Veggie Sculpture for Kids

Veggie Sculpture is great fun. I have to give an uncle credit for teaching me the basics when I was a bored little girl. He was my momma's brother. They and their siblings, grew up in the days of make-your-own toys, and boy did they know how to do that! Some of that ingenuity was passed down from Grandfather Vinson who made fences for his children's tiny bottle "animals" with large nails to form the fence posts and wire twisted around the nails to make the fence.

If you have a garden this summer, or produce going too big or dry (not rotten) you already have the makings for cute creativity. Above are my tiny eggplant people. They just started to appear while I was peeling little finger eggplant. Clove and fennel seed features.
 Since my grand kids don't live near I am doing a couple of crafty critters for them and their mommy can help them do their own.

 Gather produce such as: squash (the crooked-neck squashes make great animals), cucumbers, beans, eggplant. Supplies such as: sticks for legs & arms, pine needles, leaves, flowers, toothpicks to hold the vegetable parts together. Pruning shears to cut sticks, seeds like fennel, whole cloves.... you get the idea!

Test out how you want the pieces to go together. 

Little ones will need help with shears and the sharp toothpicks.

Cuke Creatures!

Poor Man's Cobbler - (Easy Cobbler)

There's no rolling out cobbler crust for this. I grew up on this marvelous stuff, picking the blackberry seeds out of my teeth for days. You may have eaten a peach version of it at an area restaurant and I actually know the lady who makes it. I think we might be kin since her momma made it the same way. Momma is having a little trouble remembering recipes she once knew in her heart. I need to make a list of ALL the things I want to ask her. I fear there's not enough time to ask & write down everything I want to know. 

Help us Lord.

Momma used to say she didn't have any idea why this was called "poor" man's pie or cobbler because fruit was getting more and more expensive to buy at the orchard. I told her it was probably because people made it, like we did, from whatever fruit we had growing. Blackberries being the most common. Dad, Jana and I would pick the berries and Momma would make a cobbler. The rest she canned by barely covering with water and heating  to boiling, pouring into quart fruit jars, and maybe pressuring, but sometimes I think they were sealed without pressuring by turning them upside down. I DON'T recommend that method. See, it's a wonder we didn't get sick, but they always seemed fine. :) I freeze mine. But, back to the cobbler:

• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon, optional
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 stick butter
• Aprox. 2 lbs. or almost a of quart fresh, frozen, or canned fruit with part of that being liquid. You can use a large can of store bought peaches, juice and all. (I wanted to say store boughten). Blackberries, blueberries, apricots, cherries...I once did blackberries and peaches. I sometimes add some water and sugar to the fruit depending on how "dry" it is and how tart it is. Don't just throw dry fruit in there, you need some moisture. Make sure fruit is ready before you start the rest of the recipe.

Throw the stick of butter into a 9x13 pan and put on the oven to completely melt and get bubbling.

While that's heating, mix the dry ingredients with a big spoon and pour in the milk and mix. When the butter is melted and bubbly pour the batter over the hot butter. Don't worry about perfection, just get it pretty even and then quickly pour your fruit around on the top. DO NOT MIX. Place back in the oven and bake until done.


I've seen recipes where they try to pour the batter on top. It doesn't matter, it's gonna end up on the bottom anyway, then it slowly rises to the top and browns. You can sprinkle a little sugar on the top when it's almost done if you like.

Momma - A Woman, Like Us

Momma - A Woman, Like Us

She's just a woman, like us,
striving to do her best, or better
than the mommas who came before her.
She sometimes succeeds in triumph,
occasionally concedes defeat,
often muddling and meddling along,
stumbling through another day
in the world on sinful legs, just like us.

A momma sometimes cooks and sews
and tends a garden to provide for her family.
She will bake pies, wash clothes, 
and volunteer for jobs no one else would take for pay, 
for the sake of her children.
But even if she's unable to do those things,
she loves in other unspoken ways...
Her heart yearns for her children.
She would spend the whole night on her knees for them,
she'd fight a tornado for them,
she'd give her very life for them,
and almost did when she gave them life.
Maybe that's why God uses the image of a mother's protecting care in scripture
for Himself and His great love for us.

"For what??"
she may sometimes ask herself
when besieged with trials and heartache.
"For them, it's what mothers do."
she'd simply say,
and be right.

She's just a woman, like us,
doing the best she knows how at the time.
God give us the grace to do the same.

© Charlene Day 2010