Blackberry heaven

This is Nutmeg's sister. I'm taking over her blog while she is at sleep away camp. This is a picture of my yogurt creation, which I am calling Blackberry Heaven.  It is plain Greek yogurt, vanilla and fresh blackberries. I smooshed the berries with a fork and stirred them up well. That turned the yogurt a pinkish-purple color.  In the picture, I smooshed just one blackberry and dragged in around in a circle.  Pretty, right? I bet Nutmeg is going to be really mad at me for posting this. Ha ha!

Tasty Cucumber Salad - Nutmeg

Today I made cucumber salad all by myself for our dinner. It has a sour taste from the plain Greek yogurt, but it's still good. I like scooping out the guts of the cucumber. It doesn't take long to make this salad. And it's great on a summer day for a dinner side dish.  Cucumbers and dill are in season right now, so you can make it from your garden (if you have one).  I rate it 4 1/2 stars (out of 5) so try it some time.

Here is the recipe: http://shewearsmanyhats.com/cucumber-dill-greek-yogurt-salad/

And here is a picture of the finished salad:

TORTILLA  CHIPS!!!!!

(tor- tee-ya)-nutmeg



what you need
1. 3 tortillas
2. pan
3. cooking spray
4. knife
5.oven
6.your desired topping


how to begin
1. cut the tortillas in to fun shapes
2. put them on the pan
3.spray with cooking spray
4.add your desired topping (cinnamon,sea salt ,powered ranch dressing,BBQ)
5.bake for 15 minutes at 350 *F
6.watch closely the might cook faster
7.enjoy alone with your favorite salsa or hummus












idea from girl time get active !

Ice Cream Sundae's!

Ice Cream! You Scream! We all Scream for Ice Cream! One problem it's a sundae. This weekend we were camping and when we were coming back we saw (and tasted) something amazing... The Washington house, also known as... The birthplace of the Ice Cream Sundae!

The Washington House is an extraordinary place filled with old timey antiques to Ballroom display's. Plus there's an Ice Cream store built right in!

Two Rivers is an amazing place and you should definitely visit not only because of  it's amazing  but also it's a learning experience for all, and you get Ice Cream Sundae's at the birthplace of them! This was such a heartwarming experience that Ice Cream sitting ten feet away from this place would melt. Have a great day! -Ginger :)

Lemonade!

Guess what! All of us made homemade lemonade. It was so tasty. :)  Here's how.

What you need:
3 big lemons or 8 small lemons
3 c of cold water
1/2 c sugar
Ice

What you do:
1. Roll the lemons
2. Cut the lemons in half
3. Juice the lemons. You should have 1 c of juice.
4. Add the water and the sugar.
5. Stir
6. Taste and add what you need to your desire (sugar, water).
7. Add ice and enjoy!

It's not as yellow as lemonade you buy in the store, but it is even more tasty. It makes you think why would I ever buy the powdered kind? We sold our lemonade and made $14! Our customers said they loved it!  -- Nutmeg.

Impromptu smoothie!

This weekend me and my family (my cousins) made an impromptu smoothie! We added random fruits and yogurt and milk and blended until it was the thickness we wanted.  We used frozen raspberries, strawberries and blueberries, soy milk (2 cups) and plain Greek yogurt and 1 T of honey. We blended it for 5 minutes. When we first made it, it was thicker than we were expecting, but we kept adding milk until it thinned out.  Even my mom liked it (she doesn't like smoothies)! - Nutmeg

Here's a picture:

Try making your own! It's fun.

french crepes !

Check this out it easy french crepes ( kr-ape-s)! I got the recipe from Williams-Sonoma's The Cookbook For Kids.  I made it for my mom on Mother's Day. You can top it with berries, powdered sugar, syrup, chocolate spread (like Nutella). It was fun and I loved spreading the filling and topping the crepes. I had my dad help with the pan part. I suggest adult help for this one.  -Nutmeg

Here's how:
Ingredients:
2T butter, plus more for cooking crepes
2c milk
2 large eggs (I used my chicken's eggs)
1 1/2 c flour
1T sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

1. Melt the butter in a small microwave safe dish on high power for 20 seconds until melted. 

2. Pour the milk into a blender. Crack in the eggs, then pour in the butter. Add flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Blend briefly to mix. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the sides of the blender. Blend until smooth. 

