sprinklefingers

Time Magazine’s Josh Ozersky takes on foodie kids - and explains how getting kids into the kitchen might be the best way to get them to enjoy more than chicken nuggets.

AMEN.

click on the quote to head to the article…

Cooking is better for kids than eating; it makes them aware of how much work goes into making something good to eat, and it will inevitably give them standards that will make junk food look bad. (Delicious, yes, but bad – or at least, recognizable as junk food, rather than, “food,” which is what it is for many kids.) It’s also a kind of emergency home economics for an era when few households have an adult at their disposal full time…Who knows? Once these kids learn to cook, maybe they’ll become good eaters too, and skip being “foodies” entirely.

Since opening our (what’s not new anymore) new bakery location, I’ve pretty much been working non-stop. I’m not whining, I’m just stating the facts. Six days a week (in the beginning it was seven), 10-12 hours a day since last May. Again, not complaining. Just explaining what it takes for me to run the kind of business I want to run: a lot of work.

Last week I took a huge leap and actually went on a mini-break. By myself. No husband. No kid. Just me. On a plane. To Texas. Austin, to be exact. The mini-break lasted exactly three days. I have not had three days off in a row in nearly a year.
H O L Y  S * & T.

My sister lives in Austin with her husband and her three year old. They just moved into an extremely awesome midcentury Texas ranch house in a neighborhood jam packed with other (EXTREMELY) awesome midcentury Texas ranch houses. It is in this ranch house that I slept - but the majority of the time we were out exploring.

First stop? The 10-course chef’s tasting at Uchiko - home of Top Chef’s latest champ. The standout of the meal? The brown butter ‘snow’ and the tempura battered fish skeleton. And the short ribs. And the sparkling wine with grilled thyme and lemon (seriously so good.)

From there we were boot shopping, taxidermy exploring and hiking. Oh, and, we went to see Radiohead - the only thing I’m obsessed with more than I’m obsessed with food. Honestly.

It was a good trip. But leaving a husband and a thisclosetobeingfive year old home alone made me a little nervous. My husband is, after all, the man who has tried to make a quesadilla using string cheese, a tortilla and the microwave. I combated my nerves by packing the freezer and fridge full of food before my departure. Their favorite of this stowed away food? Oatmeal pancakes. I griddled them up the day before I left, wrapped them up and wedged them into the freezer. All the husband had to do was pop them in to a warm oven to reheat and - breakfast!

Oatmeal Pancakes
inspired by Bob’s Red Mill Oat Flour

Make the oatmeal:

• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 1/2 cups thick rolled oats
• 1 T vanilla extract
• 3/4 t cinnamon

1. Heat the milk over medium-high heat until hot and steamy but not bubbling.
2. Add the oats, vanilla and cinnamon and let steep for 8 minutes.
3. Set aside

Make the pancake batter:

• 1 1/2 cups oat flour
• 4 T light brown sugar
• 1 T plus 1 t baking powder
• 1 t salt
• 4 eggs
• 2 T melted unsalted butter, cooled

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. 
2. Add the oatmeal to the flour mixture and stir to combine.
3. Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the butter. Whisk to combine.
4. Add the egg/butter mixture to the flour/oatmeal mixture and mix until everything is just combined.

1.  Preheat your griddle to medium-high (or around 350 if you have a thermostat.)
2. Brush the griddle surface lightly with butter.
3. Using a #30 (or 1 oz) scoop, plop rounds of pancake batter onto the hot griddle and cook until bubbles form and ‘cakes are looking a bit dry at their edges. 
4. Flip and continue to cook until finished.
5. Serve with butter and warm (real!) maple syrup. OR let the pancakes cool on a rack then wrap them in parchment and stow them in a freezer bag in the freezer.

To enjoy from frozen:

1. Preheat the oven to 300.
2. Place the desired amount of pancakes on a baking sheet in a single layer.
3. Pop in the oven and reheat until no longer frozen.

