Kitchen Corners Holiday Gift Guide {for the babes}

Baby Maria might grow up to be a pilot one day, but for now her navigation is a little off. That's not to say she's not enjoying her  airplane spoon. ThinkGeek sent baby Maria the coolest bib and spoon ever for a Holiday present. Thank you ThinkGeek, do you make the illuminating bib in any larger size? I know a 4 year old who could really use a bib sometimes and is in love with this one.

Speaking of Holidays and kids I put together a Holiday gift guide with the help of some foodie mamas.

1. Super Baby Food. Ruth from The Mom is amazing. I've been following her story as she and her baby Davy embark on a series of treatments and surgeries to repair Davy's cleft pallet. Ruth is a mother of 4 and is all about making your own baby food. That's why she loves the Super Baby Food book and recommends it. However. Davy is unable to eat solids right now so Ruth feeds her through this feeding tube. If you're a mom with a baby who has a cleft pallet or similar feeding challenges I really recommend visiting Ruth's blog and getting in contact with her. I've send her so many e-mails over the last couple of months asking her questions and trying to learn more about cleft pallets in general and she is great at responding. Thanks Ruth for your beautiful blog.

2. Combi Mommy's Food Processor. I had never heard of this product before but Lisa from Korean American Mommy told me it's one of her favorites.

3. Woodland Bib Set. I do {heart} a good etsy store and Cassandra Ellen, one of my favorite children's books illustrator has an eye for pretty and introduced me to this shop that makes beautiful handmade bibs.

4. Smiling Planet Fairies Fly Plate. Ana, my talented blog designer from Live and Enliven loves Smiling Planet. I don't blame her, so do I. In fact-o this week's giveaway is sponsored by Smiling Planet. Bonus.

5. Foogo Thermos. Mariko from The Little Foodie has been telling me for, what Mariko 2 years know [?!], about the wonders of Foogo. 

6. First Years Breast Flow Bottles. Ashlee from Ash & Lew Plus 2 loves these bottles and still uses them with her twins she said it really helped them with nipple confusion.

7. In the Pocket Baby Seat. I'm seriously hoping I can get this before we go on our trip to Hawaii. Luise from Green Kitchen Stories introduced this to me and totally raves about it's awesomeness. Luise and David and their baby Elsa are traveling the world for the next 6 months so this seat that folds up pocket sized has totally come in handy. 

8. Milk Bands. I think these would be the perfect stocking stuffer for breastfeeding moms. I need to show this to Christian, he'll smile politely much like he did when I was breast feeding baby Maria and would constantly feel my breasts in public to see which one had more milk. I could never remember which side was next. 

9. The Nursing Mother's Companion. Again, Mariko from The Little Foodie says that this is a must have for all breast feeding moms. So dads, go get this for your pregnant wife for Christmas.

What about you, are there any kids feeding products that you absolutely love and would recommend for a Holiday gift?

When I'm not food blogging I'm teaching college students

For the last 4 years I've worked as a TA (teaching assistant) at the university. I see the students in lecture, I meet with them in section, and I grade all of their work. I have past students e-mail me about updates on their lives I have present students come to my office hours to talk about recent breakups and as a reward they listen to me when I talk about neoliberalism, U.S-Venezuela relations, and the civil war in El salvador. 

I love my students. I love the conversations we have and the knowledge that we create. I  especially enjoy working in the Latin American Latino Studies department because we get to talk about academics and activism as NOT two separate things.

Yesterday was my last section and I wanted to do something nice for them so I invited all 50 of them over to my house and cooked so much rice and beans that today I'm trying to convince Christian to invite his students over to eat the rest.

Christian laughed and said "I'll stick with regular section"

Sometimes I go back and forth about graduate school. I already have a MA so should I go for a Ph.D?  Can I write a dissertation where I align the margins to the right, because that's how I feel comfortable writing? Christian made a point yesterday as I  was stirring 4 huge pots of beans, "if you'd rather feed 50 people than have section I think you should stick with cooking and food blogging"

I think he's right.

Not that I don't love teaching. I do, I love teaching. I just don't like academic writing, yuck. I guess I'll stick with being a TA so I can continue to teach and not worry about the dense writing portion of academia.

Christian is doing a Ph.D right now but even he is not convinced it's the right thing for him.

