Pecans - a little history, and a couple of recipes

When I published Authors in the Kitchen: Recipes, Stories and More (Libraries Unlimited) I included a recipe shared with me by author and illustrator Bob Barner.  It's the best recipe for pecan pie that I have made.
As part of the book I also researched a little history of the pecan.  Here is that research - and the pecan pie recipe along with a recipe for the best candied pecans.

From page 22 - Authors in the Kitchen
Pecans are the only tree nuts native to North America, and they are particularly plentiful in the Southern states. Pecans were a major source of food for Native Americans as far back as the 1500s. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew pecan trees in their gardens.  In 1919, the pecan tree was named the state tree of Texas. The production of pecans is a major industry in the southeastern United States.  Eighty percent of thew world's pecans are produced in the United States.  Georgia is the leading pecan-producing state in the country, with nearly 55 million pounds of fresh pecans harvested in the fall of  2003.  Okmulgee, Georgia, holds the world record for the largest pecan pie, pecan cookie, and pecan brownie. Albany, Georgia, is the site of the annual National Pecan Festival.  As many as 600,000 pecan trees are growing in Albany—sometimes called the Pecan Capital of the United States.  Because of modern-day grafting techniques there are now more than a thousand varieties of pecans.

Bob Barner's mom has a pecan tree in her backyard, and Bob says. "Today she bakes [pecan] pies with the nuts from her own tree. Not only is the tree home to numerous squirrels, magpies, and a family of robins, but it also produces delicious pecans."

Bob's mother's pecan pie recipe

And this recipe is adapted from my friend Don Krotz's candied pecan recipe:

Cedar Rapids, Iowa's Hidden Treasure

We have museums, parks, and fine restaurants.  We have sport complexes, and a whole area of town devoted to the Czech heritage.  But nestled in a corner of the NE section of Cedar Rapids is a hidden treasure -- the Noelridge Greenhouse.  Placed in a corner of Noelridge Park the greenhouse supplies plants for the outdoor plantings.  It's a treasure that should not be missed.
Tours are available year round and there is a permanent display of large tropical plants housed there. 

Noelridge Garden and Craft Show
Each year the Noelridge Greenhouse has an open house and flower show (Cedar Rapids, Iowa).   The event is always held on Easter Saturday.  There are plants galore, and several crafts persons come with their art/crafts.  Orchids, handmade cards, honey, and other items.  A year or so ago,  I wanted to find a piece of jewelry made by my friend Jennifer Rotole.   Didn't take me long to spot this necklace and earrings.  The piece is crafted from 1920s vintage buttons and wire.  Jennifer changed out the chain to make it the 30 inches I needed/wanted.  And I was a very happy customer.

Put this event on your list for a quick Mother's Day visit.  A perfect time to get flowers, a piece of jewelry, or other craft items.  The event usually is open 10-5 p.m.

Noelridge Park Greenhouse is one of the city's hidden treasures—a treasure hidden in plain site.  Most communities have a hidden treasure.  Share yours.

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Do you have a book package that you'd like to order -- suggest something special just for you...  Visit Greenfroggifts on Etsy for the latest choices. 

Order cookie cutters, aprons, and baker's cloths from Green Frog Gifts -- unique gifts -- many $10.00 or under.

Another Reason to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

Herbert Hoover gained his greatest achievements
as a humanitarian - his efforts touched many including
Eric Sonneman who arrived in the USA as an immigrant on
St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1939.

In the fall of 2014, I wrote of Herbert Hoover and his humanitarian work and his  Iowa Connection in a blog post at Iowaconnections.com.  In researching information for that blog post I came across information about an immigrant, Eric Sonneman, who had benefited from Hoover's relief efforts.  In e-correspondence with his daughter Toby Sonneman, the author of a fascinating history of the lemon, Lemon: A Global History, I was directed to an essay about her father and St. Patrick's day that appeared in The Scroll: Tablet Magazine on the News.  It seems Eric Sonneman's arrival in the United States as a Jewish immigrant from Germany, coincided with St. Patrick's day
1939. 

 Sonneman family's favorite holiday.  Besides leprechauns, four-leafed clovers, and pots of gold under the rainbow I think Eric Sonneman had the right idea.  St. Patrick's day is a very good day to welcome immigrants to America.  On this coming St. Patrick's day, and all the days that follow, please do something to welcome a new arrival in the United States.  A simple hello, a plate of warm cookies, a hour or two tutoring in a local center, ... do whatever you can to make someone else feel welcome and treasured in our abundant land of opportunity.

His daughter, Toby,  is a writer and has written anecdotes involving her father.  In this specific essay Toby Sonneman shares her father's (and the family's) reason that St. Patrick's day is the family's favorite holiday.

