Wordless Wednesday: Rainbow Salad

Singapore Sling

Jamie mixed us up some Singapore Slings last night while we were all prepping dinner... they were dangerously delicious!

Jamie's Singapore Sling
(makes 2)
2 shots cherry brandy
1 shot triple sec
2 shots Cascade Mountain gin
2 shots pineapple juice
1 shot lime juice
1 shot grenadine
And, Club Soda to fill the shaker...
serve over ice, and beware!

Pepita Fig Berry Nut Granola

I love the kids' cookbook, Salad People by Mollie Katzen (of Moosewood Restaurant fame). I've gifted the book to a few kids in the last couple years, although our copy here is from the library. Today, after school, we decided to make the granola, which we (of course) adapted. Neither of our kids like to eat oatmeal, so there's a method to my madness here... I hope it works!

I love that Salad People has really clear steps, for kids to follow along...

Madeline loved measuring things in to the bowl,
and mixing the dry ingredients with her hands

Erik loved snipping the figs with kid scissors

And, in the end, we got some delicious and beautiful granola!

I must admit though, I did adapt this recipe according to Deb's granola recipe from Smitten Kitchen (so less oil, some cinnamon, watching the baking time...) — her recipe is right here.

Cinnamon Swirl Pancakes... Mmm...

Happy Father's Day to Joel... Cinnamon Roll Pancakes from Big Red Kitchen were a hit (although I used my own recipe for pancakes, and added maple extract to the cream cheese icing).

Inspired by Sesame Street...

We have a scratch-and-sniff book about Sesame Street characters figuring out how to eat all their favorite fruit at the same time, hence, a rainbow fruit salad! Madeline named off things we needed to pick up at the grocery on Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning, she was ready to assemble. Strawberries, peaches, bananas (although pineapple next time!), kiwi, blueberries and purple grapes! Divine... I especially love that making it was her idea/request, and that she was so very proud of her creation. She even dished up a hefty portion for me on a dinner plate, complete with a fork and a spoon. Why a spoon? "Oh, Mama, you need the spoon to get those grapes. Otherwise, they just slip away from you — they are just foolish!"

Guava Brigadeiros

I spotted these Brazilian candies on The Cookie Shop blog the other day, and they were a fun little project for the kids and their buddies today. I used guava jelly instead of strawberry jam because that's what I had, and yes, that's just the kind of gal I am. I also had Vietnamese coffee in the pantry the other day when I ran out of my standard Joe's Dark Roast from TJs ($2.99/lb. can't beat that). Clockwise from the top left are: Madeline's, Erik's, Aura's and Rowan's. The ones in the middle were mine.

Last Lunch

M's final packed lunch for a year — half day Kindergartners don't take lunch, and neither do summer camp kids. So no school lunches until first grade...

Wordless Wednesday: Kid Food

Frozen Buttercream Transfer

Aura and Rowan were having a combined birthday party this year, and they both love Transformers. So, ever the pesky friend, I told Miki about this fabulous new thing I'd learned about... the frozen buttercream transfer (FBCT). And, then I found a handy little graphic to use for tracing that included everyone's favorite Autobot, Optimus Prime, and a female Autobot, Elita One. But, since I'm just crazy enough to think that this sort of thing is fun, I went to Miki's last Friday to help her try this new technique.So, armed with a print-out of the image, we prepared buttercream, tinted it the appropriate colors, taped the image to a sturdy plastic cutting board, covered it with plastic wrap, then started tracing.
First, you do the black outline of all the detail, and then you fill in with the colored frosting, filling the image in from front to back. Then, you push the frosting down with a off-set spatula, and even it out, and pop it into the freezer.

When you are ready to use it, you just lay it on top of your frosted cake, and peel the plastic wrap off. Miki did Happy Birthday Aura & Rowan too, and you have to remember to reverse images and text since the image is flipped. There are some great videos on You Tube that demonstrate how to do the FBCT.

Miki did chocolate and vanilla cupcakes, grouped them into a "cake" and frosted with vanilla buttercream, then popped the transfers on (we added colored frosting as background to the letters so they'd be easier to manage). It's a technique I'll be using in the future for sure. I can just see a cake covered in Madeline and Erik's transferred artwork... now that would be cool!

Wordless Wednesday: "Miso Block" Noodles

A Very Merry Year: June

So, instead of going crazy with holiday baking last year, I decided that it would be much more fun to spread the joy out over the year and gift someone each month with something lovely from my kitchen.June is all about thank yous — we have several overdue TY's, and what better way to deliver them than customized fortune cookies?! These were relatively easy, quite tasty, and very fun. The kids were pretty impressed. So, who are they for? Well, you'll just have to wait and see if you get a delivery of them!

Fortune Cookies (adapted from Allrecipes.com)
24 assorted fortunes or other messages printed on 1/2-inch x 4-inch strips of paper (I adjusted the margins on a Word doc and printed them out).
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp. vanilla (I used vanilla powder, plus 1/4 tsp. almond extract)
1 dash salt
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. sugar

Preheat oven to 375-degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or a Silpat sheet (trust me, greasing the pan is WAY more trouble - I managed this time, but will take a different approach in the future). Whisk the egg whites and vanilla until foamy, but not stiff (I hand whisked). Then, mix in the flour, sugar and salt. Put one teaspoon (measuring spoon) of batter on cookie sheet for each cookie and spread it into a mostly circular shape, approximately 3-inches in diameter. Put three on a sheet (max) at a time and bake for 4-5 minutes, until outer edges are golden and center is pale ivory. While one sheet is baking, prep the second.

Remove from oven and quickly place one cookie on a wooden cutting board, upside-down. Place fortune in the center of the cookie and fold in half, then place the folded edge over the rim of a coffee mug, and pull the pointed edges down, one on each side of the cup. Repeat with other cookies. If the cookie gets too hard to maneuver, put back in the oven to warm up again. Put cookies in muffin tins to cool so they keep their shape.

Tastes Like Home

Bellingham is our other home. It's where Joel and I began, it's where we graduated college, and is the first home we moved away from together. And, it took a long time for us to feel like this was home. Even after we bought our house, it took a while for here to be home instead of feeling like B'ham was still the place to be...

Luckily, we've come to love our current home very much and feel very connected here as well. And, we also have some very close friends North of Bellingham and family in Sudden Valley, so we get to enjoy fun times with wonderful people on our visits back there.

One of the many nice memories of B'ham is Village Books and the Colophon Cafe. And, thankfully, I've also got a little cookbook of theirs. I made their African Peanut Soup this weekend, and it is as lovely as I remember — spicy, complex and delicious with ginger and garlic, peanuts, tomato and chile. Trust me, it's a top seller. And, the recipe is even online right here. Really, I wouldn't steer you wrong. I do, however, cut the tomatoes in half since I like this less tomato-filled. But, that's just my preference. Try it! Even if Bellingham was never your home, but especially if it was!!

Baking With Grammy

Making pulla with Grammy is always a good time...

from the kid-sized rolling pin,

to cutting out "Pulla Men" shapes,

to adding golden raisin buttons, eyes, noses and mouths.

The Best Waffles Ever.

So, there's this wildly popular blog by the name of Orangette that you've probably read before, and Molly at Orangette also has an amazing book called A Homemade Life (read this book - it is wonderful!). I recently started reading the book, and love it. It's fabulous writing, and great recipes. We had her French Lemon Yogurt Cake last weekend, and it was amazing. Glorious. My favorite lemony cake ever. The recipe is online right here. And, along with marvelous desserts, she has numerous salad and vegetarian main dish recipes on her blog, as her husband is vegetarian.

And, this weekend, I tried one of the two waffles recipes that she recently posted here. I meant to do the overnight version, but ended up going to bed without making the batter, so... I tried the "morning of" recipe, and Oh. Oh, heaven. I've been looking for a waffle recipe that would rival the waffles the kids had eaten (and we'd tasted) at a cafe in downtown Olympia that is now out of business... they were the best waffles I'd ever had. Crisp on the outside, even after being adorned with butter and syrup and devoured by the kids. The remains that we tasted on their plates were still outside-crisp and inside-tender and delicious after 30 minutes of brunch eating... crazy good.
This is exactly what I was looking for, and it's not surprising that this recipe is often referred to as the Waffle of Insane Greatness. I'm interested to try the overnight recipe now since Molly at Orangette thinks it's superior. Either way... whip up some waffles this weekend!!

Farewell, LOST

In honor of the series finale tonight, we had coconut shrimp, lemon sole, rocket salad with lemon, and mango-pineapple smoothies. And, earlier in the day, I made these:
Yep. I'm a dork. But I'm OK with that. Plus, I was making a gift bag for our buddies who adore LOST and would get a kick out of these. If you want to be a dork too, check out the easy labels and boarding passes right here.