Tag Archives: lebanon

Color changing flowers experiment – My Little Scientist

Posted on September 21, 2015 | 2 comments

This experiment is a great lesson of “patience” to give to your children, of course beside teaching them about flowers and osmosis. But before going that deep let me tell you it’s also a great fun for the whole family!

Very easy set up; begin by filling the vases with water and desired colors. We used roses and daisies for the experiment. Give a fresh cut to the flowers before placing them in the colored water, it helps for a quicker absorption.

As the flowers drink the colored water, they will start changing colors (due to osmosis effect, in simple words moving water through the stems to make it more comprehensible to your kids as the flowers need to drink). The change won’t start before few hours.

Our first observation was 6 hours later.

The roses were more colored than the daisies. Not all flowers react the same. Nady is so into experiences nowadays, he expects to do one every day after school. I am sure he is fascinated with the outcome thinking it’s magic more than science. I don’t blame him, i would like to believe so also, it brings more fun to the experiment 🙂

Each time we go back to check on the flowers, i don’t hide it, i was even more excited than Nady! And this is how they looked after 24 hours.

The red and yellow looked amazing! the slowest was purple, so we eliminate it, Nady thought it wasn’t fun 🙂 Don’t do that maybe yours will work!

After each observation, Nady wants to take pictures with his magical flowers. Then we put them back each in their corresponding vase.

Honestly i was very impressed with his patience, personally i wasn’t. It was a good exercise for me too.

Last observation was 48 hours later. Here are our beautiful flowers!!

You can leave the flowers in the water as much as you want, the colors will be certainly brighter. It all depends on the patience of your children.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in DIY, way to play

Tagged blog, color changing flowers, experiment, food blogger, jaymmy, kids activity, learning, lebanon, little scientist, magic, marmite et ponpon, mom blogger, osmosis, patience, qatar, science, way to play

Moving water experiment and color mixing – My Little Scientist

Posted on September 16, 2015 | Leave a comment

My precious Nady is experiencing many changes in his life. He has been promoted to big brother and started his first year of school. I believe it’s a lot of changes for a kid of two years and eight months, and for me as well honestly!

I’ve done all i should do to prepare him for his new sibling, and once arrived i did my best to split my care and attention to both equally.

Being home the afternoon with both of them and without any help is the big challenge. I have to take care of the newborn Joud and entertain the older Nady after school. It’s not new for us to enjoy our time together; we play, cook and craft… But nowadays he seems more demanding and seeking for more attention to make sure that maman is still all his!

I had to make our playtime more interesting and captivating. We are experimenting! It’s science time with Nady, for him it’s more of magic 🙂

A fun science experiment and in the same time a good lesson of color mixing. This experiment is very interesting since he can see the two different colors going along the tissue paper to form a new color.

You need 3 jars (containers) i used empty jam jar, water, food coloring and paper towel.

Choose the colors you want to mix. We did blue and yellow (to get green) and then we did red and yellow (to get orange).

Fill a jar with each color you chose (with the help of your kid certainly) and place the empty one in the middle. Fold a paper towel lengthwise. Soak one end of the paper towel into the first color jar and the second end in the empty jar. Same thing goes with the other color jar. Now let your kid watch the colored water moving through the paper towel to reach the empty jar (thanks to capillary action). The middle jar fills up with both colors to form a third one.

Blue +yellow = green! yayyy

Actually we were both enjoying this science experiment! I love his reactions, i love his face 🙂 Now lets try another color:

Red + yellow = orange

After we were done, there was no way for him but to introduce his cars to the experiment. He decided to soak in his small cars to the next day to see what will happen!

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

A lip smacking beef stroganoff

Posted on September 14, 2015 | 4 comments

What a flavorsome savory dish that will grace your table and leave you with enjoyment and comfort. So quick that can be prepared by the time of boiling your tagliatelle. I can promise to soothe your hunger in less than 30 minutes!

It’s a classic russian dish with many variations. My recipe calls for:

500g lean beef strips
1 big onion finely diced
100g butter
2 tbsp flour
1 1/2 cup beef broth (or water)
1 tbsp mustard
1/3 cup wine
200g mushroom
1/2 cup heavy cream
salt to taste

In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and cook the onions slowly until tender (3-4 minutes) , then add the beef strips and brown (3-5 minutes) stirring constantly. Sift in the flour and cook for another 2 minutes. Pour in the broth (or water) along with the mustard and wine. Let it simmer together for 10 minutes. Finally add the mushroom and cream to cook for 5 minutes all together.

