Fun with cooking

How do you tackle the Monday blues? How about doughnuts and a shot of vodka! Ha ha!

(I only use the vodka for cooking and I have only used it for strawberry ice cream so far - really!)
I pulled out one of my favorite cookbooks for breakfast on Monday. I found a great recipe for yeast doughnuts that didn't require any rise time. However, between arbitrating a couple arguments and changing diapers, the dough got plenty of rest. I found that if I kept the leftover doughnuts (yes, we had leftovers) on the rack over the baking sheet in the cold oven, the doughnuts maintained a great texture - even hours later. I have usually transferred them to a container or put them in a bag and they get soggy and rubbery. The oven kept them dry, but not so exposed that they dried out.

I didn't get to taste the chicken spiedies from our impromptu party (see post below), so I made more tonight. I also wanted to make potatoes, but it was too hot to slave over a stove for our usual home fries Ala' Grandpa Gray. So, I thought I'd try gilling them. They turned out really good. I sliced a russet potato thick (with the skin on). I boiled them in very salty water just until they were barely tender. Then, I drained them and spread them out on a baking sheet. Cooks Illustrated recommends that you apply seasoning to the warm potatoes for their potato salad recipe, so I thought I would try seasoning my potatoes while they were still warm. I made a seasoned oil with olive oil, seasoned salt, pepper, garlic powder and onion powder. Then, I brushed all the potato slices on both sides. They sat with these seasonings for about half an hour before I put them on the grill. By the time I did put them on the grill, a lot of the oil had been soaked up. The dry heat of the grill resulted in a nice crispy potato with a light crust from the seasonings - yum. I did apply some butter to remoisten the slices when I ate them, but you don't really have to do this. The chicken was delicious (thank you, Allison!).

Fun day

We had a fun play date with some friends from church today. The pool was a bit hit, but everyone got dressed up for lunch.

Afterwards, we had some time to blow before the Zooniversity show at the community center, so I thought that we'd enjoy some sno-cones. Silly me ordered CHERRY for Erica. I don't know what I was thinking! Ha ha.

The show was great, but Erica was too fidgety (perhaps too much sugar?!?!) and we had to leave early. Oh well!

Fun with Daddy!

Just some cute pictures with Daddy

Daddy is reading Stephanie's latest favorite library book: "The Seven Silly Eaters".

Impromptu Party!

I had another recipe to test for America's Test Kitchen and I really wanted to make this one since I haven't contributed to their test requests for a while now. However, it was a recipe for a rich cake that Christian wasn't going to help me eat, so we thought we could invite some friends to help us. We also had a craving for spiedies (marinated/grilled meat kabobs that are very local to the Binghamton area in NY). So, we set out to invite some friends. Well, family after family wasn't available. Finally, we decided to just post an open invitation on our church's website. By the next afternoon, we had RSVPs for 5 families - 23 people! About half of the guests were under the age of 8, too! We had a great time.

We didn't get a picture of the test recipe cake (which tasted great, but had some aesthetic issues that were mostly my fault), but we did get a picture (thank you, Jennifer!) of some of the kids decorating their cupcakes. That was a big hit.

"Erica, you play the drum"

I was cleaning up the kitchen after lunch one day when I heard Stephanie say, "Here, Erica, you play the drums" I had to go see what was going on. I found both girls dressed up and ready to play "rock and roll" music. Ha ha! Stephanie was using her Thor hammer as a guitar and was handing Erica a drum to play. I went ahead and found some good heavy metal music for them on the internet and let them have a jam session. Very funny!

 This morning, the girls said that they wanted to listen to "rock and roll" music again. I put on some AC/DC and started "banging my head." Erica thought that was just the coolest move and proceeded to join in.

I wish I had the camera with me when we went to the Rowlett Community Center show on Tuesday. It was a group of hula dancers. Erica practically stole the show and just danced the whole time. Stephanie didn't participate much at the show, but when we got home, she dug through her drawers and put on an amazing outfit that best mimicked the hula costumes. She proceeded to choreograph a hula dance using moves that they either taught the audience or merely demonstrated. I was very impressed.

How could we resist?

We were in Williams-Sonoma to get a bridal shower gift a few weeks ago and could not resist the Star Wars cookie cutters. Luckily, Christian doesn't like his cookies frosted! I followed the recipe that came with the cutters and they were delicious. The cutters were very easy to use and gave very rewarding results. We watched Star Wars Episode 4 the night I made these so Erica could be introduced to the characters and ships (except Yoda - oh well). She really seemed to like Darth Vader. Stephanie's favorite was the Death Star. Ha ha!

We all live in a ....

Yellow Diaper Box! Well, this little vessel stayed sea worthy for about 15 minutes, but they enjoyed every second of it. In the end, I think, it was destroyed in a fateful Tug-of-War.

More cake pops!

I was commisioned to make some cake pops for a baby shower for a mom from the music program. I was also invited to a bridal shower on the same day. I offered to bring some cake pops instead of us getting a cake for the shower.

I wanted to make cake pops that looked like little wedding cakes, but couldn't make them look clean enough. Christian helped me come up with a Plan B at 2am (super hubby!). So, the white balls are covered in small sprinkles and white shimmering sugar. You can't see it, but I put one ring from a candy bracelet at the base of the ball to add a little color. I wrapped them in the clear bag and tied it with a pretty white ribbon with a heart-shaped charm. The white balls are yellow cake with buttercream frosting and the multi-colored pops are chocolate cake with whipped ganach frosting. The bride's colors (hopefully) matched the foil colors.

