Better Than Store-Bought

I really dislike the store-bought tortillas. Sort of puffy, chewy, doughy, with a weird taste (is it from the plastic bag, or preservatives?)... they're my last resort. The Mexican restaurant near us makes divine tortillas (but very spendy to buy), so I've been wanting to try homemade. And you know what? Quick, easy, delicious! And, Madeline LOVED helping. She helped measure, mix, knead, divide, and roll. Did two all by herself, then I did the other 14 because she needed to go outside to play in the sprinkler.
We didn't have lard, so I used butter, and they came out just dandy. I'll also try dividing the dough into 9 balls next time (instead of 8) to see if I can get them even thinner.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

2 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 c. butter, firm (or lard, as the recipe calls for)
3/4 c. water water

Mix the flour, salt and b.p., then add the butter and cut into the flour with a pastry blender (like you would for pie crust or biscuits). Cut in until you have a course-meal texture, then stir in the water to make a soft dough. Knead on a floured board until smooth and elastic, about a couple minutes. Divide into 9 balls (or 8), then let rest for about 15-20 under a damp paper towel. Roll the dough flat and cook on a hot cast-iron griddle (over medium or medium-low heat, but pre-heated). Don't cook them too long or they'll get tough.

My Praline Pony

I needed a brown sugar buttercream to match the color of my niece Katie's favorite plush pony, so I went searching on the good old answer box. Sure enough, the Cupcake Queen at 52cupcakes.blogspot.com came through with a "Pecan Praline Frosting" that was the perfect recipe!

The frosting smooths out easily, frosts like a dream, and tastes divine! Happy Birthday to beautiful Katie Bug!!

The mane is chocolate buttercream and melted dark chocolate (and some black sprinkles) to match her pony, and the sunflower cupcakes are inspired by the book "Hello Cupcake."
Praline Frosting (adapted from 52cupcakes.blogspot.com)
1 c. dark brown sugar
1/2 c. whipping cream
1/2 c. butter
1 Tbs. vanilla
3 c. confectioners sugar

Put brown sugar and heavy cream in saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low, and cook 10 minutes.

Remove from heat, and stir in butter and vanilla. Set aside to cool so that is still warm, but do not stir while it is cooling.

Pour frosting into a mixing bowl, add powdered sugar, about a 1/2 cup at a time, until you have spreading consistency. You can also add chopped pecans to the frosting, or on top. Use your offset spatula dipped in hot water, to smooth out the frosting.

Kids in the Kitchen

Strawberry Rocket Salad (Arugula, sliced strawberries, ground Flax (3 Tbs.), and apple cider syrup, olive oil, balsamic, and S&P.) Madeline loved helping (and LOVES Rocket)!

Chocolate Jello Instant Pudding divided between two quart-sized Ziplocs for "mixing" - fridged for 30 mins while reading stories, then "Voila!" dessert!!

No way...

For obvious reasons, I've not attempted this recipe... really - Chocolate-Dipped Kettle Chips???

Two of my greatest eating-healthy weaknesses (OK, dark chocolate is slightly healthy), but leave it to Rachel to come up with the temptation!

Maybe they'd be horrible? Yeah, I know. Not bloody likely. Hence, the not trying of them...

Three Minutes, Flat.

With some new sea life cookie cutters from Sur La Table, this fun bento lunch took three minutes, start to finish.

While the Octo-dogs were in the microwave (cut one hot dog in half, then cut eight "legs" in the bottom of each half-dog, toss them into hot water and microwave for about 2 mins or until legs curl), I cut out the cheese shapes, layered with "Rocket" (Arugula) "seaweed" and tossed in a handful of washed cherries. Rinsed the dogs in cold water when done and added them to the box. Done!

Tasty Shrimp, and nearly perfect Vanilla Cake

Karen and I had her favorite Bonefish Grill appetizer last week, and it was pretty good. It wasn't as tasty as when it was a regular on their menu, she said, but I tracked down the recipe so we could make it (tastier) at home. I also found an excellent — not-too-sweet, moist and light, vanilla cake recipe this week that I used for my birthday cupcakes. Yum!
Saucy Shrimp appetizer (or dinner - great with a Rocket salad!)

