Remy can’t even fix this one. But maybe you can!

Who here has seen Ratatouille? Today’s flop-turned-okay lunch reminded me of the scene where Chef Skinner tries to set Linguine up for failure by giving him a dud of a recipe. Remy made it the most amazing thing at Gusteau’s in years; I just made mine edible.

I started with a recipe I found in Parenting magazine for Sesame Chicken Salad that looked promising. It had an Asian-inspired peanut sauce… that ended up tasting like peanut-butter-sandwich pasta. Gross.

I doctored it up to edibility, but I could use your help!

• 8 oz. pasta that you let your kid pick out to get them excited about trying something new
• 1 cup snow peas
• 1 cup shredded cooked chicken
• 2 carrots, sliced thinly into coins (if serving cold, just grate them & serve them raw in  the pasta)
• scant 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp. reduced-sodium soy sauce
• 2 tsp. sesame oil
• 2 tsp. cider vinegar
• pinch ginger

1. Cook the pasta as directed. Add the carrot coins to the boiling water 4 minutes before the pasta is done, & the snow peas 1 minute before. Drain. (If serving cold, rinse under cold water.)
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a large bowl. It may not incorporate entirely; the hot pasta will help melt the peanut butter.
3. Mix everything well & top with sesame seeds & thinly sliced scallions, if desired.

Okay, team: what can we do to make this good but still kid-friendly? My first thought was red pepper flakes, but The Munchkin can’t take the heat.

Thanks for your help!

Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies.

I don’t think I’d ever made peanut butter cookies before last night. But for some reason, I just had to have them.

Fortunately for both you & me, I had pinned a recipe from Make and Takes a couple months ago. Theirs calls for Reese’s Pieces, but I didn’t have those (& besides, I don’t love them — Reese’s must always be peanut butter cups for me), so I tweaked it a little to get these melt-in-your-mouth beauties:

I know, right? Delicious.

• 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I’m a Skippy girl; what kind do you love?)
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar, plus more for rolling (if you have sanding sugar, roll them in that & they’ll be even more sparkly & delicious!)
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda

1. Preheat your oven to 350 & line a cookie sheet with parchment or a sil-pat liner.
2. “Cream” the peanut butter & sugars together until smooth in your mixer. (Or by hand if you’re awesomer than me.)
3. Add egg & vanilla; mix well. Blend in salt & soda.
4. Pour some sugar onto a small plate or into a pie tin.
5. Spoon out approx. 1 Tbsp. of dough & roll it between your palms into a ball. Roll the ball in the sugar until well coated.
6. Place the ball on your prepared cookie sheet & then flatten gently with your palm into about a 2- to 2 1/2-inch circle.
7. Repeat with remaining dough. Mine made 14 cookies, so I had to get creative with placement.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until just turning golden brown around the edges. Centers will be soft.
9. Allow to cool on the sheet for 2 minutes, then cool on wire rack.

Dairy-free | Soy-free | Gluten-free

So yummy! Just be warned: they’re a little on the crumbly side, so hypothetically speaking, you may not want to feed one to your 2-year-old in her car seat on the way home from the beach, because you’ll probably need to break out the vacuum when you get home. Hypothetically. (No proof of the crumbly chaos — aside from the crumbs themselves — because I didn’t have my camera. My new phone’s going to have a good camera & a data plan, I’ve decided.)

As seen on Alli-n-Son.

I’m guest posting over at Alli-n-Son today!

Head over there to check out the fun edible covered wagons I made with The Munchkin to teach her about the pioneers!

Please leave her a friendly comment. I hope to see you there!

Orange-Braised Pork Chops with Spinach Orange Salad.

I can officially call myself a housewife: I have now cooked pork chops.

That were ridiculously on sale.

In my slow-cooker, even!

It was an interesting meal, too: The Munchkin was tired & hungry & didn’t stop screaming the entire time. She also didn’t eat a single bite of pork chop or orange. Dinner for her was a peanut butter sandwich & like 2 bites of strawberries. Eh, well, you win some, you lose some. We thought the chops tasted delicious! My Husband The Skeptical was completely won over, even though he generally doesn’t think meat should be cooked with fruit; the orange zest isn’t detectable in the taste of the finished product.

This is another one from The New Slow Cooker. You really need to get this book. Like, really. I’ve posted my alcohol-free version (no cooking wine). Also, I have to be honest: their salad dressing was super bitter. So I’ve included the tastier orange vinaigrette dressing I like, from Better Homes & Gardens.

