A Winter warming vegetable soup!

"Matariki, ahunga nui" - Matariki, provider of plentiful food!

And we certainly had plentiful food!!  Our Kai basket was placed out for contributions of vegetables all throughout the week and we received very generous koha (gifts) from all of our whaanau.

While preparing the vegetables at the kai table, there was many offers of help.  It was fun to work alongside each other on the purposeful task of peeling and chopping the vegetables.  We added onion, kumara, carrot, pumpkin, potato, leeks, onions and picked some fresh herbs from our garden to add to the pot.

 

 

 

Everyone enjoyed the delicious, nutritious soup with several asking for more helpings. 

We have certainly enjoyed our feast week at Uxbridge!!

Making Star Cookies for Matariki Feast.

As a part of making and sharing kai together we decided to bake star cookies. The first step was to wash our hands. We then mixed all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Then in a separate bowl we beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until fluffy. After this we mixed in the eggs and added the dry ingredients. We then balled up the dough and wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for one hour. When the dough was ready we rolled out the dough. Then came the most fun part which was cutting out star shapes using cookie cutters. This was a great practice for our fine motor skills. Then we placed them on a baking tray and it was time to cook them. We then decorated the cookies with different coloured icing and sprinkles and enjoyed them together. Yummy! Kia pai tou tatou Matariki .Happy Matariki everyone.

Maui and the sun

Making Fry Bread

Fry bread is a favourite treat in many Maori feasts and special occasions and today we decided to make some at Uxbridge.

Making fry bread uses yeast and so is a process of several steps. 

Our first step was to combine yeast, flour, water, sugar and milk to make the starter called the sponge. We had great fun measuring each of the ingredients. 

The sponge had to rest for the yeast to activate. we would know this was done when it went frothy. Usually it takes about 15 minutes but today because it was so chilly it took 40! Waiting was hard and we kept checking to see if our mixture was starting to froth. Finally it was ready to go. 

Then it was time to add some flour and some oil.

Then we had to stir and stir to get the ingredients to combine. After this we had to be patient  again while the dough rose for a second time. The it was time to cook and eat our bread. 

Everybody was keen to give it a try even though it was new for some of us. It was delicious!!