School's Out!

Well, almost out. In just a few short hours I will head over to pick up my six year old from his last day of first grade. My four year old still has a few more weeks of preschool but his attendance will be sporadic, as we will be out of town for a family wedding and celebrating my older son's birthday during those last weeks. Now that school is out I can breathe a little easier knowing that we don't have to be up and ready by a certain hour and that we don't have nightly homework hanging over our heads.

I enjoy the summers with my kids because it allows me to continue teaching them at home. I am the first to admit that homeschooling would never work for us, but I do like the idea of exploring the boys' interests--interests they don't necessarily get to explore in a traditional classroom setting. I also think it's important to keep their minds active during the break from school. I've purchased a couple of reading guides to use with the boys to help further develop their skills. I'll be using Week-by-week Homework For Building Reading Comprehension & Fluency (Grades 2-3) with my older son. This book was recommended by his first grade teacher. I purchased The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading to use with my four year old. It's an introduction to phonics-based reading, and came recommended by a friend who is using it with her son (my four year old's best friend). Right now the plan is spend a half hour of one-on-one time with each boy--while I'm working with one the other will be allowed to play (parent-approved) computer games. My boys love using the computer but don't spend a lot of time on it so I need to make a conscious effort to make sure they are learning the skills they'll soon need (typing, using the mouse, etc.). I still need to find some math workbooks so they can practice math skills.

No school means being able to devote more time to projects that will be featured here on the blog as well. My main focus here will always be the book/recipe combo but we now have time to do other projects that pertain to the books we're reading and the recipes we are making. So you can expect to see some of those on here as well.

We've picked out some new (to the boys) read alouds for the summer: The Indian in the Cupboard and By the Shores of Silver Lake. Our county library system and some local bookstores have some summer reading programs that they can participate in for prizes. I plan to enroll both of them in lessons of some sort--we'll continue with my older son's piano lessons and probably do swim lessons for both of them. My older son is interested in tennis and the younger in soccer but those may have to wait until fall. We don't have (or belong to) a pool but my parents do and we want them to be comfortable in the water when we visit them and when they go to the pool with friends.

Lest you think I am some hardcore dictator mom who must schedule every minute of the summer, let me assure you that is not the case. If anything, I tend to be a little on the flighty side and resist all forms of scheduling. The loose schedule and goals/projects are simply meant to ensure the days don't get away from us. (Writing it out here further holds me accountable.) There will be plenty of time for games and free play (the boys are at an age where they play well together unsupervised) and, yes, even video games and television. I love books, I do, but--true confession here--I also love TV (I love any good story, really) so I don't mind letting the boys watch it in moderation. I might start watching the (new) Doctor Who series with them. I think the six (almost seven) year old will enjoy it, anyway. My four year old got upset watching the first Harry Potter movie and How to Train Your Dragon so I'm not sure how he'll take to the monsters/Big Bads of Doctor Who. Mostly, I am tired of watching the same old kid shows (except Phineas and Ferb--that never gets old) and train documentaries they favor and want to get them started on something else. They really enjoyed the Back to the Future trilogy so Doctor Who seems like a good next step.

Of course, it being summer vacation and all, we do have a few trips planned: we will be spending a week on the coast with my husband's extended family and another week in our hometown using my parents' house as our home base (they have a pool--and central air!) The boys are looking forward to these trips because they enjoy their grandparents and the change of scenery.

What are your summer plans? Any new books you're looking forward to reading? Do you have any special projects planned with your kids? Please share in the comments!

*Disclosure: As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small percentage of any purchase made through the product links in this post.

