We had a gift certificate for Young Chefs from a fundraiser earlier in the year and in November we had a chance for Nadia to redeem it. It would be an understatement to say that she loved it. They made pumpkin whoopie pies (with filling) and Mulled Cider. She practically begged me to sign up for the weekly program they sell for a class each week. I told her that she already did other stuff, but she could help me with the cooking more and more. Needless to say she has been inspired and helped me make a ton of our Christmas goodies. For Christmas she made her Grandpa Brian a set of 3 BBQ rubs. She went with me to buy the spices, measured everything out and then put them in the jars.

This is Amelie on the other side of the glass wondering when it will be her turn. One of the chefs came out and brought her a small chair and kitchen toys to play with which I thought was sweet.

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Her Papa and Grandma Brooke sent her a set of kitchen tools that are child sized and 3 very cool kids cookbooks for Christmas. She has already baked “Yummy Hunny Cookies” and looks forward to doing more in the New Year. I am really happy that the gift certificate has made her even more interested in cooking.

We got the Autumn Treasures unit study of Amanda Bennett’s site, unitstudy.com, and it took us much longer than usual due to our busy month, but it was great. I started by getting about 15 books from the library and printing some extra activities from Homeschool Creations. We learned a lot in this study just like our past ones on seashells and robots. We started with Do a Dot pages to get warmed up and start our discussion about fall (even though it was still pushing 100 in these parts)

Just like the other units there were a lot of fun videos to watch including how candy corn is made and how an apple press works. We learned about Johnny Appleseed and his travels – Nadia enjoyed all his crazy hats, especially the cooking pot. I have already done blog posts on the monarch butterflies and apple pie bites that we made, but here is a little view of the rest of our unit.

Nadia is working on her fall tree in this photo.

A puzzle for the back of her lapbook.

Learning the life cycle of a pumpkin – here she is with the pumpkin she picked out at homeschool day at Mainstay Farms.

Families are encouraged to go on a nature walk each day and collect items. Then enter the highlights into your unit study work book. Here are some of the things Nadia found along the way.

Leaf rubbings from our nature walks.

“Fairy” Amelie and Nadia on a nature walk.

Amelie was saying, “art art art art” over and over while I was working with Nadia so I went to see what she wanted. Then I realized that she was drawing “hearts.” Pretty cute!

We got the idea for one of our other cooking projects from the Mama Jenn site.  These were messy and fun to make and tasted yummy!

Last of all, here is her completed lapbook.

Ingredients.

Brushing the pie pastry with butter. Then she sprinkled sugar mixed with cinnamon.

Apple wedges wrapped with pastry, brushed with more butter and sprinkled with more sugar mix.

The first batch out of the oven.

These were SO GREAT! Not too sweet and so easy for Nadia to do. She was so proud and we shared them with friends and they loved them too.

Start with the following (made from scratch): 2 batches marshmallow fondant, 21 cups cake batter, 12 cups white icing, fondant buttons in pink and raspberry filling. After baking the cakes you start to assemble.

The bottom portion of the cake was white almond sour cream. Topped with a layer of icing and fondant. The top layer was double fudge chocolate with a raspberry filling.

Blue fondant ribbons going on.

8 hours later this was the finished product! So yummy!

Prep time. (notice that all the Zhu Zhu’s are watching)

First one done.

By the end Nadia was doing everything herself. She even had the twist of the decorator bag going on!

Close up shot of the one she did herself from start to finish.

Then Friday night we all headed to Paula and Rogers for Grammie’s Green Chili Stew and Nadia had tons of fun playing and talking to everyone.

Giant Pretzels

1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast

3/4 cup warm water (110 -115 degrees)

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons butter

Coarse Salt (I used Kosher)

• In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add sugar and salt. Stir in flour, 1/2 cup at a time, to form a soft dough.
• Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes (dough will be sticky). Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
• Punch dough down and divide into six portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a 14″ rope; twist in pretzel shape. Place on greased baking sheets. Brush with butter, sprinkle with coarse salt.
• Bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks. Serve warm.