Pumpkin Gingersnap Ice Cream Sandwiches

One of my favourite things about Fall is the flavours.  Try this together - pumpkin ice cream, sandwiched in ginger snaps. (I recommend Trader Joe's brand - Yum!)  I'm a fan.

Homemade Sushi

A few weeks ago we were lucky enough to have Uncle Travis visit. Besides being a great guy, he helped us make homemade sushi. (Michael and Travis are his and Aunt Adrianne's kids - who made us sushi before)  

C was so excited! "You can put whatever you want on it!!"

The boys loved it so much we tried again last night. Uncle travis was quoted many times and apparently C and E payed much more attention to the instructions than I did,

"Mom that's not how Uncle Travis said to roll it."
"Mom leave more room at the top without rice."
"Mom you need more vinegar on your hands."

C enjoyed the making process, but tentatively tried his first bite.  After that he loved it!

Overall a big success and fun to make something so hands on.  We'll keep perfecting our technique and still have a lot to learn. Thanks Travis!

Dad's Saturday Morning Pancakes

Luke's Wheat Germ Whole-Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes
INGREDIENTS

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup wheat germ
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium bowl, mix eggs with oil and buttermilk. Stir in baking soda, wheat germ, salt and flour; mix until blended.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium-high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides, turning once.

Make your own coloured sugar

So this is a trick my sister Nicole taught me, I thought I'd share.  It is so much cheaper than buying a tiny jar of coloured sugar. It is super easy, fast, fun and you can do any colour.  I use gel food colouring and I love it because you don't need very much to make vibrant colours and there are so many shades! (not a sponsered ad I just like it).  

So now for the instructions:
Put the amount of sugar you want to colour in a plastic bag with a seal. 
Add a couple drops of colour

Mush it/shake it around. the colour will spread through the sugar in the bag 

You might see dark coloured lumps - smush those into the sugar the lumps are just the dye.

If you trust the seal of the bag, it is a great thing for kids to help with - shaking up the sugar and watching the colour change.

It is ready when your colour is even. Isn't it pretty? Great for cookie decorating!
It

Conveyor Belt Sushi - The fun goes round and round

If you haven't introduced your kids to sushi, here is a great way to do it - Conveyor Belt Sushi.  They get to pick their own food as it goes by and they actually eat it (with kid friendly chopsticks)!

 C choose his plates based on how they looked.  He determined he is a big fan of the California roll Tuna rolls. E surprised me and basically choose something if it's name sounded cool - like the spider roll below and the dragon roll.

 For the non-sushi eaters there is usually other plates - this noodle salad was tasty, they also had edemame, Tempura and even some chicken thing.

My favourite was a veggie roll - this had avocado, cucumber and tofu all wrapped up. I do like spicy tuna rolls too.

 This is how a ninja eats sushi apparently (oh yeah and it doesn't hurt to try a new food that comes from the land of ninjas, because if those guys eat it it must be powerful stuff.)

  See the row of covered plates on the conveyor belt behind us? So much to choose from...half the fun was spotting what you wanted and grabbing it as it went by, we had to make a rule 1 plate per person at a time.

 E's favourite after trying the dragon roll turned out to be eel (below). yep that's right, who doesn't like a slab of eel on rice?

  This is Blue C Sushi in Fremont. (not a sponsor, we just loved it).  Each colour of plate is a different price, ranging from $1.50-$5.50 When you are ready for your check they count your stack.

Since eating here we have ordered sushi at other places and it's even been a pick for lunch at the grocery store.  It was a great way to introduce them to something new, and they could discover their favourites.  However I don't think I'll be fixing any eel at home any time soon...

In the Kitchen: Mash-up Strawberry Style

Spring is such a yummy time of year, especially in the NW when the strawberries are fresh!

There are so many great things to make with strawberries, let's start with jam. Freezer jam is my favourite because it tastes the most like fresh strawberries.  Plus, it's really easy. We just picked up some pectin and followed the directions in the box.  Kids can do a lot making jam - washing, hulling (I have this great little huller that's not too sharp, but a grapefruit spoon would work well too), and of course - mashing!

Seeing these filled jam jars makes me feel so domestic...I'm still not sure if it turned out :)

Snack Attack - Mini PB and Honey

The boys loved being empowered today to make their own snack (and mess), they loved making and eating each miniture sandwich.  It was pretty sticky and gooey, but nothing they couldn't clean up themselves.  Sometimes I think when I do everything for them they are missing out.  It was fun to watch them feel so confident making their own food.  Very simple too - crackers, peanut butter (a couple of spoonfuls (in a bowl, not to contaminate the entire jar with crumbs and licked fingers), honey (we get ours at the market, fresh and local)  and a bowl of sliced bananas.

