Happy New Year

Sydney, Australia 2011

Agar or Vietnamese Jello... yum!

I'm afraid that I didn't exactly create clouds but am still very happy with the results. Thanks, Phuong for sharing your recipe and being a part of our holiday celebrations.

Trying something new...

I just returned from the Asian Market and am ready to try Phuong's recipe for Agar Agar. Will post it soon. Thanks so much!

Friday Tutoring

What an absolutely gorgeous sunny day! And, what a lot of hard work going on during our tutoring today!!

First, thank you so much for the Christmas card. It's sitting above our fireplace for everyone to enjoy. Your recipes for Coconut Cake and Agar are wonderful and I plan on making Agar for my son. The Coconut Cake sounds rather complicated for me but I might just give it a try as well. Your sentences about the Voice of America program on Parkinson's Disease were very well constructed. I could tell that you worked very hard on them and found the program to be interesting. Congratulations. I am so happy that your presentation about Tet Holiday went well at the school. I knew it would as you were very well prepared. I enjoyed seeing the colorful Lion Dance. What fun!

We won't be meeting next Friday but I have homework for you and encourage you to send emails to me if you have any questions.
Homework:
1. Review for written Driver's Manual test. I gave you several packets of sample questions. These will be good review for the exam. Also, take the online practice test. We went over this today. When you finish with the practice test, the website will give you a score and give you the correct answers.
2. Choose another Voice of America radio program and write 5 sentences. This is really good practice for listening, reading, and writing.
3. I added some more YouTube videos to the Minimal Pairs links on the blog. I definitely noticed a difference with your "green" today. Good for you!!
4. Enjoy the holidays with your family and friends :-)

We will continue to focus on your written driver's test as I know you would like to take the test in February. We will also continue to work in Step by Step, Book 2. I will rewrite the recipes and have fun in my kitchen trying out Agar and Coconut Cake.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Peanut Butter Blossoms

When my son was in Kindergarten he gave me a cookbook filled with recipes that he had printed. I take it out every year and use this recipe which is his favorite.

Ingredients:

½ cup margarine

½ cup peanut butter

½ cup sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 ¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoon milk

1 teaspoon baking soda

Chocolate Stars

Steps:

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

1. Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, and brown sugar.

2. Add egg, milk, and dry ingredients.

3. Roll into balls.

4. Bake for 8 minutes.

5. Press star on top.

6. Bake for 2 more minutes.

7. Cool and enjoy!

Christmas Cut-out Cookies

I use this recipe to make my cut-out cookies for Christmas. I don’t usually frost them but use a glaze and decorate them before baking.

Ingredients for dough:

¾ cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 ½ cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Ingredients for glaze:

2 egg yolks

2 tablespoons of water

Variety of food color

Little bowls and paint brushes

Ingredients for decorating:

Colored sprinkles

Raisins

M&M’s

Jimmies

Steps:

1. Mix butter and sugar. I use a blender but can be mixed by hand.

2. Add eggs and vanilla.

3. Add flour, baking powder, and salt.

4. Chill dough for at least an hour. I usually make the dough and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight.

5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

6. Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and cut out shapes.

7. Mix the glaze.

8. Paint the shapes.

9. Add decorations.

10. Bake for about 8 minutes or until done.

11. Cool before eating!

Ice Fishing

Today we talked about ice fishing. The ice shacks have started to appear on Monona Bay and the fishermen create their own community on the ice. Here are some photos of ice fishing.

Doesn't this look like fun!

Friday Tutoring

The roads were cleared and the sun was shining... all prepared this this weekend's new snowstorm.

You have made great progress with Minimal Pairs and I'll be adding more YouTube videos now that my cold is over. The "Sounds of American English" was very helpful and we found some more troublesome words. Thank you so much for sharing your presentation about Tet Holiday. I know that the students at Orchard Ridge will find it very interesting. I know I did. Step by Step's lesson about "a little" and "a few" was very helpful. I'm so glad that you brought up your question about "let's." Please continue to ask your questions.

Thank you so much for the Ong THo suggestion. Will try it with the Agar-Agar when my son comes for the Holidays.

Also, great job on your resume!

Homework for Friday, December 17.

1. Listen to Voice of America's program, "Scientists Search for New clues about Parkinson's Disease" and write 5 sentences about the program.
2. Watch the video about Coconut Cake and write your recipe for the cake. I've added a link to a website that will convert metric measurements to English measurements.
3. Read and study pages 7 to 12 in the Driver's Manual. We'll have a sample test next week.
4. Practice Minimal Pairs and Troublesome Words.

Enjoy your week!

I've added a new link to the blog. It's called "Phonetics: The Sounds of American English." I think it will help with some of those troublesome consonants. You might want to use headphones while listening and watching the videos. We'll practice together tomorrow.

Friday Tutoring

Well, we're expecting 4-6 inches of snow tonight. Perfect for December!

Congratulations on your COMPASS exams! Our session today involved a lot of speaking and listening about Thanksgiving and our family gatherings. With some minor tweaking, the resume will be ready to go. Now, it's time to find those jobs. This will be difficult because jobs are hard to find for everyone. We also worked on pronunciation. This will get easier with practice. Don't worry about hurrying through Side by Side, Book 2. Comprehension is great but we need practice with speaking and reading. We'll return to Driver's License review next week.

Homework for next week:
1. Review Minimal Pairs (see YouTube videos).
2. Preview Chapter 2 in Side by Side.
3. Have fun with Coconut Cake on America's Test Kitchen. See link.
4. Send your final copy of your resume (SUPER JOB) to me.

December 2010 Calendar:
- December 3
- December 10
- December 17
- No meeting on December 24 (check email for changes)
- No meeting on December 31 (check email for changes)

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving was a very busy time for our families. I know that you were having a family reunion and that you were also taking tests at MATC. My husband and I flew to Washington D.C. and had Thanksgiving dinner with our family. We also went sightseeing and saw the National Gallery of Art, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Archives (the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence). Looking forward to seeing you on Friday, December 3rd.