Easy Bake Bash

One day each Winter Break, little girls and Easy Bake ovens descend on our house, for my daughter's annual Easy Bake Bash! 

We set up tables and run extention cords as they mix, taste and cook some interesting little cakes, cookies and other concoctions.  The girls who have ovens bring theirs, or they bring some of the little refill packages.  It's not exclusive to Easy Bake, and some of the girls bring the knock offs you can find at the toy stores, it's all welcome and in the spirit of encouraging cooking! 

My daughter started these get togethers when she was about 7, a year after she received her oven from her grandmother.  Now that she is eleven, and knows her way around our kitchen, she also makes cookies in my oven and the girls enjoy decorating them, too. 

As she gets older, I can see her outgrowing the oven in the near future, but she still invites younger girls to come to her bash, and I have hopes that the tradition will continue.  My five year old son thinks the oven is great, and since he loves to cook, he will probably be inviting his friends over next year, too.  Hasbro has definitely seen that baking is not just for little girls, and recently announced plans for a gender neutral oven out next year, following a thirteen year old girl's petition to the company.   

The little refills are expensive, but what I love about them for younger children is that they don't require a raw egg.  However, homemade Easy Bake oven recipes can be made using either store bought cake mixes and water, or you can make your own for children on a sugar, dairy, egg or gluten restricted diet. 

 My Mommy Tips:

• Have a project ready for the kids while things are cooking, such as sugar cookies to decorate.  The candy necklace kits they can string together are fun, too! 

Keep Having Fun in the Texas Sun!

Michelle

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire

I was thrilled to find some chestnuts at our local grocery store today.  I bought a pound and brought them home, humming all the way....."chestnuts roasting on an open fire". 



My favorite way to roast chestnuts is on a camp fire, like we use to roast Chinquapins when we could find them growing wild in East Texas during the fall.  It's getting harder to find them now.  Another favorite is just laying them on the hearth in front of a big, roaring fire on a cool evening. 

Since we weren't going camping, I planned to get out our little charcoal grill, and roast them on it. 
Unfortunantly, my "open fire" was cancelled due to our recent burn ban. 

Luckily, chestnuts can easily be cooked in the oven, too! 

Oven Roasted Chestnuts

Items Needed:

1 lb. chestnuts
pairing knife

Step One: 
Fill a bowl with water and place all your chestnuts in the bowl.  Remove any that are floating, as they are probably moldy.  Good nuts should sink.   

Step Two:
Take each nut and score an X across the round side of the nut.  This will allow steam to escape as they cook. 

Step Three:

Place X side up on a cookie sheet and put in the oven at 300 degrees for about 25 minutes, or until the shell begins to peel away and the meat turns golden. 

Step Four:
Remove and as soon as they are cool enough to touch, peel off the shell and thin coating underneath. 
Enjoy!


Chestnut and Chinquapin trees are native to Southeast United States, and can be grown in most parts of Texas.  They make a terrific tree, providing food for your family and local wildlife.  I haven't been able to find a Texas grower, but when I do, I will update this post.  In the meantime, there are plenty of other growers that ship to Texas.  Check out http://www.tytyga.com/Nut-Trees-s/1826.htm

Danielle's yummy mashed potatoes

I'm a firm believer that that my children MUST spend Thanksgiving with me when they are grown and have their own families..... I apologize now to my future son and daughters in laws, but yes, I'm going to be that kind of MIL. 

And I have a plan to make this happen.  My older children have a "can't have Thanksgiving without" side dish that they are responsible for preparing.  In this way, I can say to them in my golden years, "but what's Thanksgiving without YOUR mashed potatoes?"  Yes, I'm evil. 

My daughter, Danielle, is the genius behind our Thanksgiving mashed potatoes.  And I have to tell you, they are amazing!  Like so much in our lives, they come with a story.  Shouldn't everything have a story? 

So, we are going to have to travel back to the Summer of 2010.  At the time, I was obsessed with learning to make Chef Kent Rathbun's famed Lobster Shooters, and he was doing a cooking demonstration at an HEB grocery store.  We made a girl's day of it, going with my MIL and another friend. 

