Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Halpert.

Alternately: It's too fun not to be a nerd once in a while.

On Thursday nights, I run to my friend Jess's house right after dinner (although on these nights I usually manage not to eat any) in time for The Office, what will be 30 Rock, and Project Runway. TV night. Nothing else on the agenda. It's great.
We decided to really unleash our pop culture-couch potato-osity this week and join in the celebration with the folks on The Office. No, I don't have pictures of Jim on my desk, I don't have any Office flair on my Facebook account and I don't read The Office blogs. We just happen to enjoy watching it together and thought it would be fun to jazz up our evening.
I made this wedding cake and the clothespin doll cake toppers for the occasion. Jess made punch and our friend Penny wore a bridesmaid dress. (Well, for a few minutes, at least). We had fun.
And, really, when you love to bake you'll make any excuse, right?

Cook-a-Doodle-Doo!

We have about 30 books out from the library right now, some for pure fun and some for the betterment of the nine 5 and 6 year old minds I'm teaching in co-op this month. This book, Cook-a-Doodle-Doo! by Janet Stevens and her sister Susan Stevens Crummel, happened to be fun and educational.
I heard Janet Stevens speak many years ago and have since been a fan of her books and illustration. We picked this up not knowing it contained a recipe for strawberry shortcake, but once we read and enjoyed the story of Big Brown Rooster (great-grandson of the bread-baking Little Red Hen) and his friends making a cake, we had to make one to match.
The story takes Rooster through a process of being hungry, finding a recipe, recruiting help, making and eating strawberry shortcake. It's a cute and educational story in itself, but the authors have added side notes on several pages explaining elements of baking like sifting (above) or using measuring cups (In the story, Rooster's friend Iguana attempts measuring a pile of flour with a ruler) which add even more educational value to the book.
The book ends with Little Red Hen's recipe for Magnificent Strawberry Shortcake. The cake is a simple one-bowl recipe made with 7 ingredients plus the cream and strawberries. My kids and I found it very do-able, attractive and good to eat.

Heirloom Tomato Tart

My daughter sampled a friend's homegrown heirloom cherry tomatoes recently and was excited to discover tomatoes come in a range of colors. She decided she's quite fond of the orange ones and proved helpful during our trip to the neighborhood farmer's market on Saturday where she picked out a variety of tomatoes to use in a tart. We chose a bulging orange one, a couple perfectly round yellows, and a few of the green zebra-striped variety. We were grateful to receive a few of your basic reds from another gardening friend (although we all know any homegrown tomato could not be considered basic when compared to a store-bought).
I must admit, because you may be able to tell upon closer examination of our picture, that I sliced the tomatoes a couple days before assembling the tart. Or maybe it was 3. You know, things happen. We still found the tomatoes very good (I had 3 slices of the tart for dinner tonight) albeit a bit weary-looking. I'm assuming a qualified cook would never advise going about it that way, but it worked for us.
My daughter helped in laying out the tomatoes on the tart shell and sprinkling the basil. Looks a little crowded with all that basil and you miss a little of the beautiful color, but, really, why skimp on the basil?
This is a great tomato tart from 101 Cookbooks and if you're still picking, you should give it a try.

Twitter-dee-dee, blog radio and other random bits

Well, after much ado around here yesterday (arranging childcare and other household hoopla), I participated in Celebrations.com's premiere radio show with lifestyle party expert Jeanne Benedict and three other crafty bloggers. More info here. Or, listen to the show right here on my blog.

I am busy, busy getting ready for our 2nd Chicago Craft Social. It's going to be fun! This time, Jess and I are arranging a publicity table for local bloggers, artists, business owners and the like to display promotional materials like cards, flyers, free samples, etc. I'm looking forward to getting to know more about our guests and seeing what they're up to when they're not crafting, snacking and socializing with us.
I'll be making some more alphabet block card holders (any thoughts on items to use in place of the blocks?) and here's a peek at Jess's homemade business card stands. We plan to use colorful mixing bowls, canisters, and other kitchen-y things for sample collections.
I will be leading guests in making paper airplanes that actually fly (Hopefully. Do you have any tried and true airplane patterns I could add to our selection?) and a "green clean" sample kit which will include an all-purpose disinfectant spray, a soft scrub, and a powdered laundry detergent. Let me tell you, it can be a chore locating washing soda. Until you find it at the market right next to the Craft Social venue. Argh.

Last week I tried out this recipe for Pasta Primavera and really liked it. Great for those of you who need to use up that fresh summer squash and homegrown herbs. But good for those of us who don't, too. And you don't have to turn on the oven.

Yes, I have set up a Twitter account. No, I don't really know how to use it and am not sure if I want to. My generous and extremely experienced friend Becky is becoming my Twitter mentor, however, so under her guidance perhaps I'll learn to enjoy it. (This is where I would smile at her, but I don't want to make one of those punctuational happy faces). I'll try to put a link on my sidebar soon so you can easily find me.
I'm working on creating a Facebook page for this blog, as well. Not sure when I'll have that ready.

To come: Green Clean sample kits, alphabet block frames, back-to-school fun, product review and give away. But not before the Social!

Mocha frap ice cream sandwiches. Mmmm.

Somehow I got myself onto those prepackaged Starbucks fraps and I'm trying to stop. I did find a delicious, though even more unhealthy and definitely less portable, way to get that sweet, cold, chocolate-milky, slightly coffee-ish fix. Little ice cream sandwiches.
I used the coffee variation of Christopher Kimball's Master Ice Cream recipe in The Dessert Bible with tiny chocolate bits and some extra sugar thrown in. (Partly by accident and partly because I don't really like coffee and figure all the sugary milk in the fraps is probably why I like them). The ice cream alone is so good. Homemade always is, right? And this just hit the spot.
I sandwiched some of the ice cream in these cookies, one of my favorites. The ice cream sandwiches were really good, but I think when they're made with regular drop cookies, they are almost too sweet. These cookies taste a lot like brownies. Next time I make sandwiches, I'll use a cookie recipe written specifically for this purpose, I think.
Better stick the bucket back in the freezer and choose my next recipe.

Blueberry eating

Now what to do with the blueberries once you've picked them? Here are some ideas.

Blueberry Banana Muffins: I happened to have some ripe bananas around so I felt like I was killing two birds with one stone. I used this recipe and liked it very much. In fact, I plan to use it again in the very near future. I did, however, find myself making some changes to it (don't ask me why, I usually follow a recipe as it's written the first time around), like using a yogurt-sour cream mix instead of the buttermilk and wheat flour for part of the white and brown sugar for part of the granulated. It worked. This recipe looks similar.

Blueberry Sorbet: I had sampled the sorbet from Seedling at our farmer's market and was inspired to make my own. I didn't have any mint, which they paired with blueberries, but we did use their basic sorbet recipe. Yum. And so easy.

Blueberry tart (or pie): In the past, I've always used this recipe. I still love it. But after trying out a new strawberry pie this spring, I decided to branch out on the blueberry, too. I wanted to use filling made from fruit vs. jello and deliberated between the one I just mentioned (using blueberries instead of strawberries) and this one. It came down to the first since I liked it before and happened to be out of gelatin and jam. I wasn't in love with the Nilla wafer crust, however, from that recipe, so I used the shortbread tart crust from the second. And freshly whipped cream. The result: I still didn't love the crust, but I am very much in favor of making the filling from fresh fruit. And eating it. Very good.

Blueberry Parfait: I have not made this yet, but figure it would be an easy way to use up some remaining fresh berries. These two recipes are quite different from each other, but sound good-Lemon Blueberry Parfait and Ricotta cheese and Blueberry Parfait.

Zucchini boats, turkey burgers, pickles and more

We picked up a couple of these huge zucchinis at the farmer's market recently and I've been dying to stuff them. I found this recipe at Simply Recipes, made it last night and loved it. I think I could eat a bowl of the filling without the zucchini, actually, but I guess that kind of defeats the purpose. The recipe title suggests it has sausage in it, but it's really deliciously seasoned ground turkey. I highly recommend it.

I also recently made these turkey burgers I mentioned in a previous post. Very good. I was skeptical at first about spreading a spoonful of chutney on my burger, but it was surprisingly tasty. In the end, I decided I wouldn't want that to be the only turkey burger I ever eat, as I still love the tarragon burger and am game for trying more, but it definitely calls for being made again for myself and for guests.
I did find it strange that a restaurant recipe would include a jar of store bought chutney and wondered if they're really purchasing bulk loads of the stuff. If you think you would use the chutney for dressing up other dishes, I think it would be worth making your own, but I don't think I'd want to go through the trouble just to put it in a burger. Maybe that's why they listed the jarred stuff for us non-chefs. Here is a recipe for Major Grey's chutney.