1/2 c. rough-chopped sun-dried tomatoes (dry, rehydrated are best)
1/4 c. lemon juice
Juice of 2 fresh-squeezed limes
1/4 c. fresh chopped or pressed garlic
1/2 c. white wine (optional)
5 Tbs. sugar (or agave syrup)
1 c. whole milk or half-and-half (the recipe calls for heavy cream, but not tried it that way yet)
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. red pepper (or to taste, optional)
2 Tbs. unsalted butter cut in small pieces (the recipe calls for 1/4 pound of butter, but... yikes)
1 1/4 pounds small gulf shrimp, peeled and deveined (50/60 count optimal)
24 (or more, to taste) kalamata olives
Olive oil for pan
3/4 c. crumbled feta cheese
Italian Parsley for garnish

To make lime garlic sauce, place sun-dried tomatoes, lemon juice, lime juice, garlic, wine, sugar, salt, and white pepper in saucepan. Place on medium heat and reduce by half. Add half-and-half or milk, reducing mixture until thick and bubbly. On medium to low heat, slowly add butter until incorporated. Keep warm.

To prepare shrimp, pour a little olive oil into saute pan, coating entire surface. Saute shrimp and olives together until shrimp are tender; remove from heat. Add 2 cups lime tomato garlic sauce. Stir the sauce in with shrimp thoroughly; do not put back on heat. Pour all ingredients onto a large round serving platter. Top with feta crumbled evenly over dish, and garnish with parsley. Yield: 4-6 servings. Source: Bonefish Grill


Simple White Cake (adapted from Allrecipes.com)

1 c. organic sugar
1 cube butter (softened)
2 eggs
1 Tbs. vanilla extract
1 1/2 c. flour
1 3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line muffin tins with paper liners.

Use your Kitchenaid to cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add and mix well. Last, add the milk and blend to make a smooth batter. Scoop batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 30-40 minutes, or 20-25 minutes for cupcakes. Frost and enjoy!

S'Mores, Sans Campfire

Do you love S'Mores, but sometimes crave them when a campfire isn't quite convenient?? I found this recipe on Shane's artist friend's (Karin Yamagiwa Madan) recipe blog. I'll just link to her recipe since her detailed instructions are beautifully illustrated with gorgeous photos (much better than mine, above). For the recipe, click right here. You can check out her other blog when you're done drooling over her recipes!

I did substitute 1/4 cup of applesauce of 1/4 c. of the 2 sticks of butter called for in the recipe (and added about 1/2 more graham cracker crumbs and 1/4 cup of wheat germ to make up for the moisture of the applesauce) to improve the health factor of this one! It made for a stickier dough, but was delicious!

Do try to wait until the bars are cool to cut into them... they are worth the wait!! Share with friends!

Happy Easter!

A simple, sweet dessert to balance out the other sweets of the holiday...

Edible Easter Cards

It's that time of year... Easter! It really sneaked up on me this year, but our Easter activities have begun in earnest now. This afternoon, we got busy making our jellybean letter Easter cards for all the sweet cousins (oh, and one for their candy-loving Papa too).
I let the kids choose the colors they wanted from the bulk Jelly Belly beans at Top Foods, and then drew the first letters of their cousins' names (and their names) on bright, heavy card stock. Mixed up some edible glue (powdered sugar - maybe 3/4 cup - some vanilla powder -optional- and enough water to make a thick glue-like consistency). Then, I let the kids glue the beans on the cards. They loved it! I also put some Edamame (soy beans) out on the table to encourage healthy snacking (in additional to the inevitable jelly bean snitching).

Review: Katie's Cupcakes

On Jerrie's tip, we hit this new Fairhaven cupcake shop — Katie's Cupcakes — this afternoon. We were tasked with providing her with her pre-birthday visit review... oh, such an arduous task! ;o)

Here's the skinny:

Adorable shop! Fun, cheerful decor, and even a tiny kids' table near a shelf filled with toys, games, and books (for kids and grown ups).

