Week 3: Kids' Summer Bible Lesson & Cowboy Muffins

We'll have to pay rewind a bit to catch up on our Bible lessons this summer. We did miss a couple of weeks while we were out of town and daddy was home for a few days.

Week 3 was over the lesson plan generosity. Here is the link if you are interested in these lessons. It was a great lesson for the boys, and they are rockin' the memory verses! Jonathan gets so excited when I write a new verse on his easel. We did the story of Dorcas and our memory verse was 2 Corinthians 9:7

Our craft was a gift for our grandpas for Father's Day (I am that behind on posting). I used the idea from here. I modified it a bit and used phrases like "we love grandpa" and "grandpa is the best". The supplies were:

-- wrapped canvas (can be found in artist section at Hob Lob...just use a 40% coupon to get them cheap!)

-- Letter stickers or use a Cricut to cut out vinyl ones (I want a Cricut like nobody's business...if you see my husband, let him know that would make a great gift for his wife). ; )

-- Acrylic paint and sponge brushes.

Simply spell out your message with your letters on your canvas. Paint. Let dry. Peel off letters to reveal message. This could be modified a thousand ways for different gifts or even wall art for kids' rooms.

The boys LOVED it!

Peeling the stickers (we did it when wet....probably should have waited until they dried).

For our Muffin Monday that week, we made Cowboy Muffins! I love these so much...they were a recipe from our friend, Hollye. She said her son, Cade, always requested them for sleepovers when he was growing up...I am quite sure my boys will, too! They LOVE them. They are best served HOT out of the oven. We shared these with two sweet friends from church.

Jonathan was my big helper for the Cowboy Muffins. He has really enjoyed baking and cooking with me lately. He wants to be a part of everything kitchen related! Having two boys, I have a few big goals (domestically speaking) that I really want the boys to take on with them after they are big grown guys. I want them to know how to do laundry, including ironing an outfit. I want them to be able to prepare well-rounded meals that don't come out of a box (or a drive-through). I want them to know how to bake. And they must know how to properly clean the bathroom. I am not saying I want them to do these things all the time (except the bathroom thing...that's a no-brainer). I just want them to know how to do these things. They may be bachelors for a bit and I want them to know how to take care of themselves.

My boys love the Cowboy Muffin concept (and who wouldn't)...the whole dip in butter, drop in sugar certainly makes a good muffin. And I am just kicking myself that I didn't get a photo of the finished product. You'll just have to bake some for yourself! ; )

COWBOY MUFFINS

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup shortening

1 egg

1/2 cup milk

--

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

6 tbsp. butter, melted

In mixing bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. In mixing bowl, cream together 1/2 cup sugar, shortening and egg. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to the creamed mixture, beating well. Fill 12 greased muffin cups 2/3 full (don't use paper liners). Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Combine 1/2 cup sugar with cinnamon. Remove muffins from oven and immediately dip in melted butter, then in sugar mixture. Serve immediately.

This is the muffin dunk set up. Mmmmm!

Happy Monday!

Week 2: Kids' Summer Bible Lesson & Lemon Ricotta Muffins (SO GOOD!)

It's been a fast and furious day....we baked, we Bible studied, Daddy worked, we packed, we drove and now we're all tucked into our little hotel room in Austin and unwinding.

Since I have some time, I thought I would post our Bible lesson highlights along with our absolute favorite new muffin recipe....the Lemon Ricotta Muffins that I mentioned last week. I just love them....and I am not even all that into lemon!

I actually borrowed this recipe from Tommie (the originator of Muffin Mondays), who borrowed it from Giada De Laurentis....so you know it's a good one. Seriously, how does Giada stay so thin with all of the amazing food she creates?

Lemon Ricotta Muffins

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup plus 1 teaspoon sugar or more as needed for sprinkling

(I actually used the decorative sugar sprinkles to add a little texture to mine...loved that!)

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest (from 2 lemons)

1 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 large egg

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1/3 cup thinly sliced almonds

We doubled the recipe....hence the sheer magnitude of lemons you see here in our ingredient line-up. And doubling made even more than I dreamed. I thought we would come out with two dozen, instead I had 2 1/2 dozen plus 2 dozen mini muffins. We had muffins coming out of our ears today!

The E-LEMON-EATER.

This child has eaten (not just tasted or chewed on but actually eaten) lemons since he was a wee little tike. It's bizarre. We realize how bizarre it is when we go out to eat with people and he's bartering for lemons from our water to eat them (rind and all)....and our friends' look of shock is pretty apparent. I always figure there's a whole lot worse he could be eating. It is fruit.

Back to the recipe...

Directions:

Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners (again this made way more than what it was supposed to for me). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl to blend. Using an electric mixer, beat 1 cup sugar, butter, and lemon zest in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the ricotta. Beat in the egg, lemon juice, and almond extract. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended (the batter will be thick and fluffy-- see photo below).

Divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the almonds and then the remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar over the muffins. Bake until the muffins just become pale golden on top, about 20 minutes. Cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yes, the batter was thick alright. More like cookie dough. In fact, this is my cookie dough scooper I had to use to "pour" the batter in to the muffin cups.

