Mary Ann Dames, M.S., R.D.

Writing Friday is meant to be a quick writing or verbal response to a prompt. Write for 5 minutes or less. Don't worry about spelling or grammar. Keep the pen moving. Now read what you wrote, finding the gem within, the raw emotion or that special turn of phrase you might have unknowingly wrote. Enjoy.

September 6, 2010 is Labor Day. How many different kinds of workers can you name who work on holidays, nights, and weekends so we can have fun, feel safe, or sleep?

I made Handy Pasta Salad again. This time I used gluten free elbow macaroni. I didn't have any green pepper but I did have mushrooms so I sliced one up to replace the missing ingredient. I also discovered I was out of mayonnaise. What to do? I used fat-free plain yogurt instead. Because yogurt is a little bit more tart than mayonnaise, I didn't use the vinegar. I must have done something right because we ate up all the Handy Pasta Salad. I'm sad. There is none left for my lunch tomorrow.

The new recipe is at the end of this post.

If you were making Handy Pasta Salad, how might you change it? Here are some ideas.

It would look pretty with spinach noodles or tri-color fusilli pasta. Visit Natonal Pasta Association to see more shapes.

If you look at the photo closely, you'll see I used shredded carrots instead of sliced carrots. For other vegetables I might try a bit of green onion. I wouldn't use too much because it has a strong taste. Maybe I would use a bit of leftover cooked corn. I could add some fresh green beans or sliced radishes because I like their snappy taste.

Handy Pasta Salad - Take Two
Ingredients
3 tablespoons fat-free sour cream
3 tablespoons fat-free plain yogurt
2 cups cold leftover cooked noodles or macaroni,gluten-free
3 tablespoons chopped celery
3 tablespoons shredded carrots
1 medium sized mushroom, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine sour cream and yogurt. Add the cold cooked noodles, chopped celery, shredded carrots, and sliced mushrooms. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Makes about 3 cups.
Mary Ann Dames, M.S., R.D. ©2010

I get mixed up which holiday comes when: Labor Day and Memorial Day. Then I realized that Labor Day came when I had to go back to school and labor behind a desk. But you won't have to labor over this pasta salad if you do what I do: use leftover pasta. That's why I call it handy.

Handy Noodle Salad
Ingredients
3 tablespoons fat-free sour cream
3 tablespoons light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or rice vinegar
2 cups cold leftover cooked noodles or macaroni, whole-wheat or gluten-free
3 tablespoons chopped celery
3 tablespoons chopped green pepper
3 tablespoons sliced or shredded carrots
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine sour cream, mayonnaise and vinegar. Add the cold cooked noodles, chopped celery, chopped green pepper, and sliced carrots. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Makes about 3 cups.
Mary Ann Dames, M.S., R.D. ©2010

Richard Scarry was one of my son's favorite authors when he was little. Mr. Scarry's books were entertaining for me to read as well. So I am pleased to offer Richard Scarry's What Do People Do All Day as one of this week's selections. The reader will be familiar with some of the occupations found in Busytown. Others may be new.

"Some workers work indoors and some work outdoors. Some work up in the sky and some work underground. Some workers always do their work at the same place. Others travel from place to place to do their jobs."

The book is divided into sections such as Everyone is a worker and Building a new house which makes it manageable to read a bit at a time. Children can occupy themselves for hours looking at the illustrations and making up their own stories to go with them.

Not everyone works during the day. In Kate Banks's The Night Worker "Night falls. Bedtime comes. Papa kisses Alex good night. Then he puts on his hard hat. He is an engineer. And he is a night worker." One night Alex gets to go with his dad to the construction site. On the way they see other night workers. Once on the job, bulldozers, excavators, dump trunks, concrete mixers and more are hard at work. It is a noisy night with machines grumbling and rumbling and whistles sounding. Then it is break time and all is quiet. It is time for Alex to go home.

Illustrations by Georg Hallensleben.

Worksong celebrates workers in a variety of fields from construction to farms to military and hospitals and truck drivers and more. Gary Paulsen’s rhyming story sings the praises of workers, not by naming them, but by writing about the symphony of sounds and places. Illustrations by Ruth Wright Paulsen.


“Pack the picnic basket and strike up the band. It’s Labor Day!" This Rookie Reader Read-About Holiday has simple text by Carmen Bredeson explaining the origins of Labor Day and Labor Unions. Nonfiction.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. When you click on a book title, you will be taken to Amazon. If you buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price, which helps support this blog.

Labor Day is coming up. It means fun and frolic! The end of summer. Picnics!

And speaking of picnics, picnic foods often have a bad reputation for causing food poisoning. But it isn't the food, usually, but the way it is prepared and handled. Here are a few tips:

1. Do not prepare food more than one day in advance, unless you are going to freeze it.

2. Cool foods properly. Did you know that 67% of food borne illness is caused by improper cooling? Spread foods out so they are no more than two inches deep and refrigerate.

3. Keep cold foods cold, at 40 degrees F or less. The trunk of your car gets hotter than the passenger section so don't transport foods in there if you can avoid it.

4. Keep hot foods hot, at 140 degrees F or more.

5. Mayonnaise is not the culprit. It is too acidic for bacteria to grow in. However, mix it with protein foods, foods that are handled a lot, or foods that are properly stored, then there is the potential for food borne illness.

Visit Reading Monday for books celebration our special workers. Visit again on Wednesday and Thursday for Handy Pasta Salad and Handy Noodle Salad.

I love to go camping. I told you that yesterday. When I was a kid and when I had kids, we went camping every summer. The smell of the dried pine needles underfoot and the sound of the birds were like hugs for my soul. I felt refreshed. Then, every evening,it happened. As the sun set, the shadows of the redwoods and rocks dulled the day. The birds stilled. Even the scents seemed to disappear. All at once I'd wish I were home with cars whizzing by my house and the stink of hot tar.

