Baby L’s tot “school” this week is focused on farm and farm animals, so for WFLW, I made pigs.

Ham and cheese on whole wheat, corn and peaches.  For baby L, I popped another slice of bread on top of the pig, glued it with a little cream cheese and quartered it.  She had smaller portion of corn and peaches (which were peeled and more thinly sliced)

 {I can’t actually get any wflw posts to come up, so I guess I’m flying solo!}

Inspired by Annabel Karmel’s Chicken Sausage Snails from First Meals (one of my favorite 0-5 cookbooks, and my lifesaver when I suddenly became a first time parent of an 8 month old).

Snail bodies are chicken breast, grated apple, diced onion, parsley, fresh breadcrumbs and a little bit of curry powder, pulsed until smooth-ish in a food processor,  rolled into a mixture of flour and panko and pan fried.  The (completely disproportionate and oversized) shells are leftover mashed potato made into cakes.  The “sun” in the bowl is leftover fruit juice and yogurt broth from the “Pink Fruit Soup” kidlet made yesterday and mandarin oranges.  The salad “grass” received a ranch dressing fertilization before Kidlet would actually eat it.

Baby L loved the sausages and potato, but spit out the salad.  Kidlet ate his salad, the fruit, and a few bites of everything else and said he was full.  Who knows?!

I didn’t follow the recipe precisely, but the official version follows:

Chicken Sausage Snails

 

375 g (12 oz) raw, skinned boneless chicken breast

1 small onion, finely chopped

1/2 T. fresh parsley, chopped

1/2 chicken stock cube, crumbled

1 small apple, peeled & grated

2 tbsp breadcrumbs

Flour for coating

Vegetable oil for frying

 

500g (1 lb) potatoes, into chunks1 tbsp milk

15 g (1/2 oz) butter

 

Shredded cabbage

1 carrot, into thin slices

Frozen peas

Tomato ketchup

 

Put the chicken, onion, parsley, crumbled stock cube, apple and breadcrumbs into a food processor. Chop for a few seconds. Form the mixture into 4 sausages each about 12 cm (5 inches) long. Spread the flour on a plate and use to coat the sausages. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the sausages and sauté for about 15 minutes, turning occasionally or until browned on all sides and cook through. Meanwhile, place the potatoes in the bottom of a steamer, cover with water and cook until tender. Five minutes before the potatoes are cooked put the vegetables for decorating in the top of the steamer and cook until tender. Mash the potatoes with the milk and butter. To assemble, form the potato into 4 dome shapes (maybe you could use an ice-cream scoop) or you could create a spiral (using an piping bag). Decorate to create the spiral snail shell pattern using ketchup. Put a chicken sausage underneath each dome of potato. Use the steamed carrot sticks and peas to make the snails feelers, mouth and eyes. Arrange the cabbage as grass!

One of the sites that I like to visit is Little Nummies.  Kellie has a brilliant way of looking at food, taking common kid friendly ingredients that most moms would have on hand and elevating them into something cute for children.  Her culinary creations aren’t usually something you can transalte directly to a bento, but I often leave there thinking “I wouldn’t have thought to use [food X] in that way”, with inspiration for making it my own and making it work in a bento lunch. 

Since I am not making packed lunches right now (although we have day camp next week, so I’m planning on some cute summery or sports themed (its a sports camp) ones!), I’ve been trying to just make breakfasts and lunches a little bit fun and keep my hand in. Kellie recently posted Oscar the Oyster, and I thought I would make one as well.

Mine didn’t turn out nearly as cute.  Her pancakes stayed nice and flat so the top “shell” didn’t sink down on the sides like mine and it looks more mollusk like.  I made an oat bran pancake for the extra healthiness and they were just too thick and soft to maintain a crisp edge when propped up.  My banana eyes are out of proportion with my cake too.  And my chocolate chip eyes wouldn’t stick so I melted them a little and they smeared all over.

I added the blueberry “sea”, which I made by heating up fresh blueberries in a little bit of water and white grape juice until they popped, then I tossed in some new berries at the end for texture and a little squeeze of lemon for some brightness in flavor.  I thought that I might need to add a little cornstarch to thicken it up, but I left it cooking a little bit too long (caught it just this side of burning, eep!) and that thickened it up enough to make a nice syrup without any added thickeners.

Despite the flaws that I see, Kidlet said “Awwww, that’s so cute ma!” and gobbled it right up.  That’s what counts in the end!

Here comes summer!  Who is ready?!

First, choose a container that suits the personality of the person who will be using the kit. It might be a traditional basket, a large canvass bag, or even a small backpack. 

