A Yummy Thank You, Edna Lewis!

Edna Lewis was one of the very first African-American female chefs and one of the very, very first American chefs to embrace the use of locally-grown, locally-sourced, fresh, seasonal ingredients in her recipes and restaurants and the celebration of seasonal, regional food as a distinct American cuisine. The Bogart Library has two great books about and by Edna Lewis: Bring Me Some Apples and I’ll Make You a Pie by Robbin Gurley ( a picture book biography) and the wonderful new edition of the cookbook In Pursuit of Flavor by Edna Lewis. The recipes below are from In Pursuit of Flavor. Enjoy! Enjoy! I hope you place these on hold or drop by soon to check these great titles out. Don’t forget to also take a look at Pies From Nowhere: How Georgia Gilmore Sustained the Montgomery Bus Boycott by Dee Romito. This great book also has yummy recipes.

Two Recipes from In Pursuit of Flavor

Tyler Pie

Ms. Edna describes this as an everyday Southern pie, made using everyday ingredients during the off-season when fruits or berries weren’t available and the larder was empty of home-preserved ingredients. It’s a Virginia version of the common Chess Pie. Yummy!

Ingredients:

8 inch pie pastry, preferably Lard Pastry made from Edna Lewis’s recipe, but purchased nine inch deep dish or regular refrigerated or defrosted frozen pastry okay (That’s Ms. Donna’s note!)

2 eggs, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 (one stick) unsalted butter, “melted but not quite liquid”, 1 teaspoon lemon extract, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cup milk (at room temperature), 1/2 cup grated coconut (freshly grated preferred).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a pie pan with the pastry. Set aside. Beat the eggs, then add the sugar mixed with the flour and salt. Mix well and add the butter and the extracts. Stir thoroughly and pour in the milk. Mix well and then add the grated coconut. Pour the mixture into the pastry lined pan, seeing to it that the coconut is evenly spread throughout the custard. Bake in the preheated oven at 350 30-35 minutes until the pie is set and golden brown. (Recipe from In Pursuit of Flavor. Edna Lewis. 2019 edition. Foreword by Mashama Bailey. Alfred A. Knopf. New York. 2019)

Ms. Donna’s Notes: “This pie is GOOD! I added a little lemon & orange rind to the mixture to brighten the pie just a tad. I made the recipe twice, once with the coconut, using whole buttermilk and one without, using whole “sweet” milk. Both were delicious, but the one without coconut took a little longer to cook. Pay close attention to how the pie smells as it cooks. If you’re not sure about how hot your oven really gets, the sense of smell is a great indicator of when something is approaching “done.” The pie is “set” when it only jiggles slightly in the middle. It will continue to thicken slightly as it cools.”

Small Cakes

Ms. Edna describes this recipe as a “batter that is very, very short, which means they have lots of shortening and no leavener.” You will notice that the recipe calls for NO milk or other liquid and NO leavening such as baking powder or baking soda. These cakes taste just like the richest, most delectable shortbread cookies. The ingredients would have been easily available to most cooks in the past. I seldom cook or bake with butter, but when I do, I use a domestic, organic butter that tastes like the butter my mother purchased from neighbors when I was a child. The brand is Challenge Butter. I think Ms. Edna would agree that it’s the close in flavor to the locally sourced butter she was able to obtain for her restaurants. Ms. Kay suggests you use Kerrygold Irish butter if you wish to truly experience the flavor of what farm butter really should taste like!

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 rounded teaspoon ginger. Optional: Confectioners’ sugar (to sprinkle over the cakes while they are cooling).

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Put all the ingredients, except the confectioners’ sugar, into a mixing bowl. Blend until the mixture becomes ivory colored but do not overblend. This is a light batter and it is raised just by the power of the mixing. Take care not to overmix-as the batter warms up during the mixing, it softens and can make the dough too soft. If you don’t have a mixer, beat by hand until the dough becomes light in texture. After the dough is well mixed, butter 24 small muffin tins and spoon the dough into them, filling each three- fourths full. Put the tins in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the cakes are light brown on top. Remove the cakes from the oven and let rest awhile, then turn them onto a wire rack. When cold, dust with confectioners’ sugar if you like, or you may serve them as they are. Store in a closed tin. (Recipe from In Pursuit of Flavor. Edna Lewis. 2019 edition. Foreword by Mashama Bailey. Alfred A. Knopf. New York. 2019)

Ms. Donna’s Notes: These are beyond delicious. I halved the recipe, and still had plenty of dough left over. I used a cast-iron six cup muffin skillet, so the cakes were slightly larger than the original recipe called for. The cast-iron pan was well-seasoned, so nothing stuck to the pan, but I had to wait for a long time for the cast iron to cool down enough to remove the cakes. Handle these gently. They are beautiful, but fragile. Next time I make these, I’ll make sure the butter is chilled, but almost room temperature before mixing. My butter was very cold and I had to mix a long time to incorporate the flour and butter together. I scooped the dough into the cups, as instructed, but used the back of a teaspoon to press the dough down and form it. Unbelievably good alone with a glass of cold buttermilk, milk or tea! I’m sure they’re delicious with fruit & whipped cream, too.

Famous Friends: Marian, Leontyne & Jessye!

Brava! Brava! We like OPERA! We hope you enjoyed learning about three of Ms. Donna’s favorite opera divas. Check below for fun video clips and info about Opera & Opera Singers:

What is Opera?

Opera is a very special form of musical theater. In opera, the entire story is sung. Operas are written to be sung in many languages, but German, French and Italian are the most common. Often, operas are based on fairytales or classic stories. Most operas are full of drama and tragedy or comedy. Operas are often filled with beautiful costumes and sets. The set of Aida, an opera written by the Italian Giuseppe Verdi, is set in ancient Egypt has very large statues and columns. The Triumphant March from Aida is a big parade with dancers, singers, soldiers on horseback, camels and elephants. Sometimes the soldiers ride REAL horses onto the stage!

Why are Opera Singers Special?

Do you or anyone in your family play a musical instrument? If you do, you know that you have to practice, practice, practice to become good. Opera singers sometimes play piano or other musical instruments, but their very special instrument is one you can’t see. An opera singer’s true instrument is his or her voice. Opera singers are trained to sing without a microphone, filling the theater with beauty. They are also trained to act and dance. Opera music can be as simple as a children’s opera or as complex as this aria from Madame Butterfly.

Who Sings What?

All written songs are divided into parts. The highest female part is the soprano part. The highest male part is the tenor part. (More about Male Opera Singers later!) Most female opera singers are sopranos. Sopranos usually sing the part of the heroine. If a soprano voice was a musical instrument, it would be a violin. Leontyne Price is one of the most famous sopranos who has ever lived. She was the first African-American singer to perform as a Prima Donna at the Metropolitan Opera. A Prima Donna is the starring soprano role. Ms. Price’s standing ovation lasted 42 minutes! That means that the audience loved her performance so much, they refused to go home, but kept clapping and calling “BRAVA!” for almost an hour.

A mezzo-soprano (mezzo means middle in Italian) sings the middle parts in opera. That means they sing higher than a contralto and lower than a soprano. Mezzo-sopranos play the part of moms, villainesses and young boys in operas like Hansel and Gretel. If a mezzo voice was an instrument, it would be a clarinet. Jessye Norman was one of the most famous mezzo-sopranos in the world. Two of her most favorite operatic roles to sing was Delilah, the wicked woman who tricked Samson and Dido the Queen. Jessye Norman also brought the African-American songs she grew up singing to the world. Everyone loved to hear her sing Deep River.

A contralto is the lowest female voice. True contraltos are very rare, especially in opera. Contraltos sing the parts of older women, such as grandmothers, witches or fortune tellers. Marian Anderson was the first African-American singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang the part of a fortune teller. By that time, she had paved the way for many, many more African-American opera singers, such as Leontyne Price, Shirley Verrett, Jessye Norman, Kathleen Battle, Denyce Graves and Angel Joy Blue. If a contralto voice was an instrument, it would be the oboe.

Male Opera Singers

Tenors sing the highest male parts in an opera. They usually play the parts of the young hero. If a tenor voice was a musical instrument, it would be a trumpet. There are many famous tenors, but George Shirley was one of the first and most famous African-American tenors. He began as a music and voice teacher, who went on to sing many operatic roles around the world. He inspired many other singers, such as Russell Thomas and Lawrence Brownlee. Last year, Lawrence Brownlee’s little girl wrote that her daddy’s job was to “sing high notes” in an opera house! She’s right!

Baritones sing the middle and lower parts of an opera. Baritones are usually the villains, in classic opera or the funny role in a comic opera (opera buffa). If a baritone voice was an instrument, it would be a french horn. Sometimes a baritone can also sing bass, the lowest notes. Paul Robeson was one of the most famous bass-baritones in the world, and one of the most important African-American artists. He sang around the world, in more than 20 languages. Paul Robeson inspired other baritones, such as William Warfield. Mr. Robeson held a special concert to raise money to send Leontyne Price to Julliard, where she truly learned to become an opera singer.

