EnJOYing our Ink Joy Pens!

I can never keep pens in our house. 

They always seem to "mysteriously" disappear. 

So, I was so happy to be invited to join the Smiley360 Ink Joy Pens mission. In exchange for a review, I got a free sample of Ink Joy pens. I had never heard of them before this mission, but my sister (a pen aficionado with the most consistently perfect handwriting I've ever seen) has some and told me she loves them, so I was excited to try them.

So they arrived!

In the kit, I got an 8 pack of assorted Ink Joy pens and a $5 gift card to purchase more!

A few days after they arrived, I called the kids to come try them out and we ended up creating a spontaneous family doodle artwork. 


We had a great time. It had been a while since I had sat down and drew/colored with the kids. 

So How Are the Pens?

Ink Joys are really great pens. They have a neat rubberized grip that makes writing more comfortable.


and the pens glide so easily across the page...



You get a neat assortment of colors in the assorted pack:




I always need blue pens for the kids' forms that I  have to submit for the charter school we homeschool through. So, I'm planning on using my $5 gift card that came in my Smiley360 kit to get those, insha Allah.




If you'd like to take a look at all the other great stuff I've received from Smiley360, check out my Smiley360 Pinterest Board:

Follow TJ HOMESCHOOLING's board Smiley360 Missions on Pinterest.

Ummy, How Do You Make Deviled Eggs?

My 15 year old son came in and asked how to boil eggs. (He wanted some for breakfast).

Well, when I cook, if I'm not specifically following a recipe, I just... do...stuff..

Ok, put them in the water, let it come to a boil....... but he needed specifics.

So I wanted to give him a good set of instructions that he could carry with him to adulthood (When I got to college, I did not  know how to boil an egg at all!)

I turned to Better Homes and Gardens (an oldie but goodie). I told him verbally, but I wanted to have a good recipe that I could refer to when the next child was ready to boil an egg.

How to Boil an Egg


  • Arrange the eggs in a single layer in a large saucepan so they cook evenly. Do not stack them.
  • Add enough cold water to cover the eggs by 1 inch.
  • Heat saucepan over medium-high heat until the water comes to a rapid boil (water will have large, rapidly breaking bubbles).
  • Immediately remove pan from heat.
  • After removing from heat, cover the saucepan and allow it to stand for 15 minutes.
  • Drain the eggs, then run cold water over them or place them in a large bowl filled with ice water until the eggs cool.
  • To peel an egg, gently tap it on the counter to crack the shell. Use your fingers to peel off the shell.
  • Rinse the peeled egg under cold water to remove any remaining bits of shell.
Well, after the eggs were boiled, he asked me, "How do you make those devil's eggs?" (He was being funny, he's knows their real name.)

Again, when I make stuff, sometimes it's just a throw together kind of deal. But, again, I wanted him to have a good recipe to be able to follow to get the proportions right.

So, I came across another BHG recipe  (via Food.com), tweaked it ever so slightly for clarity and let him have at it.

This is what he needed:


  • 6 hard-boiled eggs
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 teaspoon vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon prepared mustard
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1 dash ground black pepper


And this is what he did:

Cut 6 hard boiled eggs in half lengthwise.

Removed the yolks



 and mashed them with a fork.


Mixed the egg yolks with all other ingredients.


Filled the egg whites with the yolk mixture.



Sprinkled paprika on top of each yolk mixture.

And voile!





He loved them.  

He--loved--them! 

How do I know?

He made more for lunch.........



Want more great kids' cooking basics resources? 


I've started a collection of them in a Pinterest board:

Follow TJ HOMESCHOOLING's board Cooking-Kids Basic Cooking Skills on Pinterest.


Fluffy French Toast

Fluffy French Toast

One of our favorite breakfasts is French Toast.  I started out the master (main) French Toast cooker. But, because we have a large family, it takes me forever to make it when I have to make it for everyone.  It's one of my husband's favorite breakfasts so I get requests for it often. If I've just make a small batch for him and the older kids wake up and smell it and want some, well now, they make it themselves.  I even get treated to some at times!

I make my recipe a little different from a lot of recipes I see in that I use flour in my batter.  I stumbled across a Fluffy French Toast recipe on All Recipes that is similar to what I do (I just throw things in at this point, but I needed a recipe that the kids could follow, so this fit the bill).

What you need:

  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon white sugar
  • 12 thick slices bread

What you do:


  1. Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk. 
  2. Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sugar until smooth.
  3. Heat a lightly oiled (I use margarine) griddle or frying pan over medium heat. 
  4. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated.
  5. Cook bread on each side until golden brown. (Now for cooking, as I said above,  I use margarine or Crisco and although it adds more calories, I put in a new pat of margarine with each batch (I generally cook two slices at a time). I find it comes out "ugly" if I don't re-margarine the griddle/pan). Make sure it is cooked well because it came come out "liquidy" in the inside if not.
  6. Serve hot with powdered sugar or syrup.

This recipe makes 12 slices, so I wanted to reduce it for the kids (hey, makes a great math exercise for homeschooling, but I cheated and used All Recipes' recipe adjuster gadget).


  • 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
  •  2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons milk
  •  1/8 pinch salt
  •  1/2 eggs (we'll just round that to 1 egg)
  •  1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  •  1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
  •  1/2 teaspoon white sugar
  •  2 thick slices bread



Make Homemade Pizza with the Kids!



Making pizza at home is the best! Not only do you get a pretty healthy meal, but it's a great family activity.  At our house, sometimes each child makes their own pizza, and other times, we leave it up to the girls to handcraft each pizza.  I usually make the dough, but sometimes my middle schoolers help.

Speaking of dough, all great pizzas start off with a great dough. I've found a terrific pizza dough at Sally's Baking Addiction. Ok, it's a recipe for cheesy breadsticks, but she said it would be great for pizza dough...and she was not wrong.  We've made pizzas with it three times and it comes out great every time.

Here's what you'll need for the dough:


  • 2 and 1/4 teaspoons yeast (1 standard packet)
  • 1 and 1/3 cups (320ml) warm water (105-115 degrees F degrees)
  • 3 and 1/2 cups (440g) unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more as needed
  • 2 Tablespoons (30ml) olive oil
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 Tablespoon (13g) granulated sugar

This dough makes about 2  12'' pizzas. We usually have to make 9-10 pizzas, so we usually make 4 batches of dough.

So here's what you do:

  1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast and warm water. 
  2. Stir  the yeast around and let it sit for 5 minutes of until the yeast is foamy and dissolved. (If the yeast doesn't dissolve, bummer, it's dead, so you'll need to start again with more yeast.)
  3. Add the olive oil, salt, and sugar and stir. Then add the flour. Mix by hand. (I generally add the flour 1 cup at a time and stir after each addition). I try to go with the minimum amount of flour (or even less). I have found that the less flour the better. You want a dough that feels light in your hand, not hard and dense, like a brick.
  4. Once all of the ingredients are mixed, knead for 7 minutes by hand. If you are new to bread making, I found a great, short video that shows the basics of kneading:





If your dough is too wet, add up to 1/4 cup more flour. After kneading, your dough should be smooth and elastic. (If you poke it with your finger and it slowly bounces back, your dough is ready to rise. If not, you need to keep kneading.)
    5. Shape the dough into a ball and place in a large mixing bowl that has been coated lightly with olive oil. Turn it over to coat all sides. Cover tightly with plastic wrap (we use a plate) and allow the dough to rise in a warm place (about 75F-80F).  Depending on your type of yeast, your dough will have doubled in size in about 1 - 2 hours. 

    6. After your dough has doubled, punch it down to release the air. Divide your dough into half.  Roll each half into a ball and let rest in two separate bowls lightly covered for 10 minutes. (Ok, you got me, we usually skip this resting deal, but mostly because we're anxious to get to the party started....)

    7. Spread each ball into a greased 12-in. pizza pan to your desired diameter and thickness of pizza crust (We just use cookie sheets and sprinkle some cornmeal underneath). Some of the kids roll it thin (which is probably a good idea since it poofs up) and some go a little thicker.

    8. Next, pour and spread  your pizza sauce on the dough (ok you can make your own pizza sauce, but we don't "got time for that." We use Ragu Pizza sauce generally.

    9. Then comes the cheese! We use shredded cheese (though I am sure it would be cheaper to shred it ourselves, but again, time.....). A lot of recipes call for mozzarella cheese, but we just use a cheddar fiesta blend)

    10. Then, top with your toppings. These are our favs:
    • Pepperoni (We just found some turkey pepperoni the other week, so it was finally great to have pepperoni again! That's one of the many things I miss about being overseas in the Middle East---Halaal pepperoni and any other kind of meat you want)
    • Onions
    • Mushrooms
    • Pineapple
    • Green Peppers
    • Black olives (my favorite)
    11. At this point, some of the kids mix melted butter and garlic salt and some herbs to create a garlic butter and spread around the edges. (Wow is that good!)

    12. Now for the cooking part. You may have to fiddle with the cooking times and temperatures to get it just right for you, but you can use this as a starter:

    and voile!  
    The best pizza on earth 
    (cuz you made it!)

    One of our most recent pizzas. Yum! We could eat this every weekend!

    If you have kids, you've probably made your own pizza many times and found it makes a great family tradition. 

    If not, you've got to try it! The kids will love it! All my kids say it's loads better than commercial pizza.