Enzo on the other hand my students totally engaged with his lecture on geography and plate tectonics.  

I can't wait till he's old enough to read more science books, more Eduardo Galeano, and some cook books as well. We're all about being well rounded in this family.

As for baby Maria, Christian's dream is that she'll become a big wave surfer. Right now I'm just hoping she'll survive past the age of 2, then we can start working on some other skills.

Still Thankful

I've spend the better part of this morning reading about your Thanksgiving. What fun. Some of you cooked a fusion between Japanese and American food. Others did a beautiful tropical center piece and a Thanksgiving feast spiced with some Brazilian flavah. Did no one make a turducken?  Did I even write that correctly?  Speaking of writing I'm in love with Erin because she's in love with her husband. That definitely didn't sound right, but  I don't know how else to put it. Erin Jane's blog just makes me happy and I think it's simply charming how she adores her Conor and creates beautiful things for him, including his Thanksgiving name card.

I'm not above Black Friday or consumption in general, but I do find it ironic how Thanksgiving is a day of pure gratitude and then in less than 24 hours people are waiting outside the doors of big mega stores to buy things. I guess it makes sense to have a Holiday where we can be thankful for our privileged lives.

 Last year I didn't wake up at 4:00am to be in front of Toys'R'Us to buy Enzo a video game that was on sale but I did go to Toys'R'Us after breakfast to buy diapers that normally cost $20 for $5, and a SD card that normally costs $30 for $3. Here is me taking a moment to thank the Toys'R'Us workers.

Thanks you Toys'R'Us workers and thank you people who work in factories to make disposable diapers and SD cards.

Today is Monday and we're having the last of the turkey and mashed potatoes for lunch. After lunch there will be no more trace of Thanksgiving. Fim. But before we move on to Hanukkah and Christmas shopping and New Years (in my case, also Christian's Birthday) I'd like to take a minute to express what I'm thankful for today.

Christian: thank you for driving back to the safeway parking lot just now to try and find Maria's missing  boot.

Enzo: Thank you for loving preschool. It makes my mom guilt drop to almost zero every time I drop you off in the morning.

Baby Maria: Thank you for eating the rest of my soggy cereal. I love your 7 little teeth.

Bloggers: Thanks for writing your blogs. I know how much time it takes and I'm always so impressed with your dedication, your attention to details, and the time you take to share a piece of your life. Your writing inspires me day in and day out.

Readers: Thank you times a million. You are the reason why I come back.

xoxo,

have a lovely Monday.

Foodbuzz 24x24: Dear Santa, I know what you eat in the North Pole

Sugar. Lots and lots of sugar. Are you surprised? Look at the size of his jolly ol' belly.

 Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season in our home. It's a good transition because we write letters to Santa that starts out with "Dear Santa, I'm thankful for...." then there's the mom line "I need..." where I expect everyone to write socks and underwear, and Ina Garten's new cookbook even though Christian is trying to convince me to put the cookbook under  the "I want..." section of the letter.

This year we hosted a writing letters to Santa party and made some treats that we came up with, things that in Enzo's imagination Santa eats and shares with Mama Santa and their elves.  

A couple years ago I was introduced to stained glass cookies. I think they're magical  and becaue Enzo is a huge fan of snow globes we made snow globes out of the stained glass cookies by putting them in a jar and adding shredded coconut. This was Enzo's favorite treat. 

The caramel popcorn lollipops were so fun to make and Christian's 6 layer cake was incredibly difficult to make but he did it all so I can't complain. Enzo wanted it to represent the North Pole where mountains are made out of coco puffs and there are lots of piles of sweet snow to munch on.

Next year we'll make sure to let Santa know that we're throwing a party in his honor and ask him to come. I bet if he came my kids would be in their best behavior. Here is a behind the scenes video. Enzo and Maria, naughty or nice?

This was such a fun little party and I have Foodbuzz to thank for picking my idea to be featured in this month's Foodbuzz 24x24 event. I {heart} you Foodbuzz. If Foodbuzz wrote a letter to Santa I wonder what they would ask for?

Do you write letters to Santa?

If so what's your Christmas wish?

Smiling Planet Giveaway

I'm in Holiday mode, still digesting yesterday's feast but I didn't want to leave you without my usual Friday giveaway. Normally I sign out on Friday's but not this week. Nope. I'll be back tomorrow with a fun post. Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas season and I love Christmas to the moon and back, and back again. So we had had a little writing letters to Santa party that I can't wait to share with you Tomorrow.

How was your Thanksgiving? Ours was perfect. I even took a nap in between dinner and dessert, p-e-r-f-e-c-t. You know what else made me so incredibly thankful yesterday? You. Yes you did. Yesterday I hit 500 followers. I am so grateful for my readers, how I {heart} you. 

Thanks for reading my recipes, for reading about my children, for being kind with your e-mails and comments. I love doing giveaways because it's one way I can share with you things that I love as a token of my gratitude.

Today I'm giving away some Smiling Planet products. There are a few perfect stores on the the Earth and Smiling Planet qualifies as one of them. I love them. My kids love their products and until you can prove me wrong I am convinced that they have the best coloring book ever, even the title makes me smile "everyone dreams of peace even when they don't" If you win this giveaway please hand the treasures off to a little foodie in your life. The kid that gets the plate, bowl, and  coloring book will be stoked, I guarantee.

To Enter: You have to be a Kitchen Corners follower. 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 if you win.

+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 December 2nd. The winner will be contacted via e-mail and announced next Friday.

post-edit: Astrid is the lucky winner. 

Interview with Melissa d'Arabian and a Thanksgiving leftover recipe

I had a phone chat with Melissa d'Arabian, the Food Network Star behind Ten Dollar Dinners, a couple weeks ago. I told her I have two kids. She told me she has four. Who's your mama?! Melissa was awesome to talk to. So enthusiastic and  practical and gave me some good advice on what to do with Thanksgiving leftovers.  

Tomorrow you're all going to be cooking and eating the year's most important meal. No pressure.  It will be fun, don't worry. You'll work super hard then eat super hard and then on Friday you'll have all the left overs to deal with. I mean, to enjoy.

Melissa's advice on using up leftovers is basically to give the leftovers a different flavor profile. Make something else entirely new. Instead of just heating up your turkey and mashed potatoes and eating a second Thanksgiving meal, she suggests that you use the leftover ingredients to create a new dish, for example make a cranberry salsa from your left over cranberry sauce.

Melissa d'Arabian Cranberry Salsa

(printable version)

• 1/2 cup canned whole cranberry sauce
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
• zest and juice of one lime
• 1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped
• 1 white onion coarsely chopped and microwaved for 1 minute
• 1/4 cup diced red bell pepper
• 1/4 cup diced green bell pepper
• 1/2 cup Mexican-flavored canned tomatoes, drained and chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

serving suggestion: serve with Turkey Taquitos, recipe follows

Place the cranberry sauce, cilantro, lime zest, lime juice, jalapeno pepper, onion, red pepper, green pepper, tomatoes, and salt, and pepper to taste in a food processor and pulse until blended, but still chunky. Serve with Turkey Taquitos.

What are you planning on making with your Thanksgiving leftovers, any ideas?
Happy Thanksgiving.
See you back here on Friday.

Popcorn Turkey

Basically I think this popcorn turkey is king. As a family that consumes popcorn almost on a daily basis I guarantee my kids would be stoked to make this on Thanksgiving.

Brittany has an insanely beautiful blog called One Charming Party which will make you ditch Thanksgiving and throw a birthday party for a small child. Brittany is pure talent and as such she shared a tutorial on how to make this popcorn turkey.

Go forth and craft.

(photo source: Say Yes to Hoboken)

Why Christian made Spinach fritters last night for dinner

Basically because our family does things in opposites.

Baby Maria for example never lets us feed her but she feeds us entire meals.

Normally I make dinner but on Monday nights I get home at 8:00pm. On Tuesday and Thursday nights I get home at 10:00pm. I guess I don't normally make dinner, what am I saying?! I'm o.k with that though and Christian is o.k with that but every so often we get family members who question our life style or other inquisitive stares from peeps around us and then I feel like we need to justify why I'm not a typical Mormon mommy who stays home, cooks, and cleans.

