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An image from a past tea at my home (summer time requires lemonade too!)
I attended a tea yesterday for a fellow grad student’s birthday at a local tea house. It was a lovely lovely afternoon– child free, women only, lots of talking and tea drinking. I usually go to tea for my birthday, but somehow this year it hasn’t happened, so it was nice to revisit that wonderful afternoon ritual for another’s birthday.
The ambiance of the tea house was very nice, and the service impeccable, but the food, honestly, was disappointing (then again, perhaps I am never satisfied with anything less than homemade). My auntie has schooled me in throwing our own very satisfying teas over the years (I was lucky enough to have her throw my baby showers and my wedding shower teas) and so it is very very hard to meet my expectations for tea food. Thinking on that on the way home, I thought I might share a couple of my favorite tea party recipes (I’ll post them at the end).
One of my favorite sandwich recipes that is a little outside the norm is Cucumber and Roquefort Cheese Sandwiches from a book titled Afternoon Tea Serenade (These are the top sandwich in the 1st picture). The original recipe was collected from The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, which I can say from personal experience, does one of the best afternoon teas in the San Francisco area– truly worth doing if you are in the area and feel so inclined (my other favorite tea place in the San Francisco is Lovejoy’s– less refined, more eclectic, but delicious food and welcoming environment).
The thing that was missing from today’s tea experience was a hot scone. To me the scone is the anchor of a good tea, and the quality of the scone speaks to the quality of the tea. No scone? It is just luncheon with hot tea. I have made a variety of scones, but my favorite are a quick and easy biscuit-like Orange-Cherry Scone. This recipe came to me from my Auntie, but she told me it was originally from The Honor Mansion B & B in Healdsburg (a stone’s throw from where I live). I like these as much for their flavor, as for their ease– particularly because they can be prepped and placed in the fridge, then popped in the oven when your guests arrive, so that you may serve hot scones!
And last, a tea is really not a tea with out a little sweetness. The highlight of all the teas my auntie has thrown are her Chocolate Dipped Shortbread. She varies the shape of the cookie cutter to fit the theme of the tea, so for my sister’s baby shower which had a little prince theme for my nephew, she made little crowns. She has done these in dark chocolate, but in the last few years she has moved to white chocolate and they are as delicious as ever.
With these recipes, a couple egg salad sandwiches (try these with a little curry powder in them), and perhaps some fresh fruit and a pound cake or box of chocolates you are ready to serve tea. The only thing left is to ask, “One lump or two.”
Ritz Cucumber Sandwiches (My simplified version)
10 slices Tea Sandwich Bread (you can use cocktail bread or any other thinly sliced bread– I think Orowheat makes some thin sliced– or just your favorite bread. These are open faced so the thinness is not as important is with some breads– you do want to make sure it is sturdy enough to stand up to spreading, some breads will tear.
2 small cucumbers, peeled and cut into thin slices (or one English cucumber peeled and sliced) You can trim the cucumbers to the size of your bread and slice lengthwise, or just slice as you normally would.
8 oz Roguefort cheese
8 oz cream cheese at room temp
4 TBSP butter at room temp
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted (you can of course use the nut of your choice, pecans would probably substitute well)
Blend cheeses and butter together in blender or food processor until smooth. Spread a layer over each piece of bread (toast your bread if you like before hand). Place overlapping slices of cucumber on the toast. Trim off bread crusts (absolutely required for a tea sandwich– crusts are unsightly at the tea table), and cut into triangles. Sprinkle with toasted walnuts. Serve.
Orange-Cherry (or Cranberry) Scones
6 Tbsp cold butter
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp finely grated orange rind
3/4 cup dried cherries ( I chop them into smaller pieces when them come whole– you can also substitute dried cranberries, etc)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease baking sheet. In a large bowl, cut butter into flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until misture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in orange rind and dried cherries. Add egg and milk; mix until mixture clings together and forms soft dough.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead gently about 15 times. Divide dough into fourths and pat into squares about 1/2 inch thick. Cut each square diagonally twice to form 4 triangles. Place on baking sheet. (The scones can also be frozen after being cut, or place on sheet and refrigerate covered overnight).
Bake abt 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm with butter, lemon curd, jam, or Devonshire cream.