On to the cupcakes... We shared one mini of each type for sale today:

Very Very Vanilla - pretty good, Madeline's fave. Light, sweet, good.
Classy Cupcake (vanilla with milk choc frosting) - eh. No one was a fan of this one...
Coconut (coconut with white chocolate coconut frosting) - YUMMM - I LOVED this one. Joel LOVED this one. Luckily, the kids do not like cake or frosting with shredded coconut in it. Darn. We just split this one. I hope you like coconut...
Black and White (choc with van frosting) - OK. No one but Erik loved this one...
Chocoholic - YUM!! This one was delicious. It had dark choc frosting. Yummy!!
Red Velvet - OK. The frosting was good. Cake - eh. Frosting would be wonderful on carrot cake or hummingbird cake or similar...
Cookies and Cream (choc with cookies n' cream frosting) - This one was a hit. I really liked it. E loved it. M loved it. Joel - eh. (he's tough to impress - claims to be spoiled by all the high-quality homemade treats he gets...)

Sous Chef, Erik

The other day Erik said, "I gunna make you pancakes for dee-ner, Mama!" And, so we did. We made teddy bear, smiley face, heart-shaped, a jelly fish (for M) and all our initials with pancake batter. E was an excellent helper. We used the Multigrain Pancake Mix from Trader Joes, which is delicious and healthy, but the important part was the shapes (and the speed - E wanted them NOW)!!
My Nonnie used to make us Teddy Bear Pancakes, which then meant my mom had to as well (and she would do Mickey Mouse, etc. too). Great memories there growing up, and I think my wee sous chef is catching on to loving to create in the kitchen! Yes, he's the one that ran to find his little chef's hat.

Sam, I Am!

Green Eggs and Ham... in honor of Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss's birthday! The cake was lime coconut (with extra green food coloring and green sprinkles baked in), and the frosting was a fabulous buttercream that I altered to make it really lime-alicious, but didn't write down the changes. Drat! I did write down the modifications to this sugar cookie recipe though, and it is the best ever!

Sugar Cookies

3/4 c powdered sugar
1 c unsalted butter softened
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 egg
2 1/2 c flour
3/4 c granulated sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
colored sugar, sprinkles or frosting to decorate!

Cream butter and powdered sugar. Add next three ingredients and beat to combine. Stir in flour, granulated sugar (even better with vanilla sugar!), soda & tartar. Roll out, cut and bake. No need to fridge the dough! Easy!!

Heat oven to 375-degrees F, put cookies on parchment and bake 7-8 mins or until edges are golden.

Yummerific Buttercream

1 c. butter, softened
4 c. powdered sugar
1 T. vanilla
1/4 c. whole or 2% milk
drops of food coloring or paste

Beat butter and sugar, add vanilla, then pour in milk and beat for 4-5 minutes on high. Add color as desired.

Dino-Mite!

I picked up two of these DynoBytes sandwich cutters at QFC a couple weeks ago (one to add to Gavino's birthday package too) and these little dinos have been a hit in Madeline's lunches. She requested only dino sammies both days of this short school week.

The cutter is very easy to use, and makes a neat sandwich whether you cut the bread first and add toppings (I just do one slice when I want one dino sammie), or if you make a sandwich first and then do the cutting (which sort of "seals" the edges of both sandwiches along the cut).

Overall, I like this little gadget, and at $2.50 each at the grocery store, it was well worth the investment.

A Day Off...

Friday this week, we have the "day off" for packing a lunch since there's a big Valentine's party at school (including pizza and other healthy - and sweet - snacks).

They're also reading Pinkalicious by Elizabeth and Victoria Kann this week, and we decorated cupcakes today (just like in the book). After we did ours, Madeline wanted to know about the extra mini cupcakes I made (to use up the batter, really...) to see if we could decorate more, and I encouraged the idea of sharing with her classmates. She thought that sounded great. So, I e-mailed her teacher to ask about treat-bringing protocol. She thought book-inspired treats would be fabulous, so tomorrow the afternoon preschoolers are going to get a fun treat (one day before the big treat-filled party day).

Rainbows, Hearts & Crayons...

... all-in-one! Rainbow-colored, heart-shaped crayons. Fun to make. Quick & easy. And... they clean out the crayon bucket!

Put broken, peeled, crayons into silicone mini-muffin pan (and mix up the color variations) Melt at 250-degrees F for about 10 minutes. Take out and allow to cool/harden for about 20-30 minutes. Then, pop out of their molds and amaze all the wee folk you know! Ooooh... Ahhh!!!