Family Meal Plan: Create Your Own Sweet Rice Cake Candies + Indulgently Healthy Chocolate Shakes

Create Your Own Sweet Rice Cake Candies

Happy & Healthy Cooking,

Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills

• blend :

  to stir together two or more ingredients until just combined; blending is a gentler process than mixing.

• crush :

  to put pressure on a food, like a garlic clove, to break the skin and release its flavor; or to pulverize or grind a food, like a cracker, into small particles with your hands, blender, or food processor.

• drizzle :

  to trickle a thin stream of a liquid ingredient, like icing or sauce, over food.

• measure :

  to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).

• melt :

  to heat a solid food so it becomes liquid, like butter or chocolate.

• mix :

  to thoroughly combine two or more ingredients until uniform in texture.

• roll :

  to use a rolling pin to flatten dough; use your hands to form a roll or ball shape; or move a round food, like a grape or a meatball, through another food, like sugar or breadcrumbs, to coat it.

History of Confections!

• Confections or confectionery are sweet treats, like candies. Cakes, cookies, and other pastries are examples of baked confections. Ice cream is an example of a frozen confection. Our focus here is on candy confections. 
• The Ancient Egyptians used honey as a sweetener, before crystallized sugar became readily available, and would coat fruit, nuts, and flowers with it to make confections. Other ancient peoples in India, China, and Greece also made candy in this way around the same time. 
• On the Indian subcontinent, around 500 BCE, they began using sugar cane juice to cover flowers, fruit, nuts, and seeds to make sweets.
• Hard candies include nut brittle, candy canes, jawbreakers, lemon drops, lollipops, ribbon candy, rock candy, and toffee (although it can also be chewy). 
• Soft candies include jelly candies like gumdrops, jelly beans, jujubes, and Turkish delight. Circus peanuts are a soft marshmallow candy that have an artificial banana flavor. Caramels, licorice, and taffy can be soft and chewy. 
• Fudge is a popular candy around the holidays. The main ingredients for fudge are butter, sugar, and milk. Most of us are familiar with chocolate fudge, but it can also be flavored with maple syrup or peanut butter and have added nuts or fruit, like raisins. Fudge has a creamy texture.
• Nougat is a candy consisting of sugar or honey, roasted nuts, and whipped egg whites. It can be soft or hard, depending on the ratio of sugar to egg whites. Divinity is a nougat-type candy made from corn syrup, sugar, and egg whites. Dried fruit and nuts can also be added. 
• Tablet is a medium-hard confection from Scotland, similar to fudge but with a grainy texture, made with butter, condensed milk, and sugar. It may also have vanilla and nuts in it.
• Chocolates are made with milk, dark, white, and other chocolate flavors. They may be made with ganache, filled with fruit, nuts, cordials, or creams, or covered with a hard chocolate shell, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, coconut flakes, nuts, or matcha powder. The chocolate truffle is an example of a chocolate confectionery made with chocolate ganache.

Let's Learn About Ancient Egypt!

• Ancient Egypt was established around 3150 BCE. It was located in Northeast Africa, with most cities near the Nile River. 
• Memphis was the capital of Ancient Egypt. It was on the west bank of the Nile River, about 15 miles south of modern Cairo, the current capital city. Families can visit an open-air museum in the present-day village of Mit Rahina in Badrasheen in the Giza governorate to see some of the ruins of Memphis. A statue of the pharaoh Ramesses II, over 30 feet tall, is on display there!
• The pharaoh was the sovereign of the land and had absolute power. There were distinct social layers, with farmers at the lower end and the nobility or upper class at the top. However, they were all considered equal under the law. Women had more rights than in other cultures, and two women, Hatshepsut and Cleopatra VII, became pharaohs.  
• Agriculture was one of the biggest industries. Farmers depended on the Nile River, as there was little rainfall. They had three seasons: flooding, planting, and harvesting. 
• Animals were essential to the ancient Egyptians as companions, beasts of burden, and food. Cats were sacred, and Egyptians believed having a cat in their household would bring good luck! They also worshiped gods in animal form.
• Ancient Egyptians had over 2,000 gods! Each deity had different responsibilities and required worship so that life could be kept in balance. 
• Stone quarrying and building was another major industry. The ancient Egyptians built monuments, especially to pharaohs, in the form of pyramids, temples, and obelisks (tall, narrow, and tapered with a pyramid shape on top). 
• The Ancient Egyptian language is extinct. The writing system was hieroglyphics, comprised of hieroglyphs or pictures of an object representing a word, sound, or syllable. More than 700 hieroglyphs made up the Egyptian alphabet! 
• Egyptians believed in preparing for the afterlife, and by preserving the dead person's body through mummification, their soul would live forever. They would be wrapped in about 492 feet of linen strips!
• Both Egyptian men and women wore makeup. If their eye paint was green, it was made from copper, and if it was black, it was made from lead. Egyptians thought makeup could magically provide healing! 
• The ancient Egyptians enjoyed music and dance. They also liked to play games. One popular board game, Senet, was played in Egypt for over 2,000 years! To play, they would throw sticks, like we throw dice, to move their game piece on the board.
• The ancient Egyptians invented many things we still use today, such as paper, pens, locks with keys, and, believe it or not, toothpaste!
• The cuisine of Ancient Egypt included bread, vegetables, meat, and beer. They used honey as a sweetener and would coat fruit and nuts to make confections. 

What Was It Like to Be a Kid in Ancient Egypt?

• Parents took great interest in having their kids learn and enjoy their early life with games and other entertainment. Kids learned a craft once they were educated and reached the age of maturity.
• Kids played board games and ball and stick games. They played with animal toys, dolls, and puppets. 
• The weather in ancient Egypt was hot, and for most of the year, younger children did not wear clothes!
• Kids may have eaten dates or date cakes sweetened with honey or tiger nut sweets for a treat. 
• A recipe for tiger nut sweets was found written on a broken piece of ancient Egyptian pottery from about 1600 BCE. The sweets were made with the tubers of the Cyperus esculentus plant, also known as tiger nuts (which are also used to make the drink "horchata" in Spain).