National Tortilla Day with kids!

Today is National Tortilla Chip Day!
The triangle shaped tortilla chip was popularized by Rebecca Webb Carranza as a way to make use of misshapen tortillas rejected from the automated tortilla manufacturing machine that she and her husband used at their Mexican delicatessen and tortilla factory in southwest Los Angeles. Carranza found that the discarded tortillas, cut into triangles and fried, were a popular snack, and she sold them for a dime a bag at the El Zarape Tortilla Factory. In 1994, Carranza received the Golden Tortilla award for her contribution to the Mexican food industry.

Making your own Tortilla Chips is so easy and its great for the kids to participate in.  Here is a simple recipe and a video on how to make Baked Tortilla Chips:

Ingredients
Twelve 6-inch Corn Tortillas (we like to use different varieties like Whole Wheat etc)
1 tablespoon olive oil
Fine salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Brush both sides of the tortillas with the oil. Stack the tortillas and cut* the pile into sixths to make chips. Spread the chips out in a single layer on two large baking sheets and season with salt or seasonings**.  Bake until golden brown and crisp, rotating the baking sheets once, about 6 to 7 minutes. Serve.

Tips
* You can use cookie cutters to make fun shapes.  We usually make ghosts and such during Halloween.
**You can flavor your tortillas with different spices other then salt, for example; Seasoning Salt, Garlic Salt, Paprika, Chili Powder or Cayenne Pepper

You can also make Tortilla's as a dessert by adding Cinnamon and Sugar, below is the recipe.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:
In a small bowl combine sugar and cinnamon, set aside. Brush tortillas with melted butter. Cut each into 8 wedges. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet. Lightly sprinkle cinnamon mixture over. Bake in preheated 400ºF oven for 4-6 minutes. Can be made ahead and keep in air tight container.

President's Day with kids!

Presidents day is always celebrated on the third Monday in February.  It is a day that combines and celebrates two great presidents of the USA, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.  This is a great day to go over revolutionary history with the children or if they are a little older review some of the history of the Civil war and all that Abraham Lincoln stood for.  

In our house this year Matthew is going to go over his copy of the Declaration of Independence that was the accepted on July 4, 1776 as well as the Gettysburg Address which is an amazing document.  Since Matthews history classes this year spans the time from the Revolutionary war to the Civil war this will be a great fun time for us.  It does help that his is a history fanatic and loves all of this.  

To incorporate Lauren into our day and celebration we are going to add a little fun craft time to our day.  We will go over the Washington and the Cherry tree story as well as some cultural aspects of the times.  Add in some of the dresses of the day and probably make some of our own paper dolls with cardboard and then paper dresses and wigs they can wear.  Making a log house out of pretzel sticks will also be a completely occupational and fun project that we will all make together.  The log cabin will be useful while retelling some of Washington's stories.

Pretzel Log Cabins:

What you'll need:

• Small empty milk carton
• Pretzel sticks
• Chocolate frosting or peanut butter
• 1 Rolo or other tubular shaped candy
• 1 square cracker
• Scissors
• Hot glue or tape

How to make it:

1. Cut the top flap of the milk carton off and tape or hot glue it closed to form the roof.
2. Spread chocolate frosting or peanut butter on one side of milk carton then cover with pretzels. Repeat this step all over the milk carton until log cabin is complete. You may need to break the tips off of some of the pretzels to make then fit up the sides.
3. Break a square cracker in half, then break one of the halves in half. Spread some frosting or peanut butter on the back of the first half. “Glue” it to the front of the cabin as the door. Repeat this step with a smaller broken piece for the window.
4. Spread some frosting or peanut butter to the bottom of Rolo and stick to the roof.

