A Very Crafty Holiday: an overview

I'm a big fan of TV. Like, huge. (Picture me saying that as Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman.) Before The Kid came along--and when he's not home--I have the TV on non-stop. It's my background noise when I'm doing whatever it is that I'm occupied with; there are only a handful of shows I actually sit and watch.

I do try to stem my couch potato impulses when I'm hanging out with The Kid, and not have the both of us posted in front of the TV all the time. To be honest, he probably watches a total of two hours a day...don't judge. :P

Not defaulting to turning on the TV was much easier when I worked outside of the house. Spending a full day with The Kid was an event, and it was treated as such. When you only get two full days a week together, why would you spend it watching TV? But now, I have to make a concerted effort to come up with fun and nourishing activities. And it turns out, I love doing crafts with my kid! (I probably could have told you that before, but now it's confirmed.) "Becoming more comfortable with arts and crafts" was on my resolution list a few years ago, when I realized that to effectively teach Creative Drama to young kids, I was going to have to give them art projects. I think I've been pretty successful on that end!

Here's a roundup of some of the crafts The Kid and I have done together for the holidays...

Glued circles and rectangles to a piece of blue paper to make snowmen!
(I can't believe it hasn't really snowed in A2 yet! Did I just jinx us??)

Made and decorated gingerbread cookies!
(Cookie recipe from Cook's Illustrated; amazing sugar frosting recipe from The Kitchn.)

The old preschool stand-by: dreidel suncatchers!
(Basis for this activity from The Artful Parent; I used watered-down glue instead of liquid starch,
because my grocery store didn't stock the starch. I also put the wax paper inside a dreidel cut-out.
Because Hanukkah.)

I went into The Kid's class to teach them about Hanukkah. Guess what I did with them!

We made peppermint marshmallows! They. Were. Excellent. And somehow, we still have some.
(Recipe from A Beautiful Mess.)

We made some ornaments for our tree. Meet Santa and Jewish Guy!
(Basis for this activity from Red Ted Art. I looped some embroidery floss through Santa's cap to make an ornament.
Jewish Guy used pretty much the same technique, using blue paint for his body, and a small felt circle yarmulke.)

And we made a handprint snowman ornament using a kit made by a parent in the 4s class at The Kid's school!

Whew! It's been an artful month! I think doing art with The Kid is so much fun. It allowed us to explore both of the winter holidays we celebrate in our family in a tactile way. Springtime crafts soon?

Scrumptious Sunday*: A Recipe of One's Own

For the last few weeks, I've been trying weekly meal planning. It's a topic for another post, but it's been going a long way in saving both grocery shopping money and sanity.

This week, I thumbed through a cookbook I got from the library, trying to find a good cold-weather recipe...and found a whole damn bunch of them! The Food52 Cookbook is organized seasonally, and so I had no shortage of options**. But since I'm super-into squash right now, I went for their "best couscous dish," Fregola Sarda with Caramelized Squash and Charmoula.

Before a couple of weeks ago, I had never cut a squash open before. I had, you know, carved Jack o' Lanterns, but an actual squash intimidated the hell out of me. I didn't know how to peel one, how to cut one, how to make sure all of the seeds were done away with, without getting my hands all goopy. But I loved the warm taste, the smell in the kitchen while one was cooking...a squash is late autumn and winter to me. And if all one has to do is cut one up, throw it in the oven with some oil and salt, and let it be for a while to make a super-tasty meal? OK, I decided, if I'm working on getting comfortable in the kitchen, this was something I needed to learn how to do. (Thanks to The Kitchn for a great squash tutorial!)

And so after my first try with butternut squash two weeks ago, and making Pumpkin Butter with The Kid last week (also Food52), this recipe sounded like an absolute winner. It's getting cold and dreary here in MI, and some squash was just what my kitchen needed.

But I also had a couple of changes I needed to make for various reasons: grocery availability, family dietary needs, and so on. And so, since I'm trying to work on being zen in the kitchen, I did what I needed to do and came out with a damn good dinner that made everyone around the table happy. Seriously, The Kid gobbled it down, even though the one part of the dish he helped me make was the one thing that didn't wind up on his plate.

It's no Fregola Sarda, but it was awesome. Recipe after the jump. (Don't be intimidated by the list of ingredients. There's a lot of stuff, but not a whole lot of work involved at all.)

Food Friday*: A Week of Cooking Jewishly

Passover started on Monday night (with a lovely Seder led by my dad), and as always, I've decided it's a good opportunity to diversify my diet and eat more fruits and veggies. Not-as-always, I've also decided to try new KFP (Kosher for Passover) recipes, as is my wont nowadays.

So, this week, our house has seen:

Matzah going from drab to fab with Matzah Crack...um...I mean...candy. (From this recipe on The Kitchn.) I topped some of ours with chopped walnuts, some with sea salt, and some with my latest obsession crystallized ginger. It went fast.)

