Romantic Dinner

You never know what's going to inspire kids. Among the hundreds of apps Thomas had loaded onto his iTouch, he came across an app that teaches you how to fold cloth napkins. Really. He practiced a few different folds for a while, then asked about formal table setting. I handed him Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette (yes, I do have a copy on our bookshelf) and he disappeared for a bit to study it. A bit later, a sheet was mysteriously hung across the doorway to the dining room, and David and I were told, in no uncertain terms, repeatedly, that we were forbidden to enter the dining room for any reason.

That evening, hubby and I were instructed to enter the dining room, donning black jackets, where the kids all worked together to serve us dinner. KitMama was head chef, providing her famous chili, Michael invented desert, and Thomas was head waiter (and photographer).

Prepared to be served.

Desert. Fruit smoothie with marshmallows.


Centerpeice, and one of our servers.

Vegan Awesomeness

Kitmama brought home a couple of vegan cookbooks from the library. I've been perusing Vegan on the Cheap by Robin Robertson, and tried out the Southwestern Black Bean and Corn Chowder on page 68. It seriously rocked!

If even half the other recipes in the book are as good as this one, I'll be buying this book very soon. What I like about the book so far:

• Just about all the recipes I've read so far are, like, real food. You don't need a bunch of weird ingredients you've never heard of before,; you're most likely going to have most of the stuff in your pantry or fridge already, or at least know which aisle of the market to find it in. And, because it's mostly all recognizable stuff, the kids are way more likely to eat it. 'Nuff said.



• She includes the cost per serving for each meal. All of them are under $1.85 per serving, and a lot of them are under $1.00 per serving.



• Most of the recipes are on the quick side, and she includes time-saving tips (like cooking basics and large batches ahead of time and freezing, and cooking one meal that will be used for two).



• She also includes recipes for making your own "convenience foods"...those vegan versions of non-vegan ingredients (like meat, mayo, etc.) that you can get at the grocery store, but usually at a steep price. I'm not sure I'll go quite so far as to make my own seitan (vegan meat) because we're not strictly vegan, but for those with food allergies or who want to be strict vegans, these made-at-home versions could be a significant money saver (and you can skip those weird chemical additives in many of them).



• She includes a chart showing which ingredients will be cheaper to make yourself rather than buy, and the approximate cost savings.

So, overall, I think I'm going to get a lot out of this book.

Oh, and here's the recipe for the Southwestern Black Bean and Corn Chowder:

1 T olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

3 cups cooked or 2 (15.5-ounce) cans black beans, drained and rinsed (I used home-cooked)

1 (14-ounce) can diced fire-roasted tomatoes, undrained (I used plain canned tomatoes)

1 (4-ounce) can chopped mild green chiles, drained (I went easy for the sake of the kids, and left some to be added by the adults as desired)

1 1/2 cups fresh or thawed frozen corn kernels (I used frozen)

1 t chili powder

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t smoked paprika (optional) (I used regular paprika)

3 cups vegetable stock (I used homemade)

Salt and black pepper

Tortilla chips (I served with home-made Artisan bread)

• In large pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Ad the onion and garlic, cover, and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

• Stir in the beans, tomatoes with their juice, chiles, corn, chili powder, cumin, and paprika, if using. Add the stock and season with salt and peper to taste. (The amount of salt needed depends on the saltiness of your stock). Simmer until the chowder is hot and the flavors have developed, 30 to 40 minutes.

• To serve, ladle the chowder into bowls and top each bowl with tortilla chips.

And, yes, the kids ate it. A couple of them even went back for seconds ;)

Getting Ready

We were invited by S and family to join them at Lake Sinclair for several days. Their family has a small house there, and because a few other families would also be there, we decided to take Popper along for additional bed space. So, in addition to packing the usual stuff for camping and laking, a big portion of Sunday was spent preparing food to take along.

Michael was my kitchen helper. He learned how to break up, peel and mince garlic. Lots of garlic!

Michael doin' the garlic.

Very carefully chopping.

