Strawberry Shortcake for kids

This is a treat Max loves to make and it's one that I grew up eating. It is so easy and something kids can make themselves. It makes it even better with homemade freezer jam.

All you need is:
rolling pin
butter knife
slice of bread
jam

Just cut the crust off the bread, and roll it out flat like a pancake.

Spread the jam on the bread.

Roll it up and eat it!

I am addicted

I am totally addicted to this bread. Averi is loving it too. We have been eating it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is very easy to make it just takes some time so you might need to start around noon if you want to have it for dinner. This is definately a new favorite. I even bought a new rosemary plant, so I can make it anytime I want. I got it from one of lindsay's favorite web sites.
Here it is.

Rosemary Bread Recipe
1 packet dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
2 c. warm water
1 T. sugar
2 tsp salt
4 c. flour
1-2 tsp. fresh Rosemary plus more for topping
Olive Oil, Corn meal, Melted butter and salt

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and sugar. (I like to buy yeast in a large package and then store it in a plastic container and keep in the freezer. It lasts forever. OR if you don’t make bread that often, just buy the yeast packets.) Add flour, salt, and 1-2 tsp Rosemary and stir until blended, do not Knead!! Cover and let rise for 1 hour or until double in size. If you have a Bosch Mixer, I keep the dough right in there with the top lid on, it’s nice and moist in there. Or simply keep it in the mixer bowl and cover with a moist cloth to raise.

Remove dough. It will be sticky. I like to put shortening or oil on my hands for taking out the dough and shaping it. I think it works better than flour hands. Place it in 2 rounds on a cookie sheet lightly coated in oil and sprinkled with corn meal. OR you can place it on your silicone baking mat with no oil. Cover with a towel or greased plastic wrap. Then let it rise another hour.

Brush each round with melted butter and lightly sprinkle with more Rosemary and salt, I used this great Sea Salt grinder from Costco. Bake @ 425 for 10 minutes, then reduce temp to 375 for 15 minutes more.

Cool slightly, then cut into nice size bits or rip it apart and dip in a bowl of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This bread can’t be beat! It is soooo delicious and a really easy bread recipe. If you’ve never made bread before, Rosemary Bread is a great one to start with.

Sugar Crystals

About a month or so ago, Brayden and I decided to do a science experiment. We were going to make sugar crystals. It's pretty easy. I remember making salt crystals grow on coal when I was a kid. I'm not sure what we did for that, but I would like to find out and do that with Brayden some time too. We just did this to see if it would actually work--it does.

Directions:

1 cup boiling water

3-4 cups sugar

food color-what ever color you want the crystals to be

quart jar

pencil

string

washer or paper clip (we used a 1 inch washer)

1. Dissolve sugar in boiling water--this takes a while. Add sugar slowly, bits at a time, wait for it to dissolve, then add more. Again, this takes a while.

2. Add food color and pour into quart jar

3. Tie string around paper clip/washer

4. Put washer into jar with sugar--you do not want it to touch the sides or the bottom of the jar.

5. When you know what that lenghth is, tie it to the pencil and lay pencil across quart jar.

6. Let sit for 24 hours, undisturbed- you should see crystals appear (We did not see crystals this soon, it seemed we had to wait for at least a week, and even at that they were very small.)

We left our string in for month or even a little longer--it grew into quite a big crystal (about a 2 inch ball size)--Brayden is quite proud. DO NOT EAT CRYSTAL if on washer or paper clip-something about lead, I think. I've seen people do it on a dowel, instead of string and paper clip--that would be edible.