Cooking with Kids! Taco Boats, Muffin Tin Pizzas, Apple Faux-nuts, and Mason Jar Lid Blueberry Pies

Our most recent cooking show featured kid-friendly recipes.  Recipes that were fun to prepare, and fun to eat!

I was joined by Emily and Lily, two 10-year-olds who happily assembled our recipes with very little assistance.

We started with Taco Boats.  We layered cooked rice and seasoned chicken into tortilla "boats," then popped them into the oven for a few minutes to heat them up.   After removing them from the oven we topped them with chopped avocado, tomatoes and a sprinkling of cilantro.

Hmm...I wrote "we" but it would have been more truthful to say "Emily and Lily."  I stood and watched while they did all of the assembling! 

The only prep that I did was to cook the rice in advance and prep the chicken (which means I removed and chopped up the meat from a cooked rotisserie chicken).  So easy!

Next up were Muffin Tin Mini Pizzas.  

I used a cookie cutter to cut mini "crusts" from flour tortillas, then placed them into a muffin tin.  

I then took a step back and watched as Lily and Emily took over and filled them up with their favorite toppings!

Football season is finally here, and these mini-pizzas are a great appetizer to serve when you're watching the game.  Go Patriots!

Mason Jar Lid Blueberry Pies

Yes, we baked these pies inside mason jar lids!  Emily and Lily cut the mini-crusts from ready-made pie crusts. 

I'm glad I remembered to snap a few photos because after they cooled down they were the first thing to disappear!

Apple Faux-Nuts

I sliced a few apples into rings, and then Lily and Emily took over and frosted and decorated the "donuts." This was my favorite recipe of the night...I managed to snag one that had berry cream cheese topped with blueberries and coconut chips.  A winning combo!

It also gave us the chance to use marshmallows, which are always a hit when cooking with kids!

Cooking Show: Recipes for Halloween!

Our recent episode of the cooking show featured kid-friendly recipes for Halloween.

Thanks to the assistance of my nine-year-old sous chef, Lily, my counters were covered with spooktacular treats!

We mixed up a cauldron of Eyeball Punch.

Can you spot the eyeball ice cubes?

We then moved onto appetizers, beginning with Pretzel Broomsticks.  This turned out to be Lily's favorite recipe of the night!

Here's the printable recipe.

Next, we made Skeleton Veggies & Dip.  

Lily and I decided which veggies would best represent the bones from shoulders to toes!

Lily diligently went to work shredding string cheese for our Mummy Pizzas!

 Finally, for a sweet treat, we made Frozen Banana Ghost Pops.

Happy Halloween!!

Pretzel Broomsticks

Boo!

Are you planning a Halloween party?  Or just looking for a fun Halloween-themed snack recipe? A quick to assemble, no cooking required, three-ingredient recipe?

Here you go:

Pretzel Broomsticks!  Made with pretzel sticks, sliced cheese and chives.   

I think they'd make a nice substitution for cheese & crackers at your next Halloween soiree!

Today's Playlist:

• "Dead"...My Chemical Romance
• "Perfect Situation"...Weezer
• "Brown-Eyed Girl"...Lagwagon

Pretzel Broomsticks

Printable Recipe

• pretzel sticks
• sliced cheese (see note)
• chives

NOTE:  Use a soft deli cheese that doesn't crumble when it's rolled, such as mozzarella or swiss.

                                                         

Gather your ingredients.  I intentionally did not list any amounts in the ingredient list--it depends upon how many people you're serving. Each broomstick requires 1/2 slice of cheese, one pretzel and one chive.

Slice the cheese in half, and cut notches on one side (spaced approximately 1/4-inch apart, about halfway up the width of the slice).

Roll the half-slice of cheese around a pretzel stick, with the notches at the end.

Tie a chive around the top, securing the cheese to the pretzel.  

A single knot should suffice, it's not as if you will be using these snacks to play a tabletop game of broom hockey.  If you are going to use them to play broom hockey, however, I would suggest a double knot.  And perhaps you could use tiny olives as hockey pucks.

Snip off the long ends of the chives with scissors.

Serve immediately.

If you're preparing these in advance, refrigerate (covered with plastic wrap) until serving time.

Enjoy.

Sliced Pear with Prosciutto and Honey

Are you craving a salty-sweet snack?

If you have one pear, one slice of prosciutto and a teaspoon of honey on hand, you can whip up a tray of these in a jiffy!

