Seurat the Dot

We are up to the impressionists in history!  In one of our library books, we had directions to make sugar cookies and decorate with pointillism, with slightly diluted food coloring (on cotton swabs), then topped with granulated sugar.

 The finished result.  Nate did the tulips.  He turned them upside down to make them ghosts from Pac Man!

Russian Piping

My older girls have enjoyed learning cake decorating over the past few years.  They've done cakes for birthdays and ceremonies.  It is fun to see them learning a skill that they may get to use in their own homes some day.

For Christmas, my mom got us a Russian Piping set.  These allow you to use three different blended colors in one large piped shape.  Instead of the traditional piping of a rose, with a straight tip on a flower nail followed by piping each individual petal with a different tip, there is one larger and more complex tip that makes the entire flower.  It requires a thicker icing to hold its shape, but it is amazing to see the entire flower come in one good squeeze.  We did find that it looks best if you give it a little twist as you go, or the shapes seem a little less realistic.

 It was so thick at one point Katie and I were squeezing together to get the icing through...maybe one more tablespoon of milk next time!

 Gabby added in the leaves around our flowers.

Ha!

Completed.  Personally, I would have gone for more matching colors...two shades of pink and then white or the like, but you can really see the different colors here.

After we cleaned up, the best part...

What's Cooking

Here are some of the things that have been on our table lately...

Japanese Cream Sauce on fried rice with Sesame Orange Chicken, sans the orange.  Very good stuff.

We've also had Mediterranean Baked Chicken.  It was quite good and didn't take long to make.

I made Samoa Cookie Bars to take to our small group.  I thought they were just okay, but someone did ask for the recipe.

I also made sour dough bread for awhile.  I got the recipe from my mother quite a few years back, but the link appears to be the same one I use.  My starter went really sour, and made the bread, while edible, sour, so I tossed it and will have to start it again.

One Saturday afternoon, for fun, I made these Churro Waffles. The recipe made quite a lot.  We did not butter and cinnamon both sides or serve with syrup, as recommended, but they were very good.  They are definitely not for regular consumption, but they were a fun rainy day treat for us.

What's Cooking

I cook a lot.  With a family of our size and budget, that's a given.  Our meals tend to be simple and basic: a meat and two, soup, a casserole.  I love to bake though.  And since baked goods aren't due to be on the table at 5:00, I can do them whenever I have free time a napping baby.  I thought I'd share some recipes I've enjoyed lately:

Chocolate Chip Cranberry Bread:  The cranberries were on sale at the store for fifty cents a bag, so I picked them up not sure what I would make with them.  This looked really good, so I had Kate (who is working on fractions) double the recipe for me.  Oh my!  I think we may go back for more cranberries to freeze to have this again some time.  The sour cranberries in the sweet bread were so good!

Chicken Parmesan Casserole:  This was just okay.  It was easy enough to make, everyone ate it, but I don't think anyone asked for seconds.

No Bake Energy Bites: I had all the things on hand to make these.  They were wonderful.  I tried to make a second batch into a more cereal consistency--adding more oats.  I thought it was good, but the kids totally caught on and wouldn't eat the cereal version.

Cabbage Steaks:  So you know that I don't just feed my family new sweets, we also try new veggies, or at least new ways to prepare old veggies.  This one went over well.  Nate said he didn't care for it, but he also said that a cranberry was sweet.  In other words, he's not a reliable witness!  Next time I may add Worcestershire sauce too.

Though I haven't made either of these lately, they are probably my two favorite cake recipes:

Italian Cream Cheese Cake: This is a really rich cake with a great taste.  I usually leave out the nuts because I leave the nuts out of just about everything except pecan pie...  That's just me though!

and

Chocolate Cake: This actually isn't where I found the recipe, but the blog I read is no longer there.  The recipe I use substitutes strong, hot coffee for the boiling water.  It is gooey and wonderful.  Like the Cream Cheese cake you'll only want a little slice.

Bread Pudding

Me (in warning to Justin, who dislikes bread pudding): I made bread pudding for tonight.
K: Bread pudding?  What's bread pudding?  Is it for dessert?
Me: Yes, it is for dessert.
K: I love bread pudding!
Me: ?!?But you don't even know what it is!?!
K: (gone)

*     *     *     *     *

After the children ate bread pudding:
K: This is better than ice cream!
G: I want this for my birthday cake!
N: Mo', p'ease!

