Happy Independence Day!

 We are having a cook out with some of our favorite relatives and then we will go off and watch fireworks.  How exciting is that?  This will be the first time I've gone to the fireworks since Mxyl was born!

To celebrate, Klenda and I made a cake and decorated it with these candy fireworks.

They are way easier than they look.  I got the idea and instructions here. Basically you make lollipops (boil sugar, water, and corn syrup) and then you drip the molten candy onto baking paper.

We did a white background leaving one big drip for the handle, and the drizzled blue and red to make the firework bursting effect.  I made sure to make at least one for each kid.

Overheard

Leena :  What is the name of Zooplankton's dog?

Choclo: (Blank look.)

Leena: Fidoplankton! 

The Monthly Dish

Totally stealing from Moving to Maryland's Cookbook Club, I've started a monthly recipe share with the Hyattsville Moms list I'm on and calling it The Monthly Dish. The only reason I'm not just joining the Cookbook Club, is that they are doing recipes with more expensive ingredients than my budget can handle for 8 people.  Other than that, I highly recommend it!  Anyway, since it was my turn this month, I thought I'd cross post my offering here.

I thought I'd start off with Indian food.  I learned to cook Indian from my friend Bharati.  The year I learned to make jam, I made some as Christmas presents for everyone in the lab I worked with.  I ended up with more than I thought, so I gave some to the people I worked with in an associated lab, and one of these was Bharati.  She offered to trade: if I would teach her to make jam, she would teach me to make Indian food. 

What a deal!  That started a great friendship and, the next Christmas, she gave me Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking so that I could learn to cook meat (she was Hindu and only cooked vegetarian herself). This is one of my favorite recipes from that book, modified so that it is faster to cook and not too spicy for kids.  This will feed 4 -6 pretty easily (cut up chicken breasts in sauce stretch pretty far) but you can always add a little more chicken:

Chicken with Roasted Coriander in a Coconut Curry Sauce

• 3 T Coriander seeds (or 2 T coriander powder - I have a ton of this if anyone needs some)
• 1/4 t Fenugreek seeds (optional; I also have a ton of this if you want to use it)
• 2 t Black peppercorns (or 1 t ground pepper)
• 6 T Oil
• 2 Medium onions sliced into thin half rings
• 2" Cinnamon stick
• 4-5 Cloves of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced (or put through a garlic press)
• 2 t Grated fresh ginger
• 1/2 t Ground turmeric (can use curry powder instead)
• 1 Large or 2 medium skinless, boneless chicken breasts, in bite sized cubes
• 1 can Coconut milk
• 1 1/2 t Salt
• 1 T Lemon juice

1) If using whole seeds, toast them in the microwave: put coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, and peppercorns on a paper plate, uncovered; microwave 30-40 seconds, stir, and microwave until you can smell them (usu. about 30-40 seconds more).  Then, grind them in a clean coffee grinder or with mortar and pestle.

2) Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-hot heat.  Fry the onions, cinnamon stick, garlic, and ginger until the onions are light brown. 

3) Add the powdered spices: coriander, fenugreek, pepper, and turmeric.  Fry a few seconds more and then add the chicken.  Fry until browned.

4) Add coconut milk, salt, and lemon juice.  Simmer until chicken is just cooked through, 5-10 minutes. If the chicken was cooked through when you browned it, just heat until the sauce is hot.

5) Serve over rice.


My "other" recipe is for the caramel bars from the Curriculum Tea since some one asked for the recipe.  I love this recipe because it's a very fast "fancy dessert" that actually tastes as good as it looks!  I got the recipe from All Recipes, but, again, I've modified it (from this recipe):

Caramel Bars

• 32 individually wrapped caramels, unwrapped (I actually buy bulk caramel or make this recipe)
  
• 5 tablespoons heavy cream (or half and half)
  
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup (or to taste) semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• Optional: 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, microwave until melted, for drizzling on top

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt together the caramels and heavy cream, stirring occasionally until smooth (or microwave it).
2. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Stir in the melted butter until well blended. Press Half of the mixture into the bottom of a foil lined 9x13 inch baking pan. Reserve the rest.
3. Bake the crust for 8 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove and sprinkle with chocolate chips and walnuts. Pour the caramel mixture over the top and then crumble the remaining crust mixture over everything.
4. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 12 minutes, or until the top is lightly toasted.
   
