Down in Who-ville

Liked Christmas a lot…

 But the Grinch,

Who lived just North of Who-ville,

Did NOT!

The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!

Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.

It could be that his head wasn’t screwed on quite right.

It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.

But I think that the most likely reason of all

May have been that his heart was two sizes too small…

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss

The holidays are a wonderful time to get together with your family, don’t let the never-ending holiday cheer overwhelm you and turn you into a Grinch!

Here at the museum, we like to avoid becoming Grinch-y by making our own Grinch cookies! The recipe is originally from Betty Crocker but we found it on a cool blog called Living the Domestic Life (click on these links for the recipe!)

These gooey, green, mint-flavored, chocolate-chip cookies will subdue the Grinch in all of us. And if you would like a fun coloring activity to do while you wait for your cookies to bake, print out this Mr. Grinch Coloring Page!

Happy Baking!

]]> http://blog.austinkids.org/2011/12/19/how-the-grinch-made-cookies/feed/ 0 austinkids Mr. Grinch Grinch Cookies http://blog.austinkids.org/2011/11/25/parfaitsinkie-day/ http://blog.austinkids.org/2011/11/25/parfaitsinkie-day/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:00:06 +0000 austinkids http://blog.austinkids.org/?p=7728 ]]> November 25th is National Parfait Day!

Did you know that the word “parfait” means “perfect” in French? This certainly makes sense because parfaits are a perfect dessert, you can create the perfect combinations of flavors to excite your very own taste buds.

A parfait consists of  layers of ice cream, whipped cream, syrups, fruits, granola, nuts, the combinations are endless!.  I bet this is sounding familiar to you isn’t it? Well parfait is basically a fancy word for a sundae!

While chocolate is my favorite, use your imagination to create a wide range of single and mixed flavors. I bet you have some Thanksgiving leftovers, wouldn’t a Pumpkin Parfait be marvelous?

If the delightful combination of delicious flavors in a parfait is not enough for you, try eating it over a sink. That’s right your kitchen sink! Not only is November 25th National Parfait Day, it’s also Sinkie Day.

Christmas shopping and Thanksgiving leftovers provide the perfect reasons to enjoy a quick meal. It’s the day many people discover the benefits of becoming a SINKIE and go on to many years of dining over the sink.

Who wouldn’t want to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving by eating a parfait over the sink? Enjoy!

This year Frankenstein Friday falls on the 28th. Celebrate by dressing up as a monster, or honor the writer and creator of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, and write your own monster story. Can you describe a monster scarier than Frankenstein?

October 30th, isn’t just the day before Halloween, it’s also Candy Corn Day. Did you know that candy corn is actually made with corn? These yummy confections are made with a very precise method using a corn starch molding process.

Photo by ScrambledHenfruit.blogspot.com

And don’t just celebrate Halloween by dressing up. You can also commemorate this day with caramel apples! Caramel apple day falls on Halloween each year, and you can celebrate by making your own caramel apples. Or you can follow our recipe below to make caramel apple cookies!

Have fun with all of these wacky holidays by printing out this neat coloring activity (pictured above): October Holidays Coloring Sheet

Are you still October Obsessed? To get the most out of the end of October, you can also visit the Texas Memorial Museum Oct. 30th for their Fright at the Museum event. You can explore the mysterious side of Texas’ natural history. Feel frightful fish from the ocean depths, be rattled by slithery snakes of Central Texas. Feast your eyes on bizarre bugs while they serve up creepy, crawly critters for your culinary delight.

Have an odd October!

And follow the link below for instructions on how to make your own caramel apple cookies

Ingredients:

• Any basic sugar cookie recipe: from scratch or store bought
• Our cookie package called for: one egg, 1/2 cup of butter, and flour
• Chewy caramel candies (hard candies won’t work)
• Apple cider drink mix (you can find this next to the hot chocolate)

Start by following the instructions for your sugar cookies, ours needed one egg added to the powdered mixture. We cracked the egg into a cup to make sure no shell got into the cookie dough. We whisked it before adding it to the cookie mix to help incorporate it better.

   Then we added the butter and began mixing the dough, at first with a fork, but then we found that using our hands made it easier, and it was more fun!

Once it is all mixed together, add two packets of the apple cider drink powder and mix again.

