8/26/2009

Painted Butterfly Dinner

Does anyone else have a hard time getting info from your kids when you want to know how their day went? I've found that my kids talk when involved with a project, so came up with this one for tonight. We had a great chat, they LOVED doing it (what kid doesn't like to paint their dinner?!), and dinner was a snap. Perfect!
Painted Butterfly Hot Dogs
Ingredients:
Hot Dogs
Refrigerator biscuits (like Grands or any brand)
1 egg
water
food coloring
pretzel sticks
cheese, ketchup, or mustard (for the face)
small paintbrushes

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spray a cookie sheet or cake pan. Give each child two biscuits and a hot dog.
Help them cut each biscuit in half, turn one half over, and place on pan as the "wings". Repeat with the other biscuit.
Lay the hot dog on top of the biscuits. Time to paint!
To make paints, put one egg and one tablespoon water in a small bowl and mix well. Pour a small amount of egg mixture in several bowls (however many colors you want) and add a drop or two of different food colorings. We went with blue, purple, and orange. One egg made plenty of paint, but if you have a big group of kids, you may want to use two.
Give each child a clean paintbrush and let them paint their "butterfly wings".
Have a great chat and enjoy some 'dinner-making family time'!
Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown. Add two pretzel sticks for antannae and either ketchup/mustard/cheese/whatever you want for two eyes and mouth. Serve with a side of your favorite vegetable and dinner's ready!

Holiday Playlist

My grandmother hasn't been doing well...to cheer her up, I rounded up a few of my musical friends and made an album of Holiday songs fo...