Cookin School: Cookies!

Finally! We are getting to the good stuff. Cookies. We had lofty goals for today's Cookin School. Three different types of cookies! We were only able to make two of the three, on account of a shortage of brown sugar and interest from the children, but hey! Two different types of cookies was still a lot for this ragtag bunch of dreamers.

Is the kitchen freezing cold or unseasonably hot? We are keeping you guessing. Jon doffed his shirt at some point in the morning (I didn't even notice that he didn't have a shirt on until I loaded the pictures later, because nudity at our house--if not encouraged--is definitely ignored for the most part. ) and Tommy was cozy in his hooded Spidey shirt.

Round 1: A double batch of Tollhouse.

Muscling our way through a pound of butter, among other things.

You have no idea how helpful this little guy is to the cookie making process.

Did I mention these were Tollhouse made with M&M's? Lots and lots of M&M's.

My little cookie making minions. Pick up the pace, Tommy!

Round 2: Magic cookie bars. Usually here at KoncharManyBlessings, we try to stay above politics. But Josie really wants you to vote for Pedro. (We had chiminichangas for lunch yesterday.)

Crushing the graham crackers for the crust.

These bars really are magic. Why, anything that includes a can of sweetened condensed milk has got to be magical. Chocolate chips and coconut also doesn't hurt.

Here we are ready to deliver a few of the cookies to our friends on our street.

Tomorrow is our last day of Cookin School. I have a great final project planned. And don't miss next week:

Outdoor Ed

Cookin School: Buttered Noodles

Today's class focused on the classic art of Ye Olde Pasta Making. I was looking for a cooking genre that was both messy and well above the level of the abilities of my pupils. We found this (and more!) in pasta making.

Here we are, full of exuberance and optimism.

I then told the children what today's class would entail. Everyone but that overconfident little Tommy seemed to sense the gravity of the situation. A rather smug little smirker.
Step One: Give everyone a pile of flour to sneeze into.
Step two: Add salt, water and raw egg. Then watch as raw eggs spill out over the flour and head towards the edge of the counter. We were able to contain the eggs, but the whole thing was so unbelievably messy, and created such egg and flour encrusted hands, that were were unable to document it in photos. Unfortunate. It was the most exciting part of the whole process.
Step three: Cut to 20 minutes later, and the counter tops and the dough are looking good!

The dough is tough (as demonstrated by our little chef Miss Muscles) and we were really missing that pasta machine I futilely walked all over Target for this morning. (Still bitter.)
Step 4: Try and copy off your neighbor. Jon! This is Cookin School, where we do our own work!
Step 5: (If you are a little blond person that refuses to be ignored:) Persistently repeat the phrase "My Turn!" and wait for Mom's attention to be diverted. Then grab a wad of dough and a rolling pin and get-er-done.
Step 7: Using a cutting wheel, cut up the dough into obscenely large noodles.

Step 8: Boil for one minute.
Step 9: Top with butter and Parmesan cheese. Eat your delicious pasta.
Have you ever seen such gorgeous noodles?

Cookin School Night Class: Dinner

Today Cookin School was pushed back to tonight, on account of today being gymnastics for the twins and because yesterday's class so thoroughly trashed the kitchen, it took a while to hose the place down. All day long the kids kept asking me, "When is Cookin School gonna start?" and "What are we gonna do for Cookin School?" I played coy with them because I really didn't have a plan for class today, and so I kept saying "oh, pretty soon" to buy myself some time to come up with a great idea. And it worked! At 6:00 I came up with the great idea of making dinner for Cookin School!

But before we get to dinner, I wanted to show you lunch. Today we drank lunch, because it was one of those lazy days, you know, where I just couldn't face the chewing. The kids all laughed when I told them to come and drink their lunch. I'm always saying hilarious little things like that! What is still missing in this blender is the spinach and the blueberries and the strawberries. These shakes are da bomb. Just ask Jon, he drank two.

Finally, Cookin School. We are going it tonight without Calvin, because of Scouts. Aren't my little pupils adorable? Josie thoughtfully brought the teacher an apple. And then she thoughtfully put it back in the fridge for tomorrow's class.

Tonight's dinner will be Angel Hair pasta (though I am against food products that mention hair. It just sounds so distasteful) with zucchini, summer squash and onions, all from our neighbor's garden. Making all of this palatable is the addition of a cheesy sauce. First, we cut up the vegetables.

While Jon stirs the white sauce, Josie stirs the vegetables (after ditching her super warm pajamas), and learns why I rarely saute without a shirt on. Lots of sizzling vegetables spitting at her. But she bravely soldiers on.

Jon stirring the cheese sauce. So can that boy grow a head of hair or what? Haircuts are coming soon.

Ah, my little cooking slaves. (And folks, that suspicious bottle at Jon's left is olive oil.)

Finally! The finished product. They are so proud (and naked). The dinner may not look like much, but they ate the whole thing. Except Tommy. He didn't.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post and find out what we did. (And if you have any ideas for tomorrow, email me tonight. I'll be up late, awaiting your thoughts on the subject.)

