More Dessert (this one from Erika)

There is a new website called Pintrest where you can make pin boards of things that you like. You can sign up to follow friends and then you can see what they like too. Erika pinned a super yummy looking banana cake and I had 3 bananas that weren't getting eaten on the counter. I found the recipe here: recipe

We happened to have almost everything. I won't use shortening so I used butter instead. I didn't feel like buying a whole thing of sour cream so I used a container of fat free greek yogurt and then some dregs of a low fat sour cream that we already had plus a little extra banana. I also don't like walnuts so I used pecans and just because I think they go well, I put about 1/3 to 1/2 c of mini chocolate chips.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cups mashed ripe bananas
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts
• confectioners' sugar

Directions

1. In a mixing bowl, cream the shortening and sugar. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Blend in vanilla. Add bananas and mix well. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture alternately with sour cream, stirring just until combined. Stir in walnuts. Pour into a greased and floured 10-in. fluted tube pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 50 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool 10 minutes in pan before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar before serving.

I made this during naptime so I had no helpers but here are some gratuitous cute pictures from today. :)

Writing a letter

Best use for an oversized shower ever!

Watching Wonder Pets!

yummy summer treat!

One of the blogs that I like is Weelicious. It's a mom who cares about making healthy food for her kids. Some of her recipes look fantastic!

I was feeling in the mood for some ice cream so we made this recipe.

Chocolate Ice Cream

1/3 c fat free greek yogurt (we used an entire 6 ounce container because I didn't want a partial yogurt floating around in the fridge)
2 TBSP honey
2 tsp vanilla
bbbbb njdjdfgfcg gggggggg g (this was Alex's addition to the recipe)
1 TBSP cocoa powder
2 c sliced banana (frozen)
1/4 c sliced strawberry (frozen)

Blend the first 4 ingredients. Add the fruit and blend until smooth and creamy. Serve!

Yesterday I sat down with the kids while they were having a snack and cut up some bananas and strawberries. I had to cut up an extra banana and quite a few strawberries because the slices kept getting eaten. I put those in the freezer over night and then today we made the ice cream. My numbers were very approximate. I'm pretty sure we had more than 2 cups of bananas and 1/4 cup of strawberries.

Today when Alex woke up from nap, we got out the food processor (I used that instead of the blender because our blender is wussy).

The kids were great helpers at pushing the button on the food processor.

We had to open the lid a few times to test the final product.

This took less than 15 minutes to make and that was with 2 little helpers.

We all liked it. Patrick pointed out that it was a little bit tangy from the amount of yogurt we put in it. If you used flavored yogurt, it would probably be fine or if you used the amount that the recipe suggests.


If you zoom in, Alex's head does NOT have a scratch on it. It's ice cream.

It's a really good consistency for Alex to practice feeding himself. It just gets a little messy, he got a bath after he was done eating. I want to try making this again using other fruits. I think the banana is critical for the consistency but you could easily sub in some mango and leave out the cocoa powder. Adding just a few mini chocolate chips would also be quite tasty.

RVA to PHX: Cousin Express

The RVA family took a looong-weekend trip to visit the Chandler clan, and we had an amazing time.


"Mama, are we on our way to Phoenix? On an AIRPLANE?"
She was soo excited to see cousin Elizabeth and baby Alex, and Auntie Krista and Uncle Patrick, and who could blame her?

We had a stellar time visiting, catching up, swimming in the pool, eating at gorgeous farm restaurants, grinning at how well the girls got along, and remarking on how adorable Alex is when he zooms around the kitchen with his shopping cart. Together, we were privy to the finest Costco samples ever known to man. The kids got chocolate bars and little silly toys, and all of us got Toothbrushes ( yes, I'm serious!), floss, and bleaching trays (just for the grown-ups) along with the usual assortment of food samples.


Double Trouble with Panda Hair in matching outfits from Grandma Dianne.

We took a nice walk along the Canal walk, and tried out a great neighborhood playground. Are you jealous of the double rocking plane?


The girls pretty much entertained each other.


And Alex entertained us.