Next, use the list below as a guideline for what to keep in your kit. Maybe you won’t need all of the items, but these are good essentials to have on hand so you’ll always be prepared for spur of the moment picnics.

A blanket or sheet to spread the whole thing out on, should you need or want to sit on the ground

Utensils — forks, knives, spoons, plates

Cloth Napkins

Corkscrew (if serving wine) and can opener, or better yet, multi-tooled Swiss Army knife.

Cutting boards for slicing or assembling foods

Sharp knife

Anti-bacterial gel to clean hands before handling food is also useful

Non-perishable foods — dried fruit, peanut butter, crackers, nuts, etc.

Beverages – bottled water, juice boxes, etc.

Salt and pepper, either small shakers or disposable packets.

Basic condiments – ketchup, mustard, relish – collect extra packets from trips to fast food restaurants or look in the grocery store for small non-glass containers of your favorite condiments and sauces.

Flashlight

If you like to grill, you’ll also need a lighter or matches, charcoal, lighter fluid, and grilling utensils

A large trash bag to clean up the mess later.

A small plastic bag containing sunscreen, lip balm, insect repellent, band-aids, wet naps and a bandana.

If you bring your dog along, don’t forget a bowl, water, and food for the pooch.

Options:  You might also want to pack some fun extras, depending on the amount of room in your container:

CD Player

Single use camera

Inflatable beach ball

Frisbee

Small bottle of bubble mix

Deck of cards, crossword puzzle book, etc.

I am not participating in the FNCCC this week.  It is Duff Goldman, the cake guy.  He’s got a few recipes from food network magazine that are a grill menu (not happening; its below freezing here) and otherwise the plan is to decorate cakes or cupcakes.

I don’t bake!

It’s stressful and not relaxing and un-fun to me.  Measurements must be too precise.  Besides, no one around here needs any sweets.

Head over to I Blame My Mother for this weeks Food Network Chef Cooking Challenge to hear what folks that DO bake did though!

Week 13 – Dave Lieberman

I forgot last week was an off week, which is a good thing.  I’ve been sick this week, and probably wouldn’t have gotten my recipe made.

I picked his Black Bean Soup.

10 slices bacon, finely chopped

2 medium onions, chopped (about 2 1/2 cups)

6 garlic cloves, pressed

1 (14 1/2-ounce) can reduced-sodium chicken broth

1 1/2 cups canned chopped tomatoes

2 tablespoons ketchup

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon chili powder

4 (15 1/2-ounce) cans black beans, drained but not rinsed

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 bunch cilantro

juice of 1/2 lime

Thinly sliced scallions, for garnish

Sour cream, for garnish

Grated cheddar, for garnish

Put the bacon into a large heavy pot and place it over medium heat. Cook until it starts to give up its fat, about 4 minutes. Stir in the onions and cook, stirring, until they start to turn translucent, about 4 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until you can smell it, about 1 minute.



Add the broth, tomatoes, ketchup, Worcestershire, and chili powder. Stir in the beans, turn the heat to high and bring to a boil. Adjust the heat so the soup is bubbling gently and cook 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.





Meanwhile, pick off all the thick stems from the cilantro. Wash it and shake dry. Chop the cilantro coarsely and stir it into the soup when it has been simmering 10 minutes. cook until the soup is thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lime juice. Serve with the garnishes

I followed the recipe to the letter up until the point of adding the beans (well, I halved the recipe, and used homemade stock instead of canned broth).  Then I tasted it and to me, it tasted like nothing except salt.  Now, we are sensitive to salt around here.  I don’t add it much when I’m cooking, nor do we salt at the table.  About 6 years ago  cut it out of my diet for health reasons, and because my hubby was diagnosed with high blood pressure.  So maybe a normal salter wouldn’t think so, but to me it was like a salt lick.

So I started looking for something to dilute it a bit and give it more flavor than just salt.  I added an extra couple cups of stock (homemade, no salt), and some cooked ground beef (from the freezer) and a can of diced green chilis — which is why the final result isn’t just a black bean soup   After letting it simmer long enough for the meat to come up to temperature, I added the cilantro as directed and served. At that point it was edible.  Kidlet and I enjoyed it.  DH was ill and sleeping and didn’t try it.

Linked to the Food Netowrk Cooking Challenge at I Blame My Mother.  Check out more Dave Lieberman recipes this week!

