A Spot of Tea...

Used up the rest of my veggies (aubergine, red pepper and courgettes), pork and pie dough to make pasties for tea today. Also, made some wee "Fairy Cakes," cherry fillo cups, Kagome juice gelatin hearts, mango-banana-coconut smoothie flowers, and of course the requisite cucumber tea sammies (with salmon cream cheese on wheat), oh, and tea pot-shaped cheddar slices (an excellent cookie cutter shape to add to your tea-party accoutrements). All the yummies were a HUGE hit with all the kids (and they ended up eating a good amount of veggies and fruit, and very little sugar... although who'd know it when it's all so pretty and fun?)

Chococolicious!

Mmm.... Madeline helped me make dark chocolate cupcakes with coconut buttercream frosting, topped with toasted flaked coconut for Ro's birthday. Yummerific!

Don't Just Hork It Down!

So, we watched the movie Ratatouille last week, and Madeline loved it. Despite my great aversion to rodents of most kinds, and rats in particular, I loved the movie too and was inspired to make their version of Ratatouille. Not the usual soggy-vegetable-traditional recipe, but the crisp-tender version of the movie. I happily found just what I was looking for in the way of recipes online at Smitten Kitchen. Click here for her version of Remi's famous dish. And, I'm going to try these suggestions next too!

Of course, Madeline has learned the phrase, "Don't just hork it down!" from Remy... she said it to Grammy just the other night as Grammy was eating some imaginary Spinach Soup.

Remy: I have got to teach you about food. Close your eyes.
[Emile obeys; Remy hands out piece of cheese]
Remy: Now take a bite of this...
[Emile snarfs the cheese]
Remy: No, no, no! Don't just hork it down!
Emile: Too late.

Ever Eaten A Parsnip?

Until today, I'd never eaten a parsnip. Turns out, they're pretty tasty. They came in our box this week, and I found Joel's Uncle Ben's recipe for them (published in my copy of the Washington Farmers' Markets Cookbook and Guide). Ben's Mashed Parsnips

You take 4-8 parsnips, peel, slice into 1/4-inch rounds and toss into a pot. Cover the bottom of the pot with water, bring to boil then reduce heat, cover and cook for 8-10 mins. Remove from heat, drain water and mash. Add butter and salt to taste. Delicious!
Then, since the kids were napping, I made a "relish" to top our roasted salmon with: shreds of orange peel from 2 small organic oranges and 1/4 c. raisins—pour boiling water over to cover and let sit while you toast 1/4 c. pine nuts. Finely chop 1/4 c. of whatever greens you want (parsley, fresh spinach), then add the juice of 1/2 on orange, 1 tbs. orange vinegar (or lemon juice) 3 T. good olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. Drain water from orange peel and raisins and add those goodies and the nuts to the relish. Stir and use to top salmon or whatever you want!
Dinner is served! Madeline's plate, so it's a little smaller portion. I put down a handful of fresh spinach, a scoop of parsnips, a piece of salmon, then a scoop of relish. Delish and easy!!

A Recipe for Fun...

We had 1/2 a bulk egg carton left from Christmas, so I made Madeline a sorting "game." She loves it. I hot-glued one item in each cup and put 5 or 10 of each of them in a jar for sorting. I found some fun things to use, including some of the pittance of random foreign coin we've collected over the years. Also, dried rose hips, coffee beans, hard Finnish licorice diamonds, pasta, navy beans, "teeny tiny marshmallows" (as M says), and a rainbow of buttons. M gets to eat some little marshmallows from the bag (she always wants 5 at a time), when we're done with the game. I think she likes that she gets to play with it when Erik is napping... and that he's too little to do it.

Mangia, Little Man!

These are an old Italian Christmas cookie recipe, and I decided to try them since they remind me of a cookie that my Zia used to make when I was little. She lived right next door to Nonno and Nonnie, and she always had cookies for me when we dropped in to visit.

I found a great recipe on Allrecipes, but didn't have the time or ingredients to make the filling completely from scratch, so I used a jar of fig jam from Trader Joe's. I took the 9.5 oz jar of jam, added 3 Tbs. of cocoa powder, the zest from two organic oranges, and the juice from 1/2 an orange, about 1/3 c. of dried wild blueberries, and about 1/4 c. of organic agave nectar (but you could use honey instead). I made the dough by the recipe below, and for the glaze, I mixed powdered sugar with the juice of one of the oranges, then added a splash of cream (and then more pwd sugar), drizzled on and added sprinkles. Oh, also baked only 12 mins. - they do not need 15 as the recipe below says.

They are delicious! Erik agrees, and he helped with the whole process, although was trying to eat the raw dough so I had to break out some Pirouline cookies as a distraction. The Little E knows what he likes to mangia (eat) though—he knows the sign for cookie, says "KooKee" and says "Ooooooohhh OOOOoooohhhhh!" or does the chippy chuckle when cookies are available.













