Bee mine.

Looking for a Valentine’s treat to make with your kids that isn’t heart-shaped?

How about these sweet honey bees?

(Please forgive the photos… After an outdoor temper tantrum resulted in my camera hitting the asphalt, my lens no longer zooms. Add that to the chronically terrible light in my apartment, & close-up photos will look interesting until we can get the lens replaced. Or we move. Or both.)

I found this recipe at Disney’s Family Fun Magazine site for “Bee Mines” & decided to make it my own. Theirs sure are cute, but they used sliced almonds for the wings. A) I didn’t feel like buying a whole bag of sliced almonds for 1 recipe, & B) They wound up looking suspiciously like striped, eyeless rabbits.

So here’s my version.

• 1/2 cup peanut butter or other nut butter
• 1/3 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 1/2 cups crushed Rice Krispies (a Ziploc bag & a rolling pin can do wonders)
• 1/3 cup chocolate chips
• optional: mini chocolate chips (maybe white chocolate?) They would make for better eyes than my method did with the piping bag.

1. Combine peanut butter, honey, & crushed cereal in a bowl & stir with a wooden spoon until well mixed.

2. Shape heaping teaspoonfuls (I used an actual tea spoon — you know, from your silverware drawer — because it was already an oval shape) into teardrop-like shapes (rounded end is the head, pointed end is the stinger). Chill until firm.

3. Pour chocolate chips into a small Ziploc baggie or disposable piping bag & microwave on medium 1 1/2 minutes or until melted, stopping every 30 seconds to rotate & knead the bag.

4. Clip off the corner to make a small opening in the bag. Pipe bee wings onto wax paper, making sure there’s plenty of chocolate at each wing’s base for stability; put the wax paper in the freezer to harden.

5. Remove bees from refrigerator. Pipe 3-4 stripes across each bee’s body. Don’t pipe them straight across; round them a little to give the illusion of a head. (I know, I’m not very good at explaining this. Here’s a picture.)

6. Remove wings from freezer. Pipe a dollop of chocolate between the top two stripes & press a wing set into the chocolate dollop to attach. Pipe on eyes (or use mini chocolate chips).

7. Serve chilled or they will get mushy & melted… Just like you do for your Valentine. {tee hee!}

So sweet!

Love your heart, curry style

As promised, here is the first of what I hope to be many contributor posts from talented friends who’ve taught me a thing or two about domesticity. I first met “Momo,” as her firstborn writes her name, in Indiana when our husbands were both toiling away in law school. Countless late-night board game sessions & a couple trips to the Monroe County Fair later (trust me, it’s an experience), I consider her my very best friend. We’re conspiring to move to the same city so we can be neighbors again, but until the planets align to make that happen, she & her family are living in smalltown Idaho. She’s a fabulous cook; some of my favorite recipes are hers, written down on “High School Musical” stationery. I know you’ll love them too — even without Zac Efron smiling back at you as you read!

I can’t help thinking of that old ditty about beans being good for your heart as I share this recipe.  Heart health has become an important issue in our family recently, so the “heart” part of Valentine’s Day will take on new meaning for our holiday eating this year!  While we will still be having the occasional yummy treat or two, we will be eating healthier overall.

This recipe is one I have been making for over a year and that is well loved by all of us, #1 and #2 included.  It is perfect for this time of year when cauliflower is abundant and inexpensive.  I have eliminated any added salt to make it healthier, and for us the curry is strong enough that we don’t miss it. The only “exotic” ingredient involved is fresh ginger, but I can find it at my local grocery store, so don’t be afraid, you can too.

This little nugget of ginger (in #1’s hand) was enough to make this recipe twice. I always choose the smallest piece I can find and it is usually more than enough.

The recipe (originally found in Good Housekeeping, January 2009 and modified by me):

Cauliflower Curry

serves 6-8

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 medium carrots, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 1/2 cups brown basmati rice

1 Tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped

1 Tbsp curry powder

1 can vegetable broth

1 medium head of cauliflower, cut into florets (5-6 cups)

1 can reduced sodium garbanzo beans, drained and well rinsed

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped

1/4 cup plain yogurt, plus more for serving

Have all of the vegetables chopped and ready before you begin.

