Tropical Fruits

Aunt Jeanine taught the Keepers club all about Tropical Fruits on Thursday.  What is a tropical fruit?  A tropical fruit is a fruit grown on a tree native to the tropics. The tropics are generally defined as the region of the globe between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The most obvious distinguishing feature of the tropics is the heat. The tropics are warm, year-round, and they are also very humid, with some areas receiving lots of rain every year.   This is why oranges are grown in Florida where the weather is warm year round, and not in New York!

Aunt Jonell came and showed us pictures of her pineapple plant!  It was very interesting!  You could start a pineapple plant too!  All you have to do is plant the pineapple top and wait for 2 years to get your first fruits!  :)

Cutting a pineapple

You can lightly write secret messages on a banana with a toothpick!

20 minutes later you will start to see what the message says. 

Bananas are bruised easily so handle your message carefully or it might vanish!  :)

 

 

Cutting mangos...yum!

Star fruits (or carambolas)

Papaya

Coconut!

A clementine candle!  The wick is the center part of the clementine. 

Fill the clementine with olive oil as your fuel!

Abigail, Lillia, and Faith enjoying their fruit cups.

Snow & Sledding

  Last night it snowed about 3 1/2" so this afternoon, Joy, Elainah, and I went sledding.

Joy making snow angels

Their finished products...

 CRASH!

 It's a good thing we brought wood in the other day!

Pennsylvania State Farm Show

  This morning Pop-pop and Uncle Mike drove up from Maryland and took Joshua, Lillia, Hope, Joy, and I to the 96th annual PA State Farm Show.  It was really fun!  We saw cows, horses, sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, and roosters being, powdered, groomed, sheared, showed, and judged!   There were tons of free food samples and many interesting booths with cheese, ice cream, honey, meats, breads, etc.!

Cows being showed in the Equine Arena

Hope watching the goat showing

Groomed sheep sleeping in their "keep 'em clean" blankets!  :)

This cute little sheep was sleeping with it's head on his leg!  :)

Check out this guy's horns!

The 22nd annual butter scupltur this year was a scene at the county fair. 
Made with 1,000 lbs. of butter, this piece of art took more than 10 days to create!

Leave a comment letting me know how much you think this pumpkin weighs  :)

This little boy was laying in the straw with his cow!  :)

 Tasting Red Deer meat

Lillia, Hope, and Joy with the cornucopia

Soft Pretzel Recipe

I have had several requests for the Soft Pretzel recipe so I thought maybe others would like it as well.  If you end up making them, please leave me a comment letting me know how they turned out!

Soft Pretzels

3 T yeast

3 c. warm water

2 T brown sugar

1 tsp. salt

7-8 cups flour

We usually combine our ingredients in a large Tupperware bowl that has a lid.  (Thatsa' bowl)  Sprinkle the yeast onto the water.  Let it set for a few minutes.  Knead all the ingredients together.  Put the lid on the bowl and cover with a tea towel.  Set the bowl in a warm place to rise for 10-20 minutes.  Sticky dough means a soft pretzel, heavy dough means a hard pretzel.  After the dough has risen, turn the bowl upside down and put the dough on the lid, this is now your cutting board.  We use a pizza cutter to cut off sections of dough.  Roll out a handful of dough and form into a pretzel.  If you like thinner pretzels make your handful smaller.  Fill a pie plate with 1 tsp. backing soda and add boiling water. (You might want to get this ready while your dough is rising)  Dip your pretzel into the mixture.  This helps the pretzels become a nice golden brown.  If you don't dip them in this, they will look a pasty white.  Pat the pretzel, so it's not dripping wet, onto a tea towel then place it onto a greased baking sheet.  Sprinkle Kosher salt (we use pretzel salt bought in bulk) on the pretzels.  Bake at 450 degrees for 7-10 minutes.  Remove the hot pretzels from the oven and brush with melted butter, we dunk ours upside down in a bowl of butter.  When you put them in your serving dish, right side up, the butter runs down the sides.  We usually put them in a pot with a lid so they stay warm while the next batch is baking.  Serve and enjoy! 

Our Amish neighbor, Becca Riehl, taught us how to make these yummy pretzels a few years ago. 

She used to work at an Amish market making and selling thousands of soft pretzels.  She can really flip them out!  We have been served soft pretzels in many Amish homes.  It is an easy recipe that you can make with everyday ingredients and don't have to make a special trip to the grocery store!

 We enjoy dipping out pretzels in a homemade mustard sauce, perhaps you would like to try it as well?  (This is also Becca's recipe :)

Sweet & Sour

Mustard Sauce

1 c. brown sugar

1/2 c. vinegar

1/3 c. dry mustard

3 T water

2 eggs; beaten

Cook in saucepan for about ten minutes, or until thickened.  Make sure to stir so it doesn't scorch!  You can make this ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator.

Arizona!!!

   On Wednesday (the 4th) our family loaded up in our van and headed to the airport.  Every year, Bro. Bobby Wertz hosts Harmony in the Desert  in Tucson, Arizona.  It is a wonderful time to hear believers sing praises and to meet up with friends you haven't seen in a long time!  :)   We left on Wednesday, got to Dallas Fort Worth and spent the night there.  We caught a flight out on Thursday morning and arrived in Tuscon around  10 a.m.  After getting the rental cars we headed over to Uncle Samuel and Aunt Robin's house.  We got a hotel and went swimming in the afternoon, and then went to Harmony in the Desert!  The Strite Family sang the first night as well as many others.   About 800 people attended and there were over 2,000 people listening on the internet to the audio streaming!  If you ever get a chance to go, we highly recommend it!

    On Friday Aunt Robin, Nathan, and Genia went with us up Mt. Lemon.  It was really neat to go through the different "climates".  We started off in the desert, then we went through the plains, up into the pine trees, and finally into snow!  We told Nathan that he has more snow that we do at our house!  :)  

Genia and Hope

Prickly Pear Cactus

Playing in the stream

We found the bottom part of a basketball hoop stand and used it as a sled!  Redneck sleddin'!

Joshua found a piece of cardboard and was using that!

See the rock bird?  :)

Daring Daddy with David

Hope and Joshua climbing on the rocks at Windy Point

Our lil hiker! :)

     When we came down the mountain we went swimming at the hotel and then on to Harmony!

 Hope holding baby Micah David

 David and his buddy, Boaz

The Poe Children

 Friday evening after Harmony, I went home with Joanna Strite!  We had so much fun, I think we stayed up until 2 a.m.  Quiet Time seemed to come really early then!  Still Waters Camp Registration was also on Saturday morning, we all got in except Justin, he's on the waiting list.  Harmony was again in the evening.  On Sunday, Harmony started at 3:00 in the afternoon.  After all the singing Bro. Bobby fed everyone a delicious taco dinner.  I took a few pictures of us with our friends and a few of the singing groups too.  Enjoy!

Joshua Sanger, Joshua Strite, Jared, and Jesse

Liliana, Abigail, Me, Joanna, and Zoe

Bro. Jared and Daddy

Elainah

Cousins Conference

"How should we get in trouble next?"  :)

The Knapps

 Sis. Sally Duke

At the end, all the singers were called up to the stage and sang a few songs together.

Genia, Hope, and Grace