Posts Tagged ‘recipes’
Today marks 106 years since the birth of Theodor Seuss Geisel, a.k.a. Dr Seuss. Even if you haven’t fallen in love with Dr Seuss’s works themselves, you’ve probably loved classics that follow the style he made popular. That style is marked by imaginative characters and settings, bold colors, rhymes that trip the tongue and made-up words. In conjunction with Dr Seuss’s birthday, the National Education Association has developed an initiative to encourage reading called National Read Across America Day. {Last year, Aaron Nigel Smith joined in the celebrations to inspire young readers.} This year, to celebrate both, we are having a wild Dr. Seuss birthday party!
Sammi has been so excited to have a birthday party. We’ve read Dr Seuss books and she and Elli have been heard around the house belting out “Happy Birthday to You.” It has really helped her and Elli establish the pattern of birthday parties and their preparations. We were able to borrow a box of Dr Seuss themed decorations from the library as well as a few more books. Here’s a peak at what we’re preparing:
We’ve invited tons of friends to celebrate with us. Each family is bringing their favorite Dr Seuss book along with a treat/drink/craft that is inspired by their favorite book. I’m making meatballs inspired by the GUFF going by in Oh, the Thinks You can Think! I asked a dear friend to bring her Oobleck cupcakes that she debuted at her son’s birthday party (which inspired a lot of what I hoped to do for this party.) She graciously shared her yummy recipe, too, so you can whip up a batch of these little cupcakes today to celebrate!
Oobleck Cupcakes
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 egg whites from large eggs
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup 2% milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Green Food coloring
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners.
- Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, shortening, milk and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Mix at low speed for 2 minutes. Scrape bowl. Add egg whites and mix at high speed until fluffy and smooth, approximately 2 minutes. add food coloring.
- Fill liners 1/2 to 2/3 full of batter. Do not overfill. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
- Cool 10 minutes in pans then remove from pan, and place on wire racks to cool completely.
- Frost
Vanilla Buttercream frosting
16 ounce(s) marshmallow cream
1 1/2 cup(s) butter softened
1 teaspoon(s) vanilla extract
1/2 cup(s) confectioners’ sugar (more if necessary)
Beat the marshmallow cream using an electric mixer set on low. Add the butter (in 1-inch pieces) and beat until smooth. Add the vanilla extract, and confectioners’ sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally, and continue to beat on medium-high until smooth and fluffy. Add more sugar to adjust texture.
So, grab a Dr Seuss book, or any favorite, and sit down with your little one today and read, read, read!
What book has inspired you to read, either for yourself or with your little one?
Brent brought this recipe for marshmallow-y caramel popcorn home from work a few years ago. It has been a family favorite every since. It’s fast and easy and delicious. It’s not healthy, though 
But it does keep well in a bowl with a lid on tight. I like it because it’s not hard, crunchy caramel but rather soft, chewy caramel with marshmallows melted in. It definitely earns the name Yummy Popcorn!
You can print the picture of the recipe off and trim it down and it should fit nicely on a 3 by 5 card! It’s one you’ll want to keep to make again and again! We’re off to enjoy out bowl!
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What are your favorite easy treats?
Fall is not officially here for me until I’ve made and devoured pumpkin bread. The very thought of pumpkin bread makes my mouth water and I usually have to drop everything to make some. That’s why I made some right before writing this post so I wouldn’t get interrupted!
While we were waiting for the bread to cool, Sammi wanted to play with play dough. My mom, who’s visiting, is very creative and always has the patience and energy to pull out all the stops when it comes to “projects” with Sammi. So she pulled out the play dough and found that Sammi has swirled the red and yellow together. She took this opportunity to teach Sammi about making new colors.
She squished the yellow and red together until there made a perfect pumpkin orange color. Then, to solidify the concept, she mixed the blue and (now) orange together to make a green color for the stem. Sammi loved making new colors. Now we were ready to make the pumpkins.
We made balls of orange play dough then used a play dough knife to make the stripes on the pumpkin. We showed Sammi how and let her do her own. I was sure she’d demolish the ball but it actually remained fairly round. I was very impressed. Then we rolled out a little of the green and added it to the top for a stem.
We put all our pumpkins together and had a little pumpkin patch. I pulled out a Cinderella book from the shelf and showed Sammi the page where the Fairy Godmother changed the pumpkin into a carriage. Sammi loved that and made a magic wand to go with the pumpkins.
We sliced our pumpkin bread and devoured it while admiring our pumpkin patch. Fall is officially here!
Pumpkin Bread Recipe
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon clover
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 c oil
- 16 oz canned pumpkin
- 1 cup mini chocolate chips
Mix ingredients together. Pour into 2 greased and floured bread pans. Cook in preheated oven at 325° for 65-75 minutes.
Cows Love Pumpkins
We recently came across this little poem in one of our Babybug magazines. It’s grown on me over the months since we first read it. I hope you enjoy it with your little ones, too.
Cows love pumpkins
Pigs love squash
I love you
I do, by gosh!
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