How to Make Char Cloth

Char Cloth

Trying to start a fire with a spark from flint and steel can be pretty challenging.  It's hard to catch a spark and hard to work it into an ember.  An age old way of doing this is to use char cloth, Here's how to make some!

Cut some 100% cotton cloth into small squares, these are about 2"x2"and put them into a small tin or can, something fireproof.

Punch a small hole in the top of the can.  This lets gasses out, but not enough oxygen in to make fire in the can.

Heat the can on a fire.  This is a camp stove, but any fire will do.  This step should be done outside as it is pretty smokey.  You are "burning " the cloth without oxygen similar to how wood becomes charcoal.  The gas escaping the tin will burn and that's OK, it's methane gas.  Heat until it stops smoking then remove to cool.

Launch some sparks onto the char cloth and you will see small red glowing areas.  Gather up the the char cloth and the materials you mean to start on fire (here it's wood shavings from the pencil sharpener and newspaper).  

Blow and blow and blow on the bundle, the char cloth becomes redder and hotter as the embers grow. Careful...

The bundle will burst into flame!!!  We were doing this project really late at night and didn't want to have a bonfire so Dancer just set it into the barbecue grill.  To make a fire, set your bundle down and put small sticks, leaves, etc on it  Continue to blow on it and soon you'll have a raging fire

Festival of the Voyager - Fur Trading Post

Helmets Required were on the road again, this time to learn about fur trading.  Here they are donning the fancy headwear of the time.  The fancy hats of the time were all made with felted animal fur from North America.  Any of the hats here would cost several years pay for an average person.  They are a good looking bunch!

We have been to a lot of pioneer exhibits but not fur trading so we learned a lot on our tour.  Here we are in an Indian winter house.  Brrr, the wind had to be just howling through the walls of these houses, I am surprised they all didn't catch their death of cold and not make it to the spring.  All we had to contend with that day was mosquitoes so thick we almost had to swim through them. 

Dinner was a tailing gating sandwich party.

Until the howling wind and driving rain arrived and then we moved it inside.  Of course as soon as we were done eating the deluge stopped.

We went back into the festival for the dance where lots of people we wearing costumes, including loin cloths!   The kids did some dancing, some of the dances were so fast thy were just a blur! It was a great evening watching them dance and wondering (and hoping!) if the loin cloth wearers had something on underneath.

Owatonna Field Trip

 

Minnesota's only state-run orphanage (1886 - 1945) is today listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

 

 

Inside the museum there are three halls of artifacts and one of the cottages is open to give a glimpse of where and how the children lived.

 

 

Outside is a walking tour of the grounds and the cemetery where most of the children were buried with only a number as a marker.  In recent years, community members have gone back and made grave stones and markers to match names to those numbers.

 

 

 

Built from 1906-1908, the National Farmers' Bank is widely recognized as one of the premier pieces of "Prairie School Architecture" in America.

 

 

The most famous of all Louis Sullivan's banks, it is considered "a jewel box of the prairie", featuring gold leaf arches, stained glass windows, and nouveau baroque art designs. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and was commemorated on a United States postage stamp in 1981.

 

 

The city is full of great buildings like this one.

 

 

There is plenty of what some would call progress.  We thought this looked like the house trying to hold its ground in UP.

 

 

Coming back home through the cities, Dancer snapped this picture of the skyline.  It doesn't show well on here but, it was rather surreal with the setting sun illuminating the buildings.

O Canada Maple Pecan Pie

We are studying about Canada and what more perfect way to learn about the maple leaf than with pie!  There is probably a proven fact out there that you can learn anything better while eating pie and if there isn't there should be. 

 

 

O Canada Maple Pecan Pie

 

1 pie crust

3 eggs

1 cup maple syrup

1/3 cup brown sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon flour

1 3/4 cups pecans

 

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Evenly spread the pecans in the pie shell.  Beat the eggs for two minutes.  Add all the other ingredients to the eggs and beat for one more minute.

