Making and Eating Fires

Mary and Laura often helped their Mother cook the meals and back then everything was cooked over a fire so we talked about how to properly build one safely. And then we also painted one to put in our lapbooks.

Supplies Needed to make an edible fire!
Napkin (Safety Circle)
Small Cup with water (Water Bucket)
Graham Cracker (the dirt to build it on)
Raisins (Fire Ring)
Shredded Coconut (Tinder)
Pretzel Sticks (Kindling)
Pretzel Logs (Fuel Logs)
Gum Drops (Fire)

Here is one of the girls finished fires. I think they turned out great!

Here they are putting the ring of rocks around the fire pit to keep the fire contained and adding the kindling to get it started.

Trying to build a teepee with small sticks so the fire has air and wont go out.

Make sure you always have a water bucket close by in case of an emergency!

Almost done just needs some big logs to keep it burning.

They had a lot of fun building them but even more fun eating them when they were finished.

Next we marble painted some flames on our logs to put in our lapbooks.

Supplies needed:

Red and Yellow paint to make orange flames

A pie tin

And some marbles

Put your paper down first drizzle in your paint and then drop the marbles in.

And roll it around

and around,

and around until it looks like this. Then take it out and let it dry and your done.

Another fun day with four cute girls.

Homemade Butter

We had a lot of fun making yummy homemade butter this week!

Supplies needed:

• heavy cream
• empty baby food jar
• pinch of salt
• marble

Fill the container up about half way, you want to make sure and leave enough space for it to shake around.

Add just a pinch of salt.

Drop your marble in and screw the lid on tight!

And then start shaking!! It took about ten minutes and gave the girls and good workout:)

The butter will start to clump together and form a ball, and that's how you know it's done. Then you pour off the buttermilk and save to make something yummy later.

Give it a taste to see how fresh and creamy it is.

We spread it on our Johnny cakes and rolls.

Johnny Cakes

We enjoyed making Johnny Cakes this week in book club. Laura and Mary used to help their mother cook these so the men would have something to eat when they came in from the fields. Laura never understood why they were called Johnny Cakes when it was more bread than cake. Ma thought maybe it was because they called the Southern soldiers Johnny Rebs and they ate so much of it. But she wasn't sure.
Recipe for Johnny Cakes
1 cup corn meal
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tbsp. salt
½ cup water
1 lb. of bacon (we used half)
Instructions:
In a bowl, mix the corn meal with the salt and sugar.
Add water and mix until you get a nice paste. Form the paste into patties and set aside.
Fry bacon. Remove bacon and fry the cakes in the bacon grease until golden brown.

Add the sugar, salt, corn meal,

and water

And then stir it all up.

Fry the bacon and set aside and place the Johnny cakes in the hot bacon grease.

We topped with fresh homemade butter. They tasted ok but not great. Some of the girls liked them better then others. There are other recipes that call for more ingredients and probably taste better but I really wanted to make them authentic, so the girls could see what food tasted like back then.

Deer Jerky

Laura and Mary used to help Pa dry jerky in the big tree stump with hickory chips so they could have the meat all winter. My husband hunts and so we used deer meat to make our own jerky!! The girls had fun making it and its a yummy healthy snack.

Supplies needed

• Deer, elk or beef
• seasonings (found at sporting good stores)
• a dryer, or over
• a jerky gun or you could use your hands

Each of the girls got to take a turn squirting out the meet.

I love this picture were A is plugging her nose!

It takes about 4 hours to dry so I had some already for them to taste.

They all LOVED it and ate it up.

Molassas-on-Snow-Candy

Laura and Mary used to help their mother make molasses candy for Christmas and since we just got a new layer of fresh snow this week we thought it would be fun to make ourselves some to.

Supplies needed

• 1 cup molasses
• 1 cup brown sugar
• several pans of snow
• pot and thermometer

First we had to go and and scoop up our snow.

Then measure out the molasses and sugar.

Stir it all up and put on the stove. Cook until it comes to the hard crack stage.

Then carefully drizzle the hot syrup mixer onto the snow and it hardens immediately.

Once it is cool take it out and set on wax paper.

Then enjoy!

The left over snow was yummy to!

We sure had fun!