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Crescent roll, ham and cheese roll up, romanesco, carrot stars, dragonfruit.
Time taken: 10 minutes. Roll was leftover from night before.
I am not participating in the FNCCC this week. It is Duff Goldman, the cake guy. He’s got a few recipes from food network magazine that are a grill menu (not happening; its below freezing here) and otherwise the plan is to decorate cakes or cupcakes.
I don’t bake!
It’s stressful and not relaxing and un-fun to me. Measurements must be too precise. Besides, no one around here needs any sweets.
Head over to I Blame My Mother for this weeks Food Network Chef Cooking Challenge to hear what folks that DO bake did though!
Using materials from Take It To Your Seat Math Centers (K-1) from Evan-Moor Educational Publishers (just this activity is available for download for just a few dollars as well), Â some extra bugs that I’m sure I downloaded on 4share.com, but can’t find now, contact paper to “laminate” and improve durability, and markers to decorate, I set up this file folder game.Â
I made way more bugs than we would need for Kidlet’s purpose (early addition), because I figure someday baby L can use them for sorting and creating patterns (things that kidlet is well beyond needing practice at doing)
Kidlet takes a handful of bugs and puts them in the jar, counts how many of each type there are, and writes that in the box, then repeats it in the number sentance at the bottom, and totals it up.
I’ve gotten a FFG done for subtraction as well. I’ll see about getting that one posted shortly.
You may have noticed I am missing some bentos from the mid 40’s until now. Most have pictures, but its a matter of finding them. I switched cameras AND computers both in the past two weeks. Between that and general busy-ness, I haven’t gotten everything together in the same place.
PB and lemon curd, romanesco, yellow wax beans, quail egg, peaches, raspberries, strawberry and chocolate candies.
Time Taken: < 10 minutes
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Pb and J, raspberries, blueberries, carrots, quail egg, cherry tomato (under sauce container) and ranch dip. Also a stick of string cheese in his lunch pail that didn’t make it inside the bento box.
Time taken: 10 minutes
Kidlet has already been exposed to the idea of states of matter. We’ve talked about solids, liquids and gases for a while now, done experiments with water, ice, gelatin, and so on. I created this folder to review, and to quiz him on his understanding of states of matter.
The labels for the envellopes came from Instant Display. I glued them onto the envellopes, and then attached the envellops to the file folder using double sided foam tape to raise them up slightly and make it easier for the tokens to slide into place (below)
The tokens came from all over the place. Some were individual images that I sought out with google image search (when I was looking for a specific thing like “clouds”), others came from an image search for “states of matter” where I snagged a few collections of images, and still more came from a different FFG posted at 4shared (only a few of those those; the resolution is kinda yucky on them). Most are images with a caption written on them, some are simply the name of an item that he has to read to sort (ie “Apple Juice” you see in the picture) and a few are even more difficult — a written description of a property of a solid, liquid or gas (as in “this state has a definite volume” token you can see in the photo).Â
He has had no trouble sorting these at all. Occasionally he’ll have to think a little bit (like where does he put the Sun, now that TMBG has told him that its plasma, not gas LOL), but overall, he has got the concept down. I guess next its time to talk about the water cycle, or changing states of matter.
Week 13 – Dave Lieberman
I forgot last week was an off week, which is a good thing. I’ve been sick this week, and probably wouldn’t have gotten my recipe made.
I picked his Black Bean Soup.
- 10 slices bacon, finely chopped
- 2 medium onions, chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)
- 6 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 (14 1/2-ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth
- 1 1/2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 4 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans, drained but not rinsed
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 bunch cilantro
- juice of 1/2 lime
- Thinly sliced scallions, for garnish
- Sour cream, for garnish
- Grated cheddar, for garnish
Put the bacon into a large heavy pot and place it over medium heat. Cook until it starts to give up its fat, about 4 minutes. Stir in the onions and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until you can smell it, about 1 minute.
Add the broth, tomatoes, ketchup, Worcestershire, and chili powder. Stir in the beans, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the soup is bubbling gently and cook 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Meanwhile, pick off all the thick stems from the cilantro. Wash it and shake dry. Chop the cilantro coarsely and stir it into the soup when it has been simmering 10 minutes. cook until the soup is thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice. Serve with the garnishes
I followed the recipe to the letter up until the point of adding the beans (well, I halved the recipe, and used homemade stock instead of canned broth). Then I tasted it and to me, it tasted like nothing except salt. Now, we are sensitive to salt around here. I don’t add it much when I’m cooking, nor do we salt at the table. About 6 years ago cut it out of my diet for health reasons, and because my hubby was diagnosed with high blood pressure. So maybe a normal salter wouldn’t think so, but to me it was like a salt lick.
So I started looking for something to dilute it a bit and give it more flavor than just salt. I added an extra couple cups of stock (homemade, no salt), and some cooked ground beef (from the freezer) and a can of diced green chilis — which is why the final result isn’t just a black bean soup ;) After letting it simmer long enough for the meat to come up to temperature, I added the cilantro as directed and served. At that point it was edible. Kidlet and I enjoyed it. DH was ill and sleeping and didn’t try it.
Linked to the Food Netowrk Cooking Challenge at I Blame My Mother. Check out more Dave Lieberman recipes this week!
New computer isn’t quite ready; I’m transitioning now.
Coming down with something, stuffy and feeling yucky.
General Tricks
Bring back a closed tab We have dedicated a section to web browsing further down below, but this one is too useful to be missed. Accidentally closed a tab? Simply press Ctrl + Shift + T to reopen the most recently closed tab and get back to what you were doing (Cmd + Shift + T on Macs), try on 25PC for more hacks and tools.
Window snapping and multiple monitor control Pressing the Windows Key + Arrow Keys will cause a window to quickly snap to each side of either monitor. Alternatively, hitting Shift + Windows Key + Arrows will cause the window to jump to the other monitor. While pressing Windows + P will allow you to quickly set up a second display or projector.
As mentioned before, in macOS we favor leveraging the power of Mission Control to handle virtual desktops, switching between apps, and peaking at your desktop beautifully. Though Macs don’t support window snapping out of the box, a $0.99 app called Magnet comes highly recommended.
Password-protect files A simple way to lock down access to certain files is to create an encrypted archive. Odds are you already have installed a copy of 7-Zip, WinRAR, or The Unarchiver (Mac) or some equivalent. Create a new archive, select to encrypt its contents and password protect them.
Between the two not much time for posting. I have two awards to accept and pass on, thank you Sheri and Gamene! And I will get there, honest!
I don’t shop on Black Friday. I like shopping, but I really don’t like crowds. It’s why I avoid malls too, unless I just can’t get what I want anywhere else.
The hubby though — he went out and braved the masses of people to do some electronics Christmas shopping. Except that he is giving my presents to me right away and not making me wait! I’m getting a new computer (altho not too old, this notebook is slow and has problems in some applications) and *drumroll* a new camera! I’ll be able to stop complaining about half or more of my photos turning into dye dipped or tv snow-like messes! Isn’t he the greatest!
This wasn’t taken with my new camera, but it’s yesterday’s Thanksgiving photo.