Food and Fun

Another fun parent/child activity at Smiling Tree Farm here in Santa Rosa.  When parents sign up for this “cooking” class they know they are signing up for a sweet morning filled with sugar and more sugar.  For some of the kids this is their one big sweet splurge.  One of the moms said they elimate any conflict about too many sweets by not having any in their house at all.  A dad said they reserve sweets for special occasions.  So, today was that day.  We had plates of sugar cookies in enticing shapes (hearts of all sizes, doves, teddy bears and little sweet men).  Each child had their own dish of candy toppings including m&m’s, raisins, red hots and of course conversation hearts.  After several cookie decorating workshops I’ve realized this is a way to have portion control and no worries about little fingers and possible “cross contamination”.  Some of the kids piled their cookies high with frosting, sprinkles and candies.  Some ate their candies first then decorated with icing only.  The kids and parents were free to decorate and eat as many cookies as they wanted.  My hope was that they would take home more than they ate but it was probably a toss up. 

 

After everyone had their fill of decorating we moved into the living room and strung love bead braclets.  It was such a beautiful day that the kids wanted to go outside to play so off everyone went to swing and explore.  We came back inside for stories, songs and a cup of tea and hot chocolate and one more cookie and cupcake for the road.  This was definetly a sweet day of sugar, quality time and memory making.

Special thanks to my friend Robin who helped me set up and keep things going…and clean up too….what a friend!!

 

 Cookies, cupcakes and frosting were all made for scratch.  Here are my recipes:

 

One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes (from Martha Stewart)

makes 18-24 regular cupcakes …. 83 mini cupcakes

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder                                                                                              1 1/2 cups flour                                                                                                                              1 1/2 cups sugar                                                                                                                             1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda                                                                                                        3/4 teaspoons baking powder                                                                                                      3/4 teaspoons salt                                                                                                                           2 large eggs                                                                                                                                     3/4 cup warm water                                                                                                                        3/4 cup buttermilk                                                                                                                          3 tablespoons vegetable oil                                                                                                            1 teaspoon vanila extract

 

1. preheat oven to 350.  Line muffins with paper liners.  Sift together dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Add eggs, warm water, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and mix until smooth, about 3 minutes.  Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl to assure batter is well mixed.

2.  Divide batter evenly among muffins cups, filling each 2/3 full.  Bake until tops spring back when touched , about 20minutes for full sized, 10minutes for mini cakes.

 

 Gail’s Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies — my girlfriend Carol named these, I think I found the recipe in a magazine and it’s the one that all my kids took to class and entered in the Sonoma County fair. 

4 1/2 cups flour                                                                                                                               1tsp baking powder                                                                                                                      1/2 tsp baking soda                                                                                                                         1/2 tsp salt                                                                                                                                    1/4 tsp nutmeg                                                                                                                              

1 cup soft butter                                                                                                                             1 1/2 cups sugar                                                                                                                             1 egg                                                                                                                                               1/2 cup sour cream                                                                                                                        1 tsp vanilla

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.  Beat butter, sugar and egg till light and fluffy.  At low speed, beat in sour cream and vanilla till smooth.  Gradually add flour mixture, beating till well combined.  Wrap in waxed paper or foil:  refrigerate several hours or overnight. Divide into 4 parts then roll out and cut.

Bake at 350 degrees aprox 8 minutes

Note:  I still wrap sandwiches in waxed paper but find this telling of how old this recipe is that it reccomends waxed paper or foil…..I wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze

 

Frosting…..one of the dads asked if it’s easy to make frosting…..YES!

Powdered sugar, some butter, a little bit of milk, sprinkle of vanilla, dash of salt…..beat ’til smooth and fluffy……………I’m pretty sure there’s a real recipe on the box of powdered sugar

 

 

 

When my kids were young we made kick the can ice cream.  It was so much fun.  We put our ingredients in a coffee can, added a spoon as an agitator then taped it up with duct tape then put that can into another can with ice and salt then taped that can up then proceeded to kick or roll the can back and forth until we had ice cream.  This is something my kids still talk about.  Well, I found an easier way with zip lock bags.  Here’s the You tube link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLRDsW_p4LA

 

 

I didn’t get many pictures but the ice cream did turn out……..delicious!  A couple things I’d add to the instructions is to be sure to use heavy duty freezer bags especially for the milk mixture. The bags are great because you can see how your ice cream is setting up. Be careful with the salt.  We make our ice cream on our front lawn so I asked everyone to be careful when they opened the bag not to spill the salt water.  Remove as much air from the inner (milk) bag this way the liquid gets the most surface to coldThis only make a small portion but enough to enjoy the magic of turning milk and sugar into ice cream in less than 10 minutes.   Truth be told the parents probably were more intriqued with the process than the kids but everyone enjoyed the ice cream.  This is something I’d do over and over.  Make it a summer tradition the kids will want to repeat and will remember.

We had a busy day at camp. Started by picking blackberries then everyone made cheesy pretzels. I wanted to try dyeing Queen Anne’s Lace with food coloring but my prototype didn’t work very well so I went ahead and picked a big bouquet of flowers for the kids to cut blossoms from to make “flower arrangements” in baby food jars. I encouraged the kids collect greenery from around the yard to add to their creations. The pretzels were left to rise while the kids played and had fun with their craft projects.

 

The pretzels were delicious!  I’m always amazed how well the recipes we use turn out.  The recipe may call for 1/2 teaspoon of yeast but the kids sometimes measure out 1/4 teaspoon or 1+!  If the grown up has an eagle eye they can compensate with the other ingredients or add a little something more to make the  concoction  closer to the recipe.  One way or another our baking always turns out great.  Here’s the recipe for our pretzels

 

From st anne’s lace cheese pretzels

Cheese Pretzels……makes 2-4

 

½ tsp yeast

3 TB warm water

Let dissolve

 

½ tsp sugar

½ cup flour

2 TB grated Cheddar cheese

Stir & Knead

 

Cut into 2/4 pieces

Roll into “worms”, shape

 

Brush with beaten egg

Sprinkle with kosher salt …. I’ve also sprinkled sesame seeds and garlic granules !

Bake at 425degrees 15minutes

 

Enjoy

From st apple peeling

 

We usually have our picnic lunch at around 11:30am.  I ring the bell, we wash our hands then gather on quilts and blankets on the front lawn.  It works out great;  I usually have something to share and before the meal is over everyone has a chance to get a little something from someone else’s lunch (other people’s lunch seems to much more interesting than our own).  This day the kids were hungry well before lunch time.  I got out the apple peeler and a couple apples and we were ready for a snack and a fun activity.  Everyone likes to try turning the apple peeler/corer so we took turns and shared the apple…..yummm!

 

 

 

 

Somehow I didn’t post pictures from our Valentine Cookie Decorating Party…ooops! Better late than never.

From Collages

 

 

We had so much fun at the party.  Moms, dads, friends and kids, lots of cookies, frosting and sprinkles.  We decorated cookies and mini cupcakes and also made love bead bracelets.  I served the adults tea and the kids hot chocolate and we all gathered ’round and sang love songs.  Love songs, you know, “I Love You, You Love Me”…Love Is Something if You Give it Away”…”Tony Chest Nut Knows I Love You”.  We even sang “Hey Jude”……it was a fun day

 

 

 

We did all things lemony today at Smiling Tree.  After comparing notes I realized that nearly everyone coming to Smiling Tree right now love lemons.  A couple of the moms have lemon trees in their yards and  heavy branches of lemons hanging over the fence from their neighbor’s tree.  I have a little lemon tree as well and have been bringing lemons from my cousin’s lemon tree in Sacramento.  So we have lemons!!! 

From Collages

 

 

 

Today the kids squeezed lemons and we made lemon bars….yummmm, lemon curd….yummmm, and lemonade….yumm!!!  We sampled all our creations with lunch and there was lemon curd and lemon bars to take home.

 

Here are the recipes:

 

Lemon Curd

(from the Joy of Cooking)

makes about 1 2/3 cups                                                                                   

In  a medium stainless-steel or enamel saucepan, whisk together until lignt in color    :

3 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

grated zest of 1 lemon

Add:

1/2 cup lemon juice

6 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces

Cook, whisking over medium heat until the butter is melted.  Then whisk constantly until the mixture thickened and simmer gently for an a  few seconds.  Using a spatula, scrap the filling into a medium-mesh sieve set over a bowl and strain the filling into the bowl.   (I skipped this step…no straining for me) Stir in:

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Let cool, cover and refrigerate to thicken.  The keeps, refrigerated, for about 1 week.

I served a sampling of the lemon curd on buttered bread and sent everyone home with a small container each.