Cucidati (Italian Christmas Cookies)
from Allrecipes.com

1 pound dried figs
1 cup raisins
2 1/2 teaspoons orange zest
1/2 pound chopped walnuts
1 cup honey
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup orange marmalade
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Grind the figs, raisins, orange zest and walnuts in a food processor, blender or food grinder. If the mixture is too thick, a couple of tablespoons of water can be added. Gradually blend in the honey, cinnamon, chocolate chips and orange marmalade. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease two baking sheets.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar and baking powder. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the eggs, milk and vanilla until the mixture can be gathered into a ball. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll out to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut the dough into strips that are 4 inches wide. Spread filling onto one half of each strip lengthwise. Fold the dough over to cover and seal the edges by pressing on them with the tines of a fork. Slice the filled strips crosswise at an angle about every inch or so. This will make diamond shapes. Place the cookies onto the prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Remove from the baking sheet to cool on wire racks. Glaze with your favorite confectioners' glaze and top with sprinkles for added festivity.

Baby Loves Borscht!

I recently read an article in Wondertime magazine about a woman who took her baby on holiday to France. She compared the differences in how babies in France are fed: more formula than nursing, baby food in jars well past the age of two, and utensils are always used—no "finger foods". But, oh what amazing jarred baby food they have in France: lamb with mint and root veggies, organic ratatouille, winter squash soufflé with gruyère. Imagine... if only we had something similar here!












So, when I discovered Dr. Susanna's World Baby Foods at Top Foods, I had to get a selection for Erik to try. He loved the Sweetie Tahiti (coconuts, banana, pear, jasmine rice), and enjoyed the Baby Dal (cumin and coriander seasoned lentils, brown rice, carrots, apples), but he adores the Baby Borscht (beets, carrots, potatoes, spinach, and dill) SO much that it makes him do his Chipmunk Chuckle... he usually abandons the spoon and dives in to eat it by the fistful (really messy). He's still got three flavors to try. I'm looking forward to his reaction to Tokyo Tum Tum (bok choy, brown rice, edamame, apple and wasabi). They're sold at Whole Foods too...

Here's to developing healthy and sophisticated palates!


1/5/08 Update: E loves all six flavors. Does his chuckle for the Lullaby Thai, scarfed the Calabasa, and savored every last morsel of the Tokyo Tum Tum:

La Bûche de Noël

I finally made my first La Bûche de Noël (for New Year's Eve) and the kids utterly enjoyed the process. Madeline was licking the beater and E came in the kitchen. He started saying, "Oooohhh... ooooohhhh" excitedly, and I told M that I thought he might want to share the beater. She said, "OK" and pulled his pacifier out of his mouth and held the whisk out for him to try. He tossed his milk on the floor and dove right in. He was literally buzzing with happiness.
Later, after chilling time for the "log" as Joel called it, and a short hike and time at the playground for us, I assembled and decorated the La Bûche de Noël while everyone else in the house napped. Yep, I'm crazy. While my family slept, I fashioned tiny mushrooms out of mini marshmallows. It was fun. It's not really that bad. I did several other things too instead of napping, but this was the most fun. Here's the recipe, although I made some changes (two candy canes instead of five and 1 Tbs. of peppermint syrup). This recipe makes a lot of extra filling, so you could cut back on that (maybe just 1 cup of whipping cream), have to go to sleep now since E is finally settled again and it's way late, hmm... or way early I guess. Happy 2008!!

Christmas Cookies

Made Chai Krumkake, Date-filled Oatmeal and Gingerbread cut-outs(decorated with apricots, raisins and mini chocolate chips), plus Cherry-Coconut Bars today with Edith.

Warming Up!

So, we're all better and back on track with some holiday cheer. I wrapped some presents yesterday, and went in to work today (didn't want to infect anyone earlier in the week), but when I got home we had an excellent lunch and then made gingerbread houses with the kids. You can get gingerbread-flavored graham crackers this season... I think the brand is Honeymaid... Madeline and Gavino did a great job decorating with just a little help from the Mamas "gluing" with icing (Wilton ready-made baby!) Oh, and they both ate a decent quantity of candy too. Two-year olds are so fun, and creative, and... always full of surprises!

Happy Birthday Grammy!

Today was my Lil' Grammy's birthday—I know I've posted this pic before, but it's one of my favorites, and she was (and continues to be) one of my favorite people ever. She did things from teaching me cool words like "davenport" to how to really have fun. She also did crazy things like driving herself to the hospital while in labor (but she had to since no one else was handy-Grampa was working). She's dearly missed, but Madeline's definitely got her spunk, and will learn lots of cool things about her as she grows up. Here is her excellent recipe for fudge. Mmmmm...