The Good Humor Man - Fun Valley Smash Frozen Pops

"'There are lemonade licks
And syrupy sticks,
Raspberry rockets
And pineapple pockets.
And my special flavor for today
Is Fun Valley Smash:
Raspberry-strawberry-marshmallow mash.'
Oh, my they did taste good." - The Good Humor Man, Kathleen N. Daly

When I was pregnant with my oldest son a co-worker gave me a set of reissued classic Little Golden Books as part of a shower gift. One of the books in the set was The Good Humor Man, a book I had overlooked (or perhaps it had been out of print) during my own childhood of reading and collecting Little Golden Books (perhaps someday I will write a post about the profound influence these books had on my life as a reader). I have very vivid memories of sitting on the floor in the nursery reading aloud to my infant son while he did tummy time on a blanket beside me. Later, this ended up being the book we would throw in a backpack or carryon to take on airplanes or day trips into the city. Simply put,  this book with its sweet story and 60s era charm is a family favorite.

Kathleen N. Daly's story about a neighborhood ice cream man who brings treats to families in a typical 60s suburban neighborhood seems almost outdated. When is the last time you saw an ice cream man? I am pretty sure that my kids know about ice cream men only from this book, although the ice cream truck was a fixture in the California neighborhood I grew up in. In the book we see the Good Humor man make his rounds in his white truck, selling "raspberry rockets" and "pineapple pockets" to the families on his route. One of his customers is a lonely boy named Johnny. Another customer, who lives way up on a hill outside of town, is an older woman who has a visiting grandson, Dick: he's also lonely. The next day, when the Good Humor man notices Johnny is without his puppy, he learns the dog is lost. But hooray! Dick and Granny have found the puppy! This inspires the Good Humor man to play matchmaker--Johnny gets his puppy back and, in the process, he and Dick become friends.

Tibor Gergeley's original illustrations are perfectly paired with Daly's text, perhaps more now than when the book was published in 1964. The retro look (which is, of course, "retro" only by present day 2010's standards) perfectly complements this story of a bygone era--when the highlight of a family's summer day might well have been the ice cream man's visit.

Drawing inspiration from the Good Humor man's flavors, we made some ice pops on this first weekend in June.

Fun Valley Smash


"Fun Valley Smash" is the Good Humor man's special flavor of the day. He describes it as being "raspberry-strawberry-marshmallow mash."

Ingredients:

• raspberries
• strawberries
• marshmallow creme
• vanilla yogurt

Additional equipment: Stick blender, ice pop mold (mine was $2.00 at Target)

1. Wash fruit. Chop stems off strawberries and cut into smaller pieces. Place in blender cup.

2. Use stick blender to puree fruit. Children should be supervised during this process.

3. Pour fruit puree into larger mixing bowl. Add a couple of dollops of marshmallow creme.

4. Add a spoonful or two of the vanilla yogurt. I chose to add vanilla yogurt for a creamier consistency; you could certainly stay true to the book and just use the fruit and marshmallow.

5. Stir the fruit, marshmallow and yogurt together. The yogurt will blend easily. The marshmallow will not. At best, I got it to separate into smaller chunks (by mashing it with the back of the spoon) which worked fine.

6. Carefully pour the mixture into your molds. Leave room for the sticks.

7. Place molds in freezer and let freeze for several hours.

The finished product:

These frozen treats were a huge hit, easy to make and reasonably healthy. The boys enjoyed them after a run through the sprinklers (hence the crazy hair).

The Good Humor Company has quite an interesting history. Check out their web page for information on the treats, trucks and ice cream men that inspired Daly's fictional story. The company still exists and their ice cream confections are available nationwide.

And since we are on the topic of ice cream men and this book and my six (almost seven!) year old's infancy, I will always associate the song in this Kohl's commercial with that time. More than any other song (except maybe John Lennon's "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)"), this song takes me back to the summer of 2003. The commercial played constantly for a couple of weeks (I was nursing a newborn. I spent a lot of time in front of the TV.), to the point that I will never think of ice cream men without thinking of this commercial and that time in my life.