They looked so stiff to me in the cups....but I figured they'd sort themselves out in the oven. And they did.

So yummy. With all that butter, they'd have to be, right?

We packed them up....this week we stepped up our presentation a bit. Sorry, Duggans, I know the cardboard Clementine box with Press-n-seal wrap didn't exactly scream Martha Stewart last week. I found some cute little baskets at DollarTree for, you know, a dollar.

Our recipients this week were a lady down the street who we still haven't met but we left them *safely* (or so we hope) with a teenage grandson at her home. He promised they'd make it on to her...uneaten. ; ) We've been wanting to meet this lady for sometime since she has a connection with David's parents' church out in Pecos. Still hoping to meet her one day.

Our other basket went to my brother who lives here in Austin. We left them on his doorstep and played ding-dong-ditch 'em. Nah....we called ahead and told them they'd be left there while he was out! ; )

And on to the Bible lesson for today...continuing the theme of Showing the Love of Christ to Others, we talked about how He loved us first....

our memory verse (which he learned lickety-split...may have to start lengthening these!):

Jonathan knows all about the love of Christ!

Our craft today was sun-catchers that had different words about God's love on them.

These were a bit of a mess....hoping they dry by the time we get home Friday! ; )

The boys really loved them though. I was just a bit nervous because of how much the directions stressed how "STAINFUL" the paint was. Rethinking trying the rest with the kindergarten Bible class next week.

That's all I've got for now! Hoping to have a little R&R this week and just spend some quality time together and with some good friends as well.

Side note: Julie asked for the Zucchini Bread sandwich recipe last week. Although I don't have Hickory Street Cafe's recipe....I think you could make it with mine from last week and use two loaf pans and increase your time in the oven. Then slice into bread pieces. Take two pieces and spread with the whipped cream cheese (they always used the Philly brand at HSC). Stick them together and voila! Sounds pretty rich? It WAS!!! ; )

Week 1: Kids' Summer Bible Lesson & Zucchini Macadamia Muffins

Thought I would try to chronicle our way through our learning adventure this summer. As I mentioned in the previous post, we are working this summer to show the love of Christ to others. We have several ways we are planning to do this....two are featured here. The photos were taken over a couple of days during this first week of summer break (although daddy is still hard at work with high school students still in school).

Our muffin this week is the Zucchini Macadamia Muffin. Just Benjamin helped with it this week....while JonJon snoozed away. Our goal is to bake muffins every Monday and share a batch with friends and another with someone we don't know very well (maybe a new neighbor or whatever). 

Master egg-cracker....look at the intensity in the expression!

Grating Zucchini....I fell in love with zucchini bread when I was in college and went to Hickory Street Cafe way too much with all of my friends. We all just got the Zucchini Bread sandwich...two pieces of the bread encasing a whole lot of cream cheese. Um, wow.

These muffins turned out pretty yummy!

Zucchini Macadamia Muffins

2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 zucchini)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1 cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 (heaping) tablespoon cinnamon

1 cup chopped macadamia nuts

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 dozen muffin (spots?) in tins with paper liners.

Combine zucchini, sugars, oil, and eggs in a large bowl and mix until combined. Add dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in nuts and extract. Divide batter between muffin (spots?). Bake until a tester inserted in the middle of each loaf comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool 10 minutes on wire rack. Remove from tins to storage...or to tummy. Makes 3 dozen.

We surprised some sweet friends with a batch....the boys thought this was great! They are already discussing who next week's recipients will be. We ended up ruining the last batch by refrigerating the batter in between bakings....so we just had the one batch to share (and since Daddy was home on Monday, one batch mysteriously disappeared). Next week, we are planning on doing a Lemon Ricotta muffin and already bought the makings for three batches....just in case.

We also did our first Bible lesson this week. Since we are Showing the Love of Christ, I chose a Servant Heart lesson that I found here. This site was chock-full of great resources and lesson plans that I am hoping to make a dent in this summer with the boys. 

We covered the basics (I tried to keep it simple) and the boys really loved it.

We had our memory verse (pictured above). The boys would earn a quarter when they memorized (I use that term loosely with the three-year-old) or could recite the verse back to me. I know it sounds odd to "pay" kids to memorize scripture, but when a certain red-headed friend told me her parents did this when she was growing up, I was sold! (And if you know who her parents are, you know why I was sold!)

The money is actually going into little buckets I made for each of the boys...at the end of the summer it will be donated to....well, somewhere. (Still working on some details and thinking of things as I go).

We had a small (and I mean small) craft. Just pulled out some paper and put something together....no frills on this one since I still need to make a HobLob run to get a few more supplies.

But they really enjoyed the craft. We also read (from one of their children's bibles) the story of the good samaritan. I was hoping to try to do another lesson this week, but time has gotten away from me so it may be one lesson per week from here on out.

I emailed out my lesson plan to a couple of friends this Monday, if you're interested in the lessons, I'll be happy to include you on the email list, just let me know!

I posted photos on Facebook from our visit with David's parents over Memorial Day weekend. Since we just used phone photos, I am now having a hard time getting them from FB to here. But, a fun time was had by all! From picnicking to playing, the boys really enjoyed hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa Pecos.