Baby Peacocks

This was the first time I had ever seen baby peafowl. While taking these pictures, it suddenly struck me that I had no idea what to call them. If you just realized the same thing, I looked it up, and they are called peachicks.

Kipper Sandwich Spread

Little Kipper Tea Time Sandwiches


1-3.53 ounce can of boneless kippers

2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1 Tablespoon butter, at room temperature

2 Tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

Mash or blend everything together until fairly smooth. The emersion-blender worked great for this one. This spread goes well with hearty, dark breads, like rye, or we used a multi-grain bread, cut into finger-sandwich sized pieces.

It sounds like the flavors would be very strong, but the cream cheese and butter really tone down the fishiness of the kippers. Neither my husband nor son are big fans of kippers, but they both enjoyed these little sandwiches.

Greek Mythology

We have continued our study of Greek Mythology, just in a more sporadic, less organized way, since it is summer break.

We finished reading the last two books in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series





and we have now started reading the first book in Rick Riordan's latest series about modern demigods, as our bedtime story.



This book picks up where The Last Olympian ended, combining some of the characters from the first series with some new characters.

We stopped reading Jason and the Argonauts before the end of the story, because I think the parts dealing with Medea are too intense for Blaze at this age.




Greek God word search:

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/Greek_Gods_Word_Search.pdf

Mango Lassi

This refreshing yogurt drink from India, is the perfect thing for this hot weather. It's filling enough to be a light meal on those days when it's just too hot to eat. It is also a good beverage to accompany spicy foods.



Mango Lassi

2 large fresh mangos, peeled and cut into chunks

2 Cups vanilla yogurt

1/4 Cup honey

1 Cup milk

Place mango chunks in a blender and puree until smooth. Add yogurt, honey, and milk. Blend well. Chill before serving.

Small Town 4th of July

Gainesville did not have their usual 3rd of July fireworks show this year, mostly due to lack of funds, although a burn ban was also in effect until 2 or 3 days ago. The smaller communities in the area are still celebrating, though.



We went out this morning to the nearby small town of Micanopy to see their 4th of July parade. It was the kind of old fashioned parade that fit in perfectly with the quaint, old fashioned atmosphere of Micanopy.

Waiting for the parade to start:







The parade begins:

























Blaze had never been to a parade where so much candy was thrown out. He insisted on putting it all in one pocket, so that by the end of the parade, that pocket had become so heavy that it threatened to pull down his pants.

Raised Doughnuts

For a 4th of July treat, I made yeast risen doughnuts, using a recipe from the 1887 White House Cookbook. The recipes are not written using modern standard measurements, so I had to change it a little.

Here is the original:



My version:

2 Cups of warm milk

2 Tablespoons of yeast

1/2 Cup (one stick) of melted butter

1 Cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

a pinch of nutmeg

2 eggs, well beaten

6-8 Cups of unbleached white flour

vegetable oil (to replace the lard when frying)


Add yeast to warm milk and gently stir together. Let sit until the yeast is activated and forms a light "sponge". Add butter, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir. Add eggs and stir well. Add flour until a bread-like dough is formed. knead on a floured board. Cover and let rise for one hour. Punch down, Roll out dough to about an inch thick and cut into desired shapes ( since it is the 4th of July, I cut mine into stars, but a standard doughnut shape will fry more quickly). Let the doughnuts rise for about 15 minutes before frying. Deep fat fry in hot vegetable oil. Sprinkle with powered sugar soon after removing from the oil or cool completely before adding a glaze to the tops.

Water Slide

Swimming lessons are at a different pool this year and the children had originally been told that the water slide would not be available to them at this pool, because the time was reserved for lessons only, not for play time.





Today was the last day of swimming for this week and the children did work hard, they even learned some very basic life saving skills, so the coach talked the pool managers into turning on the slide at the end of class.



It was fun just to watch how excited they all were over this unexpected treat!