the kid in me craves caramel

I know peanut butter is healthier. I know that plain apples are even more. However, caramel apples are and will always be the bomb. 

I'm in love with the caramel from Lulas. Their sea salt caramels are heaven. If you're ever in California and pass by Monyerey go get some chocolate and caramel (caramel chocolate, yum) at Lulas. You should also go to the Monterey aquarium  too (aquarium plus lulas equals fun).

What does the kid inside of you crave?

Cucumber Lime Pops

An interesting side effect of having the Zoku around is that even my 3-year-old is getting the experimental recipe ideas.

After we made these cucumber lime popsicles she said, “We should make avocado popsicles.” I think that’s a great idea. I’m working on that one next.

We’ve been making tons of popsicles around here and I think these were my favorite so far.

Amaya got to drink the leftover juice from these and she said, “This is my favoritest juice ever, Mama.” It really makes a lovely summer drink, too, if you are not so into popsicles. I’m not really a juice in the fridge kind of person. I don’t buy apple juice, ever, unless I need it for a recipe. In my house we drink water. So if we want juice, generally, we make it ourselves, and it’s usually a little watered down to avoid too much sugar. It helps that we live in Hawaii and foraging for guava and lilikoi (passion fruit) in the mountains is fun.

For popsicles, though, you want your drink a little stronger. It’s okay, since you’re really only consuming about a 1/4 C of juice when you eat a popsicle.

(Except for the fact that we ate about 3 popsicles each. They were too good.)

Cucumber Lime Pops (makes about 4 popsicles)

• 1 C cold water
• 2 T sugar
• 1/2 peeled cucumber (about 1/4C-1/3C—exact measurements unnecessary)
• juice of 1 lime, about 2 T

1. Put all ingredients in the blender and blend until mixed, just a few seconds.
2. NOTE: if you are making this just to drink as juice, double, triple, quadruple the recipe as needed, but also substitute some of the cold water for ice. It makes a nice frothy, icy, drink.
3. Pour into popsicle molds and enjoy.

S’mores

  We recently went camping. Did you know, cooking over a campfire is really hard?

I mean, I love love love my dutch oven. But you know what I like even better?

An oven where I can turn a dial and know exactly what temperature it’s at.

I burned the hobo dinners a little. Then I undercooked the breakfast in a paper bag (which, I’m still skeptical about. Doesn’t the bag just catch on fire?) And when we wrapped sticks with cinnamon twist pillsbury dough (from the can), one side was burnt and the inside was raw. Not to mention the dough constantly untwisting and drooping into the fire. Putting them in foil to cook amongst the coals… not much better results. So I’m feeling extremely grateful that we have ovens and that firewood (or even coal) is not a necessity of every meal. I’ve been complaining about my electric stove because I want a gas one so badly, but really. I have a stove. With dials.

Camp food is somewhat glorious because you’re always hungry by the time you want to eat something. And smoke makes a gorgeous seasoning. So you put up with a lot.

The really perfect camp food, though, is s’mores. I’m slightly obsessed with s’mores, and I eat them at least once a week, cooked in the toaster oven. The toaster oven is perfect because the marshmallows are browned, liquid all the way through to the center, and the chocolate actually melts. So even this camp food is better at home. Here’s Amaya showing us her dirty hands after our s’more fest. “Charlie and the Chocolate Hands,” she says. I think it was her first joke.

I enjoy the classic s’more recipe, but I also like to mix things up a bit. Here are some more ideas.

For the diet conscious:

Anna’s Chocolate Mint Thins and 1 marshmallow. I was surprised how much I liked these.

For convenience:

Keebler’s half-dipped graham cracker/cookies with 4 mini marshmallows each (the size of these graham crackers are small, so mini marshmallows work better. It’s nice to not have to deal with little pieces of chocolate when you’re sitting at a campfire in the dark.

For the sweet tooth:

graham crackers, Reese’s peanut butter cup, and marshmallow. These are my favorite.

If you want to make these at home, I just set up my graham crackers, mallows, and chocolate on a toaster sheet pan, and hit 450 on the temp. Toast until the mallows are browned (about 5 minutes).

