A Little Mold on a Sunny Day (day 1)

Today we attended the Young Author's Book Faire, where Lila Holler received a first place award for the book of poetry that she submitted to the contest.  At the Faire they had a Scholastic Book sale.  Bunny, in true form, bought a booked called Gross Science by Paul Beck.

This book is full of creepy, crawly, stomach turning experiments like creating a bacteria farm, balloons of stink, garbage smoothies, fake snot,  maggot roundups, slimy putty and a worm ranch!

It's pretty nasty.

We've only been home for a few minutes and Bunny is already pleading to make some stinky stuff.  Some things require a trip to the grocery store, but fortunately we have many of the ingredients that it takes to create several of the projects in our kitchen.  And oddly, I have never thought of them as projects, so much as things to avoid because they could likely poison us all.

But, that's just me...

Today, much to the delight of my 9 year old daughter, we grow mold!

Bunny filled a mason jar with strawberries, cheese, bread and lettuce.  Now we will take picture of it each day for two weeks, or until the whole entire thing is full of green and blue fuzz!

And lucky you, I'll be taking a picture every day so that you can see our progress!  :)

You're welcome.

Adventures in Zucchini- challenge 3

I've been getting really creative with my round zucchini and it was only a matter of time before I hollowed a few out and made them into bowls!

This just came out of the oven!

It would have been vegan had I not found myself compelled to toss a piece of swiss cheese onto the top of each zucchini.

Step One:  Hollow your zucchini!

Step Two: Saute your zucchini guts in a pan with veggies of your choice.  I used onion, yellow squash, red pepper and tomato.  You can use whatever you'd like.

Step Three: Add vegetable broth and let it simmer!

Step Four: Add cooked pasta of your choice.

Step Five: Stuff your zucchini and stick them in the oven at 350 for a half an hour.

And maybe even put a little bit of cheese on there for good measure.

And then pick it off when it's time for Bunny to eat hers!  :)

All in all this was a huge success. Both of the girls loved it and I feel like it was pretty healthy.

I have to say, I've been pretty blessed with kids who love vegetables.  Lila hates meat and Bunny won't eat the bread on anything, but both of them are pretty great when it comes to vegetables.

Boston Cream Cupcakes

I used this guy's recipe for these amazing little cupcakes and am super excited about the way that they turned out.  There's no doughnut better than a boston cream donut (okay, okay, a jelly donut might be a little bitter better than a boston cream donut).  Anyway, donuts are not in my present or future, and neither are cupcakes (sadly) but a girl can still get crazy in the kitchen, even if she is on a diet.

With my guidance, Lila did most of the leg work on these cupcakes (Bunny is at a friend's house).

Start with a basic vanilla cupcake.  Use whatever is comfortable for you, whether that be an old, familiar recipe or even a box mix.

Use a knife to cut out the middle of the cupcake

Fill with pudding mixture.

 We use a cake decorating bag to do this, but you could technically use a zip lock baggie that you cut the corner off.  Truthfully, you could also just use a spoon.

 No need to save the leftover pudding mixture.  Feel free to squeeze the rest right into your mouth.

 Quick tip:  When using a decorating bag for anything, NEVER EVER put the frosting or filling directly into the bag. What a mess!!!!!  ALWAYS use a large piece of plastic wrap. Scoop large spoonfulls of frosting or filling in the center of the plastic wrap and roll it up (twisting the ends well.)  The end of the plastic wrap that will be at the top of the bag should be knotted and the other end will slide easily through the decorating end and can be cut with scissors and the tip can be reattached.  This picture is what the plastic looks like after I remove it from the bag, when it has been emptied out.

 When all is said and done, your bag will look like this, instead of like a complete gooey mess with filling oozing out of the top and onto your hand.  Gross!

Yes, that IS Groovy-James trying to lick the pudding off of the tip of my decorating bag while I take a picture.

 Take your ganache and spoon it onto the top of the cupcakes.

It can be a little bit messy!  Best not to use too much.  The leftovers will be great over a bowl of ice-cream and topped with a few salted peanuts the next day!

Sprinkle on a bit of powdered sugar.

ENJOY!

Watermelon Cupcakes

I used too many little chocolate chips and they sunk to the bottom of the cupcakes... but they're still sorta cute, I think.