Fry, baby, fry

Summer decided to join us yesterday. We were in the 90's yesterday and right now, it is 107 degrees. Yikes!!! Maybe we'll go swimming today.

UPDATE: The high was actually 113 degrees on Monday, Sept 27th. It was the hottest it has been since 1877! And no we didn't go swimming. It was too hot to go swimming. We came home and consumed about 1/2 a watermelon instead with some friends.

Sun, Moon and the Stars

Today is a Chinese holiday called Mid-Autumn Festival (aka Moon Day). It is essentially a Chinese harvest festival similar to Thanksgiving in the U.S. We celebrate by having lots of yummy food at dinner, lots of fruit and moon cake! It is a lunar holiday so the holiday usually occurs sometime during a full moon in September or October.

Moon cakes are not what you traditionally think of as a cake. This is what it looks like:

It has a baked exterior with an imprinted design on top. Traditionally it is filled with lotus seed paste and generally has one or two yolks of salted duck eggs. Sounds delicious right? They are, but they are definitely an acquired taste. Most people who aren't Chinese don't really like them. Mad Scientist doesn't like them, but the boys do. Maybe it's the half Chinese in them.

Anyway. In honor of Moon Day, I thought that I'd tell about CED's obsession with all things celestial. He LOVES moons! Actually, that is an understatement. He is utterly and completely OBSESSED with Moons. I think this occurred because he likes a couple of board books that feature moons. His first love was Good Night Gorilla, but then there weren't enough moons. Now he loves Goodnight Moon.

It is the first book he has to read EVERY day. If he can't find it in his book drawer, he is VERY upset. Then during an average day, we'll read it at least 10-20 times. I would say it has been his favorite book for the last 6 months or more.

He loves looking at pictures of the moon. We sometimes will put a desktop picture of the moon and he uses a very reverential tone of voice and says, "Mooooon....". Kind of like when Homer Simpson says, "Donuts.....".

After his first celestial object of affection, he quickly gravitated to other heavenly things. He also loves the sun and stars. His room is decorated with hanging foam stars and glow in the dark stars. We even have a star shaped light that frequently will say "Whoa....(see donut tone of voice) while gazing at it. He also loves pointing out the sky. He's even taken to calling the ceiling the sky, but I'm trying to straighten him out on that.point.

Anyway. Happy Moon Day all! It is full tonight so go take a look!

Zucchini Bumper Crop

This is not a real duck. It is a zucchini. No we never owned or had this zucchini duck in our possession, but isn't it stinkin' cute?

We've had a bumper crop of zucchini this year. You may be asking yourself how we have managed to have a bumper crop of zucchini when we have no place for a crop in our great metropolitan area. Well, there is a cute, little old Japanese lady in our ward who has had a few giant zucchinis try and take over her yard. As a result, we get lots of zucchini from her, because she likes us. I mean, who doesn't like us?? :)
Anyway. I thought I'd share some yummy zucchini recipes that we've been using this year, just in case any of you out there have also had a bumper crop in these plentiful veggies.

One of favorites is Blueberry Zucchini Bread from Allrecipes.com. A loaf of this stuff will cause instant salivation in Mad Scientist's co-workers because they love it! You can peel the zucchini first if you don't want a hint of green in there, but I usually don't. Less work. Also, I will usually replace half of the oil with applesauce to make it a bit more figure friendly.

Another recipe we love is great for all you chocolate lovers out there. It is Zucchini-Chocolate Chip Muffins also from Allrecipes.com. You can also substitute half of the oil for applesauce and they turn out great. Some people even have done it completely with applesauce and said it turned out great. I opted to use the mini chocolate chips and "accidentally" dumped a bit more in that stated. Oh well.

