kids – Peaceful Reader

June; thank you so much.

Wow – this month has flown by. Groovy Girl and I started the summer off with a road trip to Denver, Co. We stayed with family and just had a lovely time. We hiked in the area and saw deer, bison + baby bison, and pronghorns. From Iowa, it is about an 11-hour drive and we did it in 2 days.

Our favorite things were Sushi Ronin, Little Man ice cream both in the Highland area of Denver and I loved the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse and we both loved hiking at Chautauqua in Boulder, walking the 16th Street Mall, and dipping our feet into Boulder Creek. We also had a great afternoon hanging out in Washington Park just enjoying.

We had dinner with friends and family we have not seen for years and it felt great to reconnect. It is very important to keep lines of communication open in friendships and family circles. If not nurtured in some way they can easily wither away. Sometimes that can even mean a place and I definitely enjoyed connecting with Denver/Boulder again and I’m happy my daughter loved our experiences as well. I wished on the trip that I’d had the foresight to take each child on a high school road trip. There are a lot of skills learned on a road trip that you don’t get if you take a 4-hour flight to the same destination. Different lessons. The talking and the navigation were the best parts; I’m trying to teach her to put down the phone as we drive so she can look out the window and daydream, think or just unwind. Unplugging is a huge challenge for all of us with smartphones.

This trip was also a challenge to myself. I used to make this trek back and forth frequently when my son was younger and the trip was longer because I was often driving back to Minneapolis/St. Paul or Rochester area. I wanted to prove to myself that I could still make it happen and get myself around. And I did it. Bravo to me. My life can now continue!

I’ve been lucky enough to call a variety of states home but Colorado will always hold a very special place in my heart. As we drove into the state and you can see your first glimpses of the mountains in the distance; my daughter said “hello mountains; its been too long”. I agree. Our souls are better now.

And then I’m just as happy when my little black Prius pulls us back into our little corner of Iowa and we are home; happy to sleep in our own beds and kiss the ground with happiness for a safe trip.

Weekend Cooking; Fresh pizza dough

I made pizza this weekend and it turned out fantastic. The dough was triple light and airy because I rolled it out early and let it sit on the pizza stones in the oven for 3 hours while I went to another event.
When I came home and pulled the stones out of the oven to decorate the pizzas and let the oven heat up the dough was this puffy, airy mass. I poured some red sauce on and set it in the middle of the table.

One of our little guests, Jackson, took a break from petting Sadie the rabbit to help me put topics on the pizza. YES, mother, he washed his hands thoroughly before adding straight cheese and a few tiny mini sausages to the kid’s pie. He liked helping so much he topped the adult pie as well with sautéed mushrooms, black olives, fresh spinach, and plenty of cheese! I didn’t want to seem like a dweeb as we made these pizzas but they were picture-worthy. Thank you to Jackson for you pie decorating abilities.

Here is the dough recipe I used

Pizza dough
adapted from Rodale’s Basic Natural food’s cookbook

2 cups warm water
2 T. local honey
2 full T. of yeast
3 T. vegetable oil
5-6 cups unbleached flour-can use a mix of white and whole wheat

In a large bowl combine warm water, honey, and yeast and let proof. (Proofing means let it get active, it will be bubbly) Then add oil and enough flour to make a firm dough. Turn dough onto floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic., adding flour as need. Place dough in a well-oiled bowl, and turn over to coat. Cover bowl with a damp warm towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch down dough, knead briefly in bowl and let rise again. Then divide dough into two balls. Form each ball into a flat circle and roll out into a circle. I use my Pampered Chef silicone mat for this and it makes it so easy to lift up the dough flip it and turn it over.

We used most of the dough up last night but the rest is going to be turned into a calzone for tomorrow’s lunch box main dish for Groovy Girl! I’m off to create that with her now. This holiday time make some dough and have an easy pizza party. I had all my ingredients prepped and in lidded containers so I could just whip them out and let Jackson go to town. It made for a very easy entertaining trick.

Have a holly jolly week!

This is loosely linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to find many other food-related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Whipping up something yummy with Groovy Girl

[photo credit]

Did you know October is National Cookie Month? I didn’t until we visited the library a few days ago and they had a table display of kid’s cookbooks laid out (just for us, I’m sure) and we picked just a few!

Kitchen for Kids; 100 amazing recipes your children can make

Jennifer Low

176 pages including index/glossary

We didn’t make cookies but we did read through the whole book cuddled together in our comfy chair. Wednesday night after she thumbed through it again she found a recipe she really wanted to make and said in her sweetest voice: “We have all the ingredients! It will be so simple.” I’d already made a pan of our favorite eggplant lasagna for dinner and wasn’t looking forward to more time not relaxing after dinner but after I perused the recipe I agreed. I couldn’t resist her or the recipe. Could you have resisted?

Gooshy S’More Cakes
[makes 4 ramekin cakes]

Cakes:
4 large marshmallows
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup all-purpose flour [spoon in, level]
1/3 cup whole wheat flour [spoon in, level]
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt

Chocolate Goosh:
1/4 cup water
2 T. packed brown sugar
1 T. unsweetened cocoa powder

1. Pop the marshmallows into the freezer.
2 Preheat the oven to 350*
3. To make the cake, melt the butter in a bowl at 50 % power in the microwave (about 1 minute). Use a whisk to stir in the sugars. Cool slightly. Stir in rest of ingredients for the cakes (so not the Goosh) until smooth. Spoon into four ramekins or baking cups, filling 2/3 full. Put a cold marshmallow in the middle of the cake.
4. To make the Goosh, put the ingredients in a cup and heat at 50% power in the microwave, until hot. Stir smooth. Pour over the marshmallows and cake batter.
5. Put the ramekins or cups on a baking sheet. Bake 23 minutes or until puffed, the chocolate is bubbling and the marshmallows melt into top crusts. Cool until warm. Don’t unmold.

Eat it right up! You could lick your bowl but you might get your nose stuck in the ramekin! I would have taken my own photo of them but I couldn’t find my camera fast enough and then… they were gone.

The cookbook is well-designed with lots of photographs to ooh and aaah over. 6 sections are divided into 1. breakfast, lunch and dinner
2. breads and crackers
3.cookies
4. cakes
5. pies, pastries and squares
6. candies, confections and cool treats.

You can see where the emphasis is; kid-friendly sweets. Low also provides an interesting section on organizing the kitchen for your child, tools and measuring instructions.

We liked the Paddy Thai Noodles from the first section, the big soft pretzels from the second section, alphabet cookies from the third section and candy marbles from the last section. Most recipes don’t include as much microwaving as the s’mores cakes, which is good because I’m a little weird about using the microwave too cook. Many recipes in the book are done in smaller sizes or kid-sized. This is definitely one book you will want to read the recipe through before making something just to make sure you will have enough. I’m pretty sure we’ll make a few more recipes before we return it to the library.

Jennifer Low’s website.

Weekend Cooking is hosted at Beth Fish Reads. Stop over there and find many other food-related posts.