March Inn

Why"March Inn?" March Inn was the name of that magic place where I spent my summers growing up. I have alluded to this place before, and I probably will again. March Inn is no longer standing. The waters of Katrina rendered it unlivable so my children will never know that "March Inn." That makes me sad. In fact it brings me to tears whenever I think about it. I want my children to have their own "March Inn," and I want to capture our lives as they are growing and changing. I invite you to "march inn" to our lives. My hope is that you will catch glimpses of the real world. You will see our creations. You will see our chaos. You will see our affection. You will also see our frustrations, fears, and disappointments. Enjoy your march!

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Wednesday...Zoop!

Once, a very long time ago, I taught school.  My very first, first day of school as a teacher was wonderfully rewarding yet extremely difficult.  Well that could be said of everyday of that entire school year.  You see, I was an early childhood special education teacher in a class with twelve children with twelve different sets of extreme special needs.  One bit daily.  One had seizures.  One was prone to pull the fire alarm.  One was born with Down's Syndrome and had leukemia.  I could go on and on, but I won't.   

What I remember most about that day is what we did for a reading activity.  We read the book Today is Monday by Eric Carle.  We started school on a Wednesday so we made zoop.  Now my friends to this day I have no idea what "zoop" is.  In fact I have pondered this recently as I was reading to my kidos.  On this particular Wednesday many moons ago, "zoop" was what I would now call gorp ~ a mixture of granola, raisins, peanuts and m&ms.
I still smile when I say the word zoop.  So what's the point.  Well mainly that it's Wednesday and Wednesday makes me think of zoop.  Come on how can you not smile when you say Wednesday...zoop!  Say it again and exagerate the syllables.  It'll make you smile.

But I digress ~

Leaping forward to this day...it has been a glorious fall day here in our neck of the woods.  Mary Frances started choir, and the rest of us got to play at the park ~ one we haven't been to in years.  Frank has a meeting and dinner for work.  Everyone was being really good and sweet and helpful and kind and well all of those other adjectives that you wish your children were all of the time.  I decided we should have some dessert.

So here's what I did...I knew there was some ice cream in the freezer.  And then I recalled that I had stashed some unused sugar cookie dough in there somewhere.  Oh yeah, there was also some leftover homemade magic shell chocolate sauce in the refrigerator.

Hmm...what did I do?  I ran through my head full of idea files.  Sometime during the summer I saw in a magazine where someone had formed cookie dough on the backside of a muffin pan to make a bowl for ice cream.  So that my friends is what we tried. 

I took out the dough to defrost.  We played for a few minutes.  We took baths.  We ate supper. 
Then, I rolled out my dough.  I cut circles.  I placed the circles of cookie dough on the backside of a mini muffin pan. 

I baked them at 350 degrees for about ten minutes.  While they were cooking I put Betsy to bed.  In my eyes she didn't need dessert.  She probably sees it differently. 

I took the cookie bowls off of the pan and placed them on individual plates.  I let them cool and therefore harden while I cleaned the kitchen and the magic shell chocolate sauce heated in a pot of boiling water.  Remember we have no microwave.  Oh wait, I might not have told you that before.  I'll save that for another day.

I gave each of us one scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate sauce.  Perfect portions! 

The kids thought it was super cool that the chocolate sauce hardened on the cold ice cream.  Actually I think it's really cool too.
I loved the portion size and the cookie bowls were really neat.  Truth be told chocolate chip cookie dough would have been tastier.

I think I'll begin calling Wednesday dessert ZOOP.

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