*     *     *     *     *

So thank you Betty Crocker and the stale bread I baked last week, my kids are grateful.

Adventures in Cooking: Hummus

Last week we ventured to the store before lunch one day last week. The same old, same old for lunch was sounding, well, old. So I picked up some hummus and pita bread. Kate tried it and liked it immediately. After watching Kate eat it Gabby decided to try it too. I figured Nate wouldn't like it, so I made him a peanut butter sandwhich, then he ate a third of my hummus. I think he would have eaten all of it, had I let him.

Since then I've been doing a little exploring into the possibility of making my own. The store bought was a tad expensive and we went through it quickly. I found it is a lot like ketchup--everyone has their own recipe, and they all have some of the same basic ingredients.

I tried it tonight with a basic idea of what went into it, but no real recipe. It turned out well. Here is (approximately) what I did, since I didn't measure.

First I couldn't find Tahini, so I placed an entire spice box container of sesame seeds (60 gram size) on a cookie sheet and roasted them for 5 minutes at 350*. As those cooled I assembled my other ingredients:

2 cans of chickpeas (16 oz size), drained
2 artichoke hearts (from a can), squeezed to drain
1/3-1/2 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons of minced garlic
1 Tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon of salt

In a food processor combine cooled sesame seeds with enough oil to make a thin-ish paste.

Add all (including the Tahini paste) to a food processor or blender (I used a Vitamix) and pulse until well combined.

Last week's hummus cost $3.49

This week's hummus cost $5.26 ($.84 chickpeas (each); $2.69 seeds; $2.68/3 for portion of artichokes used) for what I guess is three times the amount and the added splurge of artichoke hearts. I'm also going to venture to guess that there is a more economical way to procure tahini.

About a 50% savings.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

I made one of the girls favorite treats the other day. They are Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins. My oldest has tried to put aside bananas to turn brown before in hopes that I will make this for breakfast if our bananas turn brown. I made them for no particular reason this time.

The original recipe came from the February 2007 issue of Guideposts, but as I can never leave well enough alone...it is no longer the recipe from the February 2007 issue of Guideposts.



1/4 cup of sour cream or vanilla or plain yogurt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 stick of butter or margarine softened (I just set mine out the night before)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup milled flax seed (may be omitted, but add extra flour)
2 mashed bananas
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350* and spray a muffin tin. Stir sour cream (or yogurt) with baking soda and set aside. Beat the butter and sugar. Then the egg, followed by the mix of white puffy stuff that formed with the soda and your sour cream/yogurt. Mix in the rest with a spoon. Divide evenly into a standard muffin tin to make a dozen muffins. Bake for 20 minutes.

You Create: Povitica

I have seen loaves of Povitica several times, but they are quite costly and I've never been willing to part with that much money to purchase a loaf. This week I decided I'd see what it would take to bake a loaf.

It turns out it isn't quite as hard as I thought it would be. It is time consuming only in that you have to be available to punch it down or work with it every 60-90 minutes for several hours. There is some more cost over many types of bread in the amount of nuts it requires.

I took the recipe from here, but I altered it. What fun is baking if you don't make it your own? (Changes--more water* and flour in the dough, heated the milk and butter together for the dough), changed the amount of nuts and added brown sugar in place of some of the granulated in the filling, and baked in loaf pans.)

Here's my version:
dough:
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter
4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water*
9 cups of flour (divided)

filling:
1 can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 lb. of finely ground pecans
4 eggs, beaten
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Heat the milk and butter for 60 seconds in the microwave. Mix that together with the sugar, salt, and eggs. Add 4 cups of flour and mix. Work in enough of the rest of the flour to keep it from being sticky. Knead the bread for a few minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and allow to double in a warm area (about 60-90 minutes.)

Punch the dough down and cover again to double.

During this time, make the filling. Mix the sugars, evaporated milk and butter in a large pan and heat until the butter melts. Add in the ground walnuts and stir. Then mix in the 4 beaten eggs, stirring constantly as the mixture comes to a boil, allow to boil for 1 minute and then remove from the heat. Mix in the spices. Allow to cool.