My mother-in-law also introduced us to Zucchini Pie. Surprisingly, it tastes just like apple pie and very delicious! How weird is that? Anyway. Here is the recipe below:

Zucchini Pie (courtesy of BD)

5 c zucchini (peel, remove seeds, the cut like apple slices)
1 c white sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1 pinch salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 double pie crust

1. Place zucchini in a pan of boiling water and boil for 2 minutes. Drain and cool.
2. Mix dry ingredients and add to zucchini. Add lemon juice.
3. Put zucchini filling in a pasty lined pie crust and top with top crust. Cut slits on top. Sprinkle top with sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
4. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, then at 350 for 40 minutes. Can put foil on top so it doesn't get too brown.

Another twist on a traditional dessert is Zucchini Crisp. We just use the Apple Crisp II recipe from Allrecipes.com and use zucchini instead of apples. Just do the same with the zucchini as with the zucchini pie (peel, remove seeds and slice like apples. Boil for 2 minutes, drain and cool) then proceed with the rest of the Apple Crisp recipe. I do like extra crisp though, so I usually double the crisp part.

A savory application of zucchini which we discovered last week was Zucchini Patties from Allrecipes.com. It was really good! I think most of you know about Mad Scientist's vegetable aversions. But he ate two and took some voluntarily for lunch the next day. Let just say there is some cheese to smooth things over. :)

Last Day of Summer

Yes, today is the Last Day of Summer. Most of you probably had your Last Day of Summer weeks ago, but not for us. Due to district budget cuts and various holidays, we actually don't start school till next Monday. Yup. Next Monday. Crazy!

So, in celebration for the Last Week of Summer, we went to Sea World yesterday with the boys. My youngest sister has an Annual Pass where she can get in four other people. We drove down (and survived the drive) and met her there. The boys had so much fun looking at all the animals. n x 1.6 km (for n>1)'s favorite were the aquariums and the clown fish.

n x 1.6 km (for n>1) and a sea otter

CED really enjoyed looking at the huge walrus trying to eat this fish. It was pretty disgusting because he kept spitting the fish head out and eating it again. Eww. Anyway. CED got a kick out of it and was laughing at the walrus. He even tried to pet it through the glass.

CED and the Walrus

So, it has been a long summer, but a pretty good one. We weren't super hot, but we did manage to get to the beach a bunch and go swimming some. Now back to the school routine for us.

Children's Music

We recently had half of the birthdays in our family. This brought an influx of new things, the most popular being a couple of CD/DVD sets that CED got for his birthday. So, I thought it would be fun to let everyone know the kids music that we love. There is only so much Wiggles that a sane adult can listen to.

* They Might Be Giants - Albums we own: No, Here Come the A, B, C's and Here Comes Science. Some of their songs are a bit odd, but they are fun and the boys love them! I would also recommend the DVD's, because they are fun. Some CD's come with the DVD's too.

Here is a sample of the song, "Electric Car" from Here Comes Science:



* Eric Herman and the Invisible Band - Albums we own: The Kid in the Mirror and What a Ride. We discovered Eric Herman by watching his "Elephant Song" video on YouTube. You can watch it here:



* Barenaked Ladies - Kid's Album we own (we own some of their other albums too.): Snacktime
We were thrilled when we found out that BNL had put out a children's album.

Here is one of our favorites on the album, "Pollywog in a Bog":



* Ralph's World - Albums (full or partial) we own: At the Bottom of the Sea, Green Gorilla, Monster & Me, Happy Lemons, Peggy's Pie Parlor, and Ralph's World. I can't remember how we found Ralph's World, but his songs are pretty fun. There is a lot of tongue in cheek type of humor that appeals to the adults too. However, after a while, some of his songs start sounding the same.

* Sandra Boynton - Albums we own: Philadelphia Chickens and Rhinoceros Tap. Yes, Sandra Boynton actually has some CD's with music that matches some of her children's books. She doesn't actually sing them, but she collaborates with several artists to put her material to music. Some of the songs are also not in book form.

Here is the song "Fifteen Animals" from Philadelphia Chickens:




Anyway. Let us know what other children's artists you like and songs you like!