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: 

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

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. :)

Peru On A Plate: A Grade Three Social Studies Feast

 

In Alberta, Grade Three students learn about life in four countries: Peru, Ukraine, Tunisia, and India. As part of the learning about the quality of life for children in these parts of the world, students are given the opportunity to try daily and celebration foods. My more-experienced colleagues shared ideas of a few types of offerings. 

Some traditional foods of Peru include:

• over 4000 types of potatoes!
• the grain, quinoa, cooked in many different ways
• peppers and chilis used in a variety of dishes
• cuy, also known as guinea pig... (perhaps pretending they're rabbits will be more acceptable/less heart-clenching?)
• llama (not only appreciated for their wool) 
• grilled or roasted chicken
• the tree fruit, lucuma
• pisco, brandy made from fresh grapes

I tried to keep it simple, but, with my love of cooking, I sort of went overboard. 
 
Here is the menu I decided upon:

 
• boiled red potatoes

• boiled purple potatoes

• yellow quinoa (added to the table later)

• tri-coloured quinoa

  

 

•  roasted yellow potatoes

•  pollo a la brasa (Peruvian grilled chicken, marinated in soy sauce, cumin, lime juice, paprika, oregano)

• red, yellow, and orange bell peppers

• green grapes

• fake lucuma, a fruit not readily available here but a reasonable facsimile suggested was to add maple syrup to mango

• green grape juice (as it was a school event and legal drinking age is greater than 8-years-old, real pisco wasn't an option; juice was served deskside)

The students were expectant and appreciative of the meal prepared for them.  Due to F.O.I.P., I can't show you their smiling faces.  Due to the rush I was in to set up the food while the students went out for recess- This Teacher Has 22 Minutes - I didn't take a picture of the buffet.  However, I had invited my parents to join us and help with crafts.  We tease my mom a lot about all of the pictures she needs to take, but I am really grateful she had her camera out that day!

My favorite comment, written in the daily agenda at the end of Peru Day, came from a boy who stuck to pretty much the same foods throughout the school year: 

"I didn't even hate the quinoa!" 



After we ate, the students commented on being excited about the next meals from the other three countries!  I guess that was their stamp of approval...and a hint that I'd better getting researching more dishes to serve them in the upcoming months.

Note:  I received a message a few days ago from my friend Linda's aunt, Eugie.  It read, 

"Hi Jennifer, How are you? All is good at this end. 

 Listen, I heard that you do a blog. 

If yes, how do I connect with you?"  

Within the last couple of months, I'd actually had a few people mention my three-year-neglected blog.  I really enjoy writing things other than report cards, but had a hectic year and haven't chosen to do much with it, particularly after experiencing so much difficulty with formatting, such as how to size photos and control line spacing using html.  Larry is the computer whiz in our home whereas stuff like that is SO frustrating to me!
Thank you, Eugie, for your comment!  I still had to do some research on the computer language and it took me quite a while to get the photos the right sizes and to stay in the right places, but I found pleasure in putting a post together again.  It was satisfying to get back to my Island. :-) 

Jennifer

Resources:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/peruvian-grilled-chicken-239923 
(I used flattened chicken breasts instead of a whole chicken, marinated them for 1-2 hours, and barbecued them.)
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/best-food-peru/

Snack Attacks In Maui: Banana Bread, Coconut Glen's & Ululani's Shave Ice

My family of four and my parents had the privilege of going on a trip to the beautiful island of Maui for eight days in July.  Having endured a cold, rainy spring in Alberta, I'd looked forward to finally having warm toes.  The climate was warm and breezy in the area of Ka'anapali on the northwest where we were stationed - we didn't even need a jacket in the evenings.  I would definitely recommend this part of the island if you like a little more space and less intense heat!

In preparation for the trip, I'd researched some food spots which had great reviews.  Tripadvisor and my bible for the trip, Maui Revealed (6th edition) by Andrew Doughty and Leona Boyd were my primary sources. Let me tell you, I read a LOT of reviews to try my best to arrange eight days of fun, relaxation, a bit of adventure, and good eats.

Aunty Sandy's
On our fourth day, the six of us took a tour with guide Alicia from Awapuhi Adventures along the Road to Hana, a tiny town on an eastern point, then around to the southern part of the island, and finally back up to Kahului.  It was an 11-hour journey with lots of wonderful stops such as walking through a bamboo forest, visiting and swimming under waterfalls, having a picnic of tasty and nutritious gourmet goodies, dipping in the ocean at different beaches, as well as learning about historical sites, the flora and fauna of the different micro-ecosystems, and current island life and politics.  Alicia treated us to banana bread at Aunty Sandy's fruit stand; you can see her by the OPEN sign.  Many of the roadside stands offer banana bread, and most claim that theirs is the best of all.  I'd say Aunty Sandy did a great job as the cake was very flavourful and moist.  Yummy!  There were banana trees nearby so that made the experience even more special.

       

  

Coconut Glen's
After some more driving, we stopped at Coconut Glen's vegan ice cream shack.  You can read more about him and his business here.  Glen wasn't there that afternoon, disappointingly.  He sounds like quite a character who, Alicia says, has a special connection with Willy Wonka.  You'll definitely get a sense of this if you read his story...written in rhyming verse!  

  
          I love his little parking sign!

Glen's ice cream is made of 100% coconut milk with natural flavourings.  It was very hard to decide which kind to choose and we had a lot more road left to travel at that point so I couldn't a) take forever to pick or b) sample every variety so I tried the coconut.  When in Maui...  :-)  Check out the presentation and the "spoon"!  Animal-loving Miriam made friends with the resident kitten (Alicia mentioned that there are many feral cats on the island!).  

I'll have to set my camera to take higher resolution photos for the blog.  I had to enlarge this so you could see his commitment to the environment, which I appreciate and practice faithfully.  I thought you would also like the machete!  Recycle or else?

 



  

                                                    Future vet?                         I got photobombed by that plant which
                                                                                                  appears to be a hair decoration!

Ululani's Shave Ice
Sno(w) cones are something we Canadians are familiar with - ground-up ice with sugary syrup squirted on the top, most often found at exhibitions.  My friend, Dana, whom I called regarding our school division's travel insurance, said that we had to go to Ululani's Shave Ice when we went to Maui.  During my research, I discovered that there were four locations.  Passing through Kihei one afternoon on a southbound journey to Big Beach, I saw one of the stands!  While waiting to order (there was a 10-person long line every time we passed one of the locations), Miriam and I were trying to figure out what size to pick.  Looking at the other customers' dishes, we figured that the small size was fairly small, perhaps a baseball-sized amount piled on a saucer.  What we didn't notice was that the serving containers were actually cone-shaped and there were holes in the picnic tables in which to set them!  We had a good chuckle at ourselves when we figured it out.  The staff were really friendly and patient with us newbies, and the natural syrups and suggested combinations sounded delicious.  We were not disappointed!  The servers totally saturated the shave ice and told us to come back up to the counter if we found a non-flavoured spot.  Miriam choose grape, mango, and cherry, and I picked coconut, mango, and passion fruit (a.k.a. lillikoi).

Check out the napkin-leaf!  (completely unplanned)

 

 

So cool and refreshing! 

I'm glad you came to see me get inspired at/on a different island.  Maui is a delicious destination indeed!  I sure hope I'll get to return there some time...

Jennifer