Today's Playlist

• "No Rain"...Blind Melon
• "I'm Shakin'"...Jack White
• "Dani California"...Red Hot Chili Peppers
• "Dirty Little Secret"...All-American Rejects
• "Riptide"...Vance Joy
• "Everybody Talks"...Neon Trees

Sliced Pear with Prosciutto and Honey

Printable Recipe

• 1 medium-sized pear (I used an anjou pear, use what you like)
• 1 paper-thin slice of prosciutto
• 1 teaspoon honey

Note: the prosciutto may be baked in advance.  To prevent the pear from turning brown, however, it should not be sliced too far in advance of serving!

Gather your ingredients.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and place the prosciutto onto the parchment.  When your oven is ready, bake the prosciutto until crisp (about 10 minutes).

Allow to cool for about 5 minutes.

While you're waiting for the prosciutto to cool down, slice your pear into slices approximately 1/4-inch thick.  Discard the two end slices.

Stack the slices and slice through the middle.

Use a paring knife to remove any seeds/discoloration from the center of the slices.

Arrange the slices onto a serving platter.

Place the honey into a small bowl or dish and microwave on HIGH for 10 seconds.  This will cut down on the viscosity of the honey and make it easier to brush onto the pears.

Using a pastry brush, lightly coat the surface of the slices with honey.  

Brushing the pears with honey helps the crumbled prosciutto to stick to the slices and not fall off and go down the front of your shirt when you bite into the pear.

Not that I would know anything about that.

Crumble the slice of prosciutto over the pear slices and serve immediately.

 Enjoy.

Baked Soft Pretzels

Do you ever get a craving that won't go away until you give in?

I'd like you to meet my craving.  I wasn't craving pretzels, I was just craving something to go with spicy brown mustard.  

I'd been craving mustard since the fourth of July, when I saw a vendor at Fenway Park hold up a fistful of mustard packets to go with the pretzels he was selling.

Nine days later I found myself still craving spicy brown mustard, only now I wanted fresh-baked pretzels as well.  Giant fresh-baked pretzels, like they sell at the Red Sox game!

So I made my own.

Cooking With Kids!

We filmed another episode of the cooking show last week.  With February vacation on the horizon, the producer of the show suggested "Cooking With Kids" as a theme.

My friend, Amy, has four young children and I was happy that she loaned me her two oldest sons to cook with me (Joey, 8, and Danny, who turned 7 last week).  I hope that Joey & Danny had as much fun cooking as I did!

Taking into consideration that school vacations are supposed to be fun, I tried to prepare a few dishes with them that would be fun for them to make as well as fun to eat.   I hope I succeeded.

Amy told me that her boys like fun drinks.  Creamy Hot Chocolate topped with whipped cream and marshmallows fits that bill!

I don't have step-by-step photos for you but click this link for the printable recipe .

Next, we made a chocolate dip which only requires three ingredients--semi-sweet chocolate chips, peanut butter and vanilla yogurt.  They enjoyed this snack with fruit, graham crackers and pretzels for dipping. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm going to guess that the banana slices were their favorite thing to dip in the chocolate, given that the bananas were gone by the time I took this picture!

Here's the link for the Printable Dip Recipe.

Next up was Kettle Corn.  This was totally devoured.  I secretly stashed this tiny little bag of it so that I would have something other than an empty bowl to take a picture of!

And then when I snapped the picture they divvied up the kettle corn pretty quickly.  As we were finishing the show, Danny declared that this was his favorite!  Here's the printable recipe .

Next, we prepared Strawberry/Spinach Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing .  

One of my favorite moments happened when we were making the dressing.  As we were measuring the apple cider vinegar, the pungent smell prompted Joey to cover his nose and proclaim, "That really stinks!!"

Here's the printable recipe for the salad and the dressing.

 And finally, Cashew Chicken.   One of the funniest moments during the taping was when I crushed the garlic into the sauce for this chicken.  Danny exclaimed, "Garlic!  You didn't tell me there was garlic in this!  I don't like garlic!"

Joey saved the day, however, when he decided that the cashew chicken was his favorite out of all the dishes that we prepared.  Here's the printable recipe!

Chunky Guacamole

 I clearly remember a conversation that Mr. Terrific and I had exactly 10 years ago this month, on a beautiful September Saturday, regarding our three kids and their sports schedules.

 At the end of the day, after traveling to five different towns for three soccer games and two hockey games, he dropped onto the couch and I remember saying, "Someday it's not going to be like this, and we are going to wish we could turn back time!"

That someday is here.  Last week was really weird for me.  For the first time in 20 years, I did not have to deal with back to school.

