Swimming in Noodles Giveaway

I've posted about our kitchen dance parties in the past but it's been a while since I've brought up any of our favorite artists. Jim Cosgrove is a favorite and his new CD Swimming in Noodles is the best! So many foodie songs. I like Cookie Time and Spaghetti & Goofballs, they're prefect for crazy dances. Do you like to dance crazy in your kitchen?

Today I'm giving away Jim's new Swimming in Noodles CD to a lucky reader but only if you pinky-promise to give it to a little foodie in your life. It can be for your kids or a neighbor, a nephew or a niece. Kids enjoy music and they really enjoy silly songs about food. We need to foster a new generation of wild kitchen dancers, don't you think?

To Enter: You have to be a Kitchen Corners follower. The follow button is in the bottom of the blog. If you're already a follower leave a comment saying hi. If you're a new follower leave a comment introducing yourself and if you have a blog and would like to leave your url please do so. I enjoy meeting my readers! Please make sure your comments link back to an e-mail address so I can contact you.

+1 more comment: You can get more entries by subscribing via RSS or e-mail to Kitchen Corner's feeds. 

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Giveaway closes: Midnight PST Thursday November 4th. The winner will be contacted via e-mail and announced next Friday.

Have a fun fun fun weekend binging on candy. If you need some motivation to kick off a solo dance party in your kitchen start with this it's so appropriate (o.k fine, maybe not so much for kids) for this time of year and it's truly my all time favorite song to dance to when I need to unwind. Good times.

post-edit: Heidi is the lucky winner. I hope her family enjoys it!

Last Minute Halloween Fun

I just got back from doing a cooking class with Enzo's preschool friends. We made Monster Egg Eyes which is always a hit and the kids got really into it. Can I just add that preschool teachers are priceless?! Their patience and energy is inspiring. 

Tonight I'm in charge of family fun night. I think we're making the pasta skeletons that I spotted at The Coterie Blog. Don't they look like fun?

Speaking of fun do you know who the official pumpkin carver in the white house is?  His stuff blew me away!

In other news, Enzo and I shared an easy orange-o-lantern recipe today at Bloesem Kids. If your little ones are dying to make Halloween themed treats make this one. It will take you less than 10 minutes guaranteed.

Have a Happy Halloween.
Come back a little latter for a giveaway that will make you feel like dancing, literally!
xoxo

Plum Jam with Cinnamon

Exactly one week ago today I found myself with a box of plums. It was an unexpected surprise. A good surprise, but a surprise none the less. So I made jam. Easy as that, expect not easy at all because cooking with kids is fun minus all the really miserable parts that makes it hard.

Baby Maria has a weird fascination with the window and it makes it so that I have to keep a constant eye on her. So I ergoed her. The Ergo is my baby carrier of choice for Baby Maria, the sling was my baby carrier of choice for Enzo. If you're a new mom who likes to cook I recommend finding a baby carrier that works well for you. You will use it a lot in the kitchen, make sure it's something you can throw in the wash along with your aprons and table cloth.

My kitchen helper and I washed the plums together. Then I put her in the back so I could cut the plums otherwise her baby hands like to reach for the knife which is a a teeny bit scary. Then my kitchen helper bailed out on me and went down for a nap.

When my baby sleeps I work. I grade papers, I read for my class, I blog, I do all those things that are impossible to do when she's awake. Cooking is hard to do when she's awake but it's not impossible.

When she she woke up we finished the first batch. I made a recipe that didn't require pectin and it didn't work. Hello plum sauce! 

I had my friend Victoria come help me with the second batch. She brought fancy pectin, a pair of helping hands, and a great attitude.

She totally saved the day
and
success!

Plum Jam with Cinnamon was made with very little sugar.

 

To find the full recipe please visit The Santa Cruz Sentinel, where I write a weekly food column and shared my plum jam recipe this week.

Have you ever made jam before? The first time I made jam was two summers ago when we rescued golden plums from the ground and made ridiculous amounts of golden plum jam. That summer we also made blackberry jam. Now we have jars of pretty red plum jam to enjoy, I think this is my new fave.

post-edit: A reader sent me an e-mail that had some insightful information.