We added flour to our cookie dough to make it less gooey, so that it would be easier to shape around the caramel candies. You can also try putting the dough in the fridge for a couple of minutes to help it set and make it easier to mold.

Make a cookie dough ball a little smaller than the size of a golf-ball, then press a caramel candy into the center.

Mold the dough over the candy so that it is completely covered with cookie. You want to make sure no candy is showing so that it doesn’t spill out while baking. If done correctly, when it is done it will make an oozy caramel filling.

Bake for the specified time the sugar cookie recipe suggests. Serve the cookies warm so that the filling is still melty and delicious.

Here is how our caramel apple cookies turned out, they were amazing!

Happy Caramel Apple Day!

Are you as hungry as a Hadrosaurus? Voracious as a Velociraptor? Learn how to make these delicious dinosaur chips and dip to go with your next meal.

Dinosaur Chips

To make these tasty dino-shaped chips, you’ll need dinosaur shaped cookie cutters.

Ingredients:

•  Large Flour Tortillas (we used some spinach tortillas)
• Olive Oil
• Sea Salt

Steps:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 275 degrees F.

2. Put a tortilla flat on a large cutting board. Use the sharp side of the cookie cutter to press through the tortilla.

3. Cut out as many dinosaur shapes as will fit on a tortilla (you can save the scraps and make them into “dino bone” chips too!).

4. Lay all your dinos (and bone scraps) flat on a cookie sheet. Lightly spray or brush the tortilla pieces with olive oil and sprinkle them with a bit of sea salt.

5. Bake the chips for 12-15 minutes. Turn off the oven. Let the chips cool on a wire cooling rack and serve with your favorite dinosaur dip!

Guacamole Swamp Dip

After playing in the Bog Walk in the Dinsoaurs: Land of Fire and Ice exhibit, we were starving. We made this tasty swamp inspired dip to go with our Dinosaur Chips – it definitely tastes better than a prehistoric bog, we promise!

Ingredients:

• 1 large avocado
• 1 lime
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 cup diced tomatoes (we used some tasty cherry tomatoes)
• salt
• pepper

Steps:

1. Cut open the avocado and scrape all the insides into a bowl. Squeeze in the juice of the lime, and add in the chili powder.

2. Mash the avocado, lime juice, and chili powder with the back of a fork.

3. Stir the chopped tomatoes into the mashed avocado,

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with your favorite Dino Chips!

Follow this link for another Dino Dip recipe!

Black Bean Tar Pit Dip

This tasty and healthy Black Bean Dip is the perfect trap for an unsuspecting dino chip!

Ingredients:

• one 15oz can of whole black beans
• 1 Tablespoon of the liquid from the black beans
• ½ teaspoon of ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon of chili powder
• 1 lime
• salt and pepper

1. Open the can of beans and take out one tablespoon of the liquid that the beans are in. Put the tablespoon of liquid into a blender. Drain the beans and add them to the blender. Blend the beans with the cumin, chili powder, and the juice from one half of your lime. The dip should be thick and mostly smooth.

2. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can use more lime juice too, if you think it needs it. Stir everything together and serve with your favorite dino chips!

Do you want to enjoy ice cream as much as this little guy? There are many delicious ice cream places in Austin that you can try. This week, campers in the Museum’s Home Grown Cooking camp will take a field trip Amy’s Ice Cream and see where the famous Austin establishment makes their ice cream. Stop by Amy’s sometime and try one of their seasonal flavors such as Girl Scout Thin Mint or Fresh Peach (with peaches from Fredricksburg).

If you’d like to be a Creator of Flavor, you can make Homemade Ice Cream in a Bag from this recipe:

What you need:

Tip: A 1/2 cup milk will make about 1 scoop of ice cream, so double the recipe if you want more. But don’t increase the proportions more that that — a large amount might be too big for kids to pick-up because the ice itself is heavy.

Here is a list of fun-to-read books about ice cream you can all read together!

Did you know?

• It takes an average of 50 licks to polish off a single-scoop ice cream cone. Challenge your family to a Lick-A-Thon, and see who finishes first.
• The biggest ice cream sundae in history was made in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1988 and weighed over 24 tons.
• Of all the days of the week, ice cream is mostly bought on Sunday.
• The United States produces the most ice cream in the world.

We hope you have enjoyed National Ice Cream month and find a smile in a good ice cream cone.