Today we harvested some of the last remaining greens in our autumn garden: fully frozen chard leaves and heaps of bite sized broccoli florets. These steamed up nicely for an Asian-inspired side dish with sesame sauce to accompany our supper of roasted Pekin duck on rice.
Before it was time to prepare dinner, Liam took the reins on today's baking. He is learning about the importance of following directions/instructions precisely in home school. We also are continuing to work on fractions. So, following baking recipes is turning out to be an excellent and enjoyable hands-on application to these lessons. I initially thought that he and I would bake together but it seems that Liam finds great satisfaction in undertaking baking projects independently. He is 7 and a half, I suppose. Sigh. They grow so fast.
Today, Liam baked up a Lemon Tea Loaf with whole cranberries. He did absolutely everything himself except grate the lemon zest (the zester is sharp!), cut the lemons in half (the knife is also sharp - though he did juice the lemons after) and place (and remove) the loaf in the oven. I can honestly say that it was one of the best loaves that I have ever tasted. He must have added extra "love" into the recipe because whoopee!
We had only one snafu right at the beginning where Liam got "distracted" by Seamus' antics and began to follow the recipe on the opposite page to what he was supposed to. To save Liam's head from exploding (and Seamus' premature demise because apparently IT WAS ALL HIS FAULT!), I suggested that Liam just put the flour, baking soda, baking powder "mistake" aside and start over. As such, I was required to whip up a second loaf later this afternoon not to waste the mistake ingredients. I settled on a zucchini crab apple pie loaf. It also turned out nicely but did not hold a candle to Liam's lemon loaf in the taste department! It is going to make exceptional toasted loaf slices for breakfast tomorrow, though.
Liam's culinary accomplishment was received with great fanfare from his brothers (and Daddy and I, of course) - complete with lip licks and joyous hand claps!
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