1900-1909

Can You Help?

This is an unusual circumstance for me to post something like this but here goes... Can you help a fellow homeschooler get out of a bind?  Just in case you can help, Jessica from Garden of Francis (that I've bragged about several times on this blog and plan to order from again soon) is in a bit of a financial pickle and can really use our immediate and urgent prayers/financial help.  She only has a few days to come up with a 4-digit amount.  I'm hoping and praying that she receive exactly what she needs.  Here is the link to her facebook homepage and on the left side there is a donations button.  Please discern if you can help and donate there.  Even though I do NOT have facebook (Am I the only one on the planet who doesn't?  Even my mom is on facebook!) it worked just fine for me and it uses secure paypal.

http://www.facebook.com/GardenofFrancis

What's Cookin'?

Tomato Treat side dish: I made this from my "Gottatries" list. I had gotten some small tomatoes from a farmer's market as I was passing through a (literally) one-light town several weeks ago. They weren't sprayed and were mostly green so I grabbed a few pounds. I was thrilled to find some in January - they had cut them before the first frost. I've been taking them out of the fridge to ripen one or two at a time. When I remembered this recipe I took out a handful. My tomatoes were barely turning red which gave this dish a lightly tart flavor. These were delicious. I can't wait for summer's farmer's market! BTW, the ingredients say parsley and the directions say basil. I used basil. I only used 1/2 the mayo because I'm a cheapskate.

http://comfycook.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/tomato-treat-paula-deen/

Accidental Latte: I was very flustered at the store while buying whipping cream... I needed whipping cream *that* moment for the St. Valentine's Day fruit salad. The only ones I could find were ultra-pasteurized, even the organic one. The only non-ultra-pasteurized cream where I was shopping was Mexican Cream by Cacique (which I love but it does have guar gum and carageenan (sp?) and since it's pasteurized it will bother my stomach a bit if I have too much). I ended up buying one of each: The Mexican Cream (sometimes they have Salvadoran cream, yum!) and a regular heavy whipping cream.

[By the way, if you buy Shepps, the little one is ultra-pasteurized, the middle size is just pasteurized, and the big size is ultra-pasteurized - at least in stores I've seen. I was wishing that I had at least gotten the middle one the day before at another store.]

I thought I would try whipping the Mexican cream first because I preferred pasteurized over UHT and they both had added ingredients. This was clearly a compromise treat. Anyway, I added some vanilla and rapadura to the cream and began whisking it with the electric whisk. After forever it still had not 'whipped' although it was a bit, a tiny bit, frothy. I stuck it in the fridge and whipped the blah heavy whipping cream to use for the recipe.

The next morning I plopped some of the whipped Mexican cream in my coffee and it was so luxuriously frothy and creamy. If you like lattes give this a go!

What's Schoolin'?

I'm working on our 20th Century study lesson plans right now.  I'll post it soon.  For now I'm pasting just the extra activity portion for the first decade below:

Activities to fit in throughout this decade:
-Eat at Subway (first subway begun in NYC)
-Eat some Hawaiian pineapple, papaya (non-GMO of either!) or macadamia nuts (became US territory)
-Eat some bubble gum (we use Glee Gum-although it's not actually bubble gum, it's still a treat)
*Read Call of the Wild
-Fly paper airplanes
-Watch a movie about the Panama Canal? (it started here and finished in the next decade)
-Watch the Samantha movie
-Try making homemade ice cream cones
http://www.joyofbaking.com/IceCreamCones.html
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/homemade-ice-cream-cones/Detail.aspx
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/michael-chiarello/tuile-cookie-ice-cream-cones-recipe/index.html

Books (I'm still making my list and haven't picked up my holds from the library yet so I'll add more later):

Animals Robert Scott Saw by S Markle;
Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt! by J Fritz.
Little Britches by Ralph Moody