Macaroons. (From this recipe, also on The Kitchn.) I dipped a few of them in melted chocolate after I took this picture, and they're the best. Even Jake likes them, and he's not the world's biggest fan of coconut. I'm pretty sure we'll be eating them well after Passover ends, since I have 25 of them, and the holiday is over on Tuesday.

And for actual meals...

A breakfast of Matzah Brei, and

a dinner of cod "en papillote" with veggies. (That's much, much easier than it sounds. To prove it, both recipes are after the jump! Both recipes serve three. They're also both easily adjustable if your family is bigger or smaller.)

Food Friday: Blueberry Surprise

Here's the thing. I knew The Kid was going to want to have a hand in the cupcakes we were going to bring to school for his birthday. Which was awesome! And I was all set to use one of my favorite recipes for the cupcakes I thought he was going to want to make.

"Hey, buddy," I asked, "what kind of cupcakes do you want to make for your birthday?

I fully expected him to say "Chocolate!" He has this way of saying it in a deep voice, where it takes a full thirty seconds to get every consonant out, as though he were already licking the beater from the KitchenAid. Nope. The Kid looked me in the eye, beamed, and said,

"Blueberry."

Blueberry?

I'd never had a blueberry cupcake. I'd never seen a recipe for a blueberry cupcake! Blueberry muffins, sure. Jake made a huge batch with the last of our berries this summer--we had so many, we had to put some in the freezer, and we enjoyed them for a long time. Blueberry cupcakes threw me for a loop.

But Mr. Google is a wonderful helper, and soon I had my choice of recipes. I went, of course, with Martha--has she ever steered anyone wrong recipe-wise? Martha's recipe was for 12 full-sized cupcakes, and I wanted to take mini-cupcakes to The Kid's school. I finally had an excuse to buy the mini-muffin tin I've been wanting! And I figured, batter for 12 full-sized cupcakes had to equal, what, 24 mini-cupcakes? I could handle that; it's exactly what the mini-pan holds. Perfect.

Nope. Forty-eight. Forty-eight tiny cupcakes, and only ten kids in his class. My colleagues really benefitted from this one! And we had plenty left over to share with my family after dinner. I'm not confident in halving a baking recipe yet--cooking recipes, sure, but baking ratios are such science, it makes me nervous that I'll mess something up. I'm setting my mind to learn, but in the meanwhile, it's not so bad to have 48 mini-cupcakes to share.

Recipe for blueberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting after the jump.

Food Friday: Birthday Hamantaschen!

It's my birthday! Since I work Sunday-Thursday, I get to have a super-chill day. I woke up late--The Kid kindly let me sleep until 7:30--spent some time in the kitchen, went to the local diner for birthday pancakes, and now I'm chilling out watching An Idiot Abroad while The Kid sleeps on the couch.

(This child, who hasn't napped for four days, insisted for 45 minutes that he wasn't sleepy while I insisted he just spend some rest time in his room so I could take a shower. After 45 minutes, I let him come out to hang with me in the living room, and he promptly fell asleep on the couch. I'm letting him be.)

Tonight, we'll carry on our grand birthday tradition: I got to ask Jake to cook me anything I want for my birthday, and I'm getting flank steak, broccoli rabe, and three-cheese polenta. He and The Kid baked me a cake last night, and I can. not. wait to chow down!

This weekend is also Purim, and since baking is one of my favorite things to do with The Kid, we made hamantaschen this morning: apricot, blueberry, and Nutella. Here's my Mini Chef putting the ingredients together for the apricot filling:

Don't worry, the oven's not on.

I'm not going to duplicate the hamantaschen recipe here, because I hardly deviated at all from The Shiksa's wonderful procedure (other than the Mini Chef helping me measure, stir, dump, and knead, then leaving me to fill and fold).

BUT!

The Kid dressed up as a chef for yesterday's Purim Parade at his school (natch), and we decided that in order to make his costume more holiday-appropriate, we'd make some paper hamantaschen to put in his pocket. "Recipe" for paper hamantaschen (a cute and easy holiday craft) after the jump!

Tipple Tuesday: Birthdays!

This week, I'm celebrating theatre birthdays! March 10: Jasmine Guy. March 11: Dorothy Gish and John Barrowman (Captain Jack!). March 12: Edward Albee. March 13: William H Macy. March 14: ME!

I love birthdays, especially birthday food. Our little family tradition, going back ten whole years, is that the celebrant gets to ask his/her partner to cook whatever s/he wants. I almost always ask Jake to make me three-cheese polenta, and it's usually accompanied by some sort of lamb something. Last year, Jake switched his choice from his usual request of mini-gyros with yogurt sauce (I'd made it five years in a row), but he still had chocolate ganache cupcakes.

Tonight, The Kid told me that he and Jake are going to make me a cake, which I'm super-excited about. I can't wait to see what comes out of the oven! Is it wrong that I kind of want to ask for Rainbow Brite decorations? (Is that a unanimous yes?)

I'm turning 34, so no fanfare. But! I thought I'd take the opportunity to make myself a decadent but un-fancy cocktail. So I mixed up a concoction I'm calling an Amaretto Phosphate. You should have one this week to celebrate. And if that includes celebrating me, I'm not going to argue with you!

Amaretto Phosphate

Ingredients
Amaretto (I made mine using Shutterbean's recipe, and it is fab)
Vanilla ice cream (I used Haagen-Dasz)
Cold soda water

Makes one drink

Put two ounces Amaretto in a tall drinking glass (or a highball glass if you have one). Add two scoops Vanilla ice cream. Top with soda water until the glass is full and foam just goes over the edge of the glass. Enjoy!

(Since I'm doing the birthday-week-thing, I enjoyed mine with a brownie The Kid and I made on Friday. It was made with whole wheat flour, so it was, like, totally good for me.)

Food Friday: Most Important Meal of the Day

In honor of National School Breakfast Week, I thought I'd post about the breakfasts I've been eating recently. So...here goes!

I suck at eating breakfast. It is definitely not one of my strengths. I recognize how important it is: when I do eat breakfast, I tend not to snack at my desk--Sour Patch Kids are my current nemesis because I can pretend I'm eating fruit--and I definitely feel more energized throughout the day. Which is really important when you're teaching creative drama to 4-7 year-olds.

But I just can't stand to eat when I'm not hungry. It makes me feel gross, even though I know it's going to make me feel great body, mind, and spirit in the long run. So, unless there's something super-delicious (which is usually saved for special occasions), or I'm eating later in the morning (which isn't always an inexpensive option on a workday), I just haven't ever been able to make breakfast a priority.

Jake is a breakfast-eater, and sends me gentle verbal messages reminding me that if I want to keep up my energy during the day, it would probably be best to eat something. And even The Kid has started to nag me (adorably), "Mama, you eat breakfast this morning?" So, recently I've started being mindful about eating in the morning, using the two methods that I know work for me: eating something delicious, and eating later in the morning.

This snowy Monday morning, I decided to make a treat for the family: Cheater Donuts with maple glaze (and donut holes covered in cinnamon-sugar). And when I came across this post from The Kitchn about make-ahead breakfasts, I knew I had found my eating-later-in-the-morning-for-cheap-and-easy soulmate. Neither of these breakfasts takes a long time at all to make, and they've been satisfying me this week. And at least one of them is good for you! (Guess which.)

Recipes after the jump.

Tipple Tuesday: It's Cold Out There, but It's Warm in Here

Man, it's cold out there! We had a beautiful snowy day yesterday, and as I type this, it's nine degrees outside. Maybe that's Mother Nature's way of preparing us for the move to Ann Arbor...'Cause the world and its weather totally revolves around me.

We spent a chunk of the afternoon yesterday playing Snow Plow: The Kid brought his snowplow, dump truck, and front loader outside and proceeded to plow our building's turnabout. Such is the life of a city kid, and he had a blast! Even though it was super-fun, I can't help but wait until we have a green space of our own to build snowmen, make angels, and throw snowballs.

We have a couple of parks within walking distance, but a few of the sidewalks are nearly impossible after a snowstorm, especially with a stroller. I don't know whose job it is to shovel, but whomever it is, they're not pulling their weight; after the last snow, I remarked that it was National Stay at Home if You Use a Stroller or Wheelchair Day. Urban living definitely has its upsides (I can see Gymboree from our window, and we have a choice of walking to restaurants of varying ethnicities and quality every night) but I want a garden--in which The Kid wants to plant broccoli, carrots, and mashed potatoes--and Jake wants nothing more than to grill.

But that's warm weather stuff, and I digress.

After The Kid's bedtime, it was time for a warming grownup drink! I'd been toying around with heated drinks for a while, and this one really hit the spot. I hope you enjoy it.

Recipe for The Apple Cheek after the jump!

Food Friday: Cold Comfort (Food)

I heard on the radio this morning that we in the Mid-Atlantic are "supposed" to be in the 50s this time of year. I don't know, I grew up 45 minutes from here, and I always think of February as one of the coldest months. For me and my newfound love of the kitchen, that means making warming comfort food. And what better comfort food than soup? Soup made with root vegetables.

I love the hell out of my immersion blender. Okay, to be fair, I got the blender for Jake for his birthday a few years ago. But I use it a lot too. I love the way it makes a chunky soup smooth in just minutes. I love that I don't have to worry about pouring hot liquid into my blender, because I just know I'd end up with scalding skin. I don't love the cramps it gives my hand, but it's a small price to pay for a smooth soup.

I also love the hell out of the How to Cook Everything app. Mark Bittman is a genius, and to have an amazing cookbook literally at my fingertips, where I can export a shopping list and refer to how-tos without having to flip pages is a huge bonus. (Fellow bookworms, don't throw tomatoes at me: I have plenty of real-and-true cookbooks, too!) And so here's what I did with his recipe for Potato-Leek Soup. I hope it warms your home as much as it did mine.

(Recipe after the jump.)