I have such strong childhood memories of my dad's Saturday breakfasts. Especially the smells. Oh the smells! He traveled a lot when we were kids, but he was usually home on weekends. And that's how we knew he was home--the smell of breakfast on Saturday. Oh how I looked forward to Saturday! Still do. But it's K who cooks now and my own children who will remember.
I hope so at least.
On the menu:
Well, it's official. As of a few weeks ago, K and I have been husband and wife for 10 years. Ten years. That's, like, 20 batches of spudnuts together!
And now, to commemorate this momentous occasion, a touching scene from our beautiful life together...
Yesterday, K made pizza. A meat-and-cheese-lover's masterpiece of sausage, homemade sauce, and mounds and mounds of delicious mozzarella. And then --
he dropped it.
On the floor.
Topping-side down.
(How does that happen?)
But that wasn't the worst/best part.
No, the worst/best part had to be the kids' reaction, which can be summed up neatly in just one word:
"Again?"
Yeah, hard to believe, isn't it...
The moral of the story?
Work together. Laugh a lot. And marry a man who never cries over spilled pizza.
Here's to another 10 years, dear pizza-dropping + apron-wearing + spudnut-flipping man o' mine!
Huh...is it "caramel" or "carmel"? Spell-check tells me it's the former, but I've seen it spelled/pronounced both ways. Anyone care to educate me?
Anyway, here's the recipe, inherited from my dad. Two things that man is (in)famous for cooking:
I can help you with the first one, but any inquiries re: recipes for pressed bits o' mystery meat should be addressed to the man himself. Thank you.
My Dad's Famous Caramel Brownies
Combine ingredients in microwave-safe bowl. Heat (stirring once every 2 minutes) until melted. Set aside.
Combine all ingredients except chocolate chips. Press 1/2 of the mixture into a 9"x13"-inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 minutes, then sprinkle with chocolate chips.. Pour caramel mixture over the chocolate chips, then crumble remaining 1/2 of cake mixture over the caramel. Bake for 18 minutes. Cool, cut, and eat.
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Postscript: Speaking of my dad, he and my mom are back from their 18-month LDS mission to Peru. The kids and I are camped out at Camp Grandma and Grandpa this month. If you're local, come see me! Meanwhile, I hope to keep blogging from here. But we'll see. Gotta master this foreign object called a PC first. Hmm. Maybe a brownie would help...
I get a lot of requests for this recipe. Mostly 'cause I make it a lot. Twice in the last week, actually. Once while my sister was here and once when a friend was feeling under the weather. It's sort of my go-to recipe, you could say. It's easy to make and I always have the ingredients on hand, so if you've ever been a guest in my home and/or invited me to a potluck dinner and/or something good/bad happened to you and/or it's Tuesday, it's safe to say I've probably served you some version of this meal.
(That's asparagus in the photo, by the way. Not broccoli. Equally tasty.)
Lemon Broccoli Pasta
adapted from Ina Garten's "Broccoli and Bow Ties"
Cook pasta according to manufacturer's instructions. Add broccoli to the pot during the last 2-3 minutes of cooking. Drain.
While pasta is cooking, place the following ingredients into a pan set over medium-low heat: butter, olive oil, garlic, zest of one lemon. Cook just until butter is melted and you can start to smell the garlic. Remove from heat.
Add the juice of the lemon and salt and pepper. Pour over pasta and broccoli. Add Parmesan and pine nuts. Serves 4 as a meal or 6 as a side.
Banana Smoothie
Add some crushed graham crackers and you have a lazy (wo)man's banana cream pie. Yum.
(On a related note, the kids are craving popsicles these days...anyone seen any fun molds around?)
My oven broke. (Go ahead. Laugh. It's funny. Sort of.)
But never fear. Spring Spudnut-athon 2009 was not impacted. On the contrary, the long-standing family tradition of worldwide worship + gross overindulgence (recipe here) rose to new and exciting heights with the children's introduction of...
Interpretive Frying.
Perfect circles are so overrated...
I think it's the next big thing, don't you?
After many long weeks (months?) of surviving on not much more than cold cereal, Top Ramen, banana peppers, and way too much take-out (ahem--separately, not together) I'm happy to report that I am cooking again. And it feels good. Very good.