Chef Kent Rathbun is a superhero in the Texas culinary world, with his Dallas restaurants, Abacus and Rathbun's Blue Plate Kitchen, and Jasper's with locations in Plano, Austin and The Woodlands.  He and his brother Kevin became national superheroes when they defeated Bobby Flay in an Iron Chef competition!  His brother, Chef Kevin Rathbun owns Rathbun's Steakhouse in Atlanta, where I have never had the opportunity to dine, but my dear husband sent me a picture of his steak once while on a business trip! 

Anyway, after the demo. I got my girl to pose for a picture with Chef Rathbun.  He asked her if she liked to cook, and what.  She said mashed potatoes (Which is true, although she doesn't eat potatoes - weirdo!)  He then gave her the golden secret.  He said to take some green onions (which she proudly told him she that we had them growing all over our yard) and puree them in a blender or food processor.  Then mix it with some heavy cream, and add the mixture to the cooked potatoes, mashing as usual.  He jokingly told her that if she becames a famous chef,  she had to share the credit with him.  She beamed.  I beamed.  Superman! 

And the next day, we made them with dinner.  WOW!!!

They are a peculiar light green color, and awesome, and not for anyone concerned about watching their weight!

 By the way, the Lobster Scalion Shooters were amazing, too! 

chicken & mushroom tacos using Kitchen Pride Texas Grown Mushrooms

Do you love mushrooms?  So do we! 

We were looking for something different to do for dinner, and decided to make Chicken and Mushroom tacos.  They were terrific, and even my husband, who is not a chicken fan, enjoyed them!  What I loved most is that, except for slicing the chicken, my kids made the entire dinner themselves! 

Ingredients:

4 large skinless boneless chicken breast
1 package of Kitchen Pride sliced mushrooms
1 large yellow sweet onion
2 tbsp cumin
flour tortillas
monterey jack or pepper jack cheese
sour cream

Sautee the chicken breast in large skillet on medium heat until brown on each side.  Remove from heat and slice into medium size chunks, return to skillet.  Add sliced onion and mushrooms, with 2 pats of butter.  Cook until onions are tender.  Add cumin, salt and pepper, and stir until well incorporated.  Serve on flour tortillas with monterey jack or pepper jack cheese and sour cream. 

Feeds 2 adults and 3 kids, although one of those kids ate like 5 tacos!

We love to use Kitchen Pride Mushrooms, because they taste great and because we are supporting a Texas business.  Grown exclusively in Gonzales, Texas, the town known for their "Come and Get It" flag, is it suprising that Kitchen Pride's motto is "Come and Eat It"!  I feel good knowing that their mushrooms are grown in accordance with the GFSI certification (Global Food Safety Initiatives).  Please go learn more about their mushrooms, and tell them that Having Fun sent you!  Their website is user friendly, and offers some more good recipes, too!  http://www.kitchenpride.com/default.aspx

Baking with Grandma

The wonderful smell of banana bread is filling up our house as I am typing these words.   My four year old and I decided to make some banana bread, and I pulled out my grandmother's old recipe.  It's not my favorite banana bread, nor is it the recipe I usually use.  I think it's not as moist as some others, but I hold onto it because it was her's.  The reason I brought it out today is that Sunday is Grandparent's Day, and I thought that it was a nice way to start up a conversation with my youngest son about his Great Grandmother, who he never knew. 

As we mashed the banana's and mixed the butter and sugar, I told him about her, and shared some of my favorite memories of her.  Now, he's above average in the hyperactivity department, and most of his comments about her reflected his newest obsession with superheroes.  "Did she like Spiderman?', he asked.  Giggling, I fibbed, "Of course she did.".  But we still had that special time together and talking about her, as close as we will ever come to baking with her.  After we put the pan in the oven, I pointed her out to him in some pictures of her I have around the house, and pulled out an old photo album.  He was able to connect with a picture I have of an appoximately five year old me sitting in a chair with her, opening a birthday present. 

As I am often fond of saying, I'm not just parenting for today.  By these gentle reminders of their geneology, I'm hoping my children will grow to remember who they are, and from where they came.  I hope one day when I'm no longer around, they will hang onto the reminders of our family I have cherished.  Things like family recipes, our photo albums, the Luffwaffe dagger my grandfather took off a German soldier during WWII and the painting of me done by my mother.  My wish is that these items won't be found one day in a pawn store or trash pile, that they will be used by my children to tell their stories. 

