Kid Food

I've noticed a bit of a direction change in my cooking. I mean, my absolute favorite recipe I've found this year has been for spaghetti and meatballs! I'm definitely not taking a lot of chances. I'm sure that's because I'm cooking for a four-year-old and a six-year-old everyday and I expect them to eat what I make. It's fine with me, though- I really do love that spaghetti and meatballs. I'll have plenty of time to try that recipe for Penang Curried Pumpkin and Prawn Soup that I've been holding onto. And until now, I've never really been into preparing food that is all about "kid-appeal" and less about taste, but my kids are old enough to enjoy it and I think it's pretty fun. I mean look at these fun cheesy witch fingers I made for Franny's Halloween party at school:

The girls and I made these on Saturday afternoon between Halloween activities. I think they are so cute!! I found the chocolate dough a little hard to work with, so I ended up just pinching off two small pieces for each cookie and smashing them under a drinking glass.

Owl Cookies from Tangled and True

Ingredients:

This dough is enough to make a large batch of cookies for Halloween school parties or Halloween home parties.

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tsp. Baking powder

1/2 tsp. Ground sea salt

1 1/2 sticks organic butter

1 1/3 cup white sugar

2 large eggs

4 tsp. vanilla

1/2 package semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix the dry ingredients well in bowl. Cream the butter and add sugar to dry ingredients. Beat eggs and vanilla separately then add slowly to mixture. Blend well.

Separate the dough. Take approximately 1/3 of the dough and mix in half a package of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips. The dough will become chocolate dough and form a log. Roll the dough very quickly before the chocolate solidifies. Make sure it is a solid roll. Cover with wax paper and put in the refrigerator.

With the remaining vanilla dough (white) roll it out in a long rectangular shape, this dough will be the outer later that will encase the chocolate log. It should resemble a bulls-eye, an outer vanilla layer, with the inner chocolate roll. Wrap the log in wax paper and refrigerate until firm. Wait at least 2 hours or you can freeze the dough a head of time for up to one month.

When ready to assemble the owls place the semi-sweet chocolate chip in a small bowl for easy access. Place the cashews in another small bowl.

(If there are nut allergies you can substitute with candy corn for the nose)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease the cookie sheets with butter. Cut the logs into 1/8-slices. On the cookie sheet join the two slices together, by pinching them. Slightly pinch the two opposite sides of the rounds into pointy ear shapes. Place a chocolate chip upside down in the center of each chocolate eye. Then place the cashew embedded into the center of the two joined circles. It is now complete.

Continue the same process. Place the cookies about 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees, for about 10 minutes. Watch closely until lightly browned. Remove and cool on a cookie rack.

Thanksgiving Dinner cupcakes. I found these on familyfun.go. I cannot believe how cute these are!!!! The mashed potatoes- cream cheese frosting with a little cinnamon (pepper). The peas- non-pareils for cake decorating. Cranberry sauce- red crystal sugar. Turkey- pie crust baked and broken into small bits to look like turkey slices with a little hershey's syrup over top as gravy.

I think the cupcakes were a big hit with the girls. :)

Prize-Winning Pies and Cupcakes

Whenever we visit the Eastern Idaho State Fair- which is considerably often, considering we live in Missouri- my favorite displays to look at are the prize-winning pies. It's a facet of small town America I didn't get to witness first hand growing up in Southern California, but I remember reading about in books like Charlotte's Web. So I was thrilled when I found out that Kirksville was having an apple pie contest and a cupcake contest the weekend of the 4th!

It all started when my friend Marie told me she and her daughter were going to enter cupcakes in the contest and would we like to as well? Uh, yes please! There's a blog I love to poke around at called Bakerella- have you ever tried her Thank you Betty bars? I thought I'd check her blog out for any great 4th of July themed cupcakes. Instead I found these hamburger cupcakes she made for Father's Day. Could you just die?! It was so easy. I knew those were the ones.

I baked a yellow cake mix in the cups (2/3 full), as per the suggestion of her highness, the one and only Bakerella. I sliced them into thirds and kept only the top and bottom pieces as the buns. I used my 1/4 cup measuring cup to cut brownies (mix) into circles. Hamburger Patties! So brilliant! I bought vanilla frosting, mixed yellow, green, and red food coloring into three separate portions of it and piped them onto the top of the patties using only ziplock baggies with small tips cut off. Then a little water brushed on the tops with a pastry brush and few sesame seed shakes and we achieved the most adorable cupcake I have absolutely ever seen.