In addition to garlic, we used a ton of cilantro. Half a bunch for the salsa, a full bunch for the sofrito, and two full bunches for a new recipe I was trying out, Mojo Verde. The cilantro I was able to get at the store was looking a bit tired, and was very unlikely to survive the three days or so until Taco Night at the lake. So, instead of using fresh cilantro for my infamous Fresh Avocado Salsa, I decided to try making it with Mojo Verde. Although the sauce turned out good, I think next time I'll try substituting lime juice for the apple cider vinegar.

Oh, yeah, the sofrito is something that I tried a couple of weeks back. I was getting jarred sofrito at the store, but it has MSG in it, which I'd like to avoid. So, I found this recipe on line for a fresh, green sofrito. But, I wanted the tomato-pasty version, so I popped the green sofrito into a saucepan with 2 cans of tomato paste, 1 T paprika, 1 T garlic powder, and 1 t salt, and then simmered til it cooked down to the consistency I wanted. It made up three small jars. For Spanish Rice, I simply put two cups of brown rice in the cooker with one jar of sofrito and the appropriate amount of water. Very tasty ;)

Three Bears in the Kitchen

William decided this evening that he wanted to cook dinner for the family. Thomas and Michael jumped right on board as his assistants. On the menu: spaghetti with marinara sauce, mixed vegetables, and fruit cabobs.

William stirring the pot.

Thomas rinsing the pasta.

Michael skewering the fruit.

The final presentation. Nice!

It was a good meal, made even better by the fact I got a break from cooking!

Thank you, boys!

Mom's Mysterious Potato Soup

The "mystery" is the ingredients you don't tell the kids are in it. As far as you're concerned, it's just potato soup.

5-6 medium-large yellow potatoes, cubed with skins on
1 head califlower, flouretted (is that a word?)
1 medium-large yellow onion, cubed
1 box organic free-range chicken broth
(I would have included some carrots, but didn't have any on hand).

Throw it all into a large pot. Simmer til veggies are all very tender. Whir it around in a food processor until smooth. Season to taste (I used salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder.

Very nice winter soup.

The Children Have Taken Over the Kitchen (TJed)

Tom (9) wants to be a professional chef. This week. Next week, it is sure to change. Yes, he’s in Lol Phase. This week, when I asked him “What do you want to learn about this week?” his response was something akin to “Can we just cook all week?”. “Okay”, I said. I attempted to begin a conversation about meal planning, ensuring we had all the ingredients necessary, etc., but he kind of wandered off in pursuit of a stray thought relating to LEGOs. We’re still working on the “focus” thing.

Now, just for clarification, we have “family study time” each weekday in which I do my best to pull off something resembling “KidSchool” and I read aloud our “family book”; usually a classic the kids have chosen out of my pre-selected selections. In addition to this, Tom and I have an hour each day set aside when I’m available to help him with whatever else he wants to learn. I won’t go into my own expectations about this, but let’s just say that most of what he wants to learn is a bit over my head. Like skydiving, rock climbing, and adobe brick making. (I think I might be able to pull off the adobe brick making; we do live in Georgia, the Land Of Red Clay, after all). So, when he says “cooking”, I’m all over it. That, I can do.

So, on Monday I taught Tom how to make bread. He made a wonderful loaf of bread, and some mighty fine cinnamon rolls, which we all enjoyed.

Today is Tuesday, and he decided to make more bread; twisty bread to go with his Secret Ingredient Chicken Noodle Soup (which he’s been developing for a few weeks now), and Monkey Balls (I think it’s actually called Monkey Bread, but I call it Monkey Balls for sentimental family reasons…but that’s another story). Okay, one child in the kitchen I can pretty much handle. But, while I was “multi-tasking”, addressing a few e-mails on the computer, Tom quietly enlisted his two younger brothers into the dinner-making adventure. The result was a pretty tasty dinner, and this…..

I tried to explain the concept of “clean up as you go”, but it doesn’t seem to have sunk in. And, yes, those are LEGO creations sitting at the far end of the counter....I think they were somehow involved in the dinner making process, but I'm not sure how. Of course, the rule in our home has always been “The cook doesn’t have to clean up.” Let’s see….all three boy were involved in cooking, we only have three children, so clean-up is left to…..hmmmmm.

Please excuse me while I go clean up the kitchen…