Au Pair Chatter

Click here to get the recipe for Animal Face Pizzas on Annabel Karmel's Blog

Pizza is easy and fun to make and can be a nutritious meal for the children and is easy to make at home.

You will need a ready-made pizza dough or a ready-made crust, shredded mozzarella cheese and a jar of pizza sauce.  First the dough or crust goes on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Then spread the sauce, add the other toppings, and last of all, sprinkle the cheese. Bake as directed for the crust. Be careful, and keep the children away from the oven as the oven must be very hot to make a nice crusty pizza.

If you want to get a little fancier and try these Animal Face Pizzas, click on the photo to get the recipe.

Click here for a coloring page where kids can draw in toppings and make their own pizza.

Photo: blog.annabelkaramel.com

July 18th is National Ice Cream Day! Celebrate by enjoying a few scoops of your favorite flavor or by making your own ice cream at home. Here is a simple recipe. You can change it up by adding a little chocolate syrup, a few chocolate chips, or using a flavoring other than vanilla.

In a quart size zipper baggie, combine…
1 cup of whole milk or half and half
2 tablespoons of sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

In a gallon size zipper baggie…
Fill ½ way with ice cubes
Add 1/3 cup of rock salt (if you don’t have rock salt you can use table salt or kosher salt)

Seal the small baggie carefully and place the inside of the large bag. Seal the large bag and shake the bags until you can see the mixture thickening (about 5 minutes.) It will be cold to hold, so you may want to carefully pass it back and forth between yourself and a partner.  Remove the small baggie and wipe the top off (to remove salt water,) unzip and enjoy!

July is Blueberry Month. It’s a great time to pick blueberries and prepare blueberry treats with your kids! In Maryland, blueberries are normally ready to pick in July.

Check on this website for Pick Your Own Farms in our area. They have them listed by county.

Easy Blueberry Cobbler Recipe

½ stick of butter or margarine
¾ cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup of milk
1 pint blueberries (rinsed and drained)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter and pour into a 3 quart casserole baking dish. Mix sugar, flour and milk. Pour over the butter, but do not mix. Pour the blueberries on top, but do not mix.  Bake at 350 degrees F for one hour.  Serve with or without ice cream. Enjoy!

I thought this video was a nice explanation of how to make the delicious summertime treat known as s’mores. If you really want to live it up, try replacing the Hershey Bar with a Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup! Yum

My kids are looking forward to the upcoming blizzard for many reasons, one of which is snow ice cream.  I only make it when we have a lot of snow, because  you want to collect fresh clean snow and it needs to be deep enough that you are just getting snow.  Ask your host parents before you try it.  I don’t want anyone freaking out.

Here are two recipes I use to make it, depending on what kind of milk I have on hand.

Snow Ice Cream Recipe #1

8 cups of fresh clean snow
1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Combine in a large bowl and enjoy.

Snow Ice Cream Recipe #2

8 cups of fresh clean snow
1/2 cup of evaporated milk (or regular milk)
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine milk, sugar and vanilla extract until sugar is dissolved.  Then combine with snow.  Enjoy.