Special Opera Word: DIVA! Diva means “Goddess” in Italian, so an operatic diva is a female singer whose talent is legend. Diva Absoluta is the biggest compliment you can give an opera singer. Leontyne Price, Jessye Norman and Marian Anderson were all Diva Absolutas when they were performing.

Some Fun Things to Watch and Listen To!

Enjoy learning and listening more with some of Ms. Donna’s favorite “Opera” Clips:

What’s An Opera? Learn about opera with Classics for Kids.

What’s It Like to Be An Opera Singer? Mezzo-Soprano Denyce Graves talks about her job!

Make your Own Opera House and Perform Your Own Opera (with the Royal Opera House)

Meet Opera Soprano Angel Blue (Kids Meet series)

Watch a silly opera performed by the Nashville Opera Company!

Meet the Opera Singer in Your Neighborhood with Sesame Street Friends

Learn about friendship, kindness and listening to others when Mr. Rogers and his friend make an opera!

Fun Things to Do With Opera

Pretend that you are an opera singer. Ask your grown-ups and family members to have fun singing the things you usually say. Sing “Please pass the potatoes!” or “It’s time for a story.” Make the words long by singing them very slowly. Sing parts of your words loudly or very, very softly. Make up your own solo/aria or sing one of your favorite songs.

Write or draw your own opera story. What will the set look like? How will the singers be dressed? Act out the opera with your stuffed animals or other toys. (Ms. Donna thinks it would be fun to make up a Dinosaur Opera with her grandson. T-Rex will be the baritone villain. Hadrosaur and Triceratops will be the Soprano and Tenor heroine and hero! )

And, don’t forget to check out and read these books:

When Marian Sang by Pam Ryan Munoz

Leontyne Price: The Voice of A Century by Carol Boston Weatherford

Aida by Leontyne Price

Brava! Brava! We like OPERA @ the Bogart Library. We hope you will, too!

Busy Birdies Story Time

Hello, Parents! It’s time for the Great Backyard Bird Count. Watching and learning about our feathered friends is one of the many, many joys of my life. It brings me almost as much joy as sharing songs, fingerplays and literacy fun with your little ones! I hope you’ll try some of these activities with your little chickadees. Be sure to learn about the Great Backyard Bird Count and have fun counting busy, busy birdies with your little ones.

Here are a few of the activities and fingerplays I shared in Busy Birdies Story Time:

Birdies on My Feeder

I looked at the feeder in my tree! (Place fingers and thumbs together and hold both hands to eyes, as though looking through binoculars.)

What, oh, what, oh what did I see? ( Hold out both hands. Shrug and raise eyebrows).

A loud blue jay and a chicka-chickadee! (Hold up and wiggle thumbs).

Fly away, chickadee! Fly away, Jay! (Hide thumbs behind back).

Come back, chickadee! Come back, Jay! (Bring thumbs to front of body.)

I looked at the feeder on my tree! There were two birds, but now there are three! (Hold up one finger on right hand, along with your thumbs.)

A cardinal has joined the jay and chickadee! Three little birdies on my feeder in the tree!

But look, there’s one birdy more! (Hold up additional finger on right hand.)

It’s a robin and that makes four! Four little birdies on my feeder in the tree! Four little birdies do we see! (Raise and wiggle pinky finger of left hand.)

But along comes a squirrel that wants to play! All the little birdies fly away! (Curl left thumb and thumb and fingers on the right hand into palms.)

Extend this Fingerplay: Fingerplays build manual dexterity, medial and cross-body movement, which engages both brain hemispheres. To add STEM to this fingerplay, cut out pictures of birds. Cut toilet paper tubes into strips. Tape the pictures of the birds to the strips of cardboard. Size and cut the strips to fit your fingers. Voila! Finger puppets! Build logic and visual acuity in your little one by adding this verse after the addition of each bird: “Let’s close our eyes, as we say ‘Which little birdie flew away?'” As you say this verse, remove and hide (or cover) a finger puppet. Touch and name each bird to help your child build vocabulary and figure out which bird is missing.

Busy Birdies Hide and Seek

Materials: Photos or Prints of Common Birds (Old calendar pages are fabulous.), painters or clear tape, construction or other heavy paper. (Invest in a roll or two of blue painters’ tape. You’ll be glad you did!)

