Useful websites with regard to art lessons and related crafting activities

Here is the list of useful websites with regard to art lessons and related crafting activities. My daughter's school art teacher suggests this list, and so I post it here.

http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/
http://artlessonsforkids.me/tag/art-projects-for-elementary-students/
http://www.kinderart.com/artlessonsbygrade/primary.shtml

Hope this helps. 

Small pies stuffed with feta cheese

This afternoon I made small pies stuffed with feta cheese, and they tasted so delicious! Rafael and Eleni already ate some of them after I had brought them to home from school, and they loved this snack! So, why not share this recipe with you? I took this recipe from a Greek cooking blog called Betty's Cuisine (Greek language). Let me translate the recipe in English with a few modifications of my own: 

Recipe for small pies stuffed with feta cheese

Ingredients for 30 pies:

For the dough:

100 gr butter

1 yogurt 200 gr (I prefer FAGE yogurt)

2 cups flour, all-purpose

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

For the filling:

150 gr feta cheese

1 egg

pepper

1 egg yolk for brushing

Procedure: 

Beat the butter in a mixer for 3-4 minutes. Add the yogurt to the butter, and beat it for a few minutes.

Mix the flour with the baking powder, baking soda and salt, and gradually mix into the butter. Beat until you get a smooth and elastic dough, which will not stick your hands and also is easily kneaded.

In the meantime, crumble the feta cheese and the egg with a fork. Add a little freshly-ground black pepper. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Dust the dough with a little flour on both sides and put it on a clean surface.

Roll the kneaded dough with a rolling pin. When the dough becomes thin, cut out discs using a small plate with a diameter of about 10 cm for guidance.

Fill each disc with a spoonful of the cheese mix, as shown in the picture below.

Fold each disc over and pinch the edges together with a small fork.

Brush the discs with the egg yolk mixed with a little water. I also added sesame seeds.

Place the pies on an oven tray lined with parchment paper. Bake them for about 20 minutes until they are golden-brown. 

Enjoy the pies hot or cold! 

Bon appetit! 

Homemade playdough

Rafael and Eleni love playing with homemade playdough, because I think it is softer than play-doh, which means that play-doh might be more appropriate for older children. Homemade playdough can last about six months. Play-doh dries very fast. I used the first recipe at http://fun.familyeducation.com/sculpting/recipes/37040.html Try it!

Handmade bookstand

Because I hate to sign with one hand when I read a book to Rafael and Eleni, I decided to make a bookstand, which is made from...cardboard and fabric.

The bookstand on the left is handmade. The one on the right is store-bought. The handmade bookstand works better with big books. Also, it allows you to turn pages more easily with one hand. 

Traditional German cinnamon star Christmas cookies

My husband, Christian translates the German recipe for traditional German cinnamon star cookies in English on behalf of me. These cookies are yummy! When Rafael and Eleni see them, they don't hesitate to eat them at all! That is why I asked Christian to give me this recipe and to share it with others. 

RECIPE

3 egg whites

250 g powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (the recipe calls for 1 packet of FrenchVanilla, but that's mainly because in Europe the real thing is not affordable)

3 drops almond extract

1 teaspoon cinnamon

275-325 g ground unblanched almonds (I use the ones from Trader Joe's )

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 150 C (300 F).
Beat the egg whites until stiff. Sift the powdered sugar and graduallyadd to the egg whites while beating. Take two heaping tablespoons offthe mixture and set them aside for later. Continue to mix in thevanilla extract, almond extract, and cinnamon. Slowly (on low if youuse an electric mixer) stir in half of the ground almonds. Continue toknead in the rest of the almonds until the mixture loses itsstickiness. Depending on how big the eggs were, you may need to usemore or less than the amount specified in the ingredient list.

If needed, stir in a few drops of water into the two tablespoons ofthe sweetened egg whites that you set aside earlier. The mixtureshould be smooth and easy to brush on.

Dust a working surface with powdered sugar. Roll out the dough to athickness of 1/2 cm, and cut out the cookies - the traditional way isto use a star shape, but that's up to you. Set on baking sheets linedwith parchment paper, and brush with the egg white mixture.

Bake for 20-30 minutes. The underside of the cookies should still beslightly soft when you take them out of the oven, so that the cookiesstay chewy. Set out on a rack to cool and store in an airtight tin.

I found that it is best to bake only one sheet at a time for 20minutes. If you bake multiple sheets at the same time, the top willbrown before the cookies are sufficiently firm.

Enjoy!