Write and let us know what YOU did to welcome a new immigrant to the USA.  And if you have a favorite holiday we'd like to hear about that too.

 Resources:

McElmeel, Sharron (1 September 2014).  Herbert Hoover - Native Iowan: A President from IOWA.  Iowa History: Bits and Pieces.  (WEB) http://iowahistory.blogspot.com/2014/09/herbert-hoover-native-iowan.html

Soneman, Toby.  (2014) www.tobysonneman.com.

Sonneman, Toby.  (14 March 2014).  Why St. Patrick's Day Is My Jewish Family's Favorite Holiday.  The Scroll: Tablet Magazine on the News.  (WEB) https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/why-st-patricks-day-is-my-jewish-familys-favorite-holiday

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Do you have a book package that you'd like to order -- suggest something special just for you...  Visit Greenfroggifts on Etsy for the latest choices. 

Order cookie cutters, aprons, and baker's cloths from Green Frog Gifts -- unique gifts -- many $10.00 or under.

Strega Nona Returns

A holiday gift -- an idea for all year.

Just before the holidays I learned that my toddler grandson's father had a very favorite tale as a child.  That story was Strega Nona.  Just by chance Tomie dePaola (the author of Strega Nona's books) had just released a collection of the Strega Nona stories.

I was able to order a signed copy of the book from Morgan Hill Bookstore.   http://www.morganhillbookstore.com/book/9780399173455

I had this book inscribed to my grandson but wanted to make it special for his father as well.  Then I went searching for fabric that might coordinate with this book.  Unlike some other favorite authors such as Eric Carle and Dr. Seuss there does not seem to be any illustrator created fabric, but generally I am pretty good at finding fabric that will provide coordinating images -- I envisioned perhaps some fabric with white doves, ... but then I remembered...

In the late 1980s, a reading organization obtained sketches from many illustrators, and permission to reproduce them.  one of the items was tote bags.  I had several in a stash that I have been saving. Saving for what I don't know but now I had an idea.  At first I was going to create  a blanket to use as the two cuddled up to read, but the one image did not seem to lend itself to being included in a blanket of any sort.  So a pillow idea was born.

The tote bags were made of a sturdy cream colored twill.  I cut off the seams, and the top hem which left a piece of 12 1/2 inch square fabric with the Strega Nona image.

The image was printed with a very dark blue ink so I choose a very dark blue twill fabric to use as the border fabric (I wanted an 18 x 18 inch pillow), and used the same fabric to create the envelope style back so the cover could be removed from the pillow form for laundrying.


