Smelling Famous

I saw a quick strawberry sauce recipe in a magazine recently, but I couldn't find the article when I needed it this past weekend. We had a surplus of strawberries from the farmers market with a limited shelf life and I recalled the basic principle behind the recipe: Clean, simmer, add some maple syrup and cornstarch. This may be the year of winging recipes for me.

Since breakfast around here is only "fancy" on the weekends, it felt pretty special to make waffles AND cook a sauce on the stovetop. However, as I cooked the sauce on the stove my son walked by and commented, "Wow, that sauce smells famous." With that kind of ringing endorsement, this sauce is worth the extra pot to clean.

Quick and Easy Strawberry Sauce

2 cups washed and hulled strawberries
2 Tbls. maple syrup (adjust depending on the sweetness of your strawberries)
1/2 Tbls. corn starch

In a pot combine strawberries and maple syrup and turn on the heat to medium-high. As it starts to bubble, add cornstarch and mash the strawberries with a fork to break them down a bit (I like it chunky). Let it simmer for about 3 minutes or till thickened. Transfer to a bowl and let it cool.

This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of sauce. In addition to our weekend waffles, I used it as a topping on Greek yogurt and also just ate it by the spoonful. It lasted less than six hours in this house, but maybe you can make it last longer in your home.

Rainbow Carnival Cupcakes

I may not be the mom who picks up and drops off their kid every day at school.

I may not be the mom who is the first to reply back on email about bringing in a classroom drink or treat.

I may not be the mom who chaperones every field trip.

I may not be the mom who remembers to coordinate an outfit for Twin Day at school.

I may not be the mom who collects money from everyone to buy a teacher appreciation gift.

But I am the mom who spent her Friday night up to her armpits in food coloring and frosting so her son could bring rainbow cupcakes to the annual school festival.

Behold the Rainbow Carnival Cupcake with enough food dye in the frosting to put a leprechaun into a coma. Frosting recipe can be found here.

Dinners for April 29 - May 5, 2012

Sunday:  Game of Thrones potluck with friends (I brought cheese tortellini tossed with peas, butter and parm for the kids and a side of sautéed carrots and sugar snap peas in a honey glaze)

Monday: Grilled sausages with Panzanella salad (half this recipe)

Tuesday:  Turkey burgers and sweet potato fries

Wednesday: Pesto Pasta

Thursday: Roasted salmon with yogurt mustard dill sauce and green beans

Friday: Homemade pizza

Saturday: TBD - It's a busy day with soccer games and tennis matches

A Kid-Free Afternoon

 
This past weekend my husband and I realized we had commitments on opposite ends of the Bay and a handyman to let in to the house at the same time. I stayed home to let the handyman in and my husband took the kids for an afternoon with the grandparents in the wine country.Which left me with four glorious hours alone in the house.


I don't know about you, but when I am alone in the house the first thing I want to do is bake in the kitchen ALONE.  Don't get me wrong, I love sharing the time in the kitchen with my kids, but it takes a lot of work and patience and it isn't always *that much* fun. Only recently did I stop having heart palpitations when my kids wanted to help in the kitchen. The combination of mess + danger + disregard of measurements made me want to pull my hair out. 

The handyman was downstairs fixing a window that was broken by our strong-armed six year old and I immediately turned the oven on. I knew what I wanted to make: A chocolate, brownie-like cookie with walnuts. I went through my usual recipes but nothing was looking like what I wanted. A quick Google search yielded exactly what I had been looking for: A fluffy, chocolate-y, walnut studded cookie created by Love From the Oven. I quickly assembled the ingredients and got to work. These cookies come together quickly and sweet lord, the batter should be illegal, it's SO good. I could barely keep my hands out of the bowl and I made short order of the ones that made it out of the oven.

No kids = no sharing required!

After I cleaned up the kitchen I got to work on an overdue sewing project. My remaining two hours of freedom were spent making this beauty

Decades of Style "Protect and Serve" Apron #5005

                                                                    With this fabric

Robert Kaufman's "Effervescense"

I still have a little more to go on the apron (photos to come eventually), but it felt good to recharge my batteries doing things that I love, even if my kids weren't around.

Necessity is the Mother of Substitution

"Sawry!!"

