tortillas continued...

So our special entree finally got made, even after that (oh so fortunate) snowflake incident.

This is one of Zeal's most favorite meals, and I just realized I haven't ever posted about it.

Tortilla Shells, a.k.a. "Zeal's Zesty Taco Salad"!

We fill our tortilla shells with our favorite guacamole recipe (Thank you dear Ina!). But here's the quick and yummy on how to make your own healthy taco salad bowls:

1. Set 2 empty food cans on a foil lined baking sheet.
2. Drape a foil square (made from a larger piece of foil folded in half two times) over the top of each can.
3. Quickly immerse a tortilla in water/oil mixture as in this recipe, then lift out and let drain.
4. Drape the damp tortilla over the foil on the empty food can and "sculpt" with fingers (if you place it slightly off-center the shell with have a dramatic higher flair to one edge).



5. Bake the taco salad shells in a preheated 450 degree F oven until they're lightly brown and firm enough to hold their shape, which will take about 4 to 5 minutes.
6. Using pot holders, carefully lift the shells off the cans and place them cup-side-up on the pan; the edges on larger tortillas might need support when the shells are inverted so loosely crumple some foil into 4-inch balls and push them against areas that sag.
7. Return the shells to the oven and bake until they're crisp, about 2 to 3 additional minutes.
8. When cooled, fill with whatever, as my grandma says, gets your "sufficiency so fanci-full"

sidetracked by snowflakes

We've been spending a good deal of time Welcoming Winter here recently. But Zeal was sad that the recent rains had melted all the snow away and his daily treks to the "sled run" were becoming less, well, just "less".
So I dragged him into the kitchen to help make some tortilla bowls to hold our favorite guacamole salad for dinner. Well, it wasn't really dragging since he was quite pleased that that would be our dinner.

Instead, we got inspired to use our tortillas for a sweet afternoon treat, Snowflake Crisps (his name for them).

Here's what we did:
1. Soak 1 flour tortilla in a pan of warm water with 1/2 teaspoon of oil. Remove from water after about 10 seconds and blot dry.




2. Fold tortilla in half and half again, and then in half again one more time (three times).



3. Cut on the folds as you would a paper snowflake.



4. On a cookie sheet with parchment paper, bake for about 5-10 minutes in 400 degree oven, or until slightly crispy.


5. Remove from oven. While still warm, brush with butter...



6. And sprinkle with sifted powder sugar or a cinnamon-sugar mixture. Or both :)


Yummy yummy snowflakes! And Zeal just loved the snowflake pattern left on the parchment.:


We never did get around to our tortilla bowls and ended up warming up leftovers. Something for tomorrow's dinner, I guess.

Can you taste-test this for me? Pretty please....

Okay, so truth be told, Zeal is getting a little (okay, a lot) sick of having oatmeal for breakfast. I just love it. I usually slow cook it (putting it on (with a dash of cinnamon while its cooking) as I wake and letting it sit on low for about an hour until everyone else starts to emerge from slumber). I then add some honey or agave, chop some walnuts and toss in some raisins and apple chunks. Finish with a dash of milk (and a cup of coffee), and to me it is the most perfect start to my day. Zeal? Not so much. I hear, "Oatmeal again!" and "Do I have to eat that for breakfast?" To which I usually respond, if you're still hungry afterwards you can make yourself something else. And being a growing boy, he usually is, and he usually does.

So here it is... I kind of feel bad for serving oatmeal 4-5 days a week (the other days he usually gets pancakes, waffles, or something else super fun so don't feel so bad for him, now). But like I said, the mama-guilt has started to settle in. But I do love my oatmeal. So... I tried to compromise.

Here was the result:



Moroccan Oat Surprise (my own little concoction)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3 cups boiling water
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
1 whole clove
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. cardamom
1/4 tsp. turmeric
1/4-1/2 cup raisins
1/4-1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
chopped pecans
sweetener (honey or agave)
milk

Directions: Combine first 7 ingredients and cook on low for 10 minutes, or until water is absorbed and you get the oatmeal texture you desire. Add raisins and apricots and mix. Served with chopped pecans, honey and milk. Make 4 servings.

So here's my dilemma. It actually went over very well with Zeal, but got mixed reviews from others present. So, if you please, would you make this recipe for Moroccan Oats and post a comment or send me an email letting me know what you thought? Pretty, pretty please with honey and pecans on top.