We all got to read a lot of sleepytime stories together


We went to the zoo, where I failed to take any useful pictures of actual animals. But here's their swanky Cousin Express


And we got some great group shots

Happy Family Number One


Two ladies avoiding the sun


Happy Family Number Two

Boutiful Baskets & Asparagus Soup

They have a buying coop here called Bountiful Baskets where you pay $15 and you get a random assortment of fruits and veggies that fills up ~1 laundry basket. I decided to do it this week because we've been spending a ton of money on fruits and veggies (which is a good thing!). You place the order on Tuesday and then you pick up on Saturday. The place we pickup is about 3 miles from here and it's at 7AM. When you get there, they have rows of laundry baskets and you pick one laundry basket and load up all of the fruits and veggies. You don't get to pick what assortment you get and you can't trade between baskets. So if you see a basket that has a particularly fine set of bananas but icky looking strawberries you can't move the bananas to a basket that has lovely strawberries. You can have the strawberries or the bananas or you can pick a different basket. This is more of a problem if you do this in the winter because the quality isn't quite as good. This week, all the baskets looked good.
For $15 we got:
5 oranges
7 bananas
3 apples
3 tomatoes
2 mangos
a full seedless watermelon
a carton of strawberries
a bag of green beans
a head of romaine
2 bell peppers
2 zucchini
3 bunches of asparagus
I also ordered a mexican pack which had grey squash and assorted chili peppers and green onions and garlic and yellow onions and cilantro.


Now, when I ordered this on Tuesday, we were out of lettuce in the house and we had some clementines and a unripened cantaloupe. Then Thursday, Patrick's group had a picnic at work and we "won" the extra fruit bowl and a couple zucchini and yellow squash to bring home so we are currently up to our ears in produce.

The problem that we sometimes have is that I don't know what to do with some of the items. I'm not a huge fan of asparagus and I certainly won't eat 3 bunches before they go bad so I had to figure out something to do with them. I remembered that there is a maggi mix of asparagus soup that we occasionally had in Germany so I looked up a couple of recipes online for cream of asparagus soup and combined them to use only ingredients we had already.

Ingredient list:
3 bunches of asparagus (around 2.5 pounds)
2.5 cans of chicken broth
2.5 tbsp butter
1 large onion
5 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp flour
1 container of nonfat plain yogurt (I had greek yogurt so I used that)
some pepper (to taste)
~1 tsp salt (to taste)

I started out by asking Elizabeth to help me wash the asparagus. Alex helped. They both got very wet and had a wonderful time. Alex had to have his own chair so he could see what was going on.


Snap the asparagus into 1-2 inch pieces and simmer in chicken broth until tender. Move to a bowl and reserve some of the chicken broth that simmered the asparagus. Blend in batches until smooth.

In the pan used to simmer the asparagus, melt the butter and saute the onions and garlic until glassy. Then add the flour and saute for a couple minutes. Add in the reserved chicken broth slowly and cook for a while. Then put this in the blender and blend it up. Put the blended asparagus and onion mixture back in the pan and stir until warm again. Stir in the yogurt. To keep it from clumping too badly, I put the yogurt in a bowl and slowly thinned it out with soup until it would mix in smoothly. I think I put the salt and pepper in at the end.
One recipe suggested adding some fresh grated parmesan cheese at the end so I used some for garnish but it was too much and I would try something different for garnish next time.
I thought the soup was quite tasty and a good way to use the asparagus that lightens the flavor a bit. The rest of my family were not such big fans so next time, I will eat it all myself.

Any ideas for what to do with zucchini and squash?

Lady who lunches

Elizabeth goes to preschool at Mrs. Rita's house 2 day/week and she has to bring her lunch. I try to make her lunch somewhat cute or fun so she'll eat enough so as not to melt from hunger later in the day. I generally try to pack her something fairly healthy that she will happily eat.
This lunch is a peanut butter and honey sandwich cut in the shape of a mama and baby elephant, some melon, a wholewheat banana bread muffin and some cheese-its. She also gets a thermos of milk to go along with it. I've been using the disposable/reusable tupperwares so that if one gets lost it's not a big deal but we can reuse them to save on the landfills. The melon and cheese its are in muffin tin liners.


This is the cutter that I have for sandwiches. It came in a 4 pack so we also have one that makes a doggie in a house, one that makes two fishes and one that makes a butterfly. If we used normal squarish sandwich bread, this would be perfect for cutting. With the wide whole wheat bread that we use, there is an edge on one side that usually gets eaten at breakfast.


This is another lunch which is quite a bit bigger... I must have been hungry that morning when I was packing. She has peanut butter and jelly, a cheese stick, another muffin, some broccoli, some fruit cocktail and two pink pocky sticks.

