Valentines Day 2012- Debriefed

"Pretzel Buttons" for the Teachers

This delicious idea for a Valentines treat came from Pinterest, it's from a great blog called G*Rated which includes the instructions on how to make them and very nice pictures, check it out!

I am no baker, I rarely stray from the box, so I liked the simplicity of this idea, but also the fact that it was a perfect activity for the kids. They had to line up all the pretzel squares on the oven tray, unwrap each Hershey kiss and place one on top of each pretzel (as you can see from the pictures, some did not make it...). I did the M n M part myself, didn't trust them with that... We then put a handful of the Valentines treats in celophane bags for each of their teachers and adorned them a bit. 

 

"Heart Surprise" Valentines Cards

The concept behind these cards might have been a little over the head of the 4 and 2 year olds receiving them, but they were definitely fun to make (for me). Don't know why I had this idea in my head of making something with those paper spring things we used to make when we were young, but this is what came out of it...The kids helped me stick the Valetines monster greeting on the cards and stamp the envelopes.

 

Classmates Goody-bags

This is the first year my kids are in preschool, so I didn't know about classmate goody bags until they came back with a bunch of little bags with treats on Halloween and then again at Christmas. In the spirit of keeping up with the rest of the Martha Stewarts in the class, I made sure to send them with something for their classmates on Valentines Day. I figured they would get a lot of chocolate, candy hearts and pencils, so we made glitter playdough in pink and purple and also put in some bubbles that I had found at Michaels. If you've never made playdough before, the texture is great and it keeps forever. It is much cheaper than the one you buy and you can customize it with scents and colors. The recipe I used can be found below these pictures.

DYI Playdough Recipe:

• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup salt
• 2 TBS cream of tartar
• 1 TBS oil
• 4 cups water

Mix the flour, salt and cream of tartar in a deep pan. Add the water and the oil, along with any food coloring and scent. Mix.

Cook over medium heat, stirring until the mixture starts to pull away from the pan and forms a ball. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Glitter, more food coloring, etc can be added at this stage too. Knead till its soft and store in an airtight container or ziplock bag.

 

It was a fun day at school, everyone was happy with their "stash"

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alphabet Train & "I Spy" Bottles

ALPHABET TRAIN

This was Day 2 of being stuck at home this weekend because of the bitter cold outside. I can't take credit for this activity, it was all my husband, but I thought it was such a good idea that I figured I'd share :) It's based on Blue's Clues "Alphabet Train" and it's really simple. Write one letter of the alphabet on each piece of paper and stick them in order on the floor with some tape making a "train" around the house. Then have the kids find one object in the house that starts with that letter and place it on top of the appropriate piece of paper.

Our kids (4 and 2) got a bit tired because they had to keep singing the alphabet song to figure out which letter came first. So we split the activity into morning and afternoon, it ended up being a fun whole day event. For older kids, you could time how long it takes them to gather/ place all the objects and see if they can improve their own record (finding completely new objects the second time around).

 

"I SPY" BOTTLES

These are based on the popular "Find It Games" tubes. I got the idea from the Toys in The Dryer blog, follow the link for the tutorial. Since my kids can't read yet, we took a picture of all the objects before putting them in and used that as the "find it card". One mistake I made is not putting more rice in, the objects were pretty easy to find. I think next time I might also try using food coloring on the rice (maybe several colors) to make the bottle more colorful and the game more challenging. Check out the photos for some ideas on things to put in.

Bacon and Mushroom Penne

I'm always surprised at how good simple pasta dishes can be. This one's a lighter version of the creamy bacon pasta I usually make. It's easy, you can make it in under 15 minutes and it's a guaranteed crowd-pleaser (unless there is someone in the crowd who is not a mushroom lover- in that case you can substitute the mushrooms for artichoke, broccoli or chicken for example, or just bacon).

BACON & MUSHROOM PENNE
Ingredients:

• 1 package of sliced baby bella mushrooms
• 1 lb of penne pasta
• 4-6 strips of bacon
• 1/2 cup of shredded Parmesan cheese
• 2 Tbs of reduced sodium chicken broth
• 1 Tbs of minced garlic
• 1/4 cup of half and half
• salt and pepper to taste
• Extra virgin olive oil

How to:

1. Boil your penne pasta.
2. While the pasta is boiling, drizzle a pan with olive oil and toss the minced garlic in, sautee it at medium heat.
3. Once the garlic is golden/ light brown, add the sliced mushrooms. If you want them to cook faster, cover the pan with a lid, but make sure to stir ocassionally.
4. While the mushrooms are cooking, cook some bacon in the microwave (4-6 slices). I use this awesome Makin Bacon rack, you can buy it at Walmart for under $8. Microwaving bacon is the best way to make it less greasy, otherwise this dish comes out too oily.
5. Go back to the mushrooms and add the 2 Tbs of chicken broth to the pan, mix it around with the mushrooms. This makes a bit of sauce.
6. Add the pasta to the mushroom pan, mix around. Then add half and half a bit at a time. Depending on how creamy you want the pasta, you might want to add less or more than the 1/4 cup. You can see from the picture I only added a bit, I wanted them lighter.
7. Cut up the crunchy bacon with kitchen sears so you get biggish pieces, and toss them in the pasta. Let it simmer for a few minutes while stirring so the cream thickens a bit.
8. Remove from the stove, add the shredded parmesan, salt and pepper to taste and serve!

Leo and Sofia's pirate ship bunk bed

Leo (4) has become somewhat obsessed with pirates and got into his head that he wanted "a pirate bunk bed." After searching around with him for some inspiration online (see my pirate inspiration board http://pinterest.com/mtoran/kids-pirate-room/) and in the spirit of repurposing, we decided to turn the kids' IKEA cribs-turned toddler beds- into a "floating" pirate boat. I can't take too much credit here, my dad did all the hard labor and the kids and Dave painted, I only sewed the curtains, fed everyone and took a couple of trips to Lowes.The kids not only gained "new" beds, but also a fort and added storage space for their toys (the nets and the bow) . We used hooks to hang the water bottles to the side of the bunk and "stick on" LED lamps for more light inside each of their sleeping quarters.

Here is the picture of the final product.

A few highlights during "the making of"...

Leo was pretty happy with his new bunk, but he reminded us that we still need to make "the cannons that really fire." I was also told we still need a figurehead and painting "waves" on the side of the boat to make it look like its sailing on choppier waters. This crew is so demanding.Sofia just gets on board with everything (excuse the dorky pun, couldn't resist).

If you want to see even more pictures of the whole process, check out this slide show http://youtu.be/802y5hjlItU

 

 

 

Bean and Chorizo Soup

"Fabada" or "Judias pintas" is one of my favorite Spanish dishes. I have been trying to recreate this hearty stew since coming to live in the US without much luck. They key to the tasty thick soup are a variety of pig products that I can't find here (chorizo, morcilla, tocino). I have tried adding things that look similar here (like Anduille sausage or Portuguese chorizo) but nothing quite measures up.

Today's attempt, though it didn't have exactly the same taste or texture as the original (the Mexican chorizo is nothing like the Spanish one, and yes, I'm biassed), was delicious and easy to make, here it goes in case you want to try it...

BEAN AND CHORIZO SOUP
Ingredients:

• 1 small onion
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• minced garlic from a jar or fresh
• 4 small cans (16oz) of beans, any variety (I used 2 cans of red kidney beans + 2 cans of small navy beans)
• 2 Mexican chorizo sausages
• Paprika
• Salt + pepper
• 1 small can of fire roasted diced tomatoes

How to:

1. Drizzle some olive oil on a pan and sautee the garlic, onions and green pepper together.
2. When the onion starts to look golden, add a bit of water, to soften the onion and make the mixture more "soupy".
3. Once the onion and the pepper look light brown and thoroughly cooked, add the can of fire roasted tomatoes.
4. Let simmer for 10 minutes or so, then puree it with a hand blender or similar.
5. Put the pureed onions, pepper and garlic back into the pan and add the beans (don't rinse them, add the contents of the can, including the liquid) and simmer.
6. In a separate pan, fry the chorizo sausage meat with a bit of olive oil (you need to take the filling out of the casing first, don't fry them in the casing!). It will kind of look like dark brown/red ground beef when fried.
7. Add the fried chorizo meat to the stew and simmer for a bit. The longer the better, but a few minutes is enough to flavor the whole stew.
8. Add salt, pepper and paprika to taste.

This soup also freezes great, so make an extra batch for another day.

NB. The chorizo is pretty spicy. If you have kids (mine are 4 and 2 and they loved this dish), add the chorizo to whoever wants it after serving the stew.