Cookin School, BREAD DAY

A note on Cookin School: My inspiration for the theme of our first week of Off-Track activities, Cookin School, comes from a conversation between Hank Hill and his son Bobby on an episode of my much-beloved but rarely watched show "King of the Hill"

Bobby: Dad, can I go to Cookin School?

Hank: Bobby, one day I'll be dead. And that's the day you can go to Cookin School.

Monday, BREAD DAY, began Cookin School this week. I borrowed my mom's KitchenAid, wheat grinder and wheat, and we went shopping for chocolate chips. The project: Make whole wheat bread in addition to banana chocolate chip mini loaves. After we were all well-scrubbed and wearing our aprons we gathered around the island for some tips on reading a recipe and then some hands-on training. Yes, I realize the irony of ME, a rather inept cook, teaching cookin school. But I think I can take comfort in the knowledge that no one was listening to a word I said.

Tommy in his apron (or in his case a white pillow case), levitating. I can't believe I didn't flip this photo before I posted it. But now I have no idea how to fix it.

Some very jubilant children.

Watching the dough being kneaded. Mind your fingers, children! The recipe made enough dough for four full sized loaves. After the bread, we were on to the delicious and much more popular banana chocolate chip mini loaves.

Mashing the bananas. Probably the day's highlight. After that, it was time for the day's lowlight. After much dancing and wiggling, it was suggested to Jon to head off to the potty. After he came back and after he washed his hands he and Calvin were involved in some bread making gaiety that was so funny, so overpoweringly hilarious that there was nothing for Jon to do but pee all over the ottoman that was being used for a step stool in the kitchen. Josie and Calvin quickly skedaddled and Jon was politely escorted into the nearby laundry room while I patiently cleaned up--with nothing but compassion lighting upon my brow and empathy issuing from my lips. Tommy, atop the island, narrated the scene "Jon in trouuuuuuble". And so maybe a few things other than empathy escaped my lips. In his defence, though, Jon did mention that when earlier he had gone off to the potty, he realized upon his arrival that he no longer needed to use the facilities, so he turned around. Makes sense to me.

Tommy enjoying his small, filthy wad of bread dough that he happily squished in his little hands for well over half an hour. I'm considering bringing each of the children similar wads of dough for the first hour of church next week.

Our banana chocolate chip mini loaves. They turned out very cute and very delicious and because they were so small I ate nearly four of them and completely ruined my dinner.

One of our whole wheat bread loaves. Believe me when I say this was the "pretty one". I thought it was quite tasty with butter and jam. The children though, were all about the banana bread.

Hurray for Cookin School!

Choo Choo (Cuckoo)

My three middles are off track (year round school lingo for not in class) from now until the end of September. And don't think I don't know that this train is about to be derailed. Off the track. But so what if my couch and all the kitchen chairs have already been appropriated for use in the construction of blanket forts in the living room? The big news is I GET TO SLEEP IN and our evenings will no longer be dominated by children spending an hour trying to wheedle out of 15 minutes of homework.

I know that this must sound horrifying to all you moms out in the civilized world that are just catching your breath from school starting last week, but here in Crazytown we started the school year back on July 8. JULY 8, PEOPLE.

This week is Cookin School, so check back soon for our first day, working title: Bread Day (or, Into each life there must fall a little rain).

Labor Day, 2008

We totally lucked out this year and had good weather and good kids for our Labor Day festivities. Nobody threw up or anything. It was really awesome. Without planning a single thing, we managed to do lots of fun things that didn't cost a ton of money and, as an added bonus, completely wore the kids out.

The "before" shot. All smiles and crooked car seats.

Our first stop took us to Evergreen Lake for a paddle boat excursion. The boats were $7.50 a piece, and the filthy life jackets were free.

This is Tommy. I am pointing him out to you because you may not recognize him without the thumb.
The Dad boat. The Mom boat.

The lake. Signs told us to not swim or let our pets swim or spit in the lake, because it supplied the town's drinking water. I found this information to be odd and disturbing. If I was going to use this water for drinking, I wouldn't want Joe Schmo and his kids to be fritzing about in it. Heaven only knows what the ducks and muskrats were doing in it.

A muskrat bringing lunch to its little muskrat honey. Having now seen a muskrat, that song makes lots of sense.

Hard to see, but these were the two muskrat lovebirds eating lake greenery under the boat rental deck. Muskrats are mammals and members of the eww, gross family. They are basically abnormally large rats.

According to Josie, this was the nicest potty she had ever been in. Seriously. She critiqued it for us while she was in there, and she couldn't say enough nice things about this potty.

Driving back from the lake. Don't worry, it only looks like Tommy is strapped in to an improperly installed car seat.

After we got home from the lake, Pie and I each took very unsatisfactory naps (paddle boating is exhausting work) while the children LOUDLY ran amok around us, waking us every few minutes to wonder if we were going to the pool yet. This is our neighborhood rec center indoor pool extravaganza. Our kids love this place. We tolerate it. It is very chlorinated and tropical and deafeningly loud, but it is free and just down the street from our house, so we try not to be too resentful about taking the kids.

Josie and the logs and rope.

Sid, Calvin and Jon in the Lazy River.

We had a great day. It makes us wonder why we don't do more family activities.