Pinwheels!

That means it’s springtime.  Soon to be summer.

There’s no better time than the present to spend some time making pinwheels with your grandchildren.

I decided that I would make a pinwheel pattern to share with all of my wonderful grandmother friends so they could make pinwheels with all of their wonderful grandchildren. I made a papa-sized pattern and a baby-sized pattern.

Pinwheels are easy to make. Using the pattern, cut a square from some paper. Cut on along the diagonal lines. With a hole punch, punch holes where the dots are on the pattern. Use scissors to make a small hole in the center of the pinwheel.

With a hole punch, make a hole at one end of a plastic drinking straw. (Preferable an unused drinking straw. But, hey, if you want a pinwheel on a straw sticky from soda pop, that’s your choice . . .)

Bend the corners of the paper with the holes toward the center. Align the holes and push the ends of a brad fastener through all of the holes. Push the end of the fastener through the hole in the straw. Bend back the ends of the fastener. And there you have it. Your fabulous pinwheel.

There. Simple, huh?

Well, that’s what I thought this activity would be. Simple. Quick. Piece o’ cake.

Ha!

After several hours of frustration, let me share with you what I learned.

• Scrap booking paper is colorful and bright and fun to use.  (It’s hard to tell but my red pinwheel has purple tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs on it.) But pinwheels made out of scrap book paper don’t spin easily in the wind or when you blow on them.
• Using a brad on a straw doesn’t work too swell, either. The pinwheel doesn’t freely spin.
• Plain white copy paper (what we grandmothers know as typing paper) spins the best. If you use this, your grandchildren can use their creativity and color their own designs on the paper.
• Using a straight pin to attach the pinwheel (made out of typing paper) to a pencil eraser works great.
• The straight pin might be longer than what you want. If that’s the case, hold the pin with a pair of pliers. Bend it back and forth until the pin breaks (where you are bending it). This will shorten the pin and be better for your pinwheel.
• If you use a colorful pencil, it’s not as drab and boring as a plain yellow No. 2 pencil.
• When taking a picture in my family room that has amber colored light fixtures, the pictures have a yellow cast to them. And, there are tons of shadows in the picture. It would be far better to take the picture using natural lighting (meaning in the daytime — but I’m at work then. Phooey!)

Here is a beautiful flower pinwheel that has curvy edges. There is a pattern and great directions to make this flower pinwheel. But, be forewarned. This is not a functional-blow-in-the-wind pinwheel. It’s just for decoration.

If you are feeling dapper and adventuresome, here are directions for making a pinwheel that uses a grommet in the center of a pinwheel and a thumbtack to hold it onto a chopstick. Interesting variation.

For older granddaughters, say twelve years old and older, here are directions for making a card with a gorgeous pink pinwheel card. It uses pink vellum and you make a small pinwheel and a large one. You put the smaller one on top of the bigger one so it makes a more “full” pinwheel. Way cute!

When you are finished making your paper pinwheels, make some pinwheel cookies.  Milk and cookies. What a great way to end an activity with your grandchildren!

Do you remember 2 years ago when I wrote about making a cake in a cup? My student employees absolutely loved making these fun little cakes.  I did, too.  (And we all loved EATING them, too!)

Well, the other day in the newspaper, there was an article about coffee cup cooking. The article had 3 recipes that I knew I just had to share here.

One was for a coffee cake, one was a quiche, and the last one was a chilaquiles. Yum, yum, yum.

What the heck is a chilaquiles? you ask.

Well, I didn’t know either so I checked the mother-lode of all knowledge — Wikipedia. Come to find out, this is a traditional Mexican dish of lightly fried corn tortillas topped with salsa and cheese and sometimes scrambled eggs or chicken. Sounds yummy!

Here are the recipes.

Coffee Cake in a Cup

For the crumb topping, mix:

2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon soft butter
pinch of cinnamon
pinch of salt

For the cake, mix:

1 tablespoon soft butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 egg (1 egg lightly beaten and divided)
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon maple syrup
a few drops of vanilla
1/4 cup self rising flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon apricot preserves

Mix the crumb topping in a small bowl. Set aside. For the cake, mix butter and sugar together in a large measuring cup. Add egg, sour cream, syrup, and vanilla. Beat until blended. Add flour and cinnamon. Beat until smooth. Pour half of the batter into a buttered coffee cup. Drop preserves into center and top with remaining batter. Top with crumb topping.

Microwave about 1 minute and 15 seconds.

Quiche in a Cup

1 egg
1 1/2 tablespoon milk
salt, pepper
1/4 bagel (or similar amount of French bread)
2 teaspoons cream cheese
1/2 slice ham
mustard
fresh thyme leaves or fresh chopped chives

Beat egg and milk together with a fork in a coffee cup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Tear bread into dime-sized pieces. Stir in. Add cream cheese. Stir.

