Fruit Explorations: Limes: Making Raspberry Lime Rickeys!

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Since limes were on sale this week, I picked a few up and thought it would be fun to explore them since our last exploration was on lemons. Hazel also found a fun treat drink at a coffee/ice cream shop near my parents which is a raspberry sorbet lime rickey. She loves them, so I thought raspberry lime rickeys would be fun to make.

Hazel explored the limes first on the outside. She described them as green a slightly bumpy.

 Then I cut it in half for her and she explored the inside. Green and smooth and bumpy is her description. Then she liked a piece of it and I wish I could have gotten a picture of her face. She said it was too sour. 

Then I started zesting some limes for our recipe and Hazel was in charge of getting the juice.

Hazel discovered that it is harder to juice limes than lemons. After she got tired of juicing, I gave her some zest to investigate.

Finally we had enough zest and juice to make our Raspberry Lime Rickey Recipe. We started with the recipe at Mel's Kitchen Cafe: Raspberry Lime Rickey. Here is what we did.

Ingredients:
10 oz. bag of frozen unsweetened raspberries
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup lime juice (3-4 limes)
zest from 3 limes
chilled club soda
ice

To begin, mix the raspberries, sugar and water in a pan over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then using a potato masher, mash the raspberries the best you can.

Put pan back on stove and mix in lime juice and zest. Bring mixture to a boil for a couple of minutes. Remember to stir often so it doesn't burn. Remove syrup and push it through a fine mesh strainer with a bowl underneath to remove raspberry seeds and any solids. 

Refrigerate the syrup to cool.

To make a raspberry lime rickey, mix 3/4 cup of club soda with 3 tablespoons of the syrup in a glass with ice.

I loved them. Steve said they were all right, but didn't drink his and Hazel liked the ones with the sorbet better. So the next day I bought some raspberry sorbet. I put the entire pint in the blender with just over two cups of club soda and around 1/2 cup of the syrup (and then I added more after my first taste). I blended it all together and poured it into three travel cups since Hazel was at her grandmother's house. Hazel liked this one much better!

That is our lime exploration! I hope you will join us for our next fruit exploration!

If you would like to see more of our posts about fruit check out:

• Lemon Exploration
• My Fruit Pinterest Board
• Pineapple Exploration 
• Raspberry Exploration 
• Blueberry Exploration 
• Strawberry Exploration
• Needle Felted Strawberries with Acorn Tops

Mei-Mei's Lucky Birthday Noodles Book Review

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these books free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Today I get to review a wonderful book that is being released later this summer. The book is called Mei-Mei's Lucky Birthday Noodles written by Shan-Shan Chen. The book has beautiful illustrations by Heidi Goodman. I find all the books  from Tuttle Publishing so beautifully put together in the stories, illustrations and quality. It is rare that I call books beautiful, but these books really are.

This wonderful story is about Mei-Mei and her birthday. Her day starts by her going into her parents' bedroom to wake them up. They immediately wish her a happy birthday. They both talk about how her birthday is an extra special day since it was the day they were able to bring her home from China. As parents who adopted this young girl this day meant so much to them and you can feel their love for her through the story. Mei-Mei asks her mother about making her lucky birthday noodles. Her parents have been trying to keep some of her Chinese traditions so Mei-Mei will know them. One is making lucky birthday noodles. Mei-Mei and her mother get to work chopping and cooking. There are mushrooms, green onions, carrots and bok choy to chop. The beef has to be sliced. Then the wok is pulled out to start the cooking. 

Mei-Mei asks questions about many things having to do with the noodles and her mother is able to tell her some of the Chinese cultural beliefs. As a result the reader learns them as well. This story is a wonderful book for someone wanting to learn about the Chinese culture as well as a book for any child who is adopted. The book ends with a recipe to make the lucky birthday noodles. We of course had to try the recipe. I made it for dinner the other night. Hazel was too busy enjoying her wading pool to help. (Our air conditioner was broken, so she needed to cool off anyway.) It was an easy recipe and both Steve and I loved it. Hazel thought it had too many vegetables and I think she really meant too much bok choy, which she does not like. She however loved the beef that was in it.

And yes, Hazel and I ate the noodles with chopsticks to make it truly a Chinese experience. This amazing book is being released on August 26th. You can pre-order it at Tuttle, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.

For more Chinese books, crafts, etc. check out:

• Mulan
• Asian Kites
• Chinese Cinderella Tales
• Lunar New Year and The Year of the Horse Book Review
• Julie and the Black Belt Book Series Review
• Happy Chinese New Year
• Chinese Instruments for New Year Celebration
• Global Culture

Color Experiments: Exploring Shades and Intermediate Colors

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

We continued our color experiments. This time we looked at shades of a color and the intermediate colors. We started with violet. We added blue to make blue violet, red to make red violet, white to make it lighter and black to make it darker. We also mixed some red and blue to make a violet. Our set up was simple, violet, blue, red, white and black paint, an empty plastic egg carton, brushes and paper.

We started with the violet out of the bottle. Then we had fun mixing.

The first color is what I got mixing blue and red. The second color is straight from the bottle. The third color is violet with a little blue. The fourth color is the violet with lots of blue (Hazel kept adding it). The fifth color is violet with a good amount of white. The sixth color is violet with some black. The seventh color is violet with some red. The eighth color is color four with some white. I painted this guide so we could see all the colors we created.

Hazel on the other hand started to make a picture.