Kohls - Ice Cream Man (2003) - 0:30 (USA)

Cora Cooks Pancit - Pancit

"She saw a large bowl of pancit. The thick noodles and vegetables curled and swirled in a dance party. Mmmm." - Cora Cooks Pancit, Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore


Cora Cooks Pancit was a serendipitious discovery, for a number of reasons. I was shown the book on a recent visit to Fresno, my hometown in the Central Valley of California. I knew immediately (sometimes you can judge a book by its cover) that it was a perfect fit for my blog. Further research led me to discover that the author, Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore, makes her home in Fresno. And she was born and raised in Chicago, where my husband and I lived for eight years. And her publisher, Shen's Books, is based in my current hometown. If that isn't serendipitous, I don't know what is.

The book alone would have made me want to feature it on my blog. But the local connection was icing on the cake. I like to support hometown authors. (One might not think of the Fresno as being a hotbed of literary activity, but a number of notable authors and poets--including William Saroyan, Gary Soto and Philip Levine--have called it home. And I like to promote that because the main thing Fresno seems to be known for is, uh, crime.). I also like to support independent publishers (once upon a time, I worked for an independent publisher). I am thrilled that I have an opportunity to review a book that I have a personal connection to, even if that connection only extends to the Fresno connection the author and I share.

In Cora Cooks Pancit, Gilmore's title character is the youngest of five children. She's used to being given the "kid" jobs in the kitchen while her older sisters and brother get the more involved tasks. But one day, when all of her siblings are off doing other things, Cora asks her mother to teach her to cook pancit, a traditional Filipino dish their family enjoys. Cora's mother teaches her to make pancit according to her grandfather's recipe. She helps soak the noodles and shred the chicken while Mama chops the vegetables. As in Tallulah in the Kitchen, we get a few reminders of basic kitchen safety within the narrrative--wash your hands, be careful near the stove. There are a few mishaps along the way but Mama reassures Cora that it's okay. When dinner is served Cora's siblings are surprised and impressed that Cora has helped cook such a grown up meal. Everybody loves it, and Cora is overjoyed at her accomplishment. The final illustration, of Cora wearing her mother's red apron and basking in the praise of her family, says it all.

Kristi Valiant's illustrations perfectly complement Gilmore's story. Although we never know exactly how old Cora is, her true-to-life expressions brought to mind my own four year old. The final illustration, of Cora's family enjoying the meal she has helped prepare, is a delight. In Nutmeg we also saw a family sitting down to enjoy a meal together but I think young kids will be better able to relate to Valiant's more realistic looking characters, which might in turn remind them of their own family meal times.

Pancit (recipe courtesy of Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore)

Pancit is a traditional Filipino noodle dish. In my research I discovered many ways to make it--some variations called for wheat noodles, or for shellfish or pork. I decided to stick to the recipe included in the book, with a few modifications.

Ingredients:

• 2 - 3 boneless chicken breasts plus 1/2 cup chicken broth and 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 (8 oz) package of rice stick pancit noodles (the rice noodles pictured above were the closest I could find--I used half the box)
• 1 (8 oz.) package dried shitake mushrooms (I could only find fresh)
• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped (I used dried)
• 2 tablespoons plus 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• vegetable or olive oil
• 1/2 head cabbage, shredded
• 2 carrots, thinly sliced (I used 3)
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• 1 (8 oz.) can water chestnuts, sliced 
• 1 (8 oz.) can bamboo shoots, sliced (did not use these)
• 1 (8 oz.) can baby corn, diced (did not use this either)
• 1.5 cups water
• 3 eggs, hard boiled and sliced
• 5 green onions, sliced lengthwise and cut into 3-inch strips (optional)
• salt and pepper 

1. Cook chicken and boil eggs in advance. The recipe in the book actually suggests two methods for chicken cooking--the first involves steamed, boned chicken. I went for the second method, which was cooking the chicken, along with the chicken broth and a teaspoon of soy sauce, in a slow cooker. I cooked on high for three hours, at which point the chicken was cooked through and easy to shred. I love my slow cooker.

2. Soak noodles in warm water for a half hour. While noodles are soaking, chop veggies. If you are using dried mushrooms, soak those in a separate bowl of warm water. Otherwise, slice the fresh mushrooms.

