Cooking by Letter - Very Veggie Soup

We have had a nice little cool snap here in the deep south.  Personally, I think this is what it should be like all month but we typically don't have that.  It has, however, given us some nice days to walk with Caleb...and he LOVES to walk. 

I can almost guarantee that he will calm down on a walk if he is fussy; however, that doesn't always translate to remaining quiet when we get back. 

Remember last year when we were cooking through the alphabet with Kate?  Well, this veggie soup was one of the last recipes we made. 

Kate really enjoyed it, though I'm not so sure about David.  We will have to make it again soon.  I love that it is healthy and gets LOTS of veggies in my family. 

Kate has been a really good eater but sometimes it is a little more difficult to get her to eat veggies.  With this soup, SHE was the one making it, so of course she wanted to eat it. 

She even got to grind the salt and pepper!  I did choose veggies that I knew she would eat and David could tolerate. 

I used all cabbage but might add some spinach next time as David seems to do well with that, it's more full of vitamins, and produces less gas. 

All in all, this really was a Kate made soup.  I think her favorite was stirring.  That and giving Daddy kisses before eating.  :-)

Very Veggie Soup
3 handfuls (I probably used about 3 cups) cabbage, escarole, or spinach
1 pound green beans (I used frozen)
6 carrots (I used mini carrots)
1 onion, chopped
8 oz corn
12 ounce can tomato puree
salt
pepper

Tear or cut greens into small pieces.  Prepare green beans if using fresh.  Peel and chop carrots.  In a large soup pot saute onion.  Add all veggies to the pot, including corn.  Fill with enough water to cover the veggies.  Add tomato puree, salt, and pepper.  Then get to stirring!  Simmer, covered, for 1.5 hours.  Enjoy!!!

Cooking by Letter - Ooh-La-La Oven Pancakes (Gluten Free!)

It's been a while since I've done a post about food much less a cooking by letter post.  Well, I have LOTS of posts to get ready for you.  I'll try to get them going soon.  Back in January, we started doing gluten free again (and we're still doing).  So, when K's "O" recipe was for "Ooh-La-La Oven Pancakes",

I knew I'd have to make it gluten free.  (ON a side note, the title of this recipe made me think of "Fancy Nancy!")  I did it the easiest way possible - using a gluten free flour mix.  Thankfully, I've been getting better at modifying recipes.  This recipe didn't make as much as I'd have liked it to make but it was good and David took the leftovers to work for "second breakfast" - he's Frodo in his dream life I guess.  :-)

As always, K had a great time helping out.  Especially when I let her put chocolate chips on top.  Happy girl!

Ooh-La-La Oven Pancakes
1 cup gluten free flour (a mix or white rice flour)
1 Tablespoon sugar (or splenda)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
3/4 cup milk (I used buttermilk)
3 Tablespoons butter, melted (could use oil if you wanted to)
chocolate chips for topping

Preheat the oven to 375.  In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt...gently!  We don't want flour flying everywhere.  In a separate bowl, beat together egg and milk.  Then stir in the melted butter and stir together.  Stir the egg mixture into the flour mixture - stir until it is JUST mixed.

Grease an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray.  Pour the mixture into the pan.  Sprinkle with those chocolate chips...and let your helper eat 1 or 2 that "fall" on the counter. Place the pan into the preheated oven (this is an ADULT step!) and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven when done and allow to cool  until warm. (Another ADULT step!).  Then....ENJOY! (KIDS ESPECIALLY!)

Mystery Muffins - Cooking by Letter

We've fallen behind on the Cooking by Letter. I don't know if we've done anything recently.  The last one we did was "M."  The topic that day was "Mystery Muffins."

K had a lot of fun doing it and even made some with Allie when she was visiting them.  We used blueberries, pumpkin kisses,

chocolate chips, and peanut butter. 

The blueberries were my favorite and chocolate chips David's.

The peanut butter didn't work so well.  Not sure why. 

Basically, you just make a basic muffin and "hide" whatever filling you want in the middle. Tada!