 

 

We used homemade Minnesota maple syrup and oh, it smells good.

 

 

Slowly pour the liquid over the pecans.  Place the pie on a baking sheet and put in oven.  Bake for 10 minutes after which you turn the oven down to 375 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes or until the center is not liquidy and top is golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let cool.



Cut the pie, grab a fork and enjoy!

Happy St. Lucia Day & Swedish Christmas Traditions

St. Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith in 304 A.D.  The most common story told about St. Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city.  She would wear candles on her head so she had both her hands free to carry things.  Lucy means "light" so this is a very appropriate name.

St. Lucia day is celebrated on December 13th with the oldest girl in the family playing St. Lucia.  The girl dresses in white with a red sash around her waist and a crown of candles on her head.  She has saffron buns for the family for breakfast.  Schools normally have their own St. Lucia and some town and villages also choose a girl to play St. Lucia in a procession where carols are sung. 

A tomte is a mythical creature of Scandinavian pagan folklore, believed to take care of a farmer's home and barn and protect it from misfortune, in particular at night when the house folk were asleep.

In the 1840's he started delivering gifts on Christmas if he wasn't mad.  To keep him happy children would put out a bowl of porridge for him.

The Christmas goat, called Julbuk, guards the Christmas tree.  The Julbuk, and many other decorations, are made of straw to remind them that Jesus was born in a manger.

On Christmas Eve, always from 3:00 to 3:05 p.m., over 50% of the Swedish population watches Donald Duck.  This tradition started in 1960 and it is always the same episode.   The Swedes call the program Kalle Anka (pronounced kah-lay ahn-kah) after the star of the show's second animated short, a 1944 cartoon called Clown of the Jungle

The Smörgåsbord - Smörgås meaning open-faced sandwich and bord meaning table.  Some foods found on the smorgasbord that we love are bread dipped in ham broth, ham with mustard, small meatballs, sausages, potatoes, rice pudding, cabbage, herring, lutfisk, white sauce, pickled cucumbers and baked beans.

Signing the Constitution

 

Our co-op is studying government and elections this fall.  After learning about the constitutional convention and how our founding fathers, except for Ben Franklin, didn't believe in bathing making it a very stinky convention, we wrote our own classroom constitution.  The kids decided that we would have a signing just like the founding fathers.  I typed the constitution and printed it on fancy paper changing words in the preamble and end to reflect our classroom instead of the United States, the kids dressed up, we had a "feather pen" and signing ceremony.

 

To make the feather pen I used a piece of craft paper that was 18 inches by 7 inches and cut it out in the shape of a large feather.  Making tiny cuts all the way down the sides made it resemble a fancy feather they would have dipped in the ink to write with.  To keep its shape I hot glued a wire down the length of the inside of the feather and then on to a pen, finally covering the pen with craft paper.  This made the pen really heavy and hard to write with but the kids all opted to us it instead of a regular pen.   

 

 

The founding fathers of our classroom constitution.

 

 

Our next topic is going to be the Executive Branch of the government and we started out by learning about presidents.  Each of the kids picked a president and made a box of information.  On the boxes they put facts, quotes, interesting trivia, pictures, a time line of their life and anything else they wanted to add about their chosen president.  Then in class they each had a few minutes to present the information on their boxes.  They impressed me, we have a class of good public speakers :)  This is Spark giving his presentation and I just noticed his dress up sweater didn't stay on very long, I see it is in a ball on the desk behind him.  He is all about comfort. 

 

 

It was interesting that out of the list of all the presidents the kids only chose five different ones and only one chose a president after the invention of color film.  And even with all that overlap we had very little duplication of information.

The Beef Commercial

This is a lunch special staple in cafes and diners around here.  We just recently found out that the name "Beef Commerical" is only used in Minnesota.  The story behind the name starts out over 100 years ago when business travelers were more commonly called commercial travelers.  In those days, most people traveled by train, and right by the train tracks would be a hotel, often times called the "Commerical Hotel."  This was a dish that the hotel kitchen could keep warm all day and serve quickly when trains came in and people might only have a short lay over or want a good meal before retiring for the evening. 