 

Tangy Lemon Bars 

makes 16 large or 24 smaller bars

for the crust

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

8 TBL (1cube) butter, melted

1 cup flour

for the topping:

1 cup plus 2TBL sugar

3 TBL flour

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1/2 cup strained fresh lemon juice

1TBL powdered sugar for dusting

Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Line the bottom and up the sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, so that the foil hands over the edges.

First, make the crust.  Put the sugar, vanilla and salt in a medium  bowl and stir in the melted butter.  Add the flour and mix just until incorporated.  Press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pan.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the crust is lightly browned at the edges and golden brown in the center.

 

While the crust is baking, make the topping.  Combine the sugar and flour in a large bowl and mix thoroughly.  Whisk in the eggs and stir in the lemon zest and juice.

When the crust is cooked, slide out the rack with the pan and set it on a work surface.

Turn the oven to 300 degrees.

Pour the filling into the hot crust and carefully slide the rack with the pan back into the overn

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the topping no longer jiggles in the center when the pan is tapped.  Remove from the oven and set on a rack to cool completely.  Lift up on the foil and transfer to a cutting board.

If the surface is covered with a thin layer of moist foam, blot it gently to reveal the zest.  Lay a square of paper towel on the surface and sweep your fingers over it gently to absorb excess moisture.  Remove the paper and repeat with a fresh piece if necessary.

Use a long sharp knife to cut into 16 2-inch or 24 smaller bars

Put the powdered sugar in a strainer and shake it over the cut bars.  Transfer to a plate and serve immediately.

 

The bars can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator of three days without the crust becoming soggy.  To do so, do not use the powered sugar ; instead, shake it over the bars immediately before serving.

 

Lemonade

I just added water and sugar to fresh lemon juice….excellent!

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

 

We’ve been having a great time at FUN School.  We made bagel peanut butter bird feeders and yummy oatmeal apple cookies.  Every week we take a little hike to the “listening tree” and have been crowing to the neighbor rooster.  The listening tree is just a stones throw but seems miles away to the kids especially if they leave their mom or dad back at the house.  When we get to the tree we stop and listen…..we hear birds and the wind and airplanes and cars.  Some mornings we do yoga and sing songs and play in the rice hulls outside.  The weather continues to be good with not enough rain.  We even play tag on the front lawn with our colorful scarves.

 

 

From Drop Box

 

From Collages

 I baked 100’s of cookies for the families who came to the cookie decorating workshop.  Two different sugar cookies and a gingerbread cookie.  I’ll post the recipes soon.

 

From Collages

We had so much fun at our cookie decorating workshop.  I realized I should have called it a PARTY! not workshop.  There were cookies and sprinkles and candies forever; moms and dads, kids….brothers, sisters and cousins.  The kids started by choosing a plate full of cookies to decorate then just kept getting more until they were done then some of the kids went outside to play and some moved into the living room to string popcorn.  Everybody decorated cookies grown ups and kids alike.  After we finished decorating we had a cup of tea or hot chocolate and a few miniature cookies….it WAS a party!!!

From Collages

We took a recipe for cloverleaf rolls and made Snowmen “people” rolls.  Here’s the recipe for individual portions:

Cloverleaf Rolls makes 2 rolls

1/2 tsp dry yeast

1/2 TBL warm water

1/2 tsp veggie oil

2 TBL butter milk

3TBL unbleach flour

beat vigorously

1/2 tsp sugar mix

(Sugar Mix : 1TBL sugar, 1/4 tsp salt ,1/8 tsp baking powder, 1/8 tsp baking soda)

2TBL + 1tsp whole wheat flour

stir vigorously

Knead dough until smooth

Form 6 balls, place 3balls each buttered muffin tin.  Cover, rise 20minutes, bake 400 7minutes

 

From Drop Box

 The kids stitched their felt starts with some help from their moms.  Some of the moms made their own stars……sometimes we want to do our own thing!

 

From dim sum pie!!!

Fun day baking at Smiling Tree…..oh yes we had some issues….some of the buttery pastry on the pumpkin pies broke off and caused smoking and of course the smoke alarm kept screaming at us!!  Pastry leaves on our pumpkin pies made up for the droopy crust and the apple galettes were beautiful (no pictures).

At the end of the day I realized I couldn’t have spent my day before Thanksgiving in any better way.  By baking with my wonderful, sweet kids I get to be part of their Thanksgiving day too; a real treat for me.

 

From dim sum pie!!!

While our pies baked we had time to play outside and make  nature craft pine cone turkeys with leaves and acorns. It was a wonderful day topped off with a warm and cozy dinner with my family.

I made all the pastry for my pie baking workshop this morning and a couple “extras” for my family Thanksgiving celebration.  The workshop is Wednesday and the kids get to choose between a pumpkin pie or apple galette (rustic single crust pie)

 

From st pastry thanksgiving

Nine pie crust = 2 1/4 pounds butter, that’s a lot of butter!

Here are the ingregients for the pastry:

1 1/4 cups unbleached flour

1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 teaspoon salt 

1cube of butter

1 egg yolk

5 tablespoons iced cold water

I use a food processor to mix my pastry and if you really want instructions on how to make a “perfect”  pie crust let me know and I’ll give you detailed directions.

NOTE:  keep everything cold…..I put the flour and butter in the freezer the night before to get it really cold

 

 

A book mark made by your child and a book or magazine would make a great holiday gift.  Maybe a sweet children’s book given to Dad with a message on the bookmark to “please read me this book Daddy”

Here’s a simple kid-made craft that can be given as a gift.  It’s my new favorite book mark.  With magnets it “sticks” to the page so you’ll never loose your place or your bookmark.  You may have seen these magnetic book marks at book stores, I love them.  I cut out strips of paper for the kids to draw or paint on then glued the “art” to strips of card stock and added the magnets.  The other option for decorating the book marks is to take the kids’ art and cut it in strips after it is complete, cropping and choosing the perfect section to make the book mark.  After Fun School last week I gathered up the left over  works of art left behind and recycled it into book marks I will give to some of my friends. 

From book marks

 

 

From book marks

 

Magnetic Book Mark Pointers:

• use old give away magnet calendars or business cards…..cut approximately 1inch squares
• test the magnets before glueing to the inside of the book mark; turn the magnet to find the strongest bond
• Use card stock or light weight card board for the base of your bookmark (you can buy cardstock by the sheet at Kinkos)

 

 

 

From st terreriums colored acorns cookies luncheon

Now that the weather is damp we’ve moved inside for lunch.  I miss our picnics on the front lawn but there’s something very sweet about having everyone inside.  We’ve been having the kids sit down at their own table ; parents help the kids get settled and if the kids don’t need anymore help the parents sit at the big table.  I’ve been serving the grown ups a cup of tea and our Wednesday parents actually had a little time in the house while I took the kids outside to play tag on the front lawn.

From st terreriums colored acorns cookies luncheon

See the moms in the background enjoying their lunch and a cup of tea while I sit with the kids and read them poetry and a short story.

 

 

From st terreriums colored acorns cookies luncheon

See the little round dishes?  I served the kids some Swiss chard which Ty pick from our garden.

From st terreriums colored acorns cookies luncheon

Sometimes baking with whole wheat flour and honey just doesn’t quite make it.  I remember back in the early 70’s (yes, early 70’s ) I tried to substitute honey for sugar in everything I baked; honey and whole wheat flour and often (too often ) I ended up with heavy not so good baked goods.  My baking has evolved and I usually use a blend of whole wheat pastry flour,  unbleached white flour and white sugar because sometimes that’s what’s best for the dish.  Well, I must say this recipe uses 100% whole wheat flour and honey and is delicious!  These are moist, perfectly sweet cookies.  That being said, there is quite a variable when 2 and 3 year olds are doing the cooking! and everything is always delicious!!  Our recipes are designed for children to make individual servings.  This recipe makes approximately 3 cookies.  Here’s the recipe we used for our cookies this week:

Whole Wheat Pumpkin Raisin Cookies

1/2 tablespoon butter

2 teaspoons honey

mix well

1 tablespoon pumpkin

1 1/2 tablespoons Flour Mixture

Flour Mixture

3/4 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/4 teaspoon cloves

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon beaten egg

1 tablespoon chopped nuts

1 tablespoon raisins

Mix

drop by spoonful (makes aprox 3 cookies)

bake 350degrees for 12 minutes

 

From st terreriums colored acorns cookies luncheon

From st terreriums colored acorns cookies luncheon

 As part of our cooking “class”  I demonstrated how to scoop up flour in a tablespoon then use the back of a knife (plastic) to level the flour off.  A funny and interesting thing I observed while the kids were outside playing in the rice hulls; in their play I saw two kids scooping up rice hulls and leveling off the top before dumping it back into the “pot”…..hmmmmmm

Last week I mentioned we tried out some Brussle sprouts with mixed reviews. Well, this week it was beets!  I cooked the beets then sliced them and used tiny cookie cutters to make beet teddy bears and cats!Somewhat unlikely food to offer kids but I’m a believer in giving tasting opportunities without any pressure to actually eat the new food.

