On Thursdays we’ve been hosting cooking classes taught by Nicole: farmer, friend, and crafter of scrumptious Italian dishes. The kids learned how to make pasta (as in the homemade kind with a pasta machine), ravioli (including how to make ricotta cheese from milk), pizza, lemon almond torte & sugar cookies for Valentine’s day, and homemade donuts. Nicole ended her classes by arranging a field trip to Knife & Fork, a relatively new and definitely splendid restaurant in nearby Spruce Pine, that celebrates the fresh and local food produced by our mountain farmers.
Chef Nate Allen graciously welcomed us into his kitchen to demonstrate how he makes juicy and delicious hamburgers from local grass-fed beef.
The addition of a little bit of jam helps make the lean grass-fed beef seem extra-juicy by stimulating the salivary glands.
Throw in some sauteed onions and herbs, some homemade ketchup…
Mix it all together really good, make a tiny test patty,
make your final adjustments, form your patties, and sprinkle them with salt.
Add some more homemade ketchup, some homemade mustard,
and Enjoy!
Here is Renee painting the birdfeeder we made for our Native Birds Project. We’ve yet to have any birds come to the feeder–they must have all died from the cold. I wasn’t sure if we wanted to put a feeder up, because of our cats, but if they start prowling around hunting the birds, we can put some fencing around the feeder. Now it’s hanging in the window in the background. Waiting.
For our project we each picked a bird and wrote stories about it. We also drew our favorite birds, read about them, and discussed the different habitats and food.
I’ve been trying to find ways to get my kids to write.
I remember as an elementary-aged girl, I would write and write and write. In second grade I got to write my first book report, in which I mostly rewrote the whole book. I remember this clearly. The book was, “A Pony for the Winter,” [...]
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Last week I transformed a corner of my house. Where previously there had been cluttered shelves and a large painting of daffodils in the snow, there is now a chalkboard:
This has been very useful in organizing our daily activities and also keeping track of what’s going on with everybody. There’s a calendar on the facing [...]