I was homesick! And that is why I hated camping.

You can read about a time I loved camping by clicking here

Writing Friday is meant to be a quick writing or verbal response to a prompt. Write for 5 minutes or less. Don't worry about spelling or grammar. Keep the pen moving. Now read what you wrote, finding the gem within, the raw emotion or that special turn of phrase you might have unknowingly wrote. Enjoy.

I love to go camping. I hate to go camping. Can you tell I'm confused. Do you know why I'm confused? Come back tomorrow for Writing Friday Response to find out.

In the meantime, you can write or tell about what you like or don't like about camping. Or write a scary campfire story to share.

Making Micro-Mini S'Mores is quick and easy. But it takes a lot of those tiny treats to make a mouth full.

The original S'More uses chocolate candy bar piece and a marshmallow toasted over a campfire sandwiched between two squares of graham crackers. You can do this in the microwave oven by putting one large marshmallow on one graham cracker square on a microwave safe plate and microwaving it until the marshmallow starts to puff. Have an adult take it out of the microwave. Place a piece of chocolate candy bar on top and the other graham cracker square. It's almost the real deal.

You don't need a campfire to make Micro-Mini S'Mores.

Micro-Mini S'Mores
Ingredients
12 mini Chip Ahoy Chocolate Chip cookies
12 to 18 miniature marshmallows

Lay 6 mini cookies, flat side up, on a microwave oven safe plate. Place 2 to 3 miniature marshmallows on each cookie. Microwave for 20 to 30 seconds at high power or until the marshmallows begin to "puff" slightly. Using a pot holder, remove the plate from the microwave oven. Place the remaining 6 mini chocolate chip cookies, flat side down, on top of the softened marshmallows. Squish down gently.

Note: To make this gluten-free, use full size gluten-free chocolate chip cookies and full size marshmallows.

To make these vegetarian, use gelatin free marshmallows. Either use full size cookies or cut the marshmallows to fit.

Makes 6 snacks.

Mary Ann Dames, M.S., R.D. ©2010

My favorite book about camping is Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems. Not only is it written by my friend, but it captures what camping is all about. Kristine O'Connell George has this to say about her multi-award winning book: "Camping. What is it about camping? You get dirty, sleep on the ground, and are often either too cold or too hot. Not to mention mysterious night noises and menacing mosquitoes.

"Yet, what I remember about camping is the magic. The way the sun shines through a tent in the morning. Squirrels, chipmunks, moose, and deer - soft green moss under a tree. The quiet moments where I slow down, breathe deeply, and reconnect with the earth. I feel very "small" when I'm camping - an insignificant part of an enormous universe. This feeling of smallness helps me focus and see what is important. And what isn't."

Pinky and Rex and their dads are going camping on what turns out to be a rainy weekend. Did they let that spoil their time together? No way! In Pinky And Rex And The Double-Dad Weekend: Ready-To-Read Level 3 the four campers make the best of a wet weekend by camping in a motel room and going on indoor adventures to replace the outdoor ones. Pinky and Rex agee the very best thing about the weekend was that it was “Just us and our dads!”

James Howe also wrote Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery, Howliday Inn (Bunnicula), The Celery Stalks at Midnight (Bunnicula)and more. Melissa Sweet not only illustrated this book but several others, including Jane Yolen’s Baby Bear's Chairs (Golden Kite Awards (Awards)).

Four crocodile friends drive to the woods for a camping trip. In a few well chosen words supplemented by simple illustrations, Patricia Larkin tells of four crocodile friends, Sam, Pam, Will, and Jill and their Camping Day! adventure. The friends drive to the country where they cross a stream, jump a fence, and set up their tent. “S’mores,” said Sam. “More!” said Pam. “Songs!” said Will. “Stories,” said Jill. “SCARY!” said Sam, Pam, Will and Jill. Maybe these four friends will find Micro-Mini S’Mores coming up on Recipe Wednesday recipe more to their liking.

Almost no one but the Graves family knows where Lake Bleakmire is. “Surrounded by a rocky escarpment with only one hidden tunnel leading through it, it is a place that time has forgotten. Untouched! A place legends are made of.” Learn how the Graves family meets the Flatulent Sulphuric Fermious Flying Griffin and how it saves the day, or in this case night, on the Fourth of July. The Graves Family Goes Camping is a perfect story to read while camping and listening to all those strange noises. Patricia Polacco’s imagination has run wild with words and illustrations. The only thing not included is toasting marshmallows with the help of the Flatulent Sulphuric Fermious Flying Griffin.

Camping With the President was written by Ginger Wadsworth, author and naturalist, and illustrated by Karen Dugan. American's 26th president was Teddy Roosevelt. After reading John Muir's book Our National Parks, the President wrote to him. "I am coming West. I want to go camping with you and no one else...." In 1903, during a four day horseback camping trip in Yosemite, Roosevelt and Muir talked about the need to protect the natural wonders around them. In a speech in Sacramento, California's state capitol, Roosevelt said, "California possesses a wonderful climate, a wonderful soil...the water supply cannot be preserved unless the forests are preserved. As regards some of the trees, I want them preserved because they are the only things of their kind in the world...It would be a shame to our civilization to let them disappear. They are monuments in themselves... We are not building this country of ours for a day. It is to last through the ages."

Although a younger child will enjoy the beauty of the illustrations and understand the message, this book is geared for ages 9 - 12. Nonfiction.


I am an Amazon Affiliate. When you click on a book title, you will be taken to Amazon. If you buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price, which helps support this blog.