There was a recent article in the Press Democrat about childhood nutrition which gave some ideas to help get your children to try new things. One suggestion was to involve your child in the food preparation and keep trying! It was noted that you should offer a new food as many as 15 times and not attached any pressure to try.

I’ll continue to serve up new and different veggies for my Smiling Tree kids to try; maybe an artichoke next week!

From halloween turnip

 Not just any beets but Teddy bears, cats and stars……I couldn’t help myself!

 Try this simple “recipe” for a fun Halloween project/treat.

This was a fun project, not really cooking but food related.  We did this sometime over the summer.  I was on a spider kick because there was a big garden spider spinning its web at our front gate.  We made these cracker, peanut butter, pretzel spiders and oak gall spiders another day.  

 

From st spider crackers

More cooking……..we made Apple-Raisin muffins; funny how we all used the same recipe and they all turned out so differently. These recipes are so forgiving!

 

From st wheelbarrow leaf art

Recipe for 2 Apple-Raisin Muffins

Flour Mixture …I mix this before our little bakers come to class

1 cup sifted flour (sift before measuring)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

2TBL sugar                                  Mix dry ingredients……..this is enough for several batches (6?)

Here’s the recipe we used at FUN School:

2 1/2 TBL flour mixture

1tsp oil

1 TBL milk

1/2 TBL beaten egg

Stir to moisten mixture….Do not overmix!

2 tsp chopped apple + 7 raisins + a pinch of cinnamon…….push fruit into batter without much stirring

pour into two paper-lined muffin tins.           

    Bake 400 degrees about 13minutes

I’m going to try this one again…..not my favorite recipe but great for kids…..I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’ve got some fun classes for “Big Kids” (5-9years) lined up for the holidays.  Our cooking classes will give the kids a chance to bake quick breads from scratch make a pumpkin pie or Apple Gallette for Thanksgiving and bake and decorate cookies.  I have a fun, chewy and delicious recipe for Gingerbread Bears that I’ll share with the kids too.  With all my cooking classes I like to have a taste and sniff game so I’ll probably play with some of the spices of the season and maybe bring in a few veggies just for fun!  Check out the class schedule to find out more about our classes planned for winter break.

It was a little chilly last Tuesday so we started camp inside with a cooking project.  We made yeasty, cheesy pretzels. This was another one of those projects that the parents enjoyed as much as the kids.  Everybody helped measure and stir but the kids were done before the pretzels were.  So, the moms finished the pretzels and visited while the kids played with my “vintage” wooden puzzles.  Once the pretzels were in the oven everyone went outside to play and paint then we sat together on the front lawn and ate our warm pretzels with mustard (and without)…….another sweet day at camp

We made chocolate chip cookies…..yummy, yum, yum!  Here’s Isaac and Michelle mixing ‘em up.

From st cooking cookies pizza

From st apple pie

I found the cutest book in the library and had to plan a project around it.  The story is about a grandma cat that makes an apple pie and serves it to her family; there’s one piece left.  A family of mice find the pie and enjoy it, leaving a few crumbs which a family of ants find.  The illustrations are wonderful and in the end everyone pitches in to help make a pie to share.  This week we read the book and everyone pitched in to help make apple pie!  Yummmy, yumm, yum!!!

From st apple pie book

From st apple pie book

 

 

 

 

Itsy Bitsy spiders……we hunted for these oak galls then transformed them into spiders!! Everyone had a chance to sample the Swiss chard and green beans too. It’s too cool for water play so we have rice hulls and bird seed to play with.

Today Caroline had a first at camp; she ate a green bean! We picked beans and sampled them raw as well as steamed. Rosalie tasted several herbs in the garden, basil, tarragon, sage, mint, of course green beans and no tomatoes! She says she’ll like tomatoes when she grows up.

River loves seasoned seaweed

Justine sent me this quote from the book, “Fun & Fancy Sushi” pretty good words to live by even if you don’t make onigiri!

click picture to enlarge