 Week 12 – Danny Boome

This week’s chef for the Food Network Chef Cooking Challenge is Danny Boome.  Never heard of him!  I checked out his food network recipes as well as his recipes from his UK show.  I was just uninspired.  I’d wanted to a beef recipe to use up some of the meat in the big freezer, but his beef selections (either on food network or on his UK show) were very limited — mostly to whole roasts / tenderloins.  I finally picked a simple roasted vegetable dish. 

Roasted Carrots and Parsnips with Thyme

 

1 pound carrots

1 pound parsnips

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

2 tablespoons honey

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

6 sprigs fresh thyme

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Peel the carrots and parsnips and cut them in half lengthwise, larger ones can be quartered.

 

 

Place them on a large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle the carrots and parsnips with the olive oil and honey. Season with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Scatter the thyme sprigs on top.

 

 

Place them in the preheated oven.  After 10 minutes, give the veggies a toss and put back in the oven for another 10 minutes until the vegetables are soft and slightly caramelized. Serve warm.

 

I cut my parsnips into 1/8’s instead of the halves or quarters suggested because they were really fat and I wanted them the same size as the carrots.  It took slightly longer than the 20 minutes listed here to get them cooked, even cut down to size.  An extra 5-8 minutes and they were soft as I like them.

What we thought?  Too sweet.  Carrots and parsnips are already very sweet vegetables.  Roasting brings that out more.  Add in the honey and I thought they were almost cloyingly sweet.  Yuck.   

I thought that would make them successful with the kidlet.  He said he liked them when I asked but when I said, “should I make them again?” he quickly said No thanks! So I think he was being polite

Be sure to check out the linky over at I Blame My Mother for more Danny recipe reviews!

 Week 11 – Daisy Martinez

This week’s Food Network Chef Cooking Challenge features Daisy Martinez.  Although fairly new to food network, she also has a PBS show, and her own website.  Her own personal site had a lot more recipe choices than the Food Network listing. Still, I ended up choosing my recipe from a Food and Wine Magazine article.  For some reason, several there spoke to me, which didn’t happen looking on food networks site.

I narrowed it down to Salmon Fillets with Leek Fondue (hubby would like this, but its not at all Latin, and since that is what she is known for, I really wanted something with those flavors), Peruvian Beef and Noodle Stew (I thought this sounded the best, but knew the boys wouldn’t like the big chunks of peppers and things, and the one I finally chose: Hearty Braised Chicken Legs.  

I made a couple of small changes.  First I used thighs only instead of whole leg quarters, because they were on sale and I’m not a big drumstick fan anyway.  Second, I used sliced baby bella mushrooms because I just wrote “mushrooms” on my shopping list and didn’t realize that I needed them whole in order to quarter them.  I don’t think either substitution made a substantial difference.

Miracle of Miracles, my camera actually functioned properly and I have pictures to go with my post this week! 

Hearty Braised Chicken Legs

  

Recipe by Daisy Martinez

 

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 whole chicken legs, cut into thighs and drumsticks (2 pounds)

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

3/4 pound white mushrooms, quartered

3 garlic cloves

1 medium onion, quartered

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

1 cup tomato sauce

 

This was more than 4 pounds of chicken, I only used half

In a very large skillet, heat the vegetable oil. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and add to the skillet, skin side down. Cook over high heat, turning once, until browned, about 8 minutes.

 

 

  

Transfer the chicken to a plate and pour off all but 3 tablespoons of the fat. Add the mushrooms to the skillet and cook them over moderate heat, undisturbed, until they begin to brown on the bottom, about 2 minutes.

  

  

Meanwhile, in a food processor, puree the garlic cloves with the onion and cilantro leaves. [I didn't want to dirty the big food processor, and since DH does dishes and whines when I do anyway I just used the little magic bullet.  For pureeing, it works fine]

  

 

Add the garlic and onion puree to the mushrooms and cook over moderate heat until very fragrant, about 1 minute.

 

 

Stir in the tomato sauce. Return the chicken legs to the skillet and bring to a simmer.

 

 

Cover and simmer the sauce until the chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes.

 

 

Season the braised chicken legs with salt and pepper, transfer them to plates and serve with the sauce.

 

Serve with white rice.

I thought it was delicious.  The sauce on the rice was so good!  I would use it as pasta sauce, over grits, on any meat.  YUM!  I don’t think you could make it without the chicken though, as the rendered chicken skin fat is used to cook the mushrooms, and there is a subtle (but definitely there) meaty chicken flavor throughout the sauce. 

The kidlet is still refusing to eat meat of any kind, and didn’t want to brave the sauce on his rice.  Picky DH wouldn’t admit that he liked it (he objects to new recipes by rote I think =p), but since he went back for seconds, I think even he found the flavor appealing.  He didn’t use much sauce, but then he never does.  He doesn’t dress salads or use gravies or anything.