My mom's dad was one of these travelers.  He sold nursery stock, and although he had a car and didn't ride the train, I do know that he had a route where he stayed often over night in these hotels.  By todays standards his route would be small but, in those days, the 1930's, cars and roads were not what they are today either.

Two other possible explainations for the name of the substantial dinner was that it was made in a commerical kitchen or that they used commerical grade beef.  If I had to guess, I would go with the first definition of clever advertising to link the meal to what a commercial traveler would love to eat.

Beef Commerical

Throw a beef roast in the crock pot and cook until it is practically falling apart.  You can use instant mashed potatoes but it is best with real mashed potatoes with the skins left on.  Make a sandwhich out of the beef, meat loaf is a wonderful subtitution, and cut it in half.  In between the two halves put a big blop of potatoes and cover the whole thing with gravy.   No side dishes are really needed for this meal because, by the time you finish the sandwich, you will be way too full for anything else.

Crumpets

Before we left our study of England Dancer wanted to be sure to try crumpets.  We looked up and selected a recipe at Allrecipes that is as follows.

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (105 degrees to 115 degrees)

1 teaspoon sugar

1/3 cup warm milk (110 to 115 degrees F)

4 tablespoons butter or margarine, melted, divided

1 egg

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water.  Add sugar; let stand for 5 minutes. Add the milk, 1 T. butter and egg; mix well.  Add flour and salt; beat until smooth.  Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.  Brush griddle and 3-in. metal rings or open-topped metal cookie cutter with remaining butter.  Place the rings on the griddle; heat over low heat.  Pour 3 T. of batter into each ring.  Cook for 7 minutes or until bubbles begin to pop and the top appears dry.  Remove rings.  Turn crumpets; cook 1-2 minutes longer or until the second side is golden brown.  Serve warm or let cool on a wire rack and toast before serving.            

We couldn't find the cord for the griddle, I am sure it is the cupboard with the griddle but Dancer dug around in there and came up empty handed, so we made them in a pan on the stove.  We used canning jar rings for our rings and learned that yes, you really do need to grease the rings too and between each crumpet.

A done crumpet with a dolop of grape jelly.  The kids were all over these and snarfed the whole batch while standing at the counter but I think it had to do with the fact that we don't eat bread very often and these are a bread product.  I thought they were pretty much a fat pancake.  Our crumpets did not have the little holes all over the tops but that could have been because we had to run out to do an errand while they were rising and they rose about three times as long as the recipe called for.  Perhaps our yeast was worn out by the time we got around to scooping the batter into the rings and they fell making them denser than they should have been.

Thank You Cheddar, England

For our study of England we came across the most wonderful information because it involves cheese.  We love cheese.  I don't mean kinda like it so we say we love cheese, I mean we love cheese.  We eat it sliced, individually wrapped, melted (there really isn't much you can't added melted cheese to the top of), cubed, fried, creamed, as a dip, with apples, on every sandwich and burger, baked, microwaved on a plate  and heck, when we are milking the goats Dad even makes cheese.  The kids go into panic mode when we run out of string cheese and it warrants a trip to town. 

So as we were studying and came across Cheddar, England our ears perked up and our stomachs started to growl.  People in Cheddar, England have the honor of saying they live in the birthplace of cheddar cheese.  How cool would that be?  Probably not as cool as I imagine it to be. 

Cheddar cheese got it's name from the process used to make cheddar cheese, which appropriately is called, cheddaring.  Cheddaring is where cheese makers stack the cheese so that lots of whey is squeezed out and acidity level raises.  Once it hits some point that makes the cheese maker happy, they run it through a cheddar mill that is like a wood chipper to cut the cheese into finger sized pieces.  Then they squeeze it again, wrap it up and age it for about a year all the while treating it with tender loving care.  Cheddar cheese is white unless anatto, which is a natural food coloring so Dancer can eat it, is added to make it orange. 

