Cooking with Kids - Creamy Garlic Penne

 

I've involved my kids with cooking and food prep, pretty much since they could stand on a chair and add chocolate chips to cookies.   As they each get a little older, I've taught them more and more skills in the kitchen.  My 7 year old is now pretty sufficient at the basics like making sandwiches, orange juice and snacky food.  He often will get his younger brother and sister drinks and snacks on a Saturday morning allowing me to sleep in just a little bit longer.  A couple of weeks ago, my husband went out of town for just over a week.  At some point while he was gone our son decided that he wanted to make his dad a special meal to welcome him home.  I have to laugh because my husband confessed to me that he was expecting hot dogs and Kraft Dinner, but was prepared to like whatever it was our dear boy had prepared.  He was pleased and blown away with what recipe was served to him.   

Our son just loves Penne pasta.  It's his favorite, so he asked me to help find him a good penne recipe that he could make for Dad.  I found this one on Food.com.  There were not a lot of ingredients, it had easy to follow directions and it was tasty!  All key points in letting a child do the cooking.  It is also a quick recipe to make, taking about half an hour all together.  I was working right beside him to keep him on track, but he did the majority of it himself.  There were a few things I wouldn't let him do (nor, would it have been safe at his age) - like drain the boiling hot noodles, but the measuring, stirring and mixing he handled quite well.

Here's the recipe:

• 1 (1 lb) box penne cooked as directed, drained and kept hot
• 2 tablespoons butter 
• 2 garlic cloves, minced (he crushed them through a garlic press)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3/4 cup chicken broth 
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons parsley flakes
• grated pepper, to taste
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese (we didn't have quite this much parmesan cheese on hand, so we used about a 1/4 cup of that and added a couple of slices of havarti to the mix)

Directions:

1. Melt butter and add garlic in a medium sauce pan.
2. Cook over medium for 1 minute.
3. Add flour and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
4. Stir in broth and milk and cook, stirring frequently, until sauce boils and thickens.
5. Add parsley, pepper and cheese. *my kids won't eat anything with parsley in it, so we left it out and just sprinkled a bit on top of Dad's and mine to look 'fancy'
6. Stir until cheese is melted.
7. Toss hot pasta with sauce and serve immediately.

My boy stirring the sauce on the stove.

Mixing the noodles and sauce together.

Dinner is served.

Snowman Cupcakes

Have I mentioned yet my new found love of Pinterest? Of course, if you are crafty you probably already know about it and are more than slightly hooked on it. Well, my daughter turns 2 tomorrow. We aren't having her party until next weekend, but I couldn't let the day pass without something special. I decided to make cupcakes for her to take to daycare and share with the kids there. I searched 'cupcakes' on Pinterest and my goodness there are some amazing cupcakes out there! Wow! I needed something fairly simple though and I saw these. Aren't they cute? My daughter loves snowmen so this is perfect. The eyes and mouth are upside down chocolate chips and the nose are cut up pieces of fruit gummies - so simple.

A Maritime Christmas, make that New Year's Feast!

I was sick, and I mean the kind of sick where you don't move for a few days kind of sick over Christmas. We still had our turkey dinner, but I didn't make it. In fact, I didn't eat it. But my husband and our guests (good friends who understood me sleeping on the couch) enjoyed it. Thank goodness my husband knows how to cook (and well!). By New Year's I was feeling well enough to eat, just not well enough to go anywhere and do anything New Years-ish. I had also been seeing a lot of friend's Christmases on Facebook. It seemed every family I know who lives here in our little village, or one of the nearby villages bought lobster pretty much right off the boat for their Christmas Feasts. I haven't had lobster since just before we moved away to Toronto a couple of years ago, and now being back here, it just fits. So for New Year's we had Surf and Turf. Jonathan marinated a couple of t-bone steaks with his own special seasoning rub and I picked up 2 lobsters. Here are a few photos of our little feast. Did I mention Jonathan did up his own homemade onion rings and deep fried shrimp to go with it all?

 Giving the lobsters a little last run.

 The feast.

 mmm lobster!

 steak with shrimp

*Sorry, no recipes this time - just the pictures!

BLT with a twist - guest post

If you know me well, you know I didn't make this and I didn't eat it either. Much to the amazement of my friends and family who swear by it, I can't eat bacon. But my husband is among those who just love bacon. And this is his creation. 

Bored with your BLT ?

Try this one on for size. It is a BLT with a twist.

Preheat your oven to 350. Next grab two baking sheets.

Lay out your bacon onto the sheets. Mix the following seasonings together:

Granulated garlic, onion powder, Cajun spice, and a dash of Jerk Seasoning.

The mix should be 2/3^rd garlic and onion powder and 1/3^rd Cajun and Jerk seasoning. Next sprinkle this mixture over the bacon evenly. It is good to have a moderate coating of the spice.

Bake the bacon at 350 for 10-15 min. or until desired crispness is reached.

Slice some fresh tomatoes. Toast a hoagie bun lightly. Add mayo. When the bacon is cooked, take 3 or four strips per sandwich and cut it into chunks (this prevents a whole strip of bacon from coming out of the sandwich on your first bite). Layer tomato slices over the bacon and sprinkle fresh oregano over the tomatoes- just a light dusting.

