Spring Break Fun....in the kitchen

To celebrate the start of Spring Break I wanted to surprise the kids with a treat!  I happened to catch a recent episode of Martha Stewart with a segment in the kitchen with a baker from the Baked Bakery making the Brookie .  I am hear to tell you that the recipe was a HUGE hit at our house last night!  It is a combination of a brownie and a chocolate chip cookie!!!!  The kids think I am genius, even though I kindly reminded them that I did not INVENT this cookie, I just re-created it.....regardless, you won't be disappointed.  Now I need to work on a Gluten Free version since I have not had the pleasure of tasting them.  Also, a quick note:  I did not have 4" pie tins in my possession, so I made them in our cupcake pan.  They were smaller of course, which to be honest in the days of blown out of proportion portions.....this size is perfect!  So I filled the well greased cupcake spot half way with the brownie mixture.  After it had chilled for an hour I added "paddies" of the chilled chocolate chip cookie dough.  I had plenty of dough, so perhaps next time I should make them a bit meatier.

Inspired by Alpha Mom I made some salt dough clay for our youngest and her friend today.  There was no limit to their imagination.  They spent hours playing with the clay, which is the easiest thing to whip up.
Salt Clay Dough Recipe:
4 cups of flour
1 cup of salt
2-21/2 cups of very hot water
Mix together, knead until smooth.  To speed up drying process you can put into the oven at 250 degrees.

We painted some of the salt dough to make beads.

After forming a bead shape, they then pressed into some small glass beads.  One thing that happened that would anticipate next time....the dough "rises" to some degree, so some of the holes that the girls put in their beads filled in while drying in the oven.  Not a total loss as they are gems to be used another way...their idea is to use them as "Easter Eggs" for their American Girl dolls.  They plan to hide them for an American Girl Doll Easter Egg Hunt.  I love that!

I sealed the beads with Collage Pauge so that we won't be finding little beads all over the house.

They finished their heads, which they built around a recycled glass jar, with some acrylic paints...I mean a LOT of acrylic paints.  They prided themselves in rainbow colored hair people.  Now we can add some water in the glass jar inside the head and plop in some flowers for a real fun vase!