Pickles! We broke into the pickles yesterday. Wow, were they strong. My daughter ate 4 of them in a row, but I had a serious case of scrunchy face after one. I feel like the flavor was good and the texture was great, but it was just too much. I'm wondering if it's because I used the large jars instead of the pint jars and wasn't able to stuff it full with cucumbers, or because the mix was just too salty, vinegary and oniony, or if it's because I shoved so much of the onions and stuff into the jar with the cucumbers? I have no idea. I want to try again, though. I think I'll use the suggested size jar for starters and consider adjusting the mix recipe a little or something. Do any of you have a recipe for a dependable pickling mix?

Still to come: blueberries, blueberries, blueberries!

Cherry pound cake

This is going to be a food week. I hope you're hungry!
I finally got my hands on some fresh sour cherries so baking is in order. I've started with this pound cake. It is very good, but I've remembered that I really prefer showcasing and eating fresh fruit in more fruity dishes. Like pies...mmm. If I can get around to it (before we just eat the rest), I'd like to make some hand pies with our remaining sour cherries.
This weekend, we're making our annual blueberry-picking trip so I'm gearing up for some delicious blueberry dishes. I just found a couple bags of last year's berries in the back of the freezer, though, and felt like we should finish them off before loading it up with new ones. We used most of them this morning, but I'll save that recipe for later.
Still to come: another turkey burger, blueberry sorbet, zucchini boats, and more!

Making pickles

I have never made pickles before, but have always had a bit of a desire to do so. I think it stems from the memory of my dad making pickles at home. Although, when I've mentioned this memory to my mom she has responded, "He may have made pickles...." Maybe I'm remembering someone else's family.
Anyway, the idea of making pickles intrigued my daughter, as well, when we bought some pickle cucumbers at our neighborhood farmers' market and she learned the option exists. Next time at the market we made a point to buy the cucumbers shaped for better pickle making. We also bought a large bunch of dill.
I decided to use this recipe as it sounded beginner friendly and quick. I'm not so interested in canning for long term use, rather, I wanted to try it out and see if we could make good pickles to eat now.
I didn't see the point in making your own pickles with a store bought pickle seasoning mix as the recipe suggests, so we used the alternate version where you make your own. The recipe does indicate the home mix is prone to problems, but wasn't clear what type of problems. Hmm. Ours did end up sort of cloudy, which may be because the coating in my pot is roughing up at the bottom (vinegar reacts with metal). Also, the pickling mix ends up way more chunky with those home-chopped veggies and herbs. I suppose I won't really know if there's a problem until we break them open at the end of the week.
I'll post our taste test results when we do.

Pictures: Top, most of the ingredients for making your own pickles and pickling mix (garlic and sugar missing). Middle, sliced cukes, bringing the mix to a simmer and sterilizing the jars. Bottom, jar of pickles (we only had enough to fill one large jar) and jar of leftover pickling mix.

Nature themed morning

Today at our homeschool co-op, the preschoolers participated in nature themed activities. It was a gorgeous day to do so.
We began with God's story of creation from the Bible then moved outside to do some exploring and collecting. I prepared a scavenger box for each child in advance, knowing we wouldn't have time for the children to design their own. I labeled ours "Color by nature scavenger box." You can find these boxes described in multiple places online, but the basic idea is: paint your egg cups with a variety of colors and place your (small) found object in its corresponding cup.
We were able to find several dandelions and tried painting with them-actually pressing and rubbing the flower part onto the paper. They do make a nice yellow color on white paper. We used many of the other items for gluing onto collages.
The kids used tempera to paint some large smooth stones I'd picked up at the beach last summer. I love seeing the pretty rock my son painted so I'll probably pull out the rest of our collection and have my daughter paint some.
The kids were duly impressed, and slightly confused, by the dirt cake we had for our snack. This has been around for so long, but it's always a treat to serve it to a child who has never seen it before. I layered it in a lined pot and stuck a flower in to do the dessert justice. We also sliced apricots, apples, pears, and an orange and compared the seeds from each fruit.
It was a nice morning.

Turkey burgers

I really like turkey burgers, but pictures of turkey burgers-not so much. Pictures of any kind of burger, for that matter, kind of gross me out.
I've been enjoying one turkey burger for several years now and just introduced it to my kids this week. They've had a McDonald's burger before but when my daughter asked, almost incredulously, "Can we make burgers at home?" I decided it was time to try it on them.
As with my favorite cookie recipes, I've grown attached to this particular one and have refused to try another. I think it's the only turkey burger I've made in the last 7 years.
Now, with you (Mom?) as my witness, I hereby resolve to branch out and try other turkey burgers this summer. Especially since I know my kids (well, at least one of them) will eat them.
Here is my trusty turkey burger recipe:

Tarragon Turkey Burgers
from Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2002

2 lbs. ground turkey
1/2 c dry breadcrumbs
1/2 c finely shredded zucchini
1/4 c chopped onion
1 T chopped fresh or 1 tsp dried tarragon (go for fresh!)
1/2 t garlic salt
1/2 t black pepper
8 hamburger buns

1. Preheat broiler. (We usually use a Foreman grill).
2. Combine first 7 ingredients in a large bowl. Divide turkey mixture into 8 equal portions, shaping each into a 1/2" thick patty. Place patties on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; broil 6 minutes on each side or until thoroughly cooked. Serve on hamburger buns with desired toppings.

