Posts Tagged ‘cooking’

Waffle Creations: The Waffle Robot

Thursday, January 13th, 2011

waffle-robot

What waffle creations have you come up with? Even though I’ve owned a waffle iron for years, this is the first time I’ve ever made waffles. (I’ve make pancakes instead because they are easier to clean up. Someone told me you can run the waffle iron under hot water without ruining it, so I decided to give waffles a try.) I thought I would have my kids turn the waffles into robots.

waffle-toppings

I put lots of toppings on the table, including strawberries, bananas, pears, kiwi, grapes, oranges, blueberries, nuts, raisins, dried cranberries, maple syrup, boysenberry syrup, and whipped cream. As you can see, the children had a ball making their waffle robots with heads, bodies, arms and legs. Since I’m the mother, I had to eat the leftover pieces. I’m not complaining, since, as you can see, the strawberries and bananas made the waffles the best I’ve ever tasted!

waffle-creationswaffle-3waffleswaffle-4waffle-facewaffle-funwaffle-girlwaffle-leftovers

How to Make a Snowflake Funnel Cake

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

snowflake-funnel-cake

To make a snowflake funnel cake, you will need some soft tortillas, vegetable oil, and powdered sugar. You will also need scissors, a pan for frying the tortillas, and tongs to remove the crispy tortilla from the oil. Make sure the tortillas are fresh and have not been in the fridge, or they will break when you fold them.

How to Make a Snowflake Funnel Cake

  • Step 1: Fold a fajita tortilla into fourths and cut it with scissors like a snowflake. You don’t want the tortilla to be too large, which is why I chose the fajita size.
  • Step 2: Throw it into some hot oil. The oil needs to be deep enough to cover the whole tortilla. An inch of oil is plenty. Flip the tortilla in the oil so that it browns evenly on both sides.
  • Step 3: When the tortilla is crispy and light brown, pull it out with tongs, onto a paper towel.
  • Step 4: Sprinkle powdered sugar on it.

Voila! A yummy, beautiful snowflake that tastes just like a funnel cake!

snowflake-tortilla

snowflake-tortilla-sugar

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Linked to Snow Day Activities:

SnowDay

Apple Crisp

Friday, November 26th, 2010

apple-crisp

I love to make easy, delicious food. A few weeks ago, someone gave us two huge bags of apples. The green ones especially needed to be baked into something, since they were too sour to eat raw. Being tired, I decided to make apple crisp first.

Peel and chop the apples. Grease a baking dish. Throw the chopped apples in and sprinkle with the following ingredients:

1/3 cup margarine stick

1/2 cup oats

1/2 cup flour

2/3 cup brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

It doesn’t matter how many apples you chop. I stop whenever I’m tired of chopping. For this picture, I used 10 tiny apples. Other times I’ve used 2 apples, and I just shook a little bit of those ingredients on top. Either you can melt the margarine in the microwave before stirring it all together, or you can cut the cold margarine with a table knife, and just sort of mix it in a bowl with your bare hands. Other times, like I said, I just throw the ingredients on top of the apples without mixing it because it’s one less dish to wash.

apple-crisp-2

If you sit down while you are chopping, you will end up being more cheerful as you chop apples, especially if you don’t particularly like doing it. Don’t watch TV, or you’ll chop your hand off.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Mixed berry crisp is even easier. Defrost the mixed berries the day before. Throw them into a greased dish and put the topping on. Serve with ice cream. (Good enough for company!) Apple crisp is also good with ice cream, I forgot to say.

Cherry crisp is easiest of all. Dump a can of cherry pie filling into a greased dish. Throw the topping on. Yum! This is my favorite. No, wait. Blueberry pie filling is my favorite. Double the recipe for a rectangular dish. Then dig in and enjoy! (Plus, your dessert counts as a serving of fruit. How cool is that?)

Linked to Love Bakes Good Cakes

Spice Chart

Tuesday, October 5th, 2010

spice-chart

No matter what your age, it’s good to be able to identify different spices by their look and smell. Make a spice chart to learn the different spices.

Even in early childhood, I did infant stimulation exercises with my babies, having them smell different spices while I was cooking or baking. When the children got a little bit older, we made a chart of different spices, making a grid and labeling each box. Then we put a circle of glue in the middle of a square and dumped a little bit of spice on it. If you pick it up, all the excess spice falls off. We did this with each square. The next day when it was dry, even my toddlers were sniffing the different spices, and my elementary-aged children told the toddlers what the spice was.

I recently saw a spice chart at the fair that is a variation on this idea. You make a “lift-the-flaps” chart by taping squares of paper on top of each square. Glue the spice onto the outside of the flap. See if you can identify the spice by the smell and the look. Then lift the flap to see the word, to check if you were right.

One time when my second son was 6 years old and was helping me cook, he cried out, “That’s not oregano, Mom!” I had accidentally gotten the wrong spice, and my son could tell by the smell that it was the wrong spice. I’m telling you, it’s useful to be able to identify spices.