In a 6 quart dutch oven or a similar size soup pot, heat oil on medium heat until hot, then add carrots and onions.  Cook for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Stir frequently.

In the meantime, prepare rice according to package instructions.

Stir ginger and curry into carrot mixture and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Add broth, cover pot, and bring to a boil on high heat. Stir in cauliflower and garbanzo beans.  Cover and cook on medium heat for 15-20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes, until cauliflower is tender.

Stir chopped cilantro and yogurt into stew.  Serve in bowls over rice and top with additional yogurt and cilantro if you like.

Hooray!

My lemon-blueberry pound cake got featured at TidyMom’s “I’m Lovin’ It” Wrap Up today! TidyMom is a fantastic blog, & I aspire to be more like blogger Cheryl, so I’m super excited.

Plus, I’m bringing in reinforcements! Starting as early as next week, you’ll get to read contributor posts from some of my very talented friends.

How exciting! I’m practically jumping for joy.

Now, if only spring would show up in NJ… Then The Munchkin would be jumping for joy too… in her new yellow rain boots. That she won’t take off.

I heart pizza.

We love pizza. If I don’t feel like cooking & I ask my husband what he wants to get for dinner, 95% of the time it’ll be pizza. Give The Munchkin a choice, & she’ll say either “pizza” or “pancakes.” About once a week, we make pizza bagels for lunch. We love pizza. My husband prefers Chicago-style, but living here is giving him an appreciation for the finer points of my favorite, New York-style pizza. I won’t give you a run-down of my favorite pizza places on both sides of the Hudson (unless you ask, & then I’ll be more than happy to oblige) because today we’re talking about heart-shaped pizza. You know, the kind you make yourself.

What? No delivery? Not even DiGiornio?

Heart-shaped pizza has a special place in my heart because when my husband & I were dating at BYU, he took me to the pizza place in Provo, The Brick Oven, for Valentine’s Day. On the menu? Heart-shaped pizza. Then he took me to my first BYU Cougar Basketball game. Then we said “I love you” for the first time. (This is where you say, “Awwwww…”) So a few weeks ago, to celebrate the 6th anniversary of the blind date where we met, I made us a heart-shaped pizza. Just like old times.

I bought some dough for $1.95 at a bakery here in town. But you could make your own. I spread it out into a heart shape (took way longer than expected) onto some parchment paper & covered it with sauce. I prefer the Contadina sauce in the squeeze bottle because it tastes the most homemade & is super easy to spread evenly. But again, you could make your own.

Then I scattered part-skim mozzarella cheese all over it. You know, because we’re being heart-healthy here on our heart-shaped pizza.

Then I put on the topping we had: mini pepperonis. Don’t judge. After that I slid the pizza, parchment paper & all, onto the pizza stone I’d had heating up in our 450-degree oven. The parchment paper eliminates the need for cornmeal or one of those nifty pizza paddles (I wonder what the technical term is) you see at pizza parlors. The stone helps the pizza bake evenly without burning. But, as you can see, it doesn’t guarantee against ridiculous bubbling.

This could be part of a fun family Valentine’s Day dinner (since it’s a weeknight, & let’s be serious: what parents are going to have time to go out to dinner on actual Valentine’s Day this year?) that everyone can help with.

What’s on your weeknight Valentine’s Day menu this year?

Love bug for your love bug.

I’ve been posting a lot of recipes lately. It’s time for a craft. Since it’s February, I’m officially allowed to start bombarding you with pink & red heart-shaped everything.

I hope you’re prepared.

I found this great, easy love bug craft at Kaboose.com, which has all sorts of great crafts, recipes, & even coloring pages. It just requires a TP roll, some construction paper, glue, tape, heart stickers, & a pipe cleaner. Obviously theirs looks prettier than ours, but I had The Munchkin help me by coloring the paper before assembling the bug. We’ll say ours is “well loved.”

I also made her a matching hat:

(Again, she helped me out by coloring it a little first.)

