Summer School Countdown!

Hey Kids!

It’s just 36 days until the start of SPEF Summer School! I am looking forward to welcoming students to Hogwarts for Year 1 and Year 2, as well as to Book Cooks Favorites. Check out my flickr gallery for pictures of last year’s classes, or cycle through this blog to read more about them. Haven’t registered yet? Go to the SPEF website for more information. Links to all these sites are located on the left side of this blog. See you soon!

Miss Cong

Harry Potter Widget

The Last Hurrah!

Hello!

First, let me apologize for not being there for your last day of classes. I hope that you enjoyed the day's events with the substitute. It was an honor and a pleasure to work with you all this summer and I hope to see some of you next year!

All of the photos are now up for viewing on flickr (see the link on the left of the screen). Please save any photos you wish as soon as possible. I will leave them up as long as I can, but at some point, will need to take down the albums.

As you can see from the gallery, Book Cooks had several fun recipes the last week of classes, including mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and chicken salad sandwiches. The last recipe was "Cheese Sandwich a la Koo-Koo Face," taken from the Madeline cartoon they watched on the last day. The sandwiches included such ingredients as camembert, brie, olives, peppers, and (gasp!) chocolate syrup! Students were free to design their own sandwiches on white or wheat bread.

For the last week of Hogwarts before the end of term we held our quidditch tryouts, awarded the House Cup (congratulations Hufflepuff House!), handed out certificates of completion for first years, and auctioned off some items, mainly from Snape's potions stores and Dumbledore's stash of Honeydukes confections. On the last day, they got to see some of the real-life inspirations for J.K. Rowling's stories. Oh, have you heard? They are releasing a version of The Tales of Beedle the Bard, and they are making it available to everyone...even MUGGLES! Find out more at your local bookstore or library.

Alright all, that's it! Have a great summer, rest up, and good luck next year! Email me if you have any questions or comments. :)

Hogwarts: Studying

With exams and quidditch tryouts coming up, everyone has been working very hard at completing their coursework. It was still a pretty eventful time, what with finding the Mirror of Erised and Hagrid hatching a baby dragon! The Mirror shows you your greatest desire, Head Boy or Girl, perhaps? Hagrid's a little down in the dumps lately, since Baby Norbert had to go live with Charlie Weasley in Romania.

Well all, tomorrow is the big quidditch tryout! It's going to be chaos, since everyone is going to want to go out for the team, but it'll be fun!

Book Cooks: 8 More Dishes

Here are 8 delicious dishes from Book Cooks, 4 each from Breakfast and Afternoon Snack.


Peach Lassi (The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Everything Waffles (Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath)
Buttered Apples (Ten Apples Up On Top by Dr. Seuss)
Hoecakes (George Washington's Breakfast by Jean Fritz)

Cranberry Fool (The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett)

Meatballs with Mushroom Gravy (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett)

Mommy Bear's Sandwiches (Mr. Wolf and the Three Bears by Jan Fearnley)

Huff Puffs (Mr. Wolf and the Three Bears by Jan Fearnley)

Check out the pictures in our online photo gallery at flickr!

Hogwarts: Potions, Halloween Treats, and Herbology

I was happy to step in for Professor Snape, who was feeling a bit under the weather, due to an attack by a three-headed dog, last week. Since the students are only first years, we did a few simple potions. The first was a swelling solution, which we applied to the nose of someone unfortunate enough to not be looking when we took it. In only two days, the nose had swelled to at least double the size. The next day, we practiced making the slime-ification solution, but alas, no pictures. I don't have a magical camera, and I left my bewitched muggle one at home.

We finished off the week with Chapter 10, Halloween. All trolls aside, it did sound like a lovely celebration, so we all had a piece of pumpkin bread and a mug of butterbeer to celebrate the holiday. Don't forget to add the butterbeer elixir, but remember that a little goes a long way! As I only had two 13 oz. bottles of butterbeer left, an expanding charm made the bottles a much larger 3L. each and the elixir intensified the flavors.

On Monday, I had to take over for Professor Sprout, who had an unfortunate incident removing an adolescent mandrake plant. The class met in Greenhouse 1 and everyone planted their own mandrakes from seed. We'll be checking these periodically to make sure they are growing nicely. Remember, you should only pull out juvenile mandrakes, and only with your earmuffs on.

Oh, and did you hear? Gryffindor beat Slytherin in Quidditch the other day. By a score of 150-60. We'll be having try-outs for next year's team at the end of term. Sign up with Madam Hooch if you're interested.

Book Cooks: Week 2 and a Little Bit of 3

Oh yum! Last week, Book Cooks Breakfast tried out these recipes: Sausage Balls (Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder); Bacon, Eggs, and Mushrooms (Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy by CS Lewis); Swedish Rice Porridge (American Girls); and

Coriander Pancakes with Mango Chutney (The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett).

The Sausage Balls contained apples and sage and were flattened a bit to help them cook through. I forgot my camera on the day we made the bacon, eggs, and mushrooms so this is not a photo of our actual dish, but close enough! Swedish Rice Porridge, also called Skansk Grot (skone-sk grurt) was made with apples and raisins. We kicked off this week with an exotic Indian-inspired recipe for pancakes. The first batch of chutney didn't turn out so well, but I think the 2nd period batch, with less vinegar, and the addition of cinnamon, was delicious! As for the pancakes themselves, there were three kinds: plain, bacon, and "fake bacon," though all were flavored with coriander and curry powder.

Not to be outdone, Afternoon Snack cooked up these delicious recipes: Fresh Mudburgers (James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl), Wormy Spaghetti (The Twits by Roald Dahl), Ice Cream Snowballs (American Girls), and Three Bean Salad (Jack and the Bean Stalk).

We substituted turkey for the beef in our mudburgers and topped them with relish (oh so revoltingly green!). The wormy spaghetti used 4 different kinds of pasta, including rotini worms (in place of fusilli). We had to work really fast to roll these snowballs! Dishing up ice cream out in the hot summer sun was a messy proposition. Monday's three bean salad was both tangy and sweet, though not necessarily a big hit with the class! We did have to substitute lima beans for the traditional yellow wax beans since I just couldn't find them in the grocery store this time.

Pictures for most of these great class activities can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/miss_cong/

We are up-to-date through Friday the 11th.