The girls had fun. Well, Franny and Corrinne had fun. Sophie was only interested in eating Corrinne's jelly bean corn kernels. Isn't this idea adorable as well? It comes from a book called Hello Cupcake that I went ahead and ordered for my best friend Annie for her birthday. I'm glad you like it!!

Then we patiently waited for the results. A couple of brothers took 3rd place, Corrinne's corn on the cob took 2nd and WOOHOO, Franny took 1st. It was so exciting. She has not been able to stop talking about it since it happened. "Mommy, did they give me a "congratulations" (first place ribbon)?" "Mommy, did they call my name?" "Mommy, did I win first place at the cupcake contest?" "Mommy, what does hamburger cupcake mean? So it's not real?" It's been a good opportunity for us to help her with skills at recalling events. She keeps going up to people and saying things like, "They called my name!" And that's it. So we can say, why did they call your name? where were you when they called your name? etc. It was a great moment, except I felt so bad for Sophie. Corrinne's name was called, Franny's name was called and she kept asking for her turn. It was so sad. She was too young to enter the contest, but of course she helped with the cupcakes. She was so upset I had to take her out when they were taking pictures of the winners, so thank you Marie for snapping this shot for me.

I went online to read about the Kirksville holiday events and the cupcake rules and I discovered that there was an apple pie contest as well. HOT DOG! I love baking pies. There is something so gratifying in making your own crust and having it lay perfectly in the pan and crimping the edges decoratively with your fingers. And then the way it makes your house smell while it bakes. The salty, flaky crust paired with the sweet filling. I just love pies. I usually only make apple pies in the fall, though, when there are better apples to choose from. But I went for it anyway. If Granny Smith are good enough for Ina Garten's recipe, then they're food enough for me too. I actually tried a new recipe. I looked for one that was similar to my friend Bill Brady's, though, as he is naturally the master apple pie-maker. His crust recipe uses all shortening and doesn't call for any sugar. I really like the absence of sugar, but I am a true butter snob. So I turned to 101 cookbooks. I trust her recipes, they have never done me wrong. Actually, what really sold me on her recipe was the butterfly cutout on top of her pie. I started looking for a good summery cookie-cutter, and found this star that came with a set that Annie (BFF who I gave the cookbook to) gave me for my birthday last year. Perfect! The recipe is nothing fancy. I brushed an egg wash on top of the crust and dusted it with cinnamon sugar. I followed the recipe pretty closely except I used only a dash of allspice instead of the 1/4 tsp or so the recipe calls for.


So after the cupcake contest results were given, they auctioned off some donated pies and we continued to wait for the apple pie contest results. My pie took second place! I was thrilled! Franny was thrilled for me, too. The rest of the night she was making up songs about it. Waving her little ribbon around and singing, "Katherine and Franny, you did a good job, congratulations!" We had to bring two pies- one for judging and one for auctioning off. My pie was sold for $22.50. The first place pie, an apple pecan streusel pie, sold for a whopping $90! Ninety bucks for a pie! It was Bobby's first night on call at the hospital, so it was a girls' night out. After the contests were over, we were walking to the car and passed Pagliai's, a local pizza joint. We ducked in and shared a small pizza and a big root beer. (Jayne, you were right. That is kid's pizza for sure. Although I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. It reminded me of my youth and I found myself wanting to order a side of ranch for dipping like I used to at Chuck E Cheese's.) Franny wanted me to take pictures of her making these scary hand gestures accompanied with varied emotional faces. You'll find happy, sad, scared, surprised... Sophie wanted in on the fun, too.

Coconut Cupcakes

Coconut Cupcakes
from the Barefoot Contessa cookbook

Oh baby, I love these babies. They are so moist and delicious and the cream cheese frosting is to die for. It makes a lot. I cut this entire recipe in half but otherwise followed it exactly. (I cannot make a recipe that calls for a pound and a half of butter. I just can't do it.) I still end up getting 15 cupcakes out of this recipe.

3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 extra-large eggs at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons pure almond extract
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk
14 ounces sweetened, shredded coconut
For the frosting:
1 pound cream cheese at room temperature
3/4 pound (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract
1 1/2 pounds confectioners' sugar, siftedPreheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on low speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. Add the vanilla and almond extracts and mix well.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In 3 parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in 7 ounces of coconut.
Line a muffin pan with paper liners. Fill each liner to the top with batter. Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the tops are brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Remove to a baking rack and cool completely.
Meanwhile, make the frosting. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on low speed, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the confectioners' sugar and mix until smooth.
Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with the remaining coconut.