When Can We Make My Recipe?

"Mama, when can we make my recipe?"  Mia asks me.  I try and distract her.

A few minutes later, "Mama, when can we make my recipe?"  I tell her she should get her pretend mixer out and mix it up! 

A few minutes later, "Mama, it isn't pretend, it's real.  It is that green drink we had the other day with Aunt Daphne, ki weed."  I try not to laugh.

First of all, we didn't have a green drink with Aunt Daphne.  While waiting for the carousel to open I bought everyone smoothies, strawberry banana for us and orange for Daphne at the Orange Julius stand.  As you can see we didn't drink anything green, and none of them had kiwi. 

"First we have to get grass, and then the grass will turn into ki weed.  Then we need brown and wipe sugar.  And those colors you had, orange and red."  Oh my, this is involved.

"We need to put the grass in the big mixer."   Whoa, whoa, whoa, you want to me to put grass in a bowl and mix it with my mixer?  I try and go the pretend route again, no go.

Sometimes, you just got to go with the flow.

"Okay, go out and get some grass.  But we aren't using the mixer, you can stir with a spoon."

Mia proceeds to put 3 blades of grass in a bowl.  She gets out the sugar, both brown and white, and adds a few tablespoons of each.  Then she has me put in some water.  Yum.  Then we get out the food color, except I don't have red so we use orange and blue.  She mixes.

"We need some of those cranberries."  I can see she has been eyeing the cabinet and has decided to start improvising, she spotted the prunes and decided to throw one of those in.  I know that I need to bring this to a close otherwise we are going to start adding eye of newt and it is going to get disgusting.

"Okay, but that is it.  Recipe is done after I add the "cranberry"."  She agrees to this.  We add one prune and she starts hacking away at it. 

"Mama, you mix it up.  It doesn't mix up for me."  Then we get into a discussion about skin and fruit and I think she gets a little grossed out. 

"Okay, we're done."

"Mama, can I lick the spoon?"  Sure, knock yourself out.

"Mama, can you pour it into a glass for me?"  Well, it is just colored sugar water.  The prune is good for her and never really got ground up anyway.  But the grass is in there and for some reason I have to draw a line. 

"We don't eat grass, Mia.  You can have a very small sip and that is it.  We don't eat grass."  So I give her the smallest of amounts and she slurps it up.  Hmm. 

"It's good!"  Yuk

Yummy Stuff - Peanut Brittle and Zucchini Bread

So many great recipes for the holidays.  Here are two that will become staples in my house.

Peanut Brittle

Mom's Best Peanut Brittle by Allrecipes.com

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1 cup peanuts
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1.Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.  Make sure to measure out your peanuts, butter and soda ahead of time so that you can keep stirring while you are dumping these in.


2.In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in peanuts. Set candy thermometer in place, and continue cooking. Stir frequently until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard and brittle threads.


3.Remove from heat; immediately stir in butter or margarine and baking soda; pour at once onto cookie sheet. With 2 forks, lift and pull peanut mixture into rectangle about 14x12 inches (lifting and pulling didn't work so well for me it is really helpful to poor this on something that will cook it quickly, either glass or marble.  Also, pour it thinly so you can do less pulling.); cool. Snap candy into pieces.
 
Yield: 1 pound of super yummy brittle!
 
Zucchini Bread
by The Muffin Lady, Linda Fisher
 
Ingredients
 
2 cups grated zucchini (including the peel)
1 cup oil (I substitute half the oil with 1/2 cup of flax seed with enough water to soak through)
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cardomom (I didn't have this and didn't include it in the recipe)
1/3 teaspoon mace
1/2 cup chopped toasted almonds (optional)
 
Directions
 
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Combine the zucchini, oil, eggs, and sugar.  Sift together the dry ingredients and gradually add them to the zucchini mix.  Blend in the nuts.  Bake in a 4 by 8 inch loaf pan for 45 minutes.
 
Yield:  8-12 servings

My kids call this "cornbread" when I use the flax because it is ever slightly grainy on top like cornmeal tends to be.  But this is really moist and lovely.  I would like to eliminate all the oil next time I make it and add in some applesauce. 

Cookie Exchange - Pressure for the Perfect Cookie

As a transplant stay at home mom, let's just say it hasn't been super easy to make friends in a city where I swear no one leaves. Everyone was born or raised here and they are still best friends with their preschool classmates, just try breaking into those circles. I am not the most social person, I tend toward being a good listener and a confidante. I am not usually the first person you think of when deciding to plan a party. But I have really been working on my friend list. That all being said, when I do get an invitation I get pretty excited about it. (I could really use a book club invite, for all of those locals reading!)

I am going to a cookie exchange this week in the neighborhood. My back door neighbor invited me (second year in a row). Last year, I brought a shortbread cookie with a ganache stripe on top. Yummy, rolled and cut out like Christmas trees they were really cute, but a lot of work. Shortbread really has a tendency to be brittle and I scorched one batch, so to get 4 dozen I had to pray over the cookies that they would make it until the day of the party. Jeff kept eating the pretty ones, I had to inform him in a not so nice tone that he would be making new cookies for me if he wasn't careful. He could have the deformed, burnt and broken cookies but the beautiful golden cookies were for the ladies at the exchange.

Last year's party was during the day and I had Mia with me. She managed to poop while we were there so I had to change a poopy diaper at the party (thank goodness the host is a grandmother of a zillion little ones and was completely wonderful about it). Most of the ladies who came were a bit older than me, which also put me at ease a little. And the cookies that came, although all were very yummy, they weren't slaved over. Most were drop cookies or thumbprint cookies, which of course are super yummy but don't require blood, sweat or prayers. (One lady did bring pizzelles which seem very labor intensive.)

So this year, I am choosing the yummiest "winter" cookie I know that is attractive but EASY. (Did I mention I have a 4 year old and a 3 year old?) Here is the recipe for Sorghum Cookies (sorghum is molasses and it gives them a richer taste, it is almost like a dark, rich sugar cookie). So yummy and they store well. They are the perfect chewy cookie with a hot drink or cold glass of milk. My mother makes this every year along with many others that are delicious. I am also leaving the guilty three year old at home as the party is in the evening this year. So she will be off in Dreamland if I keep my fingers crossed just right by the time I get home.

I will post a picture of them when I am done. Said cookies are still sitting in all of their glorious ingredients in my cabinet and refrigerator - they need to get busy! And for the love of skinny jeans, halve this recipe before you make it. Unless you are going to a cookie exchange you do not need 8 dozen of these cookies!

SORGHUM COOKIES

INGREDIENTS:
SHORTENING 2 CUPS
OIL 1 CUP
SUGAR 4 CUPS
SORGHUM 1 CUP
EGGS 4
SODA 8 tsps
FLOUR 8 CUPS
CLOVES 2 tsps
GINGER 2 tsps
CINNAMON 4 tsps
SALT 2 tsps

Mix ingredients in order, shape into ball (1 lg tsp )similar to a peanut butter cookie. Place on cookie sheet, flatten with a glass bottom dipped in sugar. Bake at 350’ for 8-10 min, until golden brown. Bake longer for crispier cookies.
These store well covered or frozen.

Makes 108 cookies - around 8 dozen.