Rainbow Stew

Last week in my preschool classroom we talked about St. Patrick day. We are also studying a unit on colors right now and tied this all together with some lessons on the rainbow. As a special project I made the things for rainbow stew and brought them in for the students to play with and create their own rainbow stew to bring home.
To make rainbow stew I used 1 cup of cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, 4 cups of water and food coloring. I made three different colored patches because I needed enough for forty kids, but if you wanted to make less you could add the color after cooking once you divided it into smaller portions. So I took all these things and put them in a pot of the stove. I cooked them on med/high until they started to thicken. I made one patch of red, one blue, and one yellow.

I brought them all to school and with the kids I put a small portion of each color in a zip lock bag and taped it shut. The kids could them squeeze the bag and play with it to mix the colors. As the colors started to mix they were able to see all the colors of the rainbow start to form. I few students were very ambitions and did mix the colors until they turned brown but it took longer to do this if I had put the right amount of mixture in the bag and most of the kids stopped when they saw all the colors.

The students really enjoyed this and many even wanted to make more than one bag.

This was a great activity for young children.

This is also a great stress release and many adults have enjoyed mixing the colors as well.
Once the bags are down and not over mixed you can also hang them in the window to use to create brighter colors as the sun shines through.

Early sign of spring

When I got home from work today I grabbed my camera and heading straight back out. I notice on my trip from the car to the house some early signs of spring that I just needed to capture before they based me by.
I love this time of year when the rain finally stops and the sun is shining high. Little buds start to form, small green leaves stick out between the leaves (left on the ground from last fall).
I can smell spring in the air and see growth all around me.
There are many early signs of spring but my favorite are the flowers. I love to see the crocuses that I plants my first fall in this house come up and almost flower from the first sight of them.
The other signs I look for is the buds on the bushes and trees. I noticed the fruit trees were also budding which is great because it reminds me of a special treat I will get when they produce this fall. Spring is special time of new growth, fresh starts and great life. I am glad I had this special moment to find these special treasures and the promise they will bring me in the future.

Coquelets sur Canapes

For my birthday Dan bought me some Julia Child cookbooks. So last night we decided to cook Coquelets sur Canapes, which is Game Hens with chicken liver Canapes and Mushrooms.
First we had to clarify the butter, which means melting it until is separates and then you skim of the foam and shift out just the clear liquid not the white liquid at the bottom. We used the clear liquid to saute bread slices on each side. They came out crisp and brown. We then boiled bacon for ten minutes. We grounded the bacon with the chicken livers, and port wine and spread it on top the bread.
Next we sauteed mushrooms with shallots, butter and port wine and then set them aside. I rubbed the cavity of the game hens with shallots, butter, garlic, and tarragon. Dried the outside and wrapped them with the rest of the boiled bacon. They went in the roasting pan with oil and butter then into the oven. The recipe said we had to baste the hens every five to seven minutes and they cooked for about 45 minutes. This took some time. When they were done. I took tablespoons of the broth and cooked it with more shallots and port wine and chicken stock and made a reduction.
We then toasted the bread and liver in the oven for a minute and heated the mushroom saute. The bread goes on a plate with the hens on top, mushrooms around and reduction sauce on top. Now its ready to serve.
What I learned was that I needed alot of butter, smaller hens, and alot of port wine, but they were very good and since our game hens were larger we had plenty of left overs.
The chicken was very good, but I have decided I am not a big fan of chicken livers pate.

Waiting for Spring

When we first moved into our house a year and a half ago my husband and I planted four fruit trees, a peach, two apples (one pie apple and one eating apple), and a cherry tree. That spring we planted many more flowers around the yard and saw what plants were already growing around.

We also planted a garden, unfortunately that did not go over well. It started off the day we planted it by hailing an hour after we finish and not just any hail but grape size hail stones. Then the spring and summer were so wet that it was more of a swamp and the slugs took over. Though we got some yummy potatoes, some lettuce and a few other things not as great as we hoped. We did get some fruit that first year which was better then we thought since the trees were not even a year old.

This week I have been thinking about our plants, trees, gardens and land. Earlier this year I had received an invitation to join the arbor day foundation http://www.arborday.org/. I thought it was a great organization. I am really into nature and our environment so I sent in the $20 to join. Well this week I got a surprise, I received my membership card, a pamphlet of the trees, shrubs, and bushes they sell and a letter. The letter stated that I was now a member and would receive ten free trees in the mail between march and June depending on my planing zone, I would also receive another free gift. I can not wait to find out what it is. I was also very excited about the pamphlet because most of their trees are around $5 but I think the most expensive is $15. I was looking and reading all about each one trying to find out if I could plant any others in our already crowded yard. I am not sure where I will even put the free ones but have many ideas for future planting.