Cooking with Addy

Another Guest Post! No, I'm not being lazy . . . I just have good friends!

2012-01-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

This post is by my friend Nichol. Nichol and I met at Indiana University during graduate school. We were in the same program and had almost every class together.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

On a roll in 2012!

I am the mother of two toddlers. One of whom is allergic to eggs, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, and red dye 40. In addition to having a daughter with food allergies, I have a brother who shares my daughter’s peanut and tree nut allergies but is also allergic to soy. It can be very challenging to come up with new recipes lacking egg, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, and red dye 40. Let alone a new recipe lacking soy and milk products.

Finding a store bought bread or roll to accommodate my brother and daughter’s allergies is almost impossible. Let’s not even talk about the taste of the products we have found. My brother sadly has resorted to rolling his hot dogs or hamburgers in what looked like a piece of paper in the shape of a tortilla. As his older sister, I needed to put a stop to this. We have successfully been making Ava and Kyle friendly bread and pizza dough so I thought there must be a tasty way to make safe rolls. After experimenting for some time, last night, New Years Eve was a successful attempt in our roll making endeavor.

2012 will now bring many occasions to use this yummy roll recipe. Bring on the family celebrations and Superbowl Sunday with hamburger sliders, meatball subs, and lunch meat subs!

Hamburger Rolls: Egg, Milk, Soy, Peanut, Tree Nut Free.
Recipe makes 6 Hamburger Rolls.
Approximate time to complete: 5 ½ hours by hand, 3 hours by bread machine

*Only you and your allergist know what ingredients are safe for you. Please be sure to check all labels. You never know where an allergen could be hiding. Last year I purchased a different brand of cinnamon than our family typically uses. As always I checked the label before pouring it into some cookie batter. The label read “may contain traces of egg.” Who would have thought traces of egg could be in cinnamon?!

Ingredients:

2 cups flour divided

1 cup warm 100F water

2 ½ tsp active dry yeast

½ cup quick cooking oats

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 ½ tsp salt

2T canola oil

Directions:

Combine 1 cup flour, water and yeast in a large glass bowl and stir well with a large plastic spoon.
Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel and let the mixture sit for 1 ½ hours.
Stir in the other cup of flour, oats, brown sugar, salt, and oil.
Place dough on lightly floured cutting board and knead for approximately 6 minutes. Adding extra flour as needed.
Place dough in a lightly greased glass bowl. Cover with a clean kitchen towel until the dough doubles in size. This will take approximately 2 hours.
Roll out dough on lightly floured cutting board.
Shape dough into 6 equal size rolls using a glass cup or cookie cutter.
Place all 6 rolls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Cover the rolls with a clean kitchen towel for approximately 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Bake rolls 20 minutes.
Cool.

*To make in the bread machine pour the water and canola oil in the bread pan first. Then add the flour, oats, brown sugar, and salt. Make a small indent with your finger and pour in the yeast making sure the yeast does not touch any of the liquid ingredients. Press the dough setting on your machine. Our bread machine dough setting runs for 1 ½ hours. Once the dough setting is complete follow above directions starting at step 6.

Christmas Fudge- Guest Post!

2011-12-15T09:05:00.000-08:00

Here is Cooking with Addy's first guest blogger! Terra Lenihan is my great friend and mother to two of Addy and Elena's best friends. Her fudge is awesome!

Christmas Fudge

Every Christmastime, one of my favorite traditions is making my mom’s famous Mexican fudge. My list of friends and family who receive our fudge each year has grown, and many people have already been asking, “Are you making your fudge this year?!” With our two boys in elementary school, our list of teacher recipients has grown, too.

Making Mexican fudge is a labor of love, requiring lots of chocolate, slow stirring and patience. In my kitchen all evening yesterday, I slowly stirred the chocolate in with the thick sweetened condensed milk, coffee (instant coffee so it dissolves nicely into the chocolate), cinnamon, and vanilla. For about 30-40 minutes on the double boiler, I stirred and stirred, watching the ingredients melt together, until finally forming a hot, oily, chocolaty mixture. After sending pictures to my mom of the process last night, I learned that she was creating the same recipe in her own California kitchen!

Melting the ingredients for the Mexican Fudge.