Oh, thank you, thank you!

gingerbread fun

Did you hear? The holidays were here! They came and went as fast as our annual batches of snowball cookies and cinnamon nuts!
I managed to snap a few shots of our never to be missed Gingerbread houses, only this year we had a collective effort with the cousins and made only one house, er, castle. That's right a Gingerbread castle. It was so fun, took three days to plan, bake, and decorate, and was COMPLETELY 100% kid made!

Here it is:




We used this recipe for the gingerbread. So yummy, even if you are using lots of it for walls that aren't being eaten. After all, it also doubles as a recipe that makes good, sturdy walls and such.
And did you hear that Jennifer McCann has a new book out. Check it out!






















I swear I will attempt at getting up some of the photos and recipes we have been working on together sometime very soon. A new year's resolution of sorts. Thanks for being here, continuing to visit even in my brief absence.

What Holly Hobbie Taught Me: or, How to Make the Perfect Pancake on Saturday Morning

In 1979, the year before my baby brother was born and life would change forever, Saturday mornings meant my Holly Hobbie pajama-shirt and a bowl of cereal on a tin TV tray perfectly placed in front of my thin blue and white Holly Hobbie sleeping bag. We’d stay there until the School House Rock videos rounded out the morning and segued into lunchtime. It was then that I’d pack my Holly Hobbie lunchbox with enough goodies to make it through the afternoon and climb onto my Holly Hobbie banana seat bicycle, Holly Hobbie basket and all, and leave the world behind for the rest of the day. You see, I was rather obsessed with her: the bonnet, the prairie dress, the wildflowers, the oh-so-pure little girl who I oh-so-identified with.

It was a simpler time, when it was normal (as opposed to trendy) to make all your own jam, gather fallen leaves and weave them into a crown, and sit in the sagebrush cave in the empty lot next to your house and talk story to your Holly Hobbie doll. But then brothers are born, and life becomes more complicated. Fortunately, someone in my life had the delicate insight to know that a little girl with a new baby brother would want (read “need”) to start doing some cooking for herself every now and again, and I was gloriously gifted Holly Hobbie’s Cookbook, the little book that changed my life. Up until this point in my life I don’t think I had done more than dipped an apple in peanut butter, or put a slice of raisin bread covered in cottage cheese and cinnamon in the toaster oven. But, I found myself suddenly inspired. I began flipping through the pages, marking recipes I wanted to try, and dreaming of time spent cooking with her, my hero, Holly Hobbie.

So the next Saturday morning, I awoke early, as we usually did on Saturday mornings. But instead of rushing for a bowl of cereal and cartoons, I snuck into the kitchen by myself, pulled on my handmade “Ginger” apron, and begin mixing batter with Holly.

Here’s what Holly Hobbie taught me about making the perfect pancake:

1. Your batter should be a little bit lumpy. To this day, I don’t why, but slightly lumpy batter makes pancakes better.

2. Test the griddle. Sprinkle drops of water on the pan. When the water “dances” then the griddle heat is just right. Do NOT attempt to pour your batter on the griddle until it is perfectly ready. It makes all the difference.

3. When the tops of your pancakes are full of bubbles, and only then, turn your pancakes over. Make sure you turn them before the bubbles break. I am not sure how many pancakes I had watched my mom make, but somehow this tip never really stuck with me until Holly said it.

4. Pancakes always taste better when eaten with people you love! Isn’t that the truth? Thanks to Holly and her pancakes, Saturday mornings mean pancakes. Thirty years later and life has become even more complicated. Two kids. A mortgage. The question of whether or not to spend my precious time “tweeting”. Where is my Holly Hobbie cookbook now that I really need it? Time to go digging.

Old-fashioned Buttermilk Pancakes(not exactly Holly’s, but with all the love)

Ingredients:
1 egg*
1 ½ cups buttermilk**
2 T. vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
*To make vegan, use Ener-G egg replacer for eggs
**To make vegan, substitute 1 cup soy milk and 1 T. vinegar

Directions:
Blend egg, milk and oil. Blend dry ingredients and add to liquids. Heat griddle. When water sizzles, your griddle is hot enough. Pour batter onto greased griddle from pitcher or tip of large spoon in pools slightly apart. Turn pancakes as soon as they are puffed and full of bubbles, but before bubbles break. Turn and brown on other side. Serve with pure maple syrup and butter. Makes ten 4” pancakes.

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!