Sunday, August 22, 2010

Might as well eat worms!



3 of my children have birthdays in the summer. DD#1 in mid July, DS#2 in mid August, and DS#1 end of September. And for some unknown reason they all prefer to have one giant birthday party together?

Odd I know.

I make sure to do something special for each of them on their day. DD#1 got her skirt, and a pedi, DS#1 had his during our adventure, so he got a present, and small cake with his name at on it in the terminal on Hawaii, and we took him to Chili's for supper.

This cake was from the folks over at Family Fun and it's called "Bug Mountain". DD#1 frosted it, the boys made and put the dirt on, and it was a group effort to put the bugs on (the bugs are plastic, and the worms are gummy). It was Strawberry on the inside.

The swarm of teenagers came over and decorated the trees, went in the house and got the food out. Pretty much made it so all I had to do was knock on the neighbors doors and say "Come eat!"

Besides the cake I made my black bean salsa, and chicken with spinach salad put into puff pastry. The chicken salad is just regular chicken salad, I just add spinach when I am filling puff pastry, the puff pastry's are not hard to make, just fiddly.

Bring 1 cup and 6 tablespoons of butter to a boil, remove the pot from the heat, beat in 1 cup of flour, 1/4 tsp salt, (1tsp sugar for sweet pastries) put back on heat, continue to beat till it pulls away from the sides of the pot, but in bowl, continue to beat till cool enough to add in 4 eggs, beat till batter is smooth. Fill pastry bag (zip top bag) pipe out to desired size (1 inch across for bit size, 3 inch across for sandwich size). With a wet finger, smooth over the tips, bake at 400 for 15 min and then at 350 for another 35 min. Let cool, for sandwiches, cut open and fill, for cream puffs, poke a hole in the side with a small piping tip and squeeze in filling (whipped cream/pudding/gnash/moose).

Everything was set up, and we were waiting on one more person to come out when the rain started! in the scramble to get everything covered I realized that if we just ate the puff sandwiches we'd have less to try to cover. Then the rain stopped and we gave up waiting.


Also this week, I made some fresh corn bread for breakfast, and on the side we had apple sauce. Nothing fancy, but I was craving it, and the kids like it.
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
6 tbs melted butter
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 cup corn meal
1 1/2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
2 table spoons sugar
1 cup corn

Combine wet ingredients then fold in dry, will be lumpy. Pour into a greased pan bake at 400 till light golden.

To make this more "breakfasty" I tripled the sugar, left out the corn, and lightly sprinkled the top with brown sugar to make it pretty.

4 comments:

  1. Hee, cute title for this one.

    You made the puff pastry from scratch? Instead of doing wrap-ups with the store bought? I'm in awe, and think you're slightly nuts.

    and NOM cornbread. That looks fantastic. I think I should try that. Wonder if the roomie likes cornbread? I bet his taste is for less sweet cornbread. Hrm.

    ReplyDelete
  2. the recipe listed isn't sweet. and the puff pastry I made is more like the kind you get if you buy "cream puffs" in the frozen section; not the flaky flat pastry sheets. I buy those, cause I can never get the flakyness right.

    And I think we already knew I am completely nuts when it comes to cooking.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, gosh, that isn't a lot of sugar at all in the cornbread. Hrm...I should totally try this! If my roomie doesn't eat it, The Lords of The Manor totally will.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really want to try your recipe Jess....
    maybe if Tony helps me lol

    and yes...your are nuts in the kitchen, but thats what I love about you missy!!!

    ReplyDelete