Published at Shadow Mountain
About the book
Cook, craft, and create with recipes, projects, and ideas from the enormously popular blog SixSistersStuff.com. Camille, Kristen, Elyse, Stephanie, Lauren, and Kendra are six sisters who share their easy, affordable recipes and crafts in this collection of family favorites. These pages contain more than 90 tried-and-true recipes that use ingredients commonly found in your pantry, with easy-to-follow instructions and photographs of each dish. Charming do-it-yourself projects, such as stained Mason Jars and a Ruffles and Yarn Wreath, are fun to create and require little time or money. Suggestions for indoor activities for kids, healthy snack ideas, or an inexpensive night out are among the many lists included in the book.
"We don't profess to be amazing chefs," the sisters claim. "We just know the importance of feeding our families a home-cooked meal and sitting down to eat it together. Even the busiest of people can make the food and project ideas we share, which will give you even more time to spend with your family and loved ones."
My Thoughts
I was approached to review an interesting cookbook/craft book written by six sisters who have been writing on a blog since February 2011 about cooking, crafting and creating fun things for you family. The authors are six biological sisters who loves to encourage families to put dinner on the table and eat together. According to Pew Research , only about half of families make dinner a daily ritual and another third eat together a few times a week. Roughly one in 5 families (20%) eat together only occasionally or never. I am surprise by this statistic and realize that not many families make the effort of eating together. In our family, we have decided from the get-go that we will not overcrowd our calendar with a ton of activities. Being homeschoolers, we have the privilege of participating to swimming lessons on Wednesday afternoons as well as Awana on Thursday night. My husband and I are also leaders in a ministry in town which requires us to be out one night a week but we still take the time to eat with our kids that night. How often do we sit down to eat together – Monday-Sunday. Literally.
To celebrate the launch of their brand new cookbook, there sisters are also challenging people to step up to the plate in order to take the 4x4 Dinner Challenge. Families are encouraged to eat together as a family at least four times a week for four weeks. You can register online at www.SixSistersStuff.com and receive meal tips, ideas for family activities, and helpful recipes to assist in making this challenge a reality. “We grew up knowing the importance of feeding our families a home-cooked meal and sitting down to eat it together,” said Camille, the oldest sister. “Even the busiest of people can make the food and project ideas we share, which will give you even more time to spend with your family and loved ones.”
Six Sisters’ Stuff also includes a collection of simple and inexpensive craft ideas – how to make hand puppets, felt bows, decorative wreaths, and more – plus lists of fun family activities for road trips, entertaining rainy-day ideas, healthy snack suggestions, and even some recommendations for cheap date nights. This family-focused cookbook is really more of an idea book to help families create fun, lasting memories together. I encourage anyone reading this blog post who is finding family meal difficult to do these days to sign up and take up the challenge. Since it takes a full month to instill good habits in our lives, I believe that this challenge will make you realize how important it is to spend family time together at dinner time.
This morning I challenge my kids to take one recipe from this cookbook and make it together. My oldest was helping the younger ones and all of them participated in creating the recipe we picked.
Mini Maple Pancake Muffins (makes 24 mini pancake muffins)
Ingredients
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2) Generously grease a 24-cup mini muffin pan with nonstick spray.
3) Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl.
4) In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg,maple syrup, and melted butter until just combined.
Note: My oldest has read the instructions a bit too fast and dumped the chocolate chips in the wet ingredients… Still the muffin were perfect once cook!
5)Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
6) Stir in chocolate chips. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
7) Bake 8-9 minutes
8) Let cool slightly and remove from the pan. You may need to use a toothpick around the edges to separate the pancake muffins from the pan.
The kids and I had one muffin as a snack this morning and they were melting in your mouth. They were delicious and I know that this recipe will be done again and again and again in the future. It’s a keeper!
There are five main sections of recipes in the book.
- Main Dishes
- Slow Cooker
- Sides
- Salads
- Breads
- Desserts
The book is also packed with interesting crafts ideas and tips on making special days or snacks more interesting. Already we have found mouthwatering recipes to try out like the Easy Blackberry and Cream Cheese Danish (where we will use blueberries instead) or learn how to make Gak at home. I particularly love the presentation of the book which not only includes recipes but fun activities to do with your family!
Six Sisters’ STUFF is a great book to have in order to instill family time around the table and doing crafts together. Okay not everyone will like the crafts but I think that there is plenty of ideas to do as a family that will encourage you and your loved ones to spend time together. Since March Break is approaching rapidly in Ontario, why not getting this book and find a few things to do together during the week. You will be amaze at the memories you will make with your kids.
Six Sisters’ STUFF is available at your favourite booktore, even amazon.ca and amazon.com.
Disclaimer: Thanks to Shadow Mountain for sending me the above mentioned product for review purposes. I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.
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