Monkey Lobster

meet the girls

We really are liking getting to know them.

sometimes you feel like a nut

 

So tasty and so easy. Lucky for me the kids that I went trick or treating with this year were not coconut fans, so I got all the Almond Joys and Mounds that were collected. I make macaroons often because I usually have the few ingredients needed on hand, they mix up so quick and so many of my friend are gluten free. The last time I made them I remembered back to halloween and decided to give them a dipping.

In a bowl mix:

• 3/4 of a cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups shredded coconut
• 2 large egg whites
• pinch of vanilla bean and salt

I like to just mix it with my hands and then shape them and put them onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350. Almond Joy's got nuts, mounds don't.

When they cool, dip them into melted chocolate and lay them back onto the parchment paper. They seem to keep well for 4-5 days if you hide them.

Imma Bee Living That Good Life

Imma Bee livin' that good life (listen to it, it's clean)

OMG, they are so effin cool! I did however get stung today thinking that I'd be all  "I can poke around at your eggs without my gloves and veil". I am sad for the loss of that bee who sacrificed its life to sting me in the forehead.

Maybe you don't need this amount of detail, but check out the fat curled up larve in the second picture. The queen is a LAYING MACHINE!!!! And the tiny little eggs and larve in the piture above!!!!! I'm just sooooo excited about it all. Can you tell?

Virginia

When your 4th grader can't stop talking about early American history, you pile into the car and head to Virginia for her spring break.

We started our trip in Chincoteague. An island on the coast, with miles of National Seashore, wild ponies, sandy beaches and roads and trails for biking. If you squint you can see some of the ponies in the background by the trees.

Then we continued on to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown. Elsa was so excited to walk through the doors of the court house where Thomas Jefferson first practiced law, stroll the streets where Patrick Henry addressed the public, and lay her hands on the original bricks laid by the first settlers in Jamestown. Giddy she was, we were grateful to experience that level of excitement without having to hit the parks in Orlando. So seeing as we were driving right through D.C. on the way back home, we couldn't rob her of the full experience without letting her lay eyes on the Declaration of Independence. 

What made the trip most enjoyable for those of us not as excited about early American history as Elsa was, were the bike paths and scenic road that tied everything together. Traveling with a child with special needs can be tricky and in a lot of ways Cyrus is still really just a big toddler. Trying to get him to walk, follow the rules and not touch anything is a losing battle. He used to be a big back pack rider but at this point he has just grown out of it. So now the WeeHoo is our new best friend. He is so happy to be in it, I see our future trips and weekend adventures being planned around bike routes. Now if we can just get him to peddle forwards instead of backwards.

 

got bees

I am so happy to be in the presence of these gentle animals hard at work. I look forward to getting to know the interesting community that they are building right before my eyes.

welcoming spring

Spring Crafts

When three pairs of adoring eyes ask for help decorating eggs how can I resist? Soon they are not gonna want to spend the afternoon with me, so I'll take it where I can get it. Here are some links to instructions if you want to play along:

Ukranian Eggs.   Moss Baskets.   Chocolate Nest.   Fun Molds on a Stick

ginger ale

I love fermented things. This weekend we decided to give ginger ale a try. We did a lot of research and learned a little bit about the proses of fermentation. Now we just have to wait and see if it works. There is one bottle with a balloon on it, we are hoping it will be a good indicator of weather CO2 is building up in the bottles or not. Here is our recipe:

 

1. Chop up 4oz of ginger root (or more if you want it really spicy).

2. Simmer the ginger, juice of 1 lemon, and 2 cups of sugar in 5 quarts of water for 30 minutes to an hour or longer. 

5. Let it cool down to lukewarm.

6. On the side in a small jar, stir in 1/4 teaspoon of champagne yeast in with 1⁄4 cup warm water (not hot or you will kill the yeast).

7. After 15 minutes, add the yeast solution to your lukewarm brew.

8. Let the brew sit for 10 minutes and give it a good stir.

9. Strain it into sterile jars. We ran ours through the dish washer along with the other tools we needed such as funnels, bowls, spoons and strainers. If you don't have a dish washer you can always boil the bottles. 

I am expecting for it to take 3-4 days to carbonate. This morning Elsa ran downstairs like it was Christmas morning to see if the balloon had inflated. It had not.

 

springing

Spring is coming, and suddenly I remember how much I love to grow things. Easter is April 8th, leaving me just enough time to grow some grass and clover in baskets and other containers.

The baskets are lined with plastic bags and wood chips (because they are light weight) and then filled with potting soil, covered with seeds and then covered again with potting soil. The Vases are filled with pebbles, sphagnum moss, potting soil, seeds and then covered with more moss (just because I think it looks nicer on my counters).

If kept moist they should start to sprout in a few days, but it will take a good two weeks for form a nice sod to fill in. I used grass seed and clover, but I have also used radish, wheat, lentil, and unidentified seeds from the bottom of my seed box in past years.

Living greens make such a wonderful backdrop to just about any treat and wonderful bedding for children to collect eggs into. Sure beats shredded plastic. So get started, you still have time.

granola: my new obsession

I didn't used to like granola until I made this one. I think that my mother-in-laws granola, that I've always made a version of for Ben, turned me away (sorry Susan). Her granola is more like muesli, not very sweet, filled with saw-dust (wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ) and starts with a bunch of oil. 

This one is quite different. A friend of mine mentioned adding apple sauce, so I started experimenting and the results were very exciting. A crispy, crunchy, appley sweet granola without any oil! The mixture starts out pretty wet but eventually gets crispy and golden in the oven. Not enough apple sauce and it's not crispy and too much you might end up with a chipped tooth. I think that this is the right ratio:

• 1 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup honey/maple/rice syrup mixture add more if you like it sweet
• 1 tsp salt
• 3 tbs almond extract
• 3 tbs cinnamon
• 3 cups almonds (slivered, blanched. whole)
• 5 cups rolled oats (I really like "thick" oats)

Mix all ingredients in a big bowl. Toast in a 300 degree over in two big pans, stirring every 15 minutes for 1 hour, more often towards the end. It should feel almost dry when you take it out. Add dried fruit after it has cooled if you like. I like dried cherries with this combo. I also like pecan/vanilla/coconut with dried cranberries.

1/2 cup of frozen blueberries (thawed for 20 minutes in my bowl), 1/2 cup of plain yogurt, 1/4 of granola and a cup of tea with milk and honey = satisfying breakfast. What's even better is a tea drawer full of the finest teas and a shelf full of jars of different kids of granola to chose from. Now that's living the good life.