So, this is what we did:
1. With my morning tea in hand, I prepped the zucchini for bread-and-butter pickles. They needed to soak in salted ice water for 3 hours. I was hoping the zucchini would be a reasonable stand-in for cucumbers.
2. We ate breakfast, etc.
3. Genevieve started making a new granola recipe that I begged from my friend Barb; it has Rice Krispies in it, which is amazingly good, and I had a lot left over after this fantastic recipe.
4. Simultaneously, I made Crunchy Drop Cookies from More with Less with the little bit of old granola. I used coconut oil with very little idea of what I was doing, and the cookies spread like pancakes; still tasty.
5. I really did not stay at Genevieve's elbow as I have mostly done in the cooking lessons so far. The recipe was in front of her the way Barb sent it to me, so it wasn't written for a kitchen newbie. Genevieve did accidentally add a 3/4 cup of sesame seeds instead of a 1/4 cup; granola is pretty forgiving for that (although I haven't actually tasted the end result).
5. I thought that granola was a good way to accustom Genevieve to the oven, to handling hot things, but she simply freaked out. I'm afraid I was not gracious about it, but I did the stirring and moving of the hot pan while I prepped the kitchen for canning the pickles.
We have granola, we have cookies, we have excellent bread-and-butter pickles. I did require a nap and coffee, lest you wonder. I did not have the opportunity to snap many pictures and I have lots more to say about preserving these days - inbetween sewing school uniforms.
13 comments:
Most children are more sensitive to heat than adults, it's just part of the aging process. I always thought my boys were being wimps until I remembered an experience with an elderly great-aunt. She was doing dishes and could tolerate the hottest water out of the tap, while it burned my young hands. I asked her about it and she said something to the effect that it's just what happens when you get older. So be patient with your daughter, the oven probably feels much hotter to her than to you, and she's so much closer to it in height too.
Margo, I hope you're still able to enjoy the summer!
Your pickles are making my mouth water!
Are school uniforms a new requirement this year?
Oh you brighten my day! Sounds like a lot of action in that kitchen!! As a youngster I was nearly terrified of reaching into the hot oven for a pan. I am quite intrigued to see how the zucchini pickles stand up!
Just a couple of days ago I asked Jada to slide a pan of something into the oven and she jumped back in fear when she got close. Guess that lesson will have to wait a while :)
Your days sound a lot like mine! So much to do in the kitchen these days...
Jenny_o, no, the uniforms are part of the school system here, but I wait until close to school begins to start outfitting the children because they grow so fast.
"The tyranny of produce"--HA! I snarfled my drink at that one! (Just roasted a tray of tomatoes...4 cucs in the fridge that I have no idea what we're going to do with yet...yes, I've already made pickles).
"The tyranny of the produce" - I couldn't have said it better. My week has been filled with canning tomatoes and today was an all-day corn day and tomorrow will be more tomatoes (I'm attempting to make ketchup!), then more cucumbers and peaches are on the very close horizon.
My kids aren't school-aged yet, and I'm a little nervous for when they are. August keeps me busy with produce - I can't imagine adding in school prep as well.
AmyK, I want to try to make ketchup this year, too! And I'm thinking that once my kids are in school, I will be able to preserve for hours at a time, so I hope I can delay some projects until early September. It's much easier to do kitchen projects with older kids around - littler ones are far less forgiving when all the canning stuff is hot or it's time to get up from a nap, etc.
Mine have been the same, same way about heat/oven/stovetop. The 4 eldest are almost entirely past their fears though.
Those pickles! Yummmm!!!
Doing uniform-y stuff last min here too.
Productive kitchen morning! Your pickles look great. I made bread & butter pickles this year too, but regular cucumber ones as that was what I could get lots of. But in looking for recipes I saw lots of mentioning of using zucchini instead, and apparently they turn out great. I would do that too if I had lots of zucchini, but did not plant any this year. Where I live you need every frost free day to produce certain things, and when I didn't get mine in early enough I knew not to bother. Shauna
You two have accomplished a lot.. Everything looks great..
Genevie is scared of the heat.. but she will get use to it.. Really probably good . that way, she will be very careful..
Great teacher and great student.
I love the idea of putting the granola in the cookie jar! Somehow I never thought of that but how convenient and lovely. Homemade granola is a staple in our home. Thank you!
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