Mario Day Party 2021

March 10th is Mario Day. These were some of the things we did to celebrate. 

The Mario Lego kits are pretty cool!

I made these question boxes by covering the opening with tissue paper. I filled the boxes with candy. When the kids jumped up, the tissue paper broke and the candy came out. 

Healthy Air Fryer Chips

 

I bought a pack of these tortillas, but did not like the texture for tacos or wraps. So...I sprayed them with olive oil cooking spray and lightly salted both sides. I then cut each tortilla into 8 wedges. In a 400 degree preheated air fryer, cook the wedges for about 4 minutes. These chips are amazing. The kids even like them. 

Homemade Boba Tea Made with Tapioca Flour

I have never had Boba Tea, but my students were raving about it and told me it was a recipe I had to try next. So...I did some research and tried to pull together all of the needed ingredients. I could not find tapioca pearls, so I had to make my own with tapioca flour. 

Ingredients for the tapioca pearls: 

3/4 cup tapioca flour

2 Tbsp dark brown sugar

4 Tbsp water

Ingredients for the brown sugar syrup:

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 cup water

Ingredients for black tea/milk drink

1/2 cup brewed black tea

1/2 cup almond or regular milk

Start by putting the 2 Tbsp brown sugar and 4 Tbsp water in a saucepan. Heat until sugar is dissolved. Add 1 Tbsp of the tapioca flour. Stir until it is thickened. Remove from the heat when it is thick. (This happens quickly) 

Add the remaining flour and stir. It will become a dough. Put the dough on a lightly tapioca floured surface. Knead the dough. It will be slightly sticky. I kneaded the dough for a couple of minutes. 

Cut the dough into four equal parts. Cover the parts you aren't working with with plastic wrap so they don't dry out. 

I rolled out one portion at a time into a long snake-like shape. I then pulled small pieces of dough off of the rolled dough. I turned each piece of dough into a small ball. You will have to use more tapioca flour to make sure the little dough balls don't stick to the counter or to each other. I rolled them around on the counter that was sprinkled with flour so they didn't stick to each other. The picture below shows the final amount of little tapioca pearls that I made with this amount of dough. 

Next, get a pan of water boiling. I used 8 cups of water. Put the pearls in the water and stir so they don't stick to the bottom. Cover and let boil for 20 minutes. Then turn off the heat, uncover, and let it sit there for another 20 minutes. 

While the pearls are sitting in the hot water, mix together 3/4 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cup water in a saucepan. Cook it down until it reduces a little and becomes a thin syrup. Pour the syrup in a bowl and set aside. 

The pearls will become brown and translucent by the end of the 40 total minutes. Drain the pearls and add them to the brown sugar syrup. 

This is the pearl base that you can add to your drink combo.  Put some pearls and about 1/4 cup of the syrup in the bottom of a glass. To one drink, I added about 1/2 cup almond milk and 1/2 cup brewed black tea to the pearls. 

For another combination, I put 1 cup of strawberries, 1 cup of ice, 1 cup of almond milk, and 1 Tbsp honey in a blender. Mix up and add that to the boba pearl syrup. 

I liked the milk/tea combo the best, but those that don't normally drink tea liked the fruit drink better. 

Party for the Oscars

 We didn't have a lot going on this weekend, and our ACM party went well last weekend, so we decided to throw a party for the Oscars. 

I did a little research on the nominees and decided to showcase 8 different movies: 

I made homemade bread for the "Town Tasties" in Wolfwalkers, chocolate covered pretzels for the Wizard Staff in Onward, Pizza for A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, a Bluesy Smoothie for Soul, Coca-Cola for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, no bake cookies for The One and Only Ivan's "me-balls", Mongolian Beef Noodles for Mulan, and Soup Dumplings for Over the Moon. 

I used an orange slice for the top of the Wizard staff. 

Adding to the decorations red carpet brownies topped with film reels. (I dipped Oreos in white chocolate, covered them in silver sprinkles, and used black frosting to finish the decoration) The brownie recipe is here: http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2019/02/2nd-annual-academy-awards-party.html

The soup dumplings turned out really well. The full recipe is below. 

The Mongolian Beef Noodle recipe is here: http://workingmomwonders.blogspot.com/2020/09/mongolian-beef-noodles-with-ground-beef.html

We walked the red carpet. 

And used this photo board we created a few years ago for pictures. 

Soup Dumplings: 

Ingredients: 

1 .25 oz container Knox gelatin

2/3 cup hot water

1/2 Tbsp chicken base

1 Tbsp soy sauce

6 oz ground pork

2 green onions, chopped

3 baby bella mushrooms, chopped

1 tsp ginger

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp sesame oil

wonton wrappers

Start by mixing the 2/3 cup water, chicken base, and soy sauce in a saucepan. Heat until almost boiling. Whisk in the Knox gelatin. Pour into an 8x8 inch pan and cool in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, or until set. I used a butter knife to cut the gelatin into square pieces before putting into the wontons. 

Cook the ground pork in a pan. Drain the grease. Set aside to cool. Chop the green onions and mushrooms and put in a bowl. Add the ginger, garlic, and sesame oil. Add the cooled pork. Mix together. 

