Mid-Summer Fun and Folly

Last week was arts fest, the closing day of the first 3 week session of Arts for Youth. Another wonderful time - Shara was thrilled to have the lead role as Freckleface Strawberry in the play of the same name. We don't have so much artwork to put away this year because everything was performing - acting, singing, etc. Here are highlights.



The first performance is from Shara's class
And I don't know what other ones she's in, but here are all the videos so far:
https://www.youtube.com/user/duckgreene/videos

After ArtsFest, Shara and I got packed up and went to Aunt Jill & Uncle Andy's for a weekend celebration of Bubbe's birthday. We had a great time  - Friday night we settled in and Shara had no trouble going to sleep in Samantha's bed. I hung out with Jill and chatted and finally went to sleep around midnight'ish. The next morning we picked up Bubbe to go to Syracuse where Pastabilities is located. Bubbe saw it on Diners Drive-ins and Dives and wanted to go for her birthday, so we did. We had so much fun and also made a stop at Wegmans to finish our tour. Once back home, Jill, Shara & I went for a walk to the Country Drive-In for ice cream. It was quite a walk - always worse when I can't tell how far we have to go, but it was fun. Then for the way back home, Uncle Andy dropped us off at the street just after the busy one we didn't want to talk on. Then another late night! Brunch was scheduled for the next morning at Cracker Barrel. Papa wanted to take us all out for breakfast and another lovely time with family. It really makes a difference spending the extra night. Normally we just breeze in and out but this was much more relaxing.

Monday was the start of the 2nd AFY session. It's going very well and again, Shara's most interested in the performing arts. The past few nights we've been staying cool by going in the pool and tonight Alan joined us for family night. Shara wanted to jump in and so she did! She started gradually by sliding off the side, then jumping holding my hands, then my fingers, then 1 finger, then just in. Then she was having a ball jumping in and going underwater. It was a lot of fun swimming around with her and playing underwater games. She and Alan also made salt & vinegar potato chips before dinner. They're done in the microwave. Shara had seen the recipe online a while ago and finally made them tonight. They had fun and the chips were really good!

rock the casbah

Last night we had our goods and services auction party, rock the casbah. Our Moroccan feast went well. Good company, food and entertainment. A lot of work but it didn't go unappreciated. We get to do a mini-version for two couples who couldn't attend, and that will be nice too.
Shara provided the after dinner entertainment with her belly dancing. We got her costume, adult-size, and she did a remarkable job pinning it up so it looked perfect. Nice that this will last several years.

Menu:
Fresh Tomato & Caper Salad
Grated Cucumber (Feggous) Salad w/ Orange Flower Water
Roasted Beet Salad w/ Cinnamon
Sweet & Spicy Moroccan Eggplant
Sweet Potato Salad (Arabesque Cookbook)
Cooked "Wild Greens" Salad
Crushed Spiced Carrot Salad
Marrakech Tagine Bread
Potato Tagine w/ Olives & Harissa
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Tagine of Baby Calamari & Shrimp w/ Red Pepper & Tomato
Chicken & Fennel Tagine
Couscous
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Mint Tea
Passover Baklava Cake

Chef Shara

This should have been posted about two weeks ago. Didn't realize it was still a draft.

This morning I asked Shara if she's be able to cook the rice by herself tonight because Alan had to meet with a fence guy and I had to go to a meeting. She said sure and suggested I write the directions on the white board. She did a good job! Alan had to put some things in the oven. He did a good job too.

Awesome Cake

Shara's cake was amazing. She needed a little help with frosting it - the cake was a bit crumbly where it was cut for the shape, but other than that, she did it on her own!

Birthday Cake

Tomorrow we're going to Alan's parents for supper & cake for Alan's birthday on Monday. Shara made the cake and frosting. Tomorrow she's cutting it and frosting it. She found the recipe in a cookbook she got at school - it's a cat cake. It's supposed to look something like this:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hitveF8gI9U/TCabkgbOHzI/AAAAAAAAAPA/hiQXmzH5GQs/s1600/P1030811.JPG

She got home from school today, called me at work and asked if she could make the frosting. She never used beaters before so she found a video on line showing how to use them. I had gotten the butter out for her this morning so she was ok with that and she just made it. I got home and she was cleaning up. She needed help getting the frosting all out of the bowl into the container, but she did it all really.