Hi Damaris!

I read your column every Wednesday in the Sentinel (my favorite section is the food section after the comics) and of course I found it delightful that your article focused on low sugar jam.

 I've been using Pomona's for years making these kinds of jam from all fruit including pears, and I love them. They're great and taste like the fruit they were made with!

One thing I think is important to mention to your readers is that because of the low sugar, the jam colors will oxidize fast and look a bit cloudy. They don't keep as long in the pantry as higher-sugar jams ( I make so much every year so I have to be careful to check my "inventory" regularly for these signs of age.) Also, once opened, they also tend to go moldy quicker too, even if kept in the fridge, so small jars work best for these jams since the small jars are eaten quicker.

I hope you continue to offer your fun insights on feeding our families!! Thank you!

Jacqueline Knight
Felton

Thanks Jacqueline! This is really helpful. I am excited to use pomona's pectin again and pear jam...YUM! 

Halloween Snacks

Enzo has a Halloween party at his preschool and I have to bring a snack to share with the class. I might just bring the monster eyes but I kind of want to make something new.

I like the snack-o-lanterns because it's made from short grain rice cooked in carrot juice, which I personally think would taste delish, with the green pepper on top...yum. It's the type of snack that some kids would love but others would hate but the teachers would appreciate the no sugar factor for sure.

The orange smoothie is super basic and would be an all around hit. I would use plastic cups and maybe substitute the orange sugar crystals for purple crystals, something I have in my pantry left over from Easter and if I don't use it now it's going bye-bye real soon.

Which one do you vote for?

(photo source)

Do you control the Halloween candy?

Last year Enzo was 3 and we let him have 3 pieces of Halloween candy. He was stoked. This year he's 4 and I told him he could have 4 pieces of Halloween candy but he just laughed and said "no way, I'm eating a million pieces of candy." We'll see how that goes. I've asked two mommy food bloggers, Michelle from What's Cooking? and Gudrun from Kitchen Gadget Girl the same question and here was their reply.

With the chaos of Halloween nearly upon us, it's time for us to take a look at how we plan to handle the candy craze.  In the past, our kids would sift through their haul, picking out 20 of their favorites to keep.  We would take away the rest and give the kids a book of their choice as a replacement.  It was a win-win - they could still eat some of their favorite treats, but would not over indulge.  But this year, I think I'll need to modify our approach a little bit.  I am becoming increasingly concerned with how our son's behavior is affected by high fructose corn syrup and artificial colors.  So, he may still get to keep a few pieces, but they will most likely have to be parent approved. OR I'll simply replace his loot with some candy that is made from real ingredients instead.  But we are still excited about the book alternative. You've never heard of a child getting a rotten brain from reading too much!

For Halloween, we love trick-o-treating with the kids throughout the neighborhood. Generally, we get a large group of friends together and start out by meeting at our house for a glass of wine to fortify us on the journey. We have our route planned through the neighborhood, stopping at the house with the buzzing doormat, as well as the friends having a Halloween party out front, complete with appropriate cocktails. Our kids have a ton of stamina and will trick-o-treat long past the time others are in bed. Once we get home, candy is sorted and compared, then we allow them to keep about 15 pieces of candy. The rest of the candy is purchased from them for $.10 a piece. They make out like bandits!

So now my question to you

If you are a parent what is the Halloween candy policy in your home?

If you're not a parent what was the candy policy in your home growing up?

I love hearing your good ideas.

A zombie ate My Cupcake

Lily Vanilli, a cupcake artist recently launched A Zombie ate My Cupcake: 25 Deliciously Weird Cupcake Recipes. This is not your cutsie Halloween cupcakes with gummy worms on top. This is straight out creepy. Enzo for example would probably curl up in a ball if I tried to feed him the finger cupcake. But a 12 year old boy? Dude, they would love it!

What do you think?
Would your kids be into these as a Halloween surprise?

(photo source)

Smiling Planet- Earth Friendly plates+bowls

Smiling Planet sent baby Maria and Enzo a package of beautiful goodies. Baby Maria has been wanting to use plates. She sees us using plates, she sees her big bro using plates and she points her chubby fingers and screams. Smiling Planet's plates are perfect, they are tall enough so that her food won't slip off and they are absolutely gorgeous.

Enzo loved the bowl, he calls it the apple sauce bowl. He asks me to put apple sauce in it enough to cover up the picture and then as he eats away the illustration in the bottom appears. For a 4 year old this is pure magic. Even though the package was for the kiddies I feel like I got a treat with the coloring book everyone dreams of peace even when they don't which features the same illustrations that are on their plates and bowls and helps to keep the babes occupied while I put the finishing touches on dinner. Cool products that help make meal time fun makes me smile big smiles.

Corn Chowder

On Sunday it rained big heavy rain drops. It was coldy to the bone and I was looking for something toasty warm to feed my family. I made corn chowder, warm corn chowder and it was perfect. Everyone liked it. Repeat : everyone liked it. Deep happy sigh.

Corn chowder sounds big and scary. It rhymes with clam chowder, that yummy creamy soup thing I had in a bowl made out of bread in Boston. That expensive dish I have at Fisherman's Wharf every time I'm in San Francisco. Corn chowder always seemed like a very complicated dish to make but after reading a  couple recipes I came up with one that I was very happy with, something straightforward and not time consuming. Adios crock pot.

I have a list of recipes that I archive in my head called "for my restaurant."These are the fail proof really yummy recipes I can eat over and over again. Like the asparagus-gruyere tart or the creamy blackberry frozen yogurt. In fact I should serve the tart and corn chowder together and then the frozen yogurt for dessert in my imaginary future restaurant. It's a cozy place, nothing fancy. It will have vintage china that I find in thrift stores and will be extremely kid friendly, so kid friendly your kids will want to live there. There will also be various comfortable chairs so moms can nurse while eating their food (come on you know you've done it) and there will be awesome babysitters, like your 12 year old neighbor who comes to your house after school just to play with your kids because she thinks it's so F-U-N. You will be able to eat in peace guaranteed or your money back. Speaking of money you won't need much, meals will be very inexpensive and if you want to wash dishes afterwards we'll call it a trade.

You should totally come to my future restaurant, specially on a rainy day, it will serve up a killer corn chowder.

Corn Chowder
yields 8 servings
(printable version)

• 4 ears corn
• 2 15 ounce cans whole kernel corn
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 3 ounces prosciutto finely chopped (bacon would also work great)
• 1 red onion chopped 
• 3 medium potatoes diced
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Cut kernels from ears of corn and reserve in a bowl.
2. Puree the canned corn in a food processor. If you're using a blender you might want to add some of the chicken broth so make it smoother while you blend.
3. Cook onions, cut corn kernels, and prosciutto in Dutch oven over medium heat until the corn is softened (8-10 minutes)
4. Add potatoes, corn puree, and chicken broth to Dutch oven and bring to a boil.
5. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (15-20 minutes)
6. Stir in cream and and cheese and serve warm.

October Cook Off Winner!

All the recipes were wonderful. It's so hard to pick just one. Thank you all who voted last week. It helped to narrow down to just three but it was still so hard to pick one from the three. Maybe next month I'll have you decide on a winning recipe. I haven't decided yet.

However, I have decided that this spiced pumpkin tart by Fork Spoon Knife is fantastic. Flaky crusts are such a good idea, whoever invented it gets ten points from me. 

Asha will be receiving the Williams-Sonoma prize just in time for Halloween. I hope you enjoy the prize Asha!

Thank you to all who participated. This was my first time hosting a cook off and I'm tagging it as a success. I'm excited for next month's cook off and we already have a hot-hot sponsor that will be giving the November winner a sweet-sweet prize. Check back next Monday where I'll announce the new monthly theme and the sponsor.

Pumpkin Brunch

(photo source)

I'm so happy Halloween is on a Sunday this year. Sundays are my one day off. Yesterday was blissful, so restful and blissful. I refuse to do work on Sundays, I even try to stay away from the computer. It's the one day where I get to focus on my family and do some fun cooking projects with them without feeling rushed. In fact our Sunday was pretty great, and we made some wonderful treats and picked a cook off winner (more on that later). On Saturday we went to the pumpkin patch and bought over 30 pumpkins. On Sunday night we hosted a pumpkin decorating party. It was crazy, but I'm still not pumpkined out.

In fact this pumpkin brunch that I recently spotted on Design*Sponge has inspired me to make even more pumpkin things. I never thought of making pumpkin pancakes before but now I will. Pumpkin and maple syrup sounds like a great combo with bacon of course.

We're pretty excited for Halloween. Baby Maria finally has a costume, she will be a wild chicken. Enzo puts on his pirate costume multiple times a day. I know he's ready. He's been ready. He was born ready for Halloween. In the morning we're going to a kid friendly Halloween brunch with our friends. I think it will be a riot. Not sure how we're going to keep food from falling on their costumes. I guess stains will just add to the scare factor of the day.

What are your meal plans for Halloween?

ps. Hope you had a great weekend too.

Appleberry Attic Reusable Sandwich Bag Giveaway

Reusable sandwich bags are my favorite things to give away. They're so useful and such an easy way to be a little more green. So today I'm giving away this cute elephant print reusable baggie from Appleberry Attic, an online shop dedicated to making quality reusable sandwich and snack bags.

Visit Appleberry Attic to learn more about the craziness that is plastic baggies and how harmful it can be to the environment (only 1% of plactic bags are recycled each year world wide and an estimated 1 million birds die each year from ingesting discarded plastic bags) and to find affordable and stylish alternatives to zip-loc and other plastic baggies.

Right now shipping is free on all orders and there are so many styles you can choose from. The Halloween themed baggies might be a good way to introduce reusable sandwich bags to your kids this month.

To Enter: You have to be a Kitchen Corners follower. The follow button is in the bottom of the blog. If you're already a follower leave a comment saying hi. If you're a new follower leave a comment introducing yourself and if you have a blog and would like to leave your url please do so. I enjoy meeting my readers! Please make sure your comments link back to an e-mail address so I can contact you.

+1 more comment: You can get more entries by subscribing via RSS or e-mail to Kitchen Corner's feeds. 

+1 more comment: Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter.

+1 more comment: Share this giveaway! Sharing buttons are right below this post. Just leave a comment telling me how you shared.

Giveaway closes: Midnight PST Thursday October 28st. The winner will be contacted via e-mail and announced next Friday.

Have a fabulous weekend!

post-edit: Comment 35, Shara, was the lucky winner.

Painted Pumpkins

(photo source)

Have you bought pumpkins already this year? Normally we do it in the beginning of the month but the beginning of the month was 90*F. I was sipping ice cold lemonade and could not wrap my mind around going to a pumpkin farm in the sweltering heat of .... October!

The weather has now taken a turn for the worst (I hate cold, hate it) so I can finally start thinking about getting the kids all warm-y in their sweaters and heading out to the local pumpkin farm.

This weekend we'll go for sure.

Family Circle has great Halloween ideas, including a series of tutorials on painting pumpkins. I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin carving because Enzo wants to do the carving and I don't really like giving him sharp objects. I'm thinking of busting out the paint instead and letting him go at it. I do have to say that the white ghost pumpkins are my favorite and the green squares are also pretty cool. Maybe Christian and I will do the carving and Enzo can do the painting.

Here are the links if you want to go at it with your paint.
Scaredy Cat pumpkins
ghost pumpkins
geometric patterned pumpkin
family initial pumpkin

Are you a pumpkin carving type or  a pumpkin painting type?

potlucks are a good way to introduce new foods to kids {plus a podcast about raising foodies}

We've been doing potlucks on Wednesday nights. Conveniently everyone lives within walking distance of each other. Conveniently we all have kids around the same age. It's pretty fun and I think we'll do it every week until it gets too wet and cold to play outside.