3. Heat shredded chicken, mushrooms, yellow onion and 2 tablespoons of soy sauce in a non-stick skillet (I swirled a bit of olive oil in my iron skillet and cooked them in there). Stir in garlic and ginger, add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and set aside.

4. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in large, shallow pot. Add other vegetables, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook briefly, making sure carrots and cabbage don't overcook.

5. Add chicken and mushroom mixture:

6. Strain noodles. In separate pot, bring 1.5 cups water, 1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup soy sauce and sprinkle of salt to light boil. Add noodles and stir. Cook 5 minutes. Pour noodles on chicken and veggie mixture. Mix everything together and cook on low for an additional 5 minutes. (Confession: I totally messed up this part. I cooked the noodles according to the package directions and then drained the noodles. So I put the noodles in the pan, then added the water and soy sauce and tossed together.)

7. Serve in bowls. Garnish with sliced egg and green onions.

Despite my mishap with the noodles this dish turned out really, really well. Remember a few weeks ago when I said the noodles with browned butter and Parmesan was the best thing we've ever made for this blog? This gives it a run for its money. It had a nice, light flavor and the crisp, fresh veggies really made it a perfect dish to have on a spring evening. My husband thought it was a little bland--that could be because I used a reduced-sodium soy sauce (actually, tamari). One boy loved it and one just thought it was okay but I think he was just being picky. I will definitely make this again.

*Disclosure: Cora Cooks Pancit was provided for review by the publisher, Shen's Books.

When I am Quiet on Maui - Lava Flow Smoothies and Roasted Pineapple with Ice Cream

"When you are quiet, what do you hear?" - When I am Quiet on Maui, Judi Riley

It's been an unseasonably cool spring in the Bay Area. I am a warm weather kind of girl. I long for the warm sun. We can't control the weather but we can escape to a warmer place via our books.

A few years ago, when my boys were very young (not-quite-three and seven months), we spent a week in Maui. Although I don't necessarily recommend taking kids that young to Maui if you're expecting a restful and relaxing vacation, it is a favorite family memory of that time in our lives. When we want to remind the boys of our trip we watch videos and look at pictures or we read When I am Quiet on Maui, a book my husband and I brought back from a solo Maui trip a couple of years later.

Judi Riley's When I am Quiet on Maui is a peaceful book, a perfect reflection of the laid back island lifestyle. The first two pages, in fact, are just two questions (one per page) on a white background: "When you are quiet, what do you hear? When you are still, what do you feel?" With this we are brought into the book, which takes us through a child's day on the island of Maui. We learn about the island through sights and sounds. Each spread shows an illustration on the left with a single statement on the opposite page--a painting of koi and plumeria flowers in a pond is accompanied by, "When I am quiet in Wailea long before lunch, I hear the plumeria cascade into the koi pond." This is not a book to turn to if you're looking for excitement or a story where something happens. It is more like poetry: calm meditations just right for settling into a calm state of mind (perhaps right before naptime). It reminds us of the beauty of nature (found in a specific place) and the importance of slowing down and taking note of the world around us. It also introduces Hawaiian vocabulary, with proper pronunciations and definitions in footnotes at the bottom of the pages. (Crucial for parents who stumble over the word humuhumunukunukuapua'a.)

We made two different treats to get us into the Hawaiian spirit (they also went well with our Lost series finale viewing after the boys were in bed).

Lava Flow Smoothies

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. coconut cream
• 2 oz. unsweetened pineapple juice
• 4 large strawberries (or handful of frozen strawberries)
• 1 small, ripe banana
• ice

Additional equipment: Blender, paper umbrella (optional)

1. Puree the strawberries in blender.

2. Pour strawberry puree in glass.

3. Puree pineapple juice, coconut cream and banana in blender with crushed ice. Blend until smooth.

4. Pour pineapple/coconut/banana mixture into glass. The strawberry puree should rise to the top, like a lava flow.

Roasted Pineapple with Ice Cream (recipe courtesy of Runner's World magazine, April 2010)

Ingredients:

• 1 pineapple, cut and sliced
• dark brown sugar
• butter
• vanilla ice cream

1. Brush melted butter on both sides of the pineapple slices (the original recipe recommends cutting the pineapple into rings).