Liam, our first grader, is studying the rainforest and Mexico in school, so it was fun to discover that nearly all of the ingredients for Mexican fudge come right from the rainforest. We toured the tropical conservatory at the Denver Botanic Gardens last week with his class, and saw and touched cacao trees, cinnamon bark, a coffee plant, and even the distinctive orchid that creates our baking essential, vanilla bean.

Liam and classmates look up at a cacao tree at the Tropical Conservatory at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

With all of the kids in our life these days, I decided to try out a new fudge this year as well, since the flavor of the Mexican fudge is strong and, well, because I don’t want to caffeinate all of the kids. I am calling this one Pooh-bear fudge. The ingredients are simple: chocolate (I used semi-sweet but milk would work as well), peanut butter, and honey. Liam sampled the fudge this morning after it hardened overnight, and called it delicious. Keenan liked that you could really taste the peanut butter.

With both of these recipes, nuts could be added. I didn’t have any on hand this year, so I left them out, but often times I will add chopped pecans or walnuts to the Mexican fudge. Enjoy, and let us know if you try these or make any good modifications.

(Julia, I need to go on a run today since naturally I had to sample all this fudge this morning!)

Mexican Fudge

18 oz semi-sweet chocolate

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 T instant coffee

1 t ground cinnamon

1 t vanilla

½ c chopped nuts (optional)

In a heavy saucepan or double boiler, under low heat, melt the chocolate chips with the sweetened condensed milk, coffee, cinnamon, and vanilla. Using a rubber spatula, stir constantly. Remove from heat. Spread evenly onto a wax paper-lined pan. Chill for 2-3 hours, or until firm. Turn fudge onto a cutting board, and cut into squares. Store loosely covered at room temperature. Makes about 1-¾ pounds.

Pooh-bear Fudge

18 oz semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips

1 c creamy peanut butter

3/4 c honey

In a heavy saucepan or double boiler, under low heat, melt ingredients together, stirring constantly. Spread evenly into a wax paper-lined pan, and chill until firm. May also be chilled in the refrigerator. Turn fudge onto a cutting board, and cut into squares. Store loosely at room temperature. Enjoy!

Snow day dreams

2011-12-07T06:21:00.000-08:00

So I'm dreaming of summer a bit today. It's snowy and cold here and while sledding was fun this morning snow is a hassle! How many calories do you burn getting snow pants, coats, hats, mittens, socks, boots and scarves on two kids and yourself? By the time we get everyone bundled and supplied with extra mittens I'm ready to call it a day!

Thankfully, contrary to popular belief Colorado is not all cold and snow. This week it looks like the snow will stick around but soon enough I'm sure it will be pleasant again. At least it better be. And in the mean time I'll dream of summer and the fun we had in North Carolina.

We did a lot of cooking while we were there this summer. One of the things I'm anxious to make again are these gnocchi that Aunt Marie taught us how to make. These are light and yummy gnocchi. Tender bites of deliciousness. This made a really big batch because we were having lots of company but you could easily halve the recipe.

Ricotta Gnocchi
32 oz whole milk ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
dash nutmeg
extra flour for dusting
extra salt for seasoning water

At least a couple hours before you want to cook or up to a day ahead, drain ricotta cheese in strainer lined with paper towels. In a large bowl, gently mix drained ricotta, eggs, flour, salt and nutmeg. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare a cutting board with flour and a sharp knife for cutting dough. Boil a large pot of salted water. Break of workable size chunks of dough. If the dough is too sticky to work with add more flour in small amounts at a time until it is just workable. Roll into logs thumb thick and cut in bite size chunks. Prepare about a quarter of the dough and then gently add gnocchi to boiling water, stir so that they don't stick together. Boil for two minutes once the gnocchi have popped back the surface of the water. While they boil prepare the next batch. Scoop out of water and set in colander to drain. We needed to rinse ours so they didn't stick together. Repeat with dough making sure the water comes back to a boil between batches.

We served ours with a simple tomato sauce of fresh tomatoes simmered with garlic, onions, salt and a little butter and olive oil, lightly dressed greens, a chewy ciabatta garlic bread and extra Parmesan cheese. Seriously good food. Mmm, who is hungry?!

