Cookies and Cream Popsicle

When I was growing up I thought grape jelly was a secret everyone kept from me. We only spoke Adam’s peanut butter and I had no idea that Dijon wasn’t the only kind of mustard on our street.

We weren’t rich, but there was a certain food language in my house. We did have boxed Mac and Cheese now and again (c’mon, my parents weren’t animals), but when friends slept over at my house they spoke in whispers to me at the breakfast table—“your syrup tastes weird”—and I looked back at them, blankly, like we were strangers meeting for the first time, while I munched the maple sugar that had crystallized at the top of the bottle.

I clearly remember the first time I ate Oreo cookies like a rumspringa. My mom had arranged for a friend to pick me up from school and the kids were sitting in the back of the car eating Oreos on the way home. The others were eating the cream out of the middle and giving fancy speeches about their technique, while I ate each one in simple, complete bites. I couldn’t believe the dancing syllables of cream and crunchy chocolate against my teeth, my tongue. Crunch melted into softness in the dips of my molars and a sweet stayed in my throat as I reached for another. Everything felt completely surreal as I realized no adult was going to stop me from eating as many as I wanted.We laughed about how good Oreos could be, giddy and talking fast, and in the distance I could hear Chips Ahoy talking with the Keebler Elves about those seductive Girl Scout Thin Mints.

I had no idea that my parents just hate Oreos until a couple of months ago.

I guess I’m a wayward daughter.

P.S. However, Peanut Butter Newman O’s rock the Oreo world. And I really love to eat Oreos frozen, and then dipped in milk.

Cookies and Cream Popsicles (makes 2-3, depending on your mold)

These are a bit tricky. Unmolding the popsicle without breaking it is more difficult because of the whole Oreo or Newman O’s cookie. But, you will be rewarded if you put the Oreo in the middle of the popsicle stick. If it’s at the tip, the icy milk doesn’t have enough to hold onto and you’ll lose half of the popsicle in the mold. Think of the popsicle as milk with a creamy Oreo center.

These melt FAST. Eat them faster.

• 2/3 Cup whole milk
• 1 Tbsp sugar (or to taste—it needs to be slightly sweeter than you think, because freezing makes everything taste slightly less sweet)
• 4 Oreo or Newman O cookies, divided

1. Whisk the sugar into the milk. Crumble 2 of the Oreo cookies into the milk and then pour a Tablespoon or so of the milk into the bottom of the mold.
2. Quickly open an Oreo and use the filling to help stick the two halves back together with the popsicle stick, toward the middle. Put the stick into the mold and then fill the rest of the mold up with the milk. Repeat for the other popsicle.
3. Let freeze according to popsicle mold directions.

Bacon Wrapped Enoki

Or: “Attack of the squid people!”

They do look a bit freakish.

Their pink striped bondage just accentuates those little bobbly heads.

Even so, who can resist that bacon flavor clinging to that velvet stem?

Not I. Not I.

(Apologies to my vegan friends. I promise to stick to untied and free vegetables in my next post.)

The hot pan sears the bacon belt. No toothpicks or handcuffs necessary.

The daughter who swears she does not like mushrooms, could not keep her hands off of these.

Two days ago she wanted to chop mushrooms, just for fun. I said, “Ok, if you eat it too.” She did. Raw. And then asked for more.

She so definitely does not like mushrooms. No way. And don’t try to tell her otherwise.

P.S. Thank you, thank you, for your love and sympathy for my whining. I’ll try not to subject you to it. Often. Being a parent is character building in whole new levels.

One Pan Three Part Dinner

Enoki mushrooms in buttery soy sauce.

Pan fried pork with garlic tones.

Swiss chard with plum tomatoes, the bitter greens sweetened by that pop of acidic tomato.

One pan.

(Did I mention One Pan?)

A few weeks ago Damaris and I went to my current favorite Japanese izakaya and we had some enoki mushrooms to die for. The waitress gave up the secret when she said, “No one ever thinks of pairing soy sauce with butter but it’s delicious.”

