Fortnite Fever!

They say if you haven't heard of Fortnite...you've been living under a rock.   A few weeks ago, I'll admit, I was livng under a rock.  I hadn't heard about this latest video game phenomonom.  My daughter told me that her boyfriend and his brother and sister were obsessed.  They said you really need to have a "Fortnite Daycamp".  Well of course we couldn't have one until we really understood the game itself.  So after some research...some game playing...and a lot of eliminations....we were ready to plan our adventure.  Most people who play Fortnite are so obsessed with the game that we knew we had to capture the essence of these fans in a slogan.  After consulting with a few rabid fans we decided on EAT, SLEEP, FORTNITE, REPEAT.  The plan was to tie dye these shirts.  Throughout the daycamp we played our version of Fortnite, where some students got eliminated, but had the chance to be put back in the game.  We went to Tomato Town to make pizza and then had slurp juice and medkits for dessert.  We did Fortnite dances and when the day was through...we had a grand champion!  Here's some photos of our Fortnite Fun.

Christmas in July at Cook n Craft Academy!

So we started this day camp by asking our students...how many days until Christmas?  Do you know?  Some of them were actually really close and some were just adorable with their guesses!  The correct answer (as of yesterday) was 167 days (let's start shopping now and forget the rush in December!)  However if you were at Cook n Craft Academy yesterday---Christmas was then!  We baked 3 different kinds of Christmas Cookies, and made Frozen Hot Chocolate.  It was so much fun to see the kids create and decorate their favorite sugar cookies.  Here's some fun pictures, and the recipes for our delicious cookies.  And here's to Christmas....around the corner!


SUGAR COOKIE RECIPE:

Ingredients

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Directions

WATCH

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl. Divide the dough in half, wrap in waxed paper, and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Sprinkle surface where you will roll out dough with powdered sugar. Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, sprinkle rolling pin with powdered sugar, and roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Move the dough around and check underneath frequently to make sure it is not sticking. If dough has warmed during rolling, place cold cookie sheet on top for 10 minutes to chill. Cut into desired shape, place at least 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges.  Let cool....ice as desired. 

SNOW BALL COOKIES

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons water

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup chopped PECANS
• 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Stir in vanilla and water. Add the flour and pecans , mix until blended. Cover and chill for 3 hours.
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
3. Shape dough into balls . Place on an unprepared cookie sheet and bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven. Remove from pan to cool on wire racks. When cookies are cool, roll in confectioners' sugar. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.

HOLLY COOKIES

1 serving2 servings3 servings4 servings5 servings6 servings7 servings8 servings9 servings10 servings11 servings12 servings13 servings14 servings15 servings16 servings17 servings18 servings19 servings20 servings21 servings22 servings23 servings24 servings25 servings26 servings27 servings28 servings29 servings30 servings31 servings32 servings33 servings34 servings35 servings

½ cup	butter
3 cups	miniature marshmallows
½ teaspoon	almond extract
½ teaspoon	vanilla extract
1 teaspoon	green food color
4 cups	cereal (2 cups cornflakes and 2 cups cinnamon toast crunch.)
add	red hot candies Melt butter, add marshmallows, stirring until all marshmallows are melted. Add extracts and food coloring; stir until it is a uniform green color. When mixture is smooth, add corn flakes; mix well but gently so as not to crush the cornflakes. Form into 3" mounds on sheets of waxed paper, decorate with red cinnamon candies . Let cool.