ECC Weeks 5-6 Mexico

Okay, I have to admit Mexico was one of my favorite weeks. We got to make the passports for Squirt and Buddy. We got on the make believe plane and I decked out in very bad Spanish as the flight attendant. I later became the monetary exchange and customs person and exchanged dollars for pesos. We ate lunch at the local "Mexican" restaurant in our kitchen. We ate yummy pastries from a little local Mexican bakery down the road (wow those were good!) I kept calling Buddy "Senor". Later he asked if we could play that game where I say "si".  

We learned allot about deserts and started reading Cameron Townsend. 

We ended our two weeks in Mexico with a fiesta with some friends over. I made from scratch Dulce de leche (which was so good I licked the pot!); chicken enchiladas Rachael Ray style, yellow rice; and my friend made cinnamon and sugar dipped tortillas for the vanilla ice cream and dulce de leche. 

The kids busted open the pinata we had made during the week. You can find the instructions here. 

 

and we decorated the living room and kitchen with tissue paper flowers we had made during the week. The instructions are here. I checked out a Mariachi music CD from the library and had it playing during the fiesta.
Mexico was a blast!




Kids Mexican Yarn Art

Squirt's Fox

 

                                            Buddy's Giraffe (I drew the outline and he glued the yarn)

Recipe for Dulce de leche


1 quart of whole milk
1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda 
dash of vanilla extract (add at the very end after done cooking)

Combine milk & sugar in a sauce pan. Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. And in baking soda and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and reduce heat to lowest setting on your stove. It will not even be boiling but barely simmer (or even less on mine). Cooking until the mixture is a caramel light brown coloring. Stir occasionally. (about every 20-30 minutes or so). Takes 3-4 hours or more ( the lower the heat and the slower it goes but the less likely to burn). You do need to be sure you will be home the whole time you are doing this, but other than an occasional stir the active involvement is nil. When the mixture is done cooking, remove from heat and stir in your vanilla. Pour into a glass jar and let cool. Seal jar and refrigerate. (you can strain the mixture if you want it completely smooth before pouring into jar) Note- pour it into your container while still warm because it will thicken as it cools and be harder to remove from your pot. Kept in a sealed container will keep up to a month in your refrigerator.