January: Use-Up Month

As 2009 comes to a close, I thought I'd share a little plan I'm cooking up for January.

It seems like my cupboards and freezer always get over-stocked during the holiday season with all of the cooking and baking that goes on. And of course in January, we are all pinching our pennies trying to make up for all that spending that we did in December. So... this January I'm going to kill two birds with one stone... or should we say "love-tap" two birds with one stone (I don't really want to kill them). Anyway, in order to get a fresh start in 2010 and save some buckaroos, I'm designating January as "Use-Up Month." The goal of this month, as the name implies, is to buy as little food as possible and use up all the food in my freezer and pantry. Then come February, we will have saved a good chunk o' change, and we will have freed up some space in the pantry and freezer too!


Obviously, I will need to buy some groceries, such as milk, fruit and other fresh items to keep my family healthy. But my goal is to buy as few ingredients as possible and work around what I already have.


To make "Use-Up" month a success, it's going to require a little creativity on my part and a big shift in the way I cook and plan meals. See, usually I go through my recipes and cookbooks, decide which meals I want to make and then purchase the ingredients. This month, everything will be backwards... I'll look at the foods I already have and try to come up with recipes that use those ingredients. I am excited for this fun cooking challenge. I feel like an Iron Chef! Just call me Mario Batali, everyone. I plan on getting a lot of inspiration from web sites like allrecipes.com, where you can type in the ingredients you have on hand and find loads of recipes that use those things.


For instance, I have several cans of mandarin oranges in my pantry, along with tons of rice... so I'm thinking of trying out this delish orange chicken recipe. I also have some evaporated milk and some boxed stuffing mix in my pantry, so I might try this recipe for chicken and stuffing casserole.

Even though it'll be use-up month, there's just NO WAY I can forgo baking for an entire month. These jam bars are a great use-up for the 12 gajillion jars of jam I have accumulated over the last 6 months. The recipe calls for apricot jam, but any old jam will do. (P.S. If you use blueberry jam, they taste exactly like Blueberry Oat Bars from Starbucks! My fave!)

Another item I have loads of is canned pumpkin. I have at least three large cans that I can see, probably more buried in back of the canned goods. I'd like to try this zucchini pumpkin bread, since I also want to make things healthier this month AND I have a whole bag of oat bran I need to use up! Also with pumpkin, I love making the pumpkin oatmeal and pumpkin coffee cake from from Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld (love this book!). These pumpkin cookies sound divine, and I have all the ingredients on hand already.


I have a few cans of white (cannellini) beans to use up, so I was thinking of making this soup recommended by my friend Gina.



Hopefully by the end of the month, I'll have a few new recipes in my repertoire. And all month long, I'll be updating my extensive readership with the ups and downs of "Use-Up Month," so stay tuned!


For now, I leave you with a "before" pic of my busting-at-the-seams pantry, hopefully to be followed by a much-less-cluttered "after" pic about a month from now!


It's embarrassing to show the extreme messiness of my pantry to the droves of you reading this... but I just gots ta keep it real, yo!

Finally, my dear friends and patriots, I invite you to join me on this adventure! Let's trek across this uncharted territory together.


Happy New Year from my embarrassingly messy pantry to yours!

Bennett: A Lesson in Empathy

I decided to start a new Christmas tradition this year... a tradition of giving to the less fortunate. I wanted to give Bennett a little perspective in the midst of all the toys, goodies and train rides. I wanted him to realize how very blessed he is. I wanted to him to understand what it means to have a giving heart.

So last week, Bennett and I collected some of his toys. I explained that we were going to give some of our toys to little boys and girls who didn't have any. His first response was, "not my dinosaurs, right Mama?" I told him that he could keep his dinosaurs and encouraged him to find some other toys that we could give to "the boys and girls." At first he was hesitant, but after we found a few toys to give, he began to get more excited about it. He even took a few of his cars, (his most prized possessions) and cheerfully put them in the donation bag.

A few days later, McPreachy and I piled the kiddos in the car and drove to the Orange County Rescue Mission to drop off the toys. When we arrived, we let Bennett carry the toys to the donation drop-off and turn them in himself. He was very proud.

Then, as we were driving away, Bennett asked, "Why don't those boys and girls have toys, Mama?"

"Well, because they don't have any money to buy them, buddy," I answered.

"So what do they have in their house?" This was his way of verbalizing the fact that he couldn't comprehend a house that didn't have toys in it. I decided to take this opportunity to open his eyes to the world around him, sad as it may sometimes be. I know he's young, and it's a lot of information for a 3-year-old to digest. But Bennett is an "old soul," and I knew he could handle it. Besides, this was one of the reasons we were giving our toys away... to teach Bennett empathy.

So I said, "You know what, bud? Some people don't even have houses. They have to sleep on the street."

His first response to this world-rocking information was denial. "Mama," he said with a chuckle. "They don't sleep on the street."

"Yes, Bennett," I said in a gentle voice. "They do sleep on the street. Isn't that sad?"

He nodded, his eyes wide. "Do they have blankets?" he asked.

"No, buddy. Some people don't even have blankets or pillows or beds or food." I answered. "That's why we need to help them. That's why we are giving them our toys."

"Do they have drinks?" he asked, as if it was unfathomable that they might not... as if this was the final straw.

"No sweetie, not even drinks."

He was silent for a moment. And then he asked me, "Mama, can Jesus go buy blankets and pillows and binkys and food and drinks for all the boys and girls and give it to them? Then they will be happy and not have to sleep on the street?"

But I didn't answer him. Because I was so overcome with emotion that I couldn't speak. The empathetic, giving heart that I saw my son express just overwhelmed me. As I sat quietly in the front seat weeping, my sweet husband took over for me, answering Bennett's questions and affirming him.

I cannot remember a time in my life that I have felt prouder than listening to my sweet, precious boy trying desperately to figure out a way for all the children in the world to have blankets and pillows and binkys and food. And drinks.

For the Love of Joe: Product Spotlight

As you have heard time and time again, I LOOOOOOOVVVEE Trader Joe's. If I'm having a bad day, I just step through their hula-inspired doors, and everything seems right with the world.

Maybe it's the wonderful selection of unique and gourmet items. It might be the friendly staff, the clever packaging, the out-of-this-world prices or the stuffed lemur they hide around the store to keep my kids entertained while I shop. Perhaps it's because of the free samples they are always giving out or the quaint, neighborhood-grocery-store vibe of the whole place. Whatever the reason, TJ's just makes me happy when I'm feeling blue. What can I say? I'm easy to please.

Yet, unbelievably, I have several friends who don't shop at TJ's because they say they feel intimidated when they go in and don't know what to buy. They know that Trader Joe's is an absolute treasure trove of delectable delights, just waiting to be unearthed. But they just don't know where to start diggin'. So... I've decided to do weekly TJ's product spotlights of some of my TJ's favorites and how I use them. Consider it a little piece of foodie-aloha from me to you!

Today's product spotlight hails from the bread section on TJ's. She's a seasonal gal who loves butter, jam and leisurely dips in egg batter. That's right, folks... please welcome bachelorhood number one... It's TJ's Sliced Panetone Bread!

Panetone is an Italian fruitcake-inspired bread that is big around the holidays (Giada is a big fan, of course). It is a sweet, dense bread loaded with candied orange peel, almonds, cranberries and raisins (I'm usually not a fan of raisins, but they are good in this). YUM!

I spotted this beauty at TJ's yesterday, while looking for sandwich rolls, feeding small bits of grape to Mallory to keep her from screaming and telling Bennett for the ump-teenth time to please stop standing up in the cart.

I brought her home, and this morning we used her to make a batch of festive, holiday French Toast!

Here's what you do:

Crack a few eggs in a shallow dish. Add a splasheroo of milk, a shakeroo of cinnamon, another splasheroo of vanilla extract and a zesteroo of half an orange. These measurements must be exact.

Whisk it all together and dredge (that's a fancy way of saying "dip.") the bread slices in the egg mixture.

Now slap those dredged puppies on a hot skillet and cook both sides until golden brown.

Serve up your fancy-schmancy Panetone French Toast with butter and warm maple syrup!

Enjoy!

Cookie Day: All That and a Bag of Chocolate Chips!

Today was Cookie Day! As previously mentioned, My Mom and I have Cookie Day every December, and as the name suggests, it is a day where we make loads and loads and LOADS of cookies to give to our friends and neighbors (and of course, devour ourselves).

Here I am with some of our delicious, delectable creations. Please forgive my makeup-less, sweatshirt-clad appearance. Just keepin' it real. We don't dress up much around these parts when it's cookie day.

Here is my rediculously messy kitchen, in the throws of Cookie Day. Again, just keepin' it real...

This year we made several different types o' cookie goodness. We made:

• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
• Pecan Sandies (a Cheryl L. West super-secret recipe... well, not really, I just don't feel like typing it in right now.)
• Icebox Shortbread (we made two different types: chocolate chip and orange