Last night Christian and I were talking about my blog and he said "you know you can offend a lot of people with our lifestyle."  And he's right, I can but is that really my problem? Traditionally the other members of our church have households where the dude works and the lady stays home with the kids. Traditionally the other people in our hippie Northern California town have households where both adults work (male+female, male+male, female+female) and they have one kid. We're a household where both of us work and we have more than one child AND we plan on having more and we both plan on working.  I don't really feel like we're so different because I find that there are more exceptions to the rule than there are strict rule abiders. People need to work, unexpected pregnancies happen, a million different factors come into play when organizing a lifestyle that works for each individual person or family. 

In the Santos-Palmer/Palmer household we have a pretty good division of labor that we're comfortable with. We both work. We both cook. We both take care of the kids. Christian cleans solo. I buy Christmas presents solo. He appreciates that I remember his family's birthday and I appreciate that he puts away my clothes. He appreciates that I work hard on Mondays and I appreciate that he makes spinach fritters for dinner.  

I also appreciate Enzo Santos Palmer (his actual name is Lorenzo, please don't tell him that) for eating the spinach fritters without a fuss and I appreciate Maria Aurea Santos Palmer for eating the leftovers that fall underneath her high chair. It makes Christian's cleaning job that much easier.

Spinach Fritters (gluten free)

(printable version)

• 2 1/2 boiling potatoes (peeled)
• 1 lb fresh spinach
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup cubed mozzarella
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 1 1/2 cup oil, for frying

1. Cook the potatoes in a pot of boiling water until they are soft. Drain and mash.
2. Cook the spinach in a pot of salted boiling water until tender. Drain and squeeze the excess water and chop finely.
3. Combine with the potatoes and mix well.
4. Put the eggs in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper. Add potatoes, spinach, and parmesan and mix.
5. Place a tablespoon of the mixture in the palm of your hand. Press a cube of cheese into the center and close the mixture around it to make a oblong croquette. The cheese needs to be completely covered.
6. Roll in the corn meal.
7. Heat the frying oil until hot.
8. Fry the fritters a few at a time, turning them in the oil so that they are golden brown all over.

November Cook Off Winner

On Saturday Chris and Enzo tallied up the votes and made the top three most voted recipes, the apple and aged cheddar scones, the apple slaw, and the drowning apples cake.

My boys did a wonderful job cooking and baking and then I did a not so good job at judging. Judging was so hard. Everyone thought so except for baby Maria who had a very clear favorite.

For the rest of us it was so hard to choose. I caste my vote, then Chris, then our friend Seth, then Enzo who decided to vote for all three, then we had a conference meeting and we decided on a winner.  We loved all the recipes. The slaw had the most perfect texture, the scones had the most wonderful combination of savory and sweet, and the cake is so moist it feel like you're eating clouds.

In the end the winning prize goes out to Steph from The Local Spoon with the winning recipe apple and aged cheddar scones.


Thank you all for commenting and casting your votes.  Trish from Dish by Trish had the winning comment (randomly selected). So both she and Steph will walk away with a new petty utility knife from New West KnifeWorks.

Is it December yet? I can hardly wait for next month's cook off.

Vegan Mashed Potatoes and a Tofurky Feast Giveaway

And here is my token vegan recipe.

No, I'm just kidding.

I've made vegan recipes before, just not very often.

There was the vegan pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookie and the vegan pumpkin cupcakes and then there were salads, and rice, and beans, you know naturally vegan stuff. But mashed potatoes are not naturally vegan. They are loaded with heavy cream, cream cheese, butter and then a dollop of sour cream.

When I lived in Hawaii I made my loaded with dairy mashed potatoes and a side of vegan mashed potatoes for our friend Scott, our  very own token vegan. Now, I always make vegan mashed potatoes. It tastes a bit more sophisticated and definitely lighter.

Basically I use three ingredients, potatoes, good olive oil, and sea salt. Lately I've been using smoked sea salt which gives more depth and highlights the savory flavor when the fluffy mashed potatoes hits your tongue. Mix the olive oil in with the pipping hot potatoes to obtain that cloud like texture. I wish I could give you exact measurements but this recipe is one in which I just do and taste and if it tastes good I stop but if it needs more of this or that I add more oil and salt.

On Thursday I'm making my vegan mashed potatoes recipe and then a side of the fatty loaded with dairy stuff.

Tofurky has been generous and sent me a gift certificate for a a free Tofurky  Feast.

We made some Tofurky last weekend and it's a hit with the vegetarian crowd. The Tofurky feast comes with a roast, gravy, wild rice, stuffing, wishstix (!), vegan chocolate cake, and a happy Torfuky Day card and coupon. Basically it's a vegan party in a box. 

I eat meat and even though I don't love turkey I do eat turkey so I want to give one of my vegan readers this free Tofurky Feast. Do you want it? Will you eat it? Will you love it? If so the first  person to leave me a comment telling me that they want it will get the free Tofurky Feast coupon.

I'll run to the post office and put this in the mail for you today so that you get it in time for Thursday. When I come back I'll announce the cook off winner.

By the way how was your weekend? Mine was hilarious. We went to a chili cook off / talent show. Enzo sang an impromptu "I've been working on the railroad" and the our church leaders  closed the event with a repotoir that will probably stay in my head for time and all eternity.

   

Turkey Cupcake Tutorial and a Werther's Original Caramel Package Giveaway.

Go ahead and say it.

My turkey cupcake rocks.

I could never come up with something so elaborate, specially for cupcakes.  Cupcakes are the new thongs and to be honest with you I don't really even like thongs, so it's hard for me to understand what the whole cupcake craze is all about.  Last week, though, I did go to a cupcake decorating class and I was all like "oh, I get it"

They're fun to decorate if nothing else.

For this cupcake you're going to need caramels, lots and lots of caramels. Maybe not lots and and lots but enough to make your turkey and enough to eat while you're making the turkey. Here is where Werther's original comes in.

These guys (and gals) make the best caramel in the world, unless you make the best caramel in the world in which case send me some! Werther's sent our family a package of  caramels and caramel chocolate and chewey caramels and then some more caramel in the mail and they're going to send a similar package to a Kitchen Corners' reader.  Basically what you're going to want to do is eat all the caramel chocolate before anyone else in your family finds it. Then you're going to save the hard caramels for special ocassions and then you're going to bust out the chewey caramels to make turkey cupcakes, of course.

Heat up a couple chewey caramels for 5 seconds in the microwave. Now that it's soft you can play with it. Roll it out and into circle shapes. Then cut a foot ball shape out of each circle. That's what you're going to use to make the body of the Turkey. Use two small balls of the soft caramel and pretzel sticks to mold  the drumsticks. Place the drumsticks on there with a little bit of water. Then decorate the sides with candy so that it looks like a turkey dinner. The stuffing is frozen pound cake chopped up into tiny squares.

Seriously, it's pretty easy.

By the time this giveaway is over Thanksgiving will be a memory. I'm sure you'll be able to come up with some Christmas cupcake though using soft caramels and a ridiculous amount of frosting.

Have a fun weekend.
See you back here on Monday where I'll announce the cook off winner.
xoxo

To Enter: You have to be a Kitchen Corners follower. 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 if you win.

+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 November 25th. The winner will be contacted via e-mail and announced next Friday.


post-edit: The giveaway winner is the lovely lady behind the blog The Wife of a Dairyman.

lies our parents told us.

I was thinking about how my mom used to tell me that the crust of the bread was where all the vitamins were and that I had to eat it if I wanted to grow big and strong. I believed this up until I was in college. Then one day I thought about it for more than 2 seconds and was all like "whaaaaat?!"

Your turn.

Did your parents ever lie to you to get you to eat or not eat something?

ps. Today is the last day to vote for the November cook off.

ps segundo. Minus ten points for you if you complained this week about how warm it was. Now it's cold and rainy with no sunshine in the foreseeable future. 

Polenta Crust Pizza, naturally gluten free

In the mornings, because the kids wake up at 6:00am, because of the stupid time change, and because Christian is surfing, we lounge in our PJs and read cookbooks together until it is time for Enzo to go to school.  Enzo points to pictures and quickly passes judgment "delicious!" "yucky!"  It's all about the pictures. So then I read him the title and he'll either say "yay" or "nay".  A couple weeks ago I received the book Clean Start by Terry Walters and Enzo has judged all the recipes "delicious."

 Here's the thing. All the recipes are gluten free and vegetarian. She encourages you to buy local and eat what's in season. The best part is that not only do the recipes look delicious they also seem totally doable.

