Happy Air Kraken Day (and St. Patrick's Day)!

The Leprechaun Trap

There has been a lot of creative building going on this week, because Blaze and his friends have been busily making leprechaun traps. The one they've been working on during recess at school is made of natural materials found around the playground.



The one Blaze made at home is made out of a cardboard box, painted green. A trail of gold painted rocks leads up to the trap and the largest of the gold rocks serves as the bait inside the trap.





The friendly leprechaun on the front of the trap hides a stick that is tied to a string, which goes over a small pulley, and is then tied to the gold bait rock. When the leprechaun pulls on the rock, the stick will fall, causing the box to fall, and trap the leprechaun inside.

The trap sits in the most lush and inviting patch of clover we could find.

The Pot of Gold Cupcake

When I saw these rainbow candies at a candy store in St. Augustine a few days ago, I got all excited about using them to decorate St. Patrick's Day cupcake. As it turns out, though, they don't really hold their shape very well. They are too thin and floppy to be a good stand-up rainbow, but I'm sure they'd be fine on the side of a cake.

Here is what I came up with:



fondant coins and gold glitter gel in the center of a chocolate cupcake.

I have read that a variety of colors of "Airheads" candies, sliced length-wise and formed into rainbows is much more successful for this sort of thing.

Revisiting Some Favorite Irish Recipes For St. Patrick's Day

Irish Soda Bread

butter for greasing the baking sheet

4 cups unbleached white flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/2 cups of buttermilk

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Melt 1 Tablespoon of butter and use it to heavily grease a baking sheet. Them mix all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.




Add the buttermilk and mix until all the flour is moist and can be made into a ball. Place the dough ball in the center of the baking pan and cut an X in the top of the dough, using either a knife or a pair of scissors.

Bake for 45 minutes




Pratie Oatens

3 Large potatoes, peeled

1 cup uncooked rolled oats

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1 tsp. salt

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Dump in the potatoes and boil until they are tender. Drain and mash them. Add the butter and let it melt. Mix the melted butter in with the potatoes and let the mixture cool for about 10 minutes. Mix in oats and salt to form a soft dough.



Roll out on a well floured board to about 1 inch thick. Cut out circles using a biscut cutter.

Fry in a little butter or oil until golden brown on both sides.




Salmon Patties with Parsley Sauce


2 6-ounce cans of salmon (boneless)

1/2 cup cracker crumbs ( this time I used panko bread crumbs and they worked very well)

1 egg, beaten

1/4 Cup parsley sauce ( the recipe will follow this one)

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

vegetable oil for frying


1. Drain all the water from the canned salmon. Place the salmon in a large bowl.

2. Add the cracker crumbs, egg, parsley sauce, lemon juice, and pepper. Mix well.

3. Heat 2-3 Tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan.

4. Using wet hands, shape the salmon mixture into patties.

5. Fry the patties for about 5 minutes on each side or until they are an even golden brown.

6. Serve with a spoonful of parsley sauce on each patty.



Parsley sauce

4 Tablespoons of fresh parsley, washed and finely chopped

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1 Cup mayonnaise

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1 Tablespoon milk

Place everything in a blender or food processor and puree until the sauce is smooth and flecked with green.

Sea Food and Piracy

We went to St. Augustine today for the Sea Food Festival and to explore the new Pirate Museum.







There were craft booths and delicious dessert booths, as well as seafood,





and because it is St. Augustine, there were pirates wandering about.



The new St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum was a lot of fun. The exhibits are very interactive and definitely made to keep the interest of children.







There are only two authentic pirate flags left, and one of them can be seen in the background of this picture:

Greek Architecture Models

The Middle and High School history classes at the school have been learning about ancient Greece, something I hope to do later in the school year. These student-made models are now sitting in the school centrium. I was so impressed with their work, that I wanted to share it here.

Primitive Hut Dioramas

Even though our lessons at school have moved on to Mesopotamia, there was one project we still wanted to do with with primitive man, which was having the children make models of some of the different styles of primitive huts. Each child was able to choose a picture of a hut design used by prehistoric people. The child then built a model hut that looked like their picture. We spray painted some sticks white to represent mammoth bones for some of the huts.