My Dad's Spaghetti Soup (sans spaghetti)

My dad's soup was such a big hit in my house that when I stopped at Whole Foods on my way home from a trip to the city, I snagged another pound of the grass fed ground beef so I could make another batch.

However upon starting the batch, I realized that I was out of thin spaghetti. Hence the substitution. It still came out nice and it's a bit easier for my youngest children to eat. Upon soaking up in the fridge a bit, it's more like an "American Chop Suey" stew. I put two bags of it in the freezer. Yum.

Kids in the Kitchen

With few exceptions, children love to cook. I don't mean giving your 4 year old a frying pan and bacon and saying "go to it!" But handing them a pan to grease or a bowl to mix or a butter knife with some peanut butter and some bread and they're ready to jump in. In the process of learning how to cook they sniff, taste, and handle all sorts of varieties of foods which also has the added benefit of increasing the types of food they are willing to eat. Guaranteed that a child who cut the veggies, sprinkled the cheese, and flipped the omelette proudly onto a plate will be much more likely to eat said omelette.

Also it's fun. They are generally supervised and it keeps them from making messes in other parts of your house while you cook.

My oldest child is 5 1/2. And now he's at the point where he could make an edible simple sandwich if asked. If I am in vision range, he can make toast. He (most of the time) even remembers to put the butter away and get napkins out for each kid.

If you've never thought to give your two year old a mixing bowl and spoon, try it! What's the worst that could happen? A bit of flour (or a bowl) on your floor? Small price for an experience that you just might find the both of you grow to love.

Favorite Oven Fries

These excellent fries have been part of a near weekly ritual since my oldest started Kindergarten. His school offers a fast food lunch twice a week and after discussing compromise options with him, he sticks with the pizza lunch on Fridays and we send our own homemade chicken tenders and fries on Wednesdays. These are usually made the night before and I pack them in his sandwich container with chicken strips I've made and frozen previously and the school heats it up for him.

Oven Fries:

8-10 small to medium round style potatoes

1/4 cup canola oil plus 2 TBS olive oil

salt and seasonings to taste

Wash and cut potatoes into thin wedged shaped pieces. Toss slices in a large bowl with oil and other seasonings. (I use a blend of rosemary, pepper, sage, thyme, sea salt, orange rind, lemon rind, garlic and onion). Arrange slices into single layer on cookie sheets and bake at 425. Start to check them in 8 minutes and then every 3 minutes after. When golden brown on one side, flip them and bake again starting to check after 5 minutes. Blot with paper towels if desired.

related links:

http://fedupwithschoollunch.blogspot.com/

http://www.jamieoliver.com/campaigns/jamies-food-revolution

Star Round Two: Star Sandwiches

I'm determined to find the perfect use for this as a "press".

I'm prefacing this post by saying that I'm not a crust-cutter-offer. I'm a big time crust presenter. And most of the time my kids eat them. But my philosophy is to present foods as they come and my kids can choose to eat or not eat which parts of them they enjoy. So I wavered slightly in making these since technically all they are are versions of crust-cut-off sandwiches. I'm also prefacing by saying that I made these during the day...so I've cheated a bit on the blog. :)

That being said, I had some bread that's going to go in a couple of days and I had two heels in it and I really want to see the spectrum of what this little star wonder can do. A cute shape seems a great way to hide from your kids that their sandwich is half heel. I made two versions; a pressed one and a flat one.

These are olive and cream cheese. And at the time of writing, they've since been devoured.

Star Calzones

My oldest son started Kindergarten today. I wanted to make him something fun for his first lunch in his new lunch bag and over the weekend while outlet shopping I found this cute little star shaped pie mold and decided to try to make him some pocket calzones.

What I learned is that they call it a pie mold for a reason. Much better suited for sandwiches or pie crusts. Bread dough is best formed into calzones by hand. I made four of these little pockets then gave up and made a big calzone for slicing.

I did manage to have a couple of stars that came out nice and those went into his lunch along with an encouraging note for his first day.

Dough: Basic bread dough

Filling: Turkey pepperoni, mozzerella cheese, red sauce, minced green beans

Maggie's Birthday Cake Start:8:30 PM End:12:07 AM

Seems like a fitting start. Although I'll say it took me 20 minutes to just get a name for this blog address because it seems like all of the good original ideas are already taken in the blog world.

My little girl turned two yesterday and we'll be having her cake tomorrow evening. To be fair I started the baking process around 8:30PM when I got home from work. The cooling process took quite a while. I started making the icing around 11:30 and the completed cake didn't emerge until 12:07.

My basic vanilla cake is a mix of average kitchen ingredients. Flour, milk, sugar, eggs, baking powder, vanilla, butter, salt, and in this case a touch of orange extract which makes it taste a bit like one of those famous brand packaged cupcakes with the orange icing and the white swirl line on top.

My basic icing is confectioners sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla extract. I'm not a huge fan of chemical dyes but I made an exception tonight because I ran out of my vegetable based dye set..and it's a birthday after all.

I love to bake and cook and I love making as much real food for my family as I can. I like the outlet of having something to do at night while I wait for yeasty bread to rise, or muffins to bake, or compote to set.