Skip to main content

A *Trip* to Canada

We have recently begun a new geography study with the book Galloping the Globe. It's a great book, by the way, I think we're going to have tons of fun learning with it. It's categorized by continents and we have started in North America. Since we spent the entire fall on America, we have begun this study in Canada. So for the past week and a half we've been learning all sorts of fun facts about our neighbors to the North.

Today we hit the library to look up some more books on Canada, worked a puzzle of Canada and made a delicious Canadian treat to eat. I was blessed to have the most awesome roommates in college~two of which were Canadians. So I've been schooled on lots of things Canadian:)

One of my former roomies shared this favorite recipe with me after I fell *in love* with it on one of my trips to visit her. You should definitely try them~they're super easy, but look complicated, and taste divine!! I even found some fun, educational trivia about them here.

Nanaimo Bars
(from Karlene)
Bottom Layer:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 Tbls. cocoa
1 egg, beaten
1-3/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
3/4 cup fine or med. coconut
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
(I don't like coconut or nuts so I left these out)
~Melt first 3 ingredients in the top of a double boiler, whisking to blend well. Add beaten egg, stirring to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, coconut and nuts. Press firmly into an ungreased 9x9" pan. (side note: I only had enough graham crackers for half of what it called for, so I used crushed ginger snaps for the remaining half--yummy!)
*****
Second Layer:
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 Tbls. milk
2 Tbls. Vanilla Custard Powder
(vanilla pudding mix is a good substitute)
2 cups powdered sugar
~Cream butter, milk, custard powder and powdered sugar together well. Beat until light and fluffy. Spread over bottom layer.
*****
Top Layer:
2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
OR
4 semi-sweet squares
2 Tbls. butter
~Melt chips and butter over low heat (or in microwave); blending well until smooth. Cool. While still runny, spread over the second layer. Chill in fridge. Cut into squares and enjoy!
*This also freezes well.


Popular posts from this blog

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while.  It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it.  However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it.  Plus it's a little bulky.   When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it!  It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make.   I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course.  They  have these little wooden door hangers for .79.  I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each.  I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing.   I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had).  Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

Making Notebooks

Recently I tried out a new craft idea~and it was SO much fun!! And extremely frugal, too. That's always a bonus, right? So here we go: 1. Take your basic composition notebook (purchased at the back-to-school sales for .99 each). 2. Go to your craft supplies and get your Mod Podge ready, along with a good paintbrush. 3. Look through all those scrapbook papers you've been randomly collecting and choose some. 3. After choosing your paper for the cover of your book and trimming it to fit, start *painting* the cover with the glue. Next, give the back of your paper a good coat of glue, too. (I left the binding uncovered so that I could use a contrasting paper there later on). 4. Glue it on! Remember to smooth out any air bubbles under the paper. 5. Flip the cover open and make a few cuts on the corners so that they will fold over nice and neat, then add a little more glue to the edges of the inside cover and a little more to the paper edges. 6. Fold them over and press...