Weird Science: Color Changing Lemonade

 

Thatbaby has turned into quite the little science kid during this pandemic.  I think because I started including "science class" into Mom-school back in the beginning, but there's nothing he loves more than making "potions" and doing experiments.  So much so, that he asked for science experiment kits for his birthday and received several.

He always wants to pull them out and try out different experiments - or create his own (basically baking soda, vinegar, and then other ingredients) - so it wasn't too surprising that he would want a full science day.

His idea was to just do all the experiments he had in his kits, but I supplemented with some fun ones I thought they would like.

We started out doing some ectothermic and endothermic reactions with one of his kits.

And using the kit's uric acid to learn about evaporation and growing our own crystals.

Every young scientist should make take a run with bubbles.  We made our own "unpoppable" variety.

We used red cabbage to create our own "litmus noodles" for lunch - which changed color when we added an acid (lemon juice)

After lunch we made some elephant toothpaste

And aquatic sand was a big hit.

We also did an osmosis experiment with gummy bears 

And create our own bacteria growing petri dishes.  Although this one took a few days to see the results.

For all my friends who don't wash their feet in the shower?  That really gnarly black one?  That's just a qtip that was swabbed between each child's toes.  Your feet are gross.  Wash them.  This experiment also showed us that antibiotics really stop bacterial growth, soap cuts down on bacterial growth, yogurt contains bacteria, and toothpaste doesn't do much to the inside of your mouth.

Our final experiment came with dinner where we did some color changing lemonade I found on Left Brain Craft Brain.

Butterfly pea flowers work as a pH indicator, just like cabbage does.  So adding this magic blue liquid to an acidic drink like lemonade...

Gives the lemonade a vibrant purple color!

This is a really fun "experiment" for just about any time because it makes for such a pretty drink.   The butterfly pea flowers on their own make for a fairly vibrant tea, or beautiful tea latte. I've even heard that it's what's used to create the blue colored drinks at Disney.

Color Changing Lemonade (adapted from Left Brain Craft Brain)

Juice of 6 1/2 lemons

1 1/3 cup sugar

5 cups water, divided

1 tsp dried butterfly pea flowers

1. Boil 1 cup water.  
2. Place dried flowers in a tea strainer and place in boiling water for 3-4 minutes.  Remove strainer. Chill while making lemonade.
3. Combine lemons, sugar, and remaining 4 cups water.  Stir until sugar dissolves.  
4. Divide lemonade between 4 glasses filled with ice.
5. Add 1/4 cup of the flower water to each glass of lemonade and watch it change color right before your eyes.

NYC at home: Black and White Egg Cream

I'm not going to lie, New York City is probably my least favorite summer destinations.  I have been through too many sticky, muggy, hot and humid New York trips, pressed up against other wet and sticky bodies for one lifetime. 

But when I saw that Broadway HD was doing a free 7-day trial back in the beginning days of the quarantine, I thought it would be a great "pandemic adventure."  Everything we love about New York, without the humidity or the subway! 


I jumped on Goldbelly and ordered some of our favorite New York foods to keep the day authentic.  Like bagels.  Because no one makes bagels like they do in NYC.  Trust me, I've tried to find similar in other states AND other countries and there's no comparison.

After breakfast we headed out to create our own souvenirs.

One of our favorite things about New York is the museums, and Thatkid's favorite museum is the Museum of Natural History (the Nat is his favorite museum in San Diego also).  We did a virtual tour of the museum, visiting some of his favorite exhibits.

Thatkid's ideal New York trip would be to see every Broadway show there is - he'd do a matinee and evening performance each day if he could.   So we tried.

We started with Jekyll and Hyde.  One of my favorites, and which I saw with the Original Broadway Cast back when it first came out.

Then it was a quick trip to Nathan's for a hot dog with fries.  

Then a couple more virtual museum tours.

Our post-nap Broadway show was Kinky Boots.

And then we had dinner.  Know what New York food we were missing?  PIZZA!

