Tag Archives: Family Meals

Divinity/ ThursdayDoors

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For Thanksgiving, the doors were open in our home for dinner. This oven door got quite a work out with some sweet potato casserole and dinner rolls.

The towel reads, “A Life Well-Lived is Usually Messy”

So after eating the turkey, and some deciding to lie down and take a short snooze, we had the priviledge of a little cookin’ lesson from Mother, aka Grandma.

Step 1: Slather on the butter. Only real butter will do.

After some discussion of the dynamics of the recipe, there was some mixing and stirring.

Pardon the extra pan on the stove and the littering of items on the counter. Hence, my towel’s saying is ringing truth.

The recipe is for homemade Divinity as mother makes it and as her mother before her. Further discussions revealed that some people add pecans or dried fruits while we prefer our own local black walnuts.

Waiting for the candy to harden.

Did you know that Divinity has to be made with a humidity level of below 50% or your candy will not set (harden). We were blessed with 45% humidity according to the local weather report. 

Googling the origin of Divinity.

We learned that early versions of divinity were recorded in the early 1900’s and the recipe in it’s current form around 1907, except they used milk. We use corn syrup in our recipe.

Success!! Textbook perfect as mother says.

Google also explains the name was probably derived from exclamations of “Divine!” after biting into one of these nougats. We can certainly understand why!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this version of Thursday Doors and will check out more over at Norm 2.0, the founding father of our blog event. 

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Hint From the Kitchen

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Have you ever made too many pancakes?

pancakes.jpeg

Credit for this blog post goes out to my youngest daughter who had a coworker uninformed of what I’m about to share. So here goes…….

Well with little hungry children (or big ones) around, there’s no such thing as too many.

But what to do with all those extras? If you make them from scratch, there’s all that effort and the box mixes don’t come cheap. Feeding them to the dog is a possiblility but I have a better idea.

First you’ll need some:

XBrand Freezer Paper
Scissors, Gallon Freezer bag & Cut squares of freezer paper.

  1. freezer paper, wax paper or aluminum foil. —I prefer freezer paper but I’ve used all 3 in a pinch.
  2. freezer bags (do you see where this is going?)
  3. scissors

Cut the paper into 5 or 6 inch squares but dont get too worried about them being perfect. Their use is mainly to allow you peel-ability.

And by now you know we’re about to stack the extra pancakes on top of each other with a freezerpaper square between. They’ll freeze for up to 2 months although they won’t last that long here

.pancakes1

You could place them on a metal cookie sheet and freeze them individually for baggin’ later like Pioneer Woman. But who has time for that? One and done is my motto.

4 slice toasters are the only way to go.
Our topping of choice. Butter and maple syrup with No High Fructose Corn Syrup added.

Pop them in the toaster to reheat and you have a snack/meal ready in just minutes.  I love this simple method that allows the little ones to help with meals too. Just don’t let them touch that toaster, please!

Thanks to everyone for your visit! Hope you’ll leave a preferred pancake topping in the comments below. I’m always interested in other ways to get these kids to eat here 🙂

 

For the Children

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I spend a lot of time with children under the age of 5. Meals and snacks are my favorite time to really connect with their little thoughts.  In my setting, we gather together at a table in the main play room and have some of the most interesting conversations. I’m sure you can imagine. But just in case you can’t, I’d like to share one of them with you. This is a little taste of “Life Along the Katy Trail.”

Desmond – Look Steph! I can wink!
Me —   You should show Weston
Desmond – Can you wink Weston?
(Weston shakes his head)
Me – I will wink at you Desmond 
Weston – Look Steph!! (Weston blinks both eyes )
Desmond – Is this table a little big
Me – Yes it’s a little big
Desmond – I won’t crawl on the table if I was you!

MeSmiley

Desmond – If there was a stranger in my house and Mom wasn’t there and Dad wasn’t there and Dexter wasn’t there, I would tell him “I wouldn’t crawl on that table if I were you!!”…. But he’s a friendly stranger.

Me — I’m not sure if you’d have a friendly stranger in your house crawling on your table.

Desmond – But a friendly one would, Huh??!!
10 seconds later after inhaling a bite of bagel.
Desmond – I lost my extra pants
Me – How’d you do that?
Desmond – My Mommy took them off
(me looking away )
Ben joins in (age 23 months) – A Puppy!!!
Me—Where?
Ben smiles and the world is all better
1849217293_1371806270

More conversations later. Until then, you must know some reasons why we need to eat meals as a family. (of course I can’t leave this post without getting on a soap box for the children)
• According to researchers at Syracuse University, family routines such as eating dinner together nightly are associated with happier marriages, improved children’s health, and stronger family ties.
• Family meals are the perfect time to teach kids good manners and to model appropriate table etiquette. Sharing pleasant conversation around the dinner table can also help improve a child’s social skills.
• Dining together makes for healthier eaters. Kids who regularly eat with their families tend to have healthier eating patterns. They consume more fruits and vegetables and fewer fried foods, sodas, and saturated fat than kids who don’t share family meals, says the American Dietetic Association.
(from Parent’s.com)

Eat more meals together and listen to your childrens’ wonderful growing minds.             You won’t regret it.