Activity: For toddlers & preschoolers: Tape pictures of the birds on wall within easy reach. For crawling infants, place pictures on a floor or rug. If possible, tape pictures to a piece of cardboard or poster board. Cover each picture with a piece of paper. Use the same color and type of paper to cover each picture. Tape the cover sheet to the picture, making a hinge, so you can lift the paper to see the picture underneath.

How to Play: Before beginning game, show and verbally identify each bird for your child. To play: Drop the cover sheet back over each picture and sing: “Where, oh, where, oh where is (Cardinal)?” (repeat three times to tune of Paw-Paw Patch) Cardinal is playing Hide & Seek!” Encourage your child to guess and point to the location where they think the (Cardinal) is hidden.

How This Game Helps Your Child: Using recycled materials helps your child think creatively. Identifying the pictures before the child plays the game helps build vocabulary and logical thinking. Covering each picture with the same material builds memory skills. Pointing to an object as it’s named creates connections between vocabulary and body. We remember better when we learn and move simultaneously. Posting the pictures on the wall helps your toddler and preschooler build gross motor skills, as they stand and reach to uncover each picture.

Song: Touch Your Nose (Tune: Do Your Ears Hang Low?)

Encourage toddlers and preschoolers to sing this song with you. Do the motions for infants!

Touch your nose, nose, nose! (Alternate touching nose with index finger of right and left hands.)

Then, touch your toes! (Reach and touch toes.)

Then, touch your little dimpled elbows! (Cross body by touching and grasping elbow of right arm with left hand and vice versa)

Touch your head, head, head! (Tap head with both hands)

Now, your ears, instead! (Reach and touch ears OR cross body, touching right hand to left ear and vice versa.)

Blink and stretch like you’re ready for bed! (Reach arms above head. Blink eyes.)

Repeat verses, substituting other body parts for ears.

How This Song Helps Your Child: Teaching the names of body parts builds body awareness and vocabulary. Crossing the midline of the body engages both hemispheres of the brain. Many doctors believe activities that cross the midline helps knowledge absorption and retention, builds focus and spatial awareness.

Building Books

Build your child’s library by making your own wordless picture books! Collect and save calendar pages. These are often high-quality, clear photos of animals, birds and scenery. Most are free! All you’ll need are several pictures on the same theme, (birds!) a hole punch, book rings or chenille stems, two pieces of cardboard or heavy paper and markers or crayons. Cereal boxes are sturdy and just the right size as covers for most homemade books. Write the title and author on the “cover” of your book. Add art details, if you’d like. Arrange the pictures in the order you’d like them to appear. Punch one to three holes on the left side of the front and back covers and in each of the pictures. Attach the pages and covers together, using the book rings or chenille stems. Preschoolers can complete most of the steps to make their own books. Toddlers should be able to help organize the pages and clip the rings together with help. Voila! A new wordless picture book. Optional: Some teachers and parents seal the pictures in a zippered clear food storage bag before punching the holes in each “page.” This increases the longevity of the book, but I prefer not to do this. Little ones like to chew on paper!

How This Activity Helps Your Child: Reusing materials in new and different ways helps build creativity and reasoning skills. Wordless picture books encourage you and your child to make up stories, which increases receptive and expressive vocabulary and language skills. Flipping the book builds print awareness. No, there isn’t print on the pages, but the movement of flipping the pages from right to left helps build visual tracking skills. Your child subconsciously learns to expect pictures and text to appear left to right. Amazing!

Song: Little Bird (Tune: Little Birdie)

Little Bird, Little Bird, fly through my window (x 3)

And buy molasses candy!

Fly through my window, my sugar lump! Fly through my window, my sugar lump

And buy molasses candy!

Cardinal, Cardinal, fly through my window (x 3)

And sing your song for me!

(Play cardinal song from online source OR sing “Cheer, cheery-cheery, up, up, up! Cheer, cheery, cheery, up, up, up!) Sing your song for me!

Chickadee, Chickadee, fly through my window (x 3)

And sing your song for me!

(Play Carolina Chickadee song from online source OR sing “Chickadee, dee, dee, DEE dee,dee! Chickadee, dee, dee, DEE dee dee! Sing your song for me!

Blue Jay, Blue Jay, fly through my window! (x3)

And sing your song for me! (Play Blue Jay song from online source OR sing “Blue jay, jay, jay, JAY jay, jay! (x2) Sing your song for me!

Little birds, little birds flew through my window (x3)

And now our song is over!

Why Listening to & Identifying Sounds and Bird Song Helps Your Child:

Language and literacy are both built on listening skills and sound recognition. Teaching your child to quietly listen and try to identify specific sounds builds phonological awareness, one of the most important skills necessary for both speaking and reading.