Meatless Monday

2011-12-05T17:08:00.000-08:00

Tonight the girls and I ate vegan. Roasted cauliflower and potato gnocchi. It was good, if monochromatic. We had covered most of the other colors earlier in the day. Addy picked the herbs from our pretty indoor plant and Elena helped me break up the cauliflower for roasting. We all enjoyed it, especially the roasted cauliflower which had been tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper and fresh rosemary and sage. There was extra since I roasted the whole head. I froze it for another day.
Normally I like this meal with fresh grated Parmesan cheese but since I was trying to be vegan we left that off. If I'd had toasted pine nuts they would have added a nice crunch.

Cherry Pie without Chocolate

2011-12-04T06:42:00.000-08:00

I wish I had another piece right now!


It's hard to see here, but the pie can stand up on it's own without oozing!

The hardest part of making the pie was actually deciding what recipe to use.

Since fruit pies don't usually have chocolate in them I don't make a lot of pies or even eat that much pie. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for in a good pie. But with a ~~pit~~ bit of research I think made a darn good cherry pie.

I ended up pulling the pie from three different places. The crust recipe came from here. It turned out as promised; flaky and neutral. I froze half of it to use another day.

I used the Betty Crocker Cherry Pie recipe for the cherry filling but decreased the sugar and added a dash of vanilla.

6 cups red tart cherries-mine were frozen, I defrosted in the refrigerator and let them drain.
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp vanilla

Then because I was a bit worried about how juicy the cherries were I picked a crumble topping recipe from the internet. I figured the crumble would help soak up the juice. Chad was looking for a pie that would stand up on it's own and not ooze off the crust. He also doesn't like nuts in food so this is a pretty straight forward topping. I think the crumble helped this pie meet that challenge.

1 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup cold butter
Cut together until butter is pea size or smaller.

Heat oven to 425. After the dough has chilled for 30 minutes roll to 1/4 inch thick and cut to fit pie pan. Place in pan and flute/crimp edges. Pour in cherry mixture and top with crumble. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes until crust is brown. The crumble topping browned really quickly so I laid a piece of tinfoil over it. When the crust was golden brown I turned off the oven and left the pie in the oven to cool. We served it the next day with whipped cream.

I started this pie while the girls were napping and finished while they were playing with Chad. If they had been around to help they could have rolled the pie dough, stirred the cherries and sprinkled the crumble.

You have to be nice to me, I'm your sister

2011-12-02T06:49:00.000-08:00

This morning Elena pulled Addy's hair and then a few minutes later she hit her with the remote. I helped them hug and make up and now they are making nests from the pillows. Addy says to Elena, "Elena you have to be nice to me. I'm you're sister, I've taught you how to walk, how to crawl, how to talk. I've even taught you how to cook. You have to be nice to me." Then Addy tells me that when she grows up she's going to name her blog Cooking with Addy, Elena, Mommy, Daddy and Suka. How's that for a URL?

Trends

2011-12-01T13:12:00.000-08:00

I don't consider myself trendy and I am ok with that. I embrace the fact that I'm kind of a dork. But I got pretty excited when I saw that we hit two food trends (as noticed by Epicurious.com) with our Thanksgiving meal.

2012 Food Trends See Cuisine and Cooking at Home

What do you think about these food trends?

Favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner

2011-11-30T08:15:00.000-08:00

Addy's class shared their favorite parts of Thanksgiving dinner at school yesterday. They each brought something to share for snack. Addy brought papadum, coriander chutney, tamarind and date chutney, and some of the cranberry chutney that we had made together. What was your favorite part of your meal?

Yellow Rice

2011-11-29T11:55:00.000-08:00

Chad loves yellow ~~snow~~ rice. Sometimes we call it fried rice but to me that conjures up Chinese flavors. The yellow rice he made for our Thanksgiving focused more on the Indian flavors. It's an easy side dish for lots of meals. Last night we served the left overs (which had been frozen and reheated in the microwave) to friends with ham and the left over sweet potato masala. It went over pretty well with all the kids (even the pickier eaters).
I cooked a bunch of plain white rice in the rice cooker. Chad melted some ghee in the wok and then stirfried about 1/2 cup chopped onions. He added 1 tsp of turmeric and 1 tsp of crushed coriander seeds and salt to taste. Then he stirred in the rice. Easy-peasy. Sometimes we add peas or an egg. Sometimes we use sesame oil or soy sauce for flavors. Either way it's a favorite around here.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-27T13:27:00.000-08:00

Mmm, a brownie on my left, champagne on my right (tea steeping in the kitchen). Football on in the next room. Girls napping. I think I'll take this peaceful moment to record what a great Thanksgiving dinner we made.

