Feed Your Kids – Page 61 – The leading authority on basketball cupcakes and Basil-Lime martinis…

School Spirit

Another little project here in “Over-the-Top-ville”. The 4th grade boys at Boy’s school are having a back-to-school pool party. This “T” design is the logo for Boy’s school, so I thought it would be the perfect thing to get the boys back in the “school” mood. I can’t claim the credit for coming up with this idea, originally. Last year, a bunch of us mom-types got together and made HUGE batches of these for a big event at school. They were so fun and the kids loved them so much that I decided to make them again. I didn’t have benefit of the handy-dandy triangle cookie-cutters that we had last year, so I devised a ruler-and-pastry cutter system that worked just fine:

First, I baked them, using this recipe:

And then I made them blue, with this icing, before adding the white “T”s and sprinkling them with a bit of white sanding sugar:

Orange-Ginger Glazed Cornish Hens and “Eat Your Veggies” Orzo

This Cornish Hen recipe from October 2002 Cooking Light magazine is a favorite. I think the glaze would be good on boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, too, but I haven’t tried it. The orzo recipe comes from my best friend’s hubby, who makes it regularly for their family. I added the red bell pepper, … Continue reading “Orange-Ginger Glazed Cornish Hens and “Eat Your Veggies” Orzo”

This Cornish Hen recipe from October 2002 Cooking Light magazine is a favorite. I think the glaze would be good on boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts, too, but I haven’t tried it.

The orzo recipe comes from my best friend’s hubby, who makes it regularly for their family. I added the red bell pepper, which isn’t in his original recipe, mostly just because I had some on hand.

Alan’s (“Eat Your Veggies”) Orzo

12 ounces orzo (rice-shaped) pasta
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
a little minced onion
(Around 2 Tbsp. to 1/4 cup – just to your taste. I used red onion, but white would be fine, too.)
about a cup (or a little more) chopped baby carrots
one half of a red bell pepper, diced
about 3 cups chicken stock
about 2 cups fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
about 1/4 cup (or a little less) freshly grated parmesan or romano cheese

Saute the orzo in the butter and olive oil over medium-high heat, stirring and tossing constantly, until lightly golden brown and toasted.

Lower heat to medium. Add garlic, onion and carrots and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly, until onion is translucent and carrots have softened slightly. Add red bell pepper and cook for about 2 more minutes.

Turn heat to medium-low and gently stir in the chicken stock, about 1/4 cup at a time, until pasta is al dente. This could take 2 minutes or 10, depending upon how hot your pan is, how large your orzo is, etc, so the best way to determine if the pasta is done is to taste it (using a clean spoon each time you taste). When the pasta is getting very close to done, gently stir in the spinach and another splash of chicken stock. Finish cooking until spinach is wilted and pasta tastes right. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese.

You can add a little freshly ground pepper or a dash of your favorite all-purpose seasoning or herb, if you’d like a little more flavor. It’s not absolutely necessary, but if you’re feeling it needs a little more “kick”, go right ahead.

Over the Top

I just talked to a friend whose daughter was one of the guests at Girl’s birthday party last week and she said “I think you really went over the top with that party.” Guilty as charged (although, truthfully, this one of our more “low-key” parties). I LIKE “over the top” – that’s where I LIVE. … Continue reading “Over the Top”

For Boy’s 2nd birthday, I made a donation to the volunteer fire department so that they would stop by during his “firetruck” themed party.

For Girl’s 3rd birthday, we had just moved to Virginia from Texas and didn’t know anyone there yet, so we went back to Texas for a visiIt and had the party with her friends (and our families) there. We no longer had a home (a.k.a. “party venue”) in Texas, so we rented out the Austin Children’s Museum for a couple of hours. That was a BIG hit. Girl wanted a “Lion King” themed party, but Lion King 2 had just come out. I scoured party stores all over town to find the Simba/Nala (Lion King) plates/napkins/cups/decoration and NOT the Kiala/Kovu (Lion King 2) ones.

For Girl’s 8th, we had a “Nancy Drew” themed party with a custom-created “mystery/scavenger hunt” for guests to solve. I even bought a tiny little trenchcoat, fedora and magnifying glass and dressed each girl up for a souvenir photo.

Ditto for Boy’s 7th: a pirate theme, with dress-up souvenir photos (complete with shoulder-riding parrot). Hubby has artistic tendencies and hand-drew a beautiful treasure map on parchment to lead the kids to the goody bags. Look at the invites in the photo below: hand-drawn treasure map invites, rolled and tied with raffia, stuffed into empty water bottles (labels removed) with a little sprinkle of sand and mini seashells, topped with a cork. The kids had to remove the maps from the bottle to be able to read the invitation (hand-delivered, of course).