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Hearts
2 cups unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped almonds (or pecans)
2 oz white chocolate, chopped
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
4 tsp shortening
Preheat oven to 325. In a large mixer bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add extract and dash salt; beat well. Add flour, beat just until well mixed. Stire in nuts. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes (cookies should not brown). Cool on rack.
Cook and stir white chocolate and/or semi-sweet chocolate and 2 tsp shortening over low heat (in seperate pans if doing both) until melted, stirring frequently. Dip half of each cookie into a chocolate mixture, or half and half. Let stand until chocolate is set.
I suppose I should know better by now, but sometimes I don’t slow down enough to listen to myself. Clothing and patterns just aren’t made for me, and especially not clothing patterns for women in a Japanese craft book!
When I visited my dear friend Anna in Seattle (Anna, are you checking up on me here yet?) we reconnected over sewing and blogs. She has been making some of those lovely bibs from Angry Chicken’s book, Bend the Rules Sewing, as well as working on a quilt (a sewing feat I have steered clear of so far). Talking of how I happened into this world of blogging I told her the story of my friend with the Japanese craft books and then the links that followed via email. Sweet friend that she is, upon learning my love of those books (if you’re not familiar with them, check out these blog postings for more pics and info: mollychicken, weewonderfuls, or angrychicken) drove me (our kids in tow) across town to the Kinokuniya Book Store, where Japanese craft books galore were to be had. And have I did. As it was my birthday week when I was visiting I bought myself a couple that day. And then, yes, the truth must be told… I returned with my husband the following day on our way out of town for another stop and a couple more books. I know I overloaded, but I have promised myself no more until I sew from each of the ones I brought home.
Cover of the book
Feeling that sewing pressure, and anxious to crack open a book I decided to try an adult pattern from Dress made of My Favorite Cloth by Machiko Kayaki. I have sewn in the past a few outfits for my daughter (boy clothes books are not as inspiring, but i”m working on it) but I had never sewn from one for myself. I especially liked the look of this dress (okay, the sleeves were really what got me) and decided to give it a try.
the dress!
First I measured myself, and then try to align that with their measurement table to determine my size. That the sizing runs on the petit side cannot be stressed enough. But I estimated, adjusted, and began cutting. Most important for me is usually length. At 6′ 1″ most patterns don’t fit me, but I added about 3-4 inches of length to each piece thinking it would be enough. It was not.
As I didn’t have any of “my favorite cloth” I was using some nubby fabric I had bought a while back (probably with some project in mind at the time, long forgotten) and was attempting to try out my serger a bit more with this project. What I ended up with looks okay, but does not fit. The bust area is darted well above where it needs to, and the whole piece is much, much too short– the line that is supposed to fall below my bust, cuts it almost in half. In my serging I also lost some of the gathering, and it has rather a flat look. On the bright side it went together rather quickly. On the downside— I have already begun cutting it apart (it is lying in pieces as I type)– trying to salvage it but knowing that it may not be possible.
I do, however, still love the sleeves.
Please ignore my lumpy crust. I usually stick to baking for this reason.
About a year or so ago, I began getting the magazine Vegetarian Times. I am alternately unimpressed and inspired by this magazine. Not sure if I just haven’t had the time for it, haven’t been interested in cooking, or if I’ve just become over saturated with cooking and recipes after a lifetime of reading Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, and my always growing cookbook collection. But this month was an inspriation month. I tried (sort of) a recipe from the pages of their latest copy, September 2008– Heirloom Tomato & Sweet Corn Pizzas.
Make that pizza, singular. The other dough I made into a regular cheese with red sauce for the children, wanting to hog all the tomatoes (from our garden) and corn (from our CSA) to myself (and my husband too, I do share–sometimes). Their recipe uses a store bought pizza dough (thank you Trader Joe’s), a garlic pistou and then a bit of cheese and veggies. Right off I knew I wouldn’t be following this one faithfully when I glanced over the instructions for the pistou and read “Wrap garlic in foil. Bake 40 minutes…” That wasn’t happening.
My kids were due home from soccer in 30 minutes and I needed to have dinner on the table shortly after that– I did not have 40 minutes + pizza baking time tonight. Knowing I was compromising the flavor, I decided to skip that step and use fresh garlic instead, but a little less of it.
