Chinese New Year Potstickers

To celebrate Chinese New Year, we made potstickers! Since I have never, ever made potstickers on my own, I googled "potstickers for kids" and found a great recipe from a website called superhealthykids.com. The recipe uses tons of great fresh vegetables and substitutes turkey (instead of pork)...so I was looking forward to trying it with the kids.

We used a box grater, a microplane AND a food processor to finely mince cabbage, water chestnuts, mushrooms, carrots, green onions and fresh ginger. Then, we added ground turkey, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame oil to the mixture.

Everyone made two potstickers each by "painting" on a slurry of cornstarch and water, then pinching the sides together.

These are waiting to be steamed!

A stock pot with a steamer basket worked great since we didn't have a bamboo steamer.

We even made our own dipping sauce with fresh squeezed orange and lime juices, soy sauce and sugar!

Yum!!! (These potstickers were also wildly popular with the teachers and staff!)

Quote of the day: "When my dad was younger, he used to order the pu pu platter at Chinese restaurants." Oh my.

Ingredients:

12 ounces cabbage, chopped

2 carrots, finely shredded

2 large mushrooms, diced

5-6 whole water chestnuts, diced

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1/4 cup minced green onions

1 pound ground turkey

1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 package round dumpling wrappers (gyoza/potsticker wrappers)

Slurry:

1 tablespoon cornstarch + 1/2 cup water

Sauce:

Juice of 1 orange

Juice of 1 lime

3-4 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

Instructions:

Place cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, water chestnuts, green onion and ginger in a food processor and process until everything is finely minced. Remove and place in a large bowl.

Add turkey, soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil. Mix together (your hands work well)

Mix together the slurry. Take one wrapper, spoon 1 tablespoon of the filling mixture onto the middle of the wrapper. Dip one finger into the slurry and “paint” the edges of the potsticker wrapper. Bring up the bottom side of the wrapper, fold in half, encasing all of the filling. Pinch the edges. Place on a tray, cover loosely with plastic wrap and repeat with rest of dumplings. Make sure that the dumplings do not touch each other.

To cook, you can use 2 methods:

1) Fill a steamer pot with 1-2 inches of water and bring to a boil. Place the potstickers in a steamer basket and cook for 5 minutes until the filling is cooked through. Remove and let cool a bit before serving.

2) Half-fill a large pot with water and bring to boil. When boiling, gently slide in 1/3 of the potstickers. When water returns to a boil, turn heat to a simmer and gently cook for 6-8 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon and repeat with remaining dumplings.

Sauce:

Mix ingredients together and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and pour into a serving dish.

Snuggle Up Soup and Smitten Mitten Sandwiches

With 25 degree weather, we had the perfect week (weather-wise) for making Snuggle Up Soup and Smitten Mitten Sandwiches! First, let me add that this adorable title of our soup/sandwich combination is borrowed from a book entitled: "Bean Appétit: Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food" by Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen. 

When I read the ingredients of the original recipe for the soup (mainly sweet potatoes and apples), it reminded me of a Barefoot Contessa recipe that I made for my Halloween party last year. So, for teaching the kids, I used that one instead of the original Snuggle Up Soup recipe. (More on my thoughts about the Barefoot Contessa at the end of the blog posting.) 

After we examined the butternut squash and compared it to its cousin -- the pumpkin-- we used a vegetable peeler to take off the outside and scraped the seeds out of the center. We added chopped onion and chopped apples to the mix, drizzled on olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper, then baked the whole mixture for 40 minutes. 

We used a food processor to puree the vegetables, then added it to a simmering pot of stock. It was just that easy! 

In the meantime, everyone got to make their very own Smitten Mitten sandwich with a mitten cookie cutter. All the kids even buttered their own bread. 

Some of the kids really, really liked the soup....

Some said the soup was just okay...

And some really, really preferred their sandwiches! 

On Thursday, even with the delay, the whole Orange Room enjoyed their soup and sandwiches together. Although a few of the kids did not particularly like the soup, it was a great opportunity to teach the phrase "I don't care for that" as an alternative...a nice little lesson passed onto us from the Whitman Family! 

 Quotes of the day: "Miss Diana, my friend is allergic to nuts, so he can't have that butternut squash." "I ate the thumb!" and after asking the kids if they like to be prepared, one child responded "I like to be prepared, but my dad...he is never prepared."

