Scone + Blueberries = Bliss

Give me a scone any day over muffins or biscotti. That said, I have them far too infrequently. Enjoyed a great strawberry scone at one of my favorite local bakeries, Patisserie, this morning. This reminded me of the recipe my daughter recently made at her preschool. I stayed true to the recipe when I made them even though it's vegan and uses some unusual ingredients. I really liked the outcome. I think it would work well using more typical substitutes as well. Scones seem to be pretty forgiving whenever I've made them—maybe this is why I like them so well.

Here's the recipe (with a hearty disclaimer that I am neither vegan nor a yoga practitioner and this website looks positively odd to me):
Vegan Blueberry Scones

Week 42–Something Old, Something New

Mon – Beef stir-fry w/snow peas
Tues – Crock-Pot Turkey Breast (Thanks, turkeyrollups, for the recipe!)
Weds – Salmon and greens
Thurs – Rigatoni Isabella
Fri – Cream of Broccoli Soup (epicurious recipe that sounds promising w/changes recommended by reviewers) w/cold shredded beef sandwiches
Extras – Cuban rice; Dirty Rice (box mix)
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Have some great looking steaks waiting for nicer weather (above 30˚) in our freezer. For this week, some soup, pasta, and turkey dishes will keep us sustained. Made a blueberry pie on Thursday and some banana bread last night. Monkey bread or donuts—neither of which I've made before—are possibly on the agenda for Sunday. Either that or continuing our circuit of painting baseboards in the house. Which sounds more fun to you?? Happy cooking.

Homemade Ice Cream in 10 min

This is a fun food project with kids, especially siblings or play-dates so you have extra help mixing. We only had to mix it for about 5 min before it was done. Maybe be/c we packed it with snow in addition to the ice cubes, so it was REALLY cold. The recipe is from Parents magazine.

1. Fill a 1-gallon plastic baggie halfway with ice. Add 6T rock salt.
2. In a 1-quart plastic baggie (or another 1-gallon or large sandwich bag), add:
- 1c milk (the more fat, the richer your ice cream)
- 2T sugar
- 1/2t vanilla
- handful of add-ins such as choc chips, chopped strawberries, etc. as desired
3. Seal the smaller baggie and put inside the larger bag. Seal. Shake for 5-10 min until hardened. Less time if you want to enjoy something like a milk-shake.

300th time is the charm

It took almost a year, but something clicked this week with our youngest. He's often a less-than-experimental eater unless it's a non-food item. Pieces of paper? Serve 'em up! Egg shell? Why not?

After trying a variety of tactics and ultimately returning to what seemed the most logical to us, (his theoretically all-knowing parents, right?) he understands now that when we ask him to try a bite of food that he can actually do it and survive. It used to mean he'd just get up and leave the table, preferring not to eat anything than endure this indignity.

It goes something like: "Yes, you may have another 10,000 crackers, but please try a bite of chicken first." He does it now. It doesn't always stay in, but he's trying. Really trying. And it's not ruining his evening. Yeah!

Successes with toddlers come in really weird forms sometimes. I also predict that by junior high he will be eating us out of house and home. It's just how this stuff goes.

Keeping Track

Feeling like I need to keep track of some recent bulk-purchases, I reinstated a list I've used occasionally in the past. I wrote down some of the non-standard items that are currently residing in my freezer on the chalk wall in my kitchen. Hopefully this will help me remember to use them in the coming weeks' menu plans.

On another note, I inadvertently ended up making a family-style Mexican spread tonight. Yum. I wanted to do something with the left-over rotisserie chicken from the weekend and found myself making flautas for the first time. Very fun! Lots of frying. Then I found a recipe for Mexican red rice that looked tasty--I even had lard to fry the rice in for a more authentic taste. Then I opened a can of refried beans and toasted them with a sprinkling of cheddar, mashed some avocado, chopped some spinach, more cheese, some crema, salsa, and olé.

The thing I love about Mexican cooking is that the ingredients are usually staple-type items and there are any number of ways to combine them for unique dishes. Very fun, and if you have a taste for it, nearly foolproof in terms of taste. The kids like to pick from the toppings too, which can help get them to eat a meal that they may be less than thrilled about.