You’re right, Miss, I never thought of that, but I’m thinking of it now. I’ll still be going back to that restaurant (not sure I can duplicate their pork belly; I’m willing to try my mother’s), but enoki mushrooms in butter and soy sauce are now a common delicacy in my house. 

Have you had enoki mushrooms?

Their white and almost shiny long stems and caps are so tiny that you eat many at once. They always retain a tiny bit of crunch under their velvety tenderness. Their flavor is light and since they have more surface (and space between mushrooms) they pick up other flavors well. Enoki are common in shabu shabu and sukiyaki, kinds of Japanese hot pots, for lack of a better explanation. Their stems and roots stick together. Once the roots are removed the mushrooms should be cooked in a bundle rather than separated, as their texture and flavor will be lost amidst a stir fry or stew. They cook very, very quickly.

Amaya was skeptical of the mushrooms, and I readily served her a tiny portion and left more for us, but then we had to share with her. I was almost wishing that her pickiness was going to keep us from wrestling over the last mushroom.

I’m always making too many dishes when I cook, and then I take much too long to put dinner on the table. In addition, I’ll spend the whole time making one dish and our meal is monotonous and missing a balancing component. There’s so much variety here I could call this an actual and complete dinner.

Since everything in this meal is cooked almost the instant it hits the pan (plus a few minutes for the chard), you can put dinner on the table in 20 minutes or so. I didn’t measure anything, and you won’t need to either. It will taste good even with approximations.

One-Pan Three-Part Dinner (enoki, pork, and chard)

serves 3-4

• butter
• soy sauce
• two packages enoki mushrooms
• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1/2 lb or more thinly sliced pork (sukiyaki style cut, or you can cut a chop thinly if it is slightly frozen—it won’t be exactly the same but definitely cheaper)
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 slice of ginger (optional)
• sake (or other dry white wine—optional—you could use water or a bit of white grape juice here if you like)
• 1 large bunch swiss chard (or kale), chopped (about 6 cups)—stems trimmed and sliced again.
• salt
• plum or cherry tomatoes
• vinegar (any kind, really)
• hot cooked rice to serve with

1. In a large saute pan (you should use a stainless steel pan or a cast iron if that is not available) heat a few tablespoons of butter over medium heat. When the butter melts and foams a bit and just begins to turn brown, throw in the mushrooms. Stir them around a bit and splash a tablespoon or so of soy sauce. Cook for another minute and then remove to a plate, letting most of the butter soy sauce liquid over the mushrooms.
2. In the same pan, add the oil and turn to medium high heat. Salt the pork on both sides, lightly. When the pan is very hot (but the oil should not be smoking), place the pork in the pan and brown on both sides. If you are using sukiyaki cut the pieces will be cooked almost instantly. Pork will toughen if you over cook it so don’t leave it too long in the pan. Stir around the garlic in the last 30 second of cooking with the pork. Remove the pork to a plate.
3. Splash a few tablespoons of sake into the pan and the slice of ginger. Simmer and scrape up the browned bits with a wooden spoon. Reduce heat to medium, add the swiss chard, season with a bit of salt, and stir again. Throw in a handful of plum or cherry tomatoes. Cover with a lid and let cook down for about 4 minutes.
4. Remove the lid and stir, cooking until the liquid has mostly evaporated, maybe 2 minutes more. Sometimes, if I can tell the greens are a bit too salty and bitter, I put a spin of honey in there.
5. Put a small spoonful of vinegar (if desired) and stir around. Serve.