Second bump came when I realized I’d forgotten to buy the cheese they called for (Cotija or feta)– did I mention I always end up going to the store more than once? I decided to ignore that too and use a bit of mozzarella I had in the freezer that I’d pulled out for the kids pizza already.
What resulted after these changes (and a couple more) was a delicious pizza, even more appreciated for it’s lack of resemblance to one of our 5 or 6 standard dinners. But the flavor did seem suscipsiously familiar… Then I remembered one of my favorite summertime salads from The Jimtown Store Cookbook: Cherry Tomato, mozzarella, & corn salad with basil. Sound familiar? It was as though this salad had been dumped on a pizza dough and warmed. What a wonderful thing!
Here is the pizza recipe (ammended) as well as an abbreviated version of the salad.
Heirloom Tomato & Sweet Corn Pizzas
ammended from Vegetarian Times
prepared garlic-herb pizza dough
garlic pistou my way:
4-10 heads of garlic (depending on size), minced or pressed
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 glugs olive oil
10 leaves fresh oregano
zest of half a lemon
3 handfuls of grated mozzarella (frozen straight from the freezer works fine)
fresh corn kernals from 1 ear of corn
assorted sliced tomatoes from your garden, csa, or nearest store–enough to fill your pizza
6 sliced/chopped basil leaves
other veggies you have on hand? I added sliced summer squash and sliced onion from our CSA
Preheat oven to 400 or possibly 450. Place pizza stone in, if you have one to heat. Whirl pistou ingredients in a small cuisinart or in a blender into a paste. Shape pizza crust to your liking, or to the best of your ability (mine is very poor, but always edible). Sprinkle cornmeal on a wooden cutting board if using a pizza stone, or on a pizza pan. place pizza dough on corn meal and adjust shape and crust. Spread pistou. Scatter corn kernals (and other veggies you want to cook– my squash and onions went on now) about. I also wanted some of the tomato cooked so I added about 6 slices now. Sprinkle with as much cheese as you deem appropriate. Slide onto hot pizza stone or place pizza pan in oven. Bake for 15- 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Top with the rest of the sliced tomatoes and then sprinkle basil on top. MMMMM!
Cherry Tomato, Mozzarella, & Corn Salad with Basil
Adapted from The Jimtown Store Cookbook
8 oz marinated bocconcini (small fresh mozzarella balls) (the original recipe has you marinate them yourself, but I usually can find them already marninated in spices and oil and save myself that step for the extra 50 cents)
1 basket small cherry tomatoes (yellow, red or orange, pear shaped or round)
Corn kernals cut from 2 medium ears
About 12 basil leaves that have been chiffonaded
Mix it all together. Serve room temperature. You may want to add some pepper, salt and lemon juice or zest to taste. Perhaps even some pepper flakes.
As a grade schooler I had a friend whose house I loved to visit. Not only did she not have a little sister, she had a great victorian dollhouse (which as these things go, she never wanted to play with as much as I did, or perhaps I just never could say how much I wanted to play with it). In addition to these perks when coming for a playdate, each time we walked into the house after school (so it seems to me now), there was a loaf of banana bread waiting for us to snack on. My mom baked a lot (late at night after my sis and I were in bed), but her main vice was chocolate chip cookies, so this banana bread was a treat for me (we didn’t get many of those cookies anyway, but rather ususally just saw the evidence in the morning).
When I read that this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was a banana bread I was leary. I love a basic banana bread, and even have a favorite banana muffin recipe, but chocolate banana bread has never appealed to me particularly. But one of the reasons I thought doing this baking group would be fun, was trying recipes I would normally skip over. And so the baking began!
Why do my bananas look that way? Frozen reserves.
Fresh Nutmeg! One of my small delights!
After pulling my frozen bananas from the freezer to defrost (This, by the way, is one of my great discoveries as an adult! That I could actually freeze my ripe (or overripe) bananas in the skin and all and use later has greatly enhanced my happiness with ripening bananas on my counter. I especially love using the frozen bananas in fruit smoothies as it eliminates the need for ice.) I got busy on this recipe. A little nutmeg grating, chocolate melting, and soon it was ready for the pan. This “loaf” is actaully a marble banana cake and I did, as usual, find the marbalizing part a bit of a chore. I am not convinced that a marble cake’s flavor makes up for the extra minutes spent mixing up the chocolate batter and carefully alternating batter and then swirling. But I’m a simple girl and like to move as quickly and effienciently as I can in the kitchen most days.