Last week we made grilled pizzas and this week we had soup and chile, and corn bread, and hot chocolate, and salad, and more salad and alfajores. Havanna Alfajores! Our Argentinean neighbor, Matias, is priceless.

Actually, all our neighbors are priceless and we're so lucky to be surrounded by good friends, friends with various talents. Eileen, for example makes the best salad. April only uses the best ingredients and her food tastes so fresh. Jennie made a killer chili that Enzo loved. Enzo doesn't love chili. This is why pot lucks are fabulous, the amount of food and different foods makes it so that the kids have a variety of things to try from.

and they have so much fun.
So much fun!

I get a couple e-mails a week from parents who are frustrated with their picky eater. I'm frustrated too and this is an ongoing trial and error topic for me. I think potlucks are a great way to introduce food to kids, specially if their friends are there. Enzo saw his friend Juniper take a bite of chili and he decided he wanted a bite. Thank you Juniper.

Today I've been listening to the break out session from the BlogHer '10 conference called Family Foodies: Creating a New Generation of Gourmands. I've embedded the postcast for your convenience.



Here you'll find tips on introducing kids new foods, picky eaters, an entire discussion on organic food and where to buy affordable sustainable foods. Also, good tips for mommy food bloggers.

Yay, for internet and the sharing of information!

Spooky Sandwiches

These are spooky peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that I shaped using Halloween cookie cutters. I added round sprinkles for the eyes. Everything took me less than five minutes to make with Enzo's help and yes we had this as a legitimate meal.

Then we made them again with egg salad inside. Then we made it again with ham and cheese. Basically we've been eating a lot of sandwiches lately.

Pumpkin Ice Cream

When I made pumpkin ice cream two years ago I thought I should patent my idea because there seriously were not that many pumpkin ice cream recipes out there.

Now there are tons.

I'm not complaining though, it's fun to read new recipes and to get ideas on different creations. Cristie's Corner has a very basic recipe that I really like. The pumpkin and gingerbread ice cream sandwiches from Cannelle et Vanille are beautiful to look at and I bet they taste super good too. Gingerbread is king and should not be consumed only during Christmas time.

The ice cream pumpkin pie simply sounds like a good idea. However, What I really want to make are those snickerdoodle pumpkin ice cream sandwiches from Pennies on a Platter. I have a great recipe for pumpkin snickerdoodles that I made last year dying to get made again, begging me to put pumpkin ice cream in the middle and sandwich it off with another pumpkin snickerdoodle.

What do you think, too much pumpkin?

This weekend I'll be cooking some pumpkin treats. Three to be exact. Check out the October Cook Off voting results.

(Photo sources: Christie's Corner, canelle et vanille, family circle, pennies on a platter)

Spooky Spaghetti

Slowly but surely I'm getting into Halloween this year. It's not my favorite Holiday but it is a fun Holiday and Enzo is so excited about the whole thing it's hard to not get involved.

We're trying to spookyfy dinner and so we came up with these meatball eyes. For the eyes we used meatballs, black olives, and peas. Just make a hole in the meatball and stuff the olive inside with a green pea. I did the olives and Enzo did the peas. It was a fun activity to do together and of course eating eye shaped meatballs is way more fun than regular meatballs, don't you think?

Enzo creates his first recipe

My son really wanted to bake cookies using a recipe that he's been telling me about. It's a special recipe that calls for a cup of salt, a cup of flour, water, and lots of chocolate chips. I've been trying to dodge his demands but I finally succumbed and held back the urge to give him directions. I stepped back and watched my son bake all by himself, minus the oven part. He started with 1 cup flour, 1 cup water, and lots of chocolate chips. He then added an egg and oil. "Not good," he observed, and added more flour and a whole lot of baking soda and baking powder. He went for the orange juice instead of milk and then more flour until he felt that the consistency was good enough.

And you know what?

The consistency was good enough. The thing actually baked. I took one bite and had a chunk of baking soda to swallow. However, he had two of his creations and pronounced them, "different." Christian, had 3 and didn't think anything of it. In fact he came home late so he assumed I baked them.