So we made polenta pizza using produce from the farmer's market.

Here's the other thing, we adore meat, cheese, and wheat in this tiny family. But just because we buy a 50lb. bag of flour on a regular basis doesn't mean we can't try new things.

I've been wanting to try out more gluten free recipes. After hanging out with Luise and David I'm inspired to make healthier recipes. I'm not saying I'm going to radically change my diet and give up on funnel cakes, I'm just saying that there is so much information and recipes on gluten free, vegetarian, and vegan, diets I think it's good to step out of my deep fried comfort zone and try something new.

Making polenta pizza with the kids was new.

Baby Maria tried to eat all the tomatoes before I even had a chance to get them on the pizza. I just smile. I have been a tomato aficionada since I can remember, looks like we have another tomato lover in the house. I have to say she's way cuter at eating tomatoes than I ever was.

Making polenta is easy. Bring 3 cups vegetable broth to a boil. Then turn off the stove and quickly stir 1 1/2 cups corn meal and 2 tablespoons olive oil. I also added salt, garlic, and Italian seasoning. You can add whatever kind of seasoning you like. Then spread the polenta on a tart pan or a spring form pan and bake at 350* for 30 minutes. This is really important because you want your crust to be somewhat dried out so that when you put your toppings it will hold it's form and not become polenta mush. After you bake the crust add tomato sauce and whatever kind of toppings you like. I wanted to go for something fresh and healthy, so I went for spinach, pumpkin, goat cheese, and tomatoes. Then I baked for an additional 15 minutes. I was thrilled with the end result. It was super delicious. Baby Maria ate all the tomatoes even when they were hot. Then she made her way through the rest of the pizza, topping by topping.

I've decided that polenta pizza is great for kids, specially kids who only have 7 teeth. I noticed that Baby Maria had a much easier time eating polenta crust, then flour crust. The polenta crust is soft and the corn meal just melts in your mouth. She is also a huge fan of vegetables (yeah, we'll see how long that lasts) and it's fun for her to have a colorful selection on top of her pizza. She uses her little chubby fingers to pick each topping off one by one.

Enzo on the other hand was on the crusty side because he wanted his individual polenta cheese pizza to be bigger. He loved the crust and was sad when he took his last bite. But seriously Enzo, go wipe that frown of your face! And Baby Maria...never mind...I'm just glad you're mine.

Don't come to me for traditional Thanksgiving tips

Enzo has been able to claim the Holiday longer than I have. I've only been a US citizen for two years. I'm a newbie. I don't particularly like pumpkin pie. Turkey is my least favorite meat. Last month I received a box full of Betty Crocker instant mashed potatoes mix and was personally offended. I only eat mashed potatoes made by yours truly with real potatoes and a substantial amount of heavy cream.  I've had one good stuffing my whole entire life. It was made by my sis-in-law Amy, who doesn't even check her e-mails so there's no way you're getting a recipe out of her.

But I do enjoy the Holiday.

I love the abundance of food and cooking. I love the fact that gifts aren't a distraction and that it's all about family, friends, and good company. Except when it's not, and those stories are always fun to tell.

This past Sunday we helped organize an early Thanksgiving dinner that fed over 150 people.  For the last 4 years we've helped organize this dinner for the residents who live at Family Student Housing up at the UCSC campus. We have residents from China, Japan, India, Korea, Mexico, Argentina, to name a few. Oh, and of course Brazil. Holla!

So we serve your traditional Thanksgiving dinner with some variation. Our friend Danny made teriyaki turkey and I don't think I can ever go back to plain old turkey. Ever.

This year we hired a group of Chinese Lion Dancers to do the entertainment. Lion dancers pairs perfectly with  turkey, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Who would of thunk it?

Baby Maria and her friend Baby Bella wanted to crawl up on stage the whole time. Enzo ran to the back of the dinning hall and curled up in a ball. He hates loud noises. You would never have guessed if you've ever heard him speak in his one volume. Loud.

Next week we're driving up to Christian's aunts house. It will be lovely because it always is. We'll eat too much and then we'll jump on the trampoline to get the full effect. I can't wait.

