Are you all completely sick of our “State-by-State Baking” posts this week?  I promise I will blog about something other than geography and food soon!

The girls have been making great progress this week, catching up on some recipes to go along with the states they have been studying over the winter.   They’ve already completed a recipe for Virginia (I just need to upload the pictures) and will be making Crab Cakes for Maryland on Friday.   We just need to decide on (and make) recipes for New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Kentucky to be all caught up…  We have a couple ideas, but would love some suggestions from anyone that lives there, or is familiar with any great recipes specific to those states!

Anyhow, back to New Hampshire…  New Hampshire, originally one of the thirteen colonies, “created” the new nation by becoming the 9th state on June 21, 1788, meeting the requirement for nine states to ratify the Constitution!  The girls studied this state with the help of G is for Granite: A New Hampshire Alphabet and then completed their Notebook Pages.

To go along with our South Carolina Butterflies and Tea, the girls decided to make an Apple Tea Cake, recalling the apple orchards that were planted by the early settlers in New Hampshire.  As we enjoyed our tea and cake, we read the poem “After Apple Picking” which was written by American poet, Robert Frost in 1914.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 apple, cored and thinly sliced
• extra sugar
• nutmeg

Directions:

1. Cream butter and sugar and then add egg, beating well. 
2. Add flour, baking powder and salt, alternating with milk and mix until light and fluffy.  
3. Pour mixture into a greased and lined cake tin.  
4. Place apple slices decoratively on top of cake and sprinkle with the extra sugar and some nutmeg.
5. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.  (Ours took longer since we used a smaller pan, making the cake deeper.)
6. Remove from pan and cool on tray.  

Resources we used for this State Study:

G is for Granite: A New Hampshire Alphabet
G is for Granite Teacher’s Guide (pdf)
New Hampshire’s Notebooking Page from United States Maps
United States Coloring Book (Dover)
State Birds and Flowers Coloring Book (Dover)
The United States Cookbook: Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States

Other Posts of Interest: 

State-by-State Scrapbook
State-by-State Scrapbook :: New Hampshire

Inspired by The United States Cookbook: Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States the girls decided to make Boston Baked Beans for with our Sunday dinner:

“Early colonists learned to make baked beans from their Native American neighbors. Native Americans flavored the beans with bear meat and maple syrup. The colonists substituted salt pork for the bear meat and molasses for the maple syrup.  Baked beans on Saturday night became a Massachusetts food tradition in colonial times.  The tradition started because Puritans were not allowed to work on Sunday, so beans were cooked on Saturday and served for Sunday’s dinner as well.  Some women who were not so crazy about beans served them only on Sunday.”

We had a few children, Chiquita included, that were not so crazy about these beans.  Maybe if we would have cut back on the onion…

To go along with our Beans and Burgers, the girls also made an extra treat, inspired by some Basketball Cupcakes,  using mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups instead of the cupcakes:

Peanut Butter Cookies (at least 3″ diameter)
Cream Cheese Frosting
Orange Decorator’s Gel
Mini Basketball Chocolates

For each basket, trim the cookie flush with the wrapper’s edges, if needed. Unwrap the peanut butter cup and pipe a ring of decorators’ gel around the edge. (We forgot to do this last step. Oops!) 

For the backboard, frost half of a cookie, then add decorators’ gel details. Keeping the cookie flat, dab frosting where the basket will go and gently press the peanut butter cup in place.

Use another dab of frosting to secure a chocolate basketball. Let the treats set for at least a half hour before standing them up. (We stood ours up right away and didn’t have a problem.)

Other Posts of Interest: 

State-by-State Scrapbook
State-by-State Scrapbook :: Massachusetts

It has been a long time since the girls have made any recipes to go along with their United States Geography Study this year.   We got off to a great start in the fall, making Delaware Peach Crumble, Pennsylvania Hershey’s Chocolate Breakfast Cake, and a New Jersey and Georgia inspired lunch, but then I hit my third trimester and due to a number of extra pregnancy challenges the first things to go were the weekly State-by-State Baking with the girls and all the fun Little Saints Pre-school Activities for Snuggles.  The girls continued studying the various States (in the order they joined the Union) and I promised them that after the baby was a couple months old we would go back and review each state and catch up on their baking.

Well, our little Bud will be 3 months old next week (on the feast of St. Joseph), everyone is starting to recover from the flu, and summer will be here in no time.  Sooo, if we hope to finish at least half the States this year, we had better get busy.   The girls agreed, and were more than excited!  🙂

We started with a recipe for Connecticut today, along with a couple for Massachusetts (I’ll post about those next), and hope to make quite a few more this coming week, before their Daddy leaves for training next weekend.  I guess we will see how it goes!

Inspired by The United States Cookbook: Fabulous Foods and Fascinating Facts From All 50 States the girls decided to make Hamburgers:

“The hamburger was probably first made and sold in New Haven in 1900.  The owner of Louis’ Lunch made hamburgers from the trimmings of steak used in steak sandwiches.  He served the hamburgers on a plate with onions and home fries.   When a customer was in a rush, he asked the owner to put the hamburger between two pieces of bread so he could get going.  Even in 1900 there was a need for fast food!”

And with the state bird being the American Robin… we had to go with a “Red Robin” inspired burger, right?!?   We used the following recipe for Teriyaki Burgers from Bless Us O Lord. (Thank you Barbara!)  Everyone LOVED the burgers and we will definitely be making them again!

Ingredients:

8 – 1/3 pound frozen hamburger patties

Marinade:
1-3/4 c. water
1 c. soy sauce
1 c. light brown sugar
1/2 t. onion powder (we substituted 1/2 tbs. onion flakes)
1/2 t. garlic powder

8 canned pineapple slices
8 slices cheddar cheese
8 sesame seed hamburger buns
mayonnaise
8 tomato slices
8 iceberg lettuce leaves

Directions:

Begin by preparing the marinade and defrosting the hamburger patties.

Combine all marinade ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes, or until sauce thickens. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.

Place burgers in a baking dish or a large storage container. Baste with marinade; flip and baste the other side (be sure to reserve some marinade for the pineapple slices). Cover container and refrigerate 4-12 hours. Place pineapple slices in a separate container with the remaining marinade, cover and chill.

(Ask  Daddy to…) Preheat grill to medium heat. Cook hamburgers 3 to 5 minutes per side, or to desired doneness. When you flip the burgers, add the pineapple to grill and cook until the grill marks show, turning once. About 1 minute before the burgers are done, place a slice of cheese on top of each patty to melt.

Spread mayonnaise on the top and bottom of each bun.

Place hamburger patty on bottom bun and top with a tomato slice and a grilled pineapple slice on each. Cover with a lettuce leaf and place top bun on sandwich.

Other Posts of Interest: 

State-by-State Scrapbook
State-by-State Scrapbook :: Connecticut