I'm not sure if we'll have any more. I'm guessing no, but Christian won't let me toss them. We kind of hate wasting things around here. This is why it was so hard for me to just let Enzo go at it with the ingredients. But hey, if a 4 year old knows the basics of baking and is completely aware that flour, eggs, oil, water, and baking powder can create something than I am happy.

And truly, I am happy.

Here is a video where he tells me his recipe. The final recipe was a bit different from the one he narrated here, but not to far off. Normally, I only speak to Enzo in Portuguese, he gets super weired out when I speak to him in English and pretty much doesn't know how to respond to me in English. Hence, the back and forth in English and Portuguese. For blogging purposes I figured I wanted to get the recipe in English so you could appreciate his little foodie brain along with me.



ps. Please excuse the baby. She's crazy. She's a crazy baby that has figured out how to open the windows and remove the screen. I know!

Grilled Pizza

Last week we made grilled pizza. Holy cow it was awesome! We rounded up our neighbors and everyone brought different toppings. I made the dough. The kids all played outside while we ate. No dirty dishes. No dirty carpets. Yummy pizza, perfect weather, and great friends.

I was so inspired by Sunday Suppers and their posts on grilled pizza. They made it look effortless and elegant. I go for effortless but with a baby at my hip who is a master destroyer it's hard to be elegant. I do have fun though, and surprisingly it was easier than I anticipated.

Grilled Pizza Tips:

• I made the dough and then separated into balls in a muffin tin. It made it easier to roll out individual sized pizzas.
• The grill needs to be hot, if you put your hand on top of the fire and you need to pull your hand back after 3 seconds than you know the grill is hot.
• Make sure your grill is well oiled so the dough won't stick.
• Put the rolled out dough right on top of the grill and then after 2-4 minutes flip it to the other side.
• Quickly put your toppings and close the grill for about a minute or two so that the cheese can melt.

This week I'm undecided if I'll make pizza using a caste iron skillet or a muffin tin.  I could just do the traditional in the oven cheese pizza, but where is the fun in that?

Speaking of fun if you want F-U-N you have to check out this week's round-up of Project Food Blog. There are crazy pizza recipes like pizza on a stick, flag pizzas, sushi pizza, bimbimpap pizza, and deep dish cupcake pizza to name a few. Actually, to name 5 out of 72.  I think food bloggers are the new crazy.

please vote for your favorite pumpkin cook off recipe.

I've been loving these pumpkin recipes. I want to make them all and eat them all
and then
BAM!!!
explode with pumpkin happiness.

Please leave a comment telling me your favorite recipes. If you haven't yet I strongly recommend visiting the posts and checking out all this pumpkin goodness. On Wednesday I will announce the top three and happily start cooking. Next Monday the October Cook Off winner will be announced.



Post edit:
The top three are
churros
tart
float

Monster Egg Eyes

We're starting to think Halloween at our home now that the weather is cool and Enzo has settled on a costume. He will be a pirate. Baby Maria is still costume-less, any suggestions? I'm not really good at decorating for Halloween but I do enjoy cooking and baking Halloween themed snacks.

These eyes are an easy Halloween snack for sure. They are also a great way to entertain your kids, you know when you're trying to get dinner ready and they are right there needing some attention/something to do?

Just place the eyes on some paper and let them draw a monster face around it. Enzo was entertained for a good half hour, no joke. Plus, when he started complaining that he was hungry, because dinner was still being prepared, he had his eyes, I mean eggs, to munch on.

How do you make these? 

Easy!

Just hard boil an egg and then quarter a black olive and place a piece on each egg.

What Halloween treats do you like to make?

Scholastic Storybook Treasures the Halloween Stories Collection giveaway

Scholastic Storybook Treasures are our fave and their new Halloween Stories Collection is the perfect treat for this time of year. Are you familiar with Scholastic Storybook Treasures DVDs? I found out about them a little over a year ago and am completely in love with their work. They use all the illustrations and turn classic children's books into animation. It's fun watching the movies then going to the library and finding our favorite stories.

