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Did you know that surveys show that more than half of parents are unaware of the television rating system currently in effect, and only 16% are aware of the V-Chip in their TVs and what it can do?

In reality, the provisions of the 1990 Children’s Television Act are little known and mostly not enforced. Bottom line is that TV and cable networks are not held accountable to what is considered the minimum standard of “educational/informational” programming. 

The Smart Television Alliance believes that parents and other caregivers can make more informed choices about what and when children watch if they are provided easily accessible tools and information. 

Instead of focusing on the negative, the Smart Television Alliance promotes good programs - everything from MythBusters to The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron. They intend to grow the audience for these quality shows, and convince the networks that there is indeed a market for high quality children and family programming. 

They’re also partnering with the National Council of Women’s Organizations, the National PTA, the National Education Association, the Parent’s Choice Foundation, and 10 other non-profits all who have signed on as founding organizations. 

Check out their website at www.smarttelevisionalliance.org and sign up for the twice monthly SmartNewsletters with recommendations for quality children’s programming. And if you’ve been thinking about signing up with TiVo, check out their sponsor offer. For a limited time, TiVo will give you a free DVR (with a minimum one year subscription plan) and give a nonprofit member of the Smart Television Alliance a $25 donation!

And how about munching on some Thanksgiving popcorn balls while you’re watching TV?

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We tend to think that Thanksgiving is all about pumpkin pie, turkey, mashed potatoes, yams and cranberries. In reality, the first Thanksgiving meal in 1621 celebrated by the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians didn’t feature any of those items. Historians know for certain that they ate venison and wild fowl. They probably didn’t have much in the way of vegetables that time of year, and they didn’t have ovens in which to make cakes and pies. In fact, there were probably too stuffed on meat to care about eating something sweet. (For more information about the First Thanksgiving, go to History.com and EnjoyMA)

So what could have been on the menu? This comes from Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation via History.com.

Foods that may have been on the menu

Seafood: cod, eel, clams, lobster (now this is my idea of a great feast!)
Wild Fowl: wild turkey, goose, duck, crane, swan, partridge, eagles
Meat: venison (deer or elk), seal
Grain: wheat flour, Indian corn
Vegetables: pumpkin, peas, beans, onions, lettuce, radishes, carrots
Fruit: plums, grapes

Foods not on the menu

Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered their pigs though they had brought such animals with them from England.
Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.
Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.
Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar.
Pumpkin Pie: Hard to make without sugar, plus the recipe didn’t exist at this time. However, the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.
Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it’s unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying.
Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it’s possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.

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I got this recipe for Pumpkin Chili from a collection of Eversave pumpkin recipes I got via email. It’s a wonderful recipe for sneaking in healthy veggies to your kids’ diet. It’s also a great way to use up all that ground meat and canned pumpkin you bought on sale.

Pumpkin Chili
Beware: it’s a large batch so you may want to freeze half. I ended up sharing it with a friend’s family.

Ingredients:

1.  4 pounds 70% once ground chuck (I used  the ground antelope we had in the freezer.)
2. 3 cans diced tomatoes with juice (I used one can and two cans equivalent of chopped up tomatoes from our garden.)
3. 16 oz. tomato sauce
4. 2 jalapeno peppers, finely chopped (I used a small can of chopped peppers.)
5. 5 TBSP chili pepper
6. 1 each yellow and orange bell pepper, sliced and roasted then finely diced (I had a jar of roasted red peppers, so I used that.)
7. 3 ears of roasted corn, sliced from the cob (Instead I used a can of corn, drained.)
8. 2 stalks celery, finely diced
9. 2 cups of cooked pumpkin (I added a cup of cooked butternut squash. Why not?)
10. Several drops Tabasco sauce (optional) (I skipped this since I wasn’t sure my friend’s family likes their chili spicy or not.)

Directions:

1. Brown the ground chuck, drain off grease.
2. Place all ingredients into a crock pot and cook on low for 10-12 hours.

Chill out with some chili books

Need a few good books to read while waiting for your chili to cook? Try these:

Armadilly Chili - For ages four to eight, a Tex-Mex version of The Little Red Hen.

West Texas Chili Monster - For ages four to eight, unexpected things happen when Mama’s rip-roarin’ chili attracts a space monster to a West Texas chili contest.

What would Halloween be without black cats? One of my favorite literary felines is Nick Bruel’s Bad Kitty, a very naughty kitty who stars in a hilarious alphabet book. When I came across the sequel, Poor Puppy, at our recent Scholastic book fair, I had to bring the book home.

Poor Puppy features a happy-go-lucky puppy who wants to play with Bad Kitty. Bad Kitty is a smart feline, and stays out of the way while Poor Puppy destroys the house. Again, Bruel gives us a wonderful ABC book but this time includes numbers 1-26.

Kids ages three to eight will enjoy Poor Puppy and Bad Kitty’s antics. And parents will be scared silly by the destruction these two manage to cause. Who knew an ABC book could be a cautionary tale?

C is for Cupcake

Now let’s count how many fall pumpkin cupcakes we can make…and eat!

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