Slice ham into small pieces. Add to mixture. Stir. Microwave 1 minute 10 seconds. Garnish with mustard and fresh thyme or chives.

Chilaquiles in a Cup

1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
salt, pepper
1 tablespoon grated cheese
5 tortilla chips
1 tablespoon salsa

Beat egg and milk with a fork in a coffee cup. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add cheese. Break tortilla chips into small pieces to fit into the cup. Stir into the mixture. Add salsa. Microwave 1 minute 10 seconds. Garnish with sour cream, more salsa,and  guacamole.

These three recipes would be so fun to make with grandchildren. They are quick and easy to make and the clean up is minimal.  (That’s a key issue, I think, when cooking with grandchildren!)

And, I think that grandchildren — and grandma — would love eating them, too.

Holidays are all about food, right?  That’s what I thought. I’ve found some recipes that you could make with your grandchildren on St. Patrick’s Day (or really any day that you are together and are in the cookin’ mood).

Grandma McAndrew’s Irish Soda Bread
This is an easy bread to make. The process reminds me of making biscuits. If you can make biscuits, you can make this. (If you don’t like raisins — like me — simply leave them out.) Spread a tad of butter on a slice fresh from the oven. Yum!

Black Treacle Scones
This scone recipe calls for only 2 tablespoons of molasses. So there’s just a hint of molasses flavor.  (And the color isn’t black at all!) These scones are baked in the oven and not deep fat fried. Easy to whip up and bake.

Irish Boxty
There’s an old Irish ditty that goes “‘Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can’t make boxty, you’ll never get a man.”  Well, I’ve got my man and I’ve never made boxty!  Guess I’d better mend my ways.

When I was growing up, sometimes my mother would make a variation of Irish Boxty. She would use left over mashed potatoes but not include raw grated potatoes like this recipe calls for. I loved those pan fried mashed potatoes. But then, I never met a potato that I didn’t like. (Except instant potatoes but I don’t consider those real potatoes. They are fake flakes!)

It’s nice that St. Patrick’s Day comes on Saturday this year. This will give you and your grandchildren plenty of time in the morning to fix some of these Irish foods for your breakfast.

Bain sult as do bhéile! (That means’ enjoy your meal’ in Irish!)

World Nutella Day is coming right up.  It is February 5th.

Now, imagine.  This isn’t a mere national celebration.  This is big. Real Big. World-wide Big.

Wowzers.

This made me reminisce about the first time that my husband and I were in Tahiti. Our favorite lunch was getting a long, skinny baguette, a can o’ pop, and a jar of Nutella.  We’d smear a thick swath of Nutella on a slice of bread. It would stick to our teeth in thick gobs.  We’d wash it off with a swig of pop. Not a very nutritional meal but it made my taste buds kick up their heels in delight.

When I learned that February 5 was World Nutella Day, I immediately imagined celebrating it with grandchildren.  Nutella over waffles for breakfast. Yum. Nutella sandwiches for lunch. Nutella spread on apple slices for an afternoon snack. Nutella straight-from-the-jar for supper. It would be a wonderful time. I’d be my grandchildren’s favorite grandmother. (At least for the moment. . .)

I happened upon the World Nutella Day web site — and the l-o-n-g page of recipes.  Oh my! They had Nutella recipes for breakfast: pancakes, French toast, muffins, monkey breads, tarts, and cinnamon rolls.

They had 43 recipes alone for brownies. Holy cow!

They had recipes for truffles, candy, fudge, cheesecake, biscotti, macaroons, Crème Brulée, bar cookies, cakes, frosting, cocktails, coffee, ice cream, gelato, mousse, pudding, and semifreddo, panna cotta, and tiramisu. There were recipes for pastries, pies doughnuts, sweet breads, crepes, and bread. I scrolled down and down and down the page.

You can see their Nutella recipes here.

Four recipes caught my eye: Nutella Cheesecake, Nutella Brownies, Chocolate Nutella Cookies, and Nutella Hot Chocolate.

There’s only 12 more days until World Nutella Day.  Make sure you stock up on plenty of Nutella. Then, invite a grandchild over for a time of decadence and make one of the bazillion recipes from their site.  And, let me know how it turns out. Seriously. I’m way interested to know which of the Nutella recipes are good.

It is snowing as I write this. I want to make some Nutella Hot Chocolate. There isn’t one ounce of Nutella in the house. Do I dash out in what is becoming one of the season’s major snowstorms? In the dark? On slick roads?

What do you think I should do?