A great chef I am not. Most of what I cook is simple. Made from simple ingredients that I have on hand. I enjoy cooking from scratch--for health reasons (homemade food is good for you even when it's "bad"--I mean, at least you know what's in it, right?) as well as financial ones (cooking from scratch is often more economical than buying prepackaged foods). But, let's face it, I'm a mom and I like convenience too. I cut corners where I can and appreciate a quick, easy meal just as much as the next person. So with that in mind, I share with you three easy recipes that can be made from scratch without a lot of time or effort.
(Did I mention these are easy?)
Homemade Granola
This is a great thing to make with kids. I use Homesick Texan's recipe. So easy and so good. I love eating it for breakfast with plain yogurt and fresh fruit, but, okay, by the handful is good too. And the best way to enjoy this tasty snack? On top of ice cream, which you can also make from scratch in less than 10 minutes (see below).
Homemade Ice Cream
Well, I am my father's daughter, so it should come as no surprise that ice cream is pretty much considered a staple--nay, a food group--in this house. I think I've mentioned before that we live within a 5-minute walk of a local frozen custard joint that is seriously delicious. So much so that visitors to my town have considered relocating to be near it, and on more than one occasion, I have packed it on ice and driven it a thousand miles across the country to satisfy some lucky person's craving. It is *that* good.
But.
It is expensive. At least at the rate we (would like to) eat it.
So we make our own ice cream at home. The traditional method of making a custard and freezing it in an ice cream maker is best, but, let's face it, sometimes you just don't want to wait that long. So what's a resourceful family to do?
Ice cream in a bag. There are lots of ways of doing this, but here's our version...
In a pint-size resealable bag combine:
1/2 cup cream or half-and-half
1-2 tablespoons of sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Seal the bag and place inside a gallon-size big with lots of ice and a few tablespoons of rock salt. Seal the larger bag and shake for 5 minutes (or better yet, throw it on the trampoline and bounce it around for a while) until it reaches the consistency of ice cream. Open the bag(s) and serve immediately.
Homemade Marinara
(Sorry, no picture, but don't let that stop you.) All my Italian friends told me making your own marinara was easy, but I never believed them. Then I discovered the cookbook Apples for Jam. So many delicious recipes there, but the one that will change your life is the marinara. Ridiculously simple. Four ingredients--canned tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil--oh, and salt! Must not forget the salt. So I guess there are five ingredients. Math skills aside, I promise it's barely any more effort than opening a bottle of the jarred stuff, which is often loaded with preservatives and artificial sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup. (Sugar in marinara? Read the label. You might be surprised.) Try it. I'm confident that once you do, you will never go back to the stuff in a bottle.
Chances are you know the story of Stone Soup. It is an old English folktale, retold in many different ways, about a hungry traveler who uses a "magic" stone to trick some miserly villagers into sharing their food with him.
We have read lots of different versions (including this one by Marcia Brown that won a Caldecott Medal in 1947) but I think our favorite (so far) is "The Real Story of Stone Soup" by Ying Chang Compestine. It is hilarious and fun and, unlike other versions, actually incorporates the stone as a useful element in making the soup.
(In the absence of a proper pot, three resourceful Chinese brothers make soup by digging a hole in the sand, lining it with plantain leaves, filling it with water, and bringing the water to a boil using three hot rocks they have heated in a fire. Brilliant.)
As you might imagine, I love the use of on-hand ingredients in this story, so of course, the kids and I made our own Stone Soup:
Ingredients:
1 well-chosen stone + whatever we had in the fridge/cupboard...
Olive oil
Onion
Celery
Carrots
Potatoes
Garlic
Basil
Double-strength beef broth
Barley
Spinach
Salt and pepper
Milk
K liked it, Liv declared it "not her favorite", and Asher refused to touch it (aside from a few half-hearted licks of the stone itself, presumably for comparison's sake in relation to the countless other rocks he's undoubtedly tasted).
Still, this endeavor was more about the creative process than the end result, and, as the kids had a lot of fun experimenting (newsflash: six-year-olds actually like peeling potatoes) I consider it a success.
Happy Valentine's Day!
