My friend Shannon's daughter Morgan is already a little bored with summer so I told her I would blog this for her. This is a column I wrote as a feature for a Summer Guide in 2009. Only 25 of the original 50 ideas were ever published. You are reading this in it's entirety for the very first time! Enjoy! Sandy
P.S. This is a picture of my daughter, Zoe loving the summer of 1999 on the bank of the Temperance River (seventh pool).
Lovin’ Summer
It’s almost here and I cannot wait! Summer means sleeping late, relaxing by the lake, and after about a week hearing the kids say….”We’re bored”! There is “Nothing to do”. My children did not invent this mentality as I know for a fact we drove our mom crazy with these words day after day until she told us to go outside or she’d give us housework. I personally have nothing against child labor but then again it is fun to do some things in the summer that you would never do any other time of year. And because I write a cooking column of course all my ideas surround food of some kind. As you will see below not all foods are meant for consumption, like zucchini, but for the most part these recipes are easy and delicious. I call them “50 Ways to Leave Your Boredom”. (Paul Simon fans will get this joke.)
1. Food Fight Party - Adventurous moms will allow this once and maybe only once but it is fun. From experience I suggest the following rules: Rule one: If you won’t eat it don’t throw it! This prevents the neighborhood children from making disgusting concoctions of refrigerator left over’s and throwing them on my head. (Try to get old cottage cheese and gravy out of your hair…not easy!) Good ideas for ammo: Chocolate pudding, Hershey’s syrup, whipping cream in a can, jello, cake, ice cream….Rule Two: To play you must be inside the circle. We used a garden hose to make the boundaries, that way if you needed a break you had a safe place to go. Rule Three: No food thrown from outside the circle. And Rule Four: Don’t throw food at the cameraman.
2. Powder Sugar Fishing – Take powder sugar doughnuts and tie them to a string. Attach the string to a pole and dangle the doughnut over someone lying on their back. The “fish” try to bite the doughnut. We use powder sugar because they are the messiest.
3. Blue Food Breakfast – Make everything blue using food coloring. Blue pancakes, blue scrambled eggs and blue milk. This comes from Zoe’s favorite book “No Blue Food.” I think the milk is the hardest to get past the color. It just doesn’t seem right.
4. Make a Candy Gram – Using candy bars and treats to make words on a poster board are really fun. The kids learn to be creative too. The RIESEN for this greeting is to wish you a CAREFREE summer. Don't go NUTS while you are fighting the MOUNDS of people at the park. Don't worry about getting CHUNKY as there will be GOOD and PLENTY time to worry about that next winter! HUGS AND KISSES! Your, SWEETHEARTS.
5. Whip Cream Cars – A can of whipping cream and matchbox cars are a fun afternoon game. Cover an outdoor picnic table with whipping cream and drive the cars through the “snow”. It will be good practice for next November.
6. Jello Shots – Settle down this is for the kids. Try making your favorite flavor combinations of jello and juice. Just replace the cold water with fruit juice and put the jello into little cups. My favorite is peach jello with orange juice. (I don’t know where I came up with this but the combo is to die for.)
7. Gold Fish Trail – This is like Hansel and Gretel following bread crumbs into the forest but I think the orange gold fish crackers show up better. Have one child start the trail and see if the rest can follow it. You might want to take the family dog along to pick up the crackers along the way.
8. Sweet Bubbles - Make homemade bubbles and use flyswatters over the outside air conditioning unit when it runs and you will not believe the bubbles! Use two flyswatters as one is just not enough. Sweet Bubbles: 1 Tablespoon Corn Syrup, 2 Tablespoons dish soap and one cup water, mix well.
9. Pick Apples and Make Apple Sauce – There is nothing like homemade apple sauce and the kids will actually know that it doesn’t have to come from a jar. Peel, core and slice six cup of apples, (try different varieties) place in a pan and add two cups of water, cook down to make sauce add more water if needed, mash with potato masher and add sugar to taste.
10. Make Celery Roses – If you cut a stalk of celery about two inches from the bottom you will see the part usually thrown out is a perfect rose. Dip in paint and press on paper. Pretty!
11. Peanut Butter Play Dough - -1 cup smooth peanut butter, One half cup light corn syrup, one half tablespoon vanilla extract and one and one fourths cup powdered sugar. Mix peanut butter, corn syrup and vanilla together. Gradually add powdered sugar. Store covered at room temperature.
12. Oreo Salad – We all have pot lucks in the summer and this is the most kid friendly to make. Better yet let them make it. Put about 15 Oreo’s in a Ziploc bag. Smash into small pieces. Mix with a large container of cool whip and serve. Whole Oreos on top look good but wait until just before serving as they get mushy if they sit too long.