Divide the dough by three. Roll them out one at a time, into thin sheets and cover with 1/3 of the filling. Roll up and place in grease loaf pans.

Cover and allow to rise another hour in pans.

Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 40 minutes.

* Honestly the change in the water amount (the original recipe called of only 1/2 cup) was an unintentional change, I made a copying error, so I simply made up for that with extra flour and it turned out very well this way.

Christmas Tree Cookies

Since Christmas isn't Christmas without cookies, okay so it is, but I don't ever remember celebrating one without these cookies, I made these with the girls. I even happened to have star candy sprinkles with which we topped our trees.

The very first year we were married Justin was working an odd shift and sleeping odd hours. I was taking night classes three nights a week (many people were taking the same classes for their Master's degree and so we met when they could come). I got out of class early one night and scurried home to make these cookies. I was so excited to make them on my own for the first time. Justin was asleep, so I sneaked into the little galley kitchen and mixed up a batch of dough. Just as I was preparing the first cookie sheet, my sleepy husband stumbled from the bedroom, which shared a wall with the kitchen, and demanded to know what I was doing with a caulking gun in the middle of the night (8 PM).

My caulking gun (cookie press) and I have been making these cookies for the past 12 years and we always laugh when I pull out that press.

It didn't take Nate too long to figured out that the girls had left their chairs from helping, right where the cookies were cooling.

You Create: Ladybug Cake

Miss Gabby asked for an orange and pink lady bug cake for her birthday, so here it is!

The bottom is a 1/4 sheet chocolate cake (standard pan size). Then I baked strawberry cake in a Pyrex bowl and in muffin tins. The body of the bug being from the Pyrex and the head is a cupcake with the bottom cut off and a little edge of it pared down to fit snug next to the body. I used a star tip, and about an hour to cover the body in pink and orange star shaped icing. The eyes are made of white chocolate disks and icing.

The antennae are just a bent pipe cleaner.

Gabriella wasn't a fan of being sung to,

but she did think the cake was tasty.

Smells Like Home

Can I let you in on a secret? I love to bake. Cooking is fine. I even like it when I don't have other pressing things (or three little pressing people--literally pressed up against me), but I love to bake. Unfortunately I also love to eat it, but that's beside the point.

On Monday I did my first baking. I've cooked since our second day here, but between the busy-ness and the heat (our air conditioner is having trouble keeping up, so I try not to add to it) I hadn't gotten around to it. My in-laws made a quick trip down yesterday to drop off a couple of things, so I wanted to have something sweet for them to snack on, so the girls and I made chocolate chip cookies.

Mmm.


And, of course it wouldn't be my house if I wasn't also doing laundry, so please excuse the hamper in the background.

An extra benefit...Miss Kate who claims not to want to learn how to read--yeah, I made her read a couple of words off of the recipe card. Score one for me! Now if I can work in the word antidisestablishmentarianism onto a recipe card we'll be set. Or maybe just "See Spot run." Gabby helped us with the baking too. Nate, well, he tried climbing stools and hanging on the back of my legs. So we're kind of back to being pressed, but it's baking, so it's totally worth it, right?

Hey Good Lookin', What You Got Cookin'?

The right accessories--dress up heels and an apron.

I like to cook...I love to bake. My girls are wanting to be involved with the food preparation process now. I personally can't wait until they are old enough to take a night or two of dish duty a week. That's why we have children isn't it? So that they can do chores? No?

Anyway... My mom got the girls a subscription to a periodical called High Five. This one is for younger kids, more the 2-5 set. One of the things that each issue includes is a recipe. The first one had mac & cheese cups. We didn't do it. It looked like way more effort than it was worth--including having to wash my muffin tin for mac & cheese that they could have eaten with a fork. Nah. I'm not for making more work for myself and making a not very healthy recipe even less healthy--you have to add flour to make it stick together and then bake it.