Looks like they were a hit…

…while they lasted.

Still, for only a couple bucks & a few minutes, it’s a fun activity to help you & your love bug get ready for Valentine’s Day!

Why I don’t spend hours on crafts for The Munchkin.

There’s a lot to be said for simple, inexpensive crafts when you have a toddler. This particular craft lasted about 8 hours… Good thing it took less than 20 minutes & $2. What’s the point of investing huge amounts of time & money for something to look *just right* if it’s going to end up like this?

Tune in tomorrow to see what it looked like before it was destroyed, & how to make it with your very own destructive toddler!

Holy guacamole & other healthy snacks, Batman!

I keep reading post after post about guacamole, so it must be the week of the S**** B***. (What is it with copyrighting the names of certain sports events so that everyone has to say “The Big Game” instead of “The S**** B***”? But you’re allowed to say “The Indy 500” instead of “The Big Race”? I can’t remember if “World Series” or “NCAA Basketball Tournament” are copyrighted too; if they are, IP lawyers, please don’t sue me for all the money I don’t have.) So let’s talk the unofficial official chip dip of the NFL (hopefully that isn’t copyrighted too).

Unless you’re willing to pay $4 an avocado at Garden of Eden (which I have been known on many occasions to pay for a pound of grapes there because they are just so dang good), New Jersey is a hole when it comes to fresh produce. They must send all the good stuff to the city & leave us squeezing rock-hard avocado after rock-hard avocado hoping for just one that the city pirates didn’t steal away. So what’s a California girl with a hankering for guac gonna do?

Buy the packaged stuff. No, don’t stop reading.

True, I have had bad experiences with the packaged stuff in the past. One year when we were living in Indiana (another fresh produce hole unless you’re talking corn, & it is the most delicious corn you’ll ever sink your teeth into. Period.), I had the severe lapse in judgment to pay like $3 for “guacamole spread.” Yeah, it was as disgusting as it sounds. So why did I decide to try again?

The February issue of Parents magazine featured the 25 best healthy snacks for 2011: prepackaged snacks that were selected by dieticians for nutrition & taste-tested by entire preschool classes & their parents for deliciousness. One of those was Wholly Guacamole 100-calorie snack packs, & as it turned out, that same guacamole (but not the snack packs, just the big package) was on sale at Shop Rite last week!

The verdict? Awesome! My husband said it was the best guacamole he’s ever had. The Californian in me won’t go that far — it’s a little salty & I’d like it to be chunkier — but it’s the best we’re going to get out here for the price & the effort! Better still, even though the package was too large for me to eat in one sitting (I do sometimes have self-control, people) by snipping off a corner & just storing it in a baggie between munchings, I’ve been able to keep it fresh & green for 4 days & counting! Take that, fresh guac!

But The Munchkin still won’t touch the stuff. Oh well, more for me.

Here are some of the other snacks that the article recommended that we have personally taste-tested.

Terra Chips. I haven’t had the Thai Basil Curry flavor they’re suggesting, but we learned about the original flavor Exotic Veggie Chips on our JetBlue flight out here in August. I got the chips for me & some animal crackers for The Munchkin, & she ate the whole bag of chips instead! I think we went through like 3 or 4 little bags on that 5 1/2-hour flight. They’re a little higher in fat than tortilla chips, but they offer a full serving of veggies of all different colors in every ounce. Plus, they’re tasty, too! They’re like potato chips, but with a less salty, earthier twist. My husband balks that they “taste healthy,” but The Munchkin & I enjoy them. They’re great for packing as a snack in the diaper bag on our city jaunts.

Speaking of city jaunts, The Munchkin’s favorite treat for the train into the city is “squeezie fruit.” The Parents article calls it Go Go Squeez Applesauce, which happens to be the brand name, but we like our term better. It’s resealable, the spout minimizes mess, it offers a full fruit serving, & it’s just fun to squeeze! My friend Halley turned me on to these at Garden of Eden (there it is again! Love that place!) a couple months ago, & we haven’t looked back. It’s perfect for packing away & giving to little munchkins to suck on in the stroller, car, or train.