It took a little longer than 15 minutes t be cooked through (I use a meat thermometer to check for chicken doneness), but not ridiculously so, about 5 extra minutes is all.  As you would expect, the chicken skin after braising is quite slimy and mushy and no longer crisp as it was after browning.  I don’t like that texture so I removed it before eating, but I wouldn’t recommend cooking the recipe without the skin.

All in all a very economical (especially if you find chicken on a good sale as I did) and very tasty. 

Be sure to check out the linky over at I Blame My Mother for more Daisy recipe reviews!

I did not stick well to my plan last week.  I ended up not getting my shopping all done for the things we needed.  But on the plus side, I didn’t actually shop for anything that wasn’t on the plan either.  We had pizza one night (mom was in town), and went out one night (had a birthday party to attend) and otherwise cooked from the pantry and freezer, so I can’t beat myself up.  Too much.

Monday:   Shrimp with Remoulade, Pasta, Green Beans

Tuesday:   Hearty Braised Chicken Legs from Daisy Martinez for the FNC Cooking Challenge, Rice, Broccoli

Wednesday: Soft Tacos (typical — flour tortilla, beef, lettuce, tomato, cheese, etc), Tortilla Chips, Lightened Up Guacamole

Thursday:  Roasted Salmon with Chili-Lime Sauce, Barley, Creamed Spinach

Friday:   Butternut Squash, Sausage and Bow Ties, Green Salad, Fruit

Saturday: Dinner Out

Sunday:  Spaghetti with Meatballs, Roasted Brussels Sprouts, Green Salad, Garlic Bread

For breakfasts we always have oatmeal, cold cereal, scrambled eggs, toast, freezer muffins, yogurt, cottage cheese and fruits to choose from.  I also keep us stocked with lunch meats, cheeses, fruits, veggies, etc for bentos.    Even when not specifically listed, I usually have a mixed greens salad and fruit available for dinner.

This post is linked to Menu Plan Monday at Organizing Junkie.  Check out the hundreds of other menus posted.

As I have mentioned before, finding quail eggs has been a perpetual thorn in my side.  I have been to over a dozen stores, from local asian markets, gourmet groceries and “world foods” vendors to chain stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and the like.  Although I didn’t find quail eggs, I did go back a few times to Uwajimaya.  They have a small bento box section, and while mostly they sell adult laquer type boxes, or belt-required two tier boxes (cute designs for kids, but 25$+ boxes, they aren’t cheap plastic), I occasionally have found some cute picks, small containers for dressings and dips and so on. 

Wednesday I dropped by to see what they had (I graze the bento section, eggs, produce and a snack aisle – kidlet likes those little Hello Panda cookies).  I had made a few good finds, and then at checkout I was asked if I had found everything, and I admitted I had hoped they had quail eggs.  But we do!  I was told.

See!  Quail eggs!  *happy dance*  For some reason, instead of being kept with the rest of the eggs (and they have normal chicken eggs, fertilized ones, duck eggs, century eggs, and a couple other unusually colored eggs that i didn’t recognize, and couldn’t read the package), quail eggs at Uwajimaya are kept in the seafood department.  Apparently quail eggs are used in sushi applications, so they keep them with the sushi grade fish.

Boggle.  I never would have guessed that or checked there.  I’m kinda afraid of buying seafood or meat there because I don’t know if they are inspected or whatnot.  I know that’s probably just too paranoid, but I can’t help it!

So she called and had some brought up to the checkout for me.  Happy Dance!  Although now I have to figure out the perfect way to cook them.  With chicken eggs I just cover them with water, bring to a boil, immediately remove from heat and allow them to stand in the hot water for 10 minutes.  This produces fully hard boiled (no squishy yellow, yuk!), but not over boiled, no green ringed center, lovely eggs.  I can only assume that quail eggs will cook faster. I suppose I will try 5 minutes to start.   Any quail egg users have tips for me?

I also found some small side car boxes that will be perfect for kidlet’s morning snack.  I had wanted a few more containers for this (I really only had 2 the right size) but they are so overpriced online, and then when you add in shipping I would still be paying two to three times as much for ONE box as I paid for all three of these (4.50 total).

The last find was a dragonfruit.  I’ve always wanted to try them.  They looked a little bedraggled.  I have no idea what is normal, should they be firm?  Smell like something when ripe?  I just picked one with smooth flesh that had a little give to it when pressed lightly with a finger and hoped for the best!