The next one, however, had a little recipe that the girls were interested in and I was willing to do. We typically have a snack of fruit every afternoon, so this was a little more work, but at least close nutritionally. It involves dipping banana chunks in a peanut butter-honey mixture and then dipping that into raisins. A little extra fat and protein and the girls had a great time. It's not something I would want them to have everyday, but it was a nice way to pass a little time this afternoon and they sure enjoyed it. Kate also got to look at the measuring cups to find the 1/3, so a tiny smidge of math too.

This peanut butter is sticky!


Yum.

They also helped me bake cookies this Sunday when we were concerned about the ice and stayed home from church. They've been enjoying their chocolaty dessert this week.

Can I eat these?


Got to love cooking with the kiddos.

Gingerbread House

This is a new tradition. I don't recall ever making a ginger bread house growing up. I bought the first one a couple of years ago for Kate to make with my in-laws. That was actually the intent this time too, but since they had to cancel their trip we put it together ourselves. It is a fun little activity. I'm sure as they grow older, and more patient, the creations will become more detailed, but it's all fun and quite tasty.

Baking Cookies

Growing up we always made "Christmas Tree cookies." They were just one of those things we always had. They are a lemon crisp recipe, made with a cookie press.

Right after Justin and I got married my mom picked up a cookie press for me, so I could make my own. At the time Justin was working a split 3rd/1st shift as a chemist at a plating factory and I was still in college. Many of my classes were at night because they were being offered as both undergraduate and graduate courses for people seeking a Master's degree in special education. One night I got out of class a little early, so I rushed home to our little apartment and excitedly decided to make my first batch of cookies. As I was pressing out the second cookie sheet full of cookies, my sleeping husband stumbles out of the bedroom and demands to know what on earth I'm doing with a caulking gun at that hour (7:30 PM). We joke about my caulking gun every Christmas.

This year both of the girls were old enough to help me with the baking. It is a little more interesting baking with "help." They really enjoy it though and as they get older they'll gain lots of great memories (I hope) and perhaps some math skills too.

Granola Mom?

I’m not quite sure when it happened but I have become a granola mom. This morning, I literally made granola. I had looked it up quite awhile ago, but happened upon the recipe again this morning, so I made some—of course I only use recipes as guidelines, so I didn’t really make that granola, but it turned out pretty yummy. Let me caution you though—do NOT cool thoroughly. Cool mostly. Otherwise your granola will become one with your cookie sheet!

How am I a granola mom?
I limit TV to Sesame Street, if that. This morning (while I was making granola), Kate got distracted and didn’t even know it was time. Mean Mama didn’t tell her and she played straight through it.

I delay some vaccines. This came because of Gabby’s horrible reaction to her Rotavirus vaccine. I’m much less willing to go with the recommendations now. I spread them out a little more so she doesn’t get four at a time and I delayed her getting ones we hadn’t started the series for until she was one, afraid that she would become sickened by another immunization as well.

My kiddos don’t go to preschool or day care, but they are still socially adjusted and well behaved (at least in public). Someone from church kept pushing me to put Kate in preschool. I finally looked at her and told her—I could work and send them to preschool and daycare or I could stay home and afford neither. She finally quit asking. I wouldn’t send Gabby anywhere—she doesn’t like big groups.


But then again…
I don’t buy organic. I would if I could, but the limits of a budget are what they are.

I believe in and have used corporal punishment.

I’ve been known to let my kids have cookies and cake, even if it’s not anyone’s birthday.

But I do make granola!

Baby Shower

As promised, here’s an update from the baby shower. We had a great time. We played some fun games. The most fun was probably a bag game. I had placed 10 different baby related items into bags. The object of the game was to reach inside and determine what the item is without looking. It was fun to see the looks on the women’s faces as they were trying to discern the difference between a cloth diaper and a wash cloth. Of course, the poor new mom has some practice before she's ready for digging through all the baby items in the dark at three a.m.




There was spice cake, cheese cake, artichoke bites, quiche, cookies, and punch. Yum. It’s been a busy week of baking around here! It was yummy and everyone seemed to enjoy it.





One of my favorite things was the diaper cake. I made it from the left over newborn diapers we had from Gabby. I got a great deal on some toys and then threw in a few toiletry items. It turned out well.

There were of course several lovely gifts. I was busy writing them all down, so I didn’t get a lot of pictures.