• 6 bone-in pork loin chops, each about 1 1/2 inches thick
• salt & pepper
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 large shallots, halved & thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 Tbsp. red or white wine vinegar (it calls for white; I used red)
• zest of 2 oranges (reserve oranges for salad below)

1. Season chops generously on both sides with salt & pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Sear chops until golden brown on both sides, working in batches if there are too many. Remove to a plate.
3. Pour off most of the fat from the pan. Return it to medium heat. Add shallots & garlic; saute until just beginning to brown.
4. Pour in broth to deglaze the pan. Stir in vinegar, zest, 1/2 tsp. salt, & several shakes or grinds of pepper.
5. Pour pan contents into bottom of slow cooker. Stack chops on top.
6. Cover & cook on low 7 hours. (I only made 2 chops & they were done after less than 6.) Chops will be tender.
7. Place one chop on each plate to serve. Drizzle some of the braising liquid over each chop. Add salad, below, & serve.

Spinach Orange Salad (with BHG dressing)

• oranges from above
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. orange juice
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 tsp. dry mustard
• baby spinach

1. Segment oranges: Use a sharp chef’s knife to slice off the top & bottom of the fruit so you see the flesh.
2. Follow the contour of the orange to slice off strips of skin & pith, revealing the fruit on all sides.
3. Slice wedges out of the orange, between the membranes if you can. (I found a navel orange to be a little “sloppy” on the segmentation…) Cut into smaller pieces, if desired. Set aside.
4. In a jar with a lid, or a Tupperware, combine vinegar, juice, oil, sugar, & mustard. Cover & shake well. (Your kids will love helping with this step!)
5. Mound spinach onto plates, top with a few orange segments each, then drizzle with salad dressing.

Do you have a certain “housewife” dish you’ve never made either? Confession time: my other one is lasagna! Any recipe suggestions for that one?

 

Slow-cooked roast with carrots.

I may or may not still be avoiding using my oven. So here’s another slow cooker recipe for you!

I saw this recipe months ago over at Talkin’ Chow, Playin’ House, but never found a roast on sale enough to merit trying it.

Until now!

Now, this is definitely comfort food, so I wouldn’t blame you for waiting to try this until it cools off. It definitely seemed odd to me, seeing this out my window (we have a nature preserve right behind us, & it’s so humid that the windows fog up every morning) & then tossing a big, hearty roast into the Crock Pot. It’s a jungle out there! Literally! But oven vendettas are stronger than heat & humidity.

Whenever you do decide to give it a try, I promise you that you won’t be sorry. My only suggestion would be to season your roast more generously than the Martha recipe suggests (Yes! Even she isn’t perfect sometimes! There is hope for the rest of us!), because the beef tasted bland in comparison to the AWESOME carrots.

• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (a little more if you want a thicker gravy at the end)
• 2 Tbsp. cold water (or stock, if you’ve got a container already open; I used chicken broth)
• 2 lbs. carrots, peeled & cut into thirds
• 2 medium onions, each cut into 8 wedges
• 3-lb. beef chuck or rump roast, fat trimmed
• 2 Tbsp. (plus a splash) Worcestershire
• salt & pepper, or seasoning of choice (I think a Steakhouse Seasoning grinder would do a fabulous job)

1. Stir together cornstarch & water (or stock) in bottom of slow cooker until smooth, using a non-scratching utensil.
2. Add carrots & onion to slow cooker. Season with salt & pepper; toss to combine.
3. Season both sides of roast generously. Place on top of vegetables. Drizzle with Worcestershire.
4. Cook on high 6 hours or low for 10 hours.
5. When finished, slice thinly against the grain. (If you can! Mine was so tender it just shredded. Not the worst problem to have, right?)
6. Place meat & veggies in a serving dish, then drizzle with the gravy & serve. Or serve the gravy on the side. (I found there wasn’t enough of it for the latter.) Yum!

Get Your Craft On Tuesdays

There’s always money in the banana stand… (wink wink)

These frozen bananas bring back memories of Balboa Island bananas. Not so frozen you can’t bite into them (like the ones at Disneyland), but still cold & delicious on a hot summer day! The best part about this one is that your kids can dip their own!

Please allow me to explain the use of the Christmas sprinkles.

You see, I followed my own advice & invited some new friends over for dinner Sunday night. I had dinner enough for 4 adults & a Munchkin, but had no idea what to do for dessert. The movers neglected until the last minute to tell us they wouldn’t move food items, so we’ve been slowly restocking baking staples since we’ve been here, & after the previous day’s cobbler I didn’t have much left! Plus, my oven is still refusing to decide how much cooler than real life it actually wants to be, so baking was definitely out of the question.

I was having quite a quandary (like the alliteration there?) when I was going through my Google Reader & saw this great idea over at Talkin’ Chow Playin’ House! Saved! I had bananas, chocolate chips, & some white candy melts I smuggled down from the old apartment. Perfect! But what to decorate them with? I had some sliced almonds… Wait! I’d smuggled Christmas sprinkles too! & only Christmas sprinkles, apparently. So there you go. Christmas frozen bananas. In July. Hey, we’re in Florida, aren’t we? Isn’t it always like 90 degrees on Christmas here?

1. Cut ripe (but not too ripe) bananas in half, one half for each person.
2. Use really sharp scissors or wirecutters to snip the pointy ends off of your skewers (one for each half banana), then cut them in half. Poke two into the bottom of each banana half & lay them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet, plate, etc.
3. Freeze for at least an hour. We ate ours after an hour & a half or so & they were still quite biteable!
4. Put your chocolate chips in a microwave-safe dish. Add a little oil. (If using candy melts, omit the oil.) Microwave a minute or so & stir until smooth.
5. Let everyone roll/dip/drizzle their banana in the chocolate & decorate as desired. It doesn’t have to look great (see above) — just taste delicious.
6. Enjoy!

P.S. If you recognized the quote in the post title, let’s just say My Husband The Recovering Arrested Development Fan & his college roommates would salute you.

Preparing your child for a move. (Part 2 of 2: Settling in.)

We’ve been here a week now & only have a few (granted, giant) boxes left to unpack! Hooray! It feels a lot better than where we were 3 weeks ago. Or even a week & a half ago:

Yikes!

Now that we really are settling in, I thought now would be a good time to post part 2 of my “preparing your child for a move” series. Part 1, before the move, is right here.

The Munchkin playing in the boxes before the move... Recognize the beer boxes I talked about in the last post?

Here some ideas about how to help your kids adjust to your new home & neighborhood:

• When you & your stuff first get to your new place, let your child help unpack & decide where something should go in her room. This can give her a sense of control when things are crazy.
• Set your kids’ rooms up (the furniture, at least) right away. Especially if you’ve been driving a few days, it’ll feel good to be reunited with your stuff. Plus, sleeping in a new, big, empty room is creepy.
• Try to get pictures back up on the walls again as soon as possible to make it start feeling like home.
• As you unpack, talk about what’s better about your new place: “There are so many shelves in your new room for all of your toys!” etc. (The Munchkin’s new room is so cavernous we need two nightlights just to see at night! Whereas ours is barely big enough for our bed & dressers. How is that fair?)
• Even though things are hectic, try to get involved in your new community as quickly as possible to make new friends. Congregations in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known as wards, are organized geographically. So as soon as we knew our new address, we were able to find out which ward we would belong to! If you’re not LDS, find a church or temple to attend. Involve your children in lessons, Gymboree, or after-school groups to meet the other parents & help your kids make friends.
• Speaking of making friends, teach your child how to introduce herself to new people.
• Just like before you moved, try to take a little while off from unpacking to give your children attention. Take an hour or two to drive around your new town. Find a new neighborhood pizza place to call “yours” (we just found ours!). Locate the library & get a library card. Go play on the playground nearby!
• Once you get more settled in, if you feel up to it, hold a housewarming party & invite people from your new community!
• Even with all the craziness, try to stick to naptime & bedtime routines as much as you can. With everything else changing, it’s helpful to have a familiar routine to hold onto.
• Understand that certain milestones like potty training & sleeping through the night may regress or suffer setbacks for a little while during this transition. Your kids might start acting out a little more than usual (ours sure did) too. It’s normal.
• Lastly & most importantly, emphasize that no matter where you live, your family will be together, & that’s what matters!

 

Award-winning (!!!) peach-strawberry cobbler.

Yesterday was Pioneer Day, a holiday that commemorates the day in 1847 when the Mormon pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley. It’s a state holiday in Utah; everywhere else, Mormon wards put on picnics/barbecues/etc. to celebrate. Our new ward had a barbecue & “Dutch oven” baking contest on Saturday. (“Dutch oven” is in quotes because entrants were instructed to bake it in their ovens at home, then bring it in a Dutch oven. I used my Le Creuset Dutch oven. It still counts.)

Meet: the winner! Ta-da!

This recipe originated from The Princess & the Frog: Tiana’s Cookbook: Recipes for Kids, was modified by Tina at Mom’s Crazy Cooking, & then re-modified by me & my unfortunately still wonky (that Indiana-ism is the only word I can think of that can accurately describe it) oven.

• 1/2 cup butter
• 3 cups diced fresh peaches (I wound up having to freeze half of mine because produce gets to the store a little riper down here than in the Tri-State Area; they still worked fine)
• 1 cup sliced fresh strawberries (ditto)
• 1 cup sugar, divided
• 1 cup flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• pinch salt
• 1 cup cold milk (I used 2%)
• 1 tsp. vanilla

1. Preheat your oven to 350 (or prepare your campfire, if you’re ambitious enough to be all “authentic”). Use a pat of the butter to grease the inside of your Dutch oven.
2. Melt remaining butter in the microwave. Set aside.
3. Combine fruit in a small-ish bowl & sprinkle with 1 Tbsp. of the sugar. Stir gently & then set aside to macerate.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, & salt. Add remaining sugar, milk, & vanilla; stir until well blended. The batter will be (perhaps alarmingly) thin.
5. Pour the melted butter into the batter & whisk quickly until just combined. The batter should be a little thicker now. Pour immediately into the bottom of your Dutch oven.
6. Gently spoon the fruit mixture into the batter & lightly press it partway into the batter.
7. Bake (uncovered if you’re using the oven; covered if you’re using a campfire) about 1 hour, or until top is golden brown. Serve warm. Win a baking contest!

Indoor S’mores.

I’m in gas-oven withdrawal. The stove/oven in our new place is electric, & I’m having a hard time with the whole “patience” thing when it comes to getting water to boil. Plus, the barbecue chicken I made for dinner tonight was pretty much raw. Joy. So I’m in the process of making my first batch of chocolate-chip cookies in the new oven to try to calibrate the darn thing. Please let it be something simple, like being a few degrees off or something.

In the meantime, here’s another “recipe” from before we moved. That word is in quotes because it’s really not a recipe — just a housewife desperate for something sweet to eat after The Munchkin’s in bed that doesn’t involve getting dishes dirty & that helps polish off some of the stuff in her pantry before moving.

Let’s make S’mores! Without the campfire!

All you need is a graham cracker, a marshmallow, & some glorious Nutella. Sliced bananas would also be spot-on — but we didn’t have any. Give it a try though; I promise you’ll love it.

On a paper towel, of course, because we’re trying not to get dishes dirty, remember? Except for the knife we used to spread the Nutella, which our hypothetical housewife immediately licked clean enough to eat off of anyway… Hypothetically.

Now we take the marshmallow half & nuke it for 10 seconds — just until it puffs up. Any longer than that & it’ll blow up & you’ll spend the next hour scraping hardened marshmallow off of the inside of your microwave. (Childhood experience with Peeps informed that little tidbit…)

If you’re daring enough to get a cookie sheet dirty, putting this baby under the broiler in you oven would give it that delicious, campfire-esque toastiness you might be looking for.

Lastly, just smush the two halves together! The Nutella makes it even meltier & oozier than a Hershey’s chocolate bar. You can thank me later.

Now, who can help me relearn how to cook in an electric oven??? So far it looks like it might be as much as 25 degrees lower than it says. Help!

Slow-cooker fajitas.

We’re back online! It feels so good to have Internet again. We’re still getting settled in, & I’m having a hard time finding places to fit everything inside my tiny kitchen (I may or may not be keeping my spices in a cardboard box for the moment & some of my baking dishes in a linen closet; how ironic that our NJ kitchen was larger!), so no kitchen or craft experimentation just yet, but I do have one recipe that I photographed in our old kitchen & didn’t have time to post before we rushed down here.

When The Munchkin was tiny, she was really tiny. Nursing was a two-handed job just because she was so small, so my long list of books to read while nursing turned into countless hours of DVR’d movies & TV shows in the middle of the night. I barely left the living room sofa. My daytime lineup included several cooking shows, like Semi-Homemade with Sandra Lee. This recipe is adapted from one of hers. In addition to being wonderfully easy, this is a great recipe for picky eaters who have a hard time with texture; the veggies get nice & soft in the slow cooker.

Slow-Cooker Fajitas

•  2 lbs. beef round steak, sliced thin (I just buy the pre-sliced stir-fry beef)
• 2 pkts. fajita seasoning
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 green peppers, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1 red bell pepper, sliced 1/2 inch thick
• 1/2 cup plus a splash of apple juice
• whole-wheat tortillas
• sour cream, cheese, etc., for serving

(I make a half recipe for us, so that’s why one of the peppers is missing.)

To slice your peppers without getting the seeds everywhere, use Ina Garten’s method (which I also learned from my nursing days in front of the TV): Hold your pepper with the stem up on your cutting board, then cut around the core using a large chef’s knife. Discard the core, seeds, & all, when you’re done. No mess!

1. Add sliced veggies to the slow cooker; toss with 1 packet of seasoning.
2. Add steak slices on top, seasoning those with the other packet as you go to make sure that the beef is relatively evenly coated. I don’t use the whole packet; it’s plenty seasoned with less. But you can choose how much to put on.
3. Pour the apple juice over the top.
4. Cook on low 8-10 hours.
5. To serve, warm tortillas in the microwave, then use metal tongs or a slotted spoon to add meat & veggies. Top with sour cream, cheese, & whatever else sounds tasty!