Mommio: Kids Cook- Lemon Bars

We are getting back to our weekly cooking classes around here and are starting with a new book that Gabe picked out:

The kids want to do each recipe in the book to the end and we will be blogging the recipes, the steps and of course a taste review for each one.  I will be gathering supplies and ingredients for the kids, but after that I will just offer guidance when needed- the goal is for the kids to work together, follow the steps and finish the recipe on their own.  I will serve as the photographer and blogger (and occasional fight-breaker-upper when turn taking goes bad). Today it was just three girls cooking- Avery, Lily and Kennedy.

Here's what they made today:

LEMON BARS

Crust-

all purpose flour- 1 cup

granulated sugar- 1/4 cup

salt- 1/2 teaspoon

cold unsalted butter- 1/2 cup

Filling-

lemon- 1, scrubbed

large eggs- 2, room temperature

granulated sugar- 1 cup
all purpose flour- 2 tablespoons

baking powder- 1/2 teaspoon

powdered sugar- for decoration

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350. Rub a small amount of butter evenly over the bottom and sides of an 8x8 baking pan.  Line the pan with parchment paper and let the paper hang over two sides of the pan.

 

 

Step 2: Use a whisk to stir together the dry crust ingredients until evenly blended.

 

  

 

Step 3: Cut the butter into small cubes then add it to the flour mixture.  Use a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour until it looks like small crumbs.

 

 

Step 4: Gather the mixture and press it into the bottom of the pan in an even layer to form the crust.  Bake until golden brown (10-15 minutes).  While waiting do Steps 5 and 6.

 

  

 

Step 5: Grate the outside of the lemon to get 1 teaspoon zest.  Put in large bowl. Cut the lemons in half and squeeze the juice into another bowl.  Measure out 2 tablespoons juice and add to the bowl with the zest.

 

  

 

Step 6: Add the eggs and sugar to the bowl.  Mix with an electric mixer until pale and foamy.  Whisk together the flour and baking powder in a small bowl and then whisk mixture into the lemon mixture.

 

  

  

 

Step 7: Pour the lemon filling over the hot crust.  Return pan to oven and bake until golden on top (25-30 minutes).

 

 

Step 8: Let cool completely.  Lift the bars out using the parchment paper and transfer to a cutting board.  Slice into bars. Put powdered sugar in a sieve and release a thin layer over the bars to decorate.

What people are saying about the girls' lemon bars: "delicious and perfect", "cake like", "turned out good", "gooey and awesome", "lemony and sweet".  Personally, I thought they were incredible and the girls did such a nice job following all the directions.  I only wish we had made a bigger pan!

Connor: George Doggie Detective: Mystery 2: The Case Of The Missing Playstation

Hey humans I am your favorite dog detective.  So yeah I was lying about giving back Lucy's toy.  Today I was looking for a Playstation.  I was hired by my favorite human Popo to find the Playstation.  Long story short I looked everywhere for it and found nothing.  Eventually  I ran into a face I have missed for a long time. The face I'm talking about is Loki's face Loki was a Black Lab.  I looked at him, he looked fine then he walked outside into the sunlight and I could see right through him.  "heard you were looking for the playstation." he said yeah I know he was probably just a figment of my imagination, but that didn't stop me from replying.  "yeah. would you happen to know where to find it, Loki?" I asked  yes people I know you probably think I'm insane but I swear I would never lie to you except for when I lied about Lucy's toy.  Loki said he wasn't alone suddenly I saw two more of my friends Gracie the Dalmation and Jack the Chocolate Lab.  They all said they missed me soon Loki told me to look in the dresser desk for it and sure enough there it was.  I had solved this mystery with help from ghosts or maybe figments of my imagination.  I went back to Loki and asked him if he was really here and he said yes.     

Marney: When I Grow Up

When I grow up I want to drive a van because it is awesome and I get to drive everywhere.  I want to have a big van that is silver.  I want to be rich because I want to buy a bunch of stuff. I want to  have my own pets when I grow up.  I want a female golden retriever named Marney Jr.  I want to live in Austin because it is a big place.  I want to get married when I am 20.  I'm going to have 3 kids. I want  to have girls. I want to have a job at HEB scanning.  I want to have a other job too and it will be pet grooming.  I want to have a big house.  The house will be blue. 

Gabe: My Sleepover

I had a sleepover with Elder and Levi on Wednesday at my house. We played Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games on the Wii. 

We had pepperoni pizza roll-ups for dinner.  We played more games on the Wii, like Super Smash Bros Brawl and Wii Play, after dinner.  We played pirates with the Imaginext. I love sleepovers.

Avery: Sleepover

Last night Lily and I had a sleepover. The first thing we did is we went to the store to buy dinner. We bought stuff to make spaghetti tacos! Then we went to the park that is near Lily's house. It had monkey bars, slides, rock walls, and it had a balance beam. We played at the park for like, thirty minutes. Right when we got to Lily's house we went on a bike ride with Tony.  We went all around the neighborhood, on the way back we got to pet horses.  Later in the night we went into the school room to set up our beds. After that we played with a giant bouncy ball and played card games. When it was 11: 26 we went to sleep. In the morning we played with the ball and had breakfast. Then we went to Cassandra's house and then the sleepover was done.  I loved the sleepover!

Mommio: Boys!

Last night was a planned sleepover swap between our family, the Weaver's and the Chambliss family.  After a little last minute negotiation I ended up with the boys for the night, not a girl in the house except me...that felt strange!  So, Gabe had two friends over (Elder and Levi) and they had a blast, but it is so funny how different a boys sleepover is from a girls sleepover.  The girls always have thousands of activities planned and hop from one to the next until they have completed every single thing.  In between they like to actually do things like bake cookies, do crafts, etc.  The boys...that's a different story...here is what they like to do:

And that's it.  I had to force them to stop for dinner, and later I had to force them to stop for ice cream.  I even had to remind them several times that they might want to go to the bathroom.  At some point I did convince them to take a short break and build some stuff, which they enjoyed:

But they quickly returned to their designated spots. All through it I kept hearing "This is the best sleepover ever!"

Mommio: Art Class

This week in art class at Weaver's Bottom we talked more about murals.  We learned that the ancient Egyptians used graph systems on the walls of their tombs to recreate small drawings into large murals like these in the Tomb of Nakht:

First the kids drew their own small drawings on regular paper with a grid of squares, like this one Kiki made of two houses:

Next the kids learned how to snap chalk lines to recreate the grid pattern on a large piece of paper on the wall.  They each had a piece of string and some red chalk, coated their string with the chalk and then used a buddy system to help snap the lines on the paper.  They all had fun doing this and were surprisingly good at it:

After the grid was in place the kids recreated their pictures with oil pastels on their mural paper by looking at each individual square and drawing what they saw there.  At first some of them wanted to just draw the entire picture at once, but after they caught on to doing it a little at a time they really understood how simple it was:

  They did an awesome job (again):

Connor: My D&D Character

I am a favored soul of Zeus.  A favored soul is like a cleric, but is picked by the god itself to go out and spread said god's words.  My temple sent me out with good weapons and armor.  Being an elf I am skilled with a longsword and longbow. I also have Zeus's  favorite weapon, the short spear.  I was sent to a gambling tournament called Cheat The Devil Of His Gold to see if it was a tribute to Hades himself.  I don't know any of the other characters.  My character's name is Aramil Liadon.   

Mommio: Our Week

We never did make it back to a "normal" schedule last week, so we will try again...
M- morning school, Poe Unit Study, yoga, Daddio Toe staying home one more day to recover
T- Max Alone Nana Day, field trip...yet to be decided
W- school at Weaver's Bottom- art (more murals), music (recorder, keyboard, voice), garden planning, V-Day party planning, another try at the special-super-suprise for some of the kids
Th- a little bit of school, A & G yoga, C & M Teen Library League, Daddio Toe in Houston for the night
F- morning school, house chores, Poe Unit Study, Lily & Elder visit, park, cooking, family movie night
S- yard chores, science with Daddio, Mason archery class
S- Max's birthday party, Max's night out with Mommio and Daddio

Mommio: Max is 3 Today!

Happy Birthday Max!

Daddio: I'm OKAY!

My hernia repair went really well this morning and I'm already home.  The surgeon said that when he opened me up, he saw that the original stitches just didn't even hold at all. The tissues must have been so inflamed that they didn't stand a chance. He was surprised that my hernia didn't reoccur before it did. With this one, he said the tissue was strong, there was a significant amount of scar tissue (which is good for the stitches holding better) and that the stitches will hold much, much better- so he's optimistic about my chances of not having this recur, but obviously it's still a considerable risk, especially considering it's happened twice already.

I'd post more, but the post-surgery drugs are making it more and more difficult to concentrate properly.  I'll try to post up more horrible gory details tomorrow as the swelling kicks in with full force.

Mommio: Art Class

Today in art class at Weaver's Bottom we focused on learning about murals.  We made a really cool cooperative mural...the kids loved it so much that we will have to try it again sometime with even more kids.  First, we spread butcher paper out along long tables and each picked a spot and one paint color:

Then I would call out a word like "dots", "triangle", "three lines", etc. and the kids would paint what I said and then rotate to the spot next to them:

Later on it became less concrete with words like "up", "fast", "messy", etc.  The kids were really into it at this point:

About 20 minutes into the project we turned on music (Bare Naked Ladies Snacktime ) and the kids painted how the music made them feel.  When I switched songs, they rotated again and kept on going:

To end it we danced around the table and filled in all the spots we could find:

  It was a really fun group project.  Here is the finished masterpiece:

Connor: What I Learned About In Science

Today in science I read about a man named Anaximander. He is the man who started our theory of intelligent life forms in other solar systems. Anaximander also changed how people thought about the earth because he said it was a cylinder.  Anaximander's student, Anaximenes, believed the earth was flat.  Anaximenes's student, Anaxaguras who was Plato's teacher. Anaxaguras also taught the man who built the Parthenon.

Connor: My New Bedroom

Yo, Toes today I am moving into my new bedroom.  Marney is playing with her flip video camera.  Tonight is going to be the first time I sleep in my new bedroom.  Mommio is moving my bed into my bedroom.  Dadddio is sorting his tools.  When we're done the kids are going over to Nana's house. Here's me in my new room!