A Common Shepherdess

We made pocket sundials, or shepherd's dials. We found instructions in the book Nature Crafts for Kids .

I have started a new blog at https://creativeinstinct.blog/ and moved my State Dinner and information there. Come visit my new site! Lobster rolls French fries Root beer (since we can't get Moxie, the official state beverage) Blueberry tarts I have to admit I cheated. When I got to the store and was told it would be $15 for one 5 oz. frozen lobster tail (and the recipe called for five tails), I opted to go with a pound of cooked shrimp instead for only $3.99. (Shhh, don't tell anyone from Maine!) It was a big hit with my oldest son. He said it was almost as good as the shrimp in the white sauce at the Chinese buffet so that is a big compliment! :-) I made homemade New England-style buns (no crust on the sides, split top down) since we don't have them here. I used this recipe and shaped the dough into 12 long, fat ropes. I placed them on a greased pan 1/2-inch apart to rise and placed them close to each other so I had crustless sides. I baked them at 375 for a

Oregon Caprial's Crab Club Sandwiches Cranberry Pear Salad with Curried Hazelnuts Milk (official state beverage) Mixed berry cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream (We wish we could get Tillamook Ice Cream here in Arizona!) Washington Garlic Prawns Buttered noodles Baked Apples Starbucks coffee ice cream Alaska Smoked salmon Roasted root vegetables Poppy Seed Potato Bread Baked Alaska

California Cobb salad Sourdough rolls White grape juice Pistachio pudding cake Hawaii Loco moco (if you are feeling brave and very hungry) or Hawaiian sweet and sour chicken White rice Tropical fruit punch Haupia or go out for Hawaiian shaved ice

Texas Texas-style chili Pan de Campo Texas sheet cake Arizona Carnitas with corn tortillas Nopales Caramel milk Navajo Fry Bread New Mexico Green Chile Stew Blue corn chips with pico de gallo and avocado Hot chocolate with cinnamon Bocaditos de Miel de Abeja

Montana Blackstrap Steaks with Carmelized Onions Country-style Fried Potatoes Fruit leather made from applesauce Huckleberry Buckle Idaho Grilled hamburgers French fries with Fry Sauce (1/2 c ketchup, 1/2 c mayonnaise, 2-3 tsp chopped dill pickle) (I had never seen fry sauce before moving to Idaho. Every restaurant had it!) Cowboy beans Huckleberry pie (or substitute blueberry pie) Wyoming Cowboy Beef and Beans with Roundup Bacon Biscuits Mixed Greens Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette S'Mores Bars Colorado Baked fresh water trout or Eggroll Chile Rellenos Potato and tomato bake Millennium Mocha Rocky Road Oatmeal Cookies Nevada Basque Lamb Stew (We may substitute beef since we've tried lamb before and found it to be quite nasty. We will just pretend it's lamb!) Basque Sheepherder's Bread Grape juice Utah Pastrami Burgers (topped with Spanish sweet onions) Mormon Funeral Potatoes Fresh cherries Utah's famous green Jell-o