However, I have to say, the cake is pretty good. I am not converted (or convinced the marbling was worth it!) though, and while my kids and I are munching our way through this loaf, next time I’ll probably fall back on my original banana bread or my favorite fancy one from Cooking Light magazine years ago: Jamaican Banana Bread.
The recipe for the Black & White Banana Loaf is posted at A Year In The Kitchen.
Summer fruit waiting to be transformed
Technically I am not fulfilling the TWD rules this week, so it will not count towards my participation this month (which means I will do next weeks recipe as well), but I had all the ingredients and had wanted to make this one anyway. And so I did. At least it is still summer, and therefore fitting for the Summer Gallette recipe chosen for this week.
I bought some nectarines, peaches and plums at our CSA yesterday when we went to get our box of farm goodness (oh! the glorious summer tomatoes and basil in there!). And finally this afternoon I found a little space of time to put this together. Wonderfully it really did not take long, but it did take a bit of forethought because the butter for the dough needed to be frozen, and then the dough itself needed to be chilled. Other than that it basically made itself in no time.
I have to say, I’m always a bit afraid of pastry. My friend is a whiz at it, but I find it troubling and usually avoid it. I’ve had some luck, but more frustration, ripped crusts, and mishaps than I care to list here. It was a lovely suprise to have this crust come together so quickly and easily in the food processor (brilliant!). Even better, it tasted devine! Light and buttery. Dare I say…flakey?
My leaky lucious gallette
I love making this kind of pastry over a pie in a dish– the free form crust suits my non-perfectionist style much better and saves time , as well as dishes to be washed! I have made similar desserts, mainly working from Ina Garten’s (Barefoot Contessa) recipe for Apple Crostata in her Parties! cookbook. (Here is another of her crostata recipes I was able to find online) This cookbook is one of the most stained and tabbed books in my collection, precisely for these types of simple, flavorful recipes. Her crostata differs from Dorie’s gallette mainly in the topping. Dorie used the custard, Ina a light crumb topping. Honestly, I couldn’t taste the custard enough to warrant the extra step– I could taste the fruit and the crust and that was enough for me with a great big glass of milk– but… I was eating it quite warm in order to be able to post this evening. Perhaps the custard comes into its own in cooling; I should know at breakfast tomorrow!
One last note about this recipe. I’m not sure if I just had extra juicy fruit, or used too much but my gallette leaked all over. In fact there was so much juice I had a hard time telling if the custard had set. Really I don’t mind, the juice made it luscious to eat, but it did make the bottom a little less crisp than would be ideal. I wonder if the the leaking would have been worse without the crumbs and jam?
I will leave the experimentation for another day.
Find the recipe for the Gallette posted here.
Photo from my vacation!
We are home again! And while when I am here too long I can only think about traveling, when I am away too long, I can only think about home. Our full trip was almost two weeks and it was nice to come home, check on my garden (still growing), my to do list (still growing), and think of fun summer things to do in our area where my bed is (blackberry picking is high on our list this week). I was also anxious to get back to my posting here. We came back a bit too late to get my TWD up today (check tomorrow– I did get all the ingredients today and they await me in the morning) but not too late to get up another post about baking with children– one of my favorite topics.
My Baking Boy a couple years back
In my last post about Baking with Children I mentioned one of my favorite cookbooks for children, the well-known classic, Pretend Soup. And my favorite recipe in that book? Popovers. Hands down one of the most satisfying baking you can do with young children. I’ve made this recipe now multiple times not only with my children, but in their preschool classrooms where it never fails to be a hit.
The great thing about this recipe is that it is broken in to steps making even the prep work managable for the kids. The children get to “paint” the muffin tins with the melter butter, and just as Katzen promises, some children “love” this and will do this for quite a while, making for some very buttered tins!
The format of the cookbook is a bit lengthy with grown-up hints, the recipe itself, and then simplified pictorial directions for the children to follow. I can’t obviously recreate that here, so I will do my best to give enhanced directions. The best bet is to check out the book itself, at the library or at a bookstore.