Grammy's Fudge

3 c. sugar
3 T. cocoa
1 t. salt
1 c. whole milk
1 T. butter
1 t. vanilla

Mix dry ingredients well, dry mashing out lumps. Add 1 c. whole milk and boil, but don't stir, until it forms soft ball in cold water. Remove from heat. Add 1 T. butter and 1 t. vanilla. Cool just until you can stick your finger into it. Stir until it loses its gloss. Spoon on a buttered plate and spread fast with a knife.

Love Your Veggies

I found organic heirloom tomatoes at Trader Joes today, and although I'm certain that they can't be local, I couldn't resist making the salad from the Best of The Harvest cooking class I took several weeks ago. I did use organic rosemary from my backyard for the rub on the eggplant though...

I also had some good little helpers in the kitchen tonight, especially Sophia who helped make the salad dressing, and learned how to chiffonade basil—she seemed impressed with my knife work and the "rainbow tomatoes".












Roasted Eggplant Tomato Salad

Salad
3 T. finely chopped, fresh rosemary
3 T. olive oil
1 t. kosher sea salt
1 medium eggplant, sliced in 1/2-inch rounds
1 large or several small tomatoes, sliced
8 oz. mixed greens
2 T. toasted pin nuts

Mix rosemary, oil and salt, then rub on both sides of eggplant rounds. Roast on cookie sheet in 375-degree F oven, flipping once. Cook until golden and soft. (If eggplant is old, salt the slices first and let rest on the counter. Towel off the moisture that's drawn out. This draws out bitterness.)

Dressing
2 T. extra virgin olive oil
1 large clove finely minced garlic
3-4 T. chopped fresh basil
2 t. prepared dijon mustard
1/2 t. kosher sea salt
1 t. fresh lemon juice
1 t. champagne (or tarragon) vinegar
2 t. agave nectar (or honey)

Combine all dressing ingredients and mix well. Toss greens with dressing and immediately serve.

To plate, put a handful of greens on plate, one or more eggplant slices (depending on size) and tomato. Top with toasted pine nuts if desired.

Blissed Out

This recipe is a "cover" of Starbucks' Cranberry Bliss Bars, and I think it's actually better. There's more cake and less frosting (making them not so excessively sweet), and both the cake and frosting layers are lighter. The orange-flavored cranberries are the perfect crowning touch, plus I added cardamom and a little excellent Penzey's Vietnamese Cassia Cinnamon, making the cake layer far more interesting.

Cranberry Bliss Bars

Cake Layer
2 sticks softened butter
1 and 1/4 c. brown sugar
3 eggs
1/2 t. finely ground cardamom
1/4 t. Penzey's Cinnamon
1 t. ginger
1 1/4 t. vanilla
1/4 t. salt
1/2 t. baking powder
1-1/2 c. flour
1/2 T. dried orange peel (or fresh zest from one orange)
1/3 c. finely chopped dried orange-flavored cranberries
1/4 c. coarsely chopped Ghirardelli white chocolate

Frosting Layer
2 T. softened butter
4 oz. softened Nuefchatel (light) cream cheese
1-1/2 c. powdered sugar
1 t. vanilla

To Finish
1/3 c. finely chopped dried orange-flavored cranberries
1/4 c. melted Ghiradelli white chocolate chips mixed with 1 t. cream

Bake in 350-degree F oven in greased 9x13 pan. Beat butter and sugar together, add eggs and vanilla beat until light and fluffy. Add all dry ingredients (except crans and choc) and beat well. Fold in the cranberries and chocolate, spread evenly in pan and bake about 25 mins or until golden. Cool cake completely, then spread with frosting, sprinkle with crans, drizzle with melted chocolate (use a plastic Ziploc with corner snipped off or a pastry bag), cut and serve!

Little Turkeys

This idea is adapted from the Family Fun website: we used cranberry orange muffins instead of cupcakes, and Stretch Island (real) fruit leather instead of "fruit product" Fruit Rollups. The bodies are still Nutter Butter cookies and the eyes mini chocolate chips (and we used chocolate frosting as they did). We used the toothpicks for the fruit leather as Family Fun did, but with the Stretch Island fruit leather, you don't really need them—it's so thick you can just poke it directly into the muffin. M & G did a great job with assembly, and as for the eating... they loved 'em.

Puh-shockka-lakka

Madeline helped make Pain Au Chocolat this morning... and did a pretty fine job. She said, "Mama I love the Puh Shockka Lakka!" Even the ones she rolled fairly wonky baked up gorgeous.

Anyway, not exactly a "recipe"—just refrig crescent dough filled with about 8 Ghirardelli 60% Cocoa chocolate chips (we did 6 chips, but 8 would be a tad better) and baked at 350 until golden. Enjoy with some Cafe Au Lait and a good buddy—like Aunty Karen who hung out with us today!