Happy International Dot Day!

International Dot Day is the idea of Teacher Terry Shay, who introduced his art class to The Dot on September 15th, 2009. The Dot, by Author/Illustrator Peter H. Reynolds, is the story of a girl who just can’t believe she is an artist! The Dot, and its companion books, Ish and Sky Color celebrate the creativity in all of us. International Dot Day is a day to make sure we have fun with art of any kind and not worry that “we’re getting it right.”

The Books!

The Dot, Ish and Sky Color celebrate having fun with art of any kind. All three of these books are by Peter H. Reynolds and available through gapines.org or your local library. Special thanks go to Cristina Lalli and Page Street Publishing for allowing Ms. Donna to share Nola’s Scribbles Save the Day, also available through gapines.org.

The Artistes!

Did you notice in the Facebook video that Ms. Donna had one long, and fairly weird, name? She combined the first names of a few of her favorite artists into one name. Did you recognize all of them? Here is a little information on the artists she listed, along with some suggestions for making your own art inspired by a few.

Georgia O’Keefe loved painting the shapes found in nature . Georgia’s Bones by Jen Bryant tells her story. Check it out from your local library!

Claude Monet began his art career as a caricaturist. He began to paint outside ( plein air) with friends in his late teens and early twenties. Monet is one of the founders of Impressionism, one of the world’s most famous forms of art. Although the word “impression-ist” was originally meant as an insult, today it means BEAUTIFUL ART. Can you be an impressionist? Sure! Take thick paper, similar to the paper in your Dot Art packet, card stock or cardboard outside. Don’t forget your watercolors or washable makers. Draw or paint an impression (an idea) of something you see. If you want your marker picture to look like watercolor, brush it with a clean, wet brush.

Berthe, Mary, Lilla, Cecilia and Childe are also Impressionist painters. In this list of Ms. Donna’s Favorites, all but Childe were women and all but Berthe were American. Visit the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, to see works of art by some of these amazing painters. Enjoy World Make Way and Mary Cassatt: Extraordinary Impressionist Painter from your local library!

Do you like puzzles?

The last three names Ms. Donna used were Jan, pronounced YON, Johannes, and Vincent. You’ve probably guessed that Vincent is Vincent Van Gogh. Have fun reading Vincent Can’t Sleep. Will painting a Starry, Starry Night, with bright yellow and orange paint on dark paper help you sleep? Hmmm. So what do Vincent, Johannes and Jan all have in common? And how are they different? Well, they’re all Dutch! Johannes VERMEER and Vincent VAN GOGH were both Dutch. Jan Van Eyck was Belgian, but at the time he lived his country was controlled by Holland. Vincent painted in the wild style of the Post Impressionists, but Jan and Johannes, who lived much earlier, painted incredibly realistic and tiny paintings with hidden pictures and meanings. Both used a camera obscura, a homemade device that allowed them to see (and paint) detail, detail, detail! Click on the link for instructions on making your own camera obscura.

Where are the Puzzles? In the Paintings!

Check out these two paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. They are very small, but look closely at the paintings. How many hidden pictures can you find in each painting?

The Annunciation by Jan Van Eyck. (HINT: Scroll over the copy of the picture on the right or use your mouse wheel to take a close look. After you’ve finished looking at the art, check out the size of the actual painting. Grab a ruler and measure! Van Eyck hid this much detail in a painting HOW SMALL? )

Woman Holding a Balance by Johannes Vermeer (HINT: Use your mouse wheel again to look closely at this picture. What is the woman measuring? What time of day do you think it is? What kind of cloth is her jacket? What do you think the floor is made of? How big is this painting? Is it larger or smaller than The Annunciation?)

Thank you for joining us online and at this blog for International Dot Day! Remember, every day is a day to celebrate creativity.

Where the Mountain Meets the Heart

Donna O’Kelley Butler, Bogart Library

Thank you for joining us for the Bogart Library’s Big Family Read: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin, published by Little Brown. Have you ever read a book that was so wonderful, you wanted everyone to know about it? For Ms. Kay and me, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon is one of those books. It has adventure, storytelling (I particularly like the stories), fun and food. It is a book written with deep love from Grace Lin’s heart right into ours. We hope it reaches your heart, too!

And now for some Family Fun!

Ms. Kay and I found most of our ideas through Grace Lin’s website. It’s always fun to prepare by using the materials developed and suggested by the author. Here is the link for Grace Lin’s website so that you can have fun, too. Look for Activities. There, you will find links for an Activity Guide and a Dragon Game. The Activity Guide has instructions on writing the Chinese characters for Mountain and Moon, the recipe for Savory Sesame Noodles and a great dragon math activity.

Dragon Puppets!

Dragons are important! In Chinese mythology, Dragons have great power and show up in many, many stories and places. Minli’s dragon is bright red, with beautiful claws, horns and scales. Find a pattern for a puppet similar to ours here. My dragon was made using a printed head and tail and accordion folded strips with all pieces connected with tape. I used craft sticks to help my dragon move during my story, but you can substitute straws, chopsticks or dowels. The dragon on the RedTed art site should be cut out and folded. Have fun with markers, crayons or paint. You can also draw your own dragon head and tail. Color and cut those out. Then, color (or use colored paper) paper. Cut the colored paper into strips and fold them accordion style as I did in our program. Tape the whole thing together. As you make your dragon, discuss: What kind of dragon would you like to ride? How did different characters view Dragon? Was Dragon frightening or friendly, gentle or fierce?

Goldfish & Character Art

Minli’s goldfish is a very important character. If you’ve read the book, do you remember when the younger goldfish asks Dragon if he was once a goldfish? What do you think happened to Minli’s goldfish after it swam away in the Jade River? Ms. Donna had fun making this goldfish. You can follow this link from her Pinterest page to make one at home. We’ll make one as a Grab & Go craft soon, but one can never have too many goldfish or dragons!

Chinese writing is a very beautiful art form. Do you remember the Chinese characters Ms. Donna demonstrated on the red plate? You will find the instructions on how to write these characters in the Activity Guide on Grace Lin’s website. Want to practice making those characters? As she mentioned in the program, Ms. Donna likes to use plastic plates as dry erase boards, but she also used red plates to draw the Chinese characters. Then, she brushed glue over the written characters and decorated them with glitter and salt. To practice, she covered a red plate with salt and traced the characters in the salt with her finger. She followed the Character Guide in the Activity Guide. As your family practices writing the characters, discuss: Yei-Yei shared the secret of happiness with the wicked magistrate by writing one character (word) over and over on a single sheet of paper. What word do you think provides the secret of happiness? Did Minli prove that Yei-Yei was right?

If you would like to learn more about simple Chinese characters, check out our bibliography of titles below!

DESSERT!!!!

Do you remember that the King of the City of Bright Moonlight served Minli delicious cakes? The Goldfish Man’s family made delicious cakes to serve the Old Man of the Moon. Perhaps the cakes in both stories were Moon Cakes. Moon Cakes are a traditional Chinese treat served at the Mid-Autumn Festival of the Moon. Traditional moon cakes are beautiful, delicious, golden pastries filled with savory and sweet fillings. They are also VERY complicated to make. A children’s website, DLTK.com, shared this recipe for making very simple cakes at home. Traditional cakes are decorated with Chinese characters and made in a mold. This recipe is formed by hand. Children can make the entire recipe. Thank you, DLTK.com, for this simple recipe. We’ve adapted it slightly. Ms. Kay, Ms. Donna and Ms. Donna’s grandson say “Delicious, especially with milk or hot tea!”

Simple and Easy Moon Cakes

You will need:

A cookie sheet, parchment paper, wooden spoon, measuring cups, pastry brush and a large bowl

1/4 cup sugar
 • 2 egg yolks (Slightly beat one and set aside for brushing over the moon cakes before they are baked.)
 • 1/2 cup salted butter (Ms. Kay says;” This is ONE STICK butter. Soften it first! Unsalted butter can be used. ”
 • 1 cup all-purpose flour
 • 1 cup strawberry (or your favorite) jam ( Ms. Donna says “Traditionally, red bean paste is used. Red bean paste can be purchased at any Asian grocery or the Asian cooking section of any larger grocery chain. )

Directions:

Soften butter by leaving it in a bowl on your counter for an hour or longer.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

When butter is softened, combine the butter, sugar and one egg yolk together in a bowl. Stir! Stir! Stir!

Sift the flour into the butter paste (because that’s what it should look like!)

Stir! Stir! Stir, until a dough forms. It should pull away from the sides of the bowl slightly.

Gather the dough into a large ball. Wrap the ball in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Remove the moon cake dough from the refrigerator and break the dough into small balls. Roll the balls in the palm of your hand. Press your thumb into the middle of each ball. Fill the indentation with the jam or bean paste (approximately 1/2 teaspoon per moon cake is all you need.)

