Strawberry Spinach Salad.

Hi, all! I’m late posting today because we decided to take The Munchkin to see her first in-theatre movie, Cars 2, this morning to celebrate her using the potty for the first time! (Yes, we were planning on going anyway, but it was nice to call it a reward.) It was a little loud in the theatre for all of us, but we all liked the movie. Munchkin was also quite excited when she saw the Winnie the Pooh movie preview.

I’ll post about the weekend’s crazy birthday bash next, but I need a little detox from Sweets Week first.

This is my favorite salad. Period. I make it all the time during strawberry season. I love how fresh & light it is, plus it boasts lots of antioxidants! This is another great recipe from The Essential Mormon Cookbook, & just like with the last one, I halve the dressing recipe & still have plenty for at least 6 people. This is how I make it; if you’re making it for a huge church get-together or something, double it. Oh, & the dressing keeps really well in the fridge, too!

Honey Celery Seed Dressing

• 3/8 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 tsp. paprika
• 1/2 tsp. ground mustard
• 1/2 tsp. finely grated onion (just take a cut onion to the side of your box grater a half-dozen times & use your 1/2 tsp. to scrape the resultant goo off the inside. You could also use dried onion powder or flakes, but I don’t know the conversion for that)
• 1/4 cup lemon or lime juice
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 tsp. celery seed (if you have an aversion to the taste of celery, you can cut this in half)

1. Add all but the last 2 ingredients to a blender cup & blend well.
2. Lift the lid; gradually add oil & celery seed while blending.
3. Toss with washed baby spinach, sliced strawberries (macerate them with a little sugar if you’re serving this outside to keep them fresher), & sliced toasted almonds (if you can find the honey-roasted salad topper ones in your produce section, those are the best, but my grocery store didn’t have them). Serve immediately. If you’re taking this to a potluck or waiting to serve it, leave the dressing on the side for guests to add themselves so that the spinach doesn’t wilt.
4. Refrigerate remaining dressing to use later.

Get Your Craft On Tuesdays

“Cars 2” cakelets for the birthday Munchkin!

In case you’ve been living under a rock (or just don’t have a child under the age of 10 in the house) Cars 2 comes out tomorrow! We’re not excited about this or anything…

I’m pretty obsessed with Nordicware molded cake pans (I’m sure you’ll see more of my collection over the coming months). Knowing this, & knowing that they came out with a limited-edition Cars 2 cakelet pan, & knowing that The Munchkin loves Cars & had a birthday was coming up, my dad sent her an early birthday present. So guess what we did today for The Munchkin’s 2nd birthday?

I baked the cakelets last night using the recipe on the insert that came with the pan. I love these inserts because they calculate the exact right amount of batter for each molded pan! So perfect. However, I realized quickly that leveling in the pan was out of the question; pieces were breaking off faster than I could saw. So I just popped them out of the pan as-is & trimmed them with a paring knife this morning.

Then I made the frosting.

7 sticks of butter, 4 pounds of powdered sugar, & a diabetic coma later, I had a ridiculous amount of frosting. I’m always so paranoid I’ll run out, that I make way too much. Though this time I made extra on purpose for The Munchkin’s Toodles cake for Saturday’s birthday party (I told you it was Sweets Week at our house!). For the vanilla, I used my “add some powdered sugar &/or cream until it looks right but will probably end up being too thick anyway” method — don’t recommend it. For the chocolate, however, I used this recipe from A Southern Fairytale. Super delicious, & the perfect consistency for spreading! I also added a couple tablespoons of meringue powder to each to help them set up more quickly, but should’ve added more to the chocolate.

Then we decorated. & decorated. & decorated.

The sheer tininess of scale was almost too much My Husband The Closet Ace of Cakes & me! We’d never frosted anything that small before. (Why not fondant, like they show in the product photos, you ask? Because My Husband The Persnickety views the sheer existence of fondant as an affront to his palate. Plus, I’m completely self-taught as a cake decorator & have never learned to use it.)

But The Munchkin didn’t mind one bit!

As long as Guido tastes good, that’s all that matters, right?

Finally we got into a groove & finished 5 of the 8 (The Munchkin was happy to take care of the rest). Do you recognize the characters from the new movie?

We used mini-Oreos for the tires (though you could use more of the black-dyed chocolate icing if you want), & mini-M&Ms for the eyes. I had bought a bag of regular M&Ms so we’d have the full complement of eye colors, but they were far too big for the size of the cakes. As My Husband The Comedian put it, “They could be Anime cakes…” So we dug out a still-sealed tube of mini-M&Ms left over from Christmas — yes, Christmas, but they were still good — so our eye-color choice diminished significantly.

I made the cake board the night before with a Wilton cake board (totally worth the investment — I’m still on the same package I bought 3 years ago!), construction paper, & a logo I printed out off the Internet. Free & easy!

The Munchkin requested that “Wight-Queen” be her birthday cake. He was just the right size for 2 candles!

She was so happy about her cakes. All day today, she kept telling everyone we met, not that it was her birthday, but that she made “Cars cakes.” So all the work & powdered-sugar-inhalation were worth it!

See you later! Ka-chow!

(P.S. If you’re heading to the theatre this weekend to see the movie, come back & leave a comment letting me know how it was — & whether it’d be too scary for a 2-year-old. Thanks!)

“Share Awesomeness” Thursdays at The 36th Avenue

Happy 2nd birthday, Munchkin!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 2 years…

Happy birthday, dear Munchkin!

Lemon bars.

It’s Sweets Week here in our house, with 2 birthdays, a birthday party, & Father’s Day falling in the same week. I have a feeling that next week will be Stretchy-Pants Week…

My Husband The Connoiseur’s family has a tradition where, on someone’s birthday, they get to choose a dessert for his mom to make. One of his favorites is lemon tarts. Now, my mother-in-law is an amazing cook, & while I do know my way around the kitchen, I also know better than to try to compete with her. So when my husband requests something of hers, I instead find a similar recipe. That way, if it tastes different, it’s not because I made it wrong! Genius, right?

So for Father’s Day, I made lemon bars for My Husband The One Whose Special Day It Was. Still lemony, but not lemon tarts. This is me preserving my pride & vanity. I found this easy but delicious recipe at Favorite Family Recipes & added notes for next time to make it lemonier, because we love lemon! Except The Munchkin. Which is unfortunate, because in addition to the third of a pan or so that’s still left of these, we now have 3/4 of My Husband The Birthday Boy’s German chocolate cake… Yikes! Like I said, next week is Stretchy-Pants Week. Anyone feel like coming over & helping us finish it all off?

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup margarine (or butter-flavored shortening — what I used)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• (I would also add some lemon zest to the crust)

1. Preheat oven to 350 & lightly spray 9×13 pan with cooking spray.
2. Blend together with 2 forks or a pastry blender until crumbly.
3. Press into bottom of pan.
4. Bake about 20 minutes or until just starting to brown.

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• juice of 2 lemons (about 6 Tbsp.)
• 1/2 tsp. lemon extract — this is me adding this
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• lemon zest — she says “a little,” but I zested a whole lemon & still thought it could use a little more. So I would do zest of 1 lemon in the filling & a little more zest from the other lemon in the crust.

1. Whisk together in medium bowl until well blended.
2. Pour over crust.
3. Bake 20 minutes.
4. Sift powdered sugar over the top & cut into squares.

Birthday French Toast!

Today is My Husband The Wonderful’s birthday! Here he is on a daddy-daughter date at the American Museum of Natural History (the “die-sawer bones moosem”) with The Munchkin a couple weeks ago, getting chewed on by a T-Rex:

He’s such a wonderful husband, father, & best friend that I wanted to do something extra special for him this morning, so I started looking up Creme Brulee French Toast recipes in my Google Reader. I came across a recipe on my friend Mandy’s blog that looked delicious! Plus, I even had the cookbook it came from!

That cookbook is The Essential Mormon Cookbook, & I’ve found that pretty much every recipe in there is designed to feed the hungry masses, so I always halve the recipes & end up with plenty left over. But I’m giving you the full recipe in case you’re planning to feed your teenage son’s entire lacrosse team or something.

 Overnight Creme Brulee French Toast

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 Tbsp. corn syrup
• 1 loaf Texas toast or your favorite bakery bread, sliced at least an inch thick (My Husband The Birthday Boy chose cinnamon-raisin bread from our local bakery that I sliced about an inch-&-a-half thick, & it was AMAZING — it tasted a lot like Kneaders French toast!)
• 5 eggs (when I halved it, I used 3)
• 1 1/2 cups half & half
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 recipe Syrup Butter (see below)

1. Melt butter, sugar, & corn syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat until smooth, stirring occasionally. (I let it boil a little to make it extra caramel-y!)
2. Pour onto a large, greased jelly roll pan (for halved recipes, a 9×13 baking dish is fine) & spread to coat the bottom.
3. Place 12 slices (or whatever fits) of your bread in the pan in a single layer. Squeezing to fit is okay.
4. Whisk together eggs, half & half, salt, & vanilla until well blended.
5. Spoon or pour mixture over each slice of bread, covering evenly.
6. Cover with plastic wrap & refrigerate overnight. (Mandy served this for “brinner” & said 4-5 hours of fridge time worked great.)
7. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30 minutes or until golden on top.
8. Remove from the oven & immediately flip the slices to allow some of the sugary, caramel-y deliciousness to get on both sides. It also keeps them from sticking to the pan, which is a nice perk.
9. Serve with Syrup Butter (below).

Syrup Butter

Melt together 1 part butter & 2 parts maple syrup (it doesn’t need to be pure; regular old Log Cabin works great too) in a Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave. Swirl in the cup & pour over French toast. Yum!

Happy birthday, My Husband The Greatest! I love you!

Get Your Craft On Tuesdays

A Father’s Day breakfast your kids will WANT to help you make.

Sometimes I think Father’s Day would be more appropriately named Husband’s Day. I know you know what I’m talking about. I don’t see many 9-year-olds perusing craft blogs or back issues of Martha Stewart Living looking for cute presents to make for Dad, do you? Mom does it all.

Well, fortunately for you, I’ve got a delicious breakfast you can make for Dad that your kids will beg to help you with. Why? Because it’s messy. Unbelievably messy, if you’re doing it right (or wrong, I guess, depending on your point of view). They’ll get to run their fingers through cinnamon-sugar & sprinkle it over gooey, butter-dredged muffins. Have the Dustbuster ready, ladies!

This recipe comes from ranch wife-turned-blogger-turned role model Ree Drummond’s cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks! She calls them French Breakfast Puffs, but My Husband The Patriot prefers the term… (& they are for him, after all, so we’ll go with it…)

Freedom Puffs

• 3 cups flour
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. (plus a pinch — this is me saying this, not Ree) nutmeg
• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat your oven to 350 & lightly grease a muffin tin. (Ree says this makes 12 muffins, but I always end up with at least 16, even overfilling the muffin tin slightly.)
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, & nutmeg.
3. In your mixer bowl, cream together sugar & shortening. Add eggs; mix.
4. With the mixer on low, add flour mixture & milk, alternating 1/3 of the flour, 1/3 of the milk, 1/3 of the flour, 1/3 of the milk, etc.
5. Fill muffin cups two-thirds full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden & a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Melt butter in a large shallow bowl or glass baking dish in your microwave (this takes a minute or so).
7. Combine cinnamon & sugar in another large shallow bowl.
8. Dip warm muffins one at a time in the butter, coating thoroughly, then let your kids roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. The Munchkin kept calling it “sand.” Maybe my bowl should’ve been the size of a sandbox in order to contain it all…
9. Wake up Dad & enjoy these babies warm! Maybe with a topper or flag like this free printable one from Amy Locurto. Or wrap in Saran Wrap, stick in a Ziploc freezer bag, & freeze for later. As Ree says, “They’re in the ‘reheats beautifully’ section of my life.” Just zap one in the microwave, wrapped loosely in a paper towel, for 45 seconds or so!

What are you (& hopefully your kids!) making for Dad this Father’s Day?

2 meals, 1 turn in the Crock Pot.

We’re all looking for ways to save time, energy, & money, right? Well these 2 meals (1 looking significantly more scrumptious than the other, unfortunately, due to my lack of time & natural light on the second evening) will do that for you.

The same exact shredded barbecue chicken goes in both dishes, so you only need to do everything once! I mentioned these two meals once before, but thought I’d post the recipes in one place to make it easier.

Just put the following in your slow cooker in order:

• 3 carrots, grated
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 4-6 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups of your favorite barbecue sauce

Cover, turn your slow cooker on low for 5+ hours, & forget about it. An hour before serving, shred the chicken & mix the ingredients together, than re-cover & continue cooking on low until ready to serve.

The first way to serve this barbecue chicken is between two buns:

Barbecue Chicken Sandwiches

 The second way is to braid it inside pizza or roll dough, in what The Munchkin affectionately refers to as:

Rapunzel Braid

 

1. Roll your dough out into as close an approximation of an oval as you can.
2. Take a pizza cutter & create 1-inch-wide strips, but leaving the center few inches intact.
3. Spread your leftover chicken filling down the middle on the non-strip part of the dough. Top with another squirt of barbecue sauce & some shredded cheese. Keep in mind that the more cold filling there is in the middle, the longer it will take to warm up & cook, so don’t pile it on.
4. Then “braid” the dough by stretching alternating strips across the chicken filling & pressing into the base of the next strip down on the other side.
5. Do the best you can to make the bottom pretty. I can’t help you here.
6. Bake at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until quite golden on top & the dough is done in the middle.
7. Let it rest a few minutes, then slice using a sharp serrated knife & serve with extra barbecue sauce on the side.

Do you have any multipurpose meals like this one? I’d love to hear about more!

Perfect Patriotic Picnic Potato Salad. (Say that 10 times fast!)

Happy Flag Day! It’s actually tomorrow, but I’ve been so excited to share this recipe that I couldn’t wait one more day. Flag Day, every June 14, celebrates the day in 1777 that the Second Continental Congress adopted the American Flag. Though it’s not a national holiday, it’s a significant day in our nation’s history, & especially since it falls just about halfway between Memorial Day & Independence Day, it’s a great day to feel a little more patriotic!

That’s why I’m sharing this potato salad with you.

Summer seems to be the “official season” of potato salad, with all of its picnics & potlucks, but those pesky health code restrictions kind of get in the way, don’t they? Keep it cold. Don’t let any potato salad with eggs in it sit out for too long. Etc. That’s why this is the perfect potato salad! Number one, it’s not made with eggs, so you don’t have to worry about it spoiling. Number two, it’s actually designed to be served warm (even though it still tastes great cold), so it’s just fine at a picnic on a hot day! I thought you couldn’t get any more perfect than that… until I realized I could make it red, white, & blue.

You can buy blue potatoes at most higher-end supermarkets — I got a bag of reds, blues, & a few Yukon Golds at Whole Foods. Blue potatoes are fun, tasty (a little heartier than a standard new potato), & will be a great conversation-starter at your next potluck!

Those of you who’ve been around here for awhile may recognize this recipe as the potato salad served alongside these slow-cooker-braised chicken thighs. I just swapped in some blue potatoes, served it with my mom’s BBQ beef sandwiches, & had a whole new meal!

Perfect Patriotic Picnic Potato Salad

• Shallot Vinaigrette, to taste (below)
• 20 small assorted red & blue potatoes, quartered (or halved, if your blues are especially tiny like mine were)
• 2 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 Tbsp. finely chopped fresh oregano

Shallot Vinaigrette

• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 small shallot, minced
• 3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• a few shakes or grinds black pepper
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. In a small bowl, whisk together all but the last of the Shallot Vinaigrette ingredients. Whisk in the oil until emulsified. Cover bowl with plastic wrap & refrigerate until ready to use (no longer than an hour; it’ll separate).
2. Place potatoes in a large saucepan or stock pot with enough salted water to cover, & bring just to boil on medium-high heat. Cook, uncovered, 8 min. or until tender.
3. Drain & transfer to a serving bowl. While still hot, drizzle with 1/3 to 1/2 cup (or to taste, but start small & work your way up) Shallot Vinaigrette (you may need to whisk it again if it separated) & toss to coat. The smell as the dressing hits the hot potatoes is amazing!
4. Let cool slightly, then add cherry tomatoes & oregano. Toss to coat.
5. Serve warm immediately (it tastes best this way) or refrigerate until ready to serve.

Get Your Craft On Tuesdays 

No-fail banana bread. (With chocolate chips!)

I’ve posted a couple other recipes for ripe bananas, but this was the first. Meaning it preceded all other banana recipes. This has been my go-to staple for years, ever since my Aunt Becky (the one whose Christmas letter inspired my Painted Easter Cookies) gave me her ward’s cookbook as a wedding present. I’ve professed my love for ward cookbooks in the past, mainly for the reason that I know that the people submitting them have actually made them themselves, in a real kitchen, with small children underfoot. But even knowing that, I could never get banana bread right! With every new recipe I tried, it would always be charred on the outside before it was done on the inside. This was the first to be edible — indeed, tasty — so I’ve stuck with it the last five years. This time I decided to mix things up a little bit & add whole-wheat flour (to make it healthier) & chocolate chips (to counteract any undue healthiness).

• 1 3/4 cup white/wheat flour blend (I just mixed together 1 cup all-purpose & 3/4 cup whole-wheat, but you could even use just all-purpose, since that’s what the original recipe, you know, asks for…), divided
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2-3 ripe bananas, mashed (Get your kids to do this! They’ll love you for it!)
• 1/3 cup margarine, or butter-flavored shortening (I very rarely use anything but real butter in my cooking, so when I do, it’s for good reason.)
• 2 Tbsp. milk (skim is fine)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup plus a little (okay, more than a little) semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350 & grease an 8x4x2 loaf pan.
2. In bowl of electric mixer, combine 1 cup flour with sugar, baking powder, baking soda, & salt.
3. Add mashed banana, margarine, & milk. Beat on low speed until blended; scrape sides of bowl.
4. Beat on high for 2 minutes & scrape sides of bowl.
5. Add eggs & remaining flour; beat just until incorporated. Mix in chocolate chips.
6. Bake 53-70 minutes, or until knife inserted in center comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
7. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan & cool completely before slicing. (Oh, who are we kidding here? Just make sure you use a sharp enough serrated knife & you’re golden.)

On the lighter side: Pasta with Arugula & Tomatoes.

I don’t know about you, but in the summer time I start craving more fruits & veggies, & less meat. So I was so glad when I found this recipe, way back before I was pregnant with The Munchkin, when I was getting paid to stare at a computer screen for 40 hours a week & had time to peruse the deliciousness that is Serious Eats. I have since fallen way behind in my Serious Eats reading, much to the detriment of my weekly menu, but I’m managing. In fact, just now as I went there to find the link to the recipe, I found myself scanning a few of the eye-candy photos… It’s addictive.

Anyway, back to the pasta. This meal is light but satisfying, fresh, easy, colorful, & flavorful. I think we have all our bases covered there… Shall we begin?

• 1 pound pasta (I use whole-grain for added protein & fiber)
• 2 pints cherry tomatoes, rinsed
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (it’s just enough to add zing without too much heat)
• a few handfuls baby arugula
• grated Pecorino Romano cheese, to taste (no substitutions here; I’ve tried. You need the salty bite of the Pecorino Romano to complement the sweetness of the tomatoes.)
• salt, to taste (optional)

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Meanwhile, halve or quarter cherry tomatoes.
2. Add pasta to water & cook to al dente according to package directions. Once pasta has been added, heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat, then add garlic & red pepper flakes. Saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Add tomatoes & saute, stirring frequently, until softened & skins are beginning to blister, about 5 minutes.
4. Add arugula to pot of pasta water for last 2-3 minutes, then drain & return to pot.
5. Toss tomatoes with pasta mixture, then transfer to pasta bowls & top with Pecorino Romano & salt, to taste.

 Delicious! What’s your favorite light summer dish?