January 17, 2007
Call Me Irresponsible
From the information booklet about Girl Scout cookie sales:
Encourage your customers to enjoy their Girl Scout cookies in a healthy manner. Remember: a serving of Thin Mints is not an entire sleeve of cookies!
The girls should read the nutritional information for the cookies so they can answer customer questions but if the customers don't ask I don't think it's the responsibility of the girls to lecture them on their dietary choices...unless the customer is a little brother who scarfs down a whole box before his sister gets a cookie or two from it.
If you want people to pay attention to the serving suggestions on the boxes, don't make the cookies so tasty!
November 12, 2006
Festival of the Arts
Yesterday was the Kentuckiana Girl Scouts 34th Festival of the Arts. It was also the day when the weather turned from pleasantly warm to cold and wet. Fortunately the programs my daughter's troop took part in were all indoors.
Our first event was presented by Kentucky Down Under (they came to Louisville, we didn't have to drive to Horse Cave, KY). We learned about some animals from Australia and also about Australian Aboriginal culture. They brought a cockatoo, a snake, and a joey (baby kangaroo) and taught the girls how to play a didgeridoo.
Our second event was a workshop where the girls learned some magic tricks. They had so much fun with this that they were still gathered around the magician asking about other tricks when the workshop had ended.
Our third, and last event, was presented by Doug Berkey, a mime and movement artist. He talked about the stagecraft involved in the kinds of performances he does and we watched his show where he used masks and props along with miming performance techniques.
February 27, 2006
Cookies Arrive Today!
Let's see if I still think the title of this post deserves an exclamation mark after I help pick up the troop's cases of cookies. (I may have to do actual physical labor and violate my creed of laziness.)
I'll be leaving to pick them up in a couple of hours but I may take my laptop along in case the trucks are late (as they are every year) and I have to wait. Then I'll help sort out the girls' orders and bring Emma's cookies home.
Emma has a playdate with a friend after school so we won't be delivering her cookie orders until tomorrow. The good news is that it's supposed to be warm tomorrow (high of 69 degrees) the bad news is that we may get some thunderstorms too. I don't care if I have to drive her around to deliver them, even though she didn't have as many orders as last year, we just don't have room for all those cases in our house.
January 11, 2005
Predictable Weather
Today, Wednesday, and Thursday the temperature will be in the upper 50s to mid-60s. Sure, it's raining today and will rain or be cloudy most of the week but at least it isn't cold...until Friday.
The high for Friday and the weekend is supposed to be about 31 degrees. The weather forecast on the radio said it had to do with a cold front coming in. The cold front is only the method, not the reason. The real reason it's going to be cold is that it's Girl Scout Cookie time. Seriously, it's the same every year - relatively mild weather turns suddenly cold on the exact day cookie sales begin.
This is the time of year my daughter (a Brownie) and other Girl Scouts in our area go door-to-door taking orders for boxes of cookies. Last year it snowed so I guess I should be glad that at least it's supposed to be sunny this weekend.
March 14, 2004
Girls and Grossology
Last night my Brownie troop went on a camp-in at the Louisville Science Center. The current non-permanent exhibit is Grossology.
Did you know you swallow about a quart of snot a day? Do you feel that your life has been enhanced in any way by knowing that? Me neither.
The exhibit was interesting and not really that gross...but my tolerence for ick is probably pretty high, I do have two sons. Along with Grossology, we learned about brains, made fake blood, and saw real body parts (heart, spinal cord, bones). We also went on a scavenger hunt in the dark (we brought flashlights) and saw "To the Limit" in the IMAX theater.
February 22, 2004
Cookies
I'll be picking up our troops' cookie delivery tomorrow morning. We have to order the boxes by the case and then sort them out according to the sales orders from each girl.
I know that at least one part of Emma's cookie orders will be easy, one case of Tagalongs (12 boxes)...for me!* I probably will be guilted into sharing some of them, but I could easily eat all 12 boxes worth of cookies by myself.
Even though I make lots of cookies at Christmas, I don't usually gain much weight then. I give most of the cookies away...the ones that survive my kids' kitchen raids. The Girl Scout Cookies are another matter. They're boxed and easier to guard (and hide).
I'm just glad we get the cookies now instead of later. This way I have a few months before I have to trade my nice pound-covering winter clothing for shorts and bathing suits.
[*Note: A slight error, the first order I placed with Emma included one case of Tagalongs. I added a second order with a second case because I knew I would end up buying whatever extras I ordered for our booth sale if I didn't get more. I'm told that they freeze well, maybe this time I have enough boxes that I can try that. I'm not usually guilty of gluttony, but when it comes to these cookies....]
February 10, 2004
Strawberry Jam
In a few short hours my Brownie co-leader and I will be helping our troop make strawberry jam.
The recipe looks easy enough. Then again, I always think that the activity I have planned seems easy enough for them while being challenging enough to keep them interested. I have been surprised before at the amount of chaos they can create out of something I thought was fairly simple.
My co-leader usually doesn't know ahead of time what activity I have planned. One day she's either going to throttle me or have me committed.
[Update: Overall out jam project went well. We finished within the hour we have for our meeting and all the girls seemed pleased with what they had made. The biggest problem was that they didn't want to wait the 24 hours called for in the recipe before they tried their jam.
I left the potato mashers we needed to crush the berries at home by mistake...I always seem to leave something behind. Since it's not the season for fresh strawberries I had gotten a large bag of frozen ones. I premeasured about 2 cups worth into each of two separate gallon zippered plastic bags (we were making two batches) and set the bags in the refrigerator to thaw yesterday. We just had the girls knead the bags for a bit to mash up the berries. This worked really well with the thawed berries (probably less messy than using the mashers) but would have been much more difficult with fresh berries.]
See continue reading for the recipe.
No-Cook Strawberry Jam
Use fully ripe strawberries at room temperature to help the sugar dissolve. Do not reduce the sugar or use sugar substitute in this recipe. This recipe yields 4 cups of jam.
1 quart fresh fully ripe strawberries (which will yield 1 3/4 cups crushed strawberries)
4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 pouch Certo liquid pectin
1. Rinse strawberries in cold water and hull. Crush berries, one cup at a time using a flat casserole-type dish and a potato masher or use a food processor. If using a food processor, pulse to chop, do not puree or liquefy. Jam has bits of fruit.
2. Measure 1 3/4 cups crushed fruit and place in a large bowl.
3. Measure sugar into a separate bowl. Use a one-cup dry measuring cup and scrape extra sugar off the top of each cup to level exact measure. Stir sugar into crushed strawberries.
4. Set strawberry and sugar mixture aside for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to help dissolve the sugar.
5. Next empty contents of one pouch of liquid pectin into a small bowl. Using a fork, stir in lemon juice. Mix well.
6. Add pectin mixture to strawberry mixture. Stir constantly for 3 minutes. A few sugar crystals may remain.
7. Fill one to two cup freezer containers with strawberry mixture to within 1/2 inch of the top. Wipe off top edges of containers and cover with lids. Let containers stand at room temperature for 24 hours. The next day your jam is ready to eat. Label and date containers. Place in the freezer. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight. After opening, store leftovers in the refrigerator.
Hooking
CrochetPatternCentral.com is a directory of crochet pattern links. Some are recent, many patterns date back to the 70s or earlier. It also has a basic "how-to" section with tutorials and illustrations of everything from how to hold the crochet hook to basic and advanced stitches.
I'm putting this link here so I can find it easily again (my bookmarks are a jumbled mess) in case I develop the patience to try to teach crocheting to my Brownie troop.