2. Sprinkle brown sugar over both sides of the pineapple.

3. Roast pineapple in oven at 400* for 18 minutes. Flip halfway through.

5. Serve in bowls. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

These refreshing treats did bring a little bit of that Hawaiian feeling into our home, which is nice since it's far more practical than jumping on a plane every time we want to escape to Hawaii.

Still in a Hawaiian state of mind? Check out Riley's other book, When I am Quiet on Oahu.

My kids also love Disney's animated film Lilo and Stitch, which has a Hawaiian setting.

Finally, if you do happen to have a trip to Hawaii planned, I highly recommend Andrew Doughty's "Ultimate" guidebook series. We have used The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook: Kauai Revealed and Maui Revealed: The Ultimate Guidebook on our trips and found them to be, hands down, the best resources for sightseeing, snorkeling and dining information.

My New Gig

I'm happy to announce that I am the new gluten-free living blogger for the Bay Area edition of Today's Mama, a national parenting website with local affiliates in select markets. If you are looking for information about gluten-free issues, product and restaurant reviews, recipes, parenting gluten-free kids, or gluten-free resources, please check me out at my other online home!

Direct link to my introductory post

Bay Area Mama main page

SteamPotVille Giveaway Winner

The winner of my SteamPotVille book giveaway is Jenimal. Jenimal, I will forward your information to the publisher and they will ship the book directly to you. Thank you to everyone who entered!

Nutmeg - String and Sawdust

"There was always cardboard for breakfast. There was always string for lunch. There was always sawdust for supper."  - Nutmeg, David Lucas

Since starting this blog I have been introduced to a number of wonderful kidlit blogs written by like-minded folks, and I've discovered lots of new reads through the recommendations of others. I became intrigued with author/illustrator David Lucas after reading reviews of Cake Girl and Halibut Jackson on Playing by the Book. After a quick Amazon search I discovered he'd also written a book called Nutmeg--and the cover art, featuring a little girl and various cooking implements, tipped me off that it might be a good fit for my blog. I searched my library's online catalog, placed a hold and had the book in my hand a few days later. (Aren't libraries wonderful?)

Nutmeg is a young girl who lives with her uncle and cousin in a dilapidated house on what amounts to a beachfront property junkyard. We don't know how their living situation came to be or why they are stuck eating bland cardboard, string and sawdust (depicted as looking suspiciously like toast, spaghetti and rice) but it's immediately evident that Nutmeg is fed up with the status quo. One day she decides to go for a walk--she's not sure why but Lucas' illustrations deftly capture her frustration and yearning for something new (it would be interesting to pair this book with A Penguin Story, which I reviewed here). While on the beach she finds a bright bottle that, when opened, releases a genie. The genie grants her three wishes: Nutmeg wishes for something different for breakfast, something different for lunch and something different for dinner. The genie gives her a magic spoon and disappears. This sets off a chain of events that changes the lives of Nutmeg and her small family.

When she returns home, the spoon whips up a fabulous, colorful dinner--the best meal Nutmeg and her uncle and cousin have ever eaten. Later that night, though, the spoon stirs up the entire house and creates quite the ruckus. It stirs up the land and sea and stars and transforms the house into a boat. Which Nutmeg and her family sail to a new land, where a new breakfast awaits. After breakfast they return to their boat, presumably in search of more new and different places and foods.

Nutmeg contains elements found in so many great magical stories, including Aladdin, Alice in Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz. The shift from the drab, dull colors in the book's opening pages to a brighter palette when Nutmeg meets the genie especially recall the film version of The Wizard of Oz. The shift in colors illustrates her culinary awakening. There is more out there than the same old stuff she's been given every day, and it's good. Like Edna in A Penguin Story, Nutmeg's realization that there is more out there inspires her to sail on, looking for the new and different.

