Ladybug read about Justin Martyr and Irenaeus in religion. She learned about arc functions in pre-calculus. In grammar, she finally finished all of the comma rules. She continued working with vectors in physics, with vector addition and calculating magnitude and direction of vectors. In US history, she read about John Smith and Christopher Newport and Jamestown. She learned about various forms of neurodivergence in health. In world history, she read about how the Almohads attempted to conquer Spain. There was a murder in The Hound of the Baskervilles!
Chickadee completed the section on the Patriarchs in religion by reading about Job. She worked through more complicated long division in math. In grammar she conjugated verbs. She read about Muhammad and the Five Pillars of Islam in history. She wrote a chronological narrative of a scientific discovery in writing. In science, we continued learning about the muscular system. We continued reading Anne of Green Gables and stuck with a dessert theme in our cooking adventures (following the chocolate cake we made last week), and baked Afternoon Ruby Tea Biscuits and Coconut Macaroons from The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook.
We have had some nice days mixed in here and there, but I’m hoping we’ll have true fall-like weather soon so we can get out of the house and do something fun!
Ladybug read about Gnosticism in her study of the early church. She worked with secant, cosecant, and cotangent in pre-calculus. In grammar, she continued identifying the different comma rules. She started a new chapter in physics, focused on one-dimensional motion equations. In history, she read about Pope Eugenius III and the Second Crusade. She continued to read The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Chickadee reviewed the properties of addition and subtraction in math. In writing, she started constructing one-level outlines. She read more about Britain in the Middle Ages in history. In science we started a chapter on the skeletal system. She picked up her read-through of the American Girl stories with Meet Felicity. We continued reading Anne of Green Gables. We also started making recipes from The Anne of Green Gables Cookbook. For our first dinner, we started with one of the most famous items in Anne of Green Gables, “Diana Barry’s Favorite Raspberry Cordial.” We had “Miss Stacy’s Baked Macaroni” for the main course, and a side of “White Sands Scalloped Tomatoes.” For dessert, we had the other most famous recipe from the book, “Anne’s Liniment Cake” (but we substituted vanilla for the liniment!):
“Mercy on us, Anne, you’ve flavored that cake with Anodyne Liniment. I broke the liniment bottle last week and poured what was left into an old empty vanilla bottle. I suppose it’s partly my fault–I should have warned you–but for pity’s sake, why couldn’t you have smelled it?” –Marilla Cuthbert
We also celebrated “Back to Hogwarts” today, and Ladybug and Chickadee helped me prepare all of the dishes we made from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook. We started the day with Oversized Blueberry Muffins with Crunchy Tops like Mrs. Weasley might have made for Harry on the morning of his hearing in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. No Harry Potter-themed day would be complete without Butterbeer like Harry enjoyed at Hogsmeade in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We baked Hot Rolls like the ones made by Kreacher in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. For dinner, we had Creamy Onion Soup like Mrs. Weasley cooked in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. We finished with Rhubarb Crumble with Custard Sauce from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
Summer vacation is coming to an end, which means I won’t have as much time for cooking “fancy” dinners. So even though I still have a lot of recipes left to try in The Official Disney Parks Cookbook, here’s a look at the ones we’ve tried so far. Unlike Delicious Disney: Walt Disney World, a cookbook of recipes from only Disney World which was the inspiration behind many of our Disney Dinners last year, this cookbook contains recipes from Disneyland, Disney California Adventure and beyond, Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and beyond, and other Disney locations including Vero Beach and Aulani.
Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes
Walt’s Chili and Beans
Shrimp Boil Tacos with Andouille Sausage and Corn
Honey Crunch Cake
Totchos
Tres Leches Cake
Key Lime Pie
Charred Nebraska Corn Chowder
Pork Goulash with Sauerkraut Pierogi
Caramel Hawaiian Sweet Bread Pudding
Chef Mickey’s Breakfast Pizza
Pink Leilani
S’mores Gelato Shake
Watermelon Lemonade
Goofy’s Kitchen Cherry Tomato and Bocconcini Salad
BLT Flatbread
Red, White, & Blue Sprinkle Whoopie Pies
Naan Bread with Cucumber Raita
Mango Lassi
Tomato Florentine Soup
Lemon Soda Float
The Hollywood Brown Derby Cobb Salad
Beef Sliders with Pimento Cheese
White Chocolate Peppermint Bar topped with Peppermint Meringue Kisses
I really love our Disney Dinners, and I’m really excited about the newest cookbook in this series, Delicious Disney: Disneyland, which comes out this fall!