Mystery Muffins
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
Chosen "Mystery" ingredients

Preheat oven to 350.
1. In a large bowl, blend the butter, sugar, and egg.
2. Stir together dry ingredients in a small bowl.
3. Add flour to butter mixture in stages, alternating with the milk.  (We did flour, milk, flour, milk, flour)
4. Mix batter until well combined.
5. Line muffin tin with paper muffin cups.  Then fill the cups halfway with batter.  Add a teaspoon of your mystery ingredient then cover with more batter.  Do not fill more than 2/3 full.
*6. Place tin in oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.
7. Enjoy!
*Adult step

Jumpin' Right Back

Mid-November, my sweet baby girl had her first bout of strep throat.  The night before, she said that her tummy hurt but we figured it was just full from supper.  She woke up the next day and I rushed to get her ready for school.  After we got dressed she continued to complain about her tummy and was just more whiny than usual.  Poor baby trying to smile for the camera.

Poor thing had a fever of 101.5.  I looked at her throat and it just looked like strep.  I know it sounds awful but I was praying it was strep...that is treatable!  David said she took the shot like a champ and the nurse said she was such a big girl.  About 6 hours later she was asking to go to children's choir.  All the while, my throat was starting to hurt and I was just done with the day.  Thankfully, we are a couple of doctors and David picked up some medicine for me to start that night.  By the next day, K and I were back to our normal selves! 

YAY!  Just in time to do the next installment of Cooking by Letter!  At this point, we were still doing gluten free cooking, so I subbed out rice flour for the all purpose flour. 

The "J" recipe was "Johnny Cakes."  K thought this was great fun.  Basically, it is little cornbread pancakes.  They were really good, especially hot.  David and I had jelly on ours. 

Later that week, David a pork sandwich with the johnny cakes as the bread.  He said it was pretty good.  I'd definitely recommend trying them.  Kids would think they were so much fun.  They'd go great with soup!

Jumpin' for Johnny Cakes
1/2 cup rice (or AP) flour
1 cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup hot milk

- Pour all dry ingredients into a medium bowl.
- Stir in the egg and milk.  The batter will be lumpy.
-* Heat the griddle until it is hot.

-Drop spoonfuls of batter onto the pan in half dollar sizes (I let K do this...with close supervision).
-* Flip eat cake with a spatula when edges brown.  Cook until golden.
ENJOY! 

Honey, honey, honey!

Way back in October, K's class learned about the letter "H."  Now, at one point, K told us that she was "allergic" to jelly.  Please, fear not!  My child is NOT allergic to jelly; she just decided for some odd reason that she didn't like it. 

So, I came up with the GREAT idea to do peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  A few weeks ago, she suddenly lost her allergy to jelly and now it's okay...but she does still prefer honey.  So, I knew that she would LOVE the "H" recipe.  They were "Honey Cookies!" 

Thankfully, these didn't have any common allergens; so, I let K take them to share with her friends at school.  She was SO excited.  I think one of her favorite things is taking things to school, so this made her day!  I thought they were pretty good, too. 

Very moist and chewy in the best possible way.  Try them out!  And give some to you Honey!  ;-)  And a bonus picture of K in her hat lookin' like a "cool dude!" (her words!)

Honey Cookies
1 cup flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 350. 
In a bowl, add both flours, sugar, soda, salt, cinnamon, and butter.  Mix together well with a mixer.
Add the honey and eggs.  Mix again.
Using a spoon, scoop small spoonfuls onto a baking sheet or stone.
*Place the stone in the oven and bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies are golden.

*Adult step

Granola - Cooking by Letter

It's been a while since I've posted about our alphabet cooking.  At this point, K is through the letter N at school.  We haven't done that recipe yet and skipped "I" since it was Italian Ice - I didn't think that would be so good in October!  However, we have had such fun with everything so far. 

The recipe for "G" was granola.  My sweet girl, of course, wanted to share at school...she ALWAYS asks if we can take the recipe to school. 