All this cheese talk got us hungry so we whipped up a batch of cheddar cheese soup.

Cheddar Cheese Soup

1 small onion
1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1 can 10 3/4 ounce chicken broth
1 cup milk
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (8 oz.)

Saute onion and celery in butter until onion is tender.  Stir in flour, pepper, and dry mustard.  Add chicken broth and milk.  Heat to boiling over medium heat stirring constantly.  Boil and stir one minute.  Stir in cheese over low heat just until cheese is melted. 

The kids plopped a few garlic croutons in their bowls and we had it with chicken Kiev.  It was awsome as a dinner side dish.

Quiche Lorraine Recipe

We have moved on to France in history and tried our hand at some French cuisine.  Quiche Lorraine comes from the northeastern part of the country.  It started out being from Germany, then France, then Germany and now back to France.  If they leave the boarders alone it should stay in France.  The word quiche however comes from the German word kuchen which means cake.  Some quiches date back as far as the 1500's but Quiche Lorraine is thought to be from about 19th century.  True French think that it should only be made with cream, even stiff cream that is not liquid, and certainly not milk.  When it was first made it would have had a bread base not a pie crust.  The dish would have been very economical considering that the ingredient would have been local, all of them probably even produced at their homes.  One thing we read said that if you put onions in it it is no longer Quiche Lorraine but Quiche Alsatian.  We put onions in ours but we are still calling it Quiche Lorraine.
I had never made or eaten a quiche before.  I grew up in the era when blender pies where all the rage.  All the ingredients, along with I think Bisquick, was put in the blender, poured in a pie pan and then baked.  Also I think the popular book in the 1980's, "Real Men Don't Eat Quiche," perhaps put a damper on the popularity of the dish for many years.  The kids loved this, Dancer even asked for the left overs for dinner instead of what we were having.  We have another pie crust so I wouldn't be surprised they want another one for lunch tomorrow.

Quiche Lorraine
9 inch single crust pie
12 slices bacon fried and cut in large pieces
1 cup shredded cheese
1/3 cup minced onion
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups cream - we used one cup cream, one cup milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Sprinkle bacon, cheese and onion into pie shell.
Whisk together eggs, cream, salt, sugar and cayenne pepper.

When the kids put the cayenne pepper in the bowl it exploded over the surface of the liquid, pretty cool so they took a picture. 

Pour egg mixture into pie pan over bacon etc.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven.  Reduce heat to 300 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes for until knife inserted one inch from edge comes out clean.  Let sit for 10 minutes before eating.  The kids wanted to eat this so bad they set the timer for 10 minutes to make sure we didn't let it sit ten minutes and one second. 

Here it is, beautiful and ready to eat.                

John Calvin and John Huss Lap Books

In the ten years that we have homeschooled we have only done one other lap book.  I chose these two, the lay out was the same for both, because we are studying the reformation period and I wanted a way to help the people stick in Spark's head better than us just reading about them.  These didn't provide a plethora of information but enough that when he hears their names he will know what they are famous for.  I found them with a link from this link.   We did the first one together and Spark did the second one on his own.  Not having any file folder he glued them onto card stock.  These are the only two we will do because all of them for this time period are about the same and I think any more would just turn into busy work.

Swiss Chocolate Fondue

We have moved into Switzerland in our history study.  One can't really study any aspect of Switzerland with out consuming a little chocolate.  This is so good only make it if you have control in chocolate situations.  We made half a batch and it made enough for three of us and we had left overs.  The left overs were only to prove to ourselves that we could control ourselves around chocolate.  By the time diner was done we had finished it off.

Swiss Chocolate Fondue

6 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 milk

1/2 peanut butter

Melt all together in double boiler.  This is our makeshift double boiler.  I just take a pot, boil water in it and put another bowl over the top.   You have a double boiler and don't have to give up any cupboard space to store it for the six times every decade that you use it.