Place the moon cakes on the parchment paper and brush each with the other egg yolk. (This step is optional!)

Bake for approximately 20 minutes at 375 degrees or until lightly brown around the edges!

Ms. Donna made these with her grandson for a Moonlight Party recently. She rolled hers in Moon Dust, (which might have been powdered sugar), while she told him about the City of Bright Moonlight.

Thank you for joining us! If you enjoyed Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, you will enjoy Starry River of the Sky and When the Sea Turned to Silver (Ms. Donna’s favorite.) All three are written by Grace Lin and are available in audiobook and book form from the Bogart Library and other branches of the Georgia Public Library System and PINES. Ebook and audio versions are available in through RBDigital. eKids and other digital platforms.

If you are interested in learning more about Chinese character writing, check out these board and picture books:

Lee, Sookfong Jen. The Animals of the Chinese New Year, Board Book, Publisher: Orca Books, orcabooks.com, 2019. ISBN:9781459819023

Lo, Rich. Chinese New Year Colors, Picture Book, Publisher: Holiday House, Inc., HolidayHouse.com, 2019. Author Website: greatsketch.com. ISBN: 9780823443710

Lo, Rich. one, two, three DIM SUM:A Mandarin-English Counting Book, Board Book, Publisher:Duo Press, LLC, duopressbooks.com, 2020. ISBN:9781950500017

Wu, Faye-Lynn. Chinese and English Nursery Rhymes, Book/Audio CD, Publisher: Tuttle Publishing, tuttlepublishing.com, 2010. ISBN:9780804840941

Wu, Faye-Lynn. My First Book of Chinese Words. An ABC Rhyming Book of Chinese Language and Culture, Nonfiction Picture Book, Publisher: Tuttle Publishing, tuttlepublishing.com, 2013. ISBN:9780804849418

About Big Family Read @ the Bogart Library

Big Family Read is a program that encourages families to read together. The books chosen are award winning titles, culturally significant or relating to a specific historical event. Extension activities are provided through hands-on art, music, games, recipes and science experiments. For more information, contact us at bogartlib@gmail.com, Facebook.com/bogartlibrary or through our webpage at http://www.athenslibrary.org/bogart. Please READ! Bonus Family Discussion question: Parent, what was your favorite book as a child? We would love to know!

Donna O’Kelley Butler

   

Bubbly Baths and More!

So far, I’m really enjoying planning my story times using the  alphabet .  Last week, my Preschool Pals and Library Adventure Story Times had the same theme: African Animals.  While both groups seemed to have lots of fun with Honey, Honey…Lion by Jan Brett, my older Library Adventure friends enjoyed comparing Honey, Honey…Lion with If You Hear A Honey Guide,  a nonfiction book by April Pulley Sayre. We discussed fiction and nonfiction and finished up with my retelling of The Name of the Tree, using library-made musical instruments.

And although there is irony in planning a Bath and Bubbly Story Time while a tropical storm bathes my house with lots of rain, story time for all three of my groups will feature LOTS of bubbles this week. We’ll have books about baths and bathing at the Preschool Pals and Monday Fun-Day Baby Toddler programs and Bubble Science with the Library Adventures group.  Why feature bubbles? Well, for one thing, they are so much fun for all of us. I love them as much as the kids do. Other reasons include helping children to focus, calm down, and isolate the facial, mouth and lip muscles needed for speech and language.  And you thought it was just ’cause they were pretty!

As always, thanks to sunflowerstorytime for great book suggestions, printables and links to great finger plays. While I will use her adorable Elephants in the Tub flannel board, I’m adding King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub because it’s such fun to read with a group!

Here are the songs, finger plays, craft and science, we’ll do at our Preschool Pals!

Welcome Song * 

Bubbles, Bubbles, 1-2-3 * (Bubbles, bubbles/ 1-2-3! Blow some bubbles along with me!/ Purse your lips just like this!/ Just like you want to blow a kiss!/Now take a deep breath and blow, blow, BLOW!/That’s how bubbles are made, you know! /(Hold hands together, then expand them outward as you say) /Blow, slowly! VERY SLOW!/ My bubbles grew and grew, its true!/Oh, please, bubbles! Never stop!/OH, NO! OH,NO! My bubble POPPED! * Clap hands loudly.