Delicious!

all you mothers out there, i know you’re with me when i say that it would be a dream come true if your kid would eat exactly what the grown-ups eat for dinner every night, right?

in general my kid DOES eat what we eat each night, and if he doesn’t eat it exactly how we eat it he’ll at least eat components of the meal (most likely separated from each other.) for example, say we’re having homemade chicken noodle soup. the grown ups will eat the soup as-is, but for him i’ll take the chicken & veggies out of the broth and let him eat them with a fork. this works perfectly and we all are, basically, eating the same thing for dinner. kinda perfect.

then tonight rolled around and our fridge was down to corn tortillas, leftover chicken, cheese and some green salsa. throw in an onion and it’s enchiladas for dinner! perfect!

as i started making dinner i had it in the back of my mind that there was no way in hell i was going to be able to convince the kid to eat enchiladas. no matter how much he likes salsa. so i started thinking of ways to explain them to him so that he’d find them appealing:

it’s just like a quesadilla only rolled up and softer!
these are tacos!
this is almost like pizza only it has salsa on it! (i admit, this one makes no sense. but he really loves pizza so i thought it was worth a shot.)
they serve these at mexican restaurants! let’s play restaurant!

dinner time rolled around and the kid sauntered past the table making an assessment of what was adorning the plates. before even sitting down he said, “i don’t want what you’re having.” and i say, “oh, that’s too bad! we’re having tacos! just like they have at mexican restaurants.” he says, “they don’t look like tacos.” and i say, “i know. that’s because i made them myself and sometimes i’m not very good at cooking.” at that he laughed and said (god love him), “oh stop it, mommy. you are a good cooker lady.”

he finally sat down and the husband and i started eating our salads and enchiladas - talking about the day, trying to get a word in edgewise when there’s a three year old at the table. meanwhile the kid is eating everysinglebite of his applesauce. when the bowl is empty he sets down his spoon and says, “i want a taco now. please.”

i practically tripped over myself racing to the baking dish wanting to get his ‘taco’ to him before he changed his mind. i cut off an edge and pushed it onto a fork and handed it to him. he stuck it in his mouth without even thinking…he made a face…then he said, “oh, i love these tacos. they are spicy and sweet all at the same time.” THAT’S my boy!

super easy and somewhat embarrassing to post enchiladas

you need:

• 1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 12 or so corn tortillas
• 4 cups cooked chicken breast, shredded
• 8 oz jack cheese, shredded
• 3 cups salsa verde, plus more for serving (can be store bought or homemade)

to make the enchiladas:

1. preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. coat the bottom of a 9x13 glass baking dish with 1 cup salsa.
3. melt a tablespoon of butter over medium heat. add the sliced onion and cook until browned and caramely, about 20 minutes. remove from heat.
4. wrap the corn tortillas in a clean kitchen towel. wet the towel a tiny bit then microwave the whole thing for 30-40 seconds. alternatively, wrap the tortillas in foil and heat in the oven until they’re bendable.
5. in a mixing bowl combine 1.5 cups (or 4 oz) shredded cheese, the shredded chicken, 3/4 cup salsa and the onions.
6. spread 1/4 cup chicken filling down the middle of each tortilla and roll them up. place them in the baking dish seam-side down.
7. once all the tortillas have been filled and rolled, top them with a bit more salsa and remaining cheese.
8. cover the glass baking dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
9. serve with additional salsa and sour cream.

i have no photos. but i’m certain we’ll have to resort to these embarrassingly easy ‘enchiladas’ in the very near future and i promise i’ll remember to snap a photo then. really.

huge news from our house: the kid ate homemade veggie burgers. two nights in a row. and the second night it was only because that’s what he asked for. this, to me, is great news. our list of meals we can all agree on and eat every bite of is very small - but as of this week, i get to add veggie burgers to it. that’s exciting.

i got the basic recipe for these veggie burgers from eating well. they are made with bulgur wheat, pecans and mushrooms - which gives them a meaty, earthy flavor and a somewhat crumbly texture - meatlike, but not meaty. perfect.

because i hate buying an entire package of buns for one meal, we put our burgers on whole wheat english muffins. actually, this tip is worthy of its own post - we use english muffins as our buns exclusively around here. i love the size, shape and crumb of them - ideal for burgers. and veggie burgers! and we usually have them around, so there’s no extra bun shopping…even better.

anyways, the recipe.

mushroom, pecan & bulgur burgers
from eating well - with my changes

makes 8 burgers

you need:

• 2/3 cup bulgur
• 3/4 teaspoon salt, divided
• 1 cup boiling water
• olive oil
• 8 ounces white or brown mushrooms, cleaned
• 1 large onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 3/4 cup pecan halves, lightly toasted
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup fine dry breadcrumbs
• ground pepper, to taste
• 8 whole-wheat english muffins

to prepare:

1. pour the boiling water over the bulgur. add 1/4 t salt. cover and let sit for a minimum of 15 minutes, although it can hang out for longer if you need the time. if there’s a lot of excess water after time is up, dump bulgur into a sieve and press the remaining water out. you may or may not need to do this.
2. heat a bit of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. add the onion and cook until softened. next, add the mushrooms and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. cook until the mushrooms are soft and most of the liquid in the pan has evaporated. this could take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. stir in vinegar. dump the contents of your pan into a bowl and let cool.
3. combine the vegetable mixture and toasted pecans in a food processor; pulse until coarsely chopped. add egg and the bulgur; pulse a bit more until the mixture is completely combined AND looks like it will stay together if you try to make patties with it.
4. dump mixture into a bowl. starting with the smaller amount of breadcrumbs, stir them in. try to make a patty - if the mixture stays together very well and is not overly wet, don’t add anymore breadcrumbs. alternatively, add more breadcrumbs if the mixture is too wet and won’t make patties (be careful here. too many breadcrumbs = veggie burgers that completely fall apart when you attempt to cook them - and fall further apart when you try to eat them. speaking from experience, of course.)
5. using your disher or your hands, form patties out of 1/2 cup scoops of the mixture.
6. heat some olive oil or bacon fat in a pan and cook burgers in batches over medium heat, about 4 minutes per side. you want them to be golden & slightly crunchy looking (not all the way through, but just the outside.)

i will admit to you that i cooked our burgers in bacon fat. veggie burgers fried in bacon grease. yes.

ideas for serving
i’ve already mentioned the english muffin as bun. done.
these burgers seem to taste even more delicious with the help of blue cheese. either crumble some on top OR make a blue cheese sauce or dressing and plop on a dollop. eating well has a very delicious blue cheese sauce you could try.
no, i didn’t put blue cheese dressing on the kid’s burger. he had homemade ketchup. (and you can, too!)



storage options
this burger mix is easily prepared ahead of time. even three days ahead, actually. simply follow the recipe right up until the part about forming the burger mix into patties. instead, put it in a bowl and cover, store in the fridge for up to three days. when you’re ready for burgers, THEN form them into patties and fry them up. easy!

alternatively you could form them into patties the day you make the mix and freeze them in a single layer on a wax paper lined sheet tray. once frozen solid you can store them in freezer bags. when you’re ready to eat, cook burgers over low heat until thawed. up the heat once thawed to get the golden & crunchy exterior.

another alternative - the day you make the mix, form all your patties and then cook them up. place in a single layer on a baking sheet and let cool. once cool, freeze. when frozen, pack in zip top bags. when you’re ready for a veggie burger, just thaw and reheat!

one more alternative, cook all of your burgers in one night and then store in the fridge for later in the week - simply cook in a bit of oil (or grease!) in a pan to rewarm.

my kid loves bars. i have stash of them that i use when i reaaaally, reaaaaally need him to do something - translation: i bribe my kid with them.

kid bars are one of the last frontiers of ‘making everything myself.’ up until now, i’ve just simply ignored the fact that i really should be making them myself. it just seemed too hard. both in making them AND in coming up with a recipe the kid would deem an acceptable substitute for something clif was doing pretty well to begin with.

until last weekend when i had a few empty hours, a pound of blueberries and a surplus of whole grain flours. i tweaked, i tasted, i tweaked, i tasted…and i came up with a bar that works. the only criticism i got from the kid: where’s the wrapper?

blueberry kid bars

for the base layer and the topping you need:

i’m pretty much always interested in a cookbook that claims to be ‘for kids’ - one of my very favorites is the gastrokid cookbook - feeding a foodie family in a fast food world. the cookbook is the product of the very popular gastrokid blog, and it’s filled with some delicious ideas. and the best part about this cookbook is that it doesn’t advise parents to hide squash in mac & cheese. instead, it aims to help you find great ways to prepare squash so that your kid will (eventually!) become interested in eating it. yes!

the gastrokid blog - while clunky as all get out in design - is filled with ideas & recipes that go way beyond the book. next time you’re sitting at your computer wondering what to look at next, you should check it out. even if you don’t have kids, i know you’ll find something worth eating. honest.