Menu:
Fried turkey
Sweet potato masala
Saag Paneer

Yellow Rice
Roti
Papadum
Cranberry Chutney
Various store bought chutneys and pickles

We fried a fresh local turkey that I purchased at Herb's Meat. The day before I soaked it and two chickens in a brine of ginger, cloves, allspice, brown sugar, black pepper, salt, vegetable broth and water.

Also on Wednesday I made the paneer. Heat 1/2 gallon whole milk to just boiling. Remove from heat. Add 3 TBL of fresh lemon juice. Stir gently as curds and whey separate. The whey will be light yellowish and the curds will be white and tender. Let sit about ten minutes and then poor into a strainer lined with cheese cloth. I save the whey for baking but you can compost it if you'd rather. Once cool and drained gather the paneer into a disc by pulling the corners of the cheese cloth in and wrapping in the ends around the cheese. Compress between two plates in the refrigerator. I weighed it down with a jar of milk but use whatever works for you. You can eat it fresh or the next day. I don't know how long it lasts because we always eat it right up!

Also on Wednesday I made the cranberry chutney. I used this recipe. The only thing I changed was I left out the raisins and 2 Tbls more sugar to make up for their sweetness. I used an equal amount of apple to onion. It is so good that Addy picked it as her favorite part of the meal.

Thanksgiving day we dried the birds and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Chad fried the chickens together for 3 1/2 minutes a lb. Then he did the turkey. Moist and delicious. After the chickens cooled I put them in freezer bags in the freezer. We'll eat them later by defrosting in the refrigerator over night and then heating gently in the oven.

I made the sweet potato masala by peeling a bunch of sweet potatoes and chopping them into bite size pieces. I simmered these in a jar of Patak's butter chicken sauce that I bought at My India's. I picked the butter chicken sauce because the ingredients listed seemed close to the flavors I taste in my favorite sweet potato masala at Yak and Yeti in Westminster. It was a decent match but not perfect. I'll have to experiment with it some more.

I made the saag paneer by cooking about 10 oz of washed spinach in boiling water for about two minutes. Use a frying pan for this. Drain and reserve 1/2 cup cooking water. Using a food processor or blender, puree the spinach and set aside. In the same apparatus (no need to wash) chop one small onion, one large or two small tomatoes, 1 inch ginger, chopped, 1 seeded hot pepper, 1 1/2 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp salt and the reserved cooking water. In the pan you used to cook the spinach heat about a 1 T. spoon of ghee or oil. Toast 2 tsp of cumin in the hot oil for until a shade darker. Pour in the onion/tomato mixture and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the spinach and 1/4 cup heavy cream, stir until combined and warm. Cut the paneer in to bite size chunks. Gently stir into saag.

I will have to share our recipe for yellow rice another day. The girls are up!

Right before eating we prepared the roti and papadum that I bought at My India's. Both heated up nicely on a hot dry skillet.

Brine ingredients

Yum!

Kitchen Helpers

2011-10-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

New playground area at the Denver Zoo,

We're busy these days. The weather has stayed beautiful and pleasant well into October so I've been keeping the girls outside as much as they'll take! Friday we went to the pumpkin patch, Monday the zoo.

The view from the Rock Creek Pumpkin Patch was gorgeous.

This weekend is Addy's birthday. So excited! Part of my prep is to clean out the refrigerator so I'll have room for party treats. That means tonight's dinner is a big salad and grilled cheese sandwiches. We'll have roasted beets, carrots, a cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and fresh herbs on the salad. I'll toss in some left over brown rice too. I have a loaf of whole wheat/spelt french bread from Udi's that I bought on clearance for $2.09! I suppose it was on clearance because it was getting old but grilling it will take any staleness away.