Cut the sandwich in half, et voila. A delicious twist on a classic sandwich. Add lettuce if you must.

Best Beef Dip! - for a slow cooker

Beef Dip is one of those recipes that I always order at a diner.  I love it.  It's a treat when made well, but I've never thought to make it myself.  Rewind to two weeks ago, I was browsing at one of my favorite recipe sites, food.com, and found this recipe.  It had very high ratings (4 1/2 stars out of 5) and a lot of positive reviews.  The ingredients were simple and staples in our home.  It looked super easy (and it was) and honestly, I couldn't believe how delicious this really was.  My husband has not stopped talking about it ever since.  He has asked a number of our friends if they have slow cookers and told them to get this recipe off of me.  That's high praise :)  The original posting is found here: http://www.food.com/recipe/french-dip-roast-beef-for-the-crock-pot-103403.

• 3 1/2-4 lbs boneless chuck roast
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 -4 peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary , crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 12 French rolls , split - (even better when toasted and then spread with a little mayo before adding the meat)

Place roast in a 5-quart slow cooker. Combine soy sauce and next 6 ingredients.  Pour over roast.  Add water to slow cooker until roast is almost covered.  Cook, covered, on LOW for 7 hours or until very tender.  Remove roast, reserving broth.  You may shred roast with a fork and serve on sandwich rolls with the broth on the side for dipping.

The Best Pizza Dough and Pizza Sauce!

When we were living in Toronto we made some fantastic friends.  We met through work (the man being my husband's boss) and were invited over for lunch out of politeness to get to know each other better.  I had to laugh later on as both couples afterwards had the same conversation of, "those guys seem really cool, I hope we get to know them better" and over the next year and a half we did.  Both families love to cook so we spent a lot of meals together.  One of their standards was their home made pizza.  They make a lot of dough and put out a wide variety of toppings and everyone just goes for it creating.
Since we moved to where we are currently living, I've made home made pizza a couple of times, but it just wasn't the same.  So I emailed Tiffany and asked for her pizza dough recipe.  Tonight we made it and this is it.  This is simply the best pizza dough recipe.  It turns out so well.  The dough rises really nicely and it crisps up well on the crusts.  I paired it with a pizza sauce recipe I found on All Recipes.  It has a 4.5 star rating and I can see why.  It's tasty and a great consistency.
We made 2 pizzas tonight.  The first was the kids' basic cheese.  The second was a little more adventurous (and perfectly delicious).  Half was fig and goat cheese.  The other half was shrimp, sun-dried tomato, onion and feta cheese.  I couldn't pick a favorite, just delicious.

Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon yeast
3 ½ C flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

1.       Pour ½ cup warm water in a measuring cup.  Stir in the yeast and let it stand until dissolved and creamy, about 5 minutes.

2.       In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, make a well and fill it with the yeast mixture.  Add olive oil and 1 cup of warm water.  Stir until a rough ball of dough forms.  Turn out of bowl and knead until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.  You may need to add some flour along the way.

3.       Shape dough into smooth ball, place in a large, oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap.  Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.  Punch down and divide into 4 balls. Can be frozen up to 3 months. Yields 4 10-inch pizza crusts.


Tiffany's Notes:  makes roughly 2 pounds of dough.  I use about 1 pound of dough per pizza (so my pizzas are bigger than theirs), thus I usually double this recipe.  I often use about 1 ½ C whole wheat flour and 2 cups AP flour per batch.  I usually bake the pizza at about 450.

Pizza Sauce

• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 6 fluid ounces warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (I used the stuff out of the shaker)
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional) - did not use, would love to try
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (did not use - worried about spice for kids)
• 1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
• salt to taste (left out)

1. In a small bowl, combine tomato paste, water, Parmesan cheese, garlic, honey, anchovy paste, onion powder, oregano, marjoram, basil, ground black pepper, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes and salt; mix together, breaking up any clumps of cheese.
2. Sauce should sit for 30 minutes to blend flavors; spread over pizza dough and prepare pizza as desired. 

 She has this as a recipe for 1 pizza, it worked well for the 2 that I made without having to double it.

How To Make A Stock

Making a stock is one of those things that is so super easy that you will have yourself wondering why you didn't do it before.  So many soup recipes call for a stock, usually chicken, beef or turkey.  Now you can go and buy a pre-made stock at the store; or, you can use what you have on hand.  I make my stocks ahead of time and freeze them, ready to use when I need them.

I usually buy a rotisserie chicken every couple of weeks and once the meat has been used up, I save the bones and skin for this.  We also keep a small container of our onion tops and skins as well as garlic skins and bits of sweet peppers not used thoughout the week.  This really makes making a stock easy.

You take your chicken bones and vegetable bits and put them into a large cooking pot.  Put just enough water in to cover everything.  Put a lid on and bring it all to a boil.  Once boiling well, reduce the heat to minimum and let simmer for about an hour.  Let cool.  Once cooled, drain the stock into a large container, ready to freeze. 

I do the same thing with my turkey bones, just using a larger stock pot for the process and often get enough stock for 3 or more containers of stock. 

You can make a vegetable stock as well by putting in large chunks of veggies - onions, garlic, peppers, carrots and tomatoes work well for this.

There you go, super easy and a great way to use up everything you have on hand.