Put a small scoop of pork mixture on the wonton. Top with the gelatin squares. 

Wet three sides of the wontons with water. Pull two parallel ends together. Close the sides and bunch the sides up to the top of the wonton. 

Put about 1 cup of water in a saucepan . I added my instant pot trivet to the pan. Put the wontons on a plate covered with parchment paper. 

Place the plate on the trivet, cover the saucepan, boil the water, and steam for about 5 minutes. 

Daily Hearts with Video Messages

 For the past few years, I have delivered a heart-a-day to my kids in February up until Valentine's Day. I have written reasons why I love them, given them quotes of inspiration, and various other themed messages. This year, I wanted to create a more visual display for them. So, I reached out to grandparents, aunts/uncles, and cousins to deliver video messages to each kid. 

I turned each video into an unlisted YouTube video. Then I created a QR code for each video. The QR codes were placed on the hearts. I will tape a heart to their wall each morning so they can hear a message from someone that loves them dearly. 

2021 Super Bowl Commercial Bingo Cards

This is the 8th year we have played Super Bowl Commercial Bingo. Some companies have chosen to sit this Super Bowl out because of the pandemic, but we have made those companies our Free Spaces because some of them have declared to give back that money to vaccination causes or to help their employees.  Click the link to make a copy of the document that will provide you with three different cards. Bingo Card

Raspberry Muffins

Ingredients: 

2 eggs

3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp almond milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup fresh raspberries

Mix the wet ingredients together with a whisk. Add the dry ingredients and stir. 

Fold in the raspberries

Grease a muffin pan and divide the batter into 12 muffins. 

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. 

 

Air Fryer Salmon Cakes

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh baked salmon

1 egg

1 tsp garlic powder

1-2 Tbsp lemon juice

3 cloves garlic

salt/pepper

1/2-3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Mix all of the ingredients, except the panko, together in a bowl with a fork. 

Add in the panko and stir again. Let sit for a few minutes. 

Shape into four salmon cakes and put in the air fryer. 

Fry for about 5 minutes at 400 degrees. For a sauce, I mixed about 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt, 2 tsp lemon juice, and a little dash of dill. 

 

Raspberry Honey Jam

 

Ingredients: 

1 pint (or 2 1/2 6 oz containers) of raspberries

1/4 cup honey

1 Tbsp lemon juice

Put all of the ingredients in a saucepan. Mash and stir until the mixture comes to a boil. 

Turn the heat down and let simmer for 10 minutes. 

Stir occasionally until it reaches the thickness you desire. 

Pour into pint jars and let cool. Place in the refrigerator or freezer for storage. 

8th Annual New Year's Eve Family Party

 

Our 8th Annual New Year's Eve Party is ready! 

Each balloon is marked with a time. The kids take turns popping the balloon to see what activity is inside. This keeps us busy the whole day! The activities are listed below. 

This year we decided to build our own ball drop. Using Little Bits, I was able to construct a ball drop that moves on its own. 

I added a fan and a light circuit as well as an added touch. To make the ball move, I ran a piece of thread through the sytrofoam ball and brought both ends up through the top of the box. I connected that thread to the servo little bit and when the arm moves up and down behind the box, the styrofoam ball does as well. 

Activities: 

9:00 AM: Eat a stack of pancakes: France

12:00 PM: Make Rice pudding with a hidden almond: Norway

1:00: Put on your red underwear: Italy

3:00: Burn the bad--Have a campfire

4:00: Find round things to eat/wear/carry coins in your pockets: Philippines 

5:00: Jump off chairs: Denmark

6:00: Run around the house with empty luggage: Puerto Rico/Colombia

7:00: Make a marzipan pig

8:00: Open red envelopes: China

9:00: Family friendly fireworks--sparklers: Australia

10:00 Open the front door and sprinkle salt-Turkey

11:00: Eat 12 grapes: Spain

Cotton candy "champagne" toast 1:10

Make resolution board: 1:17

Puppy chow: 2:20

Cookie clocks: 3:21

Spa Masks: 4:10

Confetti slime: 4:45

Concession stand: 5:!0

Do New Year's questions: 5:22

Cheese bread: 5:35

Fireworks in a jar: 6:14

Milk Experiment: 6:25

Ping Pong Game: 6:43

Fire ice cream: 7:07

Play Blackjack: 7:36

Balloon cup game: 8:08

Make Pretzels: 8:45

One Word Painting: 9:24

Ivory Soap challenge: 9:45

Elephant toothpaste: 10:08

Photo Shoot: 10:35

Streamer ball: 11:05

Glow ring toss: 11:32

Baked Apple Fritters

 Ingredients:

1 roll of Grands biscuits

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup diced and peeled apples

2 Tbsp butter, Melted

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

4 tsp milk

Cut each biscuit into 8-10 pieces. Add biscuit pieces to a bowl with the sugar, cinnamon, and apples. Stir together. 

Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Separate the dough into 12 apple fritters. Put melted butter on the top of each fritter. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-17 minutes. 

While the fritters are baking, make the glaze. Mix the powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk in a bowl. Pour the glaze on the fritters when they are done baking.