My Mommy Tips:
If you have favorite recipes you want to pass down to your children, write them down!  Don't type them, write them, no matter how badly you think of your handwriting.  After 8 years, I still get flood of warm feelings every time I find something with my mother's handwriting on it.   

My Grandma's Banana Bread 

Ingredients:
 
1 stick butter (room temp.)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar 
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Butter the bottom and sides of a loaf pan.  Mix all ingredients.  Pour batter into pan and cook approximately 1 hour.  (Forget what you hear about letting it cool, it's best warm, right out of the oven, with fresh bananas and honey!)

banana I love you

I can't believe we actually made it past the hump day of the first week of the school year!  It's been fine for the kids, but really agonizing for me. 

My daughter, 10, loves it when I put small little surprises in her lunch!  In the past, I surprised her with a spring butterfly lunch and an Easter lunch filled with stuffed Easter Eggs.  Today, I just wanted to tell her to have a good day, and make her smile.  I hope I did. 

This is my four year old's lunch!  I just used a black Sharpie, the peel won't let it contaminate the food.  Of course, you wouldn't write on anything that you or they planned on eating. 

However, this isn't the first time that Sharpies and food have met at our house. Each Halloween, we pass out Jack-o-Lantern Oranges or Cuties to their teammates for baseball, soccer or other events!

Think you are pretty creative with a Sharpie?  Enter the Sharpie Challenge, or just read about all the amazing things people are doing with them!  Get more information at http://www.sharpie.com/enUS/Pages/Creations.aspx

Harry Potter and Chocolate Frogs

Last week was Harry Potter's birthday, July 31st. It's also the birthday of the author of the series, J. K. Rowling. My kids and I  decided to celebrate the event. In the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, the reader is  introduced to chocolate frogs. Each frog comes with Famous Witch or Wizard Trading Cards. We decided it would be fun to make our own chocolate frogs! 

We ordered the mold from Amazon.com.  Because really, you can find just about anything there.  

Now, we are not chocolatiers, and I'm sure that there are many more wonderful, delicious and "gourmet" way to make chocolate frogs.  But this is from our "Kidchen", and meant to be an easy way for kids, while supervised, to create a yummy amphibean treat!   

We used about 1 cup of Hershey's milk chocolate chips.  Melt in the microwave for 30 seconds.  Stir and put back in the microwave for about 15 seconds.  You know each microwave is a little different.  Stir until all the chocolate is melted and then an adult should test to make sure the chocolate is not too hot.  If it is, let it sit for a few minutes.  Carefully fill the molds, wiping any overage off .  Once all the molds are filled, gently tap the mold to try to remove any trapped air bubbles.  Place in the refrigerator to harden. 

Wash the mold and you can also use it to make frog shaped homemade sidewalk chalk! 

Although my kids and I read the books several years ago, we still love the Harry Potter stories. My daughter even celebrated her 8th birthday with a Harry Potter theme. We made potions, paper wands and visited a "unicorn" during their Care of Magical Creatures Class.

My husband even dressed as the Prisoner of Azkaban!   

 

watermelon sorbet

Watermelon sorbet is sooo good, sweet and cold on a hot summer day!  Of course, one of the biggest challenges is not eating all the watermelon before you make a sorbet with it! 

Ingredients

• 2 cups of seeded or seedless watermelon
• 1/2 cup sugar

Add the sugar to 1/2 cup water in a saucepan, and cook on medium until the sugar dissolves, stirring often. 

Place watermelon in a blender, add the sugar water, blend until well mixed.  Every watermelon is different, some are sweeter than others, so you want to taste test.  It's a hard job, but someone's gotta do it!

If you have an ice cream maker, use it to freeze the sorbet. 

If you DON'T have an ice maker, never fear.  Add the watermelon mixture to a quart jar with a lid.  I like the Ziplock ones you can find in the grocery store.  Place in the refrigerator, and every 20 minutes take out and stir contents, to keep the ice crystals small.  Freeze for about 3-4 hours.  I like mine a little soft.  If you do too, take it out and let it sit about 5 minutes before you scoop. 

