How To Make a Mud Pie

Who does not remember making a mud pie back in the day?

I for one used to spend much of my time cooking up the biggest, muddiest mud pies; granted I also used to spend quite a lot of time trying to dig a hole in the back garden that would go right through the earth’s crust and reach Australia, after my Dad told me it was possible…Anyway, that is another story!

I would take mixing spoons from the kitchen and use them to stir together my latest creations. There is nothing quite as satisfying as stirring squelchy mud with your Mother’s baking spoon I can tell you!

*Disclaimer – I am not telling you to take your Mother’s baking spoon for mud pie baking!*

I am not talking about a luxurious Chocolate pudding with the added mud euphuism, nope. I am talking about mud. Real mud, the kind you take from the garden. Thick sludgy mud. Just any kind of mud I could get my hands on.

Everything I could possibly imagine went into these one of a kind pies and not the kind of things that you would really want to eat! Grass, leaves, twigs, stones, gravel, flowers, weeds, sometimes I would even decorate it with a live slug or snail! (No slugs or snails were hurt in the making of this mud pie!)

You can experiment with different types of mud, clay like mud always leaves you with a very impressive mud pie, and you can mix in colourful flowers to add dashes of colour to your otherwise monotone masterpiece.

By now you probably want to cook up a mud pie storm?

Remember though…

you must not eat your mud pie. It is purely for show purposes!

The Mud Pie Recipe

Ingredients

1 Cup of Sand or Gravel

2 Cups of Mud

1 ½ Cups of Water

What you will need

Responsible adult

Baking Spoon

Mixing Bowl

Baking Pan or similar

Flowers or other decorative materials

Method

Note: If you are going down the sand based mud pie route, I would recommend sand pitt sand if you have some lying around. If not you can always use gravel which will add a different texture to your pie, but that is what it is all about! Getting your little ones to explore different textures.

You will need 2 cups of mud freshly scooped from the garden, the more twigs and stones the better!

Mix 1 cup of sand and 1 cup of mud into your mixing bowl and stir them together. Once all of the mud clumps are gone you should be left with a thick mixture, enhanced by your twigs and stones.

Stir gently while adding in your 1 ½ cups of water. How much water you actually need will vary on what type of mud pie you are cooking up, and depends on whether you used sand or gravel for the basis of your pie.

Now you are ready to add your final cup of squidgy mud. Continue to stir your mixture all together until it is all clump free, now if you are wanting to add some colour to your mud pie, you can add the flowers or whatever else you were hoping to throw in for good measure. Once you have the desired look, pour your finished mixture into your baking pan.

Now add on any decoration that you want on your mud pie.

Depending on the season you may wish to add conkers or pine combs to your pie. If you want to get really creative you could crush up some egg shells and add in food colouring to give you some very bright colours, before sprinkling them on top.

With the final decorations in place, set your mud pie in direct sunlight to bake until it’s dry.

When it comes to mud pies you really can dream up anything you want and make it a reality. They are a fantastic way to entertain the kid’s and get them outside playing with what nature intended them too.

They will love getting their hands dirty and squidging their fingers in the squelchy mud. They will get filthy but they will love the experience, and you will too.

Mud pies are completely fat free and will be remembered for a life time.

Autumn Adventures

The leaves are starting to change their colour from luscious Green to a golden haze; some are now relinquishing their hold on the tree and floating down to the ground. A sure sign that the seasons are changing and autumn is officially here.

I was driving home from work the other day and there were children playing with conkers and I was reminded of all those autumn adventures from my childhood.

I have always been lucky and lived in areas full of space to run around. Our house currently backs on to a nature reserve full of wildlife and trees to climb. In my younger days I used to spend every waking hour down there kitted out in pretty dresses I swore blind I would keep clean and wellington boots, much to my Mother’s dismay…

I really was a sight for sore eyes.

I loved the great outdoors and I made it my personal mission to collect as many conkers as possible. My brother and I gathered them by the bucket load, not for any particular reason other than just because we could.

There were times I think my Mum wondered if I would ever outgrow my tomboyish ways, especially when I came home one day completely covered in mud. It was just after she had put me in a dress and specifically told me ‘do not get dirty’. I guess I may have taken that as a guideline as to how dirty I could really get, and when I got stuck in the biggest, stickiest mud I could find, lost my wellington boot and was given a little push by the local joker, I went head over heels.

Walking home with my feet squelching in my socks, I knew I was in big trouble. It was November and it was not the warmest day around in the area of Yorkshire we were then living. I was not expecting my Mum to deny my entry into the house though, but that is what happened. She grabbed the hose pipe and began to wash away the sticky mud.

I was filthy and she was not inviting all of that mud inside!

When we first moved into the house we now occupy, our next door neighbours actually thought they had a family of gypsies moving in next door, and they meant us. This was all thanks to my brother and me, running about on the mud where the lawn was yet to be laid, completely filthy despite our parent’s greatest efforts.

It really was a losing battle for them. We were absolutely determined to just get as filthy as humanly possible.

Luckily… Somewhere along the path of growing up I did outgrow my tomboyish ways, and I even bought an alternative pair of shoes to the wellies I used to wear day in, day out. Now though, I know it won’t be long before I am trying to keep up with Leo and his autumn adventures. Trying to keep his clothes as mud free as possible and letting him know of the situations that may come around. There will be many occasions where he will get his feet stuck in a big puddle of mud, and if he pulls too hard then he may just loose a boot!

This again is life experience talking…

I cannot wait to collect some conkers with Leo and show him the joy of making a great old pile of them, of course now I am the responsible adult, I will have to make sure we get rid of them before they begin to decompose…

I have to admit that I am very excited at the prospect of pulling the wellington boots out of retirement and taking Leo on an autumn walk. I am excited to show him all of the things I used to get up to as a child, and I have a sneaky suspicion that Granny will be telling Leo and I ‘not to get dirty’ and the hose pipe experience form my past may just become Leo’s future…

Wait until I show Leo the marvellous way to make mud pies!

Recipe to follow…