Baby food Avocado Popsicle

As a first grader, adults were the only people I knew who could have sugar at will. When I first met a diabetic, I believed she was a rock star because during recess she could go to the playground teacher and get a piece of hard candy any time.
I told her my favorite food was ice cream and I asked her what her favorite food was.
“Avocado,” she said. “I could eat avocados all day.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, “I love that stuff.”
I had no idea what she was talking about, but that fruity word just simmered through her second grade lips like sexy tropical moisture. I was hooked on avocado.
When the dentist asked me about my favorite food, I answered “Avocado.” His surprise was clear and he complimented me on keeping my teeth cavity free. I had answered the question correctly. “I could eat avocados all day,” I told him.
It wasn’t until the next year that I actually tried avocado.
I dug my spoon into its hard pudding. The piece coated my mouth and melted at the same time. The eggy flavor lingered. It was a taste I couldn’t quite call offensive, but it certainly wasn’t overly friendly like vanilla ice cream. Maybe a bit stand-offish.
It wasn’t love at first taste. Or the second. Probably not the third or fourth, either.
So seeing this face on Mozely after his first lick of avocado doesn’t surprise me.

But if we’re related at all, when he’s grown up I’ll have to lock up the avocados just to keep them for myself.


notes: I made this popsicle with formula and avocado. It will eventually turn brown but I gave him a few licks a few days in a row. Babies don’t eat much at first and I didn’t want to give him brain freeze. He started getting very upset when I took it away after a few tries, so I guess he likes it now.
Where were you when you first tried avocado?

The Way of the Natto

According to Amaya, this is what she looks like:

She made this on starfall.com and she always makes the avatar of herself the same way.

She loves The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and dresses up like Ash.

“YAWN!” she says, when I ask her to clean up her room.

Maybe 4 year olds are just weird, but this one likes natto

And using chopsticks.

Hopefully her weird will stick around. We’ll make a little foodie of her yet.

When I was young my mom would eat natto (fermented soy beans) and stink up the whole house. NASTY we would say. How can you EAT that stuff? we would say. It smells rotten and the strings are long sticky spider webs from your lips to your mouth and then back again. Your lips feel like you’ve loaded on a ton of carmex after you eat it. Except slimier and you can’t rub it off.

Now the smell and taste are nostalgic for me. It satisfies a strange umami craving.

My favorite way to eat Natto (thanks to my Mom)

1. Put it in a bowl. Stir it around like crazy. Till it looks like nasty snot. (healthier this way, Mom says.)
2. Wait 10 minutes.
3. Chop up some avocado and put it in there, and empty the little sauce packet over the top of it. If you didn’t get the natto with the sauce packet, you are wrong.
4. Tear up some shiso leaves and mix those in.
5. Serve with rice.
6. Take a shower and wash your face because you are covered in slime.

My mom eats it with a raw egg too. I won’t recommend it unless you know your eggs are safe.

Are there any weird foods you or your kids eat?

New Foods: Quinoa

New foods don’t only happen to kids. I have a ton of quinoa in my cupboard. Why?

Um, I saw it at Costco.

(did you read that post where I said I was ashamed of myself for being such a corporate-struck foodie? Yesterday I was saying to myself, “FORGET BUYING LOCAL! Just give me a drive-thru supermarket!” It wasn’t one of my better moments after shopping with kids for 2 hours.)

I’d heard about quinoa, so I bought it, thinking, “This is so healthy. I will totally love this.”

Are you laughing yet?

I didn’t like it. It’s so… Crunchy. I like crunchy, yes, but it’s too crunchy. Even when I tried to cook it longer. With more water. And more. And more. It just tastes uncooked to me.

I’ve been ignoring it for weeks now (months?). I felt embarrassed when I was going through my cupboard and saw it was still there. Can’t it take a hint?

I finally decided to give it a go when I saw a recipe for a quinoa cake. I liked it. (plus gluten free!) I really would have never known it was quinoa. Fudgy and moist.

My mom told me that my dad likes it mixed with the regular rice in the rice cooker. I was skeptical but finally gave it a go.

I LOVED quinoa in the rice cooker. I put a ratio of 1 rice cup (if you have a rice cooker, I hope you didn’t throw this away) quinoa and 3 rice cups rice (duh) and filled the water up to “rice” line 4. The quinoa wasn’t overwhelming, and it was fluffy with just the right texture.

So I think I might venture even further and try this parfait.

Do you like quinoa? Send some recipes my way so I can like it too.