French Toast with Love

Earlier tonight the boys and I were looking at fun food ideas online and ran across a picture of french toast with a cut-out heart filled with strawberries.  Aiden decided that he wanted to eat that immediately and set to work gathering up the ingredients.  He apparently forgot that we ate tacos only 20 minutes earlier!  Momma indulged him and he got Ehic on board as well.  So for dessert the boys had French Toast with Love!

French Toast with Love
1/4 cup Milk*
1 Egg
dash of Vanilla Extract
dash of Cinnamon
few slices of Bread
Sliced Strawberries
Maple Syrup
Heart Shaped Cookie Cutter

Preheat Griddle.  In a bowl combine milk, egg, vanilla and cinnamon. Whisk the mixture together.   Dip each side of bread in the mixture let excess drip back into the bowl.  Cook both sides of the french toast over medium heat.  Cut out a small heart from each cooked slice.  Fill the cut-out space with sliced strawberries.  Serve with Maple Syrup.

Note: *I don't usually measure my ingredients when I make french toast so I am estimating on the milk.  Be conservative with the milk.  In my opinion it is better to have to make more of the mixture than to soak your bread.

Printable Recipe 

100th Day of School

Aiden just recently started going to Preschool at the beginning of February.  He is loving his time there. Today his class celebrated their 100th Day of School.  He was so proud of his 100th Day crown.  He is so cute!

My oldest son, Ehric, is in 1st grade and his class also recently had a 100th Day Celebration.  Each student brought in 100 things.  Ehric brought in 100 Calorie Snacks (his idea) and even shared them with kids in the class who forgot snacks (he has such a generous heart)!   All the Kindergarten-3rd graders had a 100th today parade through the school as well.  He had a lot of fun that day!

Steaming Hot Oatmeal

Synchronicity was at play this morning in my kitchen. I had left over apple slices in my fridge from the snack Aiden didn't eat yesterday. I also had left over soaked raisins and brown sugar syrup from making Apple Dumplings last night. So I decided to use these leftovers to make a yummy hot oatmeal for breakfast. It was so warming to the soul on this very cold single digit morning in Maine!

Can you see the steam rising?

Apple-Raisin Oatmeal

Combine in a sauce pan: 1 3/4 cups boiling water, 1 cup Quick Oats, 1/2 cup Raisins, 1 small Apple diced, Brown sugar or maple syrup (add to your preference)

Cook over medium heat until oats are cooked (about 2 minutes). Put the oatmeal into individual bowls and then add a little bit of milk to each bowl. Stir to combine.

Note: I like to add slivered almonds or cut up walnuts to my bowl of oatmeal.

Printable Recipe.

Apple Dumplings

Yesterday when Ehric got home from school I asked him if he wanted me to make anything special to eat. He usually comes up with some pretty good ideas and yesterday was no exception. He said that in school they read a book that mentioned apple dumplings. So he said he was thinking all day that we should make some. So make some I did!

I had never made or had apple dumplings before last night. These reminded me of the baked apples my Memere would make for my sister and I when we were kids, but wrapped up in a pie crust. It took me a few hours to make this delicious dessert but it was definitely worth the effort!

Apple Dumplings

(Source: Classroom Cooking: Recipes for Teachers and Children by Jamien Morehouse (C)1978)

"a fairly time-consuming recipe...The pastry dough can be made a day in advance or packaged dough substituted."

Pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chilled margarine or butter

4 Tblsp lard or shortening

1/3 to 1/2 cup ice water

Mix flour and salt in a mixing bowl. Add butter and lard. Cut into flour with knives (or pastry cutter) until mixture is "sandy". Sprinkle 1/3 cup water over the flour and mix with a fork. Form dough into a ball, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate.

Dumplings:

6 Red Delicious apples, peeled and cored

lemon juice

1/2 cup raisins soaked in water for 30 minutes or so

butter

brown sugar

Syrup:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3/4 Cups water

2 Tblsp butter

Roll the pastry to 1/4" and cut into six squares. Place an apple on each square, sprinkle with lemon juice and fill the hollowed out apple with raisins. Top with 1/4 tsp butter and 1/2 tsp brown sugar. Brush the edge of the crust with water, pull up the sides of the pastry, and pinch closed so the apple is completely covered. Place on a baking sheet and refrigerate half an hour.