Snuggle Up Soup and Smitten Mitten Sandwiches

Ingredients for Soup:

3 to 4 pounds butternut squash, peeled and seeded

2 yellow onions

2 McIntosh apples, peeled and cored

3 tablespoons good olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 to 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

Directions for Soup:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Cut the butternut squash, onions, and apples into 1-inch cubes. Place them on a sheet pan and toss them with the olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Divide the squash mixture between 2 sheet pans and spread in a single layer. Roast for 35 to 45 minutes, tossing occasionally, until very tender.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock to a simmer. When the vegetables are done, place the roasted vegetables in batches in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add some of the chicken stock and coarsely puree. When all of the vegetables are processed, place them in a large pot and add enough chicken stock to make a thick soup. Add 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Reheat and serve hot.

Ingredients for Sandwiches:

1 cookie cutter shaped like a mitten

Slices of whole wheat Bread

Deli sliced cheese (we used provolone)

Spreadable butter

Place the cheese between two slices of bread. Use the mitten cookie cutter to cut out a mitten shape....your child can help you with this part! Spread butter on both sides and just grill it in a pan!

Some musings on the Barefoot Contessa...
Maybe you have a favorite chef you follow or gather inspiration from...mine is the Barefoot Contessa. Maybe the reason I consult the Barefoot Contessa cookbooks over and over again is because I own nearly all of them and they are all autographed by Ina Garten herself. I tell you this not to boast, but to explain. My friend’s sister-in-law is Ina Garten’s assistant in her kitchen and, as a result, autographed copies of all the new cookbooks are sent to my friend (by the case) for her own distribution. I am only so grateful that I am still on this list! And, I have my friend to thank for introducing these wonderful masterpieces to my kitchen and to my life.  I can tell you that any time I am entertaining, I consult these cookbooks -- every single one -- for ideas. Her recipes have a simple elegance combined with a rich earthiness that gives her food a sophisticated yet everyday feel and that is why, in my very humble opinion, that her food appeals to so many people. These qualities, according to my friend who has met her numerous times and attended parties at her home, are also displayed in her character. My friend reports that Ina Garten has a genuiness that radiates to each of her guests and her warmth is reflected in her entertaining as well. This is probably no surprise to you, if you happen to watch her show on the Food Network. In her shows, which I confess I haven't watched in years because we cancelled our cable subscription, she seems to have simple ways of explaining the most complex of ideas and her open adoration for her husband (and her numerous friends) is both remarkable and mutual. 

When I flip through the pages of these cookbooks, I can see recipe after recipe that showcased themselves at so many events in my life. (In this text, I have created hyperlinks to these recipes in case you are interested in trying them out yourself!) Here are a few examples! So, my daughter’s 1^st birthday was a backyard BBQ, (Carolina style, by the way) when the maple baked beans made an appearance. True to form for your first child’s first birthday, there were family members visiting from 7 different states, so I needed a solid menu on which to rely.  For my son’s 1^st birthday, I made the lobster paella and, although it was the first time I ever made paella, there wasn’t a single bite leftover. One guest even confessed that she “inhaled the paella.” For Colette’s 2^nd birthday, I tried my hand at the chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing and –oh my—they were good. On her 3^rd birthday, I had a guest list a mile long and a menu of pickled shrimp and other cool summer foods planned for a hot August day. So much for that plan because that was the same weekend of the unforgettable Derecho that passed through our neighborhood so suddenly, leaving our street without power for what seemed like an eternity. However, determined to make something for my child’s party from scratch, I made Pasta with Sun-dried Tomatoes outside on my deck on a Coleman camping stove that was powered by propane gas. Still to this day, I ask myself: “What was I thinking?” Of course, I couldn’t bake a cake, so we had ice cream sundaes instead. Ironically, we bought the ice cream from the Baskin Robbins (because it had power) just two blocks from our home. Adrian’s 3^rd birthday was a brunch and, among other things, I made the goat cheese tart and French toast bread pudding. His favorite food continues to be breakfast food! Colette’s 5^th birthday party was an Alice and Wonderland Tea Party and I served herbal iced tea to 12 little 5 year-old girls who all preferred lemonade instead!  Maybe I shouldn’t have had 2 options! In contrast, I made this tea and turkey lasagna for a family gathering when my husband and I first moved into our home. His grandfather, who was visiting from New Orleans, was a patriarchal force of nature and was, sadly, sick with cancer. The Herbal Iced tea was the only thing he would or could take in and I think of him every time I see the recipe. I happily tested the Pink Grapefruit margaritas during dinner with neighbors one summer and I was so pleasantly surprised by the pumpkin banana mousse tart when I brought it to a neighborhood mom gathering that I made it twice more that holiday season for 2 different events. Years ago, I hosted an engagement party for a friend and found that the Moroccan Couscous was a huge hit. For Christmas Eve dinner one year, I made roasted artichoke hearts for an appetizer showcased in an antipasto platter; for dinner, I served the dinner spanakopitas and maple-roasted butternut squash; and, for dessert, I served frozen key lime pie. At my recent Christmas Cocktail party, I made caramelized bacon, which one guest lovingly renamed “sugar bacon” – there wasn’t a single bite left. And, when I see the recipe for zucchini pancakes, I think about my kids as babies and I remember making these when they were just developing their palates and I had all the hope in the world.