Other turkey burger recipes I'm considering:
Mar-a-Lago Turkey Burger (isn't that picture gross?)
Juicy Turkey Burgers
Favorite Turkey Burger

Do you have a favorite?

Spaghetti dogs

A friend sent me the link to this disgusting food art knowing full well that I'd be compelled to try it with my kids. And I did. And they loved it.
If you want to try it, just stick dry spaghetti noodles through hot dogs and boil. I thought about adding a sauce, but I think the kids would see that as detracting from the fun.

Pancake sandwiches

Today we had pancake sandwiches, or towers, rather, for our snack. They were a hit.
I cooked a big pan of non-scrambled eggs (like an omelet, but just eggs), and some miniature multi-grain pancakes (some studded with crumbled, cooked sausage) last night. This morning, I gathered some other stackable goodies and sliced them or cut them into rounds with a biscuit cutter. Finally, I platterized the ingredients (cool, I like that word).
Our total list of stackable, spreadable components for today's snack included: pancakes (2 varieties), scrambled eggs, cheese, strawberries, baked sweet potato, pepperoni, cream cheese, and a few drops of syrup. We enjoyed several unique sandwich combos. And, yes, the kids did eat the veggie.

Here's a variation on this snack and a couple other kid-built treats we've tried in the past:
pancake cups
cracker stackers
stuffed crescents

Sometime, I'll have to do a series of pictures featuring tiny hands interrupting photo shoots. My collection is growing.

How about an orange birthday

Last night I had the privilege of celebrating a birthday with some dear friends, delicious cake, cookies and sorbet. If you're a reader of crafty blogs, you may have a good idea whose birthday it was. With all that orangey goodness, it could only be the lovely Jessica Jones of How About Orange.... I'm so grateful for Jess and the other wonderful women I call my friends!

The yummies pictured above are:
A chocolate and orange cake made by Jamie, our adventurous baker. She recently made this cake by Bakerella and after good reviews decided to try it again, but revamped specifically for Jess. Tasty.
Orange-iced graham crackers made by me. I'm liking using these in place of sugar cookies, as we also did here.
Blood orange sorbet by Ciao Bella brought by Michelle. I'm not typically a sorbet fan, but this was delicious. Much more like a fruity granita in flavor, but sorbet-like in texture, if that makes any sense. And she got it at Dominick's (Safeway)!

Two birthday celebrations for us in one week. I love it!
Happy Birthday, Jess.

Tomorrow I'll have a 5 year old

My first baby turns 5 tomorrow. We took these cupcakes to share with our preschool class today. When I asked her what flavor of cupcakes she wanted, she blurted out "M&M!" before I could spit out some choices. Okay, that's easy enough. We used a basic Golden Cupcake recipe, but tossed some M&Ms in the batter before baking. Iced them with basic Vanilla Frosting, colored a vivid pink, and sprinkled with more M&Ms. They turned out cute and playful and just as colorful as our Cuckoos!

Family Tea Party

Today I have a post up at Blissful Kids on hosting a family tea party. I included links to some yummy recipes, so go check it out and head to the grocery store. Enjoy a fun and delicious tea party with your family this weekend!

Gougeres: Cheese Puffs

Gougeres (goo ZHAIR) have long been one of my favorite appetizers. I can't say I've actually had them in any restaurant, however, nor have I tried more than one recipe at home. But Mark Bittman's Gougeres recipe is so good, I haven't really felt the need.
These are easy to mix up and bake in 10-15 minutes. They make a quick and delicious, not to mention impressively titled snack.
Today I (with scooping help from my kids) made these, not for a fancy or even casual party, but for myself and the kids. Beware: it's hard to stop yourself from eating the panful.
I'll go ahead and share Mark Bittman's recipe, but from what I've read, it sounds like these cookbook authors have tasty ones, as well: David Lebovitz, Ina Garten (Barefoot in Paris), Rose Levy Beranbaum (The Pie and Pastry Bible), and Thomas Keller (The French Laundry Cookbook).

Gougeres
(minus the portion of the recipe for frying Gougeres)
From Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

1 c water
4 T (1/2 stick) butter
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 c (about 7 oz) all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 c freshly grated Emmenthal, Gruyere, Cantal or Cheddar cheese
1 c freshly grated Parmesan or other hard cheese

Lightly grease a baking sheet and preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Combine the water, butter, and salt in medium saucepan; turn the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil. Cook, stirring, until the butter melts, just a minute or two longer. Add the flour all at once and cook, stirring constantly, until the dough holds together in a ball, 5 minutes or less.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating hard after each addition (feel free to use an electric mixer). Stop beating when the mixture is glossy. Stir in the cheeses.

Drop teaspoonfuls onto the baking sheet and bake until light brown, 10-15 minutes.

Pizza sauce. Who needs it?

We enjoy pizza in this house. We'll eat any variety, really-homemade (always best, of course), Sam's Club, Little Caesar's, frozen, Giordano's, pita pizzas, whatever.
Today for lunch, I pulled just a few items from the fridge and made this one. I didn't have any pizza sauce prepared and was completely out of canned tomato products, so I made a version of this Quick Pizza Margherita from Cooking Light. I don't usually have store bought crusts around, but after enjoying this super fast lunch, I may be inclined to buy them more often.
For our Pizza Margherita, I used the store bought crust, olive oil, 2 plum tomatoes, some shredded mozzarella, and mushrooms. Plus, a bit of balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Yum.
Two more of my favorite Cooking Light pizzas are the Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Pizza and the Malaysian Chicken Pizza. These have all been enjoyed repeatedly in this home.

Kid-stuffed crescents

That's crescent rolls stuffed by kids, not stuffed with kids-a fun and relatively healthy snack time activity.
When I suggest a food-related activity for my kids, if it's not cookies or other sweet food, I try to make sure it has some novel elements to it. For instance, I don't think my kids have ever seen a package of crescent rolls so I knew this had the novelty factor working for us. Communal bowls of food are outside of routine and therefore fun, and finally the creative license allowed in making these snacks followed by some rolling action made this a winner.
I recently purchased a can of Pillsbury crescents to have on hand for this project. Today we needed an activity (and a snack) so I scrambled up some eggs with frozen hash browns, pulled out some leftover cooked broccoli, shredded cheese, and a little bowl of jelly. The kids and I pulled apart the rolls and placed them on a baking sheet, they spooned on the fillings of their choice and rolled them up. While I baked the stuffed rolls, the kids actually sat at the table and ate the remaining stuffing ingredients (!). Yes, they spooned some jelly straight from the bowl into their mouth, but I figured I could let that slide since they were also finishing off the broccoli and eggs.
When the rolls were finished, we all (with slight exceptions, as jelly and broccoli combined are not terrible in small doses), enjoyed eating them.

Valentine fingerprints and chocolate lollipops

My daughter is attending a Valentine party for the little girls in her preschool-homeschool co-op today and needed a card and treat for each girl. Due to my natural inclination to procrastinate, we needed something quick and easy. But cute, of course.
We ended up making these fingerprint heart cards and chocolate lollipops. She tired out before finishing writing the whopping 8 cards (I know, she's 4), so these are a combination of her words and mine. All her fingerprints. I got the idea for the cards after seeing these on The Crafty Crow. I don't have any stamp pads, so we just colored her fingertip with washable marker. Easy clean up!

For the lollipops, we used this Wilton mold. I guess I did plan that part in advance. I purchased the mold and some candy melts a couple weeks ago at Michael's. I heated up the candy, poured it into squeeze bottles, then let my kids fill the molds. All you do after that is add the lollipop sticks and refrigerate to firm up. Quick!

The thing I did not get at Michael's, however, was a set of lollipop bags. How else do you wrap these? After recently reading this post at Martha Stewart and this one at Zakka Life, I decided to use regular old plastic zip bags. I pulled out my sewing machine (already threaded with red, luckily) and stitched through a plastic bag to make several smaller candy bags. (Pay no attention to that heart shape there. Although, if you wanted to make a heart-shaped bag, I'd say create the same rectangle shape needed as usual, but curve the top. When you tie it around the lollipop it will look like a heart). After sewing the rectangles, I cut them out, pulled them over the lollipops and tied them off.
Ta da! Cute, quick, and easy.

P.S. I've used the candy melts for lollipops, truffles, and other molded candy recently and just can't get accustomed to that flavor. Any candy makers out there familiar with another chocolate used for candy that melts well and actually tastes good?