We also love the British brand Ella’s Kitchen, which makes baby food as well as Smoothie Fruits in the same squeezable, resealable pouch. They’re more expensive, but I like the wide variety of fruits in each one. The “Yellow One” The Munchkin is slurping here has bananas, mangoes, apricots, & apples. They’re also 100% organic, which could make this one a winner for you.

Lastly, the article recommended Thomas’ (the English Muffin people) Whole-Wheat Bagel Thins. The Munchkin is a bagel fiend, & we buy their regular-sized Whole-Wheat or Plain Whole Grain bagels every week. We use them for bagel pizzas for lunch, & she loves just a toasted half a bagel with some cream cheese for breakfast with some bananas or raisins. The reason the nutritionists liked the Thins was that they were the perfect portion size for kids. I liked that because often The Munchkin only eats half of her breakfast bagel, so I got them. The verdict? Sure, she finishes her breakfast bagel now, but it’s just so anemic-looking, don’t you think? She asked for two bagel pizzas last time because the thin one wasn’t enough, which meant more fatty toppings. I’m going to finish off this package with her breakfast bagels & then go back to my old regular-sized ones.

Have you tried any of the Parents-recommended snacks? Are you planning on giving any of them a try? What are your favorite healthy snacks for your kids (& yourself)?

Lemon-blueberry pound cake

All this snow…

Has me thinking about spring.

Contrary to what the pallor of my complexion may lead you to believe (in 7th grade my bare midsection may or may not have overexposed film in a beach photo), I was born & raised in Southern California. As much as I love having seasons, I had a rude awakening when I went away to college & learned that not everywhere in the country has ripe, fresh produce year-round. So I do the best I can, & especially in the winter, I often end up taking the frozen route.

But not with this recipe. I repeat: frozen will not work with this recipe. I’ve tried. You just can’t have perfection like this without fresh, juicy blueberries.

So every year I keep my eye out for the first batch of fresh blueberries that come in, just for this cake. As you can see, it’s totally worth the wait. It comes from a trusted source: my parents’ Ward Cookbook. I firmly believe that most Ward Cookbooks offer a better variety of delicious recipes I’ll actually cook (because all these people actually have cooked them with small humans tugging at their pantlegs, rather than having their test kitchen minions do all of the work). Better still, I know the cook who submitted this recipe, & anything coming from him is going to be the most delicious thing you’ve ever tasted.

• 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, spooned & leveled
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 tsp. lemon extract
• 3 large eggs
• zest of 2 lemons (1 1/2 Tbsp. or more)
• juice of 2 lemons (1/4 cup or a little more), divided
• 1 container (8 oz.) sour cream (not reduced-fat)
• 1 carton fresh blueberries, washed & thoroughly dried
• 1 cup powdered sugar

A quick note about juicing the lemons. To keep seeds out of your juice, try Giada de Laurentiis’ method. I want to be her when I grow up… Keep them at room temperature so they release the most juice. Roll each one on the counter with your palm flat, applying a little pressure. Then cut in half & hand-squeeze (I start it out a little bit with my wooden hand juicer first) with the cut side to your palm & your fingers facing up towards you. Your palm will catch the seeds. I may or may not have taken this photo upside-down & left-handed to catch the action shot…

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter & flour a 10-inch Bundt or tube pan (I prefer the PAM Baking spray because it’s all 1 step). Combine flour, soda, & salt in a bowl; stir well with whisk.
2. Beat butter in stand mixer until light & fluffy. Gradually add sugar & lemon extract, beating until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add lemon zest & 2 Tbsp. of the lemon juice; beat 30 seconds.
3. With mixer on low, add flour mixture to sugar mixture, alternating with sour cream, beginning & ending with flour mixture.
4. Remove bowl from mixer & fold in blueberries.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour & 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
6. Cool in pan 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.
7. Combine remaining lemon juice with powdered sugar. Drizzle glaze over cake. Enjoy when glaze is set.

I had The Munchkin help me stir the glaze, so that’s why it’s a little lumpy.

