Broadway Café

It's almost funny how much our lives revolve around our next meal. So much math, reading, science, and problem solving comes from our time in the kitchen together. And now, writing is happening a lot more in there too. Zeal has actually always written his own recipes (or typed them on the computer). And he's had a semi ongoing project with a friend that is a recipe scrapbook of sorts with photos and recipes they make together along with drawings and stickers and such. But now, our latest project takes our family's favorites and makes our kitchen our very own diner. Introducing the latest Zeal tidit to be produced in our sweet little kitchen...

The official Broadway Café menu...




This tri-fold menu includes all of Zeal's favorites: breakfasts, snacks, soups, salads, main courses, beverages/smoothie, and desserts. He worked on it for about a week- making lists, brainstorming, categorizing, naming favorites, and finally typing and formatting the menu the way he wanted it (I helped with the descriptions).

Now this is not to say that we will begin short order cooking, but this has been such a wonderful way to further document some of our favorite meals. And as we prepare to move from our house on Broadway to our new home in Hawaii, I get a little teary when I read his menu just thinking about the era in his life that is coming to an end. And then excited thinking how our life menu will continue to expand.

tools to kitchen creativity

Cooking with a child is another wonderful way to connect: with each other, the world, and our unique creative selves. It allows us to explore natural materials, mimic real scientists, and learn ways to approach future problems. As children play with recipes and ingredients, they ask questions and make discoveries that will lead to a greater understanding of their world. So with an eye towards encouraging our kids to really get cookin', here are a few wonder-filled tools that help can us cook up some good old-fashioned curiosity and creative fun together.

See the rest of this article on The Savvy Source!

nests updated

We had a few extra supplies and so revisited the crispy treat nest project yesterday. This time, we used a muffin tin (lightly oiled) when forming the nests. It worked wonderfully! It was much easier for the kids to get a nest shaped, and they were able to work on them while the mixture was still warm. Some of the kids used a spoon to get the nest shape and some used their fingers. Both methods worked well, and the nests quickly filled with many different "eggs" fit for snacking from in between the active play moments of the afternoon.

So if you're looking for a little cooking project for your holiday weekend, this one is for all the cool kids!

don't drown your food: or remembering retro

Remember those old Saturday morning cartoon PSA's? Today, I was on a few long walks down memory lane, one of them that included sharing those sweet memories with a few of my very favorite kids. It all began when we were in the middle of eating, a great time to tell old tales and share memories together. So we got to talking about dipping food and our favorite sauces, and this little piece emerged:



Come to find out, this wasn't remembered by several of the adults in attendance (which I still can't believe). For me, this (and all the other PSA choices you'll find that come up when this little video finishes) were such a part of my childhood, and I so remember them fondly. And to think, now they are considered retro. I just love sharing retro with my kid and his friends. So fun to give them a little piece of my childhood.

And doesn't this little bit of eating advice go over so much better when it is coming from Lewis the Lifeguard as opposed to Mama the Nag? I think so.

getting nesty!

From the little golden nest that hangs from the living room reading lamp (the subject of the mythology of the living room buzzard), to the papîer-måché nests that live with the fairy houses, we've been really getting nesty these days. So why would our food be any exception?

In celebration of spring and all this lovely bird watching weather we have been having lately, we made some little nests fit for snacking. We used the time-honored crispy treat combination, but substituted Fiber One cereal to make it more stick and twig-like. We formed them into little nest shapes and added some locally made speckled chocolate eggs we found. Of course, jelly beans, jordan almonds, or any other egg shaped candy would work just as well.

Happy nesting!

dessert for breakfast - strawberry napoleons!

I woke up one morning last week to a sign hanging in the entry to the kitchen that read:

Dear Mom,
Can you help me make strawberry napoleons when I wake up?
Love,
Zeal

It was so sweet; I can't believe I didn't get a picture of it before it got repurposed.

Well, as you might know, strawberry napoleons are a rather sweet dessert, NOT a breakfast item.

But, yes, I am usually up for the challenge of turning dessert into breakfast, so here is what we did:

1. Bake puff pastry sheets.
2. Split baked puff pastry sheets (top from bottom) and cut into appropriately sized individual pieces.
3. Whip some cream (we use our vitamix blender for a quick whip) - leave it unsweetened.
4. Add some Dr. Oetker's organic vanilla pudding and mix with the whipped cream.
5. Slice strawberries into a bowl.
6. Set up your assembly line (assembly line cooking is always a perfect way to involve the little ones in any project - sushi, sandwiches, desserts like this!):



7. Enjoy!

anjali's handprint cookies

When I first learned I was pregnant, I ordered this cookie cutter kit from Chinaberry.

When Anjali was 4 weeks old, I was finally able to get her to spread her fingers long enough to get an outline of her hand so we could get her cookie cutter made. One the side, it is engraved with her full name and birthdate. So sweet.

We used a standard sugar cookie recipe (good Ol' Better Crocker), but substituted buckwheat flour (because that is what we had). Zeal thought that was a good attempt at her skin color, "except she doesn't have little specks on her skin." We also decorated some with frosting and sprinkles and shared them at a potluck. They didn't last very long, so we didn't manage to get a good picture of the batch. That will probably be what we do for her first birthday.

Anyway, here's her little fist (still not wanting to spread her fingers out for very long) next to her cookie (eaten via mama's milk):



It's a blurry little picture, a good metaphor for this time- she's growing so fast and here we are just trying to keep our senses and create a few keepsakes so we can remember her so small and sweet.