Once you make it a few times, you will want to start experimenting with different ingredients.  I love adding a little lemon juice, or extremely thin sliced lemon rind for the texture!  Adding fresh mint is also wonderful, just put it in the blender with the watermelon.  Or, if you have access to fresh lavender, it's also delicious, just add to the blender!  Enjoy!

Homemade Baconator

Two beef patties, each topped with bacon and cheese covering each layer... Yum!! The fast food chain, Wendy's, has been advertising their Baconator for several weeks, and each time it's on my kids, especially my 12 year old son, the carnivore, ask if we can go get one.  Then one day they asked if we could make a bacanator at home.... and I was so happy to tell them "Yes"! 

Of course, stealing other ideas and making homemade versions is nothing new to us.  In the past we have made a homemade version of the State Fair's fried bubblegum and Wingstop's wings and fries. 

Also, a bacon cheeseburger isn't hard.  But I love my kid's imagination, creativitiy and problem solving skills, and try to encourage it every chance we get.  And my husband got very excited about it, even inviting his dad over for dinner.  He assured me it had nothing to do with just getting a new grill! 

The thing that sets The Baconator apart, or any Wendy's burger, is that they use square patties.

Ingredients: 

• For the 6 of us, I used 4.5 lbs. of hamburger meat.  That makes each burger about a 12 oz. burger, pre-cooked weight, or (2)  6 oz. patties.
• 1 lb. cooked applewood smoked bacon
• sliced american cheese
• hamburger buns
• condiments - mayo, mustard, ketchup - whatever your crew likes. 

I added the meat to a bowl, 1.5 lbs. at a time, seasoned with salt and pepper and using my hands, mixed it together.  It's yucky work but worth it. 

Then place the 1.5 lb. of hamburger in a gallon size ziplock bag, get out as much air as possible before sealing. 

Here is where even the littlest kids can help.  Use a rolling pin or even just a can from the pantry, and let them roll it out until it's even, and there is meat in every corner.  Place it in the frig for about 15 minutes. 

Now fold it over to find the middle and using kitchen shears, cut the bag and all in half.  Then fold each half and cut again, so that you have 4 similar size and weight patties.  Cut off the plastic, being careful not to disturb the shape, and cook however you like, grill, griddle or skillet. 

Wendy's also uses a buttered and toasted bun.  

The kids can also "build" the Baconators!  It's cheese, meat, bacon, cheese, meat, bacon.  Add your condiments on top.  Enjoy!

faux Wing Stop

One of our favorite meal nights is "Faux Wing Stop" night!  We love Wing Stops french fries, they are completely addictive and when I was pregnant with my youngest, I had to have them all the time!  Luckily, we have a Wing Stop just a few miles away from our house.  However the craving for wings and fries sometimes hit at bad times, as it did one night while we were out at the farm in East Texas.   Approximately 100 miles from the closest W.S., it's a little too far for carry out!  That was how our Faux Wing Stop nights began. 

It's all a pretty simple meal to make.  I handle all the hot frying of the chicken and fries, but there is plenty of other things for the kids to do! 

Wings   My husband loves them hot!  Me.... not so much, so I make two sauces. 

Ingredients:

• 24 Chicken flappers and drumettes. 
• vegetable or canola oil
• Sauce: 
• bottle of hot sauce
• 4 tbsp butter
• minced clove of garlic  (I'm not 100% sure if garlic is used in the WingStop recipe, but garlic is so good for you, you have to use it every chance you get. I add it to everything.  I even tried to sneak it in our oatmeal once.... but that's a different story....) 

Melt butter in a saucepan, add garlic and hot sauce and stir until warm, temperature wise.  Now, if you are a bit of a spice sissy like me, stop here.  Put down the spoon, you are done.  HOwEver, if you are making it HOT, add a few splashes of tabasco sauce.  As I said, I make both. 

Fill a deep frying pan about 1/4 full of oil, vegetable or canola.   
Fry the wings on medium heat until a nice golden brown.  Remove them from the oil and place them on a plate lined with a couple of paper towels to drain the excess oil.  Salt to taste.  Let the kids place the wings in a casserole dish and cover in sauce.  Use two casserole dishes if you are making a mild and a hot wing.  Slide on in the oven, set on 200, to keep them safe and warm. 


