Fiesta!

Happy Cinco de Mayo! In this post I'm going to throw in lots of half-correct (half-wrong) Spanish phrases and see how much I can make my mom cringe.

Any excuse for a party at our house. This week we decided to do la comida mexicana. We went with Mexican Chicken Soup and a Mexican Chocolate Cake. They are Mexican dishes because of the addition of *chili powder* to regular dishes. I never promised authenticity.

Laney le encanta cocinar, um, cakes. So she was excited. We did this first. I didn't have a cake mix but I had a full pantry so I decided we would make this cake from scratch. And then I made up a recipe. I think you're not supposed to do this for baking, but I am awesome so it worked.

Here's the recipe--

oven at 350, cake pan buttered and floured

1 cup AP flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup dark chocolate cocoa powder (it's unsweetened)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp or maybe more chili powder
1 stick butter (room temp)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup water
1/2 cup milk with 1/2 a lemon squeezed in it (I wanted buttermilk but didn't have any)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

I mixed things in that order. I think you're supposed to do dry, and then wet yada yada. I didn't. This batter seemed SO WET so I was scared. I based the proportions off a basic cake recipe and I was pretty sure the water was a mistake. It wasn't. The cake baked for about half an hour (do the toothpick test) and then remained moist and yummy for 4 days until it was gone. Instead of frosting Laney tapped powdered sugar on it. Delicioso!

To the soup. Soup is a great thing to make when home with young kids because nothing is time sensitive. I really just added chili powder to regular soup.

Just a note on chicken broth. It's best to make your own (I mean it.) Anytime I make any poultry with bones I throw the bones in a Zip Loc in the freezer. I also freeze vegetable scraps. When I have time, I simmer the stuff in water with salt and pepper and any loose herbs I have (always with a bay leaf) and then I cool/freeze. This is free. A second option is buying some sort of powdered/dried/concentrated bouillon situation. This is cheap but usually salty. I do this a lot; Trader Joe's is the best. Of course you can buy the cartons and cans at the market. That stuff is good but way expensive and soup is supposed to be a frugal choice. Que economico.

Sopa Mexicana

2 carrots
2 celery stalks
2 cloves garlic
1 giant onion
1 bell pepper
1 jalepeno pepper (don't touch your eyes)
1.5 lbs chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
4 cups chicken broth
1-2 cups water
1 tbsp taco seasoning
1 tbsp chili powder

Chop everything (up to the can of tomatoes). Saute the carrots, celery, onion, garlic, peppers. Add chicken and brown. Add all other stuff and let it simmer for 20 minutes to 3 hours.

Serve with triangled corn tortillas sprayed with PAM/baked in oven and guacamole. Aye Carumba!

I don't actually know what aye carumba means but it seemed right.

Happy eating!

Marshmallow Art

A few weeks back I playdated with my old friend Julie and her cutesters, Ian and Audrey. I noticed an interesting craft hanging on her wall. Oh yes, marshmallow art. What could be easier?
So the basic premise is taking some paper, drawing an outline with glue and adhering marshmallows to the glue to complete the picture. Easy enough, right?

Let me say now that Julie's son is THREE and my daughter is TWO. That doesn't sound like much, but trust me, it's the difference between "making marshmallow art" and "eating glue-covered marshmallows".

Luckily, I've been Laney's mom for a couple years now so I thought of this beforehand. First, I did this activity after nap. Had we done this before nap the sugar ingestion would have seriously messed up the afternoon. Second, I used FROSTING IN A GLUE BOTTLE. Yes, FROSTING. Tremendously increasing potential sugar rush yet eliminating the pesky glue consumption. Now let me tell you, you can buy frosting in a glue bottle. Yes, you can. It totally does the job. It's like $900. You can also wash a glue bottle out really really well and put your own cheap powdered sugar water frosting in it. What I did was actually a compromise. I bought the glue bottle frosting, used it, scolded myself for wasting money and now have been continuously cleaning and refilling the same bottle for a few months now (yes, we do many edible crafts.)

By the way, Laney can really only draw a face. Everything else is abstract (she knows what it is, I don't see it.) Doesn't matter what it looked like--it never made it to the wall. She ate it when she was done. It was fun. Thanks, Julie Z.

Slacking

It's been WEEKS since I've blogged so I'm going to take advantage of some insomnia for a quick update. There are a few reasons you haven't heard much from us lately (refreshing break?) The best reason is the weather! We've been enjoying some simple running around lately. Lots of parks, grass, swings, walks--all that good stuff. Makes for good days but not good blogging. Also, our house is up for sale. Those of you who have tried to sell a house with two tots can feel my pain. Every spare minute is spent cleaning. It's so ridiculous. Constant floor-sweeping going on over here.

Anyway, we had the chance to get out for our first 2010 trip (of many) to the Wildlife Sanctuary. Grandpa joined us and a good time was had.

Too pretty to eat. Ok, not really.

Cupcakes.

The treat of the moment, yes? Well, we've bought in. Laney and I are fans. So much so that I posted on FB my craving for cupcakes. In fact, my posting about hitting the park and making cupcakes worked out very well for us as my friend Steph offered me both her (and her sons') company at the park and a fun new cupcake idea. Talk about a good day.

