calcite

I went to work with my dad at a complex called sheerwater to fix the irrigation, while I was there I was looking at the rocky landscape around the houses. The complex was put in the side of a mountain and a lot of rock needed to be blasted out. In some places we were probably 10 meters under ground in some places. I decided to check out the cliff face which ran along one side of the complex. The cliff face was very crumbly and weak. I found bits of rock that looked like impure calcite crystals because they had a slight square shape to them. So I kept on looking until I found some very pure calcite crystals and some clusters of thin sheet like crystals that looked almost like Muscovite. I collected some samples of the calcite to test later. I put a few drops of HCl on the calcite and it bubbled up confirming that it was calcite that I found

beans and rice 2

We started out by chopping up onions, peppers, garlic, wieners, and tomato's. Then we put them all in a pot with a little bit of oil and fried them up. Once every thing was cooked, we added two cups of beans to the vegetables and let them cook for a bit. Once that was done, we started on the rice by putting two cups of water in a pot and bringing it to a boil. After it stated boiling, we added a cup of rice and tomato powder and put a lid on it. That's when we made the tortillas. We measured out two cups of corn flour and put it in a mixing bowl. Then we added water and salt. After kneading the dough for a while we made the dough into 16 little balls. We had a special tool that can flatten the balls into a flat round circle. We put a pan on the stove and turned it on high. We then placed the rolled dough on the pan to cook. After they were all ready, we ate everything together. It all tasted really good. The tortillas were hollow in the middle so we could open them up and put the rice and beans inside the tortillas. I cant wait to make it again some time.

5 hours of volunteer work

I spent my 5 hours of volunteering at the Fat Cat Children's Festival.

Most of my time was spent cutting out cat noses, dragon ears, and eye brows from construction paper. The kids would use these body parts to make hand puppets. It's pretty safe to say that if I was ever going to do that again, I would have to be a hobo being paid a lot of money to do it, or else become Edward Scissorhands. My hands were quite sore after all that cutting so I really hope the children appreciated it. On a positive note, my group was in a tent like structure which protected us from the little bit of rain we had as well as the wind.
It wasn't my idea to do this kind of volunteer work but my school planned it.
What I did last year was dinging trenches.

cookies

chocolate chip cookies
First we mixed flour,oatmeal, and baking soda in a bowl. Then we combined butter and shortening.
Then we added sugar to the butter mixture and beat it. Next we added eggs and vanilla.
After that we added the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mixed it up well.
Then we added the chocolate chips to the mix and stirred them in. After that was finished we rolled the dough into little balls and put them in the oven for about 10 minutes.
They turned out really well and tasted really good.
I would probably make them again.

Cappuccino cookies
First we mixed butter, coco powder, brown sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, and instant coffee powder.
Then after everything was mixed we added some egg white, yogurt, and flour.

We poured some white sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and rolled the dough into little balls. Then we rolled the balls in the white sugar and cinnamon and placed them on a baking sheet. We baked them for 10 minutes and took them out.
At first when we took them out they were really soft, but after sitting out for a while they became more hard.
These were probably the best cookies that we made. I am planning on making them again soon.

Apple pie

First we put flour and salt in a bowl and mixed them together. Then we cut in some shortening until it was just little bits of shortening with flour surrounding them. Next we added some water and kneaded it until it became dough. Then we put the dough in the fridge over night. The next day we cut the dough into two parts. The first part we rolled out and put on a pie plate and the second part we put aside. After that we started on the apple filling, for that we mixed lemon juice, white sugar, brown sugar, salt, Cinnamon, nutmeg, flour, and chopped up apples in a bowl. Then we willed the pie plate with the apple mixture and put a sheet of dough on top of it.
Then we put the pie on a baking sheet and put it in the oven. We put it in the oven for 15 minutes on high temperature, and then put it in again for 45 minutes on a lower temperature. when we took it out it was brown and crispy and it tasted really good. All it needed was some ice cream to go on top. I will probably make it again some time in the future.  

Apple tart

We rolled out a block of puff pastry and cut it into four circles. Then we chopped up some apples into small cubes and added some cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar to them.
Next we put the apples on the pastry and put them in the oven for about 20 minutes.
When we took them out, the dough had puffed up and become really crispy, and they tasted really good.
I would definitely make these again.

rice and beans

                             
                                                                  Rice and Beans.
First we fried unions and peppers in a pot, then we added garlic. Once they were cooked we added some tomato paste, black beans, oregano, cumin, bay leafs, and vinegar. We cooked them together for about five minutes. then we added vegetable stock, salt and pepper, and rice. We let it boil for a bit, then we turned down the heat and let it sit for 20 minutes or so. Once the rice was cooked we took it out of the pot and tried it. It could have used some more beans then it had, I was defiantly expecting more beans, but it was still good besides that.  I am probably going to make it again.