Garlic Parmesan Boneless Wings

 Ingredients:

• chicken tenderloins
• flour
• 2 gallon size ziplock bags
• eggs
• sauce
• 4 tbsp butter
• 3 cloves minced garlic
• grated parmesan cheese

These are my kids favorites!  Wash and pat dry the tenderloins, and cut away the annoying tendon that is found on most tenderloins, cause it's not tender!  Let the kids add a cup of flour, and a pinch of salt and pepper, to a ziplock bag.  Then add the chicken and let them shake it up!  Then transfer to another ziplock bag filled with 4 eggs, and let them shake until all the chicken is evenly coated.  Now put the chicken back in the flour (maybe add a little more flour, depending on how much they spilled.)  and shake a last time until well coated!  Now let the chicken set for about 10-20 minutes before you fry it in the same skillet you used for the wings, also on medium heat, until golden brown.  Remove them from the oil and place them on a paper towel to drain the oil.  Salt and pepper to taste.   

Garlic Parmesan Sauce  Melt the butter with the garlic in a saucepan, or in a small microwave safe bowl in the microwave. 

Place the chicken in a casserole dish, cover in sauce and sprinkle with the parmesan cheese.  Place in the same oven with the wings, cause these guys will just disappear if you leave them sitting out! 


French Fries

Farmhouse pantries aren't like their city pantry cousins.  They are big and filled with plenty of space for mason jars full of preserves, dark baskets for storing root vegetables, huge stock pots and plenty of kitchen gadgets like meat grinders.  Our neighbor at the farm has a french fry cutter bolted onto his pantry wall.  It makes cutting the fries so easy!  You just place the washed potatoes in the cutter, pull down the lever and out comes beautiful fries!  Sure, you can cut potatoes with a knife, but this is so much more fun!  Also, since it's a farm, our neighbor isn't really very close, so it means a ride on the four wheeler to go visit and cut the fries! 

 The kids enjoy using the fry cutter so much, and they fries they produce, that they gave ME one for Christmas a few years ago.  Thoughtful, right?  But I do LOVE it!!

 
Ingredients:

• Russet potatoes
• vegetable or canola oil
• kosher salt
• sugar

You can continue to use the same oil you used to fry the wings and tenderloins.  Keep the temperature at medium and add about a handful of  fries.  If you add too many, they will stick together.  Cook until they are a pinch beyond golden brown.  Remove from the heat and place on several paper towels to absorb the oil.  Liberally sprinkle with the kosher salt and sugar.  Continue until you have cooked them all.  You may have to stash these in the oven too, just for safe keeping. 

Don't forget the celery, carrots and blue cheese dressing for dipping!

We found the final touch, the little baskets, at Party City.

Dr Dreadful Zombie Lab

Summer is wearing down on us, we were so exhausted yesterday after a full day of fun and sun, that we skipped our weekly Family Mad Science Night, and dinner too.  So today, while my little one wasn't quite feeling himself, we had a Family Science Night - Afternoon Edition! 

I bought the kids a Dr. Dreadful Zombie Lab kit.  I love any activity that makes kids follow WRITTEN directions, and there are unrepairable consequences if you don't follow them correctly!  It's one of the reasons I will buy those expensive novelty cake and brownie mixes for them, too!

We set up the lab, which is a skull, and then made "edible" things like brain juice, barf and gummy bugs!  Trust me, it all taste terrible, sour and nasty, but we all have to at least taste it.... as any self respecting mad scientist would! 
 

bacon wrapped hot dogs & red, white and blue strawberries

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

My daughter came home from Girl Scout camp, raving about one of the meals she had while she was there.  For 4 days she ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, she's picky, but one night they  wrapped a hot dog with bacon and cooked it in the campfire!  She knew her brother, a bacon loving carnivore, would just drool when he heard about them, and they planned to cook them for us for dinner!  My son invited a friend over to eat with us, and it became a small party! 

Bacon Wrapped Hot Dogs

It's as easy as it sounds.  Wrap the hot dog with the bacon and cook it.  At camp they wrapped them in aluminum foil and laid them just outside the fire, on hot coals. 
At home, we opted for a griddle.  I suggested using a skewer, because I was afraid the bacon would unwrap, but it wasn't neccessary.  The bacon and hot dog hug each other like long lost friends.  Maybe that's a bad analogy, because they just might be.  Try to forget I said that. 
The kids, of course, loved them.  It's a kid food. 

