paint cut paste

i was at the dentist office last week, and i was naughty and ripped a page out of their kiwi magazine on cooking with kids: making homemade pizza, april/may 2010 issue. (the iphone pic of the page wasn’t gonna cut it with the small text.) as evidenced by N’s pure joy when we made homemade pretzels recently, i knew she’d be into anything involving creating dough and then eating it. so we embarked on the art of a pizza adventure!

here’s whatcha need: (i love to visit the bulk bins at wholefoods for the flours)

for dough:

• 1.5 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 3/4 cup warm water
• pinch of sugar
• 1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil (plus more for brushing)

for the toppings: (this is their recipe, but we altered it because i’m not a ricotta fan)

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp coarse cornmeal
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms (as local and wild as possible)
• 2 cups sliced asparagus (we didn’t do this part)
• 1 clove of garlic (i used 6 – we’re garlic people)
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese (i used a bunch of shredded mozzarella and also some sliced fresh mozzarella instead)
• i topped ours with parm, too

then here’s whatcha do… (words almost verbatim from kiwi magazine – i couldn’t find it online so i retyped it for you all. whew! hopefully this karmically makes up for the fact that i tore the page out of my dentist office’s magazine.)

parent & child: in a small bowl, ask your child to combine yeast, 1/4 cup warm water, and the sugar. set aside for 5-10 minutes.

parent: in a food processor, pulse to combine the flours and salt. add yeast mixure, remaining water, and olive oil, then pulse until shaggy dough forms

parent & child: knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minuts, until smooth and elastic. we had so much fun doing this together. during it, N said, “we’re cooking together! now i can find out what it’ll be like when i’m a mommy!”

child: lightly brush the bottom and sides of a large metal bowl with olive oil. place dough inside, cover with dish towel, and set is aside in a warm place for one hour, while it doubles in size.

parent: preheat oven to 500 degrees

child: brush unlined baking sheet with olive oil and dust with cornmeal

parent: on medium heat, saute mushrooms and garlic (minced or sliced) until soft (5 min) then add asparagus (if you’re using it,) thyme, salt, and pepper. saute 5 more minutes and then set aside.

parent & child: on lightly floured surface, roll the pizza dough out from the center into a 12 inch circle. transfer to baking sheet and bake 10 minutes.

parent: remove crust from oven and let stand until cool to touch (just under 10 min)

parent & child: spread ricotta cheese (or whatever cheese you’re using) onto crust leaving a half inch border, then brush the border with olive oil. scatter on the rest of your toppings (or arrange into a face or get creative with the arrangement… we just scattered ours though.)

parent: put pizza back into the oven until cheese and veggies are heated through, about 5 minutes. then dinner is served! (sure, it’s labor-intensive, but it’s lotsa creative fun, too!)

this feeds about 4 people and is very filling and yummy! we paired it with a simple romaine salad (with sauted garlic, olive oil, and lemon on it… tho it didn’t make it into this shot for some reason. N just had a bowl of green peppers and carrots on the side, as she dislikes the texture of lettuce… white wine for the parents, organic OJ for the little one.)

enjoy your artful dinner! we did, and N was so proud, “i cooked dinner for you!”

we baked homemade soft pretzels on sunday morning!!! yeah, this is not a cooking or recipe web site, i realize, but this is an art, people! if you’ve not done this before, i really recommend doing this with your kids – N loved it!

i was inspired by a lovely blog on the artful parent. after i read it, i knew i could not squelch my craving (not even with frozen superpretzels from the store) until we made our very own. one issue: i don’t own a stand mixer, and the recipes i saw online said not to attempt this without one. seeing as the uber-spendy stand mixer was the one item that we did not get off of our wedding registry all those sweet years ago, i borrowed one from my baker friend (big thanks!) and went to work.  we mixed.

we let the dough rise in a warm spot. (i may have taken this too literally. hee hee.)

rising by the fire

we rolled out some strips.

we twisted.

we boiled.

we basted and salted.

we baked and cooled.

we ATE!!! (warm from the oven… we’re freezing the rest to heat up later but i’m sure they won’t be as delicious as these fresh few were! really, get em while they’re hot!)

when we sat down to our feast, i couldn’t help but hear jerry seinfeld’s “these pretzels are making me thirsty” in my head (though honestly, they weren’t. i didn’t overload the salt.) so i popped open a bottle of cream soda (a rare soda occasion for me – what a perfect combo!!!) and had some leftover sweet potato coconut milk sage soup from a couple nights ago. N enjoyed her pretzel with lemonade… and some raw fruits and veggies. a great lunch!

this is the recipe we used:

ingredients

and now i sooo want a stand mixer, in pistachio please.

okay, so we don’t have any snow here in the SF bay area, but most of my east coast friends and family have been enduring the white stuff for weeks. i’ve gotten several requests for my family’s snow ice cream recipe, so i thought i’d share the ritual here that i’ve been enjoying since the 70s. it’s the yummiest snow activity i can think of! (hot cocoa is amazing, sure, but this is such a treat!) we made snow ice cream last march when we were living in virginia, so i’ll put those photos here for nostalgia’s sake.

first put a big bowl (about a gallon sized bowl) on your deck or porch to catch the freshly fallen flakes when it’s about to snow.

then bring it inside and stir one can of sweetened condensed milk into the snow. then add a one teaspoon of vanilla extract.

if you don’t have a can of sweetened condensed milk and can’t get to the store, you can always use vanilla pudding (my mom’s recommended substitute) or a cup of sugar and a cup of cream or milk… but NOTHING beats some good ol’ sweetened condensed milk, so stock up for the winter!

eat it immediately. if you don’t finish it, you can freeze some, but let it get soupy before eating it again. you can also add crushed pineapple (my mom’s fav) or other fruit, but i like mine straight up!

enjoy… and don’t you eat that yellow snow! now i’m counting down the days until my family can make snow ice cream in tahoe… sooon…

it’s the time of year for baking! it is a family tradition in my family to make fudge and russian tea cookies at christmas, but N’s very favorite one to help out with is the sugar cookies! last week, we got some serious baking done in our kitchen!

N helps with (almost) everything in the process, from rolling the dough…

to cutting out her favorite holiday shapes with cookies cutters… (this year made much more exciting with our purchase of 101 cookie cutter shapes!)

she gets so excited when they’re ready to go in the oven…

and the most fun is when they come out of the oven, are iced, and are ready to decorate!

now, this is PURE ART for N. she takes her time choosing which colors and sprinkles go on each cookie.

when they’re all finished, she practices great restraint in not eating every single one (last year when she was 22 months old, this was harder. at 34 months, she’s able to resist a bit more.) finally, she gets to enjoy all of her hard work by eating a cookie and a glass of milk.

she helps me to package up the cookies to give to neighbors and friends, and “plays santa” in proudly handing them out, along with some of her handmade ornaments.

the part she’s not so jazzed about is the clean up. unfortunately this year, that ritual is still just for momma.

i must say this aproned elf did most of the work this year! messy, but so worth it!