I  wish I could give you tips on how to perfectly make your turkey. If you really want my mashed potato recipe I can share but keep in mind that it screams FAT. I did however, get the chance to have a phone conference interview with Melissa d'Arabian from the food network show Ten  Dollar Dinners who had some awesome Thanksgiving tips to share. There's a reason why these people are stars. When another blogger asked her what was the most expensive food she had in her pantry she replied "the most expensive food anyone has in their pantry is the one they throw away." I immediately called out to christian, "Dude, your best friend is on the phone"

I'll share her Thanksgiving tips with you soon.
Promise.

Freckles and Popsicles

I forget that I have freckles.

But then I look at pictures of myself and they are right there on my neck.

Had they migrated a little more north and made it's way up to my cheeks I think they would have been charming.

As it stands they're kind of awkward.

My mom used to worry about it when I was little. There were a series of surgeries and treatments I could of done to try and remove them. I'm glad she never succumbed to the demands from the rest of the family who always said that my neck freckles were ugly and that it would surely effect my body image when I was older.

In the 90s, when I was in middle school and the whole AIDS epidemic was hot news, the boys in my class would tease me and say that my freckles were AIDS. I was too busy playing with my friends (i.e flirting with the 8th grade boys) to really listen to the bullies in my class. I also think that  deep down I knew that if AIDS was just freckles on someone's neck and nothing more, this world would be a lucky place. Needless to say my self esteem wasn't too damaged after middle school.

Christian is kind and has helped diminish any insecurities I have about my body. In fact he only uses lovely words when referring to my neck. Maybe that's why I never think about it.

The whole ugly neck talk around the dinner table was put to an end when my great-grandmother announced that my freckles were a result of me sucking on limes. Apparently the inevitable lime juice that would drip down my neck was burning my skin. Hence the freckles. So for a while I was forbidden to eat limes in front of my extended family. It was an annoying price I had to pay to get the uncles off my mom's back.

It worked.

And soon after my lime fetish continued

and has since blossomed into creative concoctions that involves all things lime.

Today I made limeaid pops and decorated it with the rest of Enzo's Halloween candy. We cut our stars using laffy taffy, made red stripes using red vines and what's the name of that other candy? I can only remember it in Portuguese.

I let the lime juice drip down my childrens' necks. I let it drip down my neck as we all soaked in the  abnormally warm November sunshine.

Today was a good day

Crayon Food Bars

Dear Santa,

Baby Maria would rather eat nasty crayons than any other actually edible food.

Can you please bring her a pack of crayon food bars for Christmas

so she doesn't die?!

xoxo, Da.

(crayon food bars found via  Design Boom)

November Cook Off Voting and why you should absolutely-definitely- without a doubt vote

Because one random comment will also win a petty utility knife from New West KnifeWorks.

Bam!!!

Have I convinced you?

No, you don't need a knife?! Fine. Then just to be nice you should vote because we had 15 amazing bloggers whip up some fancy apple recipes and they deserve your attention.

Check it out.
Click on an thumbnail and it will take you to their recipe.



Leave a comment telling me your top three recipe choices. On Friday I'll tally up the votes. On Sarturday I'll make the top three recipes. A team of expert judges (the fam.) will decide on which recipe takes the prize. On Monday the winner will be announced along with you, the voter, the person who took the time to caste a vote and then was randomly selected to win.

Win-Win.
Lets do this.

post-edit: lots of anonymous comments have been coming in. That's fine BUT only comments that can link me back to an e-mail address or to a blog will be entered in the petty knife giveaway. If need to have a way of contacting you in case you win.  I take that back, not in case you win, when you win!

spiced apple cider funnel cake with doce de leite and and why baby Maria is so obviously a second child

Second child eats funnel cakes, first child does not. O.K let me rephrase that. Second child eats funnel cakes and she's 13 months old, first child ate a funnel cake for the first time last summer when he was 3 and I remember being so upset I cried.

Does this mean that the third child will drink a big Mac smoothie in a bottle, so s/he can suck at it all night in it's crib? No this is not an announcement it's just me expressing a legit concern. 

