Painted Easter Cookies.

How’s this for a fun new take on cookie decorating?

Truth be told, it’s only sorta new. You see, the original idea came from my Grandmother, LaRee. She was the kind of homemaker I aspire to be: fabulous cook, incredible seamstress, great pianist (& even wrote music!), & celebrated holidays like no one else.

Every Christmas, my aunt Becky gives the whole family a great gift: a piece of our family history. This past Christmas she wrote about some of Grandmother’s holiday traditions, & even included some of her old recipes! (You can bet I’ll be trying & blogging her Milkless Pumpkin Pie this fall!) One of those traditions was painting gingerbread cookies at Thanksgiving time. The “paint” was egg yolk & food coloring — they didn’t worry about salmonella back then. I thought it was such a fun idea! But obviously, the salmonella bit had to go.

I baked my favorite sugar cookie recipe; this is the recipe that I come back to every time, like a good hairdresser — when you stray, you always end up feeling sorry you did. I got it from a coworker whose wife made them for a potluck of some kind years ago. I hope she doesn’t mind that I’m stealing it & reposting it (at the end of the post) for the world to see, but it really is the perfect cookie — thick, soft, & always delicious. Then I frosted them with I Am Baker’s famous glaze for a nice, hard white surface to paint on.

The next day, The Munchkin’s friend & her mommy came over to paint with us! The paint was a grand experiment that thankfully went right: a healthy glob of gel food coloring (we wanted vivid colors for the girls; if you want a lighter, more watercolor-esque effect, start with very little), plus a drop of corn syrup to stabilize, plus a couple tablespoons of water. I put a different color in each well of a muffin tin & had different brushes for each color to avoid mixing. The brushes were brand new & very well rinsed before using.

The girls had a blast! The Munchkin’s friend, who’s almost exactly a year older than her, was very careful & intent in her painting: she covered each cookie entirely in one color, switching colors only with new cookies.

You could tell the girls’ cookies apart in 2 ways: 1) The Munchkin enjoyed mixing her colors, & 2) the bite marks.

Once the girls got tired of the painting, the mommies got to have a turn. My friend Wendy is a cookie-egg-decorating master, I’ll tell you what.

(Special Easter Bunny tip: if you have small children, skip the fake grass — go with tissue paper instead. Your carpets, vacuum cleaners, domesticated animals, & sanity will thank you.)

Now, before you rush off & go paint some Easter masterpieces yourselves, here are a few things we learned:

One – If the colors touch, they will run. Leave a generous white border between colors, or you’ll get this:

Two – Food coloring isn’t as washable as Crayola. Expect your hands to look like this for a day or two if you have a particularly young &/or messy child:

Three – The corn syrup makes the paint a little sticky, even after drying, so for storage, shipping, packaging, etc., use parchment paper.

Four – No matter what holiday it is or what we’re decorating cookies for, as long as My Husband The Cougar Fanatic is around, there will always be a BYU athlete. Always.

Five – This was totally AWESOME!!!

Here’s the Perfect Sugar Cookie recipe, courtesy of my coworker’s wife, Grace:

• 1 1/2 cups butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla (I usually let a little “spill over” to add just a teeny bit more)
• 5 cups flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

1. Cream butter & sugar until smooth.
2. Beat in eggs & vanilla.
3. Add dry ingredients gradually & mix until well combined.
4. Chill one hour to overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 400.
6. Roll dough out on lightly floured surface, 1/2 inch thick, & cut with cookie cutters.
7. Bake 6-8 minutes.

Enjoy, & have a happy, sweet, & colorful Easter!

Simple Seven-Ingredient Stir-Fry.

In case the several-day lapse between posts wasn’t a dead giveaway, I’ve been letting a few things slide this week. The Munchkin decided that sleeping past 6:30 was overrated, & who needs naps? Oh, Mommy, but who’s counting, really? Added to my exhaustion were the two city trips we took (one to the Central Park Zoo on a Saturday — holy crowds, Batman!) just to wear her out enough to get her to sleep at night.

So I really needed something fresh & easy for dinner the other day. & delicious.

Oh, & did I mention, beautiful? Look at those colors! Wow!

Thank you, Kikkoman Preservative-Free Low-Sodium Stir-Fry Sauce, for thoughtfully printing the delicious product-placement recipe on the back of the bottle that inspired this Simple Seven-Ingredient Stir-Fry.