Fried Chicken Onigiri

I love picnics.
It’s summer, and we eat dinner outside about 5 times a week. We decided to go to the beach for lunch, and I was so excited to pack up my bento box.
What is it about fresh air that makes food taste so good?
I think eating with your hands makes food taste good, too.
The fried chicken pieces are good on their own, too, if you don’t want to wrap it up for a picnic lunch. I made plenty to share and my daughter still ate 5 onigiri on her own.
Fried Chicken Pieces (Karaage style)

• 1 lb chicken cut up into 1-2 inch pieces (depending on how big you want to make your rice balls) I used breast meat, but I usually prefer thigh.
• 1/2 C soy sauce
• 4 T mirin (rice wine vinegar)
• 1 T grated ginger
• 1/2 C cornstarch
• vegetable oil

1. Put the chicken in a ziploc bag with the soy sauce, mirin, and ginger. Exact measurements are really not very necessary here--- just splash it in and it will be fine. Let marinate for 20 minutes or so.
2. Put the chicken out on a paper towel-lined plate. Dry the chicken with the paper towels.
3. Put the cornstarch in a bowl. Heat 1 inch of vegetable oil in a saucepan or fry pan over medium heat until very hot.
4. Dredge the chicken pieces in the cornstarch and put in the vegetable oil. Flip after about a minute and then remove from the pan after another minute. The crust should be golden.

Fried Chicken Onigiri

• Fried Chicken pieces
• 4 C hot cooked rice (short or medium grain only)

1. Wet your hands lightly with water. Clap to get the excess water off. Put about 1/3 cup of rice in your hands and put a piece of cooked chicken in the middle of your rice. Gather up the rice around the chicken and begin to rotate the ball of rice in your hands, packing it together and working quickly. You don’t want to press too hard to make it mush, but firmly so it sticks together. A circle is easiest for this, but you can make a triangle or other shape if you like. Don’t handle it too much or it will start sticking to your hands as well. It’s okay if you see some of the chicken sticking out!
2. Put a piece of seaweed or nori on the outside if you like. Wrap in plastic wrap if you are going to eat it later (so the rice doesn’t dry out). Keep at room temperature until you eat it. Will keep for a couple of hours.

I had the idea that I would like a little squirt of ketchup next to the chicken when I make it next time. I’m not sure if it would work, but I’m willing to try anyway!

Carmelized French Toast

I think it’s lovely how much credit you can get just for getting up and making breakfast.
Especially when breakfast tastes this good and is this easy.
I like to pretend that I’m eating dessert for breakfast. But who am I kidding. I want dessert later, too. Jake was skeptical of this when I was making it because of, well, you’ll see. But this is why he looks like a Greek God. And we can’t all be Greek Gods, you know. Might as well enjoy your French Toast while you can.
French toast was the first thing I cooked on my own as a kid. It’s really a good kid-friendly recipe, because measurements don’t need to be exact, it has so few ingredients, and it’s fast. 
Carmelized French Toast adapted from Bon Appetit June 2010

• 7 T unsalted butter at room temperature (or I just nuke my cold butter in a bowl for 12 seconds)
• 6 T packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 C whole milk
• 3 large eggs
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 8 slices of 3/4 inch to 1-inch-thick bread. I used sourdough at 3/4 inch—they recommended French, but I think you would need a lot more pieces to sop up the egg.

1. Mix butter and brown sugar thoroughly.
2. Whisk milk, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon in a pie plate until combined.
3. Melt a heaping tablespoon of butter/brown sugar mixture in a non-stick pan over medium heat. Dip 2 slices of bread (both sides) in egg mixture (if you have a slightly stale/dry bread, I let it soak for a few seconds and even stab it with a fork to help it soak in) and place on top of the melted butter.
4. Cook for a few minutes (3-4) until the bottom is deep brown. Spread some more butter mixture over the tops of the bread and flip it over, cooking again until the bottom is browned. 
5. Top with fruit and serve. Bon Appetit suggested maple syrup and powdered sugar, but are you crazy? We ate the leftovers plain and they were perfect snacks before lunch. .

Fake Blueberry Pie

My son has been sicky with a nasty stomach virus. So sad. He's been lethargic and needy and out of the blue told me that he would feel much better if only he had some blueberry pie. Being sick myself and talking care of two sick kids is no fun and having to make blueberry pie on top of that seemed like an impossible task. So instead we made some fake blueberry pie. Actually, Enzo made it all by himself. I just threw out directions.

Fake Blueberry Pie

• One sheet frozen puff pastry
• frozen blueberries
• sugar
• cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350*
2. Defrost the puff pastry sheet for 15 minutes.
3. Cut round pieces of puff pastry using your remekin same as you would a cookie cutter.
4. Fill the remekin 3/4 full with frozen blueberries.
5. Add sugar and cinnamon to taste
6. Cover with the puff pastry circle
7. Cook for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.
8. Serve with whip cream.

I added some pieces of brie cheese to mine and actually Enzo liked that too. Puff Pastry is so delicious and versatile. I love it.

Kids Cooking

Here’s Mikey:

And Here are Mikey’s Cookies:

There is something so totally empowering and grown up about cooking. You get to decide what to cook, how it turns out, and who gets to eat it.

Mikey had to ask Grandma Pammy for a few tidbits of advice, but basically he made these “mix in a jar” cookies on his own. And I ate plenty of them.

(can you tell that his dad is a photographer and he totally knows how to pose?)

If I could figure out how to do it, I’d love to make a cookbook with recipes that kids could actually make on their own. My daughter’s 3 and she just figured out how the microwave works (except that she puts everything in for like 30 minutes).

What would you put in it? What do your kids cook on their own?

Hands Up for Summer!

The Zoku quick pop maker came in the mail last Thursday, and I’ve been concocting all sorts of popsicle recipes in my head since I stuck the contraption in the freezer.

I think I mentioned last Christmas that I would love one of these, and someone out there heard me just in time for summer.

I was trying to think of refreshing, cool, and anything to get me clear of my overheated pregnant body.

The Zoku makes popsicles in about 7 minutes. I’m really not much of a do-ahead person, as in, I can’t get myself to stick juice in the freezer the night before I might need a popsicle. I want a popsicle. And I want it NOW. So I’ll go out and buy a popsicle before I think ahead for one.

The magic is in the base. You keep the base of the popsicle maker in the freezer. In the directions it even says, after you make your popsicles, just put it back in the freezer. No need to wash it after every use. YES! My kind of contraption. So it’s basically frozen all the time and you can make popsicles every day. 9 of them, actually (3 at a time).

You really need a pouring type of container because you want to get it right in the mold instead of all over the top like Messy Me.

The other ones we were more careful with. It takes very very little liquid to make these popsicles. Then wait 7 minutes or so until it’s frozen. This part was torturous. Seriously.

With the “super tool”, the popsicle slides out easily! Really. Easy as pie. It felt like some kind of trick. That’s my problem with popsicles. Half the time you can’t get them out of their molds. Not these. Plus they look like professional popsicles. Awesome.

View Full Album

Although I received the Zoku for free, I was not paid or required to give any endorsement. (you can buy it HERE.) But I give it 2 hands up for summer. The kids enjoyed our bounty, and I am already planning my next popsicle recipe.  My fav is the watermelon ginger, but it may just be a pregnancy thing.

Watermelon Ginger Popsicles

• 1 C watermelon
• 1 T sugar
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 1 tsp fine-grated ginger (I used a rasp grater and frozen ginger)
• 1/3 C water

Blend up the ingredients and chill before pouring into popsicle molds.

Strawberry Orange Popsicles

• 5 frozen strawberries
• 1/2 C water
• 2 T sugar
• 2 T orange juice concentrate

Blend up the ingredients and chill before pouring into popsicle molds.

Mango Lassi Popsicles

• 1/2 C greek yogurt (or thick plain yogurt if you don’t have)
• 2 T sugar
• 1/3 C milk
• 1 C frozen mango
• 1/4 tsp kewda water (optional)

Blend up the ingredients and chill before pouring into popsicle molds.