When I plan supper I also like to think ahead to what the girls can do to help so tonight in addition to setting the table (even baby Elena can carry some silverware to the table) they'll pick the herbs, spin the lettuce, mix the toppings together, and put the sandwiches together. If they still need a task Addy likes to illustrate a menu to go along with our meals and Elena likes to wash dishes.

Oh, it gets messy. But she loves it.

Saturday = Project Day

2011-09-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy day and it's only 1:45. The girls are napping and I'm making chimichurri.

Earlier today Addy and I pressed grapes to make grape juice. Tomorrow we'll make it in to jelly. Chad sanded and re-stained our gnome and the picnic table.

And most importantly we taught Addy to ride her bike without training wheels!!

Rolling in Dough

2011-09-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

It's peach season! Probably getting close to the end of it too. But they've been delish this year. Last weekend Terra and I had a peach pie bake off! It was fun to get together and share food that we had both worked hard on with our families. Terra won with her yummy peach pie with a crumble topping!

I made a fairly traditional pie with an all butter crust. It was pretty yummy and flaky. The girls had a good time rolling out the extra dough. Then we sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar and baked it along with the pie. Yummy, crispy cinnamony buttery goodness.

Since my pie was not the winning recipe I will share a different recipe with you.

We made dinner "to go" for a friend who came by for a play date this week and she reported back that her family loved the rolls we made. I adapted this from the recipe for oatmeal bread in the Oster User Manual and Bread Recipes pamphlet that came with my bread maker.

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Rolls
1 1/4 cups water
3 T. honey
2 T. butter
3/4 cup oats
1 3/4 tsp. salt
3 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 T. oat bran
2 T. dry milk
2 tsp yeast

I did it on dough setting in the bread maker. We threw the ingredients into the bread maker before we went out to Paul Derda for playground time and lunch. The dough sat for a few hours before Addy and I shaped them after nap. I let them rise in the oven for about 30 minutes after we had shaped them. I brushed them with egg and sprinkled with sesame seeds then baked at 350 for 25 mins. This makes about 16 rolls. You can also shape all of your rolls onto two pans. Freeze one pan and bake the other. Once the rolls are frozen, pop them off the pan and put them in a freezer safe bag. Then they are ready for another day. Just take out the number that you need, place them on a pan a couple of hours before you want to bake them. They will defrost quickly.

Addy's Fruit Parfaits

2011-08-29T13:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we walked over to the "Purple Park" by the Mamie Doud Library. Healthy Learning Paths was hosting the 2011 Children's Wellness Adventure. Addy especially enjoyed the bike rodeo. Elena enjoyed the hula hoops and I enjoyed the back massage I got at the Chiropractor's booth.

Addy rides through a obstacle course, following street signs. Broomfield Police Officer was on hand to guide and teach.

Elena tries hula hooping. She heard it is good exercise, but she needs her Bammer to show her how it's done.

Other booths included the Kiwansis, Rotary, CASA, a family mental health practioner, Higgy's Ice Cream (one of our new favs). Each booth had something for the kids to do and lots of information for the adults too. The event was listed for $5 a family but when I registered I was told I didn't have to pay. The girls each got t-shirts and some nice healthy breakfast type snacks.
Maybe next year Terra and I will have a Green Bee booth!
At one of the booths Addy got to make a yogurt parfait. Here is the recipe in her words:
You get bananas and granola. And then some blueberries, raspberries, and peaches and some strawberries and then you cut them. Put some chopped fruit in a cup. Then you put the yogurt on first and then the granola. Then you put some more chopped fruit on top of the yogurt and granola.

Sweet things

2011-08-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

We have been having a good week hosting Molly's sister Kelly. She is walking across the United States and has stopped here to visit and gear up for the trek across the Rockies. We picked her up from Boulder on Tuesday.

Wednesday, seeking adventure and an escape from the heat we headed to Hammond's Candy Factory in Denver. It was only a 15 minute drive from here and the free tour included and nice size free sample. Addy has been asking how lollipops are made so it was a timely trip to answer her questions. We were able to watch hot sugar being poured onto the cooling tables and workers wrapping candy on to the sticks for lollipops. They make beautiful hard candy as well as their own caramels and chocolates. I liked the Mitchell Candy which is a handmade marshmallow wrapped in caramel.