For Girl’s 9th, we had an “American Girl” party with one craft from each of the 8 (at that time) American Girls, including churning butter, making thumbprint cookies, fabric dolls, and so on. There were about 20 girls, so I had an elaborate rotation schedule, with adult “helpers” at each station, to ensure that each girl got an opportunity to make each craft.

For her 6th, we had a “bug” party and released live butterflies and ladybugs (that we had been incubating at home for weeks) in the backyard.

For Boy’s 8th, we had a Harry Potter party. We sorted the kids (with a Sorting Hat!) as they entered and set up a Quidditch game (hula hoops mounted on tall PVC pipes) in the backyard.

For his 7th, we had a “Ninja Turtle” party and I decorated the entire 1st floor of our house to look like a sewer and made “slime” (or is it “ooze” – I can’t remember – whatever the stuff was that turned them into mutants in the first place) and let 18 boys build their own pizzas in the kitchen. I think I drank a whole bottle of wine myself after THAT party.

For his 5th (or maybe 4th?), his gift was a ride-on, multi-car train. We built the party around it, giving each kid a ticket to ride at an assigned time. There were kids assigned to be safety monitors, with orange vests. Each kid went home with a small “Thomas the Tank Engine” car, a small train whistle and a little striped conductor’s cap. One dad left us a message the next morning, thanking us (sarcastically) for the train whistle and blowing it into our machine for 5 minutes, explaining that was all that he had been hearing since his son brought the whistle home.

When we left Virginia and moved back to Texas, we had an “I’m so Blue” party for Girl and her friends – get it? “I’m so Blue” that we’re moving? We had blue EVERYTHING: Kool-Aid, blue-iced cupcakes, a nail-painting station with 10 different colors (all blue), blue crafts, blue decorations, blue T-shirts….the works.

Boy had a going-away swimming party at our neighborhood pool. We organized all kinds of water games, including water balloons and water musical chairs (Buy wide, shallow buckets just the right size for kids’ backsides to fit in and fill them with water. Start the music. When the music stops, each kid has to “sit” in a water-filled bucket. Proceed just like musical chairs. When this party is over, you will be unable to get rid of the buckets – “We might have a pool party again someday.” You won’t ever have another pool party, but when you decide to re-tile your master bathroom YOURSELF, the buckets will come in very handy for mixing grout.)

We don’t just do kid’s parties, either. I had a Sopranos season premiere party once, too: Carmela’s Baked Ziti, Janice’s Biscuits Regina (sesame marzipan cookies), Arnie’s Arancini rice balls, Tiramisu, Cannoli, lots of really good Barolo.

I come by all of this honestly. My parents have a joint birthday party every year for my dad and his best friend. They do all of the cooking and bartending themselves. They used to require the guests to come prepared with skits (until the guests revolted). Once they bought food-grade clay for a dinner party and baked fish in it (kinda like this). You prepare the fish with seasoning, wrap it (grape leaves? banana leaves? I can’t remember) and then fold the clay around it and sculpt it into a fish shape (complete with little scale-looking indentations, eyes…the whole bag of tricks) and then you bake it. When the fish is ready, you pull the (now-baked hard) clay fish out of the oven and break it to eat your fish. So, you see, this is in my BLOOD. My nickname amongst my nearest-and-dearest girlfriends in Virginia? Shouldn’t be too hard to figure out….although I’ve never been to prison and I don’t wear shawls.

So, I hope that I’ve now cemented my reputation as a permanent dweller of “Over-the-Top-ville”. I hope that you’ll come visit me sometime. We’ll have a great time…..that’s an order.

High School Musical Eclairs

This recipe is from the special July 27, 2007 “High School Musical 2” edition of People magazine. I made them for Girl’s 12th Birthday Party (in lieu of cupcakes). Supposedly, one of the characters (Zeke) makes eclairs for another (Sharpay) in the movie, but we weren’t able to spot that scene when we watched the … Continue reading “High School Musical Eclairs”

This recipe is from the special July 27, 2007 “High School Musical 2” edition of People magazine. I made them for Girl’s 12th Birthday Party (in lieu of cupcakes).

Supposedly, one of the characters (Zeke) makes eclairs for another (Sharpay) in the movie, but we weren’t able to spot that scene when we watched the show. If you’ve seen it, please clue me in. I’d hate to think that I made these things for no reason. They were yummy and relatively easy, but they’re not what I would have considered “birthday fare” if it weren’t for the fact that they were supposed to be in the movie. I made a double batch. The number that a batch makes depends upon how big you pipe the dough, but I found that it makes about 30.

