of all the different places I had to shop to get all the ingredients -- a total of five different shops! And I made homemade tortillas and homemade sour cream. And the taco spice was brought in from America! What a pain! But it was delicious! Even though we had mozarrella cheese instead of cheddar. :-) Can't find cheddar here. Sigh.... it's a lot easier to just eat Chinese style. But we sure do miss home foods after a while.

Thursday, July 6, 2006 - NO, I can't make it here! There's no cool whip! :(

Posted by amada (201.240.131.113)

I just LOVE it and found it on the internet and want to put it in my book because we'll be back where I can buy Coolwhip and pretzels soon! ;) Jimmie, I can sympathize... only just recently (last 4 months) we can buy tortillas here and sour cream (granted they aren't exactly the same, but...) I used to make my own tortillas (WAY too much work) and we went without sour cream... how do you make that?! And I always have to go to lots of places to round everything up as well. Oh the woes! But every now and then it IS worth the trouble! I've become very creative and found lots of things I can make from scratch that I never would have known was possible. All that to say, I just drooled over the recipe when I found it because I'd forgotten about the delicious-ness of that dessert! But I'll have to wait to have it of course. Only one more month :)

Saved by the BRAN!

NO, this is not a blog about digestive issues... I was literally saved by the bran when it came to breakfasts for my houseguests! So, the night before my guests arrived I made this HUGE batch of bran muffin batter and I'm telling you, I made A LOT of muffins each morning, (18, I think) and it lasted me the whole three days that my guest stayed! AND they're REALLY yummy! If you use my recipe, please post a comment! I may just have to publish my own cookbook someday... Here's the recipe... (as you can see, I did not anticipate scanning this when I wrote it! Yikes, my penmanship is terrible. I just copied it down quickly over the phone... it's been in our family for years...) Now, here's what I did to make it REALLY convenient. It didn't take up too much refridgerator space, and it was pretty easy for putting the batter into the muffin cups: Now you can store this bran muffin batter for like at least a week in the fridge. Thankfully for us, we have a store here that sells some imported grocery items. One of those is ALL Bran cereal! Yay. When I saw it, I bought 4 boxes or so, because we LOVE bran muffins! You never know if what they have in the store will be an item they'll be able to get more of or not, so when it's there you have to stock up! My mom has to send us powdered buttermilk though, because although there possibly is such a thing here, I have no idea where to look or even what to ask for in Spanish! I'd love to know if anyone knows this or has any ideas. I don't even know how to describe what buttermilk is in Spanish! Okay, I'll be posting several times today to catch up. Amy

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by mistresninos (71.104.21.176)

Glad you had a nice visit and the muffins lasted the whole time. I'd make them but I'm fairly certain that Bran is "evil" in our house (my youngest son has Celiac Disease). re: your comment on my blog...you are a genius. Someone that resourceful should be a missionary. ;-)

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - Untitled Comment

Posted by nsremom (71.32.254.253)

I started reading your post thinking it was a parallel to the woman with the oil that doesn't run out....LOL. I had no idea where your post was headed....thought it might end up on the miracle end...ha,ha. Ya know...3 days worth of Bran Muffins could be a miracle....

Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - What, no buttermilk?

Posted by KayinMaine (216.220.249.220)

I never stopped to consider the kind of everyday sacrifices missionaries make. Surely God will richly reward those of you who willingly give of yourselves in so many ways. BTW, I think your penmanship is quite neat!

Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - Homemade "buttermilk"

Posted by coffeemamma (70.49.136.58)

We don't buy it (even though our local grocery store does carry it) since I found this recipe in an old cook book of my mom's: For every cup of milk, add one tablespoon of lemon juice. Stir well, then let stand five minutes, stirring well again before using.