13. Cooked Spaghetti Art – Cook spaghetti and dye with food coloring. Using scissors and paper cut the spaghetti into various sizes to make lines and pictures on the paper. The spaghetti will stick once it is dry.
14. Volunteer for Meals on Wheels – Kids and parents can help deliver food to the community in the summer. Contact senior dining for more information. This is fun and only takes about an hour out of your day to help those in need.
15. Crumby Car Clean Up – Hand out the vacuum and those little food dropping will disappear like magic from mom’s car. (The family dog in the car for 15 minutes can have the same effect.) Whichever.
16. Stone Soup – Invite all the neighbors to bring a veggie over and make stone soup. You provide the pot full of water and the stone at the bottom. Peeling, chopping and dicing can be lots of fun when you do it together. In the end you have a wonderful soup.
17. Ants on a Log – Using the leftover celery from idea number 10, cut into sticks and add peanut butter and raisins. If you don’t like raisins use M&Ms, the ants are bigger and they taste better too.
18. Pick Strawberries at the local patch – These are soo good you’ll just want to wash them and eat them the minute you get home. Try to save a few for future project ideas below.
19. Coffee Can Ice Cream – Using a 12 ounce and 39 ounce coffee cans you have an ice cream maker ready to go. In the smaller can add pre-mixed one cup of whole milk, one cup of heavy cream, one half cup of sugar and one half a teaspoon vanilla. Cover can and tape to hold in place. Place smaller can into larger can then fill with crushed ice and rock salt. Tape large cover in place then roll down the hill for 20 or 30 minutes. Eat immediately because you are hot from all that rolling.
20. Tic Tac Toe – Use cereal and raisins for x’s and o’s. Winner eats the game pieces. Cat games eat their own.
21. Bread Dough Doughnut Holes – Using refrigerator biscuits cut into fours, fry dough in oil then roll in sugar and cinnamon.
22. Make Go Go Juice – Use one cup orange juice concentrate, one cup sliced bananas and one cup pineapple juice. Blend well and drink. This will get you hula hooping in no time!
23. Make Chocolate Clay - Materials: 10 ounces of chocolate (chopped chunks or chips) and one third cup light corn syrup. 1. Melt the chocolate in a microwave for one minute. Stir. If chocolate is not completely melted, return to the microwave for 30 seconds at a time and stir until smooth. If you don't have a microwave, place the chocolate in the top of a double broiler over hot water and stir until melted. 2. When the chocolate is melted, add the corn syrup and blend. 3. Pour the mixture onto a waxed paper sheet. 4. Spread the chocolate with your fingers until it's about one half inch thick. 5. Cover loosely with waxed paper and let it stiffen for at least a couple hours or overnight. The chocolate will become very pliable.
24. Volunteer for Fare For All - This is a great way to teach children about how a food coop works in our community. One Saturday a month throughout the summer. Kid and parent volunteers are welcome!
25. Pop “Real” Popcorn – Buy the kernels and show the kids’ popcorn doesn’t always come out of a microwavable bag. Don’t feel bad, my kids just saw this a month ago. The smell is awesome!
26. Pudding Paint with Sprinkles – Nuff said!
27. Corn Starch Sidewalk Paint – Mix corn starch, water and tempera paints. I use a muffin pan to make lots of colors. Use brushes to paint on the sidewalks and cement. When it dries the colors are brilliant.
28. Visit the Farmers Market – Lots of locally grown, locally made products. You might even find something for your Stone Soup.
29. Make Apple Cheese Pizza – Use one loaf of frozen bread dough thawed, roll onto pizza pan, top with one cup shredded cheddar cheese, two cups sliced apples, and a mixture of one half teaspoon cinnamon, two Tablespoons flour and one half cup brown sugar. Top with two tablespoons of butter. Bake in preheated oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
30. Make Frozen Fruit Cups – Blend berries and bananas in blender. Spoon into Dixie cups and put a Popsicle stick in the center of each cup. Freeze. Remove paper and enjoy.
31. Apple Bobs – Tie strings to apples and hang them in a row on the clothes line at mouth height, with hands behind your back you must eat the entire apple. First one done, wins an apple.
32. Make Dinosaur Food – Ingredients: One fourth cup dirt (Cocoa), one half cup swamp water (milk), two cups crushed bones (sugar), one half cup fat (softened butter), two and a half cups grass (uncooked quick oats), one half cup squashed bugs (crunchy peanut butter) and one teaspoon muddy water (vanilla). Mix first four ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil for one minute. Remove from heat and add grass, bugs and muddy water. Drop by tablespoon onto wax paper, wait for the ice age (let cool) and serve to the cave men.
33. Pass the orange please – Oranges are passed back and forth under their chins between teams of two six times, then the team peels and eats the orange. The first team done wins, an orange.
34. Banana Logs – Peel and cut bananas in half. Insert a stick into the end, dip in glass of Hershey’s syrup and roll in rice krispies. Yum!
35. Pick Raspberries – Visit a local raspberry grower and pick the reddest, juiciest berries. Then buy some lemon sherbet on the way home. This combination of berries and lemon is unbelievably good.
36. Have a Picnic – Pack a picnic and head out to your favorite park. Don’t go to the same park you usually frequent, try a different location and discover new trails. Sandwiches taste better in the great outdoors.
37. Make Monkey Bread – 5 pkgs. Pillsbury refrigerator rolls, one cup sugar, three tbsp. cinnamon, one stick butter, one half cup brown sugar. Cut each roll in quarters and mix sugar and cinnamon together. Toss cut rolls into sugar and cinnamon mixture. Layer in fully greased Bundt pan. Melt butter and add brown sugar. Pour over entire cut and layered pieces. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Turn over onto dish, and serve warm.
38. Potato Stamps – Using large baking potatoes, cut in half then draw a design on the bottom of the potato, carefully cut around the design then cut away the potato from the edge leaving the design raised on the end of the potato. This then makes a great stamper with any kind of paint.
39. Dirt Cake – Using a clean sand pail and shovel this makes a great beach cake. You will need 12 ounces of gummy worms, one box of Oreo cookie crumbs and two large boxes of instant vanilla pudding (prepared with milk). Mix pudding with 8 ounces of cream cheese, one cup powdered sugar and one stick of softened butter. Fold in 16 ounces of cool whip. Layer in pail pudding, crumbs and worms until you get to the top. Then hang remaining worms over the edge and top with dirt. (Oreo crumbs) Serve with shovel.
40. ABC Bread – Using frozen bread dough make shapes, letters and names on a greased cookie sheet. Brush with egg white and sprinkle with salt or sesame seeds. Bake at 350 degrees until brown.
41. Carrot Catcher – Drop baby carrots into a mason jar while standing with your hand at least 24 inches from the top of the jar. Person with the most carrots in the jar, wins, carrots.
42. Fruit Kabobs – Using skewers make kabobs with all kinds of fruit like bananas, oranges and strawberries. The best fruit dip is made with 7 ounces of marshmallow cream mixed with 8 ounces of cream cheese.
43. Graham Cracker Cookies – Honey or Chocolate graham crackers with homemade frosting are delicious. Mix one cup powder sugar with one tablespoon milk and one half teaspoon vanilla to make the frosting.
44. Pizza Bubble Bread – Sprinkle pizza pan with corn meal. In a bowl mix one package refrigerator biscuits cut each into four pieces with one half cup pizza sauce. Arrange in an eight inch circle on the pan and top with one cup shredded mozzarella cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
45. Hot Dog Mummies with Cheese – Slice hot dogs the long way but not all the way through put one fourth of a slice of American cheese into each cut. Then roll a refrigerator biscuit into a long snake, wrap the hot dog like a mummy and place on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes or until golden brown.
46. Apple Schmear – This is played with tennis rackets and old apples. The pitcher tosses the apple to the batter, who using the tennis racket schmears the apple everywhere. Hint to pitcher: Wear old clothes.
47. Make Octopus Spaghetti – Cook spaghetti noodles and use blue food coloring to make the “water”. Cut hot dogs three quarters of the way into eight legs, leaving one quarter not cut at all. (This is the head of the octopus.) Boil hot dogs about three minutes and serve on top of the water.
48. Make Apple Smiles – Using two red apple slices, top one with peanut butter and two mini marshmallows, top the second with peanut butter then put the two together like lips to make an apple smile. Very cute and delicious too.
49. Baby Food Tasting Contest – Buy several jars of baby food and remove the labels after you have numbered and recorded each jar. Have your friends try to identify the baby food flavor first by sight then by smell and finally by taste. The winner gets baby food?
50. And finally – Zucchini Boats – This of course if the only good thing you can do with a zucchini. Carve the center from the biggest zucchini you can find. Don’t buy one just grab one from the post office where the zucchini growers dump them once they have run out of neighbors and friends to give them to. Feel free to add a mast or decorations. You may even wish to christen your boat with a name. Then send it off down a river, stream or lake. Smile as it disappears like summer will all too soon!
Thanks to my sister cousin for all her help with these ideas. She is very clever. (Love you Dawn) And thanks to all of you who read and enjoy the column. Have a wonderful summer!
Peace, Sandy
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