Zeke’s Eclairs

Ingredients

for puff pastries:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs

for filling:
2 small packages instant vanilla pudding mix
3 cups cold whole milk (I used 1%)
1 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

for chocolate icing:
5 oz. semisweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips, because it’s what I had on hand)
2 oz. butter
1/4 cup water

Make the puff pastry:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil, stirring constantly until butter melts. Reduce heat to low; add the flour and salt. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves sides of pan and forms a smooth ball. Remove from heat; add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition until batter becomes smooth. Use a pastry tube with a No. 10 or larger tip to squeeze out finger-size eclairs onto baking sheet (I lined mine with parchment paper), well-spaced. (I recommend making them larger than finger-sized to make them easier to fill later – about 3-4″ long and 3/4″ wide). Bake at 400 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until VERY puffed and golden. (If they don’t cook long enough to fully puff, they won’t be hollow inside and won’t have a good cavity for filling later – make sure they’re REALLY puffed up). Cool on a wire rack.

Make the filling:
In a mixing bowl, beat pudding mix and milk. In a separate mixing bowl, whip the cream, sugar and vanilla extract until soft peaks form. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding.

Make the icing:
Melt chocolate with water in a small pot over a low flame. Once melted, add butter, whisking constantly. Remove from heat.

Put it all together:
Slice a hole in the pastry large enough to accommodate the nozzle of your pastry bag (#5 or #6 tip). Fill the bag with pudding filling and squeeze desired amount into each pastry. (I poked two small holes in each eclair: on the sides, near each end, and just piped some filling into each one – to be sure that I got full filling coverage throughout the eclair). (Serve any leftover filling as pudding later.) Spread a thin layer of chocolate icing on each eclair using a spatula (I just chose to drizzle mine). Decorate with additional icing if desired. Wait until icing hardens a bit to serve. Chill in refrigerator if desired. (I’ve frozen the leftover ones and will pop one into the kids’ lunches occasionally as a special treat).

Here are some photos from the party:

Our trip to Europe

Check out our vacation photos: Or you can check them out on my flickr account – here’s the link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8624504@N02/sets/72157601101400859/detail/

Check out our vacation photos:

Or you can check them out on my flickr account – here’s the link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8624504@N02/sets/72157601101400859/detail/

Miso-Glazed Salmon

This salmon is very easy and super yummy. Boy, Hubby and I love it. Girl breaks into tears when faced with the task of eating seafood, but Boy loves it, so every once in a while, she has to put up with it. If making this for kids, I recommend using the mildest miso that you can find (like shinsu). Sometimes, I like to use the Splenda Brown Sugar Blend (a mix of brown sugar and Splenda) instead of brown sugar. I also like to marinate the salmon in a little teriyaki before baking, just to add a bit more kick. Quite yummy recipe – healthy and easy, too.

Fried Okra/Okra Fritters

This recipe is one of Boy and Girl’s absolute favorites. I like to add a little bit of Emeril’s “Baby Bam” seasoning (my “go-to” spice for just about everything). Hubby won’t touch okra with a 20 foot pole, but the kids and I LOVE it. You can follow the instructions precisely (the part about letting it sit for 10 minutes is important) to make individually-breaded okra chunks, or you can just mix all of the ingredients together and form them into fritters. You may need to add a little extra buttermilk, flour. or cornmeal to get the right consistency for them to hold together Before frying, I usually roll them in a little extra cornmeal after they’re formed into croquettes. Don’t make them too big or the outside will get too browned before the inside is cooked all the way through. YUM.

Gazpacho

Girl and I LOVE Gazpacho. It’s one of her favorite foods and she is always excited when I tell her that I’m making it. We wait all year for summer (and beautiful tomatoes!) to arrive. To be worth the effort, you have to have GREAT tomatoes – in season, bought locally, and deliciously ripe. That is key. If you go to all of the effort to make this with inferior tomatoes, you will be disappointed with the result, I assure you. The recipe itself is VERY flexible and up to your own personal taste.

Summertime Gazpacho

All ingredient amounts are approximate and flexible!!!
3 pounds ripe tomatoes
1 large (or 2 small) green bell peppers
2 medium-sized cucumbers (or 1 very large)
6 large garlic cloves, minced or put through a garlic press
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
a little sprinkle (1/4 to 1/2 tsp. to taste) smoked Spanish paprika, also called pimenton
(This is sold at gourmet stores like Williams Sonoma, etc., but is also carried at some major grocery store chains. McCormick’s makes one, but they call it smoked paprika, rather than pimenton – read carefully – the label looks only very slightly different from the regular paprika.)

Remove peels from tomatoes:
If they are very ripe, the peels can be stripped off by hand, just by getting the edge started with a paring knife (kind of like peeling a hard-boiled egg?). If the peels are more stubborn, you can cut a shallow “X” (about an inch across) into the non-stem end of each tomato, then submerge them in boiling water for a minute or so, to allow the skins to loosen. After removing from the boiling water, place them immediately into ice water to cool before draining and slipping the peels off.

Finely chop about 1/2 cup of the tomato and reserve it, put the rest in a large, glass bowl.

