And are you making your recap lists? I know I’m thinking of mine, though I’m feeling right now like my mind is already fuzzing out on 2009 since I’ve got a few things going on in 2010 that are currently capturing my attention.
So, whether I get it done close the the New Year or a couple months out, when it’s done I’ll post!
Our virtue for this month at preschool is – shock and surprise – giving/generosity. We’ve been talking about giving gifts to others for the holidays and birthdays (not just receiving – though it can be tough to see beyond your own little world when you’re 3 or 4). Through stories and conversations, we’ve come up with the ideas that you can also give people: cupcakes, cookies, pictures, hugs, and sing them songs (that would be the list my 3 year olds came up with). One of my class’s projects to practice giving was to make peppermint cookies and then give them to people who help us at school. Before baking, we made a list of all the people who help us (this was all kid-guided, I had no input) and they mentioned each child in our class as well as all of the teachers they see at school and the pastor — I was impressed! I especially liked that they listed each other. Then we set about baking the cookies, using a recipe I found on a preschool site, but one I had never tried – sometimes these kinds of recipes go well, other times not so well. This one turned out great! The kids do most of the measuring and mixing when we bake so proportions are not always correct and then the kids got to shape them – which can make for a wide variety of sizes and shapes that may or may not cook uniformly. Despite these challenges (?), these cookies were really tasty and not too bad to look at either! When we sat down to enjoy them as a class, I had each child give a cookie to another child and then they could all dig in! After we were done, we got to deliver cookies to the other teachers and the kids were super excited to be able to share! Hopefully a small lesson about giving was learned while enjoying these yummy cookies!
Peppermint Cookies
1 1/4 c. crushed peppermints (I used candy canes and had the kids pound them into pieces – they loved it though our ears weren’t so happy)
1 1/3 c. sugar, divided (1/3 c. for topping, 1 c. for dough)
3/4 c. melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. peppermint extract (I thought you could go a little lighter on this…)
3/4 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
Grind peppermint candies in 1/3 c. sugar until powdery with a few larger chunks of candies (recipe recommends a food processor, we used wooden playdoh mallets to pound candy and sugar in plastic bags – when the bags sprung a leak, they were ready to add the mixture to the bowl!). Mix flour and salt in a small bowl. Mix butter, eggs, and sugar together in a separate, larger bowl. Add vanilla and peppermint extracts. Add flour mixture in 3 parts to sugar mixture until well mixed (we kind of did this, but it all worked out). Form dough into balls about one inch wide (our’s were a bit larger and some of them were more snake-like in shape but as long as they were thicker rather than thinner, they all cooked fine). Roll dough balls in crushed candy mixture and place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 8 minutes (our’s took more like 12) in preheated 350-degree oven. Remove cookies from oven and let cool for one minute, then remove them and roll them in the peppermint sugar mixture once more before placing them on wax paper to cool (this didn’t happen as I totally forgot about it – we’d moved on to circle time and my brain was elsewhere – but I thought the cookies were alreay quite pepperminty and sugary thanks to the earlier rolling).
Ha, I started this days ago! Man, how life has a way of setting up roadblocks to my blogging life!!
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We just got back from the world of no internets, a.k.a, my Grandma’s house and I have to say, I think I’m done with Thanksgiving now!
On to a recap of our Thanksgiving.
The turkey turned out pretty well. We followed the New Best Recipe version of turkey cooking and even though I feared for a while that we’d cooked the wrong side up first (and completely berated slanky for it! it totally would have been his fault too because he was paying uber attention to all the pictures so I thought he’d have it covered) it turns out we had it the right way and it didn’t dry out like my mom feared it would. We should have cooked it for less time and that would have made it even better so next time I’ll start checking it earlier.
My mom wasn’t completely happy with her stuffing because she used bread crumbs insteadof cubes and she didn’t like the consistency as well. I thought it tasted fairly similar to her past versions.
Next up, the green bean casserole. I thought this turned out rather well even though I’d fussed with an Alton Brown recipe (since I was not putting mushrooms in). The coolest part was that you cook it in a cast iron skillet. It was pretty easy, just a roux, onions, fresh beans. Instead of making my own fried onions though I used some Trader Joes ones and they worked out fine. I think it helped add back a bit of nostalgia to the soup can version.
Slanky made buttermilk biscuits and they turned out nice and fluffy even though I forced him to use half whole wheat pastry flour. I think they would have been even better if we’d freshly baked them but time and oven space wouldn’t allow.
The potatoes were very straight forward, just cream, milk, butter and plenty of salt and pepper. I was originally thinking I’d try and do some sort of roast garlic mashed potatoes but with the gravy being a little more complicated I’m glad I didn’t because the flavors would have probably competed.
The gravy was a mixed bag. I decided that rather than worry about the state of the drippings after the turkey was done I’d follow a recipe for gravy from the New Best Recipe. It involved making a broth with the neck and other parts, then starting a roux with butter and flour and adding the broth in and then finally adding the pan drippings from the turkey. Before adding the drippings you were supposed to deglaze the pan with wine and I think that complicated the flavors a little bit (my mom and brother didn’t like the result as well as straight up gravy). I thought the flavor was good, though the gravy was a bit on the thin side but it was the last thing to be completed so I didn’t want to simmer it any longer. Overall, I’m glad we had actual gravy and not screwed up lumpy flour tasting stuff but next time I might try it the old fashioned way.
We also had a former coworker of Slanky’s over and she brought brussel’s sprouts and apple pie, which were quite tasty.
For appetizers I made some baked olives with spices and they turned out really good, though with the rest of the food not many of them got eaten. I also baked some brie and put cranberry sauce on the top and the flavors were good but I learned the hard lesson that brie is best baked in a whole wheel rather than a wedge. It got a little gooey and runny.
For our first run at our own Thanksgiving I was really proud of how well we did! I probably won’t be doing anything like it again for a while but it was a nice accomplishment.