Here is a list of other activities you can think of doing today with the kids:

WRITE TO THE CURRENT PRESIDENT:
    The White House
    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
    Washington, DC 20500

For AUTHENTIC COLONIAL FOOD, here are some menu suggestions:

• Hoecakes - click HERE for recipe from Martha Stewart 
• Corn bread or muffins
• Bread with apple butter
• Baked beans
• Corn on the cob
• Roasted chicken or stew
• Molasses cookies
• Rock candy
• Old-fashioned stick candy
• Fruit pies and tarts
• Pumpkin bread
• Cherry Pie

For more recipes and favorite foods of all our President's click HERE to visit CDKitchen

Getting to know our Presidents:

 

 OUR PRESIDENTS
by Winifred Sackville Stoner, Jr.

A mnemonic jingle to help remember the order of Presidents from George Washington to Woodrow Wilson... 

George Washington, Adams and Jefferson three
First rulers of Uncle Sam's land of the free:
Then Madison, Monroe and Adams again
All clever and upright and good honest men;

The Jackson, Van Buren and Harrison first,
Tyler and Polk whose terms were so curst
By war with the Mexicans who lost in the fray -
Then Taylor and Fillmore and Pierce held their sway.

Buchanan and Lincoln, Johnson and Grant,
Then Hayes, martyred Garfield, despiser of cant,
Arthur and Cleveland, Harrison (Ben)
McKinley the martyr, beloved by all men;

Then most energetic and strenuous Teddy
And plump William Taft for a second term ready
When Wilson was placed in this nation's great chair
And promised to always rule wisely and fair.

LIST OF PRESIDENTS-UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

01 Washington, George (1789-1797)
02 Adams, John (1797-1801)
03 Jefferson, Thomas (1801-1809)
04 Madison, James (1809-1817)
05 Monroe, James (1817-1825)
06 Adams, John Quincy (1825-1829)
07 Jackson, Andrew (1829-1837)
08 Van Buren, Martin (1837-1841)
09 Harrison, William Henry (1841)
10 Tyler, John (1841-1845)
11 Polk, James Knox (1845-1849)
12 Taylor, Zachary (1849-1850)
13 Fillmore, Millard (1850-1853)
14 Pierce, Franklin (1853-1857)
15 Buchanan, James (1857-1861)
16 Lincoln, Abraham (1861-1865)
17 Johnson, Andrew (1865-1869)
18 Grant, Ulysses S. (1869-1877)
19 Hayes, Rutherford Birchard (1877-1881)
20 Garfield, James Abram (1881)
21 Arthur, Chester Alan (1881-1885)
22 Cleveland, Grover (1885-1889)
23 Harrison, Benjamin (1889-1893)
24 Cleveland, Grover (1893-1897)
25 McKinley, William (1897-1901)
26 Roosevelt, Theodore (1901-1909)
27 Taft, William Howard (1909-1913)
28 Wilson, Woodrow (1913-1921)
29 Harding, Warren Gamaliel (1921-1923)
30 Coolidge, Calvin (1923-1929)
31 Hoover, Herbert Clark (1929-1933)
32 Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (1933-1945)
33 Truman, Harry (1945-1953)
34 Eisenhower, Dwight David (1953-1961)
35 Kennedy, John Fitzgerald (1961-1963)
36 Johnson, Lyndon Baines (1963-1969)
37 Nixon, Richard Milhous (1969-1974)
38 Ford, Gerald Rudolph (1974-1977)
39 Carter, James Earl Jr. (1977-1981
40 Reagan, Ronald Wilson (1981-1989)
41 Bush, George Herbert Walker (1989-1993)
42 Clinton, William Jefferson (1993-2001)
43 Bush, George Walker (2001-2009)

44 Obama, Barack Hussein (2009-present)

GAMES:

8 Minutes

Older children or even the adults can play this online game that wants you to name all the President's in 8 minutes - Click HERE to go to the game

HANGMAN USING THE NAMES OF PRESIDENTS!  ...A great to learn and spell the Presidents' names!) 

How Well Do you know your President's?

Click HERE and HERE for our Question and Answer sheets

Books to Read: