Stay.See.Make.Do.

Roasting, or You Gotta Eat

And life goes on.

Today I decided to roast vegetables for supper.

No, I didn't bother to take pictures. They didn't look that nice. But they tasted amazing. Roasting does that to so many savory foods, makes them taste so much better. Veggies in particular benefit because they become sweeter.

Try it. Do a search and find a recipe that looks tasty and/or calls for ingredients you have on hand, and try it.

I didn't use a recipe. I cranked the oven to 450F and coated my chunked onions and sliced zucchini with olive oil. I sprinkled garlic powder on the zucchini. I put the onions in a dish, and the zucchini on parchment on a baking sheet, and I put it in the oven until I could smell that it was done. I also roasted beets, straight up, but those will be for tomorrow.

It's not what I ate tonight, but it is a picture.

Don't you think this guy looks ticked? Maybe it's because I didn't share any with him.

How To Cut Pancakes

Use a pizza cutter.

That is all. 

Well, almost all.  If you spread something like applesauce or preserves on top instead of syrup, put it on *before* you cut.  Syrup goes on after.

This can work for other foods as well.  Try it for French toast or waffles.  Or maybe even for foods not served for breakfast ;)

(The pizza cutter pictured came as a freebie from our bank.  It has advertising on the other side.  It comes apart and can go in the dishwasher.)

Cookie Dough Craving

One thing I have always found true about expecting a baby:  cravings.

In my case the longing for different foods changes as my pregnancies progress.  This time around I've been through chocolate, gummy bears, cinnamon candies, and Arby's sauce, among others.  Nothing too strange, like chalk or dirt, thank goodness.  Well, maybe French roasted decaf coffee beans is weird - but not harmful.  Lots of people eat them covered in chocolate. 

So the other day I needed chocolate chip cookie dough.  We had some in ice cream, but I didn't really want the ice cream part, just the dough part.  What to do?  I generally don't put too much worry into the occasional taste of raw cookie dough by myself or my older children when we are baking, salmonella notwithstanding.  But the warnings about raw eggs always single out pregnant women and very young children, so I knew a few big spoons of the stuff wasn't going to be a good idea.  In the past I have made the dough and simply left out the eggs, but the taste was never quite right.

Enter recipezaar.com and a wonderful person named Heather.  Thank goodness I had a box of instant vanilla pudding waiting in the cupboard.  I hope you do, too, along with the other more usual ingredients.  Because if you like cookie dough you're going to want to make this.

Here is her recipe:  Safe to Eat Raw Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

I made a few modifications.  The pudding I had was the larger 5.1 oz box, so I went with about half of it, which is less than the recipe calls for but worked just fine.  The other half I held in reserve in case I wanted to make another batch (I did).  The first batch I used two cups of white flour.  The second time around I put in one cup white, one of Wheat Montana Prairie Gold.  (Wheat Montana flour is the best I've ever used, seriously.  I can taste the difference when I'm forced to use other brands.  Guess I'm a flour snob?)  Lastly, I only used one cup of chocolate chips each time.  Sacrilege, I know.  First batch was semi-sweet and second batch was milk chocolate.  I prefer the semi-sweet.  Both batches were a hit with the whole family.  Good thing, or I would've been forced to eat it all myself.

And I wonder why I gain so much weight when I'm expecting???  Sigh.  I am trying.  Really, I am.

Summer Treat

The latest popular request in our house for afternoon treats this summer is for these:
Slushies from the Hillbilly Housewife.

The longer you blend them, the smaller the ice crystals become, until they are so close to the texture of the Icee you buy at the c-store that you'll be surprised.  Mmmmmm.  They do seem to melt faster the longer you blend them.

I let the 4 cups of ice sit for a few minutes to "soften" in the 2 cups of water.  Whether you want to do this will probably depend on your freezer and if you have an ice maker (the shape of your "cubes"), and how well your blender handles ice.  I think mine is awesome.

Banana Pop Secret

Ok, ok.  It's not exactly a secret, but more of a hint:  Don't peel them until AFTER you put the stick in. Most recipes for banana pops say to peel all the bananas and then put in the sticks.  I don't know where I learned this trick, but if you leave the peels on, the bananas are much less likely to fall apart.  And it keeps your hands clean. This is important because to make the best tasting pops you need to use bananas that have no green on them anymore, and they can be softish.  Once they are on the stick and peeled, the stick makes a great handle while you cut out any little bruises.

Some recipes call for whole bananas, but in our house with the small children, half of a banana at a time is plenty to handle.  So I cut them in half, put in the sticks and then peel them and freeze them for about 3 hours on a waxed paper covered cookie sheet.

This last batch I made I went looking for chocolate chips but couldn't find the ones I wanted in my cupboard.  Besides, have you seen the price of my favorite semi-sweet Ghirardellis?  What happened there?  I did come across a bag of Reese's peanut butter chips that I have had for ages.  Can't even remember why I bought them, but they did wonderfully for the banana pops.  Does that make them "Elvis style"?

Melt the chips and coat the frozen bananas.  Because the bananas are so cold, the coating hardens almost immediately.  It stays soft just long enough to touch them to a plate with sprinkles or nuts.

YUM.

Eating right

I found some vintage books in a file box today.  I had them put away until my kids were bigger.  Now that my oldest is 14, do you think it's time to introduce him to healthy eating?  I think these books make more sense than the food pyramid, the old one or the new one.  To me a pyramid says "Egypt" not "nutrition".  But a pie - well that says food to me!

The covers:

And on the back of each: