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Despite many pleas from the children, I have not taken them camping yet, which means we haven’t made what I will call REAL s’mores. Yes, I have one of those s’mores makers that were all the rage a few years ago and I vaguely recall making some s’mores with them that way, but having been a Girl Scout, [...]
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Look what I the kids got for Christmas! I’ve waited a long time to get for the kids to be old enough to get an Easy Bake Oven! I remember how much I loved mine as a little girl, foisting impossibly tiny cakes on my parents.
Now that I’m the Mommy, I realize just how awful those little cakes really taste when you aren’t bursting with that I-made-it-myself pride.
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The Floridian in me never ceases to be amazed when it snows enough to actually stick to the ground. I just love looking at the whole world being draped with a nice, white blanket of snow. And of course, the JavaKids and I have to find a way to turn it into a way to make something in the kitchen!
I’m linking you to a post from earlier this year for snow cream and snow candy — both delicious and easy to make! I was going to add photos, but to be honest, unless you a professional food photographer, snow candy while still in the snow does not look much different than — uh– yellow snow from a dog — and once you lift if out of the snow, it is in a child’s (or Mommy’s) mouth so fast, you can’t get a photo of it! Snow cream doesn’t look like much more than white mush in a photo!
You can also mix up a little food coloring and water and get out there and do a little snow painting. Or just go out and roll around in the white, fluffy stuff! Just have FUN!
When you come in, mix up a huge batch of my favorite hot chocolate, read a good book, indulge in a bit of Robert Frost, and relax! (Until it’s time to deal with those sopping wet jackets, snow pants, boots, mittens and so on….)
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It’s been a little rough in the JavaFamily household this week… JavaDad has had the flu and a kidney infection and when JavaDad is sick, no one is happy! It is clear how much we function as an entire unit — when one of us is out of commission, it throws the household out of whack.
So pardon the absence of posts of late, but I thought some of my readers might enjoy a couple from this time last year:
Happy Thanksgiving to you, and among my many blessings are YOU — the readers of Caffeine and a Prayer, which is now ONE YEAR OLD!
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted a fun treat. Here’s my “oh my goodness, I need to make 42 cupcakes” solution for some Halloween fun. I did not invent these, in fact a friend described to me that she was making spider cupcakes and I did a quick search on Google and found tons of variations.
Sadly, my digital camera decided to die a sad Error 18 death this week, so this grainy photo from my phone will have to do. Note that these are not up to Martha Stewart’s standards as my children insist on helping (can you imagine?!) and I have long ago decided that family fun far outweighs aesthetics. Oh, and my son was quick to point out that spiders have eight legs, but as many people mentioned in their instructions, eight legs get a big cumbersome on a cupcake. My son said spiders also have multiple eyes, but I informed him we were sticking to just two.
What you’ll need:
Make the cupcakes and allow to cool. Recommendations online varied about doing legs before or after frosting, but we chose to do them before, poking them into the cupcakes themselves. I recommend putting them as close to the edge as possible and poking them downward (instead of at an angle) and then trimming so that the bottom hits the same point as the bottom of the cupcake. You can cut with kitchen scissors.
After that, smooth on icing with a knife or small icing spatula. You can just roll it right over the tops of the legs and don’t worry about icing underneath the legs (see the beauty of having chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing?) It does NOT have to be perfect — kids will eat these in a nanosecond. Plop on two eyes and you are done. I personally prefer that the Ms of the M&Ms are hidden, JavaGirl insists that they are face-up.
Some people like to add candy corn fangs to the front.
Other suggestions for legs are: pretzel rods, fat black licorce (these would be fat legs that stick straight out), and pipe cleaners (non-edible, of course).
The whole family was able to get involved – JavaDad attached legs, I frosted, and the kids added the eyes. The whole family was able to get involved – JavaDad attached legs, I frosted, and the kids added the eyes. JavaGirl was thrilled to take them to school today and JavaBoy can’t wait to take them to his class tomorrow. Seeing the pride in their eyes makes me glad I didn’t succumb to the temptation to just buy store-bought cupcakes.
Enjoy!
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I have been enjoying both the fruits of the farm we belong to and the great loss-leaders some grocery stores have been running (4 pints of blueberries for $5 – yum!). Every time I run across a great deal, I find myself day-dreaming that I will somehow turn into Martha Stewart or Bree Hodge and whip up several festive dishes with these fruits — some jellies, pies, and whatever else you can do with them — but it never happens.
No, our dirty little secret is that we like our fruit just plain. Washed and raw. Sometimes the kids will eat it in plain non-fat organic yogurt. (I did not develop the same tastebuds they did, so I at least have to either have French Vanilla non-fat yogurt or sweeten the plain with Splenda.) But give them a bowl of fresh fruit and my kids are happy as larks, and I keep asking myself, isn’t this what parents are striving for? Should I mess with their love of a healthy snack by creating pies and such? Is it okay to be “boring” and just eat the fruit fresh and not do anything more creative than a fruit salad with it? This year I didn’t even make my dip for strawberries (see below) because I don’t need the extra calories and I figure there’s no need to get the kids started on bad habits.
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I have a LOT of basil.
I mean a LOT. My mother brought me a sprig of purple basil from my great-grandmother’s garden a few years ago and it has turned into a hedge of basil, I kid you not. It is a wonderful bounty, and I love to share it — I gave each child in my son’s preschool class a plant to start in their own gardens and I’m always offering it to passing neighbors, strangers, the A/C repair guy…
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The JavaKids love vegetables.
I don’t know how I ended up so lucky… whether it was following my sister’s advice to feed them green beans as their first baby food after rice cereal, some sort of divine intervention, or winning some sort of genetic lottery… but many times, given the choice between some sort of junk food or raw veggies, my kids will pick the veggies. I have to pre-wash all vegetables before storing them in the fridge because JavaGirl will break into sealed packages of mushrooms and start munching on them when I’m not looking. JavaBoy can clear out a crudites platter at any party.
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Not only are these treats yummy, but they are a great hands-on way way to drive home the story of Easter. Each treat ends up hollow, representing the discovery of the empty tomb — younger children will be amazed by the transformation. I do not know the original sources of the recipes, not even where I received them as I just had them as files on my computer.
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It’s snowing today and the Java Family (well, 3/4 of us) are having fun in the snow. Later tonight we are going to make snow cream and snow candy, which we have done before. They are both simple recipes and are endlessly fascinating to me, having grown up in a place that did not have [...]
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