Laney and I pre-burned our cupcake calories running around the park with our friends Steph and Jake (and the babes) and then headed home for some creative cupcaking. Steph let me in on her Martha Stewart-esque cupcake recipe--RAINBOW cupcakes.

Food coloring. Both a good idea and a bad idea. Makes a pretty cupcake but a messy countertop. Strip the kid or ready your Tide Pen. Also, if you have cupcake pajamas for your baby, it helps with the mood.

Ok, so we made boxed cupcake mix and then separated it into several bowls. In each bowl I put something like 10 (12, 15, 20) drops and stirred. I then, with a tablespoon, layered each colored batter into the paper cups. Baked as usual. Frosted and sprinkled.

These are gorgeous and springy! Worked perfectly. Keep in mind that my standards are pretty low (for presentation, not taste.) I've seen Steph make things that could go in magazines. Neither Laney or I have that steady hand (patience). But we do have fun! Try this at home, and then give them away to keep from eating them all. Or better yet, bring to a playdate that we're attending;-)

Go Fly a Kite.

I'm not a crafty girl but I'm willing to indulge my kid when she requests most art projects. The other day she was chatting up about kites and I'm sure it's because kites are one of the pictures on her precious Zingo game.

*Sidenote: if you have a toddler, rush out and buy Zingo. It's a Bingo-like board game that keeps a tot happy for hours and can be used as a bargaining tool for naps, bed and picking up toys. Not that I would ever bribe my kid.

So I wondered if we could fashion a kite without any sort of shopping trip. Turns out, it's easy. I grabbed a piece of posterboard and cut the shape and then handed it over to Laney for decorating. She's into stickers right now, so that kept her busy for at least an hour, no exaggeration. Pretty helpful since she sprained her foot--kept her sitting/lounging/sprawled on the floor for an impressive amount of time.

After she was satisfied with her kite, she very sweetly requested a canvas to decorate a kite for Mia. So I cut a minikite with the scraps from the big kite.

After the decorating was complete, I needed to reinforce the back of the diamond. It occurred to me that chopsticks would be perfect. I have a strong dislike (fear, ongoing battle...) with chopsticks so I didn't have any in the house. I started thinking about ordering some sushi but Koko's isn't open for lunch anymore. After being irritated about that for a while, I moved on. Something I DO have in the house--diapers. I cut the cardboard diaper box to make the reinforcing cross for the back of the diamond. I used wood glue to attach the cardboard and put the kite out of reach and let it dry during naptime.

In the afternoon, I dug out Christmas wrapping ribbons and let Laney choose colors for the streamers and the "string". I cut a hole to tie the string and reinforced with a roll and a half of Scotch tape.

It was a very windy day yesterday so we headed outside to fly the kites. It actually worked (I had no expectations.) Laney couldn't run because of her limpy foot but the wind picked it up anyway. It was super-functional when I ran with it.

Extra bonus--early evening when I started making dinner she went back to her kite and spent another hour improving its sticker count by oh, 150 stickers.

So there you go. It's not the prettiest kite in the world but Laney was excited about it and spent the day customizing it with her stickers and crayons. And I didn't have to buy single thing to make it! Happy I didn't buy the kite-making kit for $20:)

Someone. Is. Eating. This. Baby. Food.

(The first pic is cauliflower puree on a cracker, the second is pumpkin/chicken tossed with whole wheat noodles)

So once again I went a little nuts making baby food. Steam, roast, puree, freeze in ice cube trays, repeat. I ended up with a freezer full of cubes in Zip Loc bags and a baby who doesn't like baby food. In theory, I don't mind this. We started solids past six months which is a little old for purees, I understand. Finger foods are more fun for everyone. However, I am not wasting this bounty of fruits and vegetables.

Mia's going to eat it. One way or another. The rest of us are helping too.

I have come up with a few successful ways to use these purees. Some ways I developed when Laney gave up purees, other recipes I have developed lately.

Pasta with vegetable puree-

This works great with every savory puree. So far we've had luck mixing whole wheat (petite) noodles with chicken/pumpkin, cauliflower and broccoli. Sometimes I add a bit of butter and cheese and usually some defrosted peas.

Cracker or toast topper

Always a hit with Laney, I spread any sort of puree (green bean, squash, pear) over crackers or toast like spread cheese. Laney will still eat this. Mike, not so much.

Cream of what-have-you soup

We all enjoy this. I used asparagus last week.

Diced onion

Garlic cloves

diced celery

Saute this stuff in butter or olive oil.

Add in ingredient of choice. I had a bunch of fresh asparagus and probably a dozen cubes of asparagus puree. I imagine broc, cauliflower, squash would all work.

Add in a cup or so of vegetable broth. Simmer for a few minutes. Blend with an immersion blender.

Lower heat, add in a cup of half-and-half or heavy cream (or whole milk, I guess) and pepper it like crazy.

That's a really good soup.

Smoothies, of course

Frozen fruit cubes with fresh fruit and yogurt, blended

I did this with mango/broc cubes and you couldn't taste the broccoli. It wasn't that attractive though.

If anyone else has any ideas, please post in comments. My freezer is still full.

More Mia!

It's been called to my attention that Mia is definitely second fiddle in this blog. As a second daughter myself, I will try to rectify that. Laney, being a big girl of two years is more able to participate in fun activities. However, Mia is definitely ready to star in a photo montage. Here it is!