Kabobs

For our K cooking project, we made kabobs using cheese cubes, grapes, and apples. Emma isn't a big fan of fruit, but the combination with cheese made it much more appealing. They were fun to make and fun to eat!

Jell-O

I had a hard time coming up with something to cook that started with J, so I went for an easy classic. Though would you believe we don't eat jello very often at our house and Emma had never had it? She enjoyed the stirring, but not so much the eating of it.

(We all scream for) Ice Cream!

What better summer/letter I treat than ice cream??? Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures, but we made lime sherbert in our ice cream maker with a basic recipe from the booklet that came with the ice cream maker. Though if you don't have an ice cream maker, you can try this recipe. I think we're going to try it sometime just for fun.

Honey Florentines

I don't have a picture to prove it, but we did make these H-for-honey cookies. The recipe is from Martha Stewart's Cookie book.

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
pinch of course salt

1. Preheat oven to 375*. Melt butter, brown sugar, and honey in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. Transfer to a bowl. Whisk in flour and salt until smooth.
2. Working quickly, drop 1/2 teaspoons of batter onto large baking sheets lined with parchment paper, spacing at least 3 inches apart. Bake cookies until they spread and turn golden brown, about 6 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks. Carefully remove cookies from sheets with your fingers. Cookies can be stored between layers of parchment in airtight containers at room temperature up to 2 days.

These made thin, lacy cookies with ingredients you probably already have in your pantry. Emma dumped the ingredients (measured by me) into the pan, and I even let her stir the batter in the saucepan since it was on low heat.

Gingersnaps

Can you tell that we love baked goods? As with our previous ventures, Emma was especially good at dumping the mom-measured ingredients into the mixing bowl. Oh, and she's quite adept at tasting the final product as well. :)

3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
4 Tablespoons molasses
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons cloves
2 cups flour

Cream butter and sugar. Mix in egg and molasses. Combine baking soda, spices, and flour, and add to mixture. Bake at 350* for 10-12 minutes.

Fondue

For F week, a friend gave me a great recipe for cheese fondue. I thought it might be a fun way to get Emma to eat some vegetables, as well as learning about the letter F. I was wrong (on the vegetables), but it did make for a fun and delicious dinner.

Simple Cheese Fondue:
2 cans Campbell's cheddar cheese soup
1 fresh garlic clove (whole/peeled)
1 cup vegetable or chicken broth
8 oz.+ Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded

In a pot over medium heat (or a fondue pot), heat broth with one peeled garlic clove. Heat to boiling. Remove clove and add soup--stir until combined. Stir in desired amount of cheese. If stringy, add 1 tablespoon milk.

Dipping ideas: Sourdough/French bread, steamed broccoli, roasted potato chunks, cubed baked or grilled chicken

Here is our spread:

Emma, dipping bread (her favorite, though occasionally she'd dip chicken too; she wasn't convinced that the roasted potatoes tasted like french fries):

Eggs

I don't think I ever posted our E cook and do activities, and unfortunately I don't even have pictures! I blame it on pregnancy slacking, though I'm over that condition now and hope to move on with the rest of the alphabet.

For E cooking, we made eggs. Nothing fancy, just scrambled. (I thought of other ideas--enchiladas, eclairs, but they all seemed a bit much for a two-year-old). Emma practiced cracking eggs, though she was a bit vigorous and I had to fish some shells out of the bowl.

For our E activity, we had a practice Easter egg hunt to prepare for the real thing. But unfortunately we never got to do the real thing, because it was raining buckets on Easter and I was too busy cooking the ham to hide the eggs inside.

Alas, I hope to make up for my slackerdom during F week.

(Pineapple Crush) Drink

In my cookbooks, there is a dearth of good D recipes, especially ones that I could make with the help of a two-year-old. So we settled upon making a special drink.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
1/2 frozen very ripe medium banana

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend on high until slushy. Serves 2.

We made this on a balmy weekend, and doubled the recipe to share with Dad. Emma, who's a very picky eater and refuses most fruits and vegetables, thought it was "quite tasty." It was a bit thick, though, so she enjoyed hers with a spoon.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

What's a better cooking project for the letter C than a triple threat? :) Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures this time, but Emma enjoyed dumping in the dry ingredients, and I introduced her to the pleasure of eating raw cookie dough. Yum. And I don't think she'll soon forget that cookie starts with C!

We just used the Tollhouse recipe, which I love the taste of, but don't particularly like how they flatten out.
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12 oz. package) chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheets.
3. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Banana Bread

Cooking continues to be a favorite activity. Emma loves to "dump it" into the bowl, after which crying with delight, "we dooed it!" (We're still working on pronouns and irregular past tense verbs. :) My husband helped out this week and even tried to get her to crack an egg, though I don't think she liked it all that much. But we all enjoyed the yummy results.

This recipe is your basic Betty Crocker version.
1 1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or stick margarine, softened
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups mashed very ripe bananas (3 medium)
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chopped nuts, if desired

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Heat oven to 350. Grease bottoms of 2 eight-inch loaf pans, or 1 nine-inch loaf pan.
2. Mix sugar and butter in large bowl. Stir in eggs until well blended. Stir in bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla; beat until smooth. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt until just moistened. Stir in nuts. Divide batter evenly between pans.
3. Bake 8-inch loaves about 1 hour, or 9-inch loaf about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire rack.
4. Loose sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely before slicing.

Applesauce Muffins

Yesterday was my first attempt at cooking with Emma. I was a little wary of how it would go over; I had thought maybe she was too young to really be into it. I was totally wrong and we had a marvelous time! I would measure the dry ingredients out, hold them over the bowl, then hand them to her to dump in. Each time she would gleefully cry out, "We did it!" (She gets pronouns confused sometimes). She also was very proficient at putting the paper liners in the muffin tins. We only focused on the letter A when we added the applesauce, but the whole process of cooking provided opportunities for new vocabulary and a new kind of activity to do together.

This recipe comes from the Family Fun: Cooking with Kids cookbook.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking power
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups chunky applesauce
6 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 375. Grease (or line with paper bake cups) a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a large mixing bowl.
3. In another large bowl, beat together the eggs and brown sugar. Stir in the applesauce and melted butter until the mixture is smooth.
4. Pour the apple mixture over the flour mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined (it's ready when you can't see any traces of flour).
5. Fill the backe cups about two-thirds full with batter (an ice-cream scoop works well for this task). Bake until light brown, about 20 minutes. Test for doneness by inserting a knife in the middle of one muffin. If it comes out clean, the muffins are done. Makes 12.

Dumping the dry ingredients together. (Ingore the post-nap messy hair. It's more important that we were doing an activity together than that we had perfect hair, right? :)

Putting the paper liners in the muffin tins.

The finished product.