Wednesday 22 April 2020

Teddy Bear Race Cars: Summer 2013 Models

Teddy Bear Race Cars
*This post was started loooong ago during the summer 2013 when I became a vendor at the Farmers' Market with my business coined "Playing with Food". I feel the desire to finish some of the abandoned pieces during the COVID-19 Stay Home period and perhaps other people have a little time to spare to create finicky treats, so here we go together!

During Mid-July and mid-Farmers' Market career, I'd had some peer pressure via Facebook and Pinterest to make these beary adorable treats featured in http://themagicofordinarythings.blogspot.com, created with mini Mars bars, Smarties, and Teddy Grahams: 
http://themagicofordinarythings.blogspot.ca/2012/04/teddy-bear-race-cars.html
So cute!  True!     
Kids'll love 'em!  Guaranteed!     
Quick and easy to make?  Not so much!                 

These turned out being made in a limited quantity because of sliding Smarties.  
I learned that icing glue (icing sugar & water) is better to be made in a thicker consistency and then diluted than starting out thin and giving it a go.


First: Set up the work station

Next: Wheel assembly
 
   

Now that's a good-lookin' car!

Warning: The next section is not for the faint of heart.

You may have noticed that the mini Mars Bars cars (tongue twister!) do not actually have an interior. And the bears must fit somehow into said automobiles. It gets a bit ugly here. Viewer discretion is advised.
    


That's how it happens. Now that the violent part is complete, Mr. Bear will fit nicely "in" the car and receives a Smartie steering wheel.


The parking lot is full, only two hours or so later...

 Cute little bears:  Start your engines!
  

Around we go - wheeeeee!
  


Thanks for cruising back to my island! I have a few more unfinished pieces to complete and share with you soon. Travel safely during your infrequent trips, 
wash with soap often, and keep hope.

Jennifer


Friday 10 April 2020

Puppy Chow

Nothing like a pandemic to motivate one to get back to blogging!

I suppose I had a few nudges toward it within the last few months, such as 
  • "Inspired At My Island" no longer coming up during Google searches,
  • a Facebook post with her choosy-about-foods child trying homemade pizza reminding me of the pizza party with my nephews many years back, and
  • wanting a salad recipe from the set of salads I'd shared which had a broken link to the original source (whose author had given me permission to put up her culinary creation).

So during our online learning opportunities of the week, our Grade Three team decided to post two of our own tries at some of the activities. This has led me to show students how I write and I figured they'd most likely enjoy reading about our dog. My friend, Tracy, said that having a dog would really help to connect with kids and our dog sure does; three years later, my students always listen carefully to new Ryder tales! And so, I present "Puppy Chow".

Puppy Chow

We adopted Ryder on April 2, 2017. She was five months old but had been in the Cold Lake and Bonnyville SPCAs for three months of those. Poor girl. We thought she'd been through enough already so we let her keep her given name.


Our Godziuk family really likes food so, naturally, our dog does, too!

Important rule of dog ownership: know what NOT to feed dogs. I think the most well-known, common human food hazards are chocolate, onions, garlic, tree nuts, and grapes. I remember hearing about how one neighbour family offered to care for another family's dog. It was Easter weekend. There were kids young enough for a hunt. Guess what Scruffy did? Yup - found and ate a whole chocolate bunny. Summary: They took him to the vet and he was okay after all. Whew!

Ryder loves to try all people foods. Protein is a given. She is most-easily bribed with cheese. She can hear us open any kind of cheese wrapping even when she's outside. Ryder likes crunching bones, chewing cooked vegetables, and inhaling any fallen items on the floor.

Here are some of our favorite puppy chowing moments with Ryder!


Food #1   Sammiches

Again, people food is good because people eat it. Bread is pretty tidy and is easy to chew and swallow. However, it's much, much better with Food #2...









Food #2   Peanut Butter

Oh, does Ryder looooove peanut butter. She eats it ON most things but also likes licking it off less-favoured items such as celery.

Special days for Ryder are ones when the container is near empty. Early in her life here, we gave her just the lid. Later, especially when she used to stay on the deck during school hours, we began to give her the whole container to help her pass some of the day. Now we enjoy seeing how she manages the cylindrical vessel. She has developed several different ways of handling the container.

                 

   



Food #3   Cronchy* Chips

Not much is noisier than Ryder eating crunchy foods. She loves salty things, too, so tortilla chips are a big hit.

*Check out this funny video.
German Shepherd Rating Food
There are many more like it - just search dog food ratings. It's where the "cronchy" word comes from.

  

Food #4  Popcorn

Continuing with crunchy things, Ryder loves the poppetty corn*. Miriam or Larry can fire a piece at her from 2 feet away and Ryder snags it nearly every time. She now gets her own container which she carries from the kitchen to her window bed to enjoy. 
*The Muppets Swedish Chef Popcorn Shrimp



Food #5   ANZAC Cookie

Our pooch got to try this oatmeal-coconut cookie this week since it's our Spring Break amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Translation: I actually have/made time to bake. Ryder didn't quite know what to do with it since it was very flat due to measurements not properly converted within the recipe. Her solution: Lick it and then chew it from the side. Remember to eat the crumbs! (Lol - like you'd need to remind a dog!)
 


Food #6   Birthday Cakes 

Miriam made this masterpiece of Chunky Beef stew/soup and Milk Bones for Ryder's first birthday.


This year's on was dog food, Cheese Nips, and Cheese Bits - a meaty, cheesy, cronchy delight, in Ryder's opinion.
 


Food #7   Dog Toys

Ryder likes toys. More accurately, Ryder likes to rip the seams of toys. Unstuff the toys. Gnaw off their tails. Oh, Ryder...we still love you. We're just not going to buy very many more cloth play items for you.

                       
"Aren't you so proud of me, Mom?"              Putting the "chew" in Chewbacca



Food #8   Dem Bones + Rice

Most of our meat dishes include onions which makes them unavailable to Ryder. When she smells ribs or steaks, she gets so excited! As an added bonus this time, there was rice which she also loves for some reason. Ryder is going to be pretty celebratory next weekend once our Lenten fasting from meat has ended. With a knick-knack, pattywhack, give our dog a bone, Ryder Godziuk'll be in the puppy chow zone!





Well, thanks for checking out the now-unabandoned island. It's good to be back! As was the case in 2017, it still does take a few hours for each post and unfortunately, the pictures continue to be a pain to move around and resize. I'll just be patient with myself and accept that it'll take more than one sitting to create new posts, during a pandemic or not. I've learned to do many new digital tasks with online teaching lately; I hope to improve at using Blogger, too!

Take care, stay healthy, and eat well, hopefully not Ryder-style, in general.  ;-)


Jennifer / Ms. Lawton-Godziuk (for my students)

P.S. I think I'll try something new and welcome blog topic suggestions from friends and readers. :)