• 1-2 cups uncooked rice
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 lb. stir-fry beef (or cut sirloin into thin strips)
• 2 Tbsp. oil, divided (NOT EVOO — you need something with a higher smoke point. Sesame oil works best; I used regular old vegetable oil.)
• 1 bag frozen stir-fry veggies (we like the Great Value Sugar Snap Stir-Fry variety)
• 1/2 cup stir-fry sauce

1. Prepare rice as directed.
2. Combine cornstarch & soy sauce in a shallow bowl. Coat beef strips in mixture.
3. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in wok or large skillet over high heat. Add beef; stir-fry 2 minutes. You want a good sear, but don’t want to overcook the beef or it’ll get tough. Remove beef.
4. Reduce heat to medium-high. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil, then add still-frozen veggies. Stir-fry 5 minutes or until done through.
5. Add sauce & beef; stir 1 minute or until well coated in sauce.
6. Serve over rice.

 

Linking up to Works for Me Wednesday at We ARE That Family!

The best banana muffins. Ever.

I never have just the right number of bananas. It seems like if I buy a bunch, they’re brown in 3 days, but if I only get like 3, they’re gone the next day. It irritates me to no end. (I know, how boring does my life have to be for brown bananas to send me into a hissyfit?)

So anyway, I had six — count ’em, six — brown bananas & was looking around blogland for something new to do with them. (How did we ever cook before the Internet, seriously?) That’s when I saw The Best Banana Muffins EVER (her title, now being adopted by me because it’s true — like how the state of Utah was allowed to keep “The Best Snow on Earth” on its license plates despite a lawsuit from Barnum & Bailey) featured on These Chicks Cooked.

Now, I’m generally not the type to walk into a bakery with cases full of Napoleons, eclairs, & other such pastries & say, “Hey, that banana muffin looks like the tastiest thing in here!” I’m also not the type to say, “Hey, I think I’ll whip up some banana muffins” if there are cookies or brownies to be had. But when I pulled those muffins out & bit into one (or two… or several…), all I could say was “Wow.” Husband bit into one when he got home. “Wow.” Definitely The Best Banana Muffins EVER.

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups flour (next time I’ll try half all-purpose, half whole-wheat to see what happens)
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 3 bananas, mashed

1. Preheat oven to 350. Place paper baking cups in a muffin tin. (They’re sticky enough I would definitely not skip this.)
2. Combine dry ingredients.
3. Mix in wet ingredients until well blended.
4. Spoon into muffin cups; bake 25-30 minutes.

The next morning, The Munchkin was playing quietly in her room, so I took the opportunity to photograph my handiwork in the one spot in the apartment with any direct sunlight (& we only get it for a few hours, so it’s a precious commodity). I took the picture above, then reset a little & saw this through my viewfinder:

You can’t make this up.

She didn’t say “Wow,” probably because that’s not in her few-dozen-word vocabulary yet, but she ate like 3, so in my book that counts. Definitely The Best Banana Muffins EVER… Or at least Banana Muffins Worth Thieving.

Now, what do I do with those other 3 bananas?

Wordless Wednesday: Ode to Coloring Pages.

My kid has decided to be prejudiced against newsprint coloring pages. She refuses to color in any of her coloring books.

So what’s a girl to do when she wants to “kuwee”?

Print off new pages, of course!

This is my first time linking up to Wordless/Wordful Wednesday. Check it out here!

Free in NYC: Strand Family Hour.

Stick around — there’s an easy Easter Bunny paper craft at the end!

What do you do in New York City when you have a kid & no money? Get creative.

Mommy Poppins & Parents Connect both have great events calendars that list seriously everything for kids that’s going on in the five boroughs (that second one works in large cities all over the country!). The best part: a lot of it is free!

So for our “day in the city” last week I consulted those handy-dandy events calendars & found out that the famous Strand Bookstore in Union Square has a family hour every Thursday at 3:30 on the Children’s floor. Now, prior to this the only things I knew about Strand were: a) that it was across the street from Max Brenner — very important; b) it has lots of books — 18 miles of them, according to their nifty bags that I see everywhere; & c) that they sell nifty bags.

(I am now the proud owner of one, thanks to my family’s last visit a couple weeks ago, & now that I’ve actually been there, I don’t feel like such a wannabe for proudly carrying it around when I pretend like I actually belong in the city. But enough of my hopes, dreams, & insecurities — back to The Munchkin.)

We were a little early, so we had a quick snack in front with the bargain book carts.

They read books all about bunnies for the first half hour. The Munchkin was pleased as punch… as long as she got to snuggle with the plush bunny she stole from the reading lady.

Afterwards the kids get to make a craft related to the books they just read. On this day they made bunnies out of paper plates.

Lucky for you, you don’t need to take a trip to NYC for this Easter craft. (Though if you do decide to visit, we are excellent tour guides — especially if you’re feeling cheap!)

Just draw a bunny face on a small white paper plate. (The Munchkin liked coloring the back of her plate.) Draw some ears onto white paper & cut them out, then staple them onto the plate. (The Munchkin colored her ears too.) Stretch out a few cotton balls, then glue them onto the top of (or all the way around) the plate. They even had little paper carrots there for the kids to color & “feed” to their bunny. I think that was her favorite part; that’s what she’s doing in that last picture.

The real trick: transporting your Munchkin, stroller, & paper-&-cotton-&-glue bunny home on 2 subways & a train in the rain. While the bunny survived (I’m still wondering how!), the carrot was lost in action. Sorry, Munchkin: Mommy can only do so much.

Conference Weekend.

General Conference is this weekend! Twice a year, the prophet & apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints speak to all of the members of the church, all over the world, about the Savior, issues we’re facing in the world, & generally just how to be better people.

President Thomas S. Monson, the prophet

It’s something I look forward to every April & October — & not just because it means getting to sit on the sofa for church! I enjoy feeling the Spirit brought by the talks & hyms, & using it as a semiannual opportunity to gauge my progress & what I need to be working on.

It’s a very special time, full of fun family traditions. One new tradition I’m starting this year is having a taste of Utah for dinner, namely Cafe Rio! I found some great recipes for their pork barbacoa, cilantro-lime rice, black beans, & the best ranch dressing ever at Favorite Family Recipes. (You wouldn’t believe what I had to go through to find tomatillos out here!) We also like to have cinnamon rolls for breakfast, but I totally forgot to buy the Pillsbury ones today & I don’t have any yeast, so I guess we’ll have to wait until October for that & just have pancakes instead.

Sometimes it’s hard to listen to the talks with The Munchkin running around, though, so I found these great Conference activity packets at Sugardoodle to keep her quiet & focused, but still having fun. They have packets for every age group from Nursery up to adults! You should totally check it out.

What are you most looking forward to this Conference weekend? Does your family have any fun traditions or tips for helping everyone pay attention?

A recipe good enough to Tweet. (Or, how many times can I type “Zachary Levi” in 1 post?)

I’m not into Twitter. I feel like Facebook & Google Reader do a good enough job of sucking up my non-Munchkin time, so I haven’t bothered to get an account. Plus, brevity is not one of my strengths. I actually get kind of annoyed when I see Zachary Levi’s Twitter updates on Facebook (Yes, I am a Facebook fan of Zachary Levi. Laugh all you want — between “Chuck” & “Tangled” he has become quite a regular presence in our home.) because any time he tweets a link his description is so cryptic I’m mostly intrigued but also partway scared of what I’ll find.

But this month’s issue of Parents magazine asked its Twitter followers, “Do you have a recipe that’s so simple you can actually share it in 140 characters or less?” They posted a few of the responses — none of which jumped off the page at me or anything. But that question got stuck in my head. It became a challenge. Did I have a 140-character-or-less recipe?

Well, I’m pleased to report that after far too long & way too many clicks of the “Word Count” button (it has a nifty character counter too, did you know?) in Microsoft Word — remember, brevity is not a strong point for me — I’ve got it.*

We call it “Russian Chicken.” My friend Mandy shared it with me years ago, & she got it from a church activity.

Bring 1 bottle Russian dressing, 1 jar apricot jam, & 1 pkt onion soup mix to boil. Pour over chicken in a Pyrex. Cover, bake 35 min at 375.

140 characters exactly!

*I couldn’t fit “serve over rice,” or “Can substitute Catalina dressing or apricot/pineapple jam,” or “I usually make a half recipe of the sauce, then store half of that in the fridge to reheat for another time.” Like I said: Brevity? Totally not my thing.

Here’s my challenge to you: do you have a 140-character-or-less recipe to share? Maybe with @ZacharyLevi?

Searching for spring!

Yesterday The Munchkin & I braved the chill to enjoy a beautiful, clear day. We have a tradition of finding rocks to take home to Daddy on our morning walks.

Today, though, we also found all the signs of the coming spring —

The buds just forming on the trees:

The grass returning to life:

And my favorite sign of spring of all:

Growing up in Southern California, I never got to enjoy the changing of the seasons. It’s been 8 winters since I left home, & it still amazes me watching the world thaw out & become beautiful & vibrant again!

Take your kid out on a springtime scavenger hunt! Even if you’ve seen dozens of springs, she hasn’t. Odds are, her excitement will be contagious!

Crock Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup. (Quick! Make this before the weather gets too nice!)

I woke up on the third day of spring to this:

Snow, sleet, hail, rain, & thunder. Definitely a soup day.

