Historic Accuracy

Rebecca's Swim Costume

Recently a friend sent us an email filled with several wonderful black and white photographs from Samantha and Rebecca's time periods. The one I just had to share with you is of Atlantic City, NJ in 1915. Check out what everyone is wearing!

Do any of the outfits look familiar?

Best Wishes,

OG: MAP 2

Our Generation Mad About Plaid

Who Wears it Best

The other day Melody reviewed a great new outfit - the Our Generation Mad About Plaid outfit.In fact, it is such a neat outfit the girls barely made any changes to how they wore it. Everyone wanted to try the comfy socks and boots. Let's see how they made it unique.

Melody

I was the easy one. You already saw how I wanted to wear it...with the Boho Beauty vest.

Kaya

Love these socks, but I liked them folded down over the boots. For added warmth I grabbed our navy sweatshirt.

Kirsten

This is a great outfit. Matched my hair ribbons and everything. I pulled the socks waaaay up and added the reversible, quilted vest - red side out.

Lanie

We share really well, but might fight over this outfit now and then. Wonderful for fall, winter, and early spring. I grabbed my white denim jacket.

Haley

I focused on accessories. A bright red headband and ruffled infinity scarf make this outfit pop.

Hmmm, I just noticed everyone chose to wear their hair up for this one (yes, Kaya and Kirsten always do, but still).

"What do you think? Who wore it best?

Best wishes,

Note: The links above provide more information on wardrobe items. All AG accessories items are from retired sets.

Kitchen Class with Xyra

In the Kitchen with Lanie and Xyra

Recipe of the ____ (Day, Week, Month, Year)

Pennsylvania Dutch AP Cake

Hi! AP (Apeas or Apey) Cake is a wonderful Pennsylvania Dutch tradition. Now most people eat it at breakfast like a coffee cake, but in the past it was also served as dessert. 

If you were to search for a recipe online you'd find a whole bunch. Some with egg, others without. Some with white sugar in the batter and some with white sugar sprinkled on top. I think I even saw one that added vanilla. 

Ours is very basic - nothing fancy at all, but very delicious! Just flour, brown sugar, baking soda, butter, and buttermilk (or sour milk).

It's really awesome with fresh churned butter and buttermilk. Fresh buttermilk is not thick or sour like you get at the grocery store.

You want your butter to be soft or at least room temperature. Then add the flour.

Brown sugar and baking soda.

Now use a pastry blender to combine the dry ingredients with the butter until you get crumbs.

Like this. 

I use the long handled blender, but was taking a little too long, so Xyra stepped in with hers.

Now add the milk.

This is the really fun part. you have to combine the milk and flour mixture until you get a dough. I suppose you could use a dough hook on a mixer, but we dig right in and mix with our hands. (Scrubbed them first, of course.)

Your dough will look like this. So why is the mixing the best part? Some of the batter stays on your fingers and you can lick it off - no raw items in the batter. My favorite part.

Then you split the batter or dough into two balls and place them in each in a pie tine and pop them in the oven.

Set the timer and wait.

(Time passes)

Ohhhh, it smells delicious!

Make sure it is done by inserting a skewer (metal or wood works) in the center. If it comes out clean, it's done. Put the tins on a rack to cool. Can be served warm or cold.

This is a slice of the done AP Cake. 

Very tasty with milk and tea. I've heard it is good with coffee too. Some people dunk it.

Xyra Note

As mentioned above I was testing our oven - the bottom heating element was not working and these cakes did not look as lovely as they should have. So no full picture of the done cake. Usually the finished cakes are a nice golden brown with a lovely hard outer crust and dense cake inside. You can make the cakes in all sizes from the 3 or 4 inch tart pans up to 9 or 10 inches. Just watch your time and adjust as needed.

Does this sound like something you'd like to try?

Best wishes,

Book Review: Nancy Drew #21

Kid Lit Blog Hop Continues

In our last review we mentioned participating in a book review blog hop. We'll be linking to the latest hop post so when you visit you can see the different books that are discussed or reviewed. In future posts, this button and a link will be at the end of our post.

Now on with our reviews of...

The Secret in the Old Attic

by Carolyn Keene

Quick note: We are posting the Nancy Drew book reviews in series order not in the order read. So if a sentence in Xyra's review sounds funny it's because, of the 4 we read, she read this one last.

Haley

This spooky old house has an even spookier attic. Shadowy figures lurking in the gardens appearing and disappearing - you might think wizards were apparating. Nancy is so brave, but in this one you see her polite demeanor crack slightly. She gets...what's the word?  Oh, yes, exasperated with a couple of the characters, but she still keeps her cool.

Kirsten

Secrets everywhere! Love it! This time Nancy's case seemed like a scavenger hunt as well as a proper mystery. I kept turning the pages to find out what she would discover next. A great read especially if you like big old houses with...not giving away any spoilers. Check it out when you have time; I'm sure you'll like it.

Kaya'aton'my

The use of candles was a bit unnerving, but that...oh, there was one other part that left me confused. However, with the news of this and that pop star being sued for sampling songs without giving credit the situation was understandable. Also let me know that even though music styles may change there are still people willing to cheat to get to the top. I did enjoy reading this one. 

Lanie

Let me at those gardens! I'll make them tidy so prowlers can't hide in them. I wish they still built houses with secrets like this one. You'd never get bored. It's kind of sad that the grandfather is so clueless when it comes to his granddaughter. Oh, and it was really interesting that measles is mentioned in this book; made it more current.

Melody

A great read! I learned to always have a flashlight handy with extra batteries, if possible. Maybe even a camping lantern. Exploring in the dark is creepy. Nancy gets tired in the one - we don't see that happen a lot, but it's nice to see even super heroes or sleuths have to bend to human nature now and then. Like Kirsten, I read this one quickly wanting to see what would happen next; it was hard to put down.

Xyra's Review

The Secret in the Old Attic by Carolyn Keene
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Love, love, love this Nancy Drew installment! She stays in River Heights...how can it be better than the great places I have been with her lately? The main setting is one of the things that really excites me...an old mansion with secret rooms and passageways! Furniture with hidden drawers and compartments. AND a factory with a secret laboratory. I could have done without the black widow spiders, but that's a small price to pay.

Nancy is awesome! Strong, compassionate, inquisitive, intuitive, and so much more. She does most of the work this time with help from Effie (who is most definitely the complete opposite of Effie from The Hunger Games trilogy) as well as Bess and George. We do get to see how manipulative she can be in how she used Diana, but Nancy felt guilty doing so. And I finally understand my friend who notes how great Ned is to appear...well, that would be a spoiler so I'll let you find out what he does. Yep, perfect boyfriend.

A great read!


Would you like to find a secret passage, drawer, or compartment? What would you hope to find in it?

Best wishes,

#KidLitBlogHop

Meet The Girls Updated

Better Late Than Never

Haley Added...Finally

Yes, it's true! 

Haley Rose Silverleaf has been added to our Meet the Girls page. If you haven't had a chance to visit that part of the blog...no time like today. :) Please check it out; lots of fun details on all of us there.

Best wishes,