Bath Time! Bath Time! (Tune: Daisy, Daisy) *Bath time, Bath time!/ Mom says it’s bath time!/Water and soap and bath cloth, too!/ (pretend to scrub) Don’t you think I should wash my SHOE?/ (hold up one foot and point to shoe) It’s bath time, bath time! /Time to get clean and neat!/ Wash my toes and wash my nose and also my DIRTY FEET!/ Peee- YU!/ (Hold nose) Bath time, Bath Time!/Dad says “It’s bath time!”/ Bubbles and soap will help you wash!/ Nope, you can’t bathe with a SQUASH!/ (Place hands on both sides of face. Mime horror!)  It’s bath time, bath time!/ Time to get neat and clean!/Wash your ears and hair and also your knees! Why, oh why, ARE THEY GREEN?/ GREEN?/ (Mime surprise) *Bath time, Bath time!/ Mom & Dad say “BATH TIME!”/Use your sponge to rub-a-dub-dub!/ (Pretend to scrub) Lot of bubbles to help me scrub! ’cause it’s bath time! BATH TIME! Time to get clean and wet!/ Uh-Oh! I’m joined by my PET!/ (Shake, shake, shake!)

“What kind of pet or animal would you like to join your bath? Let’s get ready to hear  about some kids who have LOTS of animals in their baths!”

I Wiggle My Fingers

Who’s in the Tub? by Sylvie Jones

Big Red Tub by Julia Jarman

Five Elephants in the Bath ( Thanks, Sunflower Story Time, for the printables)

One elephant in the bathtub, going for a swim!/Knock-Knock/There’s another!/ Splish! Splash! /Come on In!/ Two elephants in the bathtub, going for a swim!/ Knock-Knock!/ There’s another!/Splish! Splash!/ Dive on In!/ Three elephants in the bathtub, going for a swim!/Knock-Knock!/There’s another!/Splish! Splash!/ Jump on in!/ Four elephants in the bathtub, going for a swim!/Knock-Knock!/ There’s another!/Splish! Splash! Leap on In!/ Now there are FIVE elephants in the bathtub! What a Mess! Water and bubbles all over the place!/ Blowing bubbles with their trunks and splashing with their feet!/(Blow bubbles and stomp feet)/ Squirting water on the floor which WAS dry and NEAT!/Oh, No,  Elephants!/ It’s time for you to go!/ I pulled the bath plug right from the drain./ Away those elephants went, but they’ll come back again!

Stand-up Songs & Movement

Repeat Five Elephants in the Bath as an action activity

Scarf Play * (Tune: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes) Hand out scarves.

Sing & Act Out: Wash your head, fingers, knees and toes!/knees and toes!/ x2

Now wash your tummy and your dimpled elbows! Wash your head, fingers, knees and toes!

Wash your head, fingers, knees and toes!/knees and toes!/x2

Now wash your shoulders, ears and cute NOSE!

Wash your head, fingers, knees and toes!

Wash your head, fingers, knees and toes!/knees and toes!/x2

Scarf Play # 2: (Tune: Do Your Ears Hang Low?)

Wash your nose, nose, nose!/ And now wash your toes!/ Now, wash your little dimpled elbows!/ Wash your head, head, head!/Now, your knees instead!/ Stretch and blink, like you’re ready for bed!/ Wash your nose, nose, nose!/ Your toes like a rose!/Now, wash your little dimpled elbows!/Wash your head, head, head!/Now, your shoulders instead!/You’re clean, my friend!/ You’re ready for bed!

Please put your scarf in the basket, when I come to you! / Please put your scarf in the basket!/ Thank you very much!/ Please put your scarf in the basket, when I come to you!/ Please put your scarf in the basket!/ Now, clap your hands together!/  ( Tune: Clap Your Hands Together from American Folk Songs for Children)

Segue into  Clap, Clap, Clap Your Hands ending with “Please, please sit right down!”

Jack in the Box (Crouch)/ Sits so still/ (Hide face)/Will you come out?/ Yes, I WILL! (Spring Up onto knees)

Bubbles are floating x2/ In my bath! In my bath!/ Lots and lots of colors/ Rainbow Colors!/ Round and round without a sound!/ Shh! Shh! Shh! (Use host puppet with towel and bar of soap)

“I love to take bubble baths! Do you like bubbles in your bath? What if you didn’t want to get out of your bathtub? Let’s hear a story about a King who NEVER wanted to leave his bath!”

King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub

Closing Song: Skidamarink

Craft/Experiment: We’ll do a little STEAM by making our own bubble mix and trying it out.  My Preschool Pals will make bubble wands with chenille stems and try out blowing their own bubbles with straws. For safety purposes, use a pin to poke a tiny hole in the top of the straw. My Library Adventure friends will make bubble snakes.