Boston Brown Bread (and Boston Baked Beans)

The city of Boston is an important place in the history of the American Revolution, and we talked a lot about various landmarks and famous people from Boston. One night for dinner we celebrated some of Boston's history by making Boston Baked Beans and Boston Brown Bread.

I didn't think our baked beans turned out that great, but the brown bread was really interesting. It's a kind of bread I've never made before---you bake it in aluminum cans in a water bath! It's a quick bread, so no yeast, and it actually comes together quite fast. The bread turns out sweet (from the molasses) and really moist. It uses rye flour and cornmeal along with the wheat flour, as wheat flour was a precious commodity in colonial times! The cooking method was also ideal for colonial homes, because most people didn't have ovens, and this bread could be steamed in a cooking pot over the fire. We liked it a lot. It's worth trying just to see how cool the round bread loaves look when they're all baked! Here's some history on Boston Brown Bread, if you're interested.

And here's the recipe we used.

After mixing up the batter, you pour it into empty cans (coffee cans were specified in most recipes, but I used three green-bean-sized cans [14.5 oz.] and they worked great). You cover each can with foil and tie it with a string so no water can get in.

Then you just put the cans in a few inches of water, bring it to a boil, and let them steam for a half hour or so. It's really amazing that this process produces such nice loaves of bread! It was really fun to make.

Liberty Tea Party

We learned that the Patriots in the American Colonies showed their disgust with the tax on tea by boycotting tea altogether, and making their own "Liberty Tea"---a generic term for whatever herbal tea they could make with herbs from their own gardens. We love making herbal tea and have several herbs in our garden and in the pantry (raspberry leaf, peppermint, spearmint, fennel, anise, chamomile, etc.), so we made our own Liberty Tea and had a tea party!

We used our finest dishes, of course (the tea set I got from my Nana) and we made a delicious pound cake to go with our tea. As a bonus, the recipe recommended by this site turned out to be the best pound cake I've had (and I've been searching for a good, moist pound cake for a long time)!

We do love tea parties! (And hot chocolate parties.)

This is just a monkey. Drinking tea. With a black eye.

Along with our tea party, we had a discussion on taxation and the "no taxation without representation" slogan. We played a game where one person got to be the "king" and decide what all the taxes (we used mints as money) would be for. 

Seb, as king, started small, but soon was imposing grandiose taxes on everyone wearing socks---all the eleven-year-olds---anyone who licked their lips---all the girls---etc. Soon we had quite a rebellion on our hands. :) Everyone liked it better when we changed the game so that everyone could vote on what things were taxed and where those taxes went. 

Homemade Tricorne Hats

(Seb always tries to look serious when he's being a soldier)

I knew the boys would love playing Revolutionary War soldier (since they did so constantly during our Civil War Unit) and I thought it would be fun for them to have tricorne hats to wear! You can buy them, of course, but I looked for tutorials on how to make them and, after looking through several that looked way too involved and/or required too many materials, found this:
http://homemadeplayforkids.blogspot.com/2011/08/how-to-make-jack-sparrows-tricorn.html. The tutorial calls it a pirate hat, but of course it's perfect for Revolutionary War characters too!

The most difficult part of this process for us was finding bowls (to use as hat forms) that fit the boys' heads. It seemed like everything we had was too big or too wide or too shallow--and we wanted to make all three hats at once, so we couldn't use the same bowl for all of them. Finally we just made do with a couple bowls that were almost-right, and a Tupperware container that was sort of flat on top but roughly the right size. And they all worked fine! I'm sure the hats could be better fitting, but they stay on the boys' heads fine, and they are very sturdy.

You can see the Tupperware container (covered with black felt) in the foreground by Junie, in the blue dress--the top is flat and the rubber band is partly hidden because it's tucked under the container's rim.
It was also tricky getting the felt to stay stretched tightly over the forms as it dried. It really wanted to loosen and pull up off of the bowls, and even with rubber bands holding it down, the rubber bands wanted to slip upwards as well! In fact, the Tupperware container worked best for this part, since we could put the rubber band under the "lip" of the container to keep it from squinching up and off the form.

