Maple Candy. Maple Syrup. Maple Bacon. Maple Cookies.
Canadians love maple flavours, it’s built into our heritage! We eat lots of pancakes and cover them in maple syrup! It's a standard in our Canadian cupboards.
But what about Maple Snow Taffy? The kind poured out on snow and spun on a popsicle stick? Have you ever made it at home?
Snow Taffy is a special treat delicacy that we eat somewhere like a maple syrup festival or maybe a winter festival like Ottawa’s Winterlude.
Recently the moms from momstown Georgina decided to make Maple Taffy at home as a delicious experiment for their Little Scientists program.
Making Snow Taffy is something that momstown Georgina hosts each year for some winter fun. Normally it's a backyard event but it was so cold we brought the snow inside to make snow taffy.
Making snow taffy is so easy (doesn't need to be reserved for festivals!) and so much fun. All you need is maple syrup + snow. (We used basic grocery store “syrup” instead of the real maple kind since we had a big crowd. If you’re looking a truly authentic treat, use real maple syrup.)
I gathered snow from the backyard (make sure its fresh and white!) and kept the snow in the freezer to make sure it didn't melt while we were cooking the syrup.
Next we poured some maple syrup into a pot and cooked it until it started bubbling. As it cooks you will feel it get thinker and stickier as you stir.
Be very careful to keep little hands out of the way of hot bubbling syrup!! Pour a little onto the snow, if it sinks to the bottom keep cooking. If it settles then you're ready to pour onto the snow and make your taffy.
You can eat it right out of the snow—or twist onto sticks and enjoy!
Thanks to the owner of momstown Georgina, Kim Edmiston, for sharing her recipe fun!
Are you Irish? Part-Irish? On St Patrick’s Day you are!
St Patrick’s Day is a fun holiday to celebrate with families—there are rainbows and leprechauns for the kids and beer for the adults. How much better can it get?
This year St Patrick’s Day will fall over many schools' March break and it can be a fun themed playdate or mid-week party to host with your kids and their friends. Here are our quick ways to turn a regular day into a St Patrick’s Day party very quickly.
1st Step is EASY Decorations! Think rainbows, rainbows, rainbows! How many rainbows can we create quickly??
Balloons make a colourful arch over any doorway and this can be done with very little effort or time but create an impact immediately. We weighted these balloons down with a jellybean to keep them pulled down.
We all have streamers left over from birthdays and a few paper plates kicking around. Cut the plates in half and colour a rainbow and create a suncatcher by attaching the streamers. Presto—a rainbow decorations that you can hang in windows, down from the ceiling. The more the merrier!
Rainbow Games and Activities
Toss a bunch of rainbow jellybeans in a mason jar and start a guessing game: Who can guess the right number of beans? A fun old school game that everyone will love. When we played it as a family it was our Grandpa who won and I don't think he could have been any happier!
Rainbow Crafts can be fun if you have a crafty crowd! The moms at momstown have done our share of crafts from bead and glue rainbows, cereal rainbows, or handprint rainbows.
Rainbow Food!
Forget about your previous thoughts on why you may avoid coloured dye usually, let’s embrace the colours today! Pancakes are a huge favourite any day and any time. Make pancakes in favourite colours for extra fun!
Imagine the surprise and delight when you cut open this cake? It’s all multicoloured inside! So easy to make and your kids will keep on talking about it for a long time.
Enough food colouring and green beer? Bring on the healthy options? Okay…let’s put a spin on the usual fruit tray with a rainbow fruit tray and make it an easy rainbow too.
Enjoy and Happy St. Patrick's Day!
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