My boys have been VERY into opera this pandemic.  Entirely due to The Met Opera's free streaming program and Met Opera Camp.    So when I saw that the nightly streaming opera was Cendrillon (or Cinderella) I thought it would be a great way to round out our day in New York.

And one last treat - black and white cookies!

I've tried to make my own black and white cookies and they just don't turn out the same.  Thatmom and I speculate that there's something about the New York water that just makes the chocolate taste better.

Instead, when I want a little shot of a New York black and white I go to a much easier recipe - the Black and White egg cream.  The egg cream is a New York staple - as much a part of their legacy as the bagel and the pizza.  It dates back to the Jews of Brooklyn to the late 1800s or early 1900s depending on which origin story you care to believe.  The original is just chocolate syrup (U-BET!), seltzer, and milk.  The black and white version also has a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Black and White Egg Cream

1/2 cup whole milk

4 Tbsp U-Bet chocolate syrup

seltzer

vanilla ice cream

1.  Divide milk between 2 glasses.
2. Place 2 Tbsp chocolate syrup into each glass and stir with a fork.
3. Continue vigorously stirring as you slowly pour in the seltzer until the glass is almost full.
4. Top with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Let it go into the unknown: Frozen Hot Chocolate

Back in March Thatbaby and I had a mommy/kid date set up with his friend Princess Anna.  We were all supposed to go see the musical Frozen.  Princess Anna and Thatbaby had been talking about it for months.  Practically every time I saw her, Princess Anna asked me when we were going. 

Of course, like everything else, the musical was cancelled.  Or postponed?  I still have hope it will happen in the future.  Until then. we decided to have our own Frozen day at home last weekend.  And yes, there was lots of singing.

I also set up lots of Frozen activities - especially novel for kids in Southern California, but also fun for kids everywhere who want to play in the snow, but not get cold and wet.

We started out with a "Snow"ball fight.

I got a bunch of soft fake snow balls and divided them up to start so we all began with the same amount.  But after that it was a free-for-all.

The kids had such a blast with this.  The balls got filthy, but I tossed them in the wash, and after nap they were clean and dry.  I scattered them around our living room and we were having impromptu snowball fights until it was bedtime.

After that it was time for a snack break with some "Frozen" hot cocoa."

And then we put on the first Frozen movie for them to watch.  During which we served "We finish each other's" sandwiches.

After nap, we headed back outside for a little snowplay.  I picked up some "instant snow" (the kind you just have to add water) and put it in our pool.  Which kept it contained, but also gave us a fun place to play.  The "snow" was even cool to the touch - but not that bitter cold that makes real snow not so fun after 10 minutes.  The kids played here for hours.

Our last big activity was building snowmen.  I found a "build an Olaf" sticker kit where they could create their own snowman.  

We wrapped up with some Ri-snow-tto for dinner while we watched Frozen II.    It was a really fun day, even for Thatkid who wasn't really looking forward to it, as he isn't as much of a Frozen fan as his little brother.  

As soon as I started planning the day, I knew I wanted to make "Frozen" hot chocolate.  It just seemed fun, since the weather was warming up.  And then I started seeing all these Dalgona coffee posts on every social media site.  I'm not much of a coffee person, but as soon as I saw that it required instant coffee, I figured this would be something that could easily be translated to cocoa. 

Instead of coffee, I threw some hot cocoa mix into the kitchenaid.

And a few moments later, I had a whipped cocoa!

Which I used to top milk.  Word to the wise - This makes a lovely picture, but the milk is too high, making it hard to stir into without making a mess.  So, less milk in your glass!!!

 Frozen Hot Chocolate

1/4 cup hot chocolate mix (or Nesquick.  Just don't use cocoa powder which is unsweetened)

1 cup heavy cream

milk

1. Combine hot chocolate mix and heavy cream in an electric stand mixer.  Mix on high for about 90 seconds, until you've got soft peaks to the cream.
2. Fill 4 glasses with ice.
3. Pour milk into glasses until it's about 1/2 full (or half empty ha!)
4. Top with the whipped cocoa.