The basic procedure is that you wet a piece of felt, stretch it over the form and secure it with rubber bands, and let it dry that way. Then you cover it with white glue (or fabric stiffener--we had some on hand and used a bit on one of the hats, but found that plain glue works just as well) and press on a second layer of wet felt. Secure that in the same way and let it dry again.

On the bowl-forms, we stuck thumb tacks into the felt above the rubber band, to keep it from creeping upwards. It sort of worked.

Next you cut out two brim-sized circles (set your hat-form in the middle of a piece of felt and eyeball it) and cut out the middle, the size of the hat-head, in a donut shape. Read the tutorial for more about that, because we did it slightly differently (I thought it would be easier for the boys to sew the bias tape on BEFORE the brim was attached to the hat). For the way we did it, read on.

We only cut out one circle for the brim, and then we pinned contrasting-colored bias tape around the circumference. In the tutorial she used ribbon, but the bias tape lays flatter so I think it works a little better.

Sew the bias tape on. Then measure the size of your hat-form (what's that part called? the hat-head?) and cut out a circle in the middle of your brim piece---so it's now a donut shape. Slide the donut over the stiff hat form (now it looks like a real hat with a brim) and then stitch the pieces together by hand.

Finally, fold up three sides of the brim to make the hat three-cornered. We just tacked each corner up with one hand-stitch so it would stay in place. You can also wet it the felt again and crease it and let it dry, to help it hold the shape.

These tricorne hats were really simple and inexpensive, and I think they turned out SO cute! The boys love wearing them, and they look like such good little Revolutionary War soldiers! They wore their hats every day, all unit long.

Homemade Mob Caps

I thought about making tricornes for everyone, but then I found a great tutorial for making mob caps, so I made these for the little girls instead. They were too young to really be of much help (although they did help me trace circles on the fabric before cutting it out), so I just sewed the caps up myself, but an older child could certainly sew the casing and thread in the elastic, which is basically all there is to it. I think they turned out so cute! They gather up quite a bit so don't be afraid that the circles look big when you start. The tutorial recommends 18-20 inches in diameter, and I did 18" for Daisy's cap (she is 4 years old), but I made the one for Junie (age 3) smaller in diameter--more like 16.5". It fits her okay, but it would have been fine at the bigger size, and left more space to grow. It's a bit shallow for her head as it is.

Again, here's the tutorial: http://pattisoriginals-pattisplace.blogspot.com/2010/12/tutorial-mop-cap.html

I didn't make a cap for baby Goldie (age 1) but she looked quite cute wearing Daisy's!

Rebus letters

We learned that a popular activity in Colonial times was making and solving Rebus puzzles, which are messages that replace some words or letters with pictures or symbols. I remember reading these in The Friend magazine when I was young and liking them. We looked at these rebus letters from actual colonial times, and then tried making our own. Fun!

Indian Pudding

One day we made this Colonial dish, Indian Pudding, which is a cornmeal-and-milk pudding, sweetened with molasses, that reminded us a bit of pumpkin pie or some other custard pie. It's related to "hasty pudding," which I'm sure you know from the song "Yankee Doodle"! We thought it was interesting and good, especially when warm, and it probably would have been even better topped with whipped cream. It's really simple to make, too.

Here is one recipe for Indian Pudding.


Here is an article that discusses the history of this pudding.

Revolutionary War Unit Schedule and Lesson Plan

Hello! It has been a lovely summer and I'm finally ready to post about our Revolutionary War Unit! We started this unit at the end of June and finished at nearly the end of August--it would have been over a couple weeks sooner but with the usual scout and choir camps, 4-H club meetings (the children do summer 4-H Club with their cousins and grandma), and holidays, it stretched out a bit longer. As is my custom, I'll be back-dating this unit to align more with when we were actually doing things.

We loved learning about the Revolutionary War! There was so much to learn and discuss. We were all sad to see it come to an end.