Instead of making the delicious foods Nutmeg and her family tried after the arrival of the magic spoon, we decided to make "string and sawdust" (yes, to be eaten at one meal instead of separately at lunch and dinner). It was easy to figure out what to do for the string (spaghetti). But what to do about the sawdust... I thought about rice (too many carbs; you can't have a meal of just rice and noodles) and then got to thinking about what sawdust looks like...kind of like pencil shavings. What is a food that goes well with pasta that you can "shave"?

Parmesan cheese. When grated with a fine, sharp grater, it looks like a pile of sawdust. I knew I was onto something when I told my six-year old my idea and he excitedly pointed to the picture and exclaimed, "Yes! That looks exactly like parmesan cheese!"

String and Sawdust (Spaghetti with Parmesan and browned butter)

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti (I used a half bag to serve one adult and two kids)
• block of Parmesan cheese
• 1 stick of butter plus 1/8 stick of butter (again, enough for three people)

Additional equipment: Cheese grater. Preferably a Microplane zester/grater. This is one of my most indespensable kitchen tools. It is absolutely essential for grating hard cheeses or garlic, zesting citrus, grating chocolate...I would be lost without this little tool. I am actually on my second one because my original disappeared sometime after Thanksgiving.

This recipe was inspired by a dish served at The Old Spaghetti Factory, a restaurant chain with locations throughout the United States (mostly West Coast). One of their most popular dishes is spaghetti with mizithra cheese and browned butter. Mizithra is a hard cheese and can be difficult to find. Fortunately Parmesan is similar in taste and texture and works just fine for this recipe. 

Given its high butter and cheese content, this is not an "every day" or even a "once in awhile" meal. At least not in our house. It is more palatable than boxed macaroni and cheese (which I have always, even as a child, found particularly vile) though so if you prefer you can think of it that way.

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions. 

2. While pasta is cooking, grate the cheese. This was a task I happily handed off to the boys so I could get the butter started.

Behold, sawdust:

3. In a small saucepan, brown the butter over medium heat. Be careful not to scald it. It will start to bubble like this:

Stir the butter continually during this time. After about five minutes it will begin to turn a more golden/caramel color and you'll begin to see sediment accumulate in the bottom of the pan. At this point, cook just a little longer, until it gives of a caramelized, burnt butter (but not burned) aroma.

4. Serve the pasta with one or two spoonfuls of butter (we ended up with a lot of leftover butter) and some cheese on top:

This meal was an all around winner. (I made the boys each eat a carrot to go with their bowls of pasta.) It is quite possibly my favorite thing I've made for this blog to date. Far more delicious, I am sure, than the string and sawdust Nutmeg ate. My kids certainly didn't complain about it. We have made this at home in the past but renaming it "string and sawdust" has made it an instant new favorite in the eyes of my kids and I know that in the future they'll request it by the new name.

SteamPotVille - Review and Giveaway

This contest is now closed. Thank you to everybody who entered.

I was recently given the opportunity to review Steve Ouch's SteamPotVille, which was just published by Running Press Kids. It came at the perfect time because I had already planned my feature on interactive books and SteamPotVille fits in nicely with that group.

Illustrated using photographs and digital photography, Ouch has created a dreamlike town in which nothing is as it is expected to be. The animal inhabitants live in tea kettles. Cats wear hats. Birds say "buzz" and bees live underground. It's like a weird mashup of Graeme Base's Animalia (another worthy title I left out of Monday's review) and Alice in Wonderland.  The note at the beginning indicates that SteamPotVille is a place found in the imagination, and that by continuing to imagine and explore the young reader can prevent his or her "SteamPotVille" from getting "soggy or wet."