While the hot dogs were cooking, the kids made red, white and blue strawberries.  These things are pinned all over Pinterest for the 4th of July.  Again, the kids had fun making them!

Red, White and Blue Strawberry
dipping station

Red, White and Blue Strawberries

You will need:
washed strawberries
melted white chocolate chips or almond bark (I prefer the chips)
blue sprinkles

I use a small mixing bowl, and melt the white chocolate chips in the microwave.  It takes about a minute, turning the bowl half way through, but keep and eye on it, since all microwaves vary. 
Carefully dip the strawberry in the melted chocolate, (remember, it's very warm), leaving some of the red of the strawberry still visible.  Then quickly dip the tip of the strawberry in a small bowl of blue sprinkles.  Set aside to dry/cool. 

"They're delicious!!" said their friend.  My camera
weary kids were happy to let him pose for the picture!  

             HAPPY

 INDEPENDENCE

          DAY!!

red velvet pancakes

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there!

The kids woke up this morning with plans to make breakfast for their dad in bed!  My daughter loves to make pancakes, but never plain ones, and today she made Red Velvet Pancakes!  They are soo good!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 egg

3/4 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup sour cream

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

red food coloring (I prefer just a pinch of Wilton, but if you are using a liquid, about 1 teaspoon)

Directions:

Mix first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. 

Mix last 7 ingredients in another large bowl

Add the flour mixture to the 2nd bowl gradually, mixing until creamy.  This is my kid's favorite part, when the vinegar and the baking soda meet and create a foam, which makes the pancakes light and fluffy!  I throw out the words acid (vinegar) and base (baking soda) alot at this point, making those science connections!

Cook as you would any pancake, using a hot griddle or skillet. I prefer using a 1/4 measuring cup, but you can make them larger or smaller according to your preference.

Loading up for Boy Scout Camp

We then loaded up my son's things and drove him out to meet his Boy Scout Troop, as they head off to camp for a week.  This is his first time to go to camp for a week, although he has done some overnight and 2 day camps.  I'm so excited for him, but this is a huge step towards maturity and I know the boy who comes back will be a little more independent, which makes it a bittersweet day.  I love the person he is growing into, but I will miss my little boy. 

                                                                                

A sweet, brotherly goodbye

Before we left, we called to wish Happy Father's Day to their Grandpa, and took a few minutes to talk about my dad, who past away 2 years ago.  Gone but not forgotten. 

Home for the next 6 days!

We then loaded up all of my daughter's things, and drove her out to Girl Scout Camp for a week. This is her FIRST time to go to camp without me, and I have to say I'm a little worried, and although I know she will be fine, I still cried a little!  

Rudy's Bar-B-Que

With only our 4 year old left, we joined my husband's dad for a Father's Day dinner at Rudy's Bar-B-Que.  I have mixed feeling about Rudy's, because we have liked them since their early beginnings, before you found a franchise along every interstate. But the food was still sooo good!  My FIL forced me (haha) to try their buttermilk pie, which is amazing!!  I'm going to have to find a recipe for that!

To find a Rudy's near you,

http://www.rudysbbq.com/page/home or like them on facebook;

http://www.facebook.com/rudysbbq?ref=ts

Please tell them HFitTS sent you!

Cheese Pizza Soup

We love tomato soup, but my kids wanted to try to do something a little different one afternoon, and Cheese Pizza Soup was born!

You can add veggies and pepperoni or sausage, to make a Supreme Pizza Soup, too!

Gather all your Ingredients:

1 can Tomato Soup
2 Tbsp. Spaghetti Sauce
Italian Seasonings
1/4 cup Mozarella Cheese
Packaged Pizza Dough
2 tsp. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

For the Pizza Crouton:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Roll out packaged pizza dough

Drizzle on Extra Virgin Olive Oil, and spread all around pizza dough

Sprinkle Italian Seasonings on dough

Cut dough into approximately 1'' by 2'' strips

Spray a cookie sheet with Pam, and place pizza dough strips on sheet

Cook for 11 minutes.