The Halloween Stories Collection has two of our favorite foodie stories ever; In the Night Kitchen (Caldecott Collection) and Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months. Classics!

Today I'm giving away two sets of the Halloween Stories Collection to get you in the mood for Halloween. Each set comes with 18 not-so-scary stories in a 3 DVD collection. Last year we showed the Very Brave Witch DVD in our Halloween party and it was a hit. Now we watch a Very Brave Witch at least once a month, for funsies. 

To Enter: Become a Kitchen Corners follower. The follow button is in the bottom of the blog. If you're already a follower leave a comment saying hi. If you're a new follower leave a comment introducing yourself and if you have a blog and would like to leave your url please do so. I enjoy meeting my readers!

+1 more comment: You can get more entries by subscribing via RSS or e-mail to Kitchen Corner's feeds. 

+1 more comment: Follow me on Facebook and/or Twitter.

+1 more comment: Share this giveaway! Sharing buttons are right below this post. 

Giveaway closes: Midnight PST Thursday October 21st. 2 winners will be contacted via e-mail and announced next Friday.

open to USA and Canada only. sorry.

Good luck and see you next week

I have lots of Halloween ideas floating through my brain.

post-edit: the giveaway winners are number 1 and number 39. Congrats.

kids can make pizza, if nothing else

On Thursdays we eat pizza. It' a tradition. It started three weeks ago and when you're less than 5 years old 3 weeks count for a substantial chunk of your life. On Thursdays I have the kids from 7:00am-7:00pm. All day isn't so bad but when the day is ending and you have to feed, bathe, read stories and get them ready for bed then 12 hours with them seems like semi-torture. The fun part is doing all this by 7:00pm and then packing them up in the car and driving them up to campus to pick up Christian. Christian then drives me to my class and I get home at 10:30ish. I come home feeling like a working mom zoombie. 

So Thursdays are pizza days. Naturally. In the midt of chaos I try to buffer out the fights and tantrums so I let Enzo make his cheese pizza and I make a few everything pizzas and the whole family is golden.

If you want to get your kids cooking have them make pizza. Make your own dough or buy ready made dough, I've certianly done both myself. Then give them a rolling pin, Enzo likes his toy one from Ikea, and let your kid go at it.

Enzo helps me make dough, he grates all the cheese, he spreads tomato sauce, and he puts toppings except for slices of tomatoes which he won't touch with a 10 foot pole. Sometimes to be mean I remind him that tomato sauce is made from t-o-m-a-t-o-e-s. 

He's in denial.

A couple days ago I found this video of 2 year old Enzo helping us make pizza.

The plan is to have him cook all our meals by the time he's 8.

Toast Cups

I'm a complete breakfast slacker. I normally don't even have breakfast and when I do it's toast with butter and some tea. So to try and be a little more inspiring in the early hours of the day I gave Martha Stewart's bacon, egg, and toast cups a try.

This is so basic right? I mean, bread, eggs, bacon and cheese (I had to add cheese), is not that glamorous. Except when it is! Because, having all of the ingredients neatly assembled in a cup is glamorous specially when you have little hands trying to feed themselves and the mess is contained.

 Here is my variation on this awesome recipe.

Toast Cups

(printable version)

• • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 8 slices sandwich bread
  • 8 slices bacon
  • 8 large eggs
  • 1 cup shredded cheese
  • Italian seasoning, salt and ground pepper to taste
  • 
    
  
  

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
  2. Lightly butter 8 standard muffin cups. 
  3. With a rolling pin, flatten bread slices then press into each muffin cup making sure bread comes up to edge of cup. 
  4. In a large skillet, cook bacon until almost crisp (It will continue to cook in the oven.) 
  5. Lay 1 bacon slice in each bread cup and crack an egg over each. 
  6. Season with salt and pepper and Italian seasoning
  7.  Bake until egg whites are just set, 15 minutes.
  8. Remove from oven and place shredded cheese on top of each cup.
  9. Put back in oven and cook for an additional 5 minutes, until cheese is melted.
  10. Run a small knife around cups to loosen toasts. Serve immediately.