This recipe is another one from Williams-Sonoma’s The New Slow Cooker, & I was able to use extra chicken I had in the freezer from the Herbed Chicken Thighs I made awhile back. This came together so easily! I made a half recipe & still had some left over after the 3 of us ate our fill (& My Husband The Hungry went back for seconds!), but I’m posting the 6-serving full recipe from the cookbook for you.

• 1 can (15 oz.) crushed tomatoes (I used diced & it worked fine)
• 1 to 1 1/2 yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, smashed
• 1 to 2 jalapeno chilies, seeded & chopped
• 5 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 2 lbs. skinless, bone-in chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat
• 3 limes
• 1 tsp. red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp. ground cumin
• 3 bay leaves
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• pepper
• 15 oz. corn, frozen & thawed, or fresh (about 5 ears)
• 2 small avocados, halved, pitted, peeled, & diced
• cilantro
• tortilla chips

1. Combine tomatoes, onion to taste, garlic, jalapeno to taste, & 1 cup stock in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Pour into slow cooker.
2. Add chicken, remaining stock, the juice of one of the limes (I just did a generous squeeze of bottled juice), vinegar, cumin, bay leaves, salt, & some pepper.
3. Cover; cook on low 5 hours. The chicken will be very tender.
4. Remove the chicken from the slow cooker, remove the bones & any excess fat, & shred the meat. Skim off the fat from the liquid & remove the bay leaves. Add the chicken back into the slow cooker.
5. Add the corn; cook on low 15 minutes (if using fresh corn, cook 30 minutes).
6. Ladle the soup into bowls; garnish with avocado chunks, cilantro, & chips. Cut the remaining limes into wedges & serve with the soup.

The Munchkin’s colorful birthday.

For The Munchkin’s first birthday last June, I designed a color-wheel-inspired party around the rainbow cupcakes I posted yesterday.

A color theme is pretty much the easiest theme you can go with: there are no limitations on activities, & you don’t have to worry about logos or anything. I got everything at the Target Dollar Spot, Hobby Lobby, & Dollar Tree, so it was a really low-cost party too!

We started with a simple, graphic invitation to convey the paint theme. My mother-in-law had the great idea for a paint can card with a slit for a paintbrush to fit into. We’re not Photoshop masters, so it could look more professional, but it was creative & fun to make! We printed the images onto card stock, then cut out a double sheet in the paint can shape. I made a slit with an X-acto knife & glued the two paint can pieces together, just around the edges. The party details were hidden until you pulled the paintbrush out! (Click on the image to see the details better.)

Now to the most important part (to me, anyway): the food. The party was in the afternoon, so we didn’t need to serve a real meal; we had fresh fruit & other snacks arranged into a color wheel: red=watermelon, orange=carrots with ranch dip, yellow=pineapple, green=grapes, blue=blue corn tortilla chips with salsa, purple=grapes.

The drinks were brightly colored Kool-Aid in colorful pitchers. I made a “happy birthday” banner on a friend’s Cricut out of primary-colored cardstock & festive scrapbook paper, with colorful ribbon tied between each letter. To hold utensils, I took old empty soup cans & relabeled them “Birthday Girl Brand Paint.”

We covered each table in a different colored plastic tablecloth & put streamers & balloons wherever my help crew (aka: my husband & brother) felt like it. We also found coordinating paper plates, napkins, cupcake papers, & cupcake toppers with colorful polka dots at Hobby Lobby, but you could easily use solids in different colors.

Here’s the dessert table:

Also on the dessert table: the super easy, super cheap favors I made. Interested? I’ll continue. I baked my special chocolate chip cookies, but with M&Ms instead of chocolate chips. (I even picked out most of the brown ones, but you don’t have to be as weird as me.) Then I put them in small cellophane bags from Hobby Lobby & sealed them with regular old Inkjet labels that I printed with “Thanks for making my 1st birthday party more colorful! Love, [The Munchkin]”.

The kids kept busy with a number of different activities around the backyard. They enjoyed putting on “smocks” we made out of old t-shirts & fingerpainting pictures for a memory book for The Munchkin. We hung their works of art on a clothesline to dry, so they added to the decor.

The kids also colored pages out of a Sesame Street coloring book I got at Dollar Tree with crayons & markers. To hold the coloring stuff, I tied rainbow ribbon around old empty mason jars.

My mother-in-law found some great bath toys & butterfly nets in bright colors at the Target Dollar Spot, so we let the kids “fish” in a splash pool. Even though it wasn’t strictly related to painting, it was colorful & a big hit for that hot summer day! I also found small containers of bubbles in primary colors for the kids to play with & take home. Again, not painting-related, but fun!

The Munchkin loved her birthday cupcake, & it looked really pretty when it was smashed!

Finally, I just have to add this because it makes me laugh & hopefully will make you laugh too. From My Husband The Nerd: