Joy in the Kitchen!

Octodogs make lunchtime fun for kids and little work for Mom!  You can serve a variety of things with it, today we chose ramen noodles. Jaylyn (8) can cook ramen noodles by herself and she helped by doing these. The girls thought the ramen looked like water. (If we had added green food coloring, it would have been great seaweed!) Here are your directions: For each octodog, use a paring knife to make a cut lengthwise - all but about an inch.  Turn and make 3 more cuts lengthwise for the tentacles. I do realize that this actually makes a Hexadog, but it doesn't sound as cool! :)  IF you use jumbo sized hot dogs, you can get 4 cuts in, making 8 tentacles.  Bring a pan of water to a boil.  Drop the hot dogs in and cook for 5 minutes or so until it's heated good.  The tentacles will curl up while it cooks. If you don't mind your child being close to the stove, let them watch - it's almost magic! Prepare your side dishes.  Use tongs to lift your octodo...

My young chefs were up early and eager to get in the kitchen this morning!   We tried something new today.  Breakfast Pizza!  I've seen something similar in McKay's Better Homes and Gardens New Junior Cookbook.  They used bread dough and pressed onto a full sized pizza pan.  WE did our own thing and made individual pizza's using Pillsbury Grands biscuits.   We decided, after trying these, we'd DEFINITELY do them again! (the girls were SO sad Daddy wasn't here to share our fun and yummy food.)  We also decided that one individual pizza is a lot for a little girl, so next time they'd split one. :) (I have to confess here... I spent a lot of time thinking it would sure be easier to just have bacon, hashbrowns, scrambled eggs, and bicuits separately.... BUT, as the girls were assembling these, it was so much fun to hear their exclamations of "Man!  These are gonna be GOOD!" and "I can't wait to eat these!" and "I wish Daddy was here,...

Cinnamon-sugary and crisp, Snickerdoodles are quite a treat!  These cookies are easy to mix up and kids love to help shape each ball and roll it in cinnamon sugar before baking.  Your kids can help more or less depending on their age and skill level.  McKay (13) could easily mix these up & bake them by himself.  He hangs out in the kitchen with me quite a bit and is comfortable using the mixer and old enough to use the oven.  Jaylyn & Nicole (6 & 8) are much less experienced so I stand right with them (breathing down their little necks lol) while they use the mixer, and I take the hot cookies out of the oven. (my 8 year old carefully puts them in the oven)  Yes, these cookies mix up MUCH quicker and with less mess when you just do it yourself, but what a wonderful opportunity to teach and laugh with your children if you let them help!  Don't forget to teach about securing long hair into a ponytail & handwashing! If your children are ...

My children are out of school the next 2 weeks for potato harvest. (Spud Harvest in Idaho lingo. lol )  We're going to spend some of our time off having FUN in the kitchen!  Stay tuned for recipes and activities that you can enjoy with your Kids in the Kitchen !   Some of the things we're looking forward to are:  Snickerdoodles, Octodogs, Purple Cow Shakes, Food Storage Mosaics, polka-dot pizzas, and more! Here are two of my helpers in the kitchen... though I doubt they'll be wearing their dance costumes this week.  (Ds13 will be helping as well, he's already a pretty terrific cook)   While you're here on my blog, be sure to vote in the poll at the top of the page on the right.  Let me know what you'd be interested in seeing!

My Sister-in-law Lanette makes THE BEST Cinnamon Rolls! She gave me her recipe a long time ago, and now, after a little practice, I make pretty darn good cinnamon rolls too! I make these large, about lunch plate sized. You should get about 24 large cinnamon rolls. The recipe works best with a heavy duty mixer that can handle 10 cups or more of flour or cut the ingredients in half for a smaller (4-quart) Kitchen Aid type machine or to do by hand. Lanette's Cinnamon Rolls 3 ½ C. warm water 1 C. oil 6 T. yeast (I use instant yeast) ¾ C. sugar Mix together and let set 15 minutes. Add: 3 beaten eggs 2 tsp. salt 10 C. flour (no more than 11) (The dough will be a tad sticky, but will be easy to handle once it's ready to roll out.) Knead 10 minutes in mixer. Oil or flour counter (I prefer to lightly oil it and sometimes I put a little flour on top of that) Roll out to ¾ in thick. You'll get a rectangle about 26 inches by 18 inches. Spread with 1 cube melted ma...

My husband is a great cook.  In fact, when we got married, he was a better cook than I.  Since I made less of a mess when cooking though and had more time, I got the job. :) (and in my defense, I've gotten pretty decent at cooking in the past 20 some odd years! lol)  Dave does a lot of dutch oven cooking.  This recipe was invented specifically for that, but I do it in the oven or on the stovetop all the time.  You almost can't compare it to regular chili, this dish is loaded with beef, sausage & beans.  I'm drooling just thinking about it. When you're ready for a hearty meal that'll warm you from the inside out, give Grand West Chili a try! Grand West Chili If you've got a cast iron dutch oven (Dave uses a 12" deep) especially one with a flat bottom, it'll work great in your oven.  Otherwise, use a nice sized pot on the stove top.  We're talking a 6 quart pot or so. (I haven't tried this in my  roaster oven, but I think it would wo...

Celebrate fall by enjoying these moist apple muffins!  Muffins are a quick and easy breakfast!  These Cinnamon Streusel Apple Muffins use fresh apples which are abundant this time of year.  I double this recipe and freeze half.  (back in the old days, when we had 7 kids at home, we ate a double recipe of this... ahhh the memories)  The apple in these muffins keeps them really moist. Cinnamon Streusel Apple Muffins 2 C. flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 C. sugar 3/4 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 tsp. salt 1 C. milk 1 egg, beaten 1/4 C. butter or margarine, melted 1 C. apple, peeled, cored, and chopped Heat oven to 400.  Grease 12 muffin cups.  Stir together all dry ingredients in one bowl, mix together the milk, egg & butter in another bowl.  Stir the two together.  Fold in chopped apples.  Spoon batter into muffin cups and top with the following streusel topping: Streusel Topping 1 T. softened butter 3 T. sugar 1 T. brown sugar...