Cookie Queen: How One Girl Started Tate's Bake Shop -- Book Review

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Now we have shared about Ruth Wakefield and her "invention" of the chocolate chip cookies. Today we are going to share Kathleen King's story using a picture book she wrote herself!! Do you know who Kathleen King is? I will admit I didn't. She is the founder of the famous Tate's Bake Shop and she shares her story in Cookie Queen: How One Girl Started Tate's Back Shop by Kathleen King and Lowey Bundy Sichol and illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki. It is recommended for ages 4 to 8.

Green Kids Cook -- Kids' Cookbook Review in honor of National Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Happy National Kids Take Over the Kitchen Day! Do you let your kids take over your kitchen or do you have them cook beside you? Hazel takes over the kitchen when baking but when cooking she usually still needs my help. Since it is a national holiday it seems the perfect time to share with you a new children's cookbook! The book is Green Kids Cook:Simple Delicious Recipes & Top Tips by Jenny Chandler. It is recommended for ages 7 to 14 or with adult supervision for younger kid. This book provides healthy recipes, promotes eating more vegetables and also has information about being green as well as some green craft projects.

Bella's Recipe of Success -- New Multicultural Picture Book About Practice and Finding One's Talents

 

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Having been the youngest sister of three I know the struggle it is to watch older siblings be good at things and to wonder why I wasn't and what I was good at. Today I'm sharing a multicultural book about just this and needless to say I related to it!! The book is Bella's Recipe for Success by Ana Siqueira and illustrated by Geraldine Rodriguez. 

National Homemade Cookie Day -- Let's Get Baking -- Recipe Round-Up and Fun Facts

There is nothing better than a homemade cookie fresh out of the oven. What is your favorite kind? Today, October 1st, is National Homemade Cookie Day, so I thought I would share some fun facts and a cookie recipe round-up so you can get baking!!

Mystery of the Min Min Lights - a Multicultural Children's Book Day Review

Disclosure: Janelle Diller of Pack-n-Go Girls sent me this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. 

It is hard to believe the Multicultural Children's Book Day is coming quickly. It is on January 27th and I am a co-host so be sure to come back and check out all the reviews at the link up!! 

Gifts of Books -- Ideas for All Ages -- Crafts, Activities and Non-Fiction Books

Disclosure: I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Do you love giving books as gifts? One of my sisters always gives Hazel books for a gift. I know I tend to love giving books to friends' children as well. Today I am sharing a variety of books for different ages and people in your life.

Books for the Younger Kids

Let's start with the youngest. Our first book is Hey, Baby! by Stephanie Warren Drimmer.

Fun Facts about Pie with Pie Recipes & Crafts Round-Up

What are you serving or having for Thanksgiving? Some of the traditional things are turkey (although there probably was not turkey at the "first" Thanksgiving) and pie. Since we have shared fun facts about turkeys and apples I thought we would share today a bit about pies. What is your favorite pie? I love blueberry!! Steve and Hazel love apple. 

Solar Eclipse Crafts and Snacks - Crafty Weekends Link Party

Are you ready for the solar eclipse tomorrow? We are getting ready for it. Steve showed us how to set up his telescope to see the eclipse indirectly so we do not need the glasses (which he does not trust). Then we did a few crafts and made a few snacks. The idea for our craft came from NASA Eclipse Activity Guide. (This guide has many activities including information about the eclipse and lessons on it.) The craft is very easy. You need dark paper, chalk and a roll of masking tape or some other circle template. 

Irish Tea Party with Book Review

Disclosure: Candlewick Press gave me a copy of this book free of charge to review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

For March we thought we would explore Ireland as St. Patrick's Day is in March (this Friday). We also received a book to go along with our exploration of Ireland that I will share here. Yesterday New England was hit with Winter Storm Stella, so it was the perfect day to have a tea party. Hazel and I both had a snow day while poor Steve got the overnight shift and went in early so he would not have to drive during the worse of it.

Chinese Tea Party -- Tea Parties Around the World

Disclosure: I was sent these books to review free of charge in exchange for an honest review. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.  

Now a series of Tea Parties Around the World would not be complete without looking at Chinese tea. Let's face it, the China is where tea began. January seemed like the perfect time for us to look at China since we were looking at the Chinese New Year already. I will admit writing this post has been intimidating me and I keep putting it off. How can I do the long history of tea in China justice? I have decided just to share with you my references and what we enjoyed as we looked at China and the history of tea. 

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures & Fairy Tale Baking!

Disclosure: I was sent these products free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

Now I have been planning on reviewing these two amazing books from Crocodile Books USA. I had planned to write this review on Monday, but this week has gotten away from me, so here I am writing it on Wednesday. I am planning however on bringing back Fairy Tales in Different Cultures back in the new year, so stay tuned!! Our first book for today is The Crystal Mountain retold and illustrated by Ruth Sanderson. 

Holiday Cookie/Treat Swap Around the World -- a Multicultural Link Party

Christmas time always brings cookie swaps and I thought it would be fun to have a virtual one around the world. Cookies have many different names around the world like biscuits in England and Australia and galletas in Spain.  The idea of Christmas cookies probably started in the Middle Ages. The use of spices started in Europe during the Middle Ages. Cookies have probably evolved quite a bit since then, but think of some of the heavier spiced cookies like gingerbread that we associate with Christmas. (Sources: What's Cooking America and History Channel) To make this swap happen I asked my fellow Kid Blogger Network and Multicultural Kid Blogs members to join me. A few signed up and I am hoping you will join us as well!! Then I googled our favorite kind of Christmas cookies--thumbprints and discovered they are from Sweden!!

Exploring Purim -- Jewish Holiday

Costume parades in the spring? What is going on? Halloween is in October and not in the spring. Well for many Jewish people costume parades and wearing costumes to synagogue in the spring (usually in March) is common. Why? Well they are celebrating a holiday called Purim. Purim is celebrated on the fourteenth day of the Hebrew month of Adar. The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar so it changes from our days and months each year. It is a joyous holiday with much celebration. Why do they celebrate? To remember how Queen Esther saved the Jewish people in Persia around 500 B.C. Now Esther's story is a book in the Old Testament of our Bible as well and Queen Esther happens to be Hazel's favorite woman in the Bible. We know her story well and really wish we celebrated Purim as well. In fact she dressed up as Queen Esther for our Christian Halloween Party. 

Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere -- Book Review & Link Party

Disclosure: Parragon Books sent me a copy of this book free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As always I am providing links to the book for your convenience.

We get to share with you Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere by Smiriti Prasadam-Halls and illustrated by Lorena Alvarez. This is a simple book with fun and non-scary pictures about kids going to a pumpkin parade in their costumes. Hazel LOVES this book. I think she is a bit old for it, but she really loves it. The words are simple and she can read it to herself easily. The pictures are fun and colorful and friendly. 

Bake -- Book Review

 Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this book free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Hazel loves to bake with me in the kitchen. It is something she has always enjoyed and we do not do it very often (mostly because I'm dieting and trying to avoid the sweets and carbs). However it is something I think every child should get to do and I really appreciated reviewing this book because it forced me to bake with her. 

 Now just looking through Bake by Alison Thompson and photography by Adrian Lander, and at the recipes and pictures made my mouth water. The book is divided into chapters of Basic Recipes, Breads, Pizzas, Cakes, Baked Desserts, Muffins and Scones, Cookies and Brownies, Pastries, Croissants, Brioches and Doughnuts, and Gluten-free Baking. I wish I had that last chapter when I tried going gluten-free. It includes sweet recipes as well as savory recipes. There are recipes for quiches, meat pies, fish tarts as well as all of your usual sweets and some combinations I had not heard of before. So far we have made three recipes and plan to make some more. We started with Apple and Cinnamon Buns.

Lebanese Music and Food

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of this cookbook free of charge for this review. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. They also sent me a copy to giveaway! As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation. 

Since July is ending, it seems only fitting to finish our exploration of Lebanon with you. Besides the books and DVD we found at the library we also found some CDs with a few songs from Lebanon. Putumaya Presents Sahara Lounge has four Lebanese songs and the other two CDs each have one. 

Happy Birthday, Cupcake! Book Review and Play Date

Disclosure: Penguin Kids gave me a copy of these books free of charge for this review and are providing the book for the giveaway. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation.  As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I am sharing the next book after Peanut Butter and Cupcake by Terry Border. The new book released earlier this month is Happy Birthday, Cupcake! It has many of the same characters as Peanut Butter and Cupcake as well as the same type of pictures. Hazel and I were introduced to Peanut Butter and Cupcake at a story time at Barnes and Noble. In Happy Birthday, Cupcake! Cupcake tries to plan her birthday party. She wants to invite all of her friends. She asks her friend, Muffin, to help. 

Playing Grace Thomas Doll Bakery

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

At the beginning of the year, American Girl Doll Stores introduced this year's doll of the year, Grace Thomas. Now Grace had an adventure in Paris that changes her life and she is a baker/business owner. When they introduced their new doll they gave souvenirs to people who came to see her at the store. Well, Doll Diaries had a souvenir set for a giveaway in January and I won it. Hazel was so excited!! We finally got it this weekend. Hazel immediately wanted to go through everything. She was not sure what the recipe box, recipe cards and dividers are for, but we decided she could use the box as a table for now. She put the Grace apron on her Hazel doll and created her own bakery. She used straws and cupcake liners for supplies since she was too lazy to get out her baking supplies. I however got out the baking accessories for her and set up the bakery.

Around the World in 12 Dishes: Exploring Cuba

Have you entered my giveaway for 4 Christmas DVDs yet? It is ending soon!!

This month we are exploring Cuba with Around the World in 12 Dishes. I was rather excited to learn more about Cuba since it is such a mysterious country to me. With all the trade and travel restrictions it seems like an unknown place. We have explored Cuba with books, stories, music, crafts and food from home. To learn more about Cuba and see more resources check out my introduction post at the Around the World in 12 Dishes blog. We had also learned a bit about Cuba during the Hispanic Heritage Month when we read about Celia Cruz, a Cuban-American salsa singer. 

Celia Cruz By Lionel Decoster (Own work) 
[GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Friday Fruit Explorations: Pumpkins

Today we are sharing our pumpkin exploration! Now Hazel loves pumpkins. She loves pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pancakes, and so much more! She insisted on growing pumpkins in our garden. We planted sugar pumpkins only this year. Last year the white pumpkins took over the garden and since we had used seeds from a white pumpkin the previous year they were orange on our vines. (Many of the new fruits and vegetables only grow that way for the first year.) We picked our first pumpkin and wanted to make pumpkin bread with it.