Peel and seed the cucumbers. Dice and reserve about 3/4 cup of it and set it aside. Put the rest in the bowl with the tomatoes.

Finely chop about 1/2 cup of the pepper and set it aside. Put the remaining pepper in the bowl with the tomatoes and cukes.

Add the garlic, salt, pepper, pimenton, oil and vinegar to the veggies in the large glass bowl and puree, using an immersion blender. If you don’t have an immersion blender, you may do it in batches in a regular blender. Add the reserved, chopped veggies and stir them in.

Adjust thickness, if necessary:
Some recipes call for a little bit of tomato juice or beef broth to make the soup thinner, some (like this one on Epicurious) call for breadcrumbs to make the soup a little thicker. I usually find that the texture is OK with just veggies, but just in case….

Pour back into the glass bowl. cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours before serving. Will keep almost a week in the fridge and gets better as the flavors sit and meld together.

Possible adaptations:
This recipe can be changed around lots of ways; I never make it EXACTLY the same way twice. If you like it smoother, you can puree the whole thing; if you like it chunkier, you can have more chopped veggies and do less pureeing. If tomato seeds skeeve you out, you can remove the seeds before pureeing. I don’t personally believe in adding canned ANYTHING (V8, tomato juice, tomato paste, etc.) to gazpacho, because I believe that the fresh taste is the best part of this dish, but do what suits YOU.

Other good additions, if you’re so inclined:
a little (1 to 2 Tbsp.?) very finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
a little chopped fresh oregano or basil
finely chopped purple onion
a little jalapeno and/or cilantro for a Southwestern version
a little cubed avocado stirred in before serving
a little freshly squeezed lemon or lime juice (cut back on the vinegar a bit?)
black beans or small garbanzo beans

Garnishing options:
thinly sliced avocado
a drizzle of olive oil and/or balsamic vinegar
a tiny bit of sour cream or creme fraiche
fresh chopped herbs: basil, parsley
croutons (or Goldfish crackers, for kids)

Gazpacho Ingredients, fresh from the farm

Why it’s probably NOT a great idea to give 9-year olds their own email account…..

HELLO I AM ______ (Boy). WHAT IS YOUR NAME? SO I CAN GET TO KNOW YOU PLEASE ANWSER THESE QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE ANY KIDS? DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS HOW OLD ARE YOU? WHAT IS YOUR NAME? DO YOU HAVE A SON WHO SENDS YOU ANNOYING E MAILS PRETENDING HE DOESN’T KNOW YOU? FROM … Continue reading “Why it’s probably NOT a great idea to give 9-year olds their own email account…..”

HELLO I AM ______ (Boy).
WHAT IS YOUR NAME?
SO I CAN GET TO KNOW YOU PLEASE ANWSER THESE QUESTIONS

DO YOU HAVE ANY KIDS?
DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS
HOW OLD ARE YOU?
WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

DO YOU HAVE A SON WHO SENDS YOU ANNOYING E MAILS PRETENDING HE DOESN’T KNOW YOU?

FROM THE BOY WHO IS CALLED

______ ______
(Boy)

P.S. I HAVE A MOM!

For those of you that might want to email Boy, his email address is: Boys’ First Name (nickname version) @ Our Family’s Domain Name.com (same domain name as MY email address).

Enrique’s Restaurant – Ponca City, OK

Restaurant Review We’ve heard about Enrique’s Restaurant (in the Ponca City, Oklahoma airport) over the years, from numerous friends. We had heard that it was really good (run by some San Antonio ex-pats) and had really yummy, unusual tortilla chips and great food. Since we were driving near Ponca City on our way home from … Continue reading “Enrique’s Restaurant – Ponca City, OK”

Restaurant Review

We’ve heard about Enrique’s Restaurant (in the Ponca City, Oklahoma airport) over the years, from numerous friends. We had heard that it was really good (run by some San Antonio ex-pats) and had really yummy, unusual tortilla chips and great food. Since we were driving near Ponca City on our way home from visiting friends in Wichita, KS, we decided to drop by and give it a try. I grew up with parents that planned our summer road trips around this book, so this doesn’t seem out of the ordinary to me.

The basket of chips, which were “puffy”, almost like little savory sopaipillas. The salsa was yummy and fresh, too, although it had a little more “heat” than I normally like (Hubby LOVED it).

Here’s one of the chips close up. They were almost chewy, rather than crunchy, like your everyday chip.

My chicken chimichanga.

Hubby’s burrito.

Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable meal. Very Tex-Mex-y, which is how we like it. The service was INCREDIBLE – super friendly and attentive. You can see the runway from the dining room, but being Ponca City, there weren’t a ton of planes taking off, so don’t go expecting to see lots of traffic. So, if you happen to find yourself in Ponca City, it’s worth a stop in.