Popovers
adapted from Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen & Ann Henderson
best eaten slightly warm, with jam
This recipe will work in a toaster oven and in mini muffin tins.
Ingredients:
2 TBSP butter, melted (to “paint” with)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375. Have the children paint the insides of the muffin cups with the melted butter (you may need more than the 2 TBSP depending on how much they enjoy this part– don’t rush them! Focusing on the process instead of the product is very important for young children)
When they are ready, break the eggs into the mixing bowl (try my trick for the small bowl for each or Katzen’s listed “break them on the bottom of a big bowl and let the egg run out into the bowl”). Once you have all the shells out of the egg, add the milk and beat well. Add flour and salt and whisk until blended.
Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. You can put the batter in a small pyrex measure cup to let the children help fill them on their own. Bake for 30 minutes without opening the oven (if using mini muffins it will be less– you will need to watch them, but this is part of the fun of popovers!)
Remove from pan and prick with a fork to let steam escape (truth be told I don’t think I usually remove them from the muffin pans– lazy, I guess). Katzen suggests having your child wear an oven mitt when they prick the muffins to protect them from the steam.
Eat one. And another. Add a little jam to the next. Maybe time for a glass of milk, or a mug of tea. Now one more.
Now get them young'uns in the kitchen!
I love baking. I love sharing things I love with my children. Not too far a leap to loving baking with my children. One recent afternoon my son had a friend over and we headed to the kitchen to do those things I love. My son loves chocolate. That lead us to this recipe from Linda Collister’s, Cooking with Kids for Double Chocolate Muffins. The recipe was from her aptly named section in the book, “baking afternoon”.
I got the boys suited up into aprons and away we went, mixing, stirring, cracking… and of course spilling. We made it through with only the barest of messes (one egg did miss the bowl completely but a quick swipe, a new egg, and we were back in business. 30 minutes later- cooling muffins. The interesting thing is that I think they enjoyed the process of baking more than those muffins. By the time they had come out of the oven they were onto another activity— but momma enjoyed them!
Here are a few tips when baking with children. The thing to always keep in mind is that baking with children will be a little bit messy. But there are some things you can do to minimize the mess and mishaps.
1. Have them crack eggs in a small separate bowl so if shell goes in with it all is not lost! I picked up this little trick from one of my favorite children’s cookbooks, Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen and Ann Henderson.
2. Use nice large bowls. It helps when they pour in too quickly (slosh), too much at one time (large puff of flour in the air), or stir with the might of mighty mouse (flinging unincorporated flour or, even better, bits of batter, throughout the kitchen). It doesn’t solve the mess, but it does minimize it.
3. Read through the recipe before you invite them in the kitchen. Make sure you have all the ingredients and prepare what you can. 
3a. Be sure that if you are baking with more than one child that the recipe has more than one egg to crack. This is the highlight of baking for most children. You can also check to see if there might be a compensating step, but cracking the egg is hard to beat. To ensure equal egg breaking consider making scrambled eggs after or instead. All will be happy.
4. Choose a recipe that will be done today. Preferable within an hour. Patience is not common in children, especially when it comes to eating dessert.
Happy Baking with your children!
I always am curious to see what other people are reading. And how they read. Are you the type to check out one book at the library, read it, return it and then start your next? Not I! I am the multi-book, plan ahead (beacause a book drought is absolutely terrible!) reader. I have stacks here, and there, and under there, and oh yeah, over there. Thought it might be fun to look at some of my piles around the house currently.
Top of the nightstand: Whole World Over; From Puritanism to Postmodernism; Lost in the City; The amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay; The Great War and Modern Memory.
Here’s my rundown on those titles. Whole world: I’m about half way through and while I’m enjoying it I can’t say it’s a great read. A nice light end of summer read. Nothing like what I remember her other novel, Three Junes, being like. But then that was a great book and great is always hard to follow- especially when great is your first novel. Sophmore blues I guess.
Puritanism/Postmoderism: Bought this off the bargain table at Border’s. It’s on my “list” — hoping I’ll skim through it this month, but it needs my proper attention which I can’t give it at midnight.
