C6 in the kitchen

C6 and I are all about the cookies. Here's a shot of him assisting with the buttah for a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies. (The recipe on the lid of the Quaker Oats container has always been a fave.)

I wish I had a cool apron like C6's! I got it at Beansoup a couple of months ago and he's been getting a lot of use out of it. When I ordered the apron I inquired if I could have one made in my size and, alas, they could not, as they were all out of the cool retro dot pattern fabric. The person who answered my inquiry (Leigh) wrote that since they get a lot of requests like mine, they are offering the new fabric selections in sizes for kids and bigger people too. But no more cool retro dots. *sigh*

Today's cookin' with C6:

• At breakfast time we made Strawberry/Banana/OJ smoothies (with waffles and yogurt)
  
• For lunch, we made ham & cheese croissants. (We used refrigerated crescent roll dough.)
  Also on the lunch menu were edamame beans, cucumbers and carrots.
  
• Dinner time, we prepared slices of kielbasa on teeny tiny pumpernickel bread with mustard. We served'em with mashed potatoes and peas.

We like to watch "Cooking With Luis" on Noggin. We haven't tried any of his recipes yet, but C6 gets inspired to get into the kitchen after we watch. I like how Luis says "this is the best evah" kinda deadpan. D'ya think someone told him that should be his catch phrase? Other popular Luis phrases: "it doesn't get any better than this", "it's that easy", "good food, good fwends". We luv Luis!

C6 Luvs Tracy Bonham!

C6 is in luuuuuuuv! He is totally smitten with Tracy Bonham and her song "Something Beautiful". And who can blame him? Both are lovely, lovely, lovely. We listened to the song about 28 times in the car yesterday alone! He is always very quiet and pensive while listening to this song, sometimes humming along very very softly...


Yesterday we were playing and C6 turned to me all wide eyed, and said, out of the blue, "Mum! I know! I think we should invite Tracy Bonham over for PANCAKES!"

I think it is a good idea.

The Sweet Smell of Christmas

The Sweet Smell of Christmas, by Patricia Scarry, illustrated by J. P. Miller.

Dudes. This was my FAVORITE Christmas book as a little'un. It is a scratch and sniff story about a little bear and his mom and pop at Christmastime, and all the great Christmas-y smells they encounter. I LOVED this book so much, the scratch and sniff labels were pretty much scratched all the way off.

Last Christmas I couldn't believe my eyes when I found it in a bookshop - I was so excited! I had been looking for it but I couldn't remember the title. ANyway, there it was! I snagged a copy for my li'l brother, because he loved it as much as I did.

C6 is loving it too. I think I may need to buy another copy because the scents aren't all that strong even though we are scratching the HECK out of those little stickers.

C6 has inherited my love for the combination of chocolate and orange. First, we scratch and sniff the hot cocoa, then quickly scratch and sniff the christmas orange.

Then we eat some Pepperidge Farm Orange Milanos.

Awwww yeaaaahhhhhh.

PS: Santa, if you're reading, I've been Extremely Very Good this year and if it isn't too much trouble, could you please leave a Chocolate Orange in my stocking? Cheers!

Another delightful chicken dish

I was looking for a recipe for something delicious, interesting, and healthy that the three of us would all enjoy. I found this Chicken and Basil Stir Fry recipe and it fit the bill.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe. I didn't use Thai basil, regular ol' basil worked just FINE. And I didn't use as much garlic as the recipe called for - I only used 2 cloves. I used red, yellow, and green bell peppers to make it all purty-like. I served this over brown rice (or "tan rice" as C6 called it)...and THEY ATE IT! MmMmMmmMmm - it was gooooOOooOOood. Next time I will double the amount of liquids to make more sauce - cuz it'd be nice to have more flavor on the rice, knowwhatimean?

Delightful, I say!

Time to make a plan which...involves a SANDWICH!

C6 is into eating sandwiches these days. (You may remember that he did not like them...even though he really did.) Then he decided that he DID like sandwiches and we got into making them together. We remembered the episode of the Upside Down Show where Shane and David learned how to make sandwiches by watching a kid demonstrate the process. They gave their play-by-play description. "... and for the crowning glory ... a piece of green, green lettuce, ... the ubiquitous pat-down ... and we have total sandwich." C6 remembered, and we always do the ubiquitous pat-down.

So anyhoo, I got an email from a musician named Ira Marlowe who does kids music. He's got a CD out called The Teasing Bird. What does this have to do with Sandwiches? Plenty! One of the songs on the CD is called SANDWICH and it is funny and cute and will stick in your head. In a good way. Here's the quirky little video for it. C6 can't get enough of it - it is his favorite video now. We watch it a LOT. And I mean...a LOT.

Watch for appearances by Paul McCartney, Ace Frehley, Pete Townshend, in bread form, and Elton John as Cheese!



I like the little conversations between the rasta bread dudes and the "May-o!" part...

Visit Ira's site Brainy Tunes for more info, games (there's a SANDWICH game!), songs, and videos.

An easy chicken recipe we love

Here is a chicken dish that sees a lot of table time here at our house. C5 and C6 LOVE'em! I call'em "herby chicken parm tenders", but the official recipe is called "Parmigiano and Herb Chicken Breast Tenders" - from the Food Network show 30 Minute Meals. I don't always use all the fresh herbs but I always make sure to include fresh rosemary - I think the rosemary makes this dish. I've made the sauce to accompany the chicken too, and though it is quite nice, often, we opt for a nice jar of Prego. (Don't mock me.) Add some pasta and salad...and don't forget the GARLIC BREAD...and a nice glass of Valpolicella for mummio and daddio...and Mmmmm, mmmmm. Mangia mangia!

They're good cold, too. I packed some up (without the sauce) for our last long car trip. We dipped'em in applesauce! It was "road food" and C6 was a real road warrior! This past roadtrip, we even managed to eat carrots and some yogurt too - a real success in the healthy eatin' on the road department - not always the case!

(Aside: "Prego" was one of my terms for pregnant back in the old days - "BC6" - Before C6.)

A great little Italian Restaurant

A while back (geez, I think it was in the springtime, yikers!) I got together with two dear hilarious friends. In my former lifetime, I worked with these two dear hilarious girlies at a small design company. Good times, good times.

Well! Ever so often one of us will send out the call to get together to catch up and have lots of delicious food and drink. We even came up with a silly little name for our trio but as it is slightly risqué I think I will withhold that info and keep yez guessing. (You'll probably imagine something way more bold or disgusting that what we came up with. But that is entirely up to you.)

For one such outing, Melinda suggested that we dine at a place called Vinny's At Night, an Italian restaurant in Somerville, MA. She told us that the restaurant was in the back of a little convenience store/deli and opened for dinner at night. They had delicious food and it was kind of a cool place. Sounded good to me! She told us that there is ANOTHER restaurant in Somerville called "Li'l Vinny's" but that was NOT the one. This was "Vinny's" on Broadway. Luckily, I managed to navigate myself to the right Vinny's. Awesome.

It was such a cool little place! I would love to go back. The atmosphere was kind of kooky - I really loved it!!!! There we were, seated at a table in the back of a store. There was a little bit of a separation between the dining area and the deli/store, but you still could see the shelves and counters and such in the front.

It is pretty small, but we got there at a good time and got a table right away. (If I remember correctly, Carolyn got there first and snagged our table. She's a real pro!) The music perfectly added to the atmosphere...I recall "Mambo Italiano"! Hey Mambo!!!

Melinda suggested we share some antipasti - you go up to the antipasto bar and pick out what you like - a great variety of authentic foods. Some kind of rice balls...Marinated veggies...all sorts of goodies...I ate some of everything and there was nothing I didn't enjoy. The food was delicious. I had shrimp scampi. (Scampi. Scampi! SCAMPI!!! - I always liked that word.) And of course some red vino - did we get Chianti? Details are foggy...maybe a tad too much vino???

It was something different...very delicious...very fun. If you live around here, why not grab a few friends you haven't seen in awhile and head on out to Vinny's and enjoy?! (But not Li'l Vinny's...although that's probably a decent place too.)

Juice Pops

Homemade orange juice popsicles, with floaty blueberry suprises, YEAHHHH!!!

Here's how we made them...it's WICKED HAAAAHD! (n't):
Pour orange juice into a homemade popsicle mold. (I got ours at Target - not a hard item to find.) Drop a couple of blueberries in each. Put the handles in. Freeze'em. It is kind of hard to remove the pops from the mold - you have to run it under hot water for quite awhile and gently jiggle'em out. Otherwise, you rip the handles right out and THAT'S NO GOOD!

C6 loves these orange juice popsicles. We like to pour grapefruit juice in one mold to make one grapfruit juice popsicle for Daddio.

We are going to make star baby ba na na perishote sherbet pops soon. Mmm.

Happy summertime!

Bento stuff!

My Bento Hero, Biggie, tells us that, come November, we'll be able to buy Bento stuff online at (hopefully) more reasonable prices.
"Ichiban Kan, a rocking Japanese-style dollar store in the San Francisco Bay Area tells me that they’re going to open an online store in November 2007 that will sell inexpensive bento gear...Most products are US$1 to $1.50 in the store; we’ll see how they price things online. I hope they’ll give us a nice break from those sky-high eBay prices (not to mention shipping from Japan — ugh)!"
Woo hoo!

Mangia! Mangia! and - Unintentional Messy Day

C6 and I love the book "Mangia! Mangia!" by Amy Wilson Sanger. We got it around the time we got the Sushi book by the same author. These books are so much fun.

Anyhoo, one of the pages of "Mangia! Mangia!" is about antipasti, and it mentions "prosciutto wrapped melone". C6 was curious about this, so we decided to make some prosciutto wrapped melone ourselves. We picked up a nice ripe cantaloupe and a few slices of prosciutto at the market.

Here is where it became UNINTENTIONAL MESSY DAY! (Bonus!)

I cut the melon in half and let C6 scoop out all the seeds and "guts" into a bowl. We started with spoons but of course that wasn't going to last - it was full-on HANDS-ON! Wow. This was a whole lotta fun. He remembered when we made jack-o-lanterns for Hallowe'en and compared it to that. Even after we finished getting all the gunk out of the cantaloupe and into the bowl, we just squooshed around in the seeds and stuff. Y'know, just for fun. Squooshy, squooshy, fun. Instant Messy Day! (At least he didn't try to make a "cantaloupe guts angel" on the floor.)

After Squooshfest 2007, I sliced the cantaloupe and removed the rind. C6 helped wind slices of prosciutto around the melon. The kid loved the prosciutto, not so wild about the cantaloupe this time around (though he likes it). I suppose he was all cantalouped out by that point!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Cantaloupe!
Cantaloupe who?
Cantaloupe tonight, Dad has the car!

Cute Bento Eggies

Oh! I totally forgot to show yez our bear and bunnie Bento eggs. Here they are in all their eggy glory. How eggs-citing! We just love to MUNCH ON THEIR HEADS.

(Previous Bento entries are here and here.)

LEMONADE!

C6 and I have made a few batches of lemonade over the past couple of weeks. YUM!!!

C6's first job is to remove all the stickers from the lemons. He really enjoys the task! I wash the lemons and cut them in half, and then we squeeze'em. We use a little plastic juicer, neither fancy nor shmancy. C6 was more interested in sampling the lemons the first batch, but he got into using the juicer on the second batch - he really put his back into it!

The recipe we used for the first batch...

combine:

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of water

heat this over the stove to dissolve the sugar. Let this cool, then add:

• 1 cup lemon juice
• 4 cups of cold water

stir, then add:

• ice
• sliced lemons

We didn't use 1 cup of sugar - it was more like 2/3 cup, and it was plennnnnty sweet. The next batch we made, we used 1/2 cup of sugar and it was GREAT.

We decided to use Max and Ruby's Grandma's secret ingredient - a mint leaf! Grandma uses merely one leaf, but we put in a WHOLE LOT. The mint is a great addition - but if you keep a bunch of mint leaves steeping in the lemonade for too long, they get all soggy, translucent, and ugly. (Still tastes great though!!!).

Man, does it taste good!!!!

(Especially on the screenporch!)

!!!!PORCH FLASHBACK!!!!
!!!!PORCH FLASHBACK!!!!
!!!!PORCH FLASHBACK!!!!
!!!!PORCH FLASHBACK!!!!