For the soup:

Open can of soup, pour into a sauce pan, and add 1 can of water

Add 2 tablespoons of Spaghetti Sauce

Heat on Medium Heat until warm

Ladle into bowls, garnish with Mozarella Cheese and Pizza Crouton

chocolate ice cubes

About 2 days after Ash Wednesday, while my body was still reeling from my lent induced abstinence of chocolate, I saw at the grocery store food network magazine's CHOCOLATE Issue!  Without allowing myself any time to drool on the cover, I purchased it.  Once home I left it in the plastic bag (I know, I always plan to take it all my recyclable shopping bags) and stowed it away in a drawer until after Easter!  At about 3:30am Easter morning, as I am unwrapping approximately my 300th Cadbury chocolate egg, I remembered the magazine.  Well, you can imagine the rest... let's just say it wasn't a pretty sight for the Easter Bunny to find me laying in an almost sugar coma, chocolate running down my chin and my tongue stuck to one of the pages of the magazine!   

One of the most unique recipes in the book is for chocolate ice cubes!  Being self proclaimed chocolate milk afficionados, my kids couldn't wait to try this recipe!  It's a simple enough to make, and produces squeals of delight when friends are over after school! 

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 ice cube tray

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a slow simmer, whisking until all lumps are disolved. 

Remove from heat and add semisweet chocolate chips, stir until disolved.  (We got creative and added a tsp. vanilla extract at this point, but you can leave it out.)  Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze.

To serve, add to milk and swish a few times! Yum!!

The Hunger Games

I love this book!  My kids love this book!  We looked forward to Spring Break, which we had predetermined to be when we would read it.  The three of us cuddled on the couch, and took turns reading out loud a chapter each.  I am going to admit that during some of the nail biting moments of the book, I would insist on reading, not having the patience to wait for my children, who read slightly slower than I do! 

As we read, I tried to think of an activity we could incorporate with the book.  One of the aspects I enjoyed most about the book was Katniss' foraging skills.  Eating off the land for us is limited to only wild berries, onions and nuts, but I love that it's enough for my children to have an understanding of where food really grows, not the grocery store or the garden.   I laugh when I recall a my daughter's friend, who accompanied us to pick up pecans from a local park in the fall.  She couldn't believe we were going to EAT the pecans we found in the dirt!  She tried the shelled nuts, and loved them!  When we dropped her off at home she told her mom, and I got a concerned phone call about letting her eat off the ground!

We decided to be adventurous with the the food that Katniss credits with saving her life.  It's an important moment in the book, right after she has received a loaf of old bread from the small boy that lives at the bakery, her first food in days.  She sees a dandelion growing, and remembers her father teaching her foraging skills in the woods, before he is killed in a mining accident.  We did some reading on dandelion recipes, and choose three.  We made dandelion greens, added dandelion flowers to a salad with poppy seeds, and lightly battered the flowers and fried them.  Can you guess which was my southern children's favorite?  We don't attend the Texas State Fair each year for nothing, we love anything fried!

cooking our way through the alphabet

I was aware for some time that we would visit the grocery store each week, buy the same vegetables as I had the week before, and bypass those that I either had decided I didn't like, or those that seemed too intimidating.  I was happy to live in ignorance of Endive, Jerusalem Artichokes and Hubbard Squash.  But then, as often happens to me, the light turned on in my head - and I couldn't extinguish it.  It grew brighter and brighter until I felt ashamed to enter the produce aisle.  I was certain the bok choy was laughing at me!  I was being taunted by the wakame!

As my children balked and groaned, I told them of my plan.   We would cook and eat our way through the alphabet!  Oh, how they cried, and their tears only fueled my intent that this was something we needed, we must do!  They can't live on potatoes alone!

So we invite you to follow along with us as we prepare each week a new to us veggie.  We may love some, we will probably hate a few, but be certain we will have fun doing it!  Unlike most blogs, I am going to update this entry each week, so that our entire project stays together, and you don't get lost, wandering around aimlessly between the Ahipa and the Escarole. 

