Today, September 29, is the day we celebrate Michaelmas. It is traditionally the day to honor St. Michael (and the other archangels). The boys have mixed feelings about this day. Legend has it that the devil fell into a blackberry bush when he was thrown out of heaven. Satan cursed the brambles, and for that reason, blackberries traditionally should not be eaten after Michaelmas. The kids will miss eating those juicy black treats (which are mostly gone by now anyway). For the most part the boys love Michaelmas though because we go on our very own dragon hunt, a great idea for Family Moment Monday.

For some reason, St. Michael is connected to the stories about St. George. I can’t quite understand the reasoning behind it, but it is all to the good because we haven’t got a book about St. Michael. Instead, we always read St. George and the dragon. This book has a very fierce dragon and the text is a bit too long and difficult for very small children. However, we like to look at it and I shorten/simplify the story according to the boys’ ages. I am thinking that in a year or two we can go ahead and read the book in its entirety.

Though the boys enjoy reading the book, the real highlight of the day is of course the dragon hunt. For that we first bake a dragon:
Ingredients:

• Puff pastry
• Two apples
• Raisins, sugar, cinnamon

Preparation:

1. Peel the apples and cut into small pieces. Mix with some raisins and sugar/cinnamon to taste.
2. I cut shapes out of the pastry dough that will then be assembled to make a dragon shape. A long, slightly triangular piece serves as the tummy, two more pieces as the sides and back. No template necessary, just make it look a bit like a dragon.



3. Fill the inside of the dragon with the apple/raisin mixture.
4. Depending on your own artistic talent and your kids expectations, add on extra features with the dough (wings, feet, ears etc.). Put on raisins for eyes and almond slices etc for scales.
5. You might want to use something (eg. aluminum foil) to hold up the dragon’s head while baking.
6. Bake according to the pastry instructions.

Once the dragon has finished baking (and has cooled a bit), I “hide” him somewhere in the house. The boys and I then go on a dragon hunt to look for it. Once it is found, the kids get to “kill” the dragon with a knife or stick. Then, of course, comes the best part: Eating it all up.

Growing up with two languages poses special challenges, and I am always looking for good resources and interesting things to help the boys feel comfortable with both languages. Actually, I am not so concerned about German, as they have plenty of input at school, but providing enough material in English is not always easy.
When I was a teenager it was a major production to get an English book. You had to first special-order it (which was only possible if it was on a fairly narrow list) and then wait for a couple of months. It was such a long and difficult process that you basically just bought whatever the store happened to have on hand. With the advent of the internet this has gotten a lot easier.
Still, it is not always easy to find the right materials even now. One of the presents I got for my first grader’s I-am-finally-at-school cone was a subscription for a children’s magazine. I spend a fair amount of time on various parenting message boards (maybe I should clean my kitchen instead?), and have always heard great reviews of Cricket magazines. So we went ahead and ordered a subscription for Spider magazine and just received the first issue. We have really enjoyed it and my son has asked me to read some of the stories several times. He also enjoyed the cut-out (not surprising as he likes anything you can cut out and glue or stapel) and even did the children’s crossword puzzles. We are eagerly waiting for the next edition!

It seems only a little while ago that I took my new baby home from the hospital.

Hard to believe that he could now be STARTING SCHOOL!!! Yes, my little pumpkin, who it seems just a little bit ago learned to walk, is now a first grader. If your kids are a bit bigger, you probably know why I am so excited about this. It is a huge step!

There is a pretty nifty custom in Germany that I thought some of you might like to know about. On the first day of school, children get a special cone filled with treats. The cones are fairly big, so I mostly got small toys instead of sweets (if you filled the entire cone with sweets you’ d have enough for hosting a Halloween party). When I was little, people just bought ready-made cones. You can still do that, but it is also very popular to decorate your own.

Basically, you take a plain cone (here in Germany you can buy those but you could also make your own by rolling some sturdy construction paper into a cone shape and taping/glueing it closed) and decorate it with paper cut-outs, buttons, bows, whatever. I made a dragon cone from a template for my first grader and little brother got a smaller cone that we just improvised on.

Last Saturday a friend was coming for an afternoon visit. Unfortunately, our house was a complete mess and we spent most of the morning trying to make it look presentable. Usually, I like to offer guests some sort of homemade treat (cookies, brownies, muffins etc.). However, with all the cleaning we had to do (you wouldn’t believe the mess our house was in - or if you have two small boys maybe you do) there was little time for baking anything impressive. I know, I know, showing off is not nice but surely a tiny bit of housewifely pride is allowed. And let’s just say that the state of our house still wasn’t impressive even after the cleaning spree so the cookies were my only hope.

Luckily, I found a pretty nifty recipe which turns out several varieties of cookies from one basic dough. So in case you find yourself in the same position here you go:

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 cups butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Preparation:

Cream butter with sugar and add vanilla and egg. Mix flour, salt and baking powder together. Add flour mixture to butter mixture.

This is your basic cookie dough. Now here is what you do: Divide into four parts. Add different stuff to it. You can pretty much use anything (well, any cookie ingredient - not mustard or anything like that) you like (and happen to have at home).

I added the following:

Batch one: about half a cup of crushed cornflakes and a small handful of M&Ms
Batch two: about 1 tablespoon cocoa
Batch three: about 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Batch four: about 1/2 cup grated almonds and a drop of almond extract

Those are just some possibilities though. As I said before, you could use lots of other things (peanuts, walnuts, coconut, raisins, dried cranberries, other flavorings etc.). Use teaspoonfuls of the different doughs to shape cookies. I just took little balls of dough and pushed them into circles or bars. If you manage to make them look a bit different in shape, noone will notice that you basically only made one kind of cooky. Bake at 350° for about 10 minutes.

Jonathan and I really liked the cookies (my personal favorite was the cornflakes version). Our guests seemed to enjoy them too, but Benny didn’t care for them too much. We think they might not have been sweet enough for him, so if you like your cookies extra-sweet go ahead and increase the amount of sugar a bit.

When we took a closer look at our self-dug potatoes we noticed that a couple looked decidedly green. That of course makes them inedible, but I didn’t want to just throw them away either. So I came up with an idea for Family Moment Monday. We decided to use the green potatoes for stamps to make some wrapping paper for Christmas!

Here is what we did:

1. Cut a piece of sturdy paper to desired size (We only had white paper but using something in color would make it look even prettier)
2. The kids choose some colors and fill a little bit in flat containers (we used lids of yoghurt containers for this).



3. Cut a couple of potatoes in half and cut out a nice design. Depending on the children’s age they may need you to help with this part.
4. Dip potato stamps into paint and press onto paper. Do some experimenting to find out how much paint should be used to make a clear print. Let paper dry and your wrapping paper is ready to be used!

Here a couple of additional tips:

Have you had enough fruit posts for a while? Never fear. This time we’ll talk about something completely different - vegetables!
It is still harvest season and today we did something that is especially fun for the kids (and me). Actually, it is kind of like a treasure hunt - digging for potatoes. We do not eat lots of potatoes at our house (we are more the pasta and bread people) but every spring we beg Grandpa to plant some potatoes. Not a lot - maybe fifteen or so. Now I have shared before that I am not much of a gardener, but I do think potatoes are fairly foolproof. Basically, you just have to make sure the potatoes are covered with soil all the time (or they’ll turn green and inedible), keep off some of the weeds and water them occasionally. Then, when fall comes around, you wait for the potato plant that you see above the ground to kind of whither. And finally, the best thing of all, rooting around in the dirt to find your “treasure”.

Someone had a great time!

As I said, we are not usually big potato eaters, but both boys enjoy potato soup so that is what we cooked up. It is really easy too:

1. Wash and peel potatoes (I use about 4 medium sized ones for the three of us) and cut into small pieces.
2. Put water into a pot and add potatoes. Simmer gently. Now don’t ask me how much water to add as it really depends on the number of potatoes. Just use your own judgement. Make sure the potatoes are well covered and keep an eye on it while it is cooking. Add water as needed.
3. After about 30 to 40 minutes the potatoes should be tender. Smush them up (I use a small blender) and add water if the consistency is too thick. Add in salt, pepper and any other spices you like (we usually add hot sauce). Cook a bit longer.
4. You can add some cream in with the soup (which I like but the boys don’t so we skip that step) and add sausages or bacon pieces if you like. (I do)

Watch for more potato recipes to come in the days ahead as we still have plenty left!



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Fall is still in the air and we are not done with our apple project yet. Today we went to Grandpa’s garden to pick apples. Unfortunately, there weren’t that many apples this year (presumably for the same reason as the dearth of plums?). Still, there were plenty for two little boys to pick (and what could be better than being told to climb up on the trees?).

Picking apples (or harvesting anything for that matter) is a great activity for the whole family to enjoy together. Not only does it help the kids to get a better understanding of where food comes from, but it is also plain fun. If you don’t have a garden (or at least none with apple trees), don’t despair. There are plenty of farms around that will let you choose and pick your own apples. Just be prepared for quite a crowd if you go during a sunny Sunday afternoon! Of course, this is also a great activity for Family Moment Monday.

We used our apples to bake a tasty apple pie:

Ingredients:

• Pastry dough for 9-inch pie
• 4 to 5 medium apples
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 11/2 TB flour
• cinnamon and nutmeg to taste
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar

Preparation:

1. Peel apples and cut into small pieces. Mix 1/2 cup sugar, 11/2 TB flour and spices together. Mix in apple pieces and raisins and toss until fruit is coated with flour-sugar mixture.
2. Roll out pastry dough and line pie plate with it. Fill in apple mixture.
3. Use 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup ground almonds, 3/4 cups sugar and 1/3 cups butter to make a crumble and spread it on top of pie.
4. Bake 50 minutes to a hour at 375° until filling is bubbly.

We used another apple-themed book for read-aloud today. Somewhat to my surprise, The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree is a favorite at our house. Personally, I am not a hundred percent crazy about the illustrations. Probably because I am a fan of very detailed pictures (like you see in our book about Johnny Appleseed). By comparison, Arnold’s Apple Tree has very simple illustrations. However, it is a great book to talk about the changes in nature that take place over the course of a year (The tree blooms in the spring, carries fruit, is harvested, looses its leaves and lives through a snowy winter). It also gives lots of fun ideas for things to do with apple trees (and apples, of course): Apple pie, apple cider, decorating apples, playing with apples, building a tree house etc.). Definitely a good book to use for any sort of apple project!

I have noticed that my boys tend to like those books best that we have used as basis for some special project or activity.

They love Three Billy Goats Gruff. This traditional folktale tells the story of three brother goats who want to cross a bridge which is barred by a hungry troll. We build a bridge out of cushions, chairs etc. and reenact the story. It is one of their favorite activities (especially the part where they get to push the mama troll off the bridge into the water).

They also hugely enjoy Ox-Cart Man, the story of a farmer of the past who travels to town in order to sell all the surplus his family has grown or made in the course of a year. We build up a pretend cart and load it with all the products mentioned in the story (guess who has to turn the house upside down to find a good replica of wooden shingles and goose feathers?). After dragging the cart around a bit, a makeshift store is set up and all the products are sold to customers (at least that way I get my broom back!).

We used salt-dough to make dozens of small cats to re-play Millions of Cats, the story of a man who takes a long trip to find the most beautiful cat of all. When he can not decide which of the millions and billions and trillions of cats he finds is the prettiest, he just takes them all. But what will his wife say to that?

One of our all-time favorites is The Three Little Pigs. We have played it with small figurine pigs as well as by building little “houses” for ourselves. What could be more fun than shouting “then I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in”? Well, actually saying “not by the hair of our chinny chin chins” is even more fun!

But yesterday the boys chose another book for their dramatic play. Caps for Sale is a simple story of a peddler whose merchandise, a bunch of caps, is taken by some monkeys while he takes a nap. My little one was the peddler while big brother played the mischievous monkeys. They sure had a good time!

The peddler with all the caps still on his head

I am really excited. My big boy (just turned six a couple of days ago) has finally shown some interest in reading and has read the first two Bob Books by himself.

I have been hoping for a while that he would show some interest in learning how to read. Of course there is no rush, but he will start school this fall. And while I am very confident that he will learn to read German there, it is also important to me that he learn to read in English. As the sounds of some letters are quite different in the two languages I figured that it would be confusing for him to learn both at the same time. So I have made a couple of attempts to teach him to read, using Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons.

I have heard so many positive comments about this book and do think it looks good. However, either my son wasn’t yet ready to learn to read or it is just the wrong approach for him. Basically, he hated it. I think it was mainly that he had such high expectations for himself (as in “I will look at the book and will be able to read right away”). He didn’t understand the point of doing the various exercises and just felt confused by it. We did fight our way through a couple of the lessons and I do think he learned quite a bit. However, he disliked it so much that we stopped after just a short time.

Anyway, we haven’t really done anything else to faciliate reading other than pointing out an occasional letter etc… But the other day I heard him read the first Bob book to his brother, all on his own, without any prompting from me. He was so excited! I remember the excitement of learning to read from my own childhood and am so happy that he has found an approach he likes.

You know I love Christmas. Still, there are limits. Yesterday I went to the grocery store, and they already had an aisle filled with all Christmas treats - gingerbread and everything! I’m sorry, but here the kids are still on summer vacation. Isn’t it just a tiny bit early for Christmas cookies? What’s special about fruitcake if we eat it at the pool in the summertime? Much as I love Christmas - or maybe because I do love it - some things (like gingerbread) should wait for the Christmas season. Hopefully, I can hold out and keep from buying any of the tempting treat until at least Halloween has passed.

On a different note, it is starting to feel like fall. Some days it still gets hot and sunny but then again it will be rainy with a decided chill in the air. I love plum cake, but you can really only make it when it is plum season. Unfortunately, for some reason I can not discern (I haven’t a clue about gardening) the plum tree in our garden didn’t carry a single plum this year. If anyone with more gardening knowledge could drop me a hint, I would really appreciate it. Anyway, I didn’t want to lose out on plum cake, so we bought some nice ones.

Now here the recipe for our Plum Cake:

1. Put a good 3/4 cups milk, 1/3 cups melted butter and one egg in your bread machine. Add 3.5 cups flour, a pinch of salt, 2 tablespoons sugar and yeast according to package directions. Set your bread machine to make dough without baking it. (Of course, there is nothing to stop you from preparing the yeast dough without a bread machine - nothing that is unless you are like me and can’t get yeast dough to rise even to save your life. Without a bread machine there would be no more pizza at our house. Anyway, if you are luckier than I that way, just go go ahead and mix and knead by hand).
2. While the dough is rising, wash a good two pounds of fresh plums, take out the pits and cut in several times to spread apart (see the picture below to see what I mean).
3. When the dough has risen (I just wait till my bread machine peeps to let me know it is finished) roll the dough out onto a greased cookie sheet.
4. Mix cinnamon to taste with approx. 1/3 cup sugar (it kind of depends how sour the plums are and how sweet a tooth you have. Use your own judgement here). Sprinkle about half of this mix onto the rolled out dough.



5. Cover the sugar-sprinkled dough with the cut plums evenly. Bake in 440° oven for about 30 minutes
6. Sprinkle the remaining sugar-cinnamon mix over the finished cake and serve with whipped cream if you like

Our cake turned out truly delicious. Older son declared it “Yummy, yummy”, and he is quite hard to please. We had it with whipped cream (Everyone but Benny that is. He still refuses to touch white foods) which made it extra tasty. However, this cake would be good even without cream (or maybe ice cream?). We actually had this for dinner because I started too late and didn’t have it ready for snack time, but it was certainly filling enough.