Serve on a bed of tagliatelle or rice. Some people likes it with roasted potatoes too. Sprinkle with chives or parsley and wow your family/guests. I promise you lots of murmuring between them and a another visit sooner than you think.

Having baby Joud with long nights deprived of sleep and living the experience of brotherhood and first year of school for Nady make us need this type of comfort food. I can say at this stage and where we live, good food is the enjoyment for my husband and I.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in main dish

Tagged beef broth, beef strips, beef stroganoff, cream, food blogger, heavy cream, jaymmy, lean strips, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, mushroom, qatar, recipe, tagliatelle

Back to school – Double chocolate chip cookies with origami paper pouch fold tutorial

Posted on September 8, 2015 | 1 comment

Back to school means summer is over. I still recall this period of time from my childhood; full of excitement and concern. But this time is different, it’s my precious boy’s first year at school. Yes, my baby love is all grown up now… I have mixed feelings; i am happy, proud and anxious.

Hopefully it will be a good new beginning to a promising future. I wish you all the luck habibi Nady.

Like all kids of his age, he is fond of chocolate. I said why not preparing together a nice chocolaty dessert for his first day at school; double chocolate chip cookies for double happiness!

To prepare these rich cookies you will need

½ cup butter (100g almost), softened
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup cocoa powder sifted
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 180°C, and prepare your baking tray lined with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Add the baking soda, salt, cocoa powder and flour. Mix well then dump in your chocolate chips. I am telling you it’s very simple to make it 🙂

Shape the cookies, place them on the tray and bake for 10 minutes. This quantity makes 12-14 big pieces. Let them cool before serving.

These cookies have a fudgy texture, they melt in your mouth, leaving an after taste of heaven. When you shape them, make them a bit thick to enjoy the taste.

These cookies are meant to be part of Nady’s lunchbox. So we need to wrap them in a nice way. I prepared a paper pouch for each cookie. You already know i am fan of origami.

These pouches are really easy to make. Easy like 2 minutes! trust me. Follow this step by step tutorial:

1- Cut a square paper (color and size of your choice)
2- Fold it in half diagonally
3- Fold one of the lower corners to the middle of the other side
4- Fold the other lower corner to the middle of the opposite side
5- Fold down one layer of your top corner to create your pouch
6- Now it’s ready to fill in your cookie

This type of folding is called diaper fold pouch!

You can use it not just for cookies, you can fill it with corn flakes, sandwich, pop corn or anything of your choice. Maybe just a paper with a message 🙂

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.

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Posted in design, dessert, DIY, kids food, special occasions

Tagged design blog, diaper fold pouch, doha, double chocolate chip cookies, food blogger, jaymmy, kids activity, lebanon, marmite et ponpon, origami, recipe

Watermelon slush – Say goodbye cheers to Lebanon summer days

Posted on August 31, 2015 | Leave a comment

Our vacation has come to an end, it’s time to pack and go back to Doha!

I became so damn professional in packing, i can fit a whole house in my bag! It became as easy as drinking watermelon 😉

A perfect watermelon slush to beat the heat and say goodbye cheers to beautiful summer that brought me a lot.

This refreshing drink comes together in just 5 minutes. All you need is:

3 cups diced seedless watermelon (or almost 500g)
1 cup ice (7-8 ice cubes)
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
one lime juice optional

Place watermelon, ice, sugar and lime (optional) in a blender and blend until smooth. This quantity serves 4 cups.

You can replace the lime with lemon, it also works and gives the tanginess you need in your drink, or keep it simple and sweet as is without any addition.

To booze it up, add vodka and enjoy!

There is another way of making this slush, if you have time, by putting the seedless diced watermelon in freezer a day ahead or overnight. This way you eliminate using ice cubes, you only blend the watermelon, sugar and lime (optional) until smooth! I like this method, the flavor turns out stronger!

Watermelon is in season now, you find plenty everywhere you go. Now i find a way whenever i have extra in the fridge, how to make use of them and enjoy.

If you like this post give it some likes and shares to spread the joy. Don’t forget to like marmite et ponpon facebook page and follow on twitter. More interesting posts are yet to come.