Unfortunately, it seems she preferred poking the blueberries to actually eating them; she’d only eat the lemon part. Which reminds me: you can make this without the blueberries. But that wouldn’t be as fun, would it?

 

How to make a frittata.

I’ve been mystified by the frittata ever since seeing this frittata pan set in a Williams-Sonoma catalog. Something so special it needs its own pan? Granted, Williams-Sonoma seems to think everything requires a special pan, & my specialized egg pan fetish began & ended with my incredible All-Clad omlette pan, but still, this mystical frittata intrigued me.

Then my mom gave me the Cooking for Baby cookbook (fabulous cookbook by the way — so much more than baby food in here), & there was a frittata recipe inside! Guess what? It didn’t even require a special pan set!

Why make a frittata? Other than the culinary street cred it’ll give you, it’s actually quite easy, & the oven time makes it so that you don’t have to be flipping pancakes & making sure eggs don’t burn at the same time. Look at me looking out for you. Also, it keeps well in the fridge. The Munchkin likes eating it at room temp, so it makes for a protein-packed snack on our city jaunts: just pull out a wedge, nuke it for several seconds so it’s not cold anymore, stick it in a baggie, & pack it in the diaper bag.

Just look at that. The herbs & cheese float to the top, & the meat (& veggies, if you’re using them) stay on the bottom. Layers & layers of incredible edible egg goodness.

Here’s what you need. The recipe leaves lots of room for improvisation based on what you have on hand & what your kid likes to eat. There are suggestions below.

• 6 large eggs
• fresh herb of choice, 1 tsp. minced (or heaping 1/2 tsp. dried herb of choice)
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup finely diced onion
• veggies &/or meat of choice, 3/4 cup diced or grated, precooked or quick-cooking
• cheese of choice, 1/3 cup crumbled or grated

Ingredient suggestions (keep in mind these are Williams-Sonoma suggestions; take them with a grain of salt & use what you’ve got):
Cooked diced ham & potatoes, grated Gruyere cheese, & minced fresh rosemary (I use chopped deli ham, shredded Colby/Jack, & dried rosemary).
Grated or finely diced uncooked veggies of choice (zucchini, red bell pepper, tomatoes), crumbled goat cheese, & fresh basil or thyme. Or use cooked diced veggies.
Chopped black Nicoise olives & sun-dried tomatoes, crumbled feta cheese, & fresh dill.

1. Preheat oven to 350. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, herb, salt, pepper, & 1 Tbsp. water.

2. In a large ovenpoof frying pan over medium heat, melt butter. Add onion & saute until soft & translucent, about 3 minutes. Add veggies & meat, if using, & saute 2 minutes to warm through. Shake pan to spread veggies &/or meat evenly in pan.

3. Remove pan from heat & pour in egg mixture. Sprinkle cheese over top.

4. Bake until center is set & cooked, & edges are browned & pulling away from pan sides, 10-15 minutes. Remove from oven & let stand for 5 minutes. Slide (or if you’re feeling really daring, flip) onto a plate; cut into wedges or squares with a pizza cutter.

That’s it! Really!

Snow day… I mean, month.

Before we moved here, someone told us that it doesn’t snow much in New York City.

They lied.

First, there was the Boxing Day blizzard, which gave us 2 1/2 feet of snow.

Since then we’ve had a few assorted Nor’Easters, including two this week.

We haven’t seen the sidewalk on the way to the train station in over a month.

I got to push the stroller like a sled through the unshoveled streets of Hoboken on the way to a doctor’s appointment yesterday in that horrible sharp snow that stings your face. Yesterday the news forecasted 4-7″ of sleet & freezing rain; instead we got a foot & a half of snow overnight. So the city shut down, which means my husband has a snow day! When The Munchkin wakes up from her nap, I think we’ll head out to play in the snow yet again.

But you can only play in the snow so long before you get too cold & The Munchkin starts chanting/whining for cocoa. So we’ve been spending a lot of time inside. Keeping The Munchkin occupied without resorting to the TV can require some creativity:

I’m open to new ideas. How do you keep your kids busy & yourself sane when you have to stay indoors?