Earth Day Book Club

Dear Sis,

Book

Earth! My First 4.54 Billion Years by Stacy McAnulty

Craft

We began with a small ball of red Play Doh, which represents earth’s inner core. Layer two, earth’s outer core, was a slightly larger portion of orange Play Doh rolled into a ball, flattened, and wrapped around the red, inner core layer. The third layer, earth’s mantel, was created with yellow Play Doh and the same: ball, flatten, wrap process. The forth layer, earth’s crust is made with tan Play Doh. The fifth layer, is a surface view of the crust using blue Play Doh to depict water and green Play Doh to depict water. Upon completion, we used sting to create a cross section of our model earth, but wrapping string around the ball and pulling each end to slice through the dough without distorting it’s roundness.

Game

I found an inflatable globe at Dollar Tree and came up with a simple game to play with the kiddos. Begin with all players standing up, shout out the name of a landform or body of water, and passes the ball to another player.  Anyone who repeats a term that was already used, or can’t think of a word on their turn, sits down. The final person standing wins.  

Songs

FREE Earth Day Songs Lyric Sheet by Tag Sis, You’re It!

Snack

We used Wilton food color paste to dye the our Sugar Cookie dough and roughly kneaded the two colors together a bit before using a cookie dough scoop to portion the dough before hand rolling it to assure that each cookie would be a perfect circle.

Happy Earth Day!

Love,

b

Annual Egg Hunt

Dear Sis,

An egg hunt has become an annual event with William’s best friend Carter’s family. This year, we prepared a special brunch and did some crafts first. 

Menu

Hard Boiled Eggs

Strawberry Bunny Yogurt Parfaits

Bunny Cinnamon Rolls

Turkey Sausage Links

Bunny Tail Mix

Sliced Strawberries & Bunny Cookies

A large tub of strawberry yogurt makes six parfaits.

Egg Hunt 2019

Egg Hunt 2020

Love,

b

Matzah Toffee

Dear Sis,

We are having our Passover seder tonight! We tried something new this year. Matzah Toffee! It’s delicious and will definitely be an annual addition to our celebration. 

Matzah Toffee

b
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

  • 4 matzah crackers
  • 1/2 c salted butter
  • 1 c dark brown sugar
  • 1 (11.5 oz) pkg. milk chocolate chips

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 250. Line a jellyroll pan with foil and arrange matzah in a single layer, breaking as needed.
  • Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in sugar. Cook stirring until bubbly and dissolved.
  • Pour and spread toffee mixture over matzah. Bake 25-30 minutes.
  • Sprinkle with chocolate chips. Return to oven 3-4 minutes more to melt chocolate.
  • Spread chocolate and chill 2 hours, or until set.
  • Break into pieces and serve.

Happy Passover!

Love,

b

Classroom Easter Gifts

Dear Sis,

William and I made treats for his preschool classmates and teachers today! He is very excited to eat some “bunny tails!”

Bunny Tail, Printable Bag Toppers by Tag Sis, You’re It!

You Will Need

  • Bunny Tail, Bag Toppers, printed on card stock
  • snack size, zip top bags
  • powdered sugar doughnut holes (we got about 8 bags per box)
  • stapler and scissors

Assembly

  1. Fill snack bags with 4 doughnut holes and press to seal, extracting as much air as possible.
  2. Cut out bag toppers, fold on fold-line, slide to cover as much bag as possible, and stable in place.

Easter Egg Hunt Cookie Mix, Instruction Printable by Tag Sis, You’re It!

Easter Egg Hunt Cookie Mix

b
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 40 cookies

Ingredients
  

  • 1 quart canning jar, ring, and band
  • 3/4 c dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 c granulated sugar
  • 1 (3.4) oz box instant vanilla pudding mix
  • 1 t baking soda
  • 2 1/4 c unbleached flour
  • 1 pint canning jar, ring, and band
  • 1 c milk chocolate chips
  • 1 c milk chocolate M&Ms, pastel colors

Instructions
 

  • Wash and dry jars, rings, and bands.
  • Place dry ingredients in quart jar, in the order they appear, tapping to level the jar between each addition.
  • Place candy in pint jar, in the order they appear, tapping to level the jar between additions.
  • Print instructions and secure to quart jar, decorate as desired, and gift.
Keyword cookie mix, cookies, easter

Happy Gifting!

Love,

b

Purim 2021

Dear Sis,

We started our celebration yesterday. William took fruit filled pastries to school to share with his classmates and Carter’s family came over to have a festive dinner with us. 

I made five-bean soup, toss salad, warmed a loaf of challah I bought from a local international foods market, and roasted a chicken. Mama Jenn brought mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, corn, and green beans. William made a simple and delicious Chocolate Cream Cheese Pie for dessert. 

Chocolate Cream Cheese Pie

b
Course Dessert
Servings 8

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pre-made graham cracker crust
  • 4 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 2 T powdered sugar
  • 4 oz whipped topping, thawed
  • 1 (3.9) oz. pkg chocolate pudding mix
  • 1 3/4 c whole milk

Instructions
 

  • Cream together cream cheese and sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread into prepared crust.
  • Whisk together pudding mix and milk until smooth and thick. Spread over cream cheese layer. Chill a few hours to set.
  • Garnish with additional whipped topping and milk chocolate chips.

Our Purim Checklist

  • Read the story of Esther twice, The Queen Who Saved Her People by Tilda Baldly with noise makers.
  • Share a festive meal with friends and dress up.
  • Bake Hamantaschen and share them with Jewish friends.
  • Call and chat with Jewish friends. (Replaces going to temple during a pandemic)
  • Donate food to those in need. 

William got a new, larger rolling pin for Purim.

He also got a piggy bank and some change to put in it!

Charlotte, who is pig crazed, got a stuffed pig and a book:

Little Pig by L. Rigo


A Visitor

Our festive weekend happened to line up with William’s weekend with the class pet. A stuffed hedgehog, Quilly, was part of all our holiday happenings.

Love,

b

Creamy Italian Chicken Pasta

Dear Sis,

Today we had a delicious dinner that tasted way better than the amount of work I put into it! It’s another from the Taste of Home Almost Homemade 2013 cookbook we found at the little free library some weeks ago. 

Creamy Italian Chicken Pasta

Course Main Course
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 4 chicken breasts thin sliced
  • 1 envelope Italian salad dressing mix
  • 1/4 c water
  • 1 (8 oz) pkg cream cheese soft
  • 1 (10.75 oz) can cream of chicken soup
  • 1 (4 oz) can sliced mushrooms drained
  • 1 (9 oz) pkg refrigerated linguine cooked

Instructions
 

  • Place chicken in a slow cooker. Combine dressing mix and water. Pour over chicken. Cook on low 1.5 hours.
  • Whip together cream cheese and soup until smooth. Fold in mushrooms. Pour over chicken and cook another half hour.
  • Serve over fresh pasta.

Everyone enjoyed it! It’s always wonderful to add another recipe to my cookbook of family approved recipes:)

Love,

b

Beef Ramen for Grown-Ups

Dear Sis,

We all loved Ramen as kids! Its high time those greasy curly noodles grew-up too!!!

Grown-up Beef Ramen

Course Main Course
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 2 (3 oz) pkg beef ramen
  • 1 lb beef top sirloin sliced
  • 1 T avocado oil
  • 1 T steak sauce
  • 2 carrots shredded
  • 2 T green onions sliced

Instructions
 

  • Set aside seasoning and cook pasta according to package instructions.
  • Fry steak in oil until browned.
  • Add seasoning, steak sauce, and vegetables and cook until soft.
  • Stir in pasta and serve.

Love,

b

Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Muffins

Dear Sis,

William is hooked on making muffins, so we are making some for book club tomorrow, although it was not part of the original menu plan:)

Chocolate Chip Cake Mix Muffins

b
Course Breakfast
Servings 24

Ingredients
  

  • 1 box white cake mix
  • 1 c whole milk
  • 1/2 c unsalted butter soft
  • 1/4 c sour cream
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 c mini semi sweet chocolate chips
  • 2 T unbleached flour

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffins cups with parchment liners or grease and flour.
  • Toss together chocolate chips and flour in a sandwich bag. Set aside.
  • Beat milk, butter, sour cream, and eggs into cake mix until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips.
  • Spoon batter into prepared pans. Bake 12-14 minutes.

Love,

b