I think we could have been happy with our samples but we did a little shopping too.

As a regular practice we try not to eat much candy. Lately I have been enjoying homemade granola as a healthy yet sweet snack. Both girls can help with the mixing and pouring parts of this recipe. This recipe came from my mom but I change it every time based on what I have on hand.

3 1/2 cups oatmeal
1/2 wheat germ
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 T cinnamon
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

Mix dry ingredients together in a 9x13 in metal pan. Drizzle with oil and honey. Bake at 375
for 45 minutes. Stir every 15 minutes until toasty and golden brown. Stir in dried fruit while still warm. Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. We enjoy it over plain yogurt with fresh fruit.

Earthquakes

2011-08-24T13:18:00.000-07:00

We didn't feel the earthquake Monday night. But it was one of those this to shall pass nights, where I'm exhausted but morning can't come soon enough. The girls went to bed just fine and I stayed up watching a little Intervention on A&E. Around 9:30 I shut everything off and went to bed. At 1:30 I awoke to the voice of the BBC playing on the computer, that I had turned off. Do you think the earthquake shook it on? Then at three o'clock I'm poked awake out of a deep sleep by Addy asking me the time. I snap at her and she goes back to bed. I stay awake feeling guilty for snapping at her. By four I'm asleep again but she's back poking me and wondering if it is time to get up. I let her get in bed with me, then I lay awake pondering how I can get her to stop this nonsense. At 5 Elena wakes up to nurse. I didn't even try to fall asleep again.

Not our best night. Naps were pretty sweet though.

I did figure out away to help Addy though. She now has two clocks beside her bed. One that sings her to sleep and turns yellow when we set it for daytime. It is analog and hard for her to read at this point. The other little clock is digital and I've taught her that if the first number is a 5 she may get up and quietly get in bed with us. If the first number is a 6 she can get up, also at 6 her analog clock turns yellow. Any other number she should be asleep and not get out of bed. This morning she lasted until 5:30 before getting in bed with me.

Playing Peek a boo vs. Blogging

2011-08-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

I was going to blog . . . but playing peek-a-boo with a warm snuggling baby won.

A quick visual of what I did manage to get done before the snuggle woke up.

Mise en place for Chimichurri

Roasted corn, sliced off the cob, sauteed with butter and sweet onion.

cilantro, parsley, tomatillo, tomato and Serrano pepper to add to sauteed corn

On the menu for the night: skirt steak with chimichurri, sauteed corn, fresh bread, and lots of baby kisses.

Would you like some Chimichurri?

2011-07-26T11:19:00.000-07:00

We've spent all of July in North Carolina at my parents beautiful new house. We've done lots of hiking swimming and adventuring.

We've also made some pretty great food. Friday afternoon Mom and Dad took off to Asheville to pick Marie up from the airport, leaving Ben, his friends Chris and Dana, me and the girls here to hang out and play with the expectation that we would also cook dinner.

We made the best steak dinner I've had in a while. Fresh green beans, baked potatoes, rolls, NY strip steak, chimichurri and some pretty darn tasty wines.

Addy found eight potatoes, washed them, poked them with a fork and then arranged them in the cold oven. Think of all the skills she was building; counting, one to one correspondence, fine motor skills, spacial relationships, verbal skills and a sense of responsibility.

Yummy ciabatta rolls arranged by Addy to warm in the oven just before serving.


Uncle Ben mans the grill. He rubbed these with salt, papper and oil before grilling to medium rare. We let them rest about 10 minutes before serving.

And now for the best part of the meal--the chimichurri. Chimichurri is a green sauce from Argentina. It can be used as a marinade or dipping sauce. We used it as a dipping sauce for the meat and bread.

Ben had had this with a friend earilier in the week and came up with this recipe based on that experience and a little googling.

1 bunch parsley
1 bunch cilantro
1 handful fresh oregano
8 cloves garlic
1 wedge lemon
1/2 onion
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp black pepper
5/8 tsp

Roughly chop herbs and add to blender or food processor with peeled garlic, chopped onion, salt and pepper. Squeeze lemon over all and blend while adding oil and vinegar. Chill for about an hour before serving. Serves 6-8.