Again, with many topics about cooking, I could go on and on. But, let me instead stay focused on the original topic: the soup at the Halloween party. So, for our neighborhood Halloween Party this past year, I made the Barefoot Contessa’s Roasted Butternut Squash Soup and it was wildly popular. In Ina Garten’s original recipe, she includes ideas for serving curry condiments alongside your soup. Instead, at my party, I offered a choice of crumbled blue and feta cheeses and toasted walnuts. On other occasions when I have made this soup, I have sautéed sliced radicchio in a little olive oil, then tossed it in balsamic vinegar and added this to the soup. All of these ideas provide both saltiness and a nice crunch that transform a simple bowl of soup into a satisfying meal. 

Homemade Pizza

This week in cooking class, we made homemade pizzas. Please note that this image is borrowed from wikipedia, but our pizzas looked very similar to this, and our pizza stone looked exactly like this. If you google "making pizza with kids", there are --as you can imagine -- plenty of ideas. One popular idea is to use English muffins as the pizza crust to make individual pizzas. I must say, there is no part of me that looks at an English muffin and thinks: "Hey, what we should do is add pizza sauce to this!" I just couldn't do it. So, I opted for a tastier, slightly more laborious and time-consuming option : using ready made pizza dough. I am not referring to the ready made crust (like Boboli), also not my favorite option, but okay if you are in a pinch. What I do like are the ready-made dough options from Trader Joe's. There, you can find a nice white, whole wheat or herbed ready-made pizza dough in the refrigerated section near the cheeses. We used the whole wheat dough!

In class, we discussed the tools we needed to make a great pizza: a rolling pin, a pizza stone, a pizza wheel, and a really hot oven!

First we floured our surfaces, then we rolled out our dough. 

A really exciting discovery that we made was when we learned that Ms. Tuangrat is an expert pizza dough thrower! The kids were delighted to see her toss the dough in the air over and over again. It was very exciting!

We added sauce....

...and toppings...

Then, we went to the kitchen downstairs to put the pizza in the oven. While we waited for our pizza to bake, I read "The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza" by Philemon Sturges. This is a newer, fresher version of "The Little Red Hen" folk tale that you may remember from your childhood. The story begins
when the little red hen spies a can of tomato sauce in her cupboard and decides to make a pizza. With no help from her friends the duck, the dog, and the cat, the little red hen goes through the steps of making a pizza---shopping for supplies, making the dough, and adding the toppings. But despite their initial resistance, the hen's friends come through in the end and help out in a refreshing and surprising way. (Bonus Tip: Give this book and the Melissa and Doug Pizza Party as a great birthday gift.)

Then, each class enjoyed their pizza (restaurant style) in Marshall-Rutter Hall. We discussed the importance of using our very best manners, especially when we are sitting at a table that has a table cloth! Quote of the day: "My dad can toss the dough all the way to the clouds!", "My dad makes pizza, but he forgets to set the timer." and "Miss Diana, I really like cheese pizza, so you'd better watch out!"

Homemade Pizza

Ingredients:

Prepared Pizza Dough - 

All-purpose flour, for rolling

1 cup(s) prepared tomato sauce

8 ounce(s) shredded mozzarella

Pepperoni, olives, pineapple, ham, sautéed zucchini and onions, artichoke hearts, tomato slices, basil, garlic, mushrooms, bacon, sausage...or whatever you like.

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 425.

Divide dough into 2 equal pieces and shape each into a ball. Loosely cover with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap; let stand 15 minutes.

Using a lightly floured rolling pin or your hands, stretch each ball into a 9- to 10-inch round

Place one round of dough directly on a pizza stone or pan.