February 6th     Artichokes

We have eaten artichokes, but I have never cooked globe artichokes.  They look so complicated!  I choose to make an artichoke dip from a recipe I found the recipe at the foodie blog, Cooking With My Kid.  It's the first time I had visited this blog, and I really enjoyed it!  I'm not going to reprint their recipe, so go check it out at   http://www.cookingwithmykid.com/appetizers/savory-sitter-super-bowl-healthy-artichoke-dip/

The recipe calls for canned artichoke, and while one of my "guidelines" is to use only fresh vegetables, I thought that since I have never used canned, I could get away with it this once!  We didn't make the pita chips, substituting store bought pita chips instead.  I followed the recipe to the letter, and I think it's really good!  The kids ate it, but didn't love it.  That's okay, at least they ate it!

Brownie Bites with Pumpkin Pie Spice Frosting

My oldest son's Boy Scout Troop had a Thanksgiving Feast, and everyone was asked to bring something.   He was assigned dessert, and choose brownie bites.

He made them himself, with me in the next room in case he needed help.

He made pumpkin pie spice cream cheese frosting, and I put it in the pastry bag, and showed him how to top the brownies.

After a couple, they were looking pretty good.  But the first few, like the one in the picture, looked a little like dog poo.  We had a good laugh about it, as we packed them all up for his feast!

It's sometimes hard not to step in and "correct"  your children's works when they are learning something new.  But the pride he felt from taking HIS brownie bites was more important than taking picture perfect dessert for his friends and their families.

Come to think of it, I think this picture is perfect!

Brownie Bites:

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 stick butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt


Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat for 4 minutes, use a timer because the beating time is important.
Spray or butter a mini muffin pan, or use mini muffin cups. 
Cook for 15 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 

Pumpkin Pie Spice Cream Cheese Frosting

1 8 oz. package cheese cheese
1/2 stick butter, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice (adjust to taste). 

Beat until incorporated.  Frost as desired.

Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies

Making Pumpkin Spice Sugar Cookies is a Halloween Tradition with us!  I help the kids, as needed, but I really try to let them do as much as they can on their own.  The kids will love decorating the cookies, too.  Let them let their creativity bring these happy pumpkins to life!    







For the cookies:

3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup room temp butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk


1. In one bowl, add the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice, and set aside.
2. In a seperate bowl, add butter and sugar, and mix with a hand or stand mixer.
3. In a small clear glass bowl, break your egg.  Check for eggshells, then add to the butter and sugar.  Mix until incorporated. 
4. Add 2 tablespoons milk.  Mix until incorporated.
5. 1/3 cup at a time, add the dry flour mixture to the wet butter and egg mixture.  Mix well after each 1/3 cup. 
6. The cookie dough will cut and retain it's shape better if it is cold.  Seperate the dough into 2 balls, cover or wrap in Saran Wrap, and place in refrigerator approximately 1 hour.
tick...tock....tick....tock....
7. Take out one of the cookie dough balls, and place on a surface dusted with either flour or powdered sugar.  I prefer the sugar, of course!
8.  Rub your rolling pin in either the flour or powdered sugar until lightly coated.  Roll out the dough to about 1/4 inch thick.  Try to keep the dough the same thickness all the way across. 
9.  Take your pumpkin cookie cutter, and cut out your cookies, being careful to place the cutter to get as many cookies as possible. 
10.  Transfer the cookies to a prepared cookie sheet. I spray with just a little Pam.  Place in a 375 degree preheated oven for 8-10 minutes
11. Let completely cool before decorating!

Decorating the Cookies!

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. Meringue Powder
1 tsp. vanilla extract
orange icing coloring

1.  Mix 1 cup powdered sugar with 1 teaspoon Meringe Powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and a few drops of orange icing coloring, I use Wilton.  Mix in about 5 teaspoons HOT water.
2.  You can use either a decorating bag with tips, or just a gallon size zip lock bag.  Just cut a very small hole at one corner.  Now fill with your icing.  Use this icing to outline your cookies. 
3. Use the same recipe, but add a few extra drops of HOT water to give it a runnier consistency to "flood" the cookies.  I add this to a small squeeze bottle and slowly apply to the cookies.  Use a toothpick to help spread it around.  Don't eat it until it's dry!

If you want to create a Jack-O-Lantern, make black icing and outline the faces before you flood with the orange! Be sure to let the icing on each stage dry, so that your colors don't run.