Unfortunately, before she asked I had already added all the ingredient so it had pecans in it.  We actually texted her day care supervisor who said it would be better not to bring it.  Oh well!  She REALLY had a good time with this one.  I let her do lots of pouring and stirring.  I'm not really sure how much she ate of it but she really liked the cooking. 

It was a pretty good granola.  I would grab a handful at night when I got the munchies and David had it over ice cream with chocolate syrup.  You could also put it on some fruit or in yogurt.  YUM!

Gimmie More Granola
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 cups old fashioned oats (not quick cooking)
2 cups bran flakes
1/2 cup nuts

Preheat oven to 350.
1. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and water until it dissolves.
2. Add the orange juice, syrup and salt.

3. In a LARGE bowl, mix together the oats, bran flakes and nuts
4. Pour the liquid into the large bowl and stir well.

5. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and pour the granola mixture into the pan.
6. Place into the oven and bake for 45 minutes.  Stir the granola with a wooden spoon every 10 minutes.*

*Adult step

Cooking the Alphabet: D and E

We have had such fun cooking through the alphabet as K learns new letters at school.  We started on letter "C" and have done most other letters so far.  I think the only ones we've skipped have been "F" (because K was gone), "I" (because it was Italian ice...not really great for October!), and "K" (this week...because it was kabobs and it just didn't fit our menu).  Way back on "E" week we did the recipes for "D" and "E."

 "D" was just "Delicious Deviled Eggs."  I let K stir the egg mixture (which I basically reverse the ratio of may to mustard) but really did most of this one (very quickly) myself.  In the process, K discovered that she likes deviled eggs. 

Yay for boiled eggs.  :-) 

The "E" recipe was SUPER fun and we shared it with K's class the next day.  It was "elephant ear cookies."  Not the same elephant ears that we get at the fair each year; those are more like really big beignets with cinnamon sugar instead of powdered sugar. 

No, these cookies are the sugar cookies that are rolled up with cinnamon sugar between the layers.  Really fun.  K loved them. But then again, she loves ANY food, especially treats. 

This was a bit difficult to roll.  If we made them again, I would probably refrigerate the dough for a little while before rolling. 

She didn't come home with any leftovers, so I guess all the kids (and teachers) liked them!  Thanks, again, Uncle Philip and Aunt Kenna for this awesome present!

*adult steps for both recipes
Delicious Deviled Eggs
6 eggs
1 T mayo
2 T mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Place eggs in large pot and cover with water.  Boil for 12 minutes.  Then remove the eggs and refrigerate until they are cold.*
2. Peel the eggs. (not listed as an adult step but depending on the age of the child...this could be difficult)
3. Cut eggs in half and remove the yolk.*  Put yolks in small bowl and lace the egg whites on a platter.
4. Add mayo, mustard, and salt to bowl with yolks and mix together with a fork.
5. Using a small spoon, fill the hollows of the egg whites with the yolk mixture.

Elegant Elephant Ears
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup milk
1 T cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 425. 
1. In bowl, pour flour, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt.  Mix with a fork.
2. Mix 1/4 cup of melted butter with milk and pour into flour.  Knead with your hands to form a ball of dough. (This could be started with a spoon to make less messy)
3. In a small bowl, mix together remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and cinnamon.
4. Sprinkle counter with flour, sprinkle rolling pin with flour.  Place dough on flour surface and roll into a rectangle 1/4 inch thick (good step for adult help)

 5. Brush dough with remaining 1/4 cup melted butter and sprinkle with half of cinnamon sugar.

 6. Roll up dought like a carpet, starting on one of the long sides
7. Cut the roll into 1/2 inch slices.*
8. Place each slice on baking stone or sheet.  Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar.
9. Place sheet in oven and bake for 8-10 minutes. *
10. Remove and allow to cool. *

Cooking by Letter!

There is a new online "gathering" of bloggers that recently started - specifically for MS women bloggers.  Each month a different blogger is "featured," there is a wordless Wednesday submission, and a "Foodie Fridays" feature.  This week, I am the writer for Foodie Fridays.  If you want to see what K and I have been up to recently, check it our here!  We have 25 more letters to go...as we missed A and B.  ;-)