Mixing Bowl Kids

The Tuna Melt

Yesterday, brought a hodge-podge of great things. Clear blue skies, crisp, fresh air and a day off work to be with my boys. Practically perfect in many ways. It also brought some dedicated time for meal planning and tinkering in the kitchen, both of which I've missed the past few weeks.

The boys busied themselves playing with the neighbours for a while, and I managed to mentally sort out the next few weeks worth of meals, as well as prepare some items for holiday baking (I like cookies best!). I also worked on some ideas for the boys lunches. They've been coming home far more than they used to (which I secretly like), and on a day off, like today, it's a little bonus time with them. I try to make something I know they'll love...something that exudes warmth and comfort and reminds them of being home with me. Something like a Tuna Melt.

Do you like tuna melts? I, personally, do not, for I'm not too fond of warmed tuna. But the boys love them, and with a little melted cheese on top, and crunchy homemade bread on the bottom, these sandwiches probably fall into the category of their top three favourite sandwiches.

I know tuna seems so basic and everyone has a favourite recipe, so I thought I would share mine. The grated (must be grated) onion and lemon add such a nice zip, and while some might find it too strong for kids, it's always how I've made ours, so my boys don't know any different. Encourage your little chefs to help you with these. They'll love to grate the cheese and maybe you can try new varieties to see which tastes better - is it cheddar? Maybe goat? How about Swiss? I know what I think works best (see the recipe below!) but how about your kiddies?

I hope you're weekend was as lovely as mine. What are you cooking up this week?

Tuna Melts

2 cans of tuna packed in water

4 tbsp mayo

1/2 yellow or red onion, grated

zest of one lemon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp fresh ground pepper

1 tsp dill seasoning

4 slices of thick-cut bread

3/4 cup grated swiss cheese

~ Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

~ Place the tuna in a medium sized mixing bowl and cover with the remaining ingredients. Combine well and chill for 10-15 minutes.

~ Spread the tuna over thick slices of bread. Cover with grated cheese and baked for approx. 12 minutes, or until the cheese is completely melted.

~ Enjoy!

Potato, Broccoli and Goat Cheese Frittata

Ahh...the bread recipes were so fun this week, but it's nice to step away from the bags of flour and turn to one of our favourite foods in this house...the beloved egg.  We eat eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner and to be honest I think they're one of the most versatile foods.  Used to create fare for all three daily meals, a staple in most baked goods, and a wonderful addition to a nice green salad, eggs can really complete a meal.

I made this dish for my under-the-weather-very-feverish-boy, with hopes of finally getting something into his tummy. In case you're wondering, this isn't the poorly son I mentioned at the beginning of the week, but it is in fact, the other one.  Yes, the other one has also come down with this unfriendly flu!  In any case, the dish was somewhat well received by him (we'll try again when he's feeling better) but very well received by his Dad, whom I love to cook for as much as I love to cook for the little boys of the house.

So, enjoy some eggs and that homemade bread you've been making, and I wish you all a wonderful weekend.

Potato, Broccoli and Goat Cheese Frittata

1 head of broccoli, stems removed and chopped
1 leek, washed and sliced
3 potatoes, washed and diced
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground pepper
8 eggs
1/4 cup light cream
3 oz goat cheese

~ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
~ Place the butter and oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and warm until the butter is melted.
~ Add the potato, leek and broccoli, as well as the salt and pepper and cook until the potatoes are golden brown and partially cooked, approx. 10 minutes.
~ Combine the eggs and cream and pour over the veggie mixture.  Allow to cook for 3 minutes or until the eggs are partially set.
~ Sprinkle the goat cheese over the top of the eggs and place in the pre-heated oven.  Cook until the remaining eggs set and the cheese has melted, approx. 8 mins.
~ Enjoy!

Housekeeping and Homemade Sausage Patties

Happy November, friends!  I hope you all had a great weekend and lots of Halloween fun with your kiddies. Now that we've made it through the October festivities, which if you live in Canada means both Thanksgiving and Halloween, I'm looking forward to a quieter month.  With this new month comes big changes at our house and changes for me and this space as well.

I'm launching another website/blog in January 2010.  Something that will allow me to share more of my thoughts/ideas on food and family and how the two intersect.  I love sharing recipes here and still want to encourage the involvement of little chefs in the kitchen, however, I feel there is so much more I could be, want to be talking about - things that I discuss on the playground, at work, or on the phone with my girlfriends.  All topics will still be food related, and family focused, but more than just recipes.  So, here's where you come in...what topics would you like to see covered?  Some ideas I have are:

• Meals in less than 20 minutes
• Product reviews - food items, kitchen gadgets
• Cookbook reviews
• Links to other great recipes on the web 
• Tip and Suggestions
• Alternative foods and recipes
• Restaurant reviews and recommendations
• The dinner date night
• Entertaining on a budget
• Bakesale/Playdate goodies
• Kitchen organization
• Cooking 101 - how to series
• Ask a question and I'll post it with an answer/suggestion
• Food crafts
• Holiday and Seasonal ideas
• Party planning
• Guest food bloggers

Mixing Bowl Kids will still be up and running, with regular posting when the new website launches.  I still want to have a place to share recipes for all the cookin' kids out there.  But another space, with other topics for foodie mamas, will be fun too.

In the meantime, I made these little sausage patties for dinner.  My boys are carnivores and love their meaty dinners.  Sausages are popular in house, but sometimes I'm just not so sure what goes into them so I decided to make my own.  I don't have the equipment to put the meat into casings so I made a sausage patty instead.  A chicken, apple and sage sausage patty to be exact. They were a huge hit with the boys, who are thrilled that there is enough left over for today's lunch.  They look very similar to a hamburger, but my husband assures me they have the taste and texture of a sausage.  From the little research that I did prior to making these, it would seems as though sausages are made with a fat and a liquid where as hamburgers are not.  I'm not an expert at this, but would love to become one.  They were fun to make and delicious to eat.

So friends, please, please, please send any and all of your ideas for the new website my way.  I'm working on this now and would love to have everything up and running the first week of January.  Thank you all for reading and for your wonderful comments - have a great day!

Chicken, Apple and Sage Sausage Patties

2 lbs ground chicken

1/2 lb bacon, diced

2 apples, peeled, cored and diced

1 onion, peeled and diced

5 sage leaves, minced

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground pepper

1/2 cup chicken stock.

1 tbsp olive oil

~ Place the oil in a medium sized skillet over medium high heat and add the apples and the onions.  Cook until softened, approx. 10 minutes.

~ While the apples and onions are cooking combine the remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Add the onion/apple mixture and the stock to the meat mixture and incorporate well with your hands.  

~ Shape into small, flat patties and place on foil or parchment lined baking sheets.  Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

~ Bake in the oven at 350 degrees, for 20 minutes or cook in a sprayed or oiled pan for approx. 12 minutes (6 minutes per side).

~ Enjoy!

Franken-Mallow Heads

Short on time this week (it's a busy one, isn't it?), I wanted to prepare something fun for all the kiddies, but specifically the preschoolers out there who are probably bursting with excitement over Halloween.   I think this would be a great food-craft for a class, home or church party and using nothing more than marshmallows, chocolate, pretzels and green food colouring this is super simple fun for everyone, including all your little chefs.

So, with Halloween just a few days away are you all ready and organized? What are your kids dressing up as this year? I'd love to hear your ideas....have a great day!

Franken-Mallow Heads

20 large marshmallows

20 long pretzel sticks

1 cup chocolate chips

1 tbsp table cream

green food colouring 

water

~ Place 2 tbsp of water in a shallow bowl and 5-6 drops of food colouring and combine well.

~ Place the marshmallows, one at a time, in the bowl and turn over to completely coat with the coloured water.  Remove and place on a cooling rack placed over a cutting board covered with paper towel to dry.

~ Melt the chocolate in double broiler, or heat-proof bowl set over a pot of boiling water.  Add the cream and mix well. 

~ Dip one end of the marshmallow into the chocolate and place on the drying rack.  The chocolate will be Franken-Mallow's hair.  Dip the end of the toothpick or a wooden skewer into the chocolate and draw eyes, a nose and mouth into the marshmallow.

~ Stick pretzels into the sides of the marshmallow (for the bolts) and allow to completely dry.

~ Enjoy!

Witchy-Finger Sandwiches for Halloween

October has moved along at quite a clip and Halloween is finally just a few days away.  My children, like yours I'm sure, are getting excited and the countdown for costume-day has begun.  I was never much of Halloween fan myself when I was a child (I always wore the oddest costumes!) but I have a new found appreciation for it now that I'm seeing the day through the eyes of my boys.

So, as we've prepared for all the fun, spooky food has been at the forefront of my mind.  I've been planning a few fun things for, and with my boys, like these Witchy Finger Sandwiches. My youngest and I worked on these "bewitching" fingers this past weekend and they were easy-peasy to assemble.  So much so that once I demonstrated the process he went to work on the remaining pieces of bread.  I rounded everything once it was rolled and together we adorned the fingers with their long, painted fingernails. My quick-thinking husband suggested we add a ring to the third finger for authenticity,  so I grabbed a spider and put it in place.  Such a fun project for us to work on together! 

I have a few more gruesome goodies to share with you this week as we get ready for the upcoming weekend.  In the meantime, try tucking these into your young ones lunch this week, or serve them with a steaming mug of soup for dinner and I'm sure your meal will be a howling success.  Have a great day!  

Witchy Finger Sandwiches
yields: one hand

5 slices of white sandwich bread, crusts removes

five almonds (optional:painted red or black with gel colour-paste)

filling of your choice: peanut butter, jam, nutella, cream cheese, tuna etc.

~ Remove the crusts from each piece of bread and roll flat with the rolling pin.

~ Spread or top each slice with your choice of filling (I used peanut butter) and roll lengthwise into a thin log.  

~Round the tips, then score the bread with a sharp knife where the knuckles would be.

~ Add the almonds (you can paint them first with gel colour or food colouring) and stick them into place by adding a dab of your filling to the back of the almond before placing it on the bread.

~ Enjoy!

Ghoulish Goodies are Coming

We're feeling very Halloween'ish around these parts.  Decorations are in place, bats have been cut out and are ready to be hung, the mini graveyard planted and costumes have finally, finally been decided upon.  While we still have a bit of work to do on that front - like sewing some parts of one and making and designing pieces of the other - we're mostly organized and very excited for next weeks festivities.

Because Halloween is such a kid-friendly day I've decided to spend the next week featuring recipes and ideas for fun Halloween fare to make with your kiddies.  Most little ones (and big ones too!) have a class party or some sort of event to attend this time of year, and making treats or food to take along is almost always an essential part of the week...and it's really fun too!  I have yet to meet a young one who isn't excited to work on some spooky edibles.

The first idea I wanted to share is something I've done for the past three or four years for my boys' class parties.  So simple to prepare and made with nothing more than a slightly hollowed out pumpkin lined with a few lettuce leaves, this seasonal staple is then filled with a container of delicious homemade or store-bought dip.  Embellish with a big spider and surrounded with an assortment of crunchy veggies for dunking, and your festive food is ready to serve .  I think we can all agree that there is enough candy floating around at the end of October and this provides a great treat while keeping the kids eating as healthy as possible.  For extra fun, I like to place these goods on a tarnished silver tray as it reminds me of something I might find in an old haunted house.  

Are you ready for Halloween?  What are you handing out this year?  Have a lovely, lovely weekend friends!

Crispy Misters!

Originally found on Parisian cafe menus in the early 1900's, Croque Monsieur's were originally a hot ham and cheese sandwich, fried in butter.  Sometime, several years later, more elaborate versions of the sandwich were made, and bechamel was added to the mix.  A few years after that, the Monsieur met a Madame, and we were introduced to this beloved bistro snack topped with a fried egg.

I made these Crispy Misters (translation of Croque Monsieur) with my boys last week when they came home for lunch, and they have now been declared our new "family favourite".  A food purist, I omitted the bechamel and stuck to the original method for making these sandwich.  The boys were excited to make these, so I prepared all of the elements of the sandwich, laid out the ingredients and gave them directions for assembly.  They loved it, especially the spreading of the melted butter.  I took over the cooking of the sandwich while they set the table and a warm, tasty lunch was set in front of us in less that fifteen minutes.

We're going to try the Croque Madame next week but I can't imagine liking that more that this.  What sandwiches are you making these days?  Do you eat sandwiches for dinner or are they a lunch-hour food only?  Have a great day, friends!

Croque Monsieur

8 slices of thin bread

8 slices of ham

1 cup of grated gruyere or swiss cheese

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

3 tbsp butter, melted

~ Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

~ Lay out the eight slices of bread and brush melted butter over both sides of each piece of bread

~ Spread Dijon mustard over four slices of the buttered bread and top each with a handful of grated cheese.

~ Place two slices of ham over the cheese and top with another slice of bread.

~ Fry in a skillet over medium-high heat until both sides are crispy and browned.

~ Place the sandwiches in a baking dish and top each with a small amount of the remaining cheese.

~ Bake under the broiler (only a minute or so - watch carefully) until the cheese is golden.

~ Enjoy!

Now for a little housekeeping:

~ Please refer to Fridays post for the winner of the Cooking Fun for Kids cookbook.

~ Also, the winners of the small foodie prize packs have finally been selected (what a process that was!). Thank you for all of your many, many comments.  The following people are the winners.  Please email me at mixingbowlkids@gmail.com to claim your prizes.

thedoodlegirl - Wow!! What a lovely and delicious blog! I'm so glad I've discovered it. :)

maria - Hi, Thanks for the gorp bars!  H is for honey certainly, but maybe combined with something unexpected ...honey and carrots?

Liz - I am SO making this! What a great idea!

Heidi - I'm really looking forward to following your through your ABC kitchen. My favorite lunch box treat is to make a batch of smoothie and then freeze it in screw top containers. The ball jar company makes some great ones that are plastic and don't leak. Then place the container full of frozen smoothie in the lunch box with a spoon. By lunch time it has thawed slightly to a sorbet-like texture. Yum!

Ann - Love the soup recipe - nothing better than a warm pot of soup on a winter's night. I have just made some Tomato and Basil soup for the freezer to remind me of summer.  'C' food ideas. I just love Chocolate and Courgette Cake, Carrot Cake, giant oven Chips made from homegrown potatoes and parsnips,Cherries, Cornflakes, Corn-on-the-cob,Chutney, Cheddar Cheese and of course Cup Cakes. Ah! well just a few 'C's to be going on with.

A Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Treat

I've made this coffee-cake style treat for a friend of mine who is becoming a first-time Mama this week. We're meeting up for lunch today and I wanted to give her something that she could either pop into her freezer and save for her post-baby days, or gobble up right away with her husband while she waits for her little one to arrive.  Either way, I think she'll enjoy this seasonally-inspired cake.  

So easy to make and delicious to eat, this recipe is a Fall favourite for my family.  I always make this up as a loaf, but this time I changed things a bit and used a spring-form pan to make coffee cake.  The flavour can be customized with the addition of chocolate chips, nuts, cranberries, crystallized ginger, etc. Regardless of how you prepare it, I'm confident you'll enjoy it.  I've doubled the recipe and made one for my family as well, so you could do the same and freeze one for a later date if you like.  And if your children are really lucky you might let them have this with some sliced apples for breakfast one morning (not that I would know anything about that).

Have a great day!

Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Cake, my recipe

1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp nutmeg or a mix of cinnamon and nutmeg
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 egg white
1/4 cup yogurt1/4 cup olive oil or canola oil, plus for more for greasing the pan
1 cup pure pumpkin (fresh or canned)
1 cup of one of the following: chocolate chips, dried cranberries, crystallized ginger, nuts or coconut

~ Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Oil a loaf pan
 
~ In a bowl sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg.
 
~ In a large mixing bowl, whisk sugars, eggs, yogurt, oil and vanilla. Add in pumpkin puree (and optional ingredients if using) and mix well.
 
~ Add dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
 
~ Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
 
~ Bake in pre-heated oven for 1 hour (40 minutes if you make the coffee cake version) or until tester inserted into the middle of loaf comes out clean.

Y is for Yogurt (Homemade Yogurt!)

I made my own yogurt this week.  I know, I know...it probably seems like a really hippy-dippy thing to do but it was actually just so simple.  I've been reading about making my own dairy products and did experiment a few months ago with homemade goat cheese.  I wasn't incredibly fond of that, but the husband liked it well enough.  And since I've been trying really hard to make as much food from scratch as possible, I thought I would give yogurt a shot.  

I followed directions from a few different sources, but most specifically this book and this blog post.  I read up on yogurt making for a few days and then got to work.  Your children will be able to assist with this with no problem and I'm sure my nine-year-old could manage almost completely independently.  It's a fun task to do in the evening - the yogurt needs eight to twelve hours to rest, so when your little ones wake in the morning they can see the "magic" that has happened overnight.

Enjoy this with some fresh fruit, granola and honey or a dollop of jam for breakfast or an afternoon snack.  I bake a lot with yogurt and also use it as a marinade for chicken so this will find lots of uses in my home.  And as my friend Rae points out in her blog post, this will also reduce all of those plastic yogurt containers, so it's more earth friendly as well. 

Have a great day friends....

Homemade Plain Yogurt**

4 cups skim or whole milk (organic preferable)

4 tbsp yogurt starter (plain or flavoured yogurt you have at home)

~ Pour the milk into a pot and place over medium-high heat.  Allow the milk to heat to 180 degrees on a thermometer or until the milk is steaming and is to hot to touch.

~ Once the temperature has been reached, turn off the heat and allow the milk to cool for approx. 10 minutes to 105 degrees or until you can touch the milk and not burn your finger.

~ Whisk in the yogurt and mix well.

~ Pour the mixture into a 1 litre glass jar and cover with the lid.  You could leave it in the pot and cover it with the lid as well.  Wrap the bottle in a few dish towels, or a warm bath towel, and leave to rest on your counter overnight.  Be sure the kitchen is warm - it's the warmth that helps to create the yogurt.

~ In the morning, drain the whey off the top of the yogurt, stir and refrigerate.

~ Enjoy!

**A few notes - the yogurt is a bit thinner than store bought - no stabilizers in this to thicken it because it's all natural.  I've read that you could add powdered milk to step one and that will help to thicken it but I was fine with the texture as it was so I didn't do that.  It seems as though you can also thicken it slightly by allowing it rest for even longer.  Again, I didn't notice this made a difference for me.

V is for Vegetable Pancakes

Last Friday, I made my weekly trip to the Farmer's Market with a friend of mine.  We walked around and around the stalls in wonder at the colour, smells and selection we had before us.  Apples were available in abundance, peppers were sold by the half-bushell and the tomatoes, unfortunately speckled with small black marks as a result of this past summer's substantial rainfall, were begging for someone to take them home.  All were appealing to me, but none as much so as the butternut squash. 

 Butternut squash is my favourite vegetable (although it is technically a fruit) of the Fall season, and this weeks obscenely large squashes had finally made their appearance at my weekly market.  And for just two dollars - yes, that's right, two dollars - I brought home a squash large enough to feed my family twice.  How wonderful is that?

So, with my butternut squash peeled and ready for use, I set out to make a savoury pancake after hearing all about them last week on this show.  With the exception of blinis and latkes, I don't have much experience with this type of quick-bread.  My pancakes are usually glistening with some maple syrup or honey, fresh fruit and nuts.  But this version used two kinds of vegetables, spices and sour cream - and I think I now prefer them to the former variety I loved.  

Delicious when served warm, with a topping of sour cream or plain yogurt, these little flapjacks also make for a great addition to the school lunchbox.  Use whatever vegetables you have on hand, or the ones I've used in this recipe, and I don't think your little chefs will be disappointed. Encourage them to help you with this one by allowing them to grate their veggies.  My guys love using the box grater - it seems to make everything more fun.  To protect their little fingers, try piercing your veggies with a fork and move the veg along the blades that way so fingers don't get caught on the surface.

I might suggest making these other market goodies, while they're still in season and available.  How about zucchini and carrots or sweet potato and red onion?  Maybe even Yukon gold potatoes and celeriac or squash and apple?  I think all of these combinations would work nicely as well. Do you enjoy savoury pancakes?  How about your children?  I'd love to hear your thoughts and wish you all a great day!

**For the winner of the book giveaway please scroll down to yesterday's post!

Vegetable Pancakes, adapted from this Paula Deen Recipe

1 cup grated butternut squash

1/2 cup grated white onion

2 tbsp butter

1/2 whole wheat or all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp garam masala

1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 cup milk

oil for the pan

~ Melt the butter in a saucepan set over medium high heat.  Add the squash and onion and cook until golden, approx. 10 minutes.
~ While the veggies are cooking, combine the flour, baking powder, garam masala and salt in small mixing bowl.  Combine the egg and milk in a glass measuring cup and blend well.  Set aside.
~ When the veggies are finished cooking, add them and the egg mixture to the dry ingredients.  Combine well.
~ Drizzle a small amount of oil into the pan the veggies were cooking in.  Add large spoonfuls of the pancake mixture to the pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side.  Serve with sour cream or yogurt.
~ Enjoy!