Back to Baking

Strawberry and Oreo Cheesecake made at the request of one of the Elders, whos last week it is in the area.

It's called "The Strawboreo"

I started with an Oreo crust, followed by a fresh strawberry cheesecake with mini Oreos' baked into the filling.

When baked, I then used melted white chocolate to adhere the french vanilla piroulines and Oreo cookie straws to the outsides of the cheesecake.

I topped it with strawberry white chocolate mousse, Swiss butter-cream pipes and strawberries I dipped in semi-sweet chocolate and drizzled with white chocolate.

Disney World - Magic Kingdom pt II

Tomorrow I will post the pictures of Epcot

Disney World - Magic Kingdom pt I

We went to Disney World in March. It was perfect, not very many people and the weather was great, not hot at all.

Art for Kids - Week 3 - Greece

Activity 1 - I started by giving them these pictures of the outside and then the inside of the Parthenon. While they where coloring we youtubed videos of the Parthenon.




Activity 2 - Greek vases. We looked through several book on Greek looking for images of the black and orange Greek vases. I took an orange crayon and colored an entire page with it. I then colored over it with a black crayon, making sure to press hard and cover the entire surface of the page. Cut into the shape of a vase and glue onto a white piece of paper. Then let them scratch a design into the vase.

This can be made into more shapes than just a vase, a plate or pitcher would also work, be creative.

Activity 3 - Look at picture of Greek statues. Especially the Discobolos. Then drape the kids in Greek robes and using a pale frisbee or dinner plate, have the kids pose like the Discus thrower and take pictures.

Activity 4 - Jewelry - Get a small rubber snake, paint it gold, hot glue into the shape of a bracelet.


Fun Web Sites

This one hits on several different types of Ancient Greek art
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/art/greekart.htm

This one also takes you on a tour of several different types of Greek Art
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/ancient_greeks/arts_and_theatre/

Build a paper model of the Parthenon
http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/3154/03362/index.html

Art for Kids - Week 2 - Egypt

I decided to post lesson plans at the start of the week, so

We will start by looking through the Egyptian section in The History Art. My goal is to point out three things about Egyptian art

1. Hieroglyphs
2. The way the Egyptians did not forshorten and instead painted everything from a side angle
3. And the Egyptian eyes painted with kohl

Start by painting their eyes to look Egyptian. Don't forget to take pictures to file in their notebooks

Activity 1
For Girls - Nefertiti hats - I cut a 22 x 28 piece of poster board in half and let the girls each paint it however they wanted. When it dried I rolled it so the bottom fit their heads and the top was slightly wider to resemble Nefertitis hat. I used hot glue to hold it together and then wrapped a ribbon around the middle and used a gold paint pen to draw the design down the middle. Or you could use a hot glue gun to glue gold ribbon in place.

For Boys - Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt - Cut the bottom, handle, and top off a clorox jug. Use an old fashioned shaped 1 quart plastic milk (The ones shaped like bowling pins) container for the center part. Fasten to the back of the milk jug with hot glue. Use a strip of red paper that is curled at the end for the front part.

Make sure the outer crown is red and the inner part is white





Activity 2:
Look through several hieroglyph books and then give them this page:
They fill in the lines with hieroglyphs and can color the pictures

Activity 3: Egyptian Cartouche
Use clay in a tan\sand color and form them into oblong shapes with a bit of a lip around the outer edge. Using toothpicks, have them carve their names or just their initials into the clay. Poke a hole in the top before baking so you can attach them to a piece of twine for a necklace.

Similar to this,





Activity 4:
This is quite similar to activity 1, using poster board cut out a large circle with a neck sized hole in the middle. Have them color it to look like a collar necklace and use string or ribbon to tie it in place. Googling "Egyptian Collar Necklace" will bring up several designs for ideas




While looking for ideas I ran across these fun web sites

This on takes you through two craftmans shops based on Egyptians drawings
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/trade/explore/main.html

This one provides more in depth information on the different crafts of the time
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/egypt/art/egyptart.htm

Write your own name in hieroglyphs
http://www.kidzone.ws/cultures/egypt/hieroglyph.htm

Next week we will be studying Greece.

Art History for Young Kids - Week 1 - Pre-Historic Art

So as most of you you know I homeschool my kids. As an art enthusiast this had to include Art History. There are programs for math, reading, writing, science, history, and geography, all age appropriate for grade school kids. But not Art History.

So I wrote my own.

Check back each week on the new "Art For Kids" tab and you can see what each week entails.

This week is the beginning, Pre-Historic Art

We looked through EH Gombrich's "Story of Art" (My old Art 101 text book) and saw early European cave drawings, then we went to Youtube and took a tour through several of the caves. I also explained to them what the depictions where (historical records and not "just" art)

Now for the hands on part:

Activity 1: I took this picture and enlarged it to fit an 8 1/2 x 11 page
Then we took these figures and glued them on to our cave walls and made our own cave drawings.

If you look at the three icons you will note they are different styles..

• The men are kinds neutral, though they lean slightly to a more American Indian style
• The Horse is from the caves in Southern France and
• The Bull is in the style of the caves in Spain

Activity 2: Then I took a pieces of brown velour and cut out "animal skins" and let them color on them with fabric markers. All the while reminding them art then was for telling stories and recording history, so they had to tell a story in their drawings.

Activity 3 - Painting with MUD, this link also has a clip about how the caves where found that kids will enjoy
http://www.kinderart.com/arthistory/cavepainting.shtml

Next week finds us in Egypt, so stay tuned...

I made Pizza Again

Homemade Pizza is always awesome, especially with the perfect blend of 5 Cheeses

Quiche

I have to say I love quiche. But it has to be good quiche, and I'm picky. Its usually to dry, or too bland, or they seasoned it wrong. And since it's so easy to make, I just do it myself.

But I still hadn't gotten it quite perfect. That is until I saw Frenchy over at lechateaudesfleurs recipe (sorry, I can't find her post or I would link it). And she puts sour cream in hers.
Moist and perfect. I now have a quiche that tastes great fresh or re-heated, and everyone loves that is so simple to make.

The other thing is to make sure you dont put too much cheese in it. I like to use mozzarella or cheddar though other cheese works, and you can use more than one variety at a time.

I hope you enjoy.

2 Tbsp. Butter
1 large onion, coarsely chopped

3/4 c. sour cream
1/2 c. heavy cream
4 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
dash freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. yellow mustard
2 oz. cheese, finely grated
1 can ham, crumbled very fine (optional)

1 pie crust

Heat onion and butter together until starting to turn golden. Remove from heat and set aside.

In a separate bowl, whisk together sour cream, heavy cream, and mustard. Add eggs. Stir in salt, black pepper, and nutmeg. Next fold in the mozzarella cheese and ham. Add the cooked onions trying not to get the butter you cooked them in, into the egg mixture. Pour into the uncooked pie crust and bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until the egg mixture is set. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

I love to serve this with fruit and then either a green vegetable, usually green beans, or a green salad.

Homeschooling

My sisters friend made this video and originally posted it his Homeschooling blog
Type H Personalities

7 years

So today my hubby and I have been married for seven years. To celebrate we went out to lunch at Pakwan Indian restaurant in Savannah. I highly recommend the place. All the curries where excellent, especially the daal. Though I have to say I like my Palak Channa better

Now for the Wedding Photos