Remember the scene in the 'Great Muppet Caper' when Fozzie is going over his checklist as the gang prepares to catch the thieves who were plotting to steal the Baseball Diamond? The conversation went like this:

Fozzie: Frisbee?

Spencer: It's lost

Fozzie: Wax lips?

Floyd: Man I just had 'em

Fozzie: Yo-yo?

Janice: Fer sure

Fozzie: Peanut butter?

Floyd: Animal ate it.

Animal: Saw-ry!

This was the scene in my kitchen this evening as I started to make Soba noodles with Peanut Sauce for dinner. I *thought* we had peanut butter but my husband apparently put the jar back in the fridge with about two tablespoons left inside. I considered throwing a Monster-like tantrum, but necessity is the mother of substitution, so I scanned the fridge and pulled out a long forgotten jar of almond butter. Invoking my best Tim "This Concerns Me" Gunn, I made it work.

I used to be the kind of person where if I didn't have exactly what was called for in the recipe, I would abandon ship immediately. If the recipe called for red peppercorns, I scoured every spice store on the Internet looking for them. If a recipe called for dried porcini mushrooms, I was calling every Consentino's in the tri-state area - it seriously never occurred to me to use fresh porcini mushrooms. I just didn't know how to wing it. 

But I've upped my game in the past few years and can say that an empty jar of peanut butter wasn't going to slow me down. I just made do with what I had and it turned out pretty good. The sauce was a little thinner than I wanted, so next time I won't add so much water.

Loving: A New Client's Office Location

I could barely contain my enthusiasm when I drove up to a new client's office and noticed that they were conveniently located right next to a Whole Foods grocery store. I know this may seem about as exciting as learning that the library loans out books for free, but for a working mom who doesn't mind spending her lunch hour trolling aisles of Whole Foods, this was a god send. As I rode up in the elevator I whipped out my phone and edited my grocery list and menu for the week. Right there on the spot!

As I left my client's office after our meeting,  he said, "Well, I hope we'll see you around here again soon." Let me tell you, it took all the effort in the world to not force him to commit to weekly meetings with me just so I can get real in the Whole Foods parking lot.

Cracking the Quiche Code

I have always been envious of amazing food presentation, especially when it comes to food targeted towards children. The first food book I received at my baby shower back in 2005 was Annabel Karmel's First Meals. Unfortunately this book sets the bar pretty high in terms of food presentation.

 
Along with my shower guests, I ogled and swooned over the adorable pictures of food. I was 8 months pregnant at the time and was pretty sure it'd be really easy to make dishes likes these to entice my child to eat.

Definitely assembled by someone who doesn't have kids

It's the movie 'Heathers' in burger form

Just another example of how unrealistic I was before I had children. Completely, utterly, hopelessly delusional.

When my son was old enough to eat food that wasn't pureed and I was back at work , it became apparent that I didn't have time to form his food into the shape of a caterpillar or a butterfly. I needed him to eat the same food as us. But for another year I was stuck in the pasta rut and dutifully served him some kind of pasta practically every day. It was my own mother who gave me the (obvious) advice and said, "Stop serving him pasta. Give him the same dinners that you eat. He will come around." I took her advice a step further and put cottage cheese on the table as a peace offering. I didn't anticipate World War III at the dinner table, but sadly it started out that way.

One day I made my mother-in-law's spinach feta quiche for dinner and I stood at the kitchen counter and stared at it. How was I going to serve this to a 3 year old? How could anyone in their right mind expect a preschooler to willingly eat quiche, for goodness sake? This was asking too much.

But then inspiration hit. I scooped up the quiche filling, tossed it with hot pasta and placed it infront of him with no pleading, no encouraging words and no explanation.

He looked at the dish in front of him and then looked at my husband and I, trying to make sense of what was in front of him. I didn't want to look at him (remember Happy Fun Ball?), so I stared at a speck on the wall and my husband tried to look distracted while polishing a fork. He took a bite. And another bite. And another bite. And then proceeded to eat the entire bowl...which was the equivalent of two slices of quiche with 1/2 cup of pasta.

A quiche fan was born and I am proud to report that he now eats quiche by the slice with no "slight of pasta" required. But the trick still works like a charm with my 2 year old. I feel like I cracked the quiche code with my kids.

So the moral of this story is to think outside of the quiche. I can't say serving your child quiche is a great idea, but try serving it mixed with or along side a familiar food is the way to go.