Can't put my finger on it

Being that Halloween is here, I decided to try my hand at making finger cookies, I always have to make something. I was a little nervous as I carefully shaped each cookie into a gnarly looking finger with a fingernail and even a little cave in the stump end as if it were severed. I followed the directions step by step and everything went pretty smoothly, that is until I baked them. I expected them to lose a bit of their shape, but they pretty much just melted. I wish I had remembered to take a picture before baking so you could see how good they looked. Oh well, at least they tasted good.

Sushi

Bookworm was craving for kimbab and wanted me to make it for her for lunch today. Usually kimbab has bulgogi meat in it and I didn't have any so I had to improvise. I ended up making a vegetarian sushi roll with of course rice, pickled daikon radish, carrots and sigumchi namul (Korean spinach salad), and cucumber. The kids loved it, in fact Bookworm has requested to take what was left to school for lunch tomorrow. As you can see in the photo, Super Why enjoyed it too.

Can't get enough oatmeal cranberry cookies

While perusing the aisles at BJ's the other day John tried an oatmeal cranberry cookie someone was doing a demo on and he loved it. He came home and told me how surprised he was that he liked it so I figured I would try to make them. How was I suppose to duplicate a cookie I hadn't tried? I had no idea what they tasted like or what kind of texture they were suppose to have. I ended up searching online to get a rough idea of what such a cookie would have in it which of course found about a bazillion different recipes. I did find one that caught my eye, it was suppose to be a healthy alternative to regular oatmeal cookies and since I'm always looking for good healthy recipes I decided to give it a shot. There was only a tablespoon of butter, used whole wheat flour and a good portion of the sweetness came from applesauce. They mixed up really quick and only took 10 minutes in the oven.

I let them cool for about 5 minutes before I brought one to John to see if they were anything like what he had and if he would notice that there was whole wheat flour in them. I waited close by while he tried it. He took a bite, looked at it and kept right on eating. I asked him if it was anything like what he had at BJ's, he said "no, but this is gooood." Next they had to pass muster with the kids, Bookworm said she liked them but would rather have applesauce (which is code for you made the mistake of telling me there were cranberries in these so now I'm not going to give them a chance). Cheeseburger boy and Super Why gobbled theirs down and Cheeseburger boy asked for more. Finally it was my turn to try them, they really are good. They aren't really a cookie consistency, kind of muffin like, not sure how to describe it. These would really make excellent breakfast cookies. I know what I'm having for breakfast in the morning!

Bread, bagels, breakfast

Today was a baking day, I made 2 loaves of bread and about 10 bagels. That should be enough to last us until Monday, maybe Tuesday.

I started to restock my freezer today. I like to make some of the kids favorite breakfast foods and stash them in the freezer so that if we are running behind on a school morning or if I'm just being lazy and don't want to cook, the kids can still have a hot breakfast. This afternoon I decided to do whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes, these are a BIG hit with the tribe. Generally I try to do this kind of cooking when the kids are in bed and for good reason. I can usually get about 4 dozen pancakes out of a double batch, today only 2 dozen made it to the freezer. Cheeseburger boy and Super Why kept running back and forth from the dining room to the kitchen, one more Mom, one more Mom, please. I can't really blame it all on them, I did eat about 4 of them myself.

This week I'm going to restock the bacon, egg & cheeses bagels. I'll post some photos when I'm done. If your interested in any of the recipes, let me know.

Little dumplings

Sunday I got a late night apple dumpling request and I didn't feel like making it from scratch as I normally would so I cheated. Following my quick recipe you'll have your dumplings in the oven in minutes. All you need is a ready made pie crust, a melon baller, apple peeler (optional), butter knife, 3 Tablespoons cold butter, spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice (I like to keep a mixture of these spices in a container so that whenever the mood strikes I'm ready for dumplings or pie or whatever.) & 2 medium sized apples.

First use your melon baller to core your apple, be sure not to go all the way through. Next peel your apple if you want to (not necessary), split your pie dough in 2 and place an apple in the center of each. Sprinkle some of the spices (to taste.) in the core of your apples, followed by 1/2 Tbsp. butter, then spices, then 1/2 Tbsp. butter, a final sprinkle of spices should top your apple and dot with remaining 1/2 Tbsp. butter and wrap in dough to cover. Bake in a 350 degree oven 30-45 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes before eating. We love to eat ours with vanilla ice cream.

Butter and Jam

I recently bought canning equipment and this week I decided it was time to give it a try. So far I managed to make apple butter and strawberry jam. It is such a good feeling to be able to make things to stock your pantry and it's really pretty easy. I used my crock pot to make the apple butter, it saved me a lot of standing over the stove and stirring. For the jam I just followed the guidelines of what to put in and what order they should go in. My berries floated to the top 2/3 of my jars during processing, but according to all the articles and such that I read it's quite normal. Apparently berries are buoyant.