Peanut Butter Sammich That Isn't A Peanut Butter Sammich Because C6 Doesn't Like Peanut Butter Sammiches. But It Really IS A Peanut Butter Sammich.

Here's a little scribble. I thought I'd redraw it and make it nice but WHO AM I KIDDING??? The little blurry dot things here and there on the drawing are artistic additions by my associate, C6.

So the story is: C6 says he doesn't LIKE sammiches, and that's quite the drag. I make him Peanut Butter "Burgers" (not really burgers!) by making a peanut butter sammich, and using a wide-mouth glass to cut a circle out of the middle of the complete sammich. That also presses the edges together. VOILA! We call it a Peanut Butter Burger, or a Peanut Butter Thingie. C6 digs'em! I'm gonna try this with other fillings and see if the edges will still stick together. Click on the image to enlarge it if it is too minute to read. It will become humongous. And thank you, Upside Down Show for teaching the words HUMONGOUS and MINUTE to C6!

Bento update!

Hurrah! The cute Bento items I ordered arrived and we're really enjoying them. I didn't realize how small the Bento box that I ordered is - I've been using it for C6's snacks, or appetizers/sides/bits. The Hello Kitty cartoon character on the front of the box is "Shinkansen", the Japanese Bullet Train. Maybe he's the Japanese version of Thomas the Tank Engine. (Though we don't really know about him yet, shhhh. Don't tell C6! I tried watching that show and it was painfully boooooring! PAINFULLY!)

C6 is just crazy about the bear and bunny-shaped hard boiled eggs. He likes them with black pepper. No photos yet of the eggies (intact), but here's C6 enjoying some bueno Bento. This time it was avocado, blackberries, cheddar cheeeeez, and hard boiled egg slices. He gets very excited about opening it up to see what's inside! "My Bento box! My Bento box!"

Tortellini Soup...Simply YUM.

This recipe for "Cheese Tortellini in a Light Broth" is from the show Everyday Italian on the Food Network. It is the easiest thing in the world to make and is so very, very good. Try it! Next time I'll make the parmesan crisps to go with it, as suggested in the recipe. C6 really enjoyed it, but he wasn't crazy about the parsley. He is VERY into salt and pepper though.

Hooray for Everyday Italian!

Bentomania!

What is this? IT IS BENTO! This here photo is from ss-biggie, who rocks the Bento like nobody's bidness! I have been reading a lot about the Japanese art of Bento. Huh? What IS it? Here is a good description from the website Cookingcute.com:

"Bento, or o-bento, refers to a packaged, single-portion, portable meal that is usually eaten at lunch, but also comes in larger sizes meant for use at picnics, dinner, and parties. A bento generally consists of rice or noodles and some form of protein (e.g., meat, poultry, fish, tofu) accompanied by side dishes of raw, simmered, or pickled vegetables. There are many different types of bento boxes, ranging from traditional handcrafted wooden lacquerware to disposable containers .... Most bento boxes have compartments or internal dividers for separate dishes.

Bento is an art form in Japan. Japanese women spend a good part of their mornings preparing bento for their families – there is even a sense of competition among mothers to see who can produce the most cute, appetizing, and healthy lunch for their children. Modern Japanese culture virtually revolves around compact cuteness. The variety of designer bento boxes, food liners, wiener and cookie cutters, egg molds, food picks, and other bento-ware used to create these mini-masterpieces is amazing and overwhelming..."

Looky here! ss-biggie has some really amazing bento photos of lunches for toddlers. Wow.

I've been really into the idea of Bento - I enjoy making C6's plates healthy, pretty and colorful, with lots of fresh fruits and veggies. But I haven't gotten around to getting a bento box or any of the other supplies yet. Until now! I just ordered some stuff - a Bento box for C6, some teeny tiny little containers and divider cups, and even a mold to shape hard boiled eggs into little bears and bunnies. Molding a boiled egg, hm. Now that's just plain crazy. It really is. I am remined of a Christmas gift I got my mum back in the '70s - The Egg Cuber!

Maybe a bit crazy, yes...but it's all so dang cute!

If You Knew Sushi Like I Know Sushi...

