What’s for breakfast? Pancake Sandwiches! Yummy!

This will be a new “favorite food” for my preschoolers! My son was so proud that “he made breakfast”.  My son Z loves cooking, he loves helping in any way!  He loved mixing up the batter for us.   We used some of the batter to spell our names with pancake letters and made mini-pancakes with the rest of the batter.  These were the perfect size for little hands to grab!  A tip we use to keep the mess to a minimum, especially when my two-year old is the one cooking:  Put the batter into ziplock bags (here is a demonstration of what I mean).   Cut a corner out of the bag and pipe the batter onto your griddle.  When I let Z pour the batter my stove is covered!  Using bags of pancake batter lets him participate more in the cooking process.

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How to make these yummy sandwiches? Grab two pancakes, lather on the peanut butter, add slices of bananas and you have a hit with kids and mommy alike!   I can see us making variations in the future with eggs and bacon, or with breakfast sausage patties.  These would be great to make for road-trips or other out-and-about mornings!  Have you ever made a pancake sandwich before?  I’d love to hear how you made them!

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Rachel is mommy to three preschoolers and blogs about their learning adventures and activities at Quirky Momma.  Another favorite breakfast food of theirs is Freezable Breakfast Burritos.  We love the convenience!

Easy Cheesy Chicken Muffins

These are so yummy and even great eaten cold!

Ingredients:

• 1 can Pillsbury dough (I used the kind that you have to cut- you can use Crescent Rolls or Puff Pastry as well)
• 1-2 cups Shredded Chicken (I used an already cooked rotisserie chicken)
• 3/4 cup Cream Cheese
• 1 tablespoon Dried or Fresh Chopped Onion (optional)
• 1/2 Finely Diced Red Pepper
• 2 Tablespoons Milk
• 1/4 tsp Dried Thyme
• Salt & Pepper to Taste
• 1 Tablespoon Parmesan Cheese

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl.
3. Cut dough into squares and place in muffin tin that has been covered with cooking spray.
4. Put a large spoonful of mixture inside and seal by twisting the top shut.
5. Spray or brush with butter sprinkle parmesan cheese and thyme on top.
6. Bake for 20 minutes.

Homemade Butter

Cold and rainy days mean staying indoors. Unfortunately, that makes some of us a little stir crazy. So I’m always on the lookout for fun activities for my little ones that might just happen to also provide a little teaching along the way. Recently we made homemade butter. Stuart looked at me funny when I told him this. “You did what?” Yep, homemade butter.

I talked to Nicholas a little bit about how butter is made. I explained that basically you start with heavy cream and mix it up until it becomes butter. The cream is full of little fat globules but they are all separate and lonely. Once the mixing starts, fat globule Bob bumps into fat globule Joe and they become friends so they stick together. As more mixing happens, they bump into fat globule Mike and fat globule Tom and they all decide to stick together. The little group of friends keep bumping into more fat globules until everyone is stuck together and they have a big party. And then you have butter. Nicholas loved the story and couldn’t wait to start mixing up some cream.

We do have this cool antique churn that we could have used.

But it just sits on top of our kitchen cabinets. It’s gotten a bit dirty and dusty over the years and I don’t really know if I could ever clean those wooden paddles enough to feel good about eating anything made with them. However, it was neat to be able to show this to Nicholas and explain how it was used in olden days.

Our project was a bit different. All we used were some clean baby food jars, a few glass marbles, heavy whipping cream, music, and manpower.

Nicholas started with filling the jars about 3/4 full of cream.

He added two marbles to help with mixing and put the lid on. I double checked to make sure that the lid was on REALLY tight. Then we put on some fun music and we danced around while we shaking the jars. It doesn’t really matter how you shake them or how hard you shake them but you need to keep them moving.

It’s best to do this with two people so you can trade off and let your arm rest. After 5 minutes, he had a nice whipped topping.

Then around 10 minutes, we could hear a more distinct “thud” sound as a ball of butter was now shaking around in the jar. There was still a lot of liquid that we drained off but in the end we had real butter. It tasted fine right out of the jar but we added a pinch of salt just to make it better.

It was yummy on crackers for an after school snack. Nicholas suggested that we should have repeated our homemade cracker project so we could have had homemade butter AND homemade crackers. Great idea but I recall that I wasn’t too impressed with our homemade crackers. I think I’ll stick with store bought crackers but the homemade butter is a winner.

“Mad Men” style Pot Roast

OK, have you guys been watching the Emmy Award winning TV show “Mad Men” on AMC?? Because I am obsessed with it! It’s so fascinating to see what life was like in the 60’s. And although the show focuses on the drama that engulfs a Madison Avenue advertising company, a good deal of the family drama plays out in 60’s housewife, Betty Drapers kitchen!

I love watching the iconic 60’s dishes that get served on the show – tuna casserole, jello salad, ham with pineapple rings, TV dinners…POT ROASTS!!

It got me thinking, Pot Roast is a great classic American dinner.

Feel like getting in the “Mad Men” mood? Pour yourself a martini, and make this 60’s style Pot Roast!

~60’s Style Pot Roast~

YOU NEED:
serves 4-6

-3¼ pounds beef (top round is a cheap tasty cut)
-2 medium onions
-3 colored peppers of your choice
-4 celery stalks
-4 carrots
-1 bulb of garlic
-5 potatoes, quartered
- small bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, & sage ( I use a mixture)
-olive oil
-sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS:

To Prepare Beef
-Take your beef out of the fridge 30 minutes before it goes into the oven.
-Preheat your oven to 475°F.
-Break the garlic bulb into peeled cloves
- Pile 1/2 vegetables (except potatoes), garlic, and herbs into the middle of a large roasting pan and drizzle with olive oil. These veggies make for good gravy.
-Drizzle the beef with olive oil and season well with salt and pepper, rubbing it all over the meat. -Place the beef on top of 1/2 the vegetables

To Cook your Beef
-Place your roasting pan in preheated oven. Turn the heat down to 400°F and cook for 1 hour for medium beef. If you like it medium-rare (as I do!), take it out 5 to 10 minutes early.
- Put the remaining half of your veggies & potatoes into the oven for the last 45 minutes of cooking. These will be the roasted veggies you serve with the meal. Halfway through cooking, if the vegetables look dry, add some water to the pan to stop them burning.
-When the beef is cooked to your desired doneness, take the pan out of the oven and transfer to a cutting board to rest for AT LEAST 15 minutes.
-Cut thinly for most tender meat.

ENJOY!

Candy Haven is Pure Heaven!

Personally I love birthday’s, especially my own!  There’s no greater excuse to throw a party than surviving another year of adulthood, right?  And what party would be complete without cake???

Several years ago (who’s counting) for my 21st birthday I chose to celebrate with my close girlfriends and since it was the big 2-1, we decided no ordinary cake would do.  Luckily I lived in the DFW metroplex and so my landlord at the time decided to get me a cake from Candy Heaven Haven.  Have you ever had one of those cakes that melts in your mouth? It’s not too sweet, but definitely flavorful and of course totally cute too? If not let me tell you that you are missing out!

Another thing that I love about Candy Haven is their specialty in making custom cakes to fit the theme of your party. Each of their cakes are baked to order, so that means they are fresh and moist, and they have an excellent creative team that makes all their custom designs possible.

I especially love the birthday cakes for children’s  and baby shower cakes, because what’s cuter than baby stuff?!?!

Additionally, Candy Haven offers a unique package for baby’s FIRST birthday.

When you order a baby’s first birthday cake, you also receive a “smasher” cake. Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.  It’s a cake, simply decorated in coordinating colors of the “real” birthday cake that has a simple number 1 on it and it’s used for the baby to play, mash, poke, etc. so they can enjoy their cake time without destroying the cake the guests will eat. It’s a super cute idea and one that I’m sure many of us wish we had thought of. (Note: there is a minimum order price to get the smash cake deal)

To order a Candy Haven cake, simply contact the owner (Jane Boyle) or any other associate at (940) 565-1474, or you can visit their website.  They also accept emails at candyhaven@yahoo.com, or drop in for a visit to their store at 301 N. Interstate 35-E, Denton, TX  76205.

If my opinion isn’t enough to sway you, let the business speak for itself: Candy Haven is locally owned and operated and has been in business for over 25 years!  They are unique to the area in that they are the only specialty cake/candy shop up here in our area.  In addition to the cakes they make, Candy Haven also offers handmade chocolate, caramel apples and double dipped strawberries – yum.  If that isn’t enough to fill your mind with sweet thoughts, then try their Jelly Bellies, gummy candies and chocolate covered nuts in the jars along the walls.  Trust me, the moment you walk in you’ll smell pure sweetness in the air…and since it’s only a 15 minute or so drive, go check it out for yourself and be sure and let us know what you think!

Sumo Cookies

To help sweeties find unique gifts for their sweeties for Valentine’s Day, I am re-running this article on Sumo Cookies…

One of my very favorite things in the whole world is to find something new.  So, when I looked across the parking lot while waiting for my husband to pick me up from the Hobby Lobby lobby and saw a sign for Sumo Cookies I grabbed my phone and Googled it.

By the time he pulled the car around I had found out that they are the makers of ENORMOUS FORTUNE COOKIES and are based here in DFW.

I am a fortune cookie LOVER.

So, the logic next step was to go across the parking lot to see what an ENORMOUS fortune cookie looks like.

Once inside I met the owner Janice Paris.  She showed me some of the unique treats that she makes.

It is hard to understand the size in a picture, but they really are pretty big.  Most of the big fortune cookies are sold with unique messages inside.  Sumo Cookies also will customize what goes into the enormous cookies.  They have sold cookies with Hot Wheels cars, miscellaneous toys and wedding rings.

They also make smaller fortune cookies and little gifty treats.  It is all quite adorable.

Sumo Cookies have been in business online for about 6 years.  You may have seen their Sumo VW bug driving around town.  The Sumo Cookie store opened a month ago in the Robertson Creek Shopping Center off Long Prairie Road in Flower Mound.

The Food Network show Sugar Rush recently ran a story on Sumo Cookies –

It is all just a lot of fun.

The other really great thing is that you don’t have to be anywhere near Flower Mound, Texas to get Sumo Cookies.  They ship nationwide!

The Top 15 Most Romantic Restaurants in DFW

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and whether or not you believe this is a true holiday that couples should participate in, or if you’re more of a cynic like myself and think it’s a bogus ploy by society to boost the economy after sluggish January-post-holiday shopping, you are more than likely going to participate in some way.

Lately, getting take out has been the status quo, but why not consider some of these romantic restaurants in DFW to enjoy either a quaint, quiet night out with the hubby, or to go all out in luxury and gourmet style fare for your most beloved holiday dinner!

Top 10 Most Romantic Restaurants in DFW (in no particular order):

1. The Melting Pot in Southlake. The Melting Pot in Southlake boasts predominately private and comfortable booth seating, soft lighting, original artwork pieces and a walk-in wine room.  Larger rooms are also available should you choose to make Valentine’s Day into a dinner party for you and your closest friends.
2. Thai Ruby in Flower Mound. Indulge yourself with a fine dining experience featuring vibrantly fresh and deeply flavored classic Thai dishes served in a beautiful authentic surrounding.
3. Sambuca 360 in Plano. A spin off the Sambuca’s sophisticated dinner clubs, 360 brings it back to a more casual ambiance and live music.  For the music loving couple, this place is a must!
4. Nick & Sam’s in Uptown. Part of the ambiance is the low lit dining area and the extensive wine list including over 450 selections .  Nick and Sam’s was founded in 1999 and continues to remain a favored spot among locals.
   
5. Reata in Fort Worth. Legendary Texas Cuisine is only part of what you’ll experience the next time you visit Reata Restaurant. From the moment you pass through our doors, the unmistakable ambiance of Reata embraces you. Hosts and servers welcome you as if you were an old friend as you are enveloped by museum quality artifacts from the old west.
6. Rouge in Flower Mound. Make plans now for your Valentine’s Day dinner.  Rouge will be offering a couples dinner featuring a four course meal paired with either a bottle of premium champagne or a bottle of specialty red wine and a half bottle of champagne.
7. The WildWood Inn Bed & Breakfast & Restaurant in Denton. Secluded on four heavily wooded acres, The Wildwood Inn, combines Old World elegance with today’s most progressive technology.  Join them for dinner Thursday and Friday evenings in their four-star restaurant. Local chef Pam Chittenden offers a deliciously varied menu along with new specials each month, including a custom Valentine’s Day menu.
8. Hotel St. Germain in Dallas. Hotel St. Germain offers a full service European Style dining experience, enjoyed by candlelight in the intimate, Old World ambiance of the AAA Four Diamond Award Willing Dining Room which overlooks an ivy-covered French Quarter style garden courtyard.  Open to everyone. ***Note: Hotel St. Germain is BOOKED for Valentine’s night 2010.***
9. The Italian Bistro in Roanoke. A local favorite restaurant, Italian Bistro features the area’s finest Italian cuisine including pizza, pasta, chicken, steaks, veal and seafood.
10. The 560 by Wolfgang Puck at Union Arena in Downtown Dallas. From the moment guests enter, they are greeted by floor-to-ceiling windows that line the restaurant, offering 360-degree views of Dallas as the room revolves.  The cuisine draws inspiration from Puck’s renowned signature fine dining restaurants including Spago, Chinois and CUT.
11. Bonnell’s in Fort Worth. From the time Bonnell’s Restaurant opened its doors in 2001, it has been hailed as the beginning of a new chapter in the book of fine Texas cuisine and the premier restaurant associated with both Fort Worth and Texas. Chef Bonnell has gone to great lengths to provide a unique and memorable experience to his customers by serving up certified Texas organic beef, wild game specialties and fresh gulf seafood. His dishes exhibit regional style with spices that fuse Southwestern, Creole and Mexican influences.
12. Giuseppe’s Italian Restaurant in Denton. Their Italian cooking follows the traditions and styles one could only find in Italy. Giuseppe’s is about authentic northern Italian cuisine…it’s about family and celebrating occasions…and it’s about warm and attentive “old fashioned” service. Nestled in an old re-purposed house just North of The Square, Giuseppe’s is romantic all around!
13. III Forks in North Dallas. Located in North Dallas, III Forks serves the ultimate in Texas French cuisine. III Forks is a restaurant that has recreated the grandiose lifestyle experienced by Texans who believed that fine dining was a perfect combination of great food, great service, great atmosphere and great music all spent with the ones you love.
14. The Monte Carlo in the InterContinental Hotel in Addison. Monte Carlo’s South-of-France setting is an interesting backdrop for a modern American menu with hints of Southwestern élan. Sunlight washes the restaurant’s soft pastels and neutrals to create a summery atmosphere at breakfast and lunch, with dinner’s Mediterranean mood being equally relaxed.
15. The Classic Cafe in Roanoke. The Classic Cafe is a fine dining gem tucked away in the small town of Roanoke.  Set in a quaint house, which lends to the intimate dining experience, this restaurant offers top-level dining in a casual setting.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Every February 2nd there’s an event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania that attracts the attention of people from all over the world. The early morning event is centered around a groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, who forecasts how much more winter weather there will be. If Phil sees his shadow on Gobbler’s Knob, it means six more weeks of winter.

Taken from the website of Punxsutawney Phil, the official Groundhog:

Phil’s official forecast as read February 2nd, 2009 at sunrise at Gobbler’s Knob:

Hear Ye, Hear Ye – On Gobbler’s Knob this glorious Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2009, Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators, awoke to the call of President Bill Cooper and greeted his handlers, Ben Hughes and John Griffiths. After casting a joyful eye towards thousands of his faithful followers,Phil proclaimed that his beloved Pittsburgh Steelers were World Champions one more time and a bright sky above me showed my shadow beside me. So 6 more weeks of winter it will be.

Well, the groundhog saw his shadow today so we’ll have 6 more weeks of winter. I talked to Nicholas a lot about Groundhog Day. I started off the conversation telling him about hibernation and how a groundhog sleeps underground during the winter. Always inquiring, Nicholas asked, “But how does the groundhog know when winter is over and spring is here?” Wow, thanks for the perfect lead-in to the next thing I was going to talk about. I couldn’t have planned a better transition myself. So we talked about Punxsutawney Phil looking for his shadow; we talked about what makes a shadow; we talked about the seasons, particularly winter and spring; and Nicholas talked about how much he likes to eat snow in the winter (of course, you know this already if you’ve ever seen pictures of Nicholas in the snow because most of the snow pictures I have of him involve him licking snow, catching snow on his tongue, or shoveling a big snowball into his mouth.)

Nicholas and I decided to make some groundhog cupcakes. Yes, I admit that I will look for any excuse to eat chocolate cake! Nicholas helped me make a batch of chocolate cupcakes and he got the special job of licking the whisk when we were done. Good job, little buddy!

After they cooled, we covered the cupcakes in vanilla frosting, cut a slit in the cupcake and scooped out a little bit of “dirt”, and inserted a groundhog. The groundhogs are made of Almond Joy, white chocolate chips for the eyes and teeth, mini chocolate chips for the ears and face, and pink gummy worm pieces for the nose.

Since Groundhog Day is all about shadows, we decided to do some experiments with to see how shadows might change depending on the time of day and location of the sun. I explained how shadows in the middle of the day are most accurate and how they get longer later in the afternoon because of the angle of the sun. We started our experiment at 12:30 and drew Nicholas’ shadow on the driveway with sidewalk chalk.

Then we drew it again at 2:30 and again at 4:30. Each time, Nicholas was standing in the same spot with his arms out to his side. Nicholas said, “WOW!” when he saw how different his 4:30 shadow looked. You can’t even tell that it is a person and it is about three times as long as the 12:30 shadow.

During dinner, I had a small plate with three groundhog cupcakes sitting on the table. The groundhogs were just happy as could be watching us eat dinner.

However, as soon as Stuart finished eating dinner, I happened to look over at the plate and noticed that one of the groundhogs was gone. Stuart had a funny grin and was chewing on something then he said that the groundhog must have disappeared back into his hole. I guess he really did because he was no where to be found!

I had tons of chocolate cupcakes left over so I went ahead and decorated the whole batch and we’ll bring them to school with Nicholas in the morning for all of his classmates to enjoy. Here’s our little groundhog army, all ready to go.

Happy meal

Move over, McDonald’s.  I’ve discovered a way to really put the “happy” into a “Happy Meal”…into the burger part of the meal, that is.

In our house, happy faces are de rigeur.  The Maiden likes everything to be Botoxed into an eternal grin.  We have smiley salads, smiley pizzas, smiley raisin patterns on the oatmeal, fruit arranged into a smiley.  It goes beyond food too; I am constantly required to tattoo a happy face onto random objects in order to ward off the dreaded trembling upper lip, which appears whenever the Maiden is concerned that anyone except her mother might be unhappy.

When I read Kim’s post on making meatballs into eyeballs (we are so having that for supper next Hallowe’en!), I realized yet another avenue of spreading the culinary joy.  Why not extend the meat-decorating into an entire face– and make happy hamburgers?

Olives could be the eyeballs, of course (except for the Man’s hamburgers–he hates olives–although come to think of it, he doesn’t care whether his burgers are happy or not, as long as they’re made with meat and slathered with mayo, ketchup and cheddar cheese, and of course the obligatory thin lettuce leaf which he uses as an excuse to avoid eating vegetables at the meal since he’s “already having salad.”).  I could use other vegetables as the nose, mouth, and ears.  If I got really creative, I could use mung bean sprouts as the hair.

It’s like playing Mr. Potato Head, although more excitingly dangerous, because it involves salmonella.

I like it.

The results were…interesting. Read more

Sunday I was at the Wolfgang Puck

Saturday I was at the Walmart fuming when I noticed they weren’t carrying my favorite caffeine powdered beverage and had filled the shelves with Great Value brand sugary kool-aid drink. Sunday I was at the Wolfgang Puck in Detroit feasting upon herbalicious flat bread, fancy salad with mystery plants, and the best tasting steak I have ever experienced in my life. In fact, the steak was so big it had a bone and I think I had a foodgasm.

Until I tasted the dessert.

Perhaps I don’t have refined enough taste, but the “chocolate” dessert they served us reminded me either of

1.) a mouse, 2.) a rat or

3.) can you possibly imagine what my kids said?

It really didn’t taste that great either. In fact, I’m still not sure what flavor it was hence the word chocolate in quotation marks above.

The main thing that bothered me about Wolfgang Puck was my lack of etiquette skills the lack of ranch dressing and Dr Pepper. The missing Dr Pepper wasn’t too surprising since I had been forewarned that Yankees don’t typically keep Nectar of the Gods stocked in restaurants, but not stockpiling ranch dressing kind of had me feeling butthurt. Fortunately the steak and potatoes made up for my disappointment. The waiters also graciously laid my cloth napkin in my lap and peppered my food for me–although I also didn’t realize I was supposed to tell the waiters when to stop peppering until after they’d blackened my food. So, Mr. Puck there you have it from one southerner whose fanciest restaurant before you was Chili’s–my off the wall review of my very first four course dinner.

(By the way Wolfgang, I know you were in town that night because you were on one of my fellow blogger’s same flight and I just wanted to let you know how much I loved that steak. In fact if you would have shown yourself to me Sunday night at your restaurant I was going to whisper sweet nothings about that steak in your ear.)

After my novel experience at the Wolfgang Puck of Detroit we then made our way to a cocktail party to socialize with other journalists and auto bloggers. Andie Smith a Dallas based freelance photographer, Jane Devin of Finding My America, Connie Burke of GM, and I chatted for a bit and then ditched that place for few minutes to tour the casino grounds for a bit. Connie got the gambling bug, but it was Jane who raked in the dough that night. It was too bad that I don’t have a passport yet and could not have made our way south to Canada for some more fun (although I keep hearing there’s tons of strip joints so we’d just have to skip those places. Also someone else told me I can get milk in a bottle in Canada and I really want to try something vintage like that. I also wonder if I can get caffeine by the pill up there since it seems like I can buy every other pill from the looks of my spam folder.).

My fun in Detroit didn’t stop at the Wolfgang Puck or the casino. I had so many new adventures to experience, laughs to laugh, candid moments to photograph over the next two days. Oh and I had to work like a crazy woman on speed (which is why that caffeine would have really come in handy). I can’t wait to show y’all the newest vehicles and concepts to come out with the various automakers at the North American International Auto Show with just a touch of humor–just a touch, who am I kidding?

Seriously though, General Motors kept us so busy I can feel every muscle in my legs, feet, and toes. I almost couldn’t make it out of bed this morning to get my children ready for school, but I did because I’m not like my husband who makes our children four hours late for school because he forgot it was Monday. True story my friends.

PS: The whole Walmart reference up there is to honor Andie Smith and Jane Devin who joined me in Detroit for the auto show and made fun of basked in my love for all things Walmart.

PPS: I wonder how many other writers have put both Walmart and Wolfgang Puck in the same paragraph.

Disclosure: General Motors paid for my patdown free flight, Dr Pepper free Wolfgang Puck four course dinner, hotel at the Marriott (just wait til I tell that story), cocktail party that we ditched, as well as basically everything else. I only include this disclosure because the FCC makes me, not because I want to brag. Now if GM can buy me some etiquette lessons we’ll all be covered and the world will be a safer place–and then I could gloat. But nah, I’d never do that.

Full Disclosure

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