Meanwhile make the syrup: combine the syrup ingredients in a heavy saucepan, bring to a boil over moderate heat, and boil gently for 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 425F. Brush the dumplings with some of the syrup and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350F and bake 30 minutes longer, brushing dumplings with the syrup every 10 minutes or so. Serve with whipped cream or vanilla icecream.

Note: I ended up having a lot of syrup left over. I saved it in a jar to use with oatmeal or pancakes.

Printable Recipe.

Celebrating Valentine's Day

Yesterday we started to prepare for Valentine's Day by making homemade cards for each other and for my son's classmates. Ehric made us each a mailbox to put our Valentine's cards into, which you can see above. We had fun stuffing them full of our homemade cards and a few candies, which were eaten on the spot!

Last night I baked these Chewy Ginger Snap Cookies for Ehric's Valentine's Day class party. Even though they were not heart shaped they were well received. My son's teacher emailed me this afternoon asking for the recipe for "the-most-delicious-ever ginger cookies." I would have to agree. These are some of the best ginger cookies I have ever had. I wish I could claim the recipe!

I was inspired by this recipe for Snicker Bears and decided to make some for the boys as a special Valentine treat. I made a few substitutions (all-purpose flour instead of gluten free flour and white sugar instead of cane sugar) so my bears didn't come out exactly like the original recipe, but they still tasted yummy and were still cute in their own way. If I made these again I would either follow the original recipe or find a good Snickerdoodle recipe.

For breakfast this morning I decided to make a heart shaped pancake. I mixed up my regular pancake batter then poured it into the pan which I greased with Wilton Cake Release. I sprinkled on some Rainbow Sprinkles on top and then baked it at around 400 degrees for maybe 20-25 minutes or so. I played around with the temps and time so don't quote me on this. We split this four ways and ate it with maple syrup. It was delicious!

While we were waiting for breakfast to cook Ehric and Aiden checked out their Valentine's mailboxes. They discovered that they also each had a little gift waiting for them as well. Here they are checking out their presents. Love must have been in the air today...the boys each decided that they liked each other's present better than their own and swapped gifts with one another with no bickering involved!

For lunch Aiden had a heart shaped grilled cheese sandwich. This made him very happy!

All-in-all our Valentine's was low-cost and low-key, but still special! I hope everyone had a great day with their families as well and didn't spend a fortune to show your love. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Cream Scones

This morning I wanted something warm for breakfast but not our usual standbys. I decided to finally use the Cream Scones mix that I made last month. I loved that all I needed to do was add the butter and the cream. Not having to mix everything up this morning saved me a lot of time. They came out so good and were so deliciously good!

Cream Scones

(from Family Meals: Creating Traditions in the Kitchen by Maria Helm Sinskey)

Dry Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tblsp sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp grated orange or lemon zest (optional)--I added orange zest.

1/2 cup dried currants (dried blueberries or other dried fruits can be substituted)--I added chocolate chips.

Wet Ingredients:
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 cup heavy cream, plus 1/4 cup for brushing

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and orange zest, if using. Scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture, and, using a pastry cutter or two table knives, cut the butter into pieces until it is the size of large peas. Add the currants and then the cream, and stir just until the dough comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, gather it into a ball, and knead lightly until uniform. Pat the dough into a round about 1 1/2" thick. You can either use a round biscuit cutter or cut into triangles. Arrange 2" apart on a tray and brush tops with cream. Bake about 12 minutes. Serve warm.
Printable Recipe.

Bento Box Snacks

Since I have been researching healthier eating for myself I have been getting inspired to feed my family healthier too. I've decided that instead of sending my oldest son to school with granola bars and Gogurts that I will put his new Froggy Bento box to good use and send him to school with some healthier and more creative snack options. So far the change has been happily accepted! See what I've packed for the last two days below:
Yesterday's snack was cheese peeled from a Cheese Head Cheese Stick, Pepperonis and Kashi TLC Honey Sesame Crackers. Delish!

This morning I filled the Froggy Bento box with green grapes, a few strawberries, star shaped bread pieces, a wedge of Laughing Cow and a packet of Grape Jelly. I am particularly proud of this one!