Lost in the City: Just picked this up at the Friends of the Library store. Heard about it over a year ago and couldn’t pass up the $1.50 price. It’ll be shelved soon for future reading (perhaps xmas break).
Amazing Adventures: This actually migrated from my husband’s nightstand to mine. I have read other novels by Chabon and enjoyed them (I read his latest one this summer) but this one is not on my urgent read list. One day. It too will be shelved.
Great War: I read this last spring in preparation for my Master’s thesis. It was terribly interesting, and depressing. It keeps floating around because I don’t really know where to put it. I need it kind of handy for when I really start doing more research this year, but am not going to referencing it every day. So it keeps floating from here, to the floor, to other piles and back. Hopefully it will find a home soon. 
Oh yes! I have a second shelf on my nightstand. This is where it goes after it hangs out on top for a while!
In Cold Blood: I was supposed to read that this summer, but somehow didn’t. I bought it after seeing Capote last year (one of my favorite movies from last year- chilling but soooo well done). I know I’ll get to it, but with my semester starting next week, it’ll probably languish there until December.
My Father’s Dragon: I’m going to read this to the kids- If I can remember it’s there!
The Big Over Easy: This by my favorite fun by smart author. He also wrote the Eyre Affair. Literary, witty but quick easy reads. I read this at the beach this year. It needs to find a new home. Probably at the Friends of the Library store.
On my floor next to the bed! Sad thing is I haven’t read any of these yet. They were early summer purchases when I optimistically forecast many more hours of reading then actually happened. But I do usually get to them eventually. So they will be shelved as soon as I can admit that summer really is over next week. I have however read some of those Harpers. I especially enjoyed reading two articles this summer: one by Cynthia Ozick titled Literary Entrails (isn’t that a great title!) about the need for literary criticism, and one by Jonathan Lethem titled The Ecstasy of Influence about plagerism vs. influence.
On top of my crochet bag next to my bed. On top of a binder of research. Yes, you can see my little secret obsession there- Sudoku. My husband got that for me two years ago and I was skeptical but hooked. It is great when I can’t sleep but don’t want to read, or when I just don’t want to read. And last but not least- Black Swan Green. This is by the same author as Cloud Atlas, which I read for my book group last year. I actually didn’t like Cloud Atlas because it got a bit too science fictiony for me, but he is an excellent writer (I can admit that) so I thought I’d try this autobiographical novel instead. Unfortunatley, also part of early summer buying spree– unread to date.
Well really must be off to read now! I’m beginning to feel guilty about all these unread books.
On a recent trip to a modern art museum I purchased a simple cutting book made by Kumon for my four year old son, Ian. My little guy, while being blessed with a memory like a steel trap (unfortunate especially when it comes to promised [but forgotten by mom] sweets, treats, extra stories, songs and the like) and excellent gross motor skills (like all ball skills including:dribbling, kicking, batting, shooting, and throwing), is still struggling to master the fine motor skills that his older sister had mastered by three. I make this comparison, not to compare them outright, but to explain why I was so delighted to see him finally starting to master scissors and hold a pencil correctly (and a fork at dinner too- if truth be told) within the last couple of months. Many activities (artistic and just time fillers for long days at home) that I used to do with his sister at the same age had been more frustrating then rewarding in the last year- for both of us. Cutting ended in a few jagged snips and then r-r-r-i-i-i-p-p-p of the paper. Drawing was a quick squiggle then an even quicker drop and run.
This has been perhaps harder for me. I love writing, drawing, art, cutting– pretty much anything that requires fine motor skills. These type of activities I can do for long periods of time without hearing my laundry or dishes calling and whining at my neglect; I can not muster the same kind of focus and enjoyment for other play such as– oh– having two plastic dinosaurs fight. But I’ve adjusted- I’ve gotten creative; I’ve found art projects that used minimal fine motor skills. [One of my favorites I did last summer was squirt bottle painting (an outside project if ever there was one).]
But I am excited! He, who in the past has loved cutting for the destruction aspect alone, is begining to master controlled cutting- and that will unlock all sorts of creative projects for us! And how did I realize he was beginning to master cutting- the Kumon book!
His favorite so far- assembling his very own paper rocket.
My favorite? When he said, “This is great! A little cutting, a little cookie.” (Did I forget to mention I sweetened the deal with a cookie snack?)