Getting ready for the blender dance.

Helping Uncle Ben put the chimichuri in a bowl for the fridge.

Two words: Yum! Yum!


Chris and Dana, friends, meal collaborators and photographers, seen here with the wine: A red with Susana in its name and a white by Quattro Mani. Both very good.

Wednesday

2011-05-25T12:36:00.000-07:00

I don't read a lot of blogs but I have noticed on some that they pick themes for the days of the week; like meatless Monday or Wordless Wednesday. I ran across one yesterday that had a Worms for Wednesday theme. I'm haven't been able to pick one for myself but have several ideas for today.

WOW! Museum Wednesday:

I wish they were both looking at the camera! Elena especially enjoyed herself there today.

Worm Watching Wednesday:

Can you see the big fat worm by Addy's hand? We rescued it from the sidewalk during our bike ride/jog this morning.

Or perhaps Whole Wheat Wednesday:

We made a really tasty whole wheat corn bread last night. I put the dry ingredients together and got the pan ready while the girls napped. After nap we had a play date and returned home just in time for Addy to crack a couple of eggs and stir in the milk and butter.

I love sweet moist cornbread and have always made it with white flour. I tried this recipe yesterday though and was completely surprised at how well it turned out. It was still light and moist even with whole wheat flour and fairly coarse stone ground corn meal. Chad didn't ask if it was different and both of the girls ate it right up. There are a couple variations on the recipe. I used melted butter, regular milk and brown sugar.

Juggling with Kids

2011-05-23T19:42:00.000-07:00

I think I should rename my blog. It isn't just Addy anymore and we are up to a lot more than cooking these days. Although cooking does factor into our days quite frequently.

Addy woke up Saturday morning asking to have all of her preschool classmates over plus several other friends. Unable to pull off such a party at short notice I attempted to pacify her with a long family walk, Home Depot and Taco Bell (!) with Daddy, and an after nap trip to the Butterfly Pavilion.

Not to be dissuaded, Sunday morning, she awoke with the same request. I put her off again with a planned swimming date and an afternoon bike ride.

Ever persistent, I knew what to expect Monday morning. I emailed a bunch of friends. We ended up with 8 kids and 5 moms, including us. As one mom said, "Addy is getting her mega playdate."

Partly in their honor and partly because we didn't eat very many bananas last week we made some mini banana muffins this morning. Addy and I had just started when Elena woke up from her very short morning nap. So I popped her in the sling and we continued.

I took this picture with my phone with Elena in the sling.

We stuffed our incomplete mixture in the fridge while we rode the bike and bike trailer to a La Leche League meeting and had a picnic lunch. We finished them off when we got back. The muffins turned out just fine despite the rest and the fact that I let Addy measure the sugar completely by herself.

Addy made the muffin on the left for Elena and the one on the right for herself.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-09-22T07:51:00.000-07:00

They are so proud of the peanut butter Gingerbread Man we made Monday.

Cooking for Addy

2010-09-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

The weather was cool enough by dinner time to enjoy our new picnic table without be harassed by yellow jackets.

Of course, cooking with Addy often looks a lot more like cooking for Addy. Making dinner has become a balancing act of timing Elena's naps, the wishes of an active creative preschooler and my desire to put good quality fresh homemade food on the table.
Weekends are easier since Chad is home to grill or otherwise take over cooking. Saturday we had a busy morning watching the Broomfield Days parade and then spent the afternoon watching Nebraska beat Washington. Elena, at 7 weeks, really likes to be held so my hands were busy in the late afternoon and Addy was keeping Chad hopping as they planted a few new plants around the yard. Chad was going to grill the chicken but I needed to come up with some sides.

I got Elena settled in the Ergo which gave me just enough time to thin slice a few potatoes, half an onion, and a couple of cloves of garlic. I folded these into two foil packets topped with butter, salt, pepper and a couple of sprigs of rosemary. (I love the smell of rosemary and Addy loves to pick it from the garden.)

Chad grilled the packets along side the chicken for about 30 minutes over indirect heat. The potatoes were soft and yet just enough browned to have good texture and flavor and Addy was proud to taste the rosemary she had contributed.