I'll take pictures to share.

Here's where she made the cake the other day:

Another Cook in the House

A couple of days ago, Shara brought the tablet into the kitchen and set up to make peanut butter cups from the Simple Cooking Channel. She had a couple of questions but all could be done in the microwave and didn't require supervision, which worked out great because I was outside helping clear tree debris from the yard. We had a few trees cut down, not from a storm. So I did have to help a bit with some of the supply locations but really, these were all Shara's doing.

These were very good - a mixture of dark and some milk chocolate on the outside and a layer of peanut butter melted with white chocolate in the middle.











So what could be the follow-up? How about Rainbow Gummy Skittles in a Glass?

Cupcakes!

A Lovely Spring

RE Coffeehouse - all the kids could get up and perform whatever they wanted. Shara told a bunch of jokes from a book she got from the school library. She got to tell all the ones she wanted - there were probably 10 or so. She said when Ellen asked who wants to go next, if no one raised their hand, she volunteered.

I did coffee hour with my friend Joanne. She made a ton of fantastic baked goods and savory too. I contributed these beet pickled, then deviled eggs. They were a hit. I also made some delicious almond, raisin muffins with Aunt Susan's almond paste. They weren't so much of a hit, but that's fine because we've been enjoying them at home.

Some of Joanne's goodies - brownies, blondies, spice cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, hummus & pita chips, and pesto pizza.

Shara found a food heart

Shara wanted s'mores so bad but it was too cold outside to roast marshmallows and not cold enough to build a fire inside. She was pretty upset so I tried to compromise and make s'more brownies. I don't know if anyone's tried toasting fluff before, but it worked quite well, as you can see.

Peaches

Shara and I made pickled peaches today. She made fast work of things by sharing in the peach peeling. We both stood at the counter and worked our way through about 35 peaches from CM Smith. We didn't pick them this time but I don't think that made a difference. They were pretty good and if we have a chance to pick or run into more peaches this summer, I wouldn't hesitate to make more. We didn't make it out of the house in time to get to church, which I really wanted to go to and should have, but I also had to go in to work for a few - Alan changed a server battery, and didn't want all the back and forth driving, so we just went to work and then the farm. On the way home, we stopped for lunch at Asack's Turkey Farm. Shara and I split a pocket. Alan ate a whole one. Then Alan and Shara both had a lemon slush and I had a sundae.

It was a pretty relaxing weekend. Yesterday we all slept in because we were up past midnight on Friday, watching the Olympics' Opening Ceremonies. We also made a trip to the mall and got a couple pair of cute Bongo shoes.
 She wore them to our neighbors, one of each. I do hope she won't do that on a regular basis.

School's Great!

Oh it was a fun first day of 2nd grade and she knew lots of kids in her class. Today was gym, it was fun, and she saw some friends from last year during lunch, so it sounds like they'll have recess together. It's rainy so it was indoor recess today. I think the only thing she finds disappointing about school is that she's almost never pictured or a mention in the newsletter. I told her it was probably because I wasn't at school as often as the other moms and they're the ones who take the pictures. That it has nothing to do with her. I really believe that too and it's natural to take pictures of your friends' kids rather than someone you don't really know.

However, she was very happy when I got home this evening. She even helped cook dinner - she asked if we could have the bacon wrapped dates (we got the ingredients at the market yesterday) and I was thinking it would be good to have because she wasn't going to like the eggplant I had planned. Originally she planned on making them with me but then lost interest last night. I thought she'd like to today and she did. I really just got her set up, showed her how to do one and left her alone to do the rest while I cooked dinner. She must have eaten 8 of them. And I'm just remembering we forgot to put in the nuts - just prosciutto and blue cheese. Yummy. She wants to take the leftovers (only 3 left!) for snack tomorrow.

Food is Beautiful: simple slow-roasted tomatoes - French Fridays w/ D...

Food is Beautiful: simple slow-roasted tomatoes - French Fridays w/ D...: "I've made similar tomatoes before from Vegetables by James Peterson. His recipe called for removing the seeds. This may be simple, but very ..."
Shara helped me make these. Apparently didn't like the tomatoes. I thought she ate a bunch, but yesterday she said she didn't like anything about them. She prefers most of her vegetables uncooked - right off the plant. Nothing wrong with that!