This sets us off on a journey through SteamPotVille, where strange things are happening to the animal residents. A brief story is told in rhymed verse. I thought this was the weakest part of the book; there are times when the rhymes feel forced or clunky and places where I feel the author could have exercised better word choice. However, this was of little consequence to my children, who fell in love with the bright, crisp illustrations. This is where the book really shines and Ouch's true talent lies. Looking at the detail within each spread, it's clear that he spent quite a bit of time creating and manipulating the images to serve his story's purposes.

When we come to the end of the book we are shown a spread with pictures of different animals and are asked to go back through the book and find them. But what my kids were most eager to do was go back through the pages and talk about what they saw: they discussed why the cats might be wearing hats and how the bee had gotten underground. It really opens up the door to creativity and storytelling. School aged children might enjoy taking this a step further and creating their own picture collages, either digitally or with photographs and magazine pictures. The storytelling possibilities can be executed on many levels and I can see this book being used as a teaching aid in elementary school-level writer's workshops or art classes, or even in digital media classes for the junior high/high school set.

I am giving away one copy of SteamPotVille, courtesy of Running Press. If you would like to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment with your email address (to avoid spammers, please spell it out: you at youremailaddress dot com) by midnight on Tuesday, May 18). I will draw one winner at random and contact you via email to coordinate shipment of the book. One entry per person, please.

For more information about SteamPotVille and Steve Ouch, please visit SteamPotVille online!

*Disclosure: Running Press has provided me with a review copy of SteamPotVille and will handle shipment of the book to the winning entrant. I have not received monetary compensation in exchange for this review and any opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Travel Trail Mix

Yesterday I wrote about books we like to take with us on our travels, especially when those travels involve long stretches of time in cars or planes. What else do I pack when faced with a long trip? Why, snacks of course!

Our favorite go-to car snack is trail mix. Or, "trail mix", as what I make bears little resemblance to actual trail mix. Granola is out because most commercially prepared granola is not gluten-free. We use cereal in place of the granola.

Truth be told, my kids like our trail mix so much that I've been known to pack it in their lunches or offer it as snacks. They've been known to make it themselves when I'm too busy (read: they're too impatient) to get them a snack. It's super easy to make.

Ingredients (choose at least one from each category):



Something Crunchy

• dry cereals: Gorilla Munch, Panda Puffs, Rice Chex, Corn Chex, Cinnamon Chex, Nature's Path Organic Whole O's
• dry cereals for non-Celiacs: Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Kashi Honey Sunshine, Life, Quaker Oat Squares, Fruit Loops, Crunch Berries... basically, you non-Celiacs have choices aplenty (I miss cereal.)
•  pretzels
• snack crackers like Annie's Bunnies (there is a gluten-free variety!) or Goldfish crackers (these are NOT gluten-free!)

Something Nutty
examples: peanuts, cashews (or moon nuts, as they are called in our house), almonds, pistachios

Something Fruity
examples: raisins, Craisins, dried pineapple, dried cherries, dried coconut, freeze dried strawberries, freeze dried apples

Something Chocolatey
examples: M&Ms, Trader Joe's Power Berries (so very good!), chocolate chips, Reese's Pieces

1. Choose your ingredients. I typically choose whatever we have on hand. If I know in advance that we'll be taking a trip I might make a special trip to the store to buy ingredients. But we typically have cereal, Craisins and chocolate chips on hand so that's what the boys use when they make it themselves. Today we used raisins, dried blueberries, cereal, cashews, dark chocolate covered Powerberries and M&Ms (leftover from Easter).

2. There's no hard and fast rule about how much of each ingredient to include. I imagine much of it boils down to personal preference and personal quirks. (My children tell me I never put enough chocolate in. And I completely omit almonds from my younger son's bag because he picks them out every time.)

How easy is this to make? Easy enough that a four year old and a six year old can do it without help. Here's proof:

If we are going on a long trip that involves spending time in a hotel or multiple days in the car I'll prepare a large bag of trail mix for each kid and serve them out of that througout the week. If it's just a long drive or plane trip (or a snack at home) they get their trail mix in a reusable snack bowl or cup.

We're heading out of town soon and you can bet we'll be mixing some of this up for car snacks.