August Catchup

I got some lovely book buying done this month:

A History of England by Macaulay

and a 14 book ensemble by John Galsworthy.

I got this set for $1 a piece, yep.  Fantastic condition for their old age too!

I also made a yummy, scrumptious strawberry dessert too.

It is layered with thin strips of strawberry inside it as well.

and now for a surprise gift.

My latest project:  Great Men and Women.

Perfect for any Social Studies or Composition program.

Read the passage { geared for 4th grade and up } then

choose an activity to do.

Just click to download.

Edited to add that I've added a couple of worksheets at the end of the file, so if you already downloaded it you might want to re-download again.

Printing tip:  print back to back for the passage.

I've also been having more bread success:  we're up to loaves now.  :o)

The girls have been busy with some arty stuff:

and bows and arrows too:

Thanks for visiting.

Roman Numerals

Well, as it turned out I needed a little something extra for one of the girls in the Roman Numeral Department, so I made some cards.

There's actually TWO different sets in the pack.

Just click on the cards to download. 

Thanks for visiting.

More Bread Details

Ingredients:
bread flour 600g, 1.5 tablespoon sugar, 1.5 tablespoon yeast, 400 mls water.

How to:
Ignite yeast with sugar and 200 ml of the tepid water allotment and 1 cup of the flour. I place these in a plastic bag for about 10 mins. Then I snip a corner off and pour out into mixing bowl. Add remaining water and flour. Mix until you have a nice dough ball.  Place dough ball in an oiled bowl.  Flip over - so that the dough ball has a little oil all over, so that when it rises and hits the plastic wrap on top it won't stick to it. Cover with loose plastic wrap and tea towel. Rise 40 mins, separate and roll out and put in oiled baking tins, rise again 40 mins - they will be at least double in size, place in oven at 190 degrees C. until golden brown.

This is what my dough looked like at the end of the FIRST rise.

The bowl was FULL and lifting over the top.

I took the dough out and rolled them up.

I also made this little video to show how I roll my dough.

What they looked like after the SECOND rise, just before I put them in the oven.

Thanks for visiting.

Cooking & Kitchen Catchup

This week we got a new oven!!

It's a little bigger than the last one, but the main difference is that the door actually closes - so I think future baking will be better as a result. :o)

This morning I was back to bread experimenting but decided that I wasn't going to do all that mixing by hand, nope, so I pulled out the chef instead.

Here is a 15 second video of the 5 littles checking out the Chef while the bread dough is being mixed.

How the bread came out.  A complete success!!  Best home made bread I have ever done.

Just slipped out of the pan.

The extra buns we got as well.

They were a complete favourite with all the children including my 20 year old who came out and finished them all off.

I also attempted double fried crispy chicken too - and that was also a success.  Yes, it was a little bit of work in the kitchen this morning, but all good.  :o)

Thanks for visiting.

CVC { a } Cards

I made these for Miss Charlotte to practice her cvc - a words and thought I'd share them here with you as well.

I just chopped them up into little individual cards.

Thanks for visiting.