And here is the lady who lunches:

Pancakes!

Since Daddy's recipe for pancakes is rather vague (I believe the recipe I tried to write down once involved "one drip of oil" and "add milk till it's like thick paint"), I asked where he learned to make pancakes and Mom directed me to the Better Homes and Garden's cookbook. I tend to make as big of a batch as I can make with the amount of buttermilk that comes in one container and then freeze what doesn't get eaten with layers of wax paper to prevent sticking. Both kids like pancakes and they reheat really well in a toaster and not badly in a microwave.

Buttermilk Pancakes:
1 c flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 c buttermilk
2 tbsp cooking oil

I do use Daddy's method for mixing: Mix the wet together, put the flour on top, mix the rest of the dry ingredients into the flour and then mix it into the wet. It's only one bowl that way and pancakes aren't that picky about stuff.


I have learned not to skimp too much on the oil because it has a surprisingly large impact on how well pancakes cook. They burn much faster without the oil in them and it's much easier to get them a bit crisp on the outside if you put in what they say. I also learned pretty much everything I know about flipping pancakes and knowing when to flip them from Daddy. You wait till bubbles form and then you start popping them. It's ready to flip when the bubbles don't fill in right away.


Best served when still warm.


Of course when serving, presentation is everything.



(No children were harmed in the making of this post.)

Weekend Baking

Last weekend we did a bunch of baking.

We made graham crackers to take to daycare for their Valentines Day party and since Elizabeth managed to convince me to buy 6 bananas and then promptly decided she didn't want to eat any bananas that week, we had 3 brown bananas on the counter which were just itching to be made into banana bread.


We used this recipe for the graham crackers except we used maple syrup instead of honey. We also cut them into hearts and sprinkled them with red sugar instead of the topping they suggest. We did the 1/2 cup whole wheat. My comments on the recipe is that the dough is VERY soft and quite difficult to handle. I want to make graham crackers again but I'll try a different recipe next time.

Here is Elizabeth who got bored and decided to do dishes instead of helping me with the cookies:



Here is before baking:

I forgot to take any pictures after baking but they look just like that but poofier and browner. :)

Graham Crackers

2 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (375 grams) unbleached all-purpose flour (a swap of 1/2 cup with whole wheat flour or 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour works well here, too)
1 cup (176 grams) dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 teaspoon (6 grams) baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt (4 grams)
7 tablespoons (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes and frozen
1/3 cup (114 grams) mild-flavored honey, such as clover - we used maple syrup
5 tablespoons (77 grams) milk, full-fat is best
2 tablespoons (27 grams) pure vanilla extract

Topping (optional) - we skipped this
3 tablespoons (43 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) ground cinnamon

Make the dough: Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking soda, and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Pulse or mix on low to incorporate. Add the butter and pulse on and off on and off, or mix on low, until the mixture is the consistency of a coarse meal.

In a small bowl, whisk together the honey, milk, and vanilla extract. Add to the flour mixture and pulse on and off a few times or mix on low until the dough barely comes together. It will be very soft and sticky. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and dust it lightly with flour, then turn the dough out onto it and pat it into a rectangle about 1-inch thick. Wrap it, then chill it until firm, about 2 hours or overnight. Meanwhile, prepare the topping, if using, by combining the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl and setting aside.

Roll out the crackers: Divide the dough in half and return one half to the refrigerator. Sift an even layer of flour onto the work surface and roll the dough into a long rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. The dough will be sticky, so flour as necessary. (We cut this into hearts.)

Place the crackers on one or two parchment-lined baking sheets and sprinkle with the topping. Chill until firm, about 30 to 45 minutes in the fridge or 15 to 20 minutes in the freezer. Repeat with the second batch of dough. Finally, gather any scraps together into a ball, chill until firm, and re-roll.

Adjust the oven rack to the upper and lower positions and preheat the oven to 350°F.

Bake for 15 to 25 minutes, until browned and slightly firm to the touch, rotating the sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. (I didn't rotate and it was only 15 minutes for us. If you don't chill in the freezer prior to baking, they will be burnt at 15 min)

This is the whole wheat banana bread recipe we did. Again, I swapped out the honey for maple syrup since we were out of honey. I also added some mini chocolate chips.

• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1 cup honey (I used maple syrup)
• 4 eggs
• 2 cups mashed ripe bananas
• 1/2 cup hot water

Directions:

1. Stir together dry ingredients.
2. Beat oil and honey together; add eggs and beat well.
3. Add bananas and beat to combine.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet, alternating with hot water; mix well after each addition.
5. Spoon batter into 24 greased muffin cups; bake at 325 degrees for 15 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown and test done. (I did 24 mini muffins and 17 full size muffins)
6. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

Here is the finished product:



Alex and E sampling


And apparently it's the perfect hangover food. Not sure WHY she's hung over but this was the next morning:


Alex seems to have a bit less to recover from:

Easy Peasy Chicken and Pasta

I always like something quick and easy to cook for dinner after work. Something that works really well for us is chicken and pasta.

It started because I had planned to have Patrick grill some chicken for us for dinner one night but didn't put the marinade in soon enough so I just threw all the chicken in a pan with the marinade to make sauce. Then I served it over pasta and it was yummy!

This time, I got a bunch of zucchini and yellow squash and onions and sliced them up and sauteed them during the weekend. When we got home, first I started the pasta water then, I cut up two chicken breasts into chunks and thew it in a bowl with the marinade powder. It calls for 1/4 c water and 1/4 c oil but I cut back on the oil a bit.

I got a pan hot and dumped in all the chicken/marinade mixture and cooked it till the chicken was mostly done. Then I added the vegetables I cooked over the weekend and cooked it all together until the chicken was done through and the vegetables were hot. At some point when I was cooking, the pasta water boiled and I put in some whole wheat spaghetti and cooked it.

I put together a quick salad and dinner was on the table in less than 20 minutes. Take that Rachel Ray!

Here is the chicken cooking.
Chicken and pasta cooking
This is the marinade packet that I used. I used the tomato garlic pesto but I didn't take a picture before I tore the packet. The italian herb is really good too. We get this from Patrick's coworker Joe who's mom works for Weber but I know you can also get them at the grocery store.
I'm not going to write down an official recipe because it's mostly just throw it all in a pot and cook it but here is a shopping list.

• 2 chicken breasts (or as much chicken or other meat as you want to use to feed your family and have leftovers)
• 1 marinade packet - we like the ones above but you could use anything you want
• olive oil - for the marinade & sauteing vegetables.
• vegetables - we used yellow squash and zucchini and onions but I think broccoli would be good too.
• pasta - we used whole wheat. You could also serve with rice if you want.

Birthday Cupcakes

Since we have two birthdays right at Christmas time, we started a new McKinney family tradition this year and made birthday cake on Christmas Eve. This year, I made cupcakes. We made one box of chocolate and one box of yellow cake. Turns out one box will make 12 big cupcakes and 24 little cupcakes. I decorated them in a Christmas theme.






















The cake was just the cake mix.
The chocolate frosting was Marie's Chocolate Icing from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book
1tbsp butter
1sq unsweetened chocolate (1 oz)
1 1/2 tbsp warm water (I used cream)
1 c sifted confectioners' sugar
melt butter and chocolate over hot water, blend in the warm water (or cream) Beat in confectioner's sugar until icing spreads easily.

The white was the Butter Icing from the same recipe book
2 1/2 tbsp soft butter
1 1/2 c. sifted confectioner's sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cream
3/4 tsp vanilla

blend butter and sugar together, stir in cream and vanilla till smooth.

The snowman is a couple of marshmallows and I drew on them with foodsafe markers that I bought in the frosting section of the grocery store. The hat is just a chocolate bell and the scarf is a stretched out candy.

For the reindeer, the antlers are broken pretzels and the eyes are just skittles of the right color

Alex really enjoyed his birthday cupcake

Welcome!

Linnea came up with the neat idea of starting a blog about what we are cooking to stay in touch. I think it's a great idea. I've invited everyone to be authors. If you want a different email address, ping me and I'll add that one as an author.

Linnea also suggests tagging each post with a location.

I'll kick things off. Tonight we are having taco stuff and tortillas. We went shopping at my favorite store (Costco) and found cook them yourselves tortillas that you only have to cook for 60 seconds on a griddle (yay! chance to play with my new cast iron griddle). We will have ground beef with taco seasoning and cheese. I am going to saute yellow squash and onions and see how that tastes with the taco stuff. We also have salsa. Next time, I will post after we have cooked and post pictures too.