A few links to general information:

Some colonial-era recipes http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodcolonial.html

These lesson plans are wonderful--there are 6 of them dealing with the Revolutionary War. We used some of her ideas, but it was helpful to read through her lessons even when I didn't use them specifically. Here is the first one, and there are links to the other 6 at the bottom of the linked page. http://iijuan12.squidoo.com/king-george-iii-patrick-henry-and-samuel-adams-lesson-plan

Here is my Pinterest board for this Revolutionary War Unit

Chocolate Unit Celebration

Even though our Chocolate Unit really ended a few weeks earlier, when we got back from our trip to Oregon, the children insisted that we have a final celebration of some sort. I was curious to see what kind of interesting chocolate recipes we could find, so we picked a day and set to work making a meal where every dish included chocolate!

Here was our menu:

• Chocolate bacon appetizers (these were interesting; the bacon had a rub of cocoa powder, brown sugar, and chili powder on it and then got baked in the oven. The sugars kind of caramelized and gave an almost barbeque-sauce-y taste? We liked it.)
• Savory cocoa dinner rolls (they had red onion and goat cheese in them, and then we put mustard and ham on them like sandwiches. They were really good—not at all what you’d expect. The cocoa powder didn’t really give them a chocolate taste, but more of a dark taste—like pumpernickel or rye or something. They would be really good with a dinner of cooked ham, I bet. But they weren’t as good for leftovers.)
• Chocolate Molé Soup. (Inspired by Chili Ancho Sopa de Chocolate, but I changed the recipe so much I didn't feel I could in conscience call it the same dish.) This was quite good. Almost like tortilla soup, and we served it with avocado and sour cream and tortilla strips on top. Yum. My recipe is below.
• Hot chocolate
• Tiiiny little bowls of chocolate mousse
• And our chocolate Sebby cake

The boys decorated with a banner (it's very detailed and you can't see all the elements, but it involves a Cacao Tree Titan growing in the Temperate Rainforest, and someone looking at it in astonishment, and a greenhouse with watering and humidity controls, and Ritter-sport chocolate bars, and banana slugs, and so forth. The usual.) They also placed various chocolate ingredients in little artistic vignettes around the house.

After dinner we watched "Willa Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (the old one, of course).

Savory Cocoa Dinner Rolls

Sebby Cake

Tiny Chocolate Mousse

Molé Soup

And here's how I made that soup:

Chocolate Molé Soup

1 onion

1 red sweet pepper

2 T. olive oil

4 roma tomatoes

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can green chiles

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. cumin

5 pinches ? chili powder—you can make it spicier, of course

6 cups chicken stock (or water and bouillon cubes)

1 1/4 c. semisweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

Salt and pepper to taste

Optional, for garnish: Sour cream, sliced avocado, cilantro, lime, cotija cheese, fried tortilla strips or crumbled tortilla chips

Directions:

Cut the onion and pepper up and cook them in a pot in the olive oil until they are getting black.

Add the 4 Roma tomatoes, cut up in pieces, and 1 can diced tomatoes.

Sauté just a bit more, then add the chicken broth and scrape the bottom of the pot to loosen all the blackened bits (adds such great flavor, yum!). Then add the green chiles, cinnamon, sugar, cumin, and chile powder. Let it simmer for awhile (20 min?)

Blend it with the immersion blender, or in batches in the regular blender, until it’s smooth. Return to pot and turn heat on low.

Add chocolate and stir till melted; add salt and pepper and more chile powder to taste.

Serve with sliced avocados, cilantro, lime, cotija cheese, sour cream, and tortilla strips.

Chocolate-Covered Caramels

Emboldened by our truffle success, we decided to make chocolate-covered caramels for Sam for Father's Day. At the crucial moment (as the caramel was already bubbling away merrily) I couldn't find my candy thermometer (!) so I had to make the caramels just by eyeing the color and using the "firm ball stage" ice-water method (!!) and they turned out perfectly anyway (!!!). I was very impressed with myself. I love caramels but I must say, chocolate-covered caramels are even better.

Here is my good, faithful, tried-and-true caramel recipe. It never fails me (although I have sometimes failed it).

Caramels

2 c. light karo syrup
2 c. sugar
½ t. salt

Stir well with wooden spoon and place on medium heat. Bring to a full rolling boil and add alternately but do not stop the boiling:

½ pt. (1 c.) whipping cream (unwhipped)
1 cube butter (cut in 5ths and dropped in separately)
½ c. + 1/3 c. evaporated milk

Add the above three things a little at a time. Put in a thermometer and cook to 233 degrees---this may take about half an hour. The caramel should be darkening but not too dark. You can put a small ball of caramel into ice water and then taste it to see if the chewiness is right. When caramels are done, remove pan from heat and add 1 t. vanilla. Pour into buttered 9x13 pan. Cool several hours or overnight, until caramel is set. 

For caramels, cut into squares and wrap individually in waxed paper.

For chocolate-covered caramels, dip squares into melted chocolate (make sure chocolate stays in temper while melting; that is, keep it under 88 degrees for milk chocolate or 90 degrees for dark chocolate) and place on parchment paper. Sprinkle with a few grains of sea salt, if desired.

The older boys helped do the dipping. They are getting really good at it!

We put a couple layers of these, sprinkled with a little sea salt, between waxed paper in a box for Sam and covered them with a sheet of tissue paper. They were every bit as good as any you'd buy at a fine chocolatier---if we do say so ourselves. :)

Truffles

Since we've learned about tempering, we've been wanting to make various things and dip them in chocolate! We tried making these truffles a little while ago. The centers were made with milk chocolate, and we dipped them in semisweet chocolate. We were quite proud of how pretty they looked!

We followed the recipe for the centers here, and it was really good, but I think I like my old recipe a little bit better! The one we made this time was just slightly too sweet, or something. It's been a couple years since I've made the old ones, though, so I'll have to make them again soon to make sure I remember. :) Here is my usual recipe for truffle centers:

Truffles

1 c. heavy cream

2 T. butter

2 tsp. light corn syrup

1 pound finely chopped semisweet chocolate, plus 12 oz for dipping

Bring cream, butter, and corn syrup to a boil over medium heat. Turn off heat. Add 1 pound chocolate; gently swirl pan to cover chocolate with cream, but do not stir. Let stand 5 minutes.

Slowly whisk until combined. Refrigerate, stirring every 16 minutes.

After 45 minutes, mixture will thicken quickly, so stir every 3-5 min until thick enough to scoop, 10-20 min more. Form into one-inch balls and place on parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Chill centers until firm, but not hard (about 15 min). 

Dip into melted, tempered milk chocolate, and if desired, roll in cocoa powder to finish.

This is a (very bad) picture of a time when we made the old kind of truffles (from 2008!)---you can see that I didn't know what I was doing with the dipping at all, and the chocolate wasn't tempered---though that cocoa powder covers a multitude of sins! :)---but the taste was very good.

Back in the present day . . . the boys roll truffle centers

We dip with great seriousness

Truffles drying!

Bonneville Dam, Oregon

To break up the drive a bit on our way home, we stopped at Bonneville Dam. We do love a good dam in this family, and we seek them out whenever possible. We feel we are getting quite a good series of dams under our belts! :) This dam is quite interesting because of the changes made in it over the years. We went on a tour of the powerhouse and enjoyed it immensely!

Huge generators (turbines are below, with the orange stripe)

Junie by one of the stator coils

Our tour guide told us that a huge chunk fell off of this mountain and dammed the Columbia River in Prehistoric times. Much of that landslide later eroded away, but that's what gave the river its distinctive shape and two-channel flow pattern.

We loved watching fish jump up the fish ladders

And Daisy also loved this huge turbine, evidently.

Fish ladder from below

Lampreys! If there's one piece of information I know in this world, it's what a lamprey has: a round sucking mouth with rasping teeth. I learned it in 10th-grade biology and I have repeated it frequently ever since (ask anyone). So you can imagine my pleasure and delight at seeing one in the flesh. Round sucking mouth! Rasping teeth! It's all there.

Seb poses precariously on a hill