Yesterday C6 tried a little sushi. We've been reading through "First Book Of Sushi" by Amy Wilson Sanger and he was curious about it. Plus, he totally wanted to break out his chopsticks! He liked a little bit of the Calfornia roll and the pickled ginger. He really likes sour things, like pickles and lemons. I'm hoping that his interest in trying new foods will continue. I think we'll try Indian food next!

Hey! It's Cupcake Guy!

That IS cupcake guy! Hurrah!

C6 and I saw him in a magazine and decided to make him. He was DELICIOUS. We also made some of those cupcakes in icecream cones that look like a scoop of ice cream in a cone, with sprinkles on top. And we made some yummy valentines cupcakes, too. I've never made so many cupcakes in my life as I have in the past few months. But we're not cupcaked out yet!

Starbaby ba na na perishote sherbet

C6 and I like to make smoothies from bananas, frozen strawberries and orange juice. So easy - just chuck it all in a blender and blend the hell out of it. Hint: when we don't get around to using up all our bananas before they get all BROWN, we just peel'em and stick'em in a ziplock and toss'em in the freezer. When you use the frozen bananas in a smoothie it makes it x-tra thick! You can make it thick enough to put in a bowl and eat with a spoon - YUM! THEN - if you are hardcore, as we are, you'll pour the smoooovie into a container and freeze it. THEN, scoop it up with an icecream scooper after it has frozen, and you have smoothie sorbet. But we call it strawberry banana periscope sherbet in our house. (C6's pronunciation is starbaby ba na na perishote sherbet. He is obsessed with that periscope/speaker thingie on Teletubbies). And I know it is not really sherbet. Shut up.

Lately, C6 has taken to eating his strawberry banana periscope sherbet with "training" chopsticks - they are connected at one end, with a little fish at the top. Know what they're called? Fishsticks!

Favorite Local Hangouts

Here's a quick list of some of my favorite local places (in and around Melrose, MA):

The Bohemian Coffeehouse is a new coffee place not too far from our home. I'm not wild about the name, but I *am* wild about this place - C6 and I go on a somewhat regular basis for chocolate chip cookies, chocolate croissants, and oreo cookie ice cream (for c6) - and chai, peppermint mocha, coffee (for me). It is a small place - only 2 tables. Whenever we go, they are playing music I like - Doves, Elvis Costello, other stuff I didn't know but really liked. Hillary, one of the owners, is a friendly, cool, interesting person who makes you feel welcome and comfortable. We love the place!

When I get a chance to run out for lunch by myself, I like to hit Sushi Corner in Melrose. It is off the parking lot behind Shaw's. I'm not a hardcore sushi-er, but I do like a California roll or spicy tuna roll every once in awhile. Last time I went I tried the "Melrose Roll", which was spectacularly good. (and big!) It was spicey tuna, avocado, salmon, spicey mayo (I think), and little fishy eggies on top. YUM! Delightful.

We love going to J. Pace market, in Saugus. It is a wonderful Italian market, with a bakery and butcher counter...they have EVERYTHING. Produce section...Italian groceries...fresh cheeses, and a whole section of delicious prepared foods, and ready-to-cook foods. We're big fans of the chicken noodle soup. Beware - they only make it on Mondays and Tuesdays! Also love the marinated bbq steaktips. TANGY. C6 always seems to get a free cookie out of the lovely ladies at the bakery counter. He doesn't even have to bat his eyelashes!

We like to go to Breads-n-Bits of Ireland once in awhile for a cup of irish oatmeal or an orange chocolate scone. Recently they had snowman-shaped sugar cookies, decorated with colored sugar. Black sugar for the snowman hat, blue sugar eyes - C6 loved it. And he looked like a little Goth with his black/blue lips afterward.

Hungry for some Vietnamese food? I am! I like to get spring rolls and the vermicelli noodles with beef at Saigon Noodle in Malden. Malden has a couple of other Vietnamese restaurants but I have yet to try them. I loves me my Saigon Noodle! They're always very nice to me there. Extra peanut sauce, please!

For a quick pint when we're able to, C5 and I will hop on over to Harrington's in Wakefield. Nice little place with a good menu - My fave is the salad with grilled chicken, dried cranberries, goat cheese, and pine nuts. Comfortable atmosphere, just right. We likey.

Now I'm all hungry and thirsty! Daaaaaaaaang.