Puffed Dutch

Well, it's another Sat. and I haven't yet written about all that occurred last weekend! In honor of Patrick's birthday the Buller clan gathered in Park City to celebrate. We had a wonderful meal: baked potato bar, with eclair dessert and apple cake. We played a rousing game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey...and passed baby Adam around. After the aunts and uncles left, the cousins had a "gathering". The boys watched the games until early morning, and Carmen and I went shopping! As I already had all of my Christmas shopping completed, we made a good start on Carmen's!



















This week I've registered for my A/P massage course, only to be called the next day and told that the class I had registered in is full, and that I'm bumped. The lady did say that there will be a "pay drop" day, and those that haven't paid for the course will be dropped, which would give me a chance to be in the class since I've paid in full already. Anyway, I hope that a few people drop, and that will give me a chance to get in. Otherwise, it will be yet another semester that will have been wasted. I'm not sure Carolann will agree to tutor me if I'm not enrolled in the A and P course. We'll see what all happens.

Thursday I spent at an inservice called LETRS...it is a set of 12 modules (1 taught per day) that teaches the background behind why we teach what we do when we are teaching a child to read, what parts of the brain are being used, and when a child is developmentally ready for each area. This was the second in the series and we focused on phonemic awareness. It is alot of good and interesting information. With the kids that I'm working with, this should help me determine which areas exactly they are having problems with, and then I'll know what to focus on with them.

Friday, Denise and her girls came over for supper...I made some pork chops for Denise and myself, and the girls had chicken with buttered potatoes, creamy butternut squash, salad, green beans and some of Julie's cookies for dessert. Denise's husband's birthday is today, and so she's been hiding the gift at my house, a brand new grill--it is enormous with huge grill space, and on both sides are platforms with burners to keep things warm, or to have the baked beans going while you are grilling. Denise spent her time putting a big bow on the grill while I finished up supper. After supper the girls danced to Christmas music, and Jayden did some yoga, while intermittently chasing "Jay-Jay" (Manje, the cat). The two oldest girls spent the night, so we spent time doing a ballet video that I had given them for Christmas last year, we also watched "Prince Caspian" together (courtesy of Heidi and Tim), and then read "Hey, Little Ant" before heading to bed. This morning I made Dutch Puff for breakfast and we had hot "cho-co" with marshmallows. Yummy... The girls are pretty picky eaters, so we spent a lot of time discussing how Dutch Puff is really just a baked pancake that puffs up really big. They really liked it, especially with bananas and syrup on it. This morning we watched "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" before Denise picked them up to go downtown to see Santa.















Today, I think I'm going to try to get some of the household chores done, that I usually successfully avoid...I have the time to do them though, so they should probably get done. I'm not sure of what my plans are for this evening...I might drop in on the party that Denise is throwing for her husband, or maybe just spend a quiet evening at home reading... Who knows...

I'll include a recipe for Dutch Puff in case you want to try it yourself!



Dutch Puff

What you need:

1 cup flour

1 cup milk

4 eggs

1/3 cup margarine

What you do:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place margarine in large shallow pan and put it in the oven until it is hot and bubbly. Put flour, milk, and eggs in a blender and mix well, or you may beat it with a mixer. Remove margarine pan from the oven VERY carefully! Pour batter into pan of hot melted margarine. Bake at 425 degrees F for 20-25 minutes until pancake is high and puffed. Serve immediately!