These packets could have been prepared earlier in the afternoon or even prepared in advance of a camping trip. I think the potatoes might discolor if done earlier but as far as I know that doesn't change the flavor.

What are your favorite combinations and tips for grilled foil packets?

Twice in one week!

2010-09-17T18:55:00.000-07:00

Can you believe I'm blogging again this week! Amazing.

What's really amazing is that, after taking an almost two month hiatus, Addy is napping again. She heads to her bed happily and easily now and sleeps for over an hour. Elena also seems to enjoy a good long afternoon snooze. This gives me time to straighten up the house and sit down and relax with a nice cup of tea.

Lately I've been enjoying fair trade loose leaf organic Earl Grey from Arbor Teas with local honey and milk. Arbor Tea says their packaging is backyard compostable. I'll let you know in a couple of months if the bag is still in our pile or not.

Earlier this week Addy, Keenan and I made a quick and delicious semi healthy cookie that you see above on my snack plate. These fruit and oat squares are quick and kid friendly to make and good enough to take with you or serve if you have short notice on a potluck or play date. We used whole wheat flour and raspberry jam that we made last fall. Addy is in love with sprinkles so they decorated the crumb topping with sprinkles.

1 cup flour
1 cup oats (it called for quick oats but I only had regular ones)
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/3 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup apricot, cherry or other fruit flavor preserves

1. Preheat oven to 350. Grease 9 inch square baking pan.
2. Combine dry ingredients then stir in melted butter until crumbly.
3. Take out 3/4 cup crumb mixture and set aside. Press remaining mixture into prepared pan. Bake 5-7 minutes. Spread preserves on crust and then sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture.
4. Bake 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Cool completely before cutting into 16 squares.

This recipe is from Silly Snacks, Classroom Treats, and Cookie Dough Fun. We haven't done a lot of cooking out of it but is does have some really cute ideas if that is what you are looking for. The recipes definitely lean more towards cute than healthy.

Back with Bran

2010-09-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

Cooking with Adelina has changed quite a bit over the past months. Not only was our life busier but the exhaustion of pregnancy had me napping rather than cooking or blogging. We did plenty of cooking and baking during the months not accounted for here but it was many of our tried and true recipes that have already made the blog and the imputus to document and write up new recipes has just not been there for me. Now that baby Elena has arrived and we begin to settle into the routine of a family of four I plan to update this site more often.

I have found that as Addy has grown more independent, she has been less likely to follow my suggestions of activities in the kitchen. But perhaps as fall and winter keep us indoors more we'll pick up our cooking.
Last Wednesday we made a fall inspired Apple Bran muffins from Mothering.com. We didn't add the seeds/nuts and substituted part water for the apple juice. They lasted well in the fridge and taste best fresh out of the oven or toasted with butter.

Addy ate every bit of this yummy lunch.

Addy wants to do more and more of the measuring and pouring on her own.

Although her accuracy is not great she handles a small broom and dustpan well. As she has gotten older I find it important to include her in the clean up as well as the fun parts of mixing and tasting.

The apples were from our tree and we're using local organic flour.

It has been too long!

2010-01-12T06:58:00.000-08:00

It has been quite a while since I posted. We've been doing plenty of cooking but I've also been enjoying the first trimester of pregnancy which means that I NEED SLEEP. My blogging time is usually Addy's nap or bedtime. Lately I've been needing to sleep during those times too. I'm far enough along now that I'm feeling a bit more balanced so I'm going to try to do more frequent updating.

Yesterday was Monday so here is a quick meatless meal that we've been enjoying lately. Gnocchi with roasted cauliflower. We still have sage in our garden and even though it is is basically dried on the branches now it still has nice flavor to add. Addy enjoyed helping me break the cauliflower up into bite size bits and adding the salt and pepper. She ate a lot of the raw cauliflower as she was breaking it up. I was glad to see that since I really don't enjoy it raw and last time she tried it she didn't either. It's wonderful to see her so willing to try foods again and maybe change her mind about them.

We had a great time traveling to my parents house over the holidays and visiting with friends. Here's a great picture taken by my brother of Addy and Chad sledding. I'm just helping them get started down the hill.