Divide sauce evenly between pizzas spreading to within 1/2 inch of the edges of the dough. Top with cheese. Then, pepperoni and other toppings that you like.

Bake for 10 minutes. (The directions on the Trader Joe's ready-made dough bag will state that the pizza will be ready in 6-8 minutes. Using half of the dough, our pizzas needed to stay in the oven for 10 minutes at 450 degrees. So, please make adjustments according to your own oven and check your pizza frequently.) Cut using a pizza wheel and serve immediately. 

Stone Soup and our Semi-Celebrity Guest Chef

This week in Cooking Class, we read Stone Soup and (just like the characters in the book), everyone got to add an ingredient into the pot. This book was a Caldecott Medal winner in 1947 and is often read to children to teach lessons of cooperation and sharing. Thank you to Emmett's mom who lent us another version of the story by Jon J. Muth, which is set in China. In this version, three Monks travel to a village and discover that, due to recent misfortune, the town is lacking in joy and community. So, to cleverly solve this problem, the Monks build a fire, fill a soup pot with water, add three stones and begin to make Stone Soup. The curious villagers soon begin contributing to the soup with ingredients from their homes. Soon, everyone is eating delicious Stone Soup, celebrating, singing, dancing and happiness is restored to the village.

The Orange Room holds up the ingredients they plan to add to the Stone Soup!

Here are two children adding (with the help of our guest chef) ingredients they brought from home. 

Mrs. Dory joined the Green Room to sample their version of Stone Soup!

Everyone was so excited to add their ingredients to the pot!

The Purple Room enjoys their Stone Soup together! Thank you to Lindy and Petra's mom for assisting me in the kitchen on Friday. Not only was she an excellent sous chef (lots and lots of chopping), this was the most well documented cooking class so far (she took all the pictures on Friday)!

Recipe for Stone Soup

Corn

Onions

Celery

Potatoes

Garlic

Cabbage

Mushrooms

Peas

Parsley

Croutons

Diced tomatoes

Garbanzo beans

Cannelini beans

Broccoli

Red, orange and yellow bell peppers

Orzo

Carrots

bay leaf, salt and pepper

Chicken or vegetable stock

Here is a list of ingredients that we received from students (and a few that I supplied.) Each pot of soup was different and each equally delicious! While there are many ways to make a pot of soup, in the interest of time, we sauteed the vegetables in a pan to quickly cook them, then added them to our stock, while it was already heating up. 

Quotes of the Day: "Are we really gonna eat the stones?" "I cook things with my dad and I make things with my mom." "This soup is so good!"

Our Thursday guest chef is using American Sign Language to interpret the book while I read it! Here is a little info about Sally-Rose..............

The Thursday classes were so lucky to have Sally-Rose Cragin, (my husband’s youngest cousin on his dad’s side) as our semi-celebrity guest chef. If you are wondering what qualifies Sally-Rose to be a semi-celebrity chef….well, she didn’t really have a choice. Born and raised in New Orleans (note hyphenated name and big, gigantic bow in her hair) -- she is considered a semi-celebrity chef because everyone in the Duplantier family is a fabulous cook. The aunts, the uncles, the cousins – everybody.  And, other than weddings and one birthday party for 200 guests, they never, ever have an event catered, even though they are an extremely ceremonious bunch….so there are a LOT of events. There are some fabulous stories about the Duplantier Family cooking. For example, everything that Sally-Rose’s mom, Louise, makes is unbelievably good. Every holiday, and other random special occasions, she makes something commonly known as “The Dip”, which is a delicious layered goodness, made with sundried tomatoes, feta and goat cheese, pine nuts and other Mediterranean flavors. But, this is just a small example.  A more poignant example is when their son, Patrick, attended Catholic University and Aunt Louise and Uncle Tim would drive from New Orleans to DC to feed 200 students. They would bring French bread to make po boys and assemble them on long tables outside on my deck, vats of jambalaya would be reheated with chicken stock, and white chocolate bread pudding would be prepared in bulk from scratch. Since all this began during our first year of marriage and I was unaccustomed to these complicated cooking rituals, you wouldn’t believe the number of questions I had for my husband when these quarterly treks would occur. “So they are driving from New Orleans… just to cook…for college kids?” “They brought how many loaves of French bread?” “They need how many coolers?” Lately, Aunt Louise volunteers to cook for charity events any chance she can get. She has finally labeled herself (and anyone who helps her): “Cooks for a Cause.” In fact, every summer she volunteers as the camp cook at Krewe de Camp, a camp in Mandeville, Louisiana for special needs children, where Sally-Rose is a camp counselor. For one week, she prepares 300 meals 3 times a day…all from scratch. And remember the birthday party with 200 guests that was an actual catered event? Crazy lady that she is, Aunt Louise handmade 200 cupcakes -- six different flavors, each one better than the next.

