Our International House of Pancakes, Day 2: Sweden

Spurred by our success, we set out to make pancakes from another destination.  Sela chose French crepes -- Viva le crepe!  As it turns out though, we didn't have a crepe recipe from a trusted source handy -- but we did have the fillings.  So we went for a pancake we thought was similar enough (and, to be completely transparent, would hold the Nutella and bananas our mouths were watering for!): Swedish pancakes.

6 Tbsp butter
3 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 Tbsp oil

Melt butter in skillet & turn off heat.
Whisk eggs, add 1/2 cup milk & whisk for 2 more minutes.
Add the flour to the egg mixture & use wooden spoon to beat until smooth.
Beat in remaining 1 1/2 cups milk, then add melted butter, salt, cinnamon & beat to mix.
Add oil to skillet & heat until it's very hot.
Drop 1 Tbsp batter into the skillet.  After about 1 minute, the edges will brown lightly.  Turn it and cook for another minute.
Add filling and roll (or fold!).

From Kirsten's Cook Book: A Peek at Dining in the Past with Meals You Can Cook Today


Now, at this point, we are totally into this international pancake idea.  If you think you could be, too -- play along at home!  The Wikipedia entry for 'Pancake' is pretty good travel research material.  It's lengthy, but might be inspirational for your global pancake tour.  Where would you like to go?

After your tummies are full, how about another good book about pancakes?  Love this one.

Our International House of Pancakes, Day 1: Kenya

I read this book many years ago, and I tried and tried to remember the title over the last few years.  I stumbled across it on the library shelf recently.  I love this story.  And it wraps up with a recipe for Kenyan pancakes.  (Book + related recipe = TRUE LOVE.  It's like... getting to eat a book.  Well, eating a book & it being Yummy, that is.)

Mama Panya's pancakes were delicious with raspberry jam, but next time we would cut out most of the oil.  I sort of wonder if there isn't a typo on that.  Sela, who is very... discriminating... loved them!

1 1/4 cups flour
2 cups cold water
1 1/3 vegetable oil (this seemed waaaaay too much - I'm going down to 1/3 cup, at most)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp red chili pepper flakes, crushed

Mix all ingredients with a fork.  Preheat nonstick pan at medium to low setting.
Ladle batter into center of the pan and tilt pan to spread batter to size of grapefruit.
Cook until you see tiny bubbles in the pancake, then gently flip it over.
When the second side begins to pop up from heat, the pancake is ready.
You can fill it with something sweet, like jam, or something savory, like tuna salad.  Just roll & eat!

Chile peppers drying for seeds at UCD Student Farm

Game Spotlight: Yoga Prenzels

Well, okay, it's not technically a game.
And it's actually Yoga Pretzels.  But this is how Linus says it.  And he won't always say it this way.  One day, he'll call it Yoga Pretzels.  And he'll ask for pretzels to eat, too.  Just like everybody else.  So, for now, we all call'em prenzels.

First offering...

No takers.


Sweetened the deal with a fun book...

Nope.


Yoga mats silently appeared on the scene & look what happened...

Well, these mats are just fun no matter what the activity.  (Or attire.)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter, friends near & far!  I hope your day was joyful, too.

                                                                          Cinnabunnies -

We'll make these again, bunnies are cute any time of the year.  (Pre-made cinnamon rolls, 1 roll for the face, another 1 unrolled & cut in half, then shaped into 2 ears.  Raisins for eyes & nose, sliced almonds for teeth)

Sela & Linus's Egg-sellent Adventure

What to do with eggs?
Here's where we started...

I got Linus set up.

Dry pinto beans & plastic eggs

Jellybean Pouches

And then Sela & I worked on these.  I found this idea from Small Wonders at The Crafty Crow.  We changed the pattern a bit, so we enjoyed creating our own tutorial.

Trace your egg shape. 

We used the inside of a cookie cutter to get the size we wanted.

Cut out three.

 

For the Bottom ("B"), cut off the top third of an egg.

For the Top ("T"), cut off LESS THAN two-thirds of another egg. 

"T" should overlap "B" when both are stacked and sewn on the whole egg.

 

Use a whipstitch to sew "B" onto the whole egg.

 Add "T" and continue to whipstitch.

Fill with treats!

This one is for the Easter Bunny. 
Santa gets cookies, she should get something, too.

Linus's adventure evolved this way.

 

We eventually made our way to our book stack and enjoyed these together:

The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown,

Max's Chocolate Chicken by Rosemary Wells &

The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Dubose Heyward.

While Little One Slept

While Linus slept, I stitched these little cuties for an Easter bunting.  (Check out this great pattern and tutorial.)



Last Easter I finished a pin...

 

and a needle book that makes me happy to sew all year-round...

 I could do bunny & egg crafts all year long.  You know, I just might.  Hmmm...

Here Comes Science: A Science Sampler

Do you know the cd Here Comes Science  by They Might Be Giants?  If you don't: you must!
In service of fun, science & education, we're going to work our way through it -- one science-y song at a time!  Now, this is a science curriculum.

Turn yours on & join us!
Stay tuned for our first selection...

"A scientific theory isn't just a hunch or guess--it's more like a question that's been put through a lot of tests."

"Science is reeeeeal..."