Time for a look back at this year’s Fairytale-themed summer school!
I came up with four crafts to go with all of the stories we read, and I’m actually pretty proud of how creative I was to come up with them. My favorite might have been “Rumpelstiltskin’s straw-into-gold ornaments.” We made traditional Scandinavian straw stars, and then spray-painted them gold…they’re really pretty, and we have the materials and tools to make more at Christmas!
If that wasn’t my favorite craft, our Lego enchanted rose was. The idea was mine, and I bought all the necessary parts, but the execution was evasive to me…Ladybug, however, sat down with all of the materials and figured out how to make a beautiful centerpiece in no time!
I bought some gingerbread houses last Christmas and put them away for this summer…that’s always a fun craft, and it never turns out the same way twice!
And we also put together a fairy garden…we couldn’t believe how quickly the sprouts started coming up, and we’re looking forward to continuing to care for it!
We didn’t do as much cooking and baking as I had hoped (mainly because we were so busy making recipes from Lilo and Stitch: The Official Cookbook), but we did have a few fairytale dinners:
Fennel and Red Cabbage Slaw (The Brothers Grimm Cookbook)
Rapunzel…Angel-hair Pasta (The Brothers Grimm Cookbook)
Apple Punch (The Brothers Grimm Cookbook)
Mini Marbled Kugelhopfs (Fairytale Baking)
Golden Mountain Paella (The Brothers Grimm Cookbook)
Chocolate Ring (Fairytale Baking)
The only thing truly missing from this year’s summer school was a field trip…try as I might, I just couldn’t make that kind of connection. But it was a pretty fun, relaxed way to learn this summer, and that was really nice!
One of our cooking projects this summer has been making recipes from Lilo and Stitch: The Official Cookbook. There are still plenty of recipes we haven’t tried, but here’s a look at the ones we’ve made so far:
Kaua’i Sugarloaf Pineapple Salsa
‘Ohana Fruit Salad
Blue Hawaiian
Dawn Patrol Loco Moco
Pā’ina Haupia Cake
Pleakley’s Pink Stuff Frosé
Braddah’s Baked Spaghetti
Luki’s Shaved Ice
The Green Flash
Easy-Kine Kālua Pork
Mahalo Hasagawa Matcha Brownies
Island Grilled Lemonade
Nani’s Spaghetti Salad
Comforting Butter Mochi
Gantu’s Galactic Brew
Black and Blue Seared ‘Ahi with Experimental Sweet Potato Mash
Guava Celebration Cake
Pudge’s Peanut Butter, Jelly, and Banana Sandwich
Rock-a-Hula Açai Bowls
Hapa Kine Strawberry and Basil Cooler Companions
We have definitely been introduced to some new flavors (guava was a huge favorite!), cooking techniques (I’ve never grilled lemons for lemonade before!), and even culinary science (butterfly pea tea has some very interesting properties!), through these recipes, which I love, and most of the recipes have been big hits!
One of the things I was most looking forward to when we went to Disney World last year (and again when we went to Disneyland in June) was having a Dole Whip (pineapple soft serve if you’ve never had the opportunity to indulge), and I was also excited to discover that “Dole Whip Day” (which fell on July 20th) was a thing!
My love of all things Dole Whip, from the treats at the park to handbags to frozen treats at home, is fairly obvious:
I was really excited to recreate the treat at home last summer according to the recipe in Delicious Disney: Walt Disney World:
I was also excited to discover that the recipe for “Growth Potion” in Alice In Wonderland: The Official Cookbook, which featured pineapple juice and cream soda, was the perfect drink for this year’s Dole Whip Day:
But the thing I was most excited about was that the Disney Parks blog “Disney Eats” section shared a recipe in the for Pineapple Cupcakes inspired by Dole Whips (yellow cupcakes filled with pineapple mousse and topped with pineapple buttercream frosting), like the ones they serve at the Contempo Café at Disney World’s Contemporary Resort! I was already planning on trying to recreate the recipe (without ever having actually tried one myself), but they made it so much easier for me! I am not exaggerating when I say these are the best cupcakes I’ve ever made…I don’t know how they compare to the ones served at the Contempo Café, but they’re amazing on their own!
This was such fun and delicious way to celebrate Dole Whip Day, and I’m looking forward to making them again!
Yesterday was a most anticipated day…it was Stitch Day!
In case you’re unfamiliar with this holiday, it’s a day in celebration of Experiment 626 (which is why it is celebrated on June 26), otherwise known as Stitch, of Lilo and Stitch fame. Last year, we just happened to be at the Magic Kingdom on Stitch Day, and it’s hard to top that, but Disney did just release Lilo & Stitch: The Official Cookbook last month, so I planned a special day of meals to celebrate our favorite alien-dog.
We started with ‘Ohana Fruit Salad, which had pineapple, lychees, pear, green apples, strawberries, and tangerines, and was tossed with coconut yogurt and served in a hollowed-out pineapple. It was really delicious!
Next was Kaua’i Sugarloaf Pineapple Salsa, served with plantain chips…I can’t wait to serve this with our next Mexican dinner, because it too was delicious!
Funny story about the drink I made…it’s called the Blue Hawaiian. Does it look blue to you? No matter how much of the blue vanilla syrup I added, I couldn’t get the pineapple and lemon juice based drink to change colors, not even to green! Even though the color wasn’t right, the drink itself was tropical and refreshing!
For dinner, I made Dawn Patrol Loco Moco. I’ve been wanting to try this Hawaiian dish of a hamburger patty served on rice and topped with gravy and a fried egg for a while, and we weren’t disappointed!
For dessert, we had the Pā’ina Haupia Cake, which had a lovely coconut filling. Bunny drew an outline of Stitch, and Ladybug copied it in royal icing to make the decoration for the top of the cake…they did a fantastic job!
We had a really fun time celebrating Stitch Day, and I can’t wait to try more recipes from the cookbook!
This was a day I both hoped would never come (because to get here, first Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had to pass), and one that I have eagerly anticipated. The Coronation of King Charles III was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me (to date, anyway), and I loved reading through the detailed order of service and watching every moment. It was a beautiful ceremony, and all of the history and tradition contained within it both made a connection with the distant past as well as pointed the way to the future. The music was lovely, from “I Was Glad” and “Zadok the Priest” to “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation.” It was clear watching it that it doesn’t matter if you are crowned when you are young, as was Queen Elizabeth II, or after a lifetime of preparation like King Charles III, the truth of the saying “uneasy lies the head that wears the crown” was evident, as you could see the weight of it on both of their faces in archive footage and on live TV. The Princess of Wales hit the perfect balance between tiara and headpiece (although I still wish she’d worn a full tiara), and it was lovely to see her in the robes of the Royal Victorian Order. Princess Charlotte in her matching outfit and headpiece was adorable, as was the way she kept a watchful eye and gentle hand on her little brother. The Princess Royal, as always, “stood tall among men,” riding horseback in uniform in the procession in order to serve and protect her brother the King. I loved seeing the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh front and center, in a place worthy of such hard-working, dedicated (but sometimes overlooked) royals. It was such a thrill to see St. Edward’s Crown being worn, even for a short time. Young Prince George was a splendid Page of Honor, and it was moving to see him carry his grandfather the King’s train. There is something special about seeing the crowned heads of Europe (or their representatives) gather to see an important moment for one of their peers (and often an extended family member, as well). The touching moment when Prince William, “liege man of life and limb,” paid homage to his father and king, as representative of the Royal Family, was one I will always remember. Is there anything more splendid than seeing the coordinated “hip hip hooray” of thousands of soldiers? Prince Louis was so well-behaved at the Abbey, and so animated on the balcony. Hearing “God Save the King” brought a tear to my eye. Even though I was worried the low clouds and rain would prohibit the flypast, we were treated to a grand display by the Red Arrows.
The day began for me at 3:45 a.m., but it didn’t end when the Royal Family left the balcony. I planned a tea party to celebrate this auspicious occasion:
The star of the meal was the “Coronation Quiche,” prepared according to the recipe shared by the Royal Family to be enjoyed this weekend, and especially at “Big Lunches.”