For the baby shower, I thought it would be fun to try making baby faces. The mom is due in July, but has chosen to not know if it is a boy or girl until the baby is born, so I made both. They were very cute, but the coating kept cracking. ARGH!!!! So, I added the mini cupcake paper to cover the cracks, but also look like a bonnet.

Hoogendyk Visit!

Our dear friends are moving to Michigan to live closer to Steve's parents. They graciously went a bit out of their way to spend a few days with us on their way from New Mexico to Michigan. We had such a memorable time. It was relaxed, but filled with fun. The girls had a blast playing together. We got a bigger pool which was a big hit. We took them to the pond to feed the ducks. I had fun cooking all sorts of things so we didn't have to go out - they were going to spend enough time in their car!

Tit for cat?

When we were coordinating the Hoogendyk's visit, Steve requested "cat hair" towels. Once when he visited us in California back in 2005ish, he took a shower and went to dry off only to find that a cat must have napped on his towel. Steve got a face full of cat hair and hasn't let me live it down since. So, in the tradition of finding creative ways to fold guest towels (see earlier post of Jessica's amazing talents), I used some hair nets to recreate Steve's experience. GROSS!

Meat, meat and ... meat!

Abandon hope all ye vegetarians! Ha ha! This month's church potluck theme was "Dad's Favorite Pasta Dish". Hmmm .... my husband is Sicilian. Are they nuts?!?! He doesn't just have ONE favorite dish! So, I went a little overboard again. I made a big pot of sauce (ala Grandpa Piccolo) and took 3 boxes of farfalle macaroni to go with it. I put together a big antipasto platter. I also made a Piccolo favorite - sponge cake (ala Great Grandma Piccolo) with pastry cream between the layers and covered in whipped cream. I also made New York style cheesecake and made a strawberry sauce to go with it. I think that was it. Ha ha! I have too much fun with these potlucks.

So, the sauce had cubes of pork rib meat, braciole (thin beef rolled around garlic, parm cheese and herbs), sausage and meatballs. I cooked the pasta before church, tossed it with a little bit of oil and put it in a jumbo ziplock bag. I stored it in a cooler with some 200 degree bricks. It was still warm 2 hours later and was not sticking together. It worked perfectly.

Happy Birthday, Grandpa Gray!

Here is the Piccolo Sisters rendition of "Happy Birthday" for Grandpa Gray. Stephanie interrupts the song to remind everyone that she is excited about possibly having a Thor/Pirate birthday (note the new Thor hammer in hand).

Here's to you, Dad! Happy Birthday!

Cake Pops!

I was commissioned to make some cake pops for the end-of-year luncheon for the music program we go to. Our teacher led a half-hour group class and then we all go to a local cafe' for lunch. I was inspired to make the mini cupcakes by the cake pop cookbook that Christian got me for Mother's Day (Cake Pops: Tips, Tricks, and Recipes ...). The "balloons" (foil wrapped balls) are chocolate pops and the cupcakes are yellow cake/white frosting. I had a lot of fun making them and Christian was a great art director.

Not the best parenting weekend...

Well, we made plans to go see Kung Fu Panda 2 with some friends. Stephanie was very excited to go to the theater and to see her friends (we hadn't seen them in a long time). We also decided that we would take Erica, too, since she has been enjoying movies and is able to sit through a children's feature. Unfortunately, we got there too late - it was sold out and our friends were already inside! So, in a moment of parenting desperation and (in hind sight) insanity, we decided to stick with the movie idea and tried pitching "Thor" to Stephanie. She looked up at the sign and said, "No, I'd rather see pirates!"

So, we became those parents. You know - the parents that bring their 1 and 3 year old to a PG-13 movie with action, death and vicious mermaids. To make matters worse, on our way in, I practically scraped Stephanie's big toe nail off when I opened the door on her foot! We were about to give up at that point, but between sobs, Stephanie insisted she was fine and wanted to see the movie.

Surprisingly, both girls were great. Stephanie sat through the whole thing and didn't have a problem with any of it. Erica almost lasted through the whole 2 hours and 25 minutes. I only had to walk outside with her for 20 or 30 minutes. They both now have an affinity for anything pirate and Stephanie likes to pretend that she is one.

Then, on Sunday night, the girls got all dressed up and they were dancing. I figured we had already screwed up as parents, so I threw all caution to the wind and had them dance to Ricky Martin! Ha ha!

Watch out! The volume is a bit loud on this video!

S'mores!!!

We are connected to a family at church by a shared appreciation of the Marvel universe and super heroes in general. They invited us over for dinner this past weekend. Daddy wore a Hulk shirt. Stephanie wore a shirt that Grandma Gray found at the rummage sale with various Marvel heroes. Even Erica insisted on wearing a Spiderman shirt to go with the theme (I was the only one from our family who didn't have a character shirt). We had a great time and enjoyed getting to know them more.

After dinner, we sat around their chimenea making s'mores. They offered Reeses peanut butter cups as an alternative to the Hershey's ... YUM!

Teddy Bear Birthday Picnic

I picked up a really neat book for Stephanie a while back (see the book at Amazon - very cute, removable objects attached with velcro, basket pops up and you can access it on every page). I put it aside for us to go through during quiet time while Erica was still sleeping. It has become Stephanie's favorite book. She enjoyed playing with the book for a few days, but now (almost one month later) very carefully carries the removable objects in a bag and keeps track of every one.

One morning, she came down with a whole plan in her mind. She wanted to throw her pink bear (from Nonna) a party. We set up the "guests" on the coffee table and served up the "cake" from their play kitchen. Stephanie thought this was all too much fun. She then proceeded to explain to me what was going on. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time together before Erica woke up.