Hakuna Frittata

 It is that time of year again for egg recipes.  If you are trying to plan ahead and blow out your eggs, here is a great meal to use up the eggs or for Easter Brunch.

This comes from one of my favourite cookbooks is Mark Bittman's  How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (He actually has a regular How to Cook Everything for those of you carnivores out there).  The reason I like the book is he actually teaches you how to cook things rather than giving exact recipes and he includes variations for each recipe.

Here is the basic recipe

Preheat oven to 400F
3-4 precooked sliced potatoes (I always make extra roasted Potatoes the night before so I have leftovers but you can microwave, boil, whatever)
A medium thinly sliced onion
Add some oil to a large, oven-proof, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat
stir in onions (and any other veggies that need sauteing) until opaque then add sliced potatoes
Saute until onions are caramelized
Add salt and pepper

in a separate bowl beat 5-6 eggs with some salt and pepper in a large bowl add a cup of whatever cheese (Parmesan, mozzarella, pepper-jack, etc.) and herbs that will go with your other ingredients (see ideas below).

Pour egg mixture over the veggies and immediately turn the heat down to medium-low. Use a spoon if necessary to even out the top of the frittata. Cook, undisturbed, until the mixture firms up on the bottom (10-15 minutes-ish) Then transfer to the oven.  Bake until the top is just cooked, about 10 minutes more.

2 versions of this we like that I've thrown together -
Tex-Mex: also Black beans, corn (I throw in a handful of frozen), a little chili powder,  1/4 cup of salsa and for cheese pepper-jack or Monterrey/cheddar mix)

Broccoli (bite-size), red kidney beans, paprika, Parmesan

Just potatoes and fresh rosemary

Cupcakes for class...

As part of the birthday week plans there's always the treats for the school class.  Luckily our class has no allergies so homemade treats are allowed. Funfetti Cake mix (Yes mix, baking is not a skill of mine), buttercream frosting (which I did make but it's not too smooth but 5/6 yr-olds are not too picky about aesthetics), topped with strips of stripped old-fashioned toffee I stumbled on.  Kind of festive, right?

Gingerbread, Sugar Cookies and Sprinkles

An Entire Suburb of Gingerbread Houses

My friend Jenn G. is one of those people you feel very lucky to know. Honestly, I don't just love her for her gingerbread. She is a truly amazing person, fun, generous and kind. But let's focus on the gingerbread for a moment here. She had this party amazingly orchestrated.

1. She didn't just invite a couple of friends - there were 30+ kids there! The lower right corner picture is just the first wave of gingerbread houses on the block. Seriously, the buildings sprawled all over the kitchen.

2. Homemade gingerbread, her own template for the houses and enough for each child to decorate and take their own - did I mention how many kids there were?

3. Homemade icing with Meringue powder that was a fantastic cement and tasty (not that I licked my fingers)

4. She had each house sorted so all the pieces were ready on a plate for each child. 2 roof pieces, 4 sides, two with windows, one with a door, two with roof points, a door, a tree, and two gingerbread guys! (did I mention how many kids there were?)

5. She had amazing amounts and assortment of candy - all the necessities and cool extras like chocolate rocks?

6. She had older girls helping ice/glue the houses together - the hardest part, which they made look easy.

7. She had the kids work in shifts and other activities running simultaneously - LEGO building in one room, trains in another and even a Christmas movie for those that needed some down time.

8. She had healthy snacks - apple slices and carrot sticks and kids ate them (mine too) How did she do that with all that candy around?

9. She had a candy system - it was all up on the bar in containers and the kids each got to come choose a cupful at a time to decorate with.

10. She keep things tidy, she looked put together in a cute Christmas apron, she remained breezy, cheery, festive and positive through the ENTIRE party, even with some twists like kids running around or letting the dog.

THANK YOU JENN! You are AMAZING!++++

Countdown Activity - Gingerbread Cookies

Sometimes don't you have one of those days...you want to do something fun and interesting to celebrate Christmas but haven't prepared anything. This is when I pull out a cookie mix and store bought icing. Let's be honest some days a cookie is a cookie and if it isn't great-aunt Hazel's recipe it doesn't matter, the kids still get to mash cookie dough, cut out, bake and eat cookies fresh from the oven...They aren't exactly worthy to serve the Queen, but consider it practise for the real cookie making in the future...

Scary Cookies

Would it be Halloween without scary sugar cookies? We made some pumpkins, bats and ghosts. So the secret to make your cookies literally scary is not great decorating, but because of the overworked, grubbiness of the dough that is licked, half-eaten, poked and prodded during the making process. I cannot recommend actually eating the cookies, but my kids don't mind. It is fun and we maybe have a repeat of this before Halloween, because this small batch of cookies didn't last long enough to get frosted!