30) Growing, Cooking,Eating and Reading Vegetable Soup

I have finally given into the fact that Fall is here and that means it is time for soup! I love soup it is easy to make, tastes better after a few days in the fridge and their are so many kinds. However one kind we had never tried was the vegetable soup recipe in the back of "Growing Vegetable Soup" by Lois Ehlert. This is one of our favorite books and every time we read it I always think about trying the recipe. The book takes the reader through the stages of growing a garden starting with selecting and planting seeds all the way through picking and cooking. Our garden is a little past it's prime so we only used some carrots from our yard, which I think was enough to give the Bee and Bean the idea. They girls helped me get the carrots, prep some of the veggies and carefully stirred the soup. However the best part was of course eating the soup, and the most impressive part to me was that they both ate it!
Here is the recipe for vegetable soup: (although I honestly just used whatever veggies we had around and it was delicious)

1. wash and Cut:
1 large onion peeled
2 carrots
1 medium potato with skin
9 green beans
1/6 small head of cabbage
1 stalk of broccoli
3 medium tomatoes
1 small green pepper
1 zucchini
1 ear corn, husked
slice onion and carrots into rounds. Cut potato into cubes and beans into 1-inch pieces. Chop cabbage wedge into shards. Put in a large cooking pot. Set aside.
Slice broccoli stem into rounds; leave tops whole. Chop tomatoes into eighths. Cut out stem of green pepper and take out seeds; slice pepper into rounds, then into pieces. Slice zucchini into rounds. Cut corn of cob. Put into bowl. Set aside.

2. Get Ready:
4 bouillon cubes
5 cups of water
1 handful peas
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup snipped parsley
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 teaspoon dried thyme
salt and pepper to taste

3. Cook:
Add bouillon cubes and water to cooking pot with vegetables. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes.

Add peas. Add vegetables in bowl. Add herbs. Stir. Bring to simmer. Taste, then add salt and pepper. Stir. Simmer, uncovered about 10 minutes longer, until vegetables are crisp-tender.

3) Childrens Books that Inspire Creativity

Here is a list of some of my favorite children's books that inspire creativity, get kids to look at things differently and inspire kids to make stuff.

1) Beautiful Oops- By Barney Saltzberg
- All about making "mistakes" as an art teacher I love this book. I find what often holds kids and even adults back is the fear of a mistake. This book helps the reader to realize that sometimes a "mistake" can be the best thing.

2) Ish- By Peter Reynolds
- I LOVE this book. A story of a boy who gives up on drawing because he can't make things look real only to discover that sometime it is okay to just make them real"ish", another great book for those worried about messing up.

3) The Dot- By Peter Reynolds
- from the same author a story about the fear of the white paper and how just starting with a single mark can take you somewhere you never expected.

4) Harold and The Purple Crayon- By Crockett Johnson
- This classic book is another one about how starting with a simple line or just one color can take you places you never imagined.

5) Thank You Bear- By Greg Foley
- Bear finds a box that he thinks will be perfect for mouse but everyone else tells him it is not as great as he thinks. I love this book because it teaches kids to trust their ideas and believe that if they think something is great it is.

6) Almost Famous Daisy- By David Kidd
- Daisy travels the world looking for inspiration for her artwork only to discover that it was right in front of her the whole time. A great book about being inspired by the world around you.

7) The Cloud- By Hannah Cumming
- All about working together and accepting other for who they are. The story of a girl in an art class who only draws a "cloud" and the other students in her class.

8) Little Pea- By Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Jen Corace
- The story of Little Pea who absolutely does not want to eat his candy for dinner. A cute story that gets kids to look at things in a different way.

9) The Red Lemon- By Bob Staake
- A farmer who grows the most perfect yellow lemons is horrified to find a red lemon. A great story about being different and how everyone sees things differently.

10) Not a Box- By Antoinette Portis
- A book all about taking an everyday object like a box and imagining what else it could be. A perfect book for little ones who do this all the time already.


These are a few of my current favorites, I will add more as soon. Does anyone else have a favorite book that inspires creativity?