For more color explorations and crafts check out:

• Exploring Hues and Secondary Colors 
• Color Wheel and Mixing Colors
• Color Explorations: Painting
• Book Inspired Painting
• The Colors of Us
• The Colors in Nature
• Luka's Quilt
• Dying Yarn with Fruit and Vegetables Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Outside Water Play
• Picture a Tree
• Mixing Colors
• Brown at the Zoo
• Color Experiment Pinterest Board

Color Experiments

Have you entered my current giveaway yet?

One of my goals for this summer is to do some explorations with colors. We have been having fun with this goal. The other day we pulled out some paints and eye droppers. We were going to experiment with secondary colors and hues. Then we went to our local library for their color exploration program. Here are some of the things we did.

Our set up was simple. The three primary colors and black and white paint in a plastic egg carton. Each has an eye dropper except we only could find four, so we used a medicine syringe as well. Then of course some brushes and paper. The idea was to keep track of how much of each color, but it didn't work out that way. We just kept experimenting with colors to try to get ones we liked.

I tried to make a pretty pink and teal, but was not very successful. Hazel played with greens and browns.

My painting to see colors

Then at the library we were read a book and looked at making secondary colors with color paddles and a flashlight. Then they explored how black markers are made by drawing black line on a coffee filter and putting an edge of the filter in water.

The children immediately saw blues and greens and some reds. We let them sit and at the end of the program they looked like this with reds and oranges showing.

The other experiment involved bowls of water and Skittles. You put three different color Skittles in each bowl spread apart. The colors come off of them, but do not mix unless the table is bumped or done intentionally.

After the experiment, the librarian had the kids mix up the water and add more Skittles. I like that you can see the "S" from the Skittles floating in the water. Whatever makes the "S" is lighter than the water and floats to the top.

For more color explorations and crafts check out:

• Color Wheel and Mixing Colors
• Color Explorations: Painting
• Book Inspired Painting
• The Colors of Us
• The Colors in Nature
• Luka's Quilt
• Dying Yarn with Fruit and Vegetables Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Outside Water Play
• Picture a Tree
• Mixing Colors
• Brown at the Zoo
• Color Experiment Pinterest Board

Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Mulan

Disclosure: Tuttle Publishing gave me a copy of these books free of charge. All opinions in my review are my own and I did not receive any other compensation. As in all my reviews I am providing links for your ease, but receive no compensation.

Mulan was a story I really knew nothing about. I had not watched the Disney film when it came out and every time Hazel and I sat down to watch it, she got scared. Mulan was the one Disney princess we did not try to see in Disney World. When I was offered to review some of Tuttle Publishing's books, I thought Mulan would be fun to review to compare with the Disney story for my Fairy Tales in Different Cultures. While receiving Mulan by Li Jian and Yijin Wert is the translator, I also received My First Book of Chinese Words: An ABC Rhyming Book by Faye-Lynn Wu and two other books I will be reviewing at another time.

Now before I go into anything about the stories I have to say all four books I received are beautiful books. They are high quality and the illustrations are amazing. Now the two books I am reviewing here are both about the Chinese and both have Chinese words in them.  

My First Book of Chinese Words goes through our alphabet and gives a Chinese word for that letter. Most of the time the pronunciation of the word begins with the letter. Then it describes the word and also shows you the word in Chinese (and some are in both traditional and simplified). The words themselves teach you more about the Chinese culture. This book is truly a beautiful lesson on culture and language. 

Now onto our fairy tale for this week. The story in this book is in both English and Chinese. It tells the story of Mulan in a non-frightening way based on The Ballad of Mulan. The Ballad of Mulan is a poem written over 1500 years ago in China. It has over 300 words and depicts the legend of the heroine Mulan. This poem is how the story was passed down through the generations. 

In the story in the book Mulan goes to fight in her father's place because he is too old. She has a sister and brother. The brother is too young. Mulan loves to ride horses and shoot arrows and is very good at martial arts before she leaves for war. She dresses as a male so she can fight. Her parents do not want her to go, but they know they have no other choice. Her sister and brother help her prepare for war. She is so good at warfare they have her fighting in the frontline. After twelve years of fighting, the war ends and she gets to return home. The emperor gathers all the heroes to award them for their deeds, but Mulan refuses everything and just asks for a fast horse to return to her family. Some of her fellow soldiers follow her. She goes in and hugs all of her family and then changes from the soldier uniform into her female clothes. She puts on some cosmetics and does her hair. When she greets her fellow soldiers they are surprised to see she is a woman. 

The story in the book is spread out on 42 pages with beautiful illustrations and both the words in English and Chinese. It is truly a wonderful book. 

Now Disney of course changes the story a bit, as they do with all their movies. First they show Mulan as being a failure as a women and dishonoring her family by not being able to be matched with a husband. Next they add the ancestors coming back to life to send a magical being to help bring Mulan home. Of course the magical being does not get awakened and instead she gets their slave dragon that always is messing things up. She also does not have any siblings, but lives with her parents and grandmother. 

She sneaks off in her father's armor with his draft notice. She takes her beloved horse who understands her and she seems to understand completely as well. When she reports for duty and is to be trained she has very little skills in fighting and actually gets told to leave. She however stays and perseveres. They go off to war and find the main army to have been killed (with her leading officer's father the general of the main army). Now their sad army must fight the Hun. She gets smart and aims the fire power at snow hanging on a ledge and buries the enemy in the snow. She however gets injured and the doctor lets them know she is a woman. Her fellow soldiers leave her there since it is a dishonor to have a woman fight. They could have killed her, but since she saved their lives they do not. She however realizes the enemy did not die in the snow. She runs off to warn her soldiers and the emperor. No one will listen to her, but she is able to help them save the emperor and China. They honor Mulan as a woman and the emperor gives her his seal and the enemy's sword since she will not take a position in his cabinet.