5. Completely cool (do not cool in refrigerator) then drizzle the top with melted chocolate chips.  Cut into squares or diamonds after the chocolate has hardened.
   

Seven Quick Takes: It's Summer!

1. It's summer!  Yes, for me, summer only truly arrived this Monday when I cleared my portfolio review! I have officially (and literally) closed the books on the 2010-2011 school year.  Everything from here on goes in a new binder for next year!

O frabjous day! (And happy Fourth of July to the rest of you!)

2.Yes, we do school year round, but not the way most people think.  School kids need the summers off because they've just been in "school mode" for 10 months.

If we are ever in that mode, it's in late summer and late winter, when it's too unpleasant out to do much else.  Most of the year we are doing what is best then.

Think of it like eating fruit in season.  Going on long rambling hikes in the Spring.  Doing museums in early Fall when they are nearly empty.  And always doing a little math, because, if you ever stop, it leaks out their ears and you're doomed.

3. Lena finished her "diorama" of the Roaring 20s. Hers took the form of a 3D picture.

The background is a photo of a speakeasy.  Popping off the page (on loops of tape) we have girls dancing the Charleston, gangsters strutting their stuff and one moll dancing on a table.

4.  What is it with Zorg?  He has a knack for taking pictures that reveal something about their subject.  I call it "the eye" and I know I don't have it.  I took photography classes in college and I can tell you why this picture is great, but I couldn't have taken it myself.

Interestingly, both my siblings have "the eye," and in both cases you could see they had it as kids. One is now a nun and a professional artist.  The other is a police officer and a professional photographer.

5.   I love watching Choclo feed the birds.  He is holding up a branch of millet near the cage.  Courage is nibbling away outside the cage, Love is working on it inside the cage, Hope is on Choclo's head, and delight is all over his face.




6. Went to the zoo this week.

How many monkeys do you see in this picture?

If you are missing Klenda, so are we.  She has been off at a horseback riding camp these past two weeks and she "graduates" today!  We'll be happy to have her home and I'm sure I'll have pictures of it up soon.

7. Oob has been having fun dressing up as a "boss."  This is not the  "boss people around" type boss (although I'm sure he wouldn't mind), but more like the "big challenging fight at the end of a level on a video game" type boss.

He dresses himself up as scarily as possible and comes around saying in a teeny tiny gruff voice, "I'm the boss, will you please fight me?"

Note the scary expression. And the shoes.

More with Jen, don't forget to congratulate her on her lovely new little one!

Useful Tips and Advice

Tips & tricks for taking over the world efficiently,

By Motym Valtapaz (known to the world as Your Future Master).

Takeover tip # 1: First, eliminate your rivals. Doctor Doom, Lex Luthor,

Supercalifragilisticexpiallidocious Man, you should defeat them all one by one. If you should miss this very important step, all of the other villains will gang up on you so they can destroy you and then take over the world themselves. Instead, defeat them one by one.

Takeover tip # 2: Stay secret. After all, what's the use of getting all tied up with fighting superheroes if you could just avoid them? Beat the heroes when it's too late, when the world is already under your control, meaning that you are at your maximal power. Then the only way they can save the world is by fighting the very army they used to serve!

Takeover tip # 3: DO NOT attempt to destroy the world. That would be contradicting yourself. Then there wouldn't be any earth to rule! Instead, work on more simple punishments if the people on earth get too annoying. If a whole country rebels, just give it a small earthquake or two and broadcast that it “was only a taste of your power” is as scary a voice as you can, not blast the whole thing to tiny smithereens. Taking over the world requires extreme patience.

Happy Birthday, Grammie Ann!

Happy birthday to one of the most dedicated readers of my blog!  Happy birthday, Grammie!  I wish I could come visit you today and give you a big hug!

Instead, you'll have to settle for this long distance hug and something gingery, coming to your mailbox (hopefully today)!

Have a great day!
LOVE, all the Zoomlians!

Blog Keeping

I've been on a real reorganization rampage (try saying that 5 times fast).  First the basement, then the home school room, then a massive toy cull, followed by a book cull, followed by a reorganization of the living room.

And now the blog!

I went through and pruned all the dead links and added some new ones. I dropped the (unschooling) Sandra Dodd link because while I agree with her about many things,  I found that some of the things she was advocating (particularly regarding tests), while amusing, were not what I wanted to advocate!

I found the gem of a blog,  Journey into Unschooling!  I've been following it a few months and never fail to find it a source of amusement and inspiration.  She also does brilliantly clear tutorials for many of the fun and funky things she does. 

I've also added Toad Haven under home school links.  It's kind of a blog and kind of a fount of the useful, amazing, amusing, and thoughtful.  These people ooze real life education, and I mean that in the best possible way!! 

There are also some new favorite sites, particularly Johnnie's Math Page, a 7-12 portal, and the Physics Game page.

Enjoy!

Haiku Madness

Having the Emperor home for the summer is marvelous! One of the many fringe benefits is random extemporaneous poetry. Over breakfast.

This morning it was Haiku.

From Klenda:

One tree says to two,
"Maple, I would pine for you."
I pick up my axe.

From me:

I struggle for words
Trying to scan this haiku
Almost got it.

From the Emperor:

Seedlings slowly grow
Amid tall, leafless giants--
Remnants of the flames.

Can you tell who was the English major?

US History: Diorama Madness

I wanted to wrap up some of the eras we have been studying, so I asked the Zoomlians to each pick an era and make a diorama. So far, three have finished and they each made a different kind of diorama.
Mxyl made what I think of when I say, " diorama."

He did the Civil War with these cool paper soldiers which you can download for free. We had to shrink them by 50% to get them to fit, but we were very pleased with the results!

Note the dead soldier on the bottom!


Klenda did a "peephole diorama" which was very difficult to photograph. This is where you cut a hole in the end of a covered shoe box and make a scene lit by "sky lights."

She did the Wild West, specifically, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. That's Buffalo Bill on the horse. Can you see Annie Oakley?



Zorg did this somewhat alarming diorama of World War I. He did it in a bin that is viewed from the top so that he could make trenches and tank deterrents.

In the foreground, you can see an unexploded shell, the crater of which has partially collapsed a trench.

I thought the guy caught in the wire was a great touch, but Grammy pronounced it disturbingly realistic. I think I agree!

Leena is still working on her 1920s diorama. My sweet nine year old Sunshine Girl wants to do a speakeasy...

Happy Father's Day!

This Father's Day, we decided to give the Emperor the Royal Treatment.

He got a cape (which can double as his Super Dad cape). It says: His Royal Dadness! All Hail!

He also got a really magnificent crown and a medal, both of which announce, "Number 1 Dad!"

And, of course, he got a mob of kids proclaiming him, "Your Majesty!" and catering to his every whim. What more could a Dad ask for?

Actually, each kid got him a little something ranging from juggling balls (the Emperor is an incorrigible juggler) to a shirt with all the kids hand prints on it (as opposed to all the times he's gotten a chocolatey fingerprint on his tie on his way to work).


He's having a great Father's Day!

Speaking of which, has anyone else noticed that Father's Day isn't an exact parallel to Mother's Day?

I happened to catch the president's weekly radio address, and he used part of it to talk about Father's Day. It was nice, and all. He used it mostly to encourage dads to be good fathers. Not that that's wrong, of course, but I suddenly realized that's the general message on Father's Day: step up to the plate, be a good dad.

Think about that for Mother's Day. Can you imagine if someone said for Mother's Day, "Remember that being a good mom is about being there for your kids. Make time to do stuff with them - go to their games, make cookies with them, and help them with their homework."

Wait! Wrong message! The Mother's Day message isn't, "Step up to the plate and be a good mom," it's, "Thanks for all you do." That seems to me a cultural double standard.

For the record, for all you dads, and especially for the Emperor: "Thanks for all you do!"