Monday, September 20, 2010

Spinach Calzones (vegetarian)

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Dough:

1 Tablespoon yeast

2 Cups warm water

2 Tablespoons honey

1 Tablespoon salt

5 1/2 - 6 Cups unbleached white flour

Dissolve the yeast in warm water. Add honey, salt, and flour. Knead for about 10 minutes. Moisten the dough with a little bit of vegetable oil.

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Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until double in size.

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Filling:

1 pound of ricotta cheese

1 pound lightly steamed spinach (defrosted frozen spinach also works well)

2 Cups grated mozzarella cheese

1/2 Cup Parmesan cheese

2 cloves of crushed garlic

1/2 Cup minced onion

1 Tablespoon butter, plus extra to brush on top of calzones when they are done

salt

pepper

Dash of nutmeg

In a large mixing bowl, combine the cheeses, spinach, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Saute garlic and onion in butter. Add the onion mixture to the cheese-spinach mixture. Stir well.

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When the dough has finished rising, punch down and divide into 8 balls. Roll each ball out into a flat circle, about 1/4 inch thick. Place about a 1/2 cup of filling on half of each circle. Moisten the edges of each circle with a little water and fold in half. Crimp the edges closed with the tines of a fork and then prick the top of the calzones several times.

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Bake on an oiled cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes at 450 degree F.
As soon as the calzones come out of the oven, brush with butter.

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Serve with your favorite spaghetti sauce.

They can also be made smaller and used as a finger food or in a lunch box, with the sauce on the side, for dipping.

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Sunday, September 19, 2010

Autumn Sports

Blaze suddenly seems to have a full schedule of physical education. This past week went like this:

Tuesday: Physical therapy

Thursday: Field Day at Westside Park, put on by Alpha Phi Omega from U.F. (learned to play kickball)

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Friday: Soccer in Jonesville

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Sunday: The start of Fall swimming

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Friday, September 17, 2010

This Sunday is Talk Like a Pirate Day, so...

Welcome to pirate school!

For language arts today:

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We have been doing these pirate Mad Libs for about a week now and Blaze thinks they are hilarious.

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For science:

The water cycle as taught by pirates:



Pirates really like non-standard measurements, according to this song from Sid the Science Kid:



Arrrrgh! Even pirates be needin' some grub. For Pirate lunch, check out this tutorial for how to make pirate sandwiches:

http://www.mommie911.com/blog/2010/07/19/fun-pirate-party-sandwich-pirate-themed-party-food/

Back to class ye scurvy dogs!

It be time for pirate math:



Health Class:



Music:

Blaze's new favorite sea shanty:

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Starcross

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We have just finished reading the second book in Philip Reeve's Larklight trilogy and Blaze is excited to start the third book (it should be arriving here from Amazon in a couple of days).

After saving the solar system from a power-hungry maniac and giant space spiders in the first book, Larklight, the Mumby children and their mother are ready for a holiday. When they receive an invitation to stay at the seaside resort, Starcross, it seems like the perfect way to relax and unwind, but the resort is far from being the peaceful getaway they need. Luckily the Mumby family seems up to any challenge, whether it be an attack by automated Punch and Judy puppet shows, the creatures of prehistoric Mars, intelligent mind controlling hats from the future, or mercenaries who will fight for which ever side is willing to give them the most wool ( they wish to knit a "world cozy" to keep their planet warm).

These books are fun to read aloud.
There is one species in this book that can say nothing but, "moob," so I have been teasing Blaze for days by saying "moob with different intonations. "Moob? Moob. Moob!"

This story even contains songs, like
"My Flat Cat"

Oh what a pity,
My poor Kitty,
Peg him on the washing line to dangle!
Pa's new auto-maid,
Our clumsy clockwork laundry-aid,
Put poor Kitty through the mangle!


I also have really enjoyed the advertisements that appear inside the front and back covers of the books, as well as at each chapter heading.

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I wish I had hoverhogs to help me clean the house! You simply turn off the gravity generator in your house, letting all the crumbs you've dropped float up into the air. Then these handy, floating pets gobble up all the mess.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Wool Cardigan Make-Over

I have had this wool, button-down cardigan sweater for so long that I no longer remember where it came from. I don't really like cardigan sweaters, so Ula and I decided it must have been a gift from my mother sometime in the distant past.

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This past week, I decided it was finally time to give it a make-over.

The sweater had been washed sometime in the past and was already partially felted, so I didn't worry about it unraveling, as I cut off part of the sleeves and cut down the bodice to turn it into a shrug.

For the length of the sleeves, I just laid one of my short sleeve T-shirts over the sweater and cut where the short sleeve ended. The length of the bodice was determined by where the pockets on the sweater were situated. The top edge of the patch pockets became my cutline.

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I removed the buttons and sewed the button holes closed.

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I then measured around one of the sleeves, doubled that amount and cut two pieces of lace that length. Doing first one piece of lace, than the other, I sewed the raw ends of a piece of lace together to form a circle, used large basting stitches to gather the lace, pinned it in place around the very edge of the sleeve, and sewed it in place. I did the same thing for the lace along the bottom edge of the shrug (except I did not make it into a circle before sewing it on).

I like using cotton lace, because I can throw some in with any other fabric I may be dying and have a far wider variety of colors than the fabric store offers. This black lace was dyed in two different batches over a year ago and was just sitting around waiting to be used.

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The final touch was a decorative clasp.

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This Week in Grammar: Verbs






The Clean Up Your Grammar Game

The player has to sort words into recycling bins marked "noun" or "verb"

http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/adventure/grammar1.htm#

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Crafty Crow