Stuck, by Oliver Jeffers

 

Skill Level: Intermediate (some carving skills needed – otherwise, EASY)

When my middle grandson started talking, I think his first word was “Stuck”, or rather “SDUK”.  He would wiggle his way into small places, climb up high, crawl behind, and so forth, but he inevitably got SDUK.  I remember that tiny little voice saying SDUK over and over until someone would find him and help him get UnSDUK.  The title of this book brought back some fond memories.

The story Stuck is about a kite that gets stuck in a tree and just how Floyd goes about getting it out.

He tries throwing many things at it to loosen the kite.  They all get Stuck.  The cat.  His shoes.  A whale. Two boats.  A bucket of paint.  A firetruck and firemen.  Until finally, the tree gets full and the kite falls out.

 I had thought about doing a salad that the boys could add to but then I realized that this was the perfect opportunity for a Stuckasserole. 

 I started by making kites out of biscuits.  I rolled out some canned (refrigerator) biscuits and hand cut them to look like kites, making sure they were large enough to cover most of the bowl.  Then I took a bowl each, wrapped it in aluminum foil and laid the biscuit kite on top, draping it over the edges.  I baked them for about 10 minutes (at 350) then took them out to cool.

 

 

Then I trimmed some broccoli florettes to look like trees.  I know some kids really don’t like broccoli, so maybe you make a tree out of celery stalls.  My grandsons will eat broccoli if it’s in a creamy cheesy sauce so I was hoping to convince them that they’d love this. 

Then, I cut some carrots into little cylinders and hollowed them a bit, leaving a depression that made them somewhat resemble tiny paint buckets.  With a bit of Grummy says these are paint buckets, there was no argument about it.

 

The same for my potato boats.  I sliced my potatoes and then cut them into the shape (close enough) of rowboats and hollowed out a bit of the middle. 

 

I then cooked all of these, the broccoli, carrots and potatoes in separate dishes in the microwave.  I cooked them separately so that the boys could assemble their Stuckasseroles.  I started them out by putting some trees in their bowls, then telling them to put some paint buckets, seashells (tiny pasta shells) (what’s a casserole without pasta?), boats, and cats (cut out of Canadian bacon) into their bowls. 

 

 

Then we played the Stick a Pea In It game.  The boys loved the name, thinking it was almost naughty, but funny because Grummy kept saying it.  I asked them what other things Floyd threw into the tree.  For each thing one of them answered, I’d say “Stick a Pea In It” and they’d take a pea out of the little pile of peas and put it in their bowl.  If they didn’t answer, I’d say “Stick a Pea In It” and they’d take a pea out of the little pile of peas and put it in their bowl.  I’d ask how their day was, and when they answered, I’d say “Stick a Pea In It” and they’d take a pea out of the little pile of peas and put it in their bowl.  I asked if Grummy looked especially pretty tonight, and when they agreed, I’d say “Stick a Pea In It” and they’d take a pea out of the little pile of peas and put it in their bowl.  We played this for a bit.  So much so that the boys started asking questions and saying “Stick a Pea In It”. 

 Once their bowls were full, I topped them with some cheese whales and a tiny bit of milk.  I microwaved them briefly just to melt the whales, and topped the bowl with the biscuit kite.

 

 

For dessert, we had fruit, yogurt and blueberry muffin “casseroles”.  I made a parfait of the fruit and yogurt and topped them with a slice of muffin (cut crosswise to make a circle) and topped the whole thing with more yogurt.

 

 

Title	Stuck
Author	Oliver Jefffers
Illustrator
Publisher	Philomel
Highlights /Tie in	Trees, kites, boats, cats, whales, paint buckets
Reactions to the Book	·         Remember Grummy when O got SDUK all the time?  That was funny.  Maybe he was a kite. ·         My ball got stuck in the tree but it fell over so we could get the ball out. ·         Mommy wouldn’t like it if I threw my shoes in the tree.
Meal	·         Stuckasseroles ·         Broccoli trees, carrot paint buckets, potato boats, cheese whales, ham cats, biscuit kites ·         Dessert of fruit parfait “casserole”
Reactions to the Meal	·         They loved assembling their own Stuckasseroles. ·         They Loved telling each other what to put into them. ·         The LOVED the Stick A Pea In It game.

Mac and Cheese by Sarah Weeks

Skill Level: Intermediate

The story this week is one of the I Can Read books from Scholastic.  This is a beginning reading level so I thought it would be a lot of fun to see just how much the eldest grandson could read.  He did a great job sounding the words and if I had to help with a word, he recognized it the next time it showed up in the book. 

 
Mac and Cheese is about two cats who are so different that you wonder how they ever became friends.  Not only friends, but the best of friends.  By the end of the story, you understand that it isn’t always necessary to be the same, if you enjoy being together, you can be friends.

 The menu was so obvious that I thought I should really try to show the moral of the story with this one.  I wanted to show how mac was good, cheese was good, but together, they were really good.  It worked.

I made up a portion of a recipe of pasta dough (1 cup flour, 1 extra large egg, some salt, about a tsp of water) and set that aside to rest.

 One of the fastest melting cheeses is Velveeta.  I needed a fast melting cheese because I was making Cheese (the cat) out of cheese, Mac (the cat) out of pasta, and then pouring a hot sauce over them to help melt it all together into a friendship.

So I took pre-sliced Velveeta since it’s much thinner than I could ever slice it and then dredged the slices in flour to keep the Cheese (the cat) from sticking together.  Just to add a bit to the flavor, I added some sweet Hungarian paprika and some smoked Spanish (hot) paprika to the flour.  Using a cat shaped cookie cutter, I cut 3 slices of Velveeta cats for each plate. This might be a good activity for your grandchildren, but knowing mine, I know I’d never have any Cheese (the cat) for any plate. They’d eat them as soon as they cut them.

 I saved the “voids” or uncut cheese parts and the dredging mixture for the sauce. 

 

Next came the salad.  I wanted to make sure the boys got a lot of protein so I topped some beautiful red leaf lettuce with some light red kidney and black beans as well as some shelled edamame.  I added some crumbles of boiled egg and topped the whole thing with a very light sprinkling of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.

 

I wanted a crispy garnish that tied to the story, so I made some baked Parmesan crisps in the shape of cat’s heads and added chive whiskers.  Using my largest biscuit cutter (3” diameter), I filled the round shape with about 3 tablespoons of pre-shredded Parmesan. I added a bit more to shape some ears once I removed the biscuit cutter and then added my chive whiskers.  These baked in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes.  Keep an eye on them, though, they burn quickly.

 

 

Now that my pasta dough had rested, I rolled it out as thin as I could and using my smallest round biscuit cutter (about 1” diameter), I cut a bunch of pasta circles.  Then, holding the pasta disc in one hand, I dampened an edge, about 1/3 of the circumference of the circle with water.  I then pinched two ears on that dampened edge.  This leaves a little cup shaped depression to collect sauce, while looking somewhat like a cat (Mac).

 

While the water boiled for the pasta, I started the sauce, melting 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, adding 3 tablespoons of the dredging mix (safe because it only touched the cheese, no meats), and stirred, creating a roux.  The paprika that was added made this a nice orange/red color.  I then added about a cup of milk and the cheese voids to let those melt.

 

 

Once the Mac (the cat) and sauce were done, I finished the plates.  I added the Mac (the cat) so the Mac (the cat) and Cheese (the cat) were clearly distinct on the plate, but then as I poured the sauce over them and had the boys stir, it all came together in a story.

 

Our dessert was our normal standby – fruit (strawberries, bananas),  nuts (pecans) and pie crust cinnamon cookies.

 

 

Title	Mac and Cheese
Author	Sarah Weeks
Illustrator	Jane Manning
Publisher	Scholastic Books
Highlights /Tie in	Cats, Title (Mac and Cheese), Not the same, but together = GREAT
Reactions to the Book	·         So Mac and Cheese are friends Grummy.  They sit together. ·         That’s like at lunch Grummy.  We sit together at lunch with our friends.  It’s better that way. ·         That’s another blue hat
Meal	·         Mac and Cheese – Pasta “Mac” and Velveeta “Cheese”, beschamel ·         Salad, multi bean and egg protein salad ·         Dessert – Strawberries, bananas and pecans with Cat piecrust cookies
Reactions to the Meal	·         The boys loved watching me pour the sauce over their cats, then they had to mix them ·         SCHEEEEZE ·         The dressing on the salad wasn’t that big a hit (soy sauce and rice wine vinegar), but the beans were. ·         We need a book called Tuna Salad, Grummy.

 

It feels good to cook the books!

This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

Cooking Skill Level: EASY

Once again we have a book by one of my very favorite authors, Jon Klassen.  He’s so good at what he does.  Again, the story features a hat.  One that doesn’t belong to the fish that’s wearing it. 

The menu for this was just so obvious to me.  Hats, two sizes of fish, crab on a log, underwater plants to hide in and maybe a bit of seascaping (shells).

This is how I built the story:

First, I worked on the underwater plants.  I love to give the boys different lettuces since they grew some the summer before last and they remember that it comes in all shapes and colors.  The little “Artisan” lettuces that you can find these days are so wonderful for landscaping/seascaping a story.  I dressed this with a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar and oil.

 

 Then I added the logs; celery and cream cheese.  I needed the cream cheese to keep the crab’s claws in place.  The claws were made of mostly stripped thyme twigs.  I saved the stripped leaves for later.  For the body of the crab, I cut a cherry tomato in half and stuck it onto the cream cheese between the claws.  Make sure you play with the claws, you can turn them to face the hiding place (lettuce), or have them waving at the kids, or even covering the crab’s face. 

 

Next I placed my two fish on the plate.  The big fish was simply a fish stick.  The little fish was just a piece of a fish stick.  Of course I had to put a hat on the little fish.

 

Orecchiete again for the hats, this time blue.  I found some organic all natural food coloring on the Internet, but decided I’d use what I had for cake decorating.  At first, I used way too much.  Obviously…

 

 So I tamed that a bit and added in some pasta shells so I could use them in seascaping the plate. 

I added some mozzarella perlini, tiny little pearls of cheese, to the shells to look like all the bubbles you see throughout the story.

 

Dessert was some blackberries (which could look like hats if you squint hard enough) and whipped cream.

 

When we sat down for dinner, I got a high five from the oldest.  He was very proud of how Grummy is learning to cook for boys.  They were all impressed that their tongues and fingers turned blue, but it didn’t stop them from eating and talking about the story.  The middle one wasn’t sure whether he liked this story or I Want My Hat Back better.  He definitely likes fish stories, but we didn’t get carrots with this one Grummy.  Fish don’t like carrots like rabbits do.

Making conversation was sometimes a challenge when we started these dinners.  The boys’ attention was often scattered.  With time, they have become experts at discussing books, themes, food, and ideas.  Plus, I know they will always remember these times and hopefully do the same with their own children and grands.

 

Title	This Is Not My Hat
Author	Jon Klassen
Illustrator	Jon Klassen
Publisher	Candlewick Press
Highlights /Tie in	Blue Hat, Fish (one big, one small)
Reactions to the Book	·         The oldest caught on immediately that this was a book by someone we “knew” – “A HAT? Grummy, ANOTHER HAT” ·         Swim practice on the couch – no winners in the race, they pretty much stayed in one place just waving limbs around
Meal	·         Hats: Orecchiete (blue) ·         Fish sticks ·         Shell pasta ·         Salad that looks like water plants (good for hiding)(sort of) ·         Crab on a log
Reactions to the Meal	·         Pasta hats on each finger, old news (old hat?) ·         The big fish stick chased the little one into the salad.  The littlest grandson chewed on the stick of thyme for a while, then gave it to me.  Sharing is nice. ·         A lot of time spent on putting the perlini “bubbles” into the shells

We're building story telling skills .... or we're hungry

We've been passing germs around in our little Grummy - Grandson foursome for a couple of months now, which has made our story dinners pretty scarce.  But the phone calls are peppered with conversations about books, so I know we're all looking forward to our next meal.  Hopefully by the weekend ....

 

[Grandson1]  [Grummy]

 

Are you sick Grummy?

A little bit. 
Yeah, me too, but more.
How bout Grummy we do a book about cupcakes?
That sounds awfully pink to me.
I don’t like pink.  How bout Grummy we do a book about brown cupcakes?
What would the brown cupcakes do?
They’d take a trip to the store to see the lobsters.
So it’s a book about brown cupcakes and lobsters?
They could get some noodles at the store. 
Well, something really dramatic has to happen in the story.  Something we have to fix, or win, or change.
The baby gets out of the cart and he eats the bananas.
Okay, so now we have brown cupcakes, lobsters, noodles and bananas.
I like this story Grummy.

If we don't have a story dinner ready for the weekend, I'll prepare one from our list of books and we'll get the boys' reactions later.