We gave the book and the pillow to father & son as a "read aloud" kit.  Hope his daddy does read and share the book (and other stories) with him.
But I liked it so much that I made a set for myself too.  My pillow is going in the "reading" guest room.

~~~

Do you have a book package that you'd like to order -- suggest something special just for you...  Visit Greenfroggifts on Etsy for the latest choices. 

Order cookie cutters, aprons, and baker's cloths from Green Frog Gifts -- unique gifts -- many $10.00 or under.

Book a Baby Gift

Creating Gifts that Help to Build Readers...  

Found some lovely fabric that features The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle.  I purchased mine at a favorite fabric shop in Iowa -- Connie's Quilt Shop in Marion, Iowa.  However, you can find the fabric online at the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum Store.  The caterpillar fabric is on page one (Very Hungry Caterpillar Holes Fabric) and the firefly fabric is on page two (Firefly blue fabric), and the color dots fabric as well.
Since these two blankets were going to be gifted with books to a new brother and sister (twins about 2 months old) I wanted them to be different but have some common element so I bound each blanket with a common fabric - the color dots.

Here are the projects. 

I used a mottled yellow flannel fabric for the backing on the Very Hungry Caterpillar blanket.  I cut the flannel into 6 inch wide strips and then strip quilted it to the holes fabric.  Trimmed the edges and bound with a binding of dots fabric.

For this Firefly blanket I used a light blue flannel that had a very thin dark blue scroll design.  This flannel I also cut into 6 inch strips and strip quilted it to the firefly fabric.

Each blanket was paired with a board book by Eric Carle, packaged and delivered to the young ones along with a brochure for the parents about the value of reading aloud.

Download your own copy of the brochure, if you would like.  Read Aloud Brochure [PDF].  Print it both sided on brochure or photograph paper.


Do you want to book a gift for a new baby or a toddler already here ... 
Check out other book packages for catching young readers at http://greenfroggifts.blogspot.com/2015/05/building-readers-one-baby-at-time.html -- Green Frog Gifts helps to build readers -- one baby/toddler at a time.
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Do you have a book package that you'd like to order -- suggest something special just for you...  Visit Greenfroggifts on Etsy for the latest choices. 

Order cookie cutters, aprons, and baker's cloths from Green Frog Gifts -- unique gifts -- many $10.00 or under.

Caught Another Baby -- Building Readers One Baby at a Time

Catching Babies -- Creating Readers 

A few weeks ago I was sewing a baby quilt.  My 2 1/2 year old grandson wanted to know what I was doing.  So I explained that I was making a baby blanket for a baby.  He wanted to know "Why?" So I told him that I liked to make baby things and to put a book with them so that the mommies and daddies would read to their babies.  So who was the "baby?"  I didn't have one yet but I told him I had to find one and when I did I would give the blanket and book to the baby.  Well three weeks or so later, I found a baby.  A new baby boy that arrived to join two young but older sisters.  So I packed up the blanket (featuring farm animals, added a soft plush pig, and a book - If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff) and got it ready to send.
 
I also prepared gift packets with a book and plush animal for each of the two sisters.  When the grandson arrived to eat breakfast and have me take him to his "school" he spotted the gift bags with the books and animals peeking out.  "GG," he shouted, "you caught three of them."  It took me a while to figure out that he meant I had caught THREE babies to give gifts too.  He was as excited as if the gifts were for him.  Some of the gifts are shown here -- http://greenfroggifts.blogspot.com/2015/05/building-readers-one-baby-at-time.html

My grandson knows the value of books.  During a recent trip with his mother to Chicago the presents he picked from the aquarium were little books about various sea creatures and a current favorite Good Night, Chicago by Adam Gamble and Joe Veno (Good Night Books, 2006).  He had visited several of the places featured and "We need to go there, Mommy" with several others.
 Clearly - reading aloud to this grandson has made him a young learner who loves books and chooses them over other things (but its a tough competition between books and balls).  In any case I just CAUGHT him as a reader and continue my quest to find or catch more babies to help their parents focus on reading aloud to their child.  Here's one of my latest gifts meant to entice readers.
One baby caught -- and now I found another one.  This new baby is a soon-to-be born little girl and I have been dying to use some Peter Rabbit fabric in pink that is so pretty.  I found bright pink minky (very soft) to back the quilt I pieced from the Running Peter Rabbit on pink fabric.  Bound it with a cream colored cotton with small miniature pink rose buds.  The same binding was used on the flannel blanket featuring Jemima Puddle-duck.  That blanket was backed with minky as well -- a large white polka dot on pink.

This quilt features Jemina Puddle-Duck with a soft flannel top and a large polka dot minky (super soft) backing.  The center is a nine piece panel with sashings of the flannel.

 This is the quilt -- you can see the polka dot back, serving as a back drop for the Wedgewood set of dishes (saucer, bowl, and cup).  A book with the complete collection of Beatrix Potter Stories, another quilt with the Running Peter Rabbit against a pink back ground - two burp cloths and one bib are included.

I made a lace trimmed bookmark to mark the Jemima Puddle Duck story, and added a custom made quilted gift card.

So hopefully these gifts will help catch another baby and create a reader.  Hope the parents take the hint and read to their child every day.








Check out other book packages for catching young readers at http://greenfroggifts.blogspot.com/2015/05/building-readers-one-baby-at-time.html -- Green Frog Gifts helps to build readers -- one baby/toddler at a time.

~~~

Do you have a book package that you'd like to order -- suggest something special just for you...  Visit Greenfroggifts on Etsy for the latest choices. 

Order cookie cutters, aprons, and baker's cloths from Green Frog Gifts -- unique gifts -- many $10.00 or under.

More Books - More Readers

Continuing with our initiative to provide welcoming gifts to babies and toddlers in order to help build readers throughout our community.
For a couple of toddlers Green Frog Gifts created a themed bag to hold a new book and a stuffed animal.

 and then it's spring by Julie Fogilano and illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Roaring Brook Press, 2012). 

Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead, and illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Roaring Brook Press, 2012)

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers (Philomel Books, 2013)

A sequel created by Daywalt and Jeffers could also be paired with this crayon themed package.  The Day the Crayons Came Home (Philomel Books, 2015).









Check out our other book packages for young readers at http://greenfroggifts.blogspot.com/2015/05/building-readers-one-baby-at-time.html -- Green Frog Gifts helps to build readers -- one baby/toddler at a time.

~~~

Do you have a book package that you'd like to order -- suggest something special just for you...  Visit Greenfroggifts on Etsy for the latest choices. 

Order cookie cutters, aprons, and baker's cloths from Green Frog Gifts -- unique gifts -- many $10.00 or under.