3. Place a 10" crepe pan or non-stick  flying pan over medium high heat (we used a frying pan, and it worked fine). When the pan is hot, spread a little bit of butter over the pan bottom with a spatula. Pour in 1/3 c of crepe batter all at once. Immediately tilt and swirl the pan of that the batter covers the bottom (my dad did this part).  Cook until lightly browned on the bottom, about 2 minutes.  Using the spatula, scoop under the center of the crepe and carefully flip it. While the second side is cooking, scoop your filling into the center of the crepe. After about 2 minutes, slip the crepe, filling side up, onto a plate. Spread the filling evenly over the crepe and fold into quarters. 

4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve warm. 

Blueberry Breakfast Bars

Today it was raining. Another rainy day in Madison. But there is some good news...  I get to cook one of my all time favorite recipes, Blueberry Breakfast bars! I found the recipe in Whole Grain Mornings by Megan Gordan. They taste like heaven!

In this link you will find all sorts of fun ideas for you or your child. It also has a little bit about blueberries and their history. These were really fun to make, especially for a rainy day.

These bars are delicious and if anything you should try making them. It will be a sweet surprise. Speaking of sweet, there are so many different tastes in these. Especially sweet. I hope you enjoy the baking. Have a nice day. -Ginger :)

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day!

Sugar Rush! Today May 15 is the awesome National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day! Yay! Wohoo! I made chocolate chip cookies and are enjoying them right now with the family, totally delicious. You should definitely celebrate this holiday. We made so many cookies were going to give them to our neighbors and still have a lot of them left over.

This is the story of my first chocolate chip cookie. When I was about two I saw my mom rolling something into a ball, it happened to be chocolate chip cookie dough. Then she put it into the oven, a nice smell filled the air. A little while later I heard a ding and then these cookies. Then the real fun came... Eating Them!!! That is my first chocolate chip cookie experience.

These are some delicious cookies and a great holiday for kids. You should try celebrating it. You're kids will thank you for it. Have a great day! -Ginger :)

How to make butter in a jar

I just found out how to make this cool, quick butter in a jar recipe. - Nutmeg :D

What you'll need:
1. Jar with lid
2. Heavy cream
3. Strainer
4. Your hands
5. Saran wrap

Directions:
1. Put about 1 cup of heavy whipping cream into a jar. You can add honey, salt or herbs if you like. Put lid on tight.
2. Shake vigorously until solid (sort of). This should take 5-10 minutes.
3. Open the jar and pour into a strainer. This will get rid of all the cream that didn't turn into butter.
4. Place butter onto a square of saran wrap. Shape into a rectangle.
5. Refrigerate overnight.
6. In the morning, your butter should be hard and solid. Enjoy!

Here is a picture of my butter on a cracker. It is yummy! Sorry if it does not look the most appetizing.

Nutty Millet Breakfast Cookies

     This afternoon I decided to make cookies. But not just any cookies... They were healthy cookies! The recipe was from a book called Whole Grain Mornings  by Megan Gordan. The cookies were supposed to be a healthy whole grain breakfast, whether you're in a hurry to get to the bus or just taking it slow on a Sunday morning these make a great breakfast.

     In the fall my mom and I started a list of recipes from this book we wanted to try. Twice a week for ten weeks we made a special breakfast for each morning. We made everything from Peach cobbler to Ginger Bread cake. These are some excellent recipes and you should definitely try  them sometime. We also had to be very flexible, one day hazelnuts weren't in season so we couldn't make our own chocolate hazelnut spread so we used nutella! Every recipe in this book uses whole grains like farro, spelt flour, buckwheat flour, millet, brown rice, barley & wheat berries. Whole grains are healthy for you, that is why we like this book so much.

     These were some great recipes and you should definitely try them sometime. We have only tried 20 recipes so far I look forward to making them all. If you check out some recipes I wish you the best of luck. Good luck on the cooking. -Ginger :)  

International Dinner

This is the flag of the Netherlands.

This past weekend, I got to go an International Dinner at my school. At the International Dinner there were different kinds of food, like Jambalaya, chicken with rice noodles (I think it was a Chinese dish), Oliebollen  (It's a kind of Dutch doughnut), pizza, (etc.) It was super fun seeing all the dishes and performances that people made and did.

 

The International Dinner is an event where you can bring in a food that is from your family heritage, or something that you wanted to bring. And there are lots of different people at the International Dinner that have different heritages and they can get together and talk, and have fun. Also there are different performances like violin and singing, this year there was a capoeira demonstration. I like the International Dinner because I can meet new people, try new foods, and have fun. 

I put these flags here because they are the flags of where many of the dishes that were at the International Dinner came from. The flags represent where the dishes came from and where they are eaten. (Even though the food may be eaten all over the world).

This is the flag for China.

This is the flag of France.

This is the flag of Spain.

This is the flag of the USA.

Soba Noodles

This week I decided to try something new. My friend gave me an Awesomely Amazing cookbook for a secret Santa. It held the secret  to Soba  Noodles, as I said I tried it. Heaven! It was amazing just like it said it would be. "It's even better the next day" she wrote. You should so look up the recipe and try it. Like I said, Delicious.

My family rated this dish on a scale of 1 (disgusting) - 10 (tastes like heaven). 9, 4, 8 and a 15. that's pretty delicious for a first time rating. My  mom added a few things that weren't in the recipe, including red cabbage and peanut butter. You should definitely try this at home.

According to Health Hokkido, a health information website for the people of Japan, soba noodles are

...native Japanese noodles made of buckwheat flour. They are roughly as thick as spaghetti, and they are prepared in a variety of hot and cold dishes. The most basic soba dish is "zaru soba", in which boiled, cold soba noodles are served with a dipping sauce. Like pasta, soba noodles are available in dried form in supermarkets, but they taste best if freshly made by hand from flour and water. Recently soba making has also become a popular attraction. Last year the Asahikawa International Committee held a workshop for soba making with some volunteer translators in Etambetsu, a small rural area on the edge of Asahikawa.

 
I think that soba noodles are a great way to learn more about the Japanese culture and tradition. In addition to their food being yummy they also have a great way to run things and themselves. Just ask my parents,  they went to Japan for a couple of weeks to visit some friends and learned about Japanese culture when they were there. This was a great recipe you should totally check it out sometime. -Ginger (:

Totally delicious French Toast Casserole

Here is one of my favorite recipes that my mom makes. It is French Toast Casserole by Paula Deen. It's delicious  I really recommend it! It's spongy on the inside and crispy on the outside . YUM! but be warned you must make it the day before because you have to let it soak all night. I love to use my chickens eggs I think the casserole tastes fresher that way. This recipe is great for when your family and relatives come over it will impress them all. But seriously try  it!
Nutmeg :)

PLEASE COMPLEMENT!

Herb Garden Plans

Check out this cool idea I found it in a National Geographic Kids Cook Book! Its a Herb Garden, that you can make from an empty recyclable can, sand paper, scrap construction paper or wrapping paper, glue, stickers, markers, ribbon (etc), potting soil, some herb seeds (your choice of what they are), water, labels, small stones or marbles, and wooden craft sticks.

I like this idea because, you can make this at home and you don't need a lot of an adults help. I also like this idea because you can grow plants from your own herb garden. You can use the herbs from your garden to use in dishes that you make. Another reason I like this idea is because, you can decide on what you want to grow, and it teaches you how to take care of a garden. The experience of taking care of a garden might help you be more responsible.

- Cinnamon :)

Earthy Delights

 Today I am going to tell you about my experience with decorating cakes. I went to a class at Whole Foods for a cake decorating session for Earth day. We were going to make "dirt" cakes. They had already baked the cakes all we had to do was decorate and tweak them to our own desire. We had three different kinds of "dirt": crushed Oreo, vanilla cake crumbles and chocolate cake crumbles. We also had chocolate frosting, sweet and sour gummy worms and regular gummy worms. We could break the gummy worms in half and make it look like they were coming out of the cake and coat it in chocolate frosting. We got to make two of these delicious cakes and then take them home to our families. They're going to be delicious. These sure are going to be some Earthy delights. -Ginger :)                  

Swamp Smoothies

Swamp smoothies

Hi, this is our first recipe, a healthy favorite. We loved this recipe, hope you do too. Have fun! -Cinnamon, Ginger, and Nutmeg :)

What you Need

A blender

Measuring cups and Measuring spoons

1 cup of milk (Any kind) 

1 cup of plain yogurt (Greek suggested)

1 tablespoon of honey (optional)

1-2 cups of ice cubes ( however much needed)

1 cup of spinach ( more or less to suit your taste)

1 cup of  chopped bananas

1 cup of frozen strawberries (more if needed)

Directions

1. wash the strawberries, and spinach.

2. put  all the ingrediants in the blender.

3. blend for 20 seconds ( more if needed )

4. taste test and tweak it to suit your taste.

5. Now ENJOY! :)

Into the Kitchen

        Today is our first day ever blogging! We are three nine year old girls who love to cook. We are blogging to give you some cool and fun recipes to do as well as some advice in the world of cooking. We all came up with some fun spice names for each other. One of us  is Cinnamon because she is sweet with a tinge of bitter. Another one of us is Nutmeg because because she can be used for lots of recipes and is always a little bit nutty. The last one of us is Ginger because she comes in all forms: happy, energetic, funny and sensitive. Now lets get cooking! :)

 Have some fun with these awesome recipes of ours!