Dip in fruit, marshmallows, cake, donuts, cookies, nuts - actually, besides maybe sardines, anything would be good dipped in this delicious decadence.

Bavarian Pork Roast

Another German recipe to go along with our study.  This is Bavarian pork roast but we already had pork chops on hand so we used those instead especially since the recipe instructed to cut the roast in six to eight slices.   Dad made these while Spark was making the apfelpfannkuchen and they turned out excellent, they may well be the moistest pork chops I have ever eaten.

Bavarian Pork Roast

 3 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder roast - or pork chops

pepper to taste

5 tablespoons butter

2 1/2 cups chopped onions

8 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 tablespoons caraway seeds

1 tablespoon marjoram - the only marjoram to be found, after a thorough search of the cupboards, was in Mrs. Dash so Dad used that instead.

1 cup water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut the roast into 6-8 slices.  Sprinkle both sides with pepper and rub on caraway, marjoram and Dad also put on a little Tastefully Simple Bacon Bacon.  Put the meat in a pan with the onion and garlic.  Add the water, dot with butter and bake for about one hour.  Add more water if necessary. 



Ready to go into the oven.

The tender little chops - oh so glad we had leftovers. 

Still hope to make stollen and potato dumplings but the days go so fast we will see if we get to them - maybe tomorrow?

Apfelpfannkuchen

For history we are studying Germany during the Renaissance and Reformation period.  This recipe apfelpfannkuchen, or apple pancakes, means that we would probably be in the Black Forest area which was known for producing cherries, mushrooms, apples, plums and hams.  Spark, who is quite the chef in his own right, whipped up two pans of these.

Apfelpfannkuchen

4 eggs
3/4 C. flour
3/4 C. milk
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 C. butter
2 medium apples, thinly sliced
1/4 C. sugar
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Put two 8X8 pans in the oven.

Beat eggs, flour, milk and salt on medium speed for one minute.

Core and slice the apples thinly.

Remove the pans from the oven and melt two tablespoons butter in each pan.  Swirl the butter around or cut into smaller pieces until it is melted and coats the bottoms of the pans.

Arrange half of the apple slices in each pan.

Divide the batter even between each pan to cover the apples.  Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.  Bake until puffed and golden brown, 20 - 25 minutes.

We had them with butter and syrup.  To us they tasted more like French toast than a pancake and they were so good, I wish I had know this recipe when the kids were little.  I could have thrown them in the oven quick, had 25 minutes to get them ready and then sat down to a hot breakfast.  But now Spark can make them for us and that's even better!

My Mother, She'd Bake Thee A Bannock

We have been reading "The Door In The Wall" in which John-go-in-the-Wynd keeps telling Robin that if he were to visit his mother she'd bake thee a bannock.  Wondering what all the fuss was about over this bannock we decided to make a loaf. 

Bannock 

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tsp. salt
1 1/4 tsp. soda
2 Tbsp. butter at room temperature
1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Combine the dry ingredients and work the butter in until the mixture resembles moist bread crumbs.  Add buttermilk and mix until moist and sticky, this can take a few minutes.  Keep kneading until it is no longer sticky adding flour if needed.  Turn into a 8x8 greased pan.  Cover the pan, use foil if you don't have a cover.  Preheat oven to 425 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.  Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes.  The bannock is done when wooden toothpick comes out clean and dry.  Remove from oven and cool on cooling rack.  Do not cut the bannock before it is cold.

I was surprised at how brown the bannock got for being bake with a cover on it.

Even more so, I was surprised that the crust was flaky.

Trying to be traditional to the times, we broke the bread with our hands assuming they wouldn't have carried a knife with them if they took this with for their lunch.  The inside has the texture of a dense cake or a muffin. 

We all thought this was absolutely wonderful and Spark enjoyed his with some honey.  I would definitely go over the path beyond the river, across yon field, and through the forest, then fording the stream and up another field, through another wood, and just there this side of the church in the village of Tripheath to a tiny bit of a house on the heath where his mother lives with her cat to have her bake thee a bannock.