Every time I tell someone  "I have an announcement" they immediately think I'm pregnant. Last week I tested my theory in my class and all the students looked right to my stomach area. My outspoken Freddi said, "Hey Prof. are you pregnant?" Case in point. "No,  it's just that your midterm has been extended"

This month I'm finishing up an article for a major woman's magazine. From what I hear my article will be sandwiched between a pic of J-lo and some other super hot woman. I'll be there right smack in the middle looking all...mama like....because Enzo will be there with me. The article I wrote is about parenting. It always is, it probably always will be until they're big and grown and start having their own babies. I'm assuming they'll want to have babies. I hope by the time they're adults I'll be able to convince them that there is no greater joy, frustration, anxiety, life-changing... joy, joy, joy. This is why I always talk about my kids. This is why I always write about my kids.

I have 2 blogs. This here Kitchen Corners and that over there Bebeloo. Kitchen Corners is food. Bebeloo is parenting/soul searching/life changing experiences. Are you tempted to go and read? Here is the deal, for a while I've been thinking about combining the two. It would somewhat simplify my life and from all the advice I've been given it seems like it would be a good move.

Would you mind if I had a post in here about why I'm boycotting Amazon? Would you mind if one day I did a kitchen product review and the next I tell you about my thoughts when I found out my friend's baby died of pertussis? Is that weird to mix things up? Is it weird to acknowledge that my life is not neatly organized into compartments and that while I'm making funnel cakes I'm also thinking about cleaning my house?

While I'm making funnel cakes I'm looking at Enzo and smiling because he can speak two languages. I'm looking at baby Maria and smiling because I am NOT pregnant which means I can enjoy and somewhat manage her babyhood a little bit longer.

I hope it's not to weird. Maybe it would be a no brainier if organization was my forte. If I was a private person. If instead of using Enzo and baby Maria's name on this blog like I use when the computer is turned off, I called them Thing 1 and Thing 2. If instead of calling Christian, love-of-my-life-hot-surfer Christian I called him DH, then maybe I could compartmentalize my life much easier. But it's not my style. My style is open and fluid. It's having you come over asking for quarters to finish drying your laundry and I giving you funnel cake to take for the road, while telling you all about Baby Maria's latest blow out and how I secretly throw clothes that are stained away because I don't want to deal with rubbing it off. And isn't that rediculously priviledged of me? And how can I call myself an environmentalist. Can I tell you all about my anxieties while handing you over a quarter? In your head you'd screaming "just give me a quarter woman!"

For the next week I'll experiment giving you a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I promise to keep poop talks to a minimum and if you're ever screaming at the computer screen "just give me a recipe woman" please let me know. It's the feedback that allows my writing to improve.

I appreciated my readers. 

The ones here and the ones there. 

I hope that you two can mingle and become friends. 

Lets break the ice with some funnel cake shall we?

Spiced Apple Cider Funnel Cake with Doce de Leite

(printable version)

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1/3 cup spiced apple cider
• 1/3 cup plain yogurt
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.
2. Add the egg, sugar, apple sauce, apple cider, yogurt, and oil and mix on medium speed for a couple minutes, scrapping the sides of the bowl until well incorporated.
3. Add the batter to a piping bag.
4. When your frying oil is hot (test by putting a match inside the pan with oil when the oil is still cold, then when the match flames up your oil is hot. Scary? A little. Will it burn your house down? No.) start piping the the batter in the hot oil. Fry of 30 seconds on each side. 
5. Add a dallop of doce de leite on top while it's still hot. In Portuguese we call it doce de leite in Spanish it's dulce de leche. Same thing. Amazingly now you can find it ready in most super markets.

Don't let the picture of my messy house/funnel cake on cookie sheet be deceiving. These babies are fried not baked. I was inspired to make these apple cider donuts from Kirbie's Craving. So I did. Except that I failed to read the entire recipe and didn't realize that you need a donut pan. The batter is runny so you gotta put it in a pipping bag or you need a donut pan. Donut pan?! What next! Anyway, I like my piping bag plenty and funnel cakes aren't necessarily the worst substitute for donuts. If you don't have a donut pan and you don't have a piping bag don't fret. You can make a piping bag or you can do the - put it in the gallon sized zip-lock method and then cut one of the tips off and use it as a piping bag.

You should totally make these
and feed it to your infant.
What, does that make you uncomfrtable?
I don't blame you.
Just eat it yourself.
Enjoy your treats before the inevitable baby attacking starts.