Cookie Map of the Fertile Crescent

I saw cookie maps on Pinterest ages ago, but we've never done one -- until now. Honestly, I wasn't too excited at the start: cooking with all 3 kids is a Job, and I much prefer to do it one on one these days. They did better than I expected; it was fun!

First, I copied the recipe in cursive and gave it to Hero. He needs practice with cursive and recipe reading, so that's where we started. So he was kind of in charge, even though it was officially Dragon's project, to go with the history he's been learning. I think it was not worrying so much about the recipe and the little kids' that made doing the project more fun for me: not as much to track in my head, or to worry about. Plus, they shared and took turns really well this time, which was nice.

Dragon and Peanut did most of the adding of ingredients. When it was all mixed, everyone helped with beater and spoon licking-- probably the most important jobs! Then we made the map. The recipe says to cool the dough, but it was great for this project when it was fresh. 

We squished it out to be a blank canvas, grabbed a map, and used the fat end of a chopstick to tap in the Tigress and Euphrates. I did one, then Hero did the other. 

After that Dragon added the Dead Sea. I helped him figure out where it belongs on the map, but he did most of the putting it in, while I tapped in the Mediterranean Sea with my fingers. Then Dragon did the Nile and Hero did the Red Sea. Peanut helped pinch in some mountains above our rivers. 

Then we baked it. I reduced the temperature to about 300F, since it was one large cookie, and then took it out when it smelled good and was a touch browned. I think it was around 20 minutes, but I'm not actually sure. If we do this again, I'll take it out slightly less brown; it's just a touch too dry.

It was hard for the kids to wait for the whole thing to cool completely! But once I told them hot cookies melt icing, they were relatively patient. I split the frosting jobs by difficulty; Peanut went first. The kids mixed their own color; she got brown, for the mountains. 

Then Dragon started working on the green fertile areas. We used the grass tip, though he said that it didn't much look like grass. That's partly because I'm a bit out of practice with the frosting toys, and made the icing too soft. But it worked well enough, so we kept going.

Hero got the blue. The various water sections needed to be done last, and snaked around. He even filled his own frosting bag. 

When it was all done, it looked pretty cool! We talked about where the different things are, and what everything is called, and it was fun!