But, wait, there’s more…family….lots more…

My in-laws (Sally-Rose’s aunt and uncle) are no strangers to cooking for large crowds. They used to regularly host their entire neighborhood (about 75 people) at their home for an outdoor fish fry. My mother-in-law makes oyster artichoke soup and the best crawfish etouffee that you have ever tasted. There is also her toffee made only at Christmas, her cornbread salad, her ham party biscuits, and her famous lemon cake. My father-in-law is always, and I mean always dismantling seafood in some way. You can find him filleting fish, shucking oysters, peeling the heads off of shrimp, picking crabs, peeling crawfish and – when he was working (because he is happily retired and having the time of his life) – it was not uncommon for him to prepare Chicken Sauce Piquant for his staff of 40 people.

One of Uncle David’s specialties is bananas foster and he prepared it in the outdoor kitchen for our engagement party. Aunt Susan’s gumbo takes 5 hours to make, 3 hours just to make the roux. When Uncle Sandy’s daughter, Michelle, announced her college graduation party on Facebook and 75 Auburn students said yes, he and Aunt Susie prepared all the food themselves…outside…in the rain. Aunt Jeanne’s macaroni and cheese is famous in at least 4 states. I could go on and on…really.

So, by virtue of being raised in this family, Sally-Rose is a semi-celebrity chef. She loves to cook and she also happens to be gluten free, which makes her experimentation in the kitchen much more adventurous. And, what is also really fun is that she is studying ASL (American Sign Language) at RIT (The Rochester Institute of Technology) in Rochester, NY………..so, she signed Stone Soup while I read it to the kids. They LOVED it! And, Sally-Rose has a few extreme food stories of her own. One example is when my daughter, Colette, turned 4 years old, Sally-Rose and her family threw the party. She and her sister Allison made and assembled a birthday cake that looked exactly like a jewelry box. It took 8 hours….now, that’s love!

Crepes with Yogurt, Sautéed Bananas and Honey

This week we discussed the crepe; it's origin from France, the look and size of a crepe pan (a lot like a skinny pancake), the need for a crepe spatula and the best part of all....the versatility of crepes. I explained that crepes are like a piece of paper -- "a blank canvas" -- that can be served either savory or sweet.

Before we sautéed the bananas, we sliced them longways to examine the seeds inside the bananas.

We sautéed the bananas with butter, vanilla and cinnamon until they were caramelized and soft. 

Everyone got to assemble their own crepe! Quote of the day: "One time when I was eating pancakes, I thought it was paper, but it wasn't. It was a pancake!" and "That spatula looks like a sword."



Ingredients for Crepes:

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs

½ cup milk

½ cup water

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Ingredients for Sautéed Bananas:

4 large (or 2 small) banana, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch disks
About half a tablespoon of butter, or 1/2 tbsp. sunflower or canola oil
1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder or cinnamon (you could also use carob powder)

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups plain, low-fat yogurt (low-fat Greek yogurt is best, for its creaminess)
2 tbsp. clear honey

To prepare the crepes: In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and the eggs. Gradually add in the milk and water, stirring to combine. Add the salt and butter; beat until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each crepe. Tilt the pan with a circular motion so that the batter coats the surface evenly.

Cook the crepe for about 2 minutes, until the bottom is light brown. Loosen with a spatula, turn and cook the other side. Serve hot. Place each crepe in between parchment paper until you are ready to serve them. (Makes 6 crepes)

To prepare the Bananas: Melt the butter or heat the oil on a small, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the banana slices and fry for about 2 minutes. Then add the vanilla extract (if you are using cinnamon instead of cocoa powder, add it now as well) and continue frying over medium-low heat until the banana starts to be soft enough to break down--about 5 more minutes.

While the banana is frying, divide the yogurt evenly and spread around each crepe, then drizzle the honey.
When the banana is done, divide the fried banana into equal portions and sprinkle them over the yogurt and honey, then sprinkle the cocoa or carob powder over the top. Enjoy while the banana is warm.