I made a few other favorite items, including chocolate chip scones, an orange-poppyseed cake, and three types of finger sandwiches: egg salad, coronation chicken (ok, turkey), and cucumber:
I dug way back into my files to find a crown we made in school for the Diamond Jubilee in 2012 for our centerpiece, and I also tried a new napkin fold called “The Crown.”
The tea of choice was Darjeeling…I don’t know if it’s actually enjoyed by King Charles III, but it’s one of my favorites! It was a lovely lunchtime celebration!
For dinner, I threw it way back to the last coronation, and made coronation chicken (again, actually turkey) served over rice:
And for dessert, what’s more English than a trifle?
I even planned a coronation-themed outfit in Animal Crossing!
This was a very special day, and one I know I’ll always remember!
May the Fourth be with You! (But watch out for the Revenge of the Fifth!) We’ve had another fun two-day Star Wars Day(s) celebration. Most of the recipes we tried this year were new, starting with yesterday’s breakfast of Keshian Spice Bread from Star Wars: Galactic Baking (a new cookbook in our collection):
Dinner last night was a repeat (but so worth it)…I made Ronto Wrappers (flatbreads) from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge cookbook, and Batuuan Ronto Wraps from The Official Disney Parks Cookbook (just like we had at Disney World last summer and so delicious):
I also made the iconic Star Wars Blue Milk from a recipe on the Disney Food Blog…this one was pretty hit or miss, but it looked pretty!
Dessert was Hoth Cocoa Cream Puffs from Star Wars: Galactic Baking…they were amazing!
For dinner tonight, I made Nerf Kebabs from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge cookbook, and served Wawaatt Sprouts from The Life Day Cookbook with them:
I modified the recipe for Lothal Spicebrew from the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge cookbook to make it non-alcoholic…it was much more popular than last night’s drink!
For dessert, I baked Sith Cookies from Star Wars: Galactic Baking. The were soft and delicious.
This has become one of my favorite bonus holiday celebrations, and I’m really excited that there’s another Star Wars cookbook coming out later this year, so we can try even more recipes!
As hard as it is to believe since Lent always seems like it lasts forever, Holy Week and Easter Sunday have already come and gone. We had our traditional four day celebration, beginning on Maundy Thursday, with a fun twist for Easter dinner this year! I really look forward to this celebration every year, this 2023 did not disappoint!
On Maundy Thursday, I made hot cross buns. This is definitely a tradition now…what started as an experiment in 2020 when I was only grocery shopping once every two weeks and couldn’t plan on purchasing them has become an expected part of our Holy Week observances! I did try a new recipe this time, and I think we all liked it even better than the other ones I’ve made!
The evening church service was, as expected, lovely, especially the music.
Everyone had off of school on Good Friday, which was nice. I dedicated my day to baking. I made what were probably the best buttermilk biscuits ever, as well as blueberry muffins:
We were back at church that evening for another moving service:
Would you be surprised to know that I was back to baking on Holy Saturday? I made my first-ever angel food cake…keep reading to see how it turned out!
We also made this year’s Paschal candle…I think this was our best effort ever!
The Great Vigil of Easter is still my favorite service of the whole church year…I love the meaning behind each different part!
On the way home, we stopped at Wendy’s for Frostys and fries:
Sunday morning dawned bright and beautiful!
One of my favorite traditions is taking pictures of the Fab Five by the baptismal font:
Of course, I took other pictures, too:
We also got a very nice family photo:
When we got home, we had Easter brunch (our first brunch of the day…stay with me!). I made biscuits and gravy, and we also had scrambled eggs, sausage patties, and a variety of mini donuts. And pomegranate juice, which has become something of a tradition.
It was a great first meal of the day!
We watched some of our favorite Easter specials, and I visited Zipper T. Bunny when I wasn’t working on our big meal.
I learned how to turn our napkins into flowers for Easter!
I love how pretty the Easter table always looks!
For Easter dinner, we had Easter brunch (again). But this was a fancier brunch suggested by Turkey, including eggs Benedict, breakfast casserole, bacon, waffles, a salmon and radish tart, fresh fruit, gouda tea sandwiches, blueberry muffins, and a cheese board.
It was fun (and delicious!) to do something so different for dinner!!!
For dessert, we had the angel food cake I made, served with strawberries and a cream cheese filling/frosting…it was really good!
Easter is, of course, the highlight of the church year, and our celebration this year at church and home was especially lovely!
