May 10th, 2012

Simple Strawberry Sauce

Last minute mother’s day gift idea: simple strawberry sauce. This seriously is the easiest thing ever, always gets tons of compliments and tastes like it should be much, much more difficult to make. Plus, who doesn’t love a handmade gift in a mason jar! So thoughtful and so twee!

To make: put a 16 ounce bag of whole unsweetened strawberries in a small pan over medium heat and add a teaspoon of sugar. Simmer until most of the strawberries have broken down and liquid is released (about 15-20 minutes). Mash remaining chunky strawberries with a potato masher and turn off the heat. Let cool a bit. If giving as a gift, pour into a mason jar and tie a bit a ribbon around the lid.

This can be made with fresh strawberries, the riper the better. Cook it down before adding the sugar. You might not need it. This will keep in the fridge for about a week. It taste great on ice cream, pancakes, waffles, any manner of cakes and brownies. We had this batch with lemon pound cake and it was delicious.

If this looks vaguely familiar, I’ve posted my Secret Weapon Berry Sauce in the past, but this one isn’t pureed which makes it totally different. Plus I hate the picture on the other post.

April 20th, 2012

Spencer Cooks: Smoothie

There are easily a million smoothie recipies on the internet and I am not trying to say the Spencer is some sort of toddler food savant. One of my favorite things I have from my childhood is the recipe card from the first recipie I “invented,” the Meat Roll-Up. Essencially, it was wrapping a pickle in lunchmeat with optional cheese. Genius! I still eat this. I loved that my mom kept the recipe card in her box with the other real recipes. I thought since Spencer created this smoothie on his own, I would document it here. The measurements are guesstimates – you can just substitute have toddler add yogurt with a spoon until he gets bored.

 Spencer Smoothie

Blend together:

2 Ripe Bananas, sliced (banana bread ripe)
20 blackberries
3 guavas (halved and scooped)
(about) 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
(about) 1/2 cup milk

And add more milk if too thick. I used a measuring cup and an immersion blender, but a regular blender would work great too. We make a great team. I chop and blend. He selects the fruit, scoops, “measures” and pours.

April 12th, 2012

Little Bits from My Kitchen vol. 3

It’s been a while since I’ve posted one of these, but I haven’t done a ton of cooking lately. I’ve been battling a broken oven and a general feeling of kitchen ennui. I did, however, sign up for foodzie and get my first box, so that was super fun. Thanks Amanda for telling me about it!

The box was pretty fun and who doesn’t like getting packages? I won’t break down all the parts, but I think my favorite part was either the old bay/bacon fat peanuts or the granola. My husband’s favorite was the beer truffles, I think. Everything was make in Brooklyn, pretty awesome.

I need to talk about my water carafe. It really changed my day to day beverage life and for the way better. We picked up a fantastic thermal water carafe over the holidays and I love it. I’m not one of the cool kids with a Keurig and our coffee maker was awful so we gradually switched over to instant coffee. It has come a long way since the sanka I remember from childhood and we use the trader joe’s brand for day to day and the starbucks via when we’re feeling fancy. I love this carafe because I can just boil a kettle of water on the stove, pour the remainder in the carafe and it stays nice and hot all day. In fact, if we make a cup of tea after dinner and fill up the carafe, it is still plenty hot in the morning.

I’ve been trying to buy more bulk chicken to cook for dinner. Chicken legs were on sale a few weeks ago and I bought I giant pack of them and then just sort of started at them. I don’t love legs, but it turns out I like them more than I remember. I brushed them with bbq sauce and baked them in the over (before it broke) turning a few times and brushing with more sauce throughout the baking. Yum. I’m also getting the big bags of boneless skinless thighs to try some of the Real Simple Recipes.

Cooking is part of my Real Simplify My Life Project and I’ve made one thing so far, from the 10 things to do with chicken thighs article.

This turned out really well – even Spencer liked it. I followed the recipie about as well as a normally do. I made it exactly like this, but used boneless/skinless thighs, cooked it in a skillet and used edamame instead of lima beans. The most fun part of this recipe was how much Spencer helped. He helped me zest and squeeze the lemon, his hand on mine, meausure the spices and mix the marinade. He even poured it over the chicken.

Tip: if you have a counting obsessed toddler and a recipe calls for tablespoons, go ahead and use a half teaspoon to measure. Spencer really dug all the extra counting. Just remember – 3 teaspoons in a tablespoon, so 6 half teaspoons in a tablespoon.

March 31st, 2012

Strawberry Chocowich

Thank you COOL WHIP for sponsoring this post. Join us on Facebook for inspiration and recipes for everyday treats. What you add makes it. #coolwhipmoms

It’s no secret that I love strawberries. Quite simply they are one of my favorite things about spring and summer. It doesn’t hurt that I grew up in strawberry country either, April and May marked the beginning and by June, we were buying a $5 flat a week at a roadside stand. And with the strawberries my mom always stopped and picked up some COOL WHIP whipped topping. Strawberries and COOL WHIP are simply a match made in heaven. I tried to capture a bit of that with this recipe. One of my favorite childhood desserts was a nod to a strawberry pie, but much, much easier. My mom would dice strawberries, mix with COOL WHIP and spread it on graham crackers – simple and delicious. My version is Strawberry Filled Chocolate Frozen Desert Sandwich, or a Strawberry Chocowich for short.

These are a great weeknight dessert because they only take three ingredients and come together in just over an hour – the prep time is only about 15 miutes. (Well, if you make your own cookies, it would take longer, but you can’t do this with warm cookies, so let’s assume you made the cookies the day before.) We’re fans of a little something sweet after dinner in this house and I love making easy everyday treats that come together in a snap.

Strawberry Chocowich (makes 4)

Buy:

Ingredients

• 10 Strawberries (3/4 cup diced)
• 8 Chocolate cookies (homemade or store bought, soft cookies work best)
• 1 cup COOL WHIP whipped topping

Make Filling:

1. Combine thawed COOL WHIP with diced strawberries
2. Mix well
3. I said this was easy :)

Assemble and freeze:

1. Take a quarter of the filling mixture (about a heaping 1/4 c) and gently spread it on the bottom side of one cookie, getting as close as possible to the edge without going over.
2. I don’t mind these looking a little rustic, but feel free to spread it out all perefectly if that is your jam.
3. Press second cookie into filling to make a sandwich. Both cookie bottoms should be facing inward.
4. Place on wax paper lined cookie sheet and put in the freezer for at least an hour before serving.
5. If you freeze for longer than an hour or two, let sit out for a few minutes before serving.
6. These have never lasted longer than a day in my house (I make small batches), but I would think they’d last about a week in the freezer. Wrap each sandwich tightly in cling wrap or foil and place inside a zip top baggie to store. Let them freeze for an hour on the sheet before wrapping.

This is such a lovely and simple dessert. I think it would be great for summer parties and barbaques. And if you don’t have time to freeze them, just put a little less filling in each one, make sure the COOL WHIP is cold and just make and serve them. They wouldn’t be a solid, but the would be just a delicious!

Enjoy! Spencer sure did.

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