No getting into the early-morning routine, or having to make sure the refrigerator is stocked with favorite lunch foods;  no packing lunches, or keeping track of after-school sports.

I really don't like this new phase.  

A couple of days before my kids left,  I was checking my Facebook newsfeed and a friend of mine posted a status that was something like, "Woo-hoo!  I have an empty nest, who's ready for a girls' night?!!"

As I stared at her status, all I could think of was how do I get myself into that frame of mind?

At the end of the week, my sweet neighbors from 3 houses down brought me this gorgeous bunch of Gerbera daisies to celebrate this new phase.  Thank heavens for beautiful flowers and awesome neighbors.

And thank heavens for friends like Gayle, who called me just as I was putting the finishing touches on this chunky guacamole.  She was the perfect person to share it with.  Gayle won't have her own empty nest until next year, but her oldest daughter had just left to go back to school so we still had plenty to commiserate about!

Glazed Walnuts...and I finally feel like spring has arrived!!!

Reasons Why I Feel Like Spring Has Finally Arrived

1. 

I've been able to open my windows for two days in a row--here's the key--and the temperature inside my house didn't drop.

As opposed to those days when I'm just so desperate for fresh air that I open the windows and the heat kicks on.

2.  

My front yard is blooming.

3.  

The dry, dead winter grass has suddenly become a lush, green lawn.

4.  

I don't mind sitting outside at 6:30 a.m., with no need for a jacket, mindlessly watching Clyde while he amuses himself by pouncing on a tennis ball.  

Okay, enough with the small talk.  Let's get to the recipe of the day.  Glazed walnuts.  Or any kind of nut, whichever nut you prefer.  Or, as you are about to see, split the recipe and make several different types of glazed nuts at the same time.

Why buy the prepackaged glazed nuts when they are so very easy to make yourself?

Chex Mix, And Chocolate Rice Krispie Treats: Gluten Free!

A couple of my friends, followers of this blog, have gluten/wheat sensitivities.

Though today's post is written with them in mind--and yes, these recipes are gluten-free--I don't want you to think that these recipes are only for people on a gluten-free diet.  They are simply recipes for yummy snacks that happen to be wheat- and gluten-free!

Salty/Crunchy/Chocolaty/Caramel Treat

Don't forget to leave a comment or become a follower if you want to enter to win the giveaway for the Williams Sonoma ornaments .

A set of three glass peppermint candy ornaments......

a snow chef and a ginger chef.

Three winners will be drawn on Friday.  Each winner will receive a set of all of the above ornaments.

{Just a reminder, this giveaway is sponsored by me.  I am not affiliated in any way with Williams Sonoma, I just like to shop there.  They do not know who I am.}

Mine are on my dining room tree...........

a good place to serve up tasty treats.

I also use them to embellish gifts or baked goods.  What will you do with yours?

Look who's all decked out in his holiday finery.  Gus is all gussied up!  I love the sound of the bells on his fancy collar, jingling all the way.

I have finished my five-day decorating frenzy.

Tree #1.  The real tree.  In the living room.

Traditional decorations.

Tree #2.  Not real.  In the family room.  Decorated with all of our favorite things.

Characters from our favorite Christmas movie.  Who doesn't love Ralphie, Randy and the Leg Lamp?

 Lots of hearts.  Because I love hearts.

Spongebob and Patrick Star.  Probably my kids' favorite cartoon when they were young.  Patrick was their favorite character.  Sometimes a certain family member will try to put Patrick on tree #1.

Uh....yeah.  If you don't know who this is, I'm not gonna be the one to tell you.  Let's just say that this guy makes Mr. Terrific laugh until he cries.

Tree # 3.  Fake.  In the dining room.

Sort of cooking-themed.

Lots of candy........

and cookie-themed ornaments.

The mantel.  Always a work in progress.  I'm never happy with it, and this year is no different.  This is the first year I didn't use fresh greenery.  I decorate so early, the greenery always dies.  And then I replace it.  And start cursing when all the little barbs on the holly leaves stab me.

I went and bought fake greenery this year.  Snow-frosted greenery, which totally announces that it's fake.  

Maybe next year I'll get it right.

The only thing about this picture that makes me smile is Gus' tail.  That's right, that little black swirl at the bottom of the photo is his waggin' tail.

And the little vintage-inspired papier-mache balls also make me smile.  This is their first appearance on the mantel, I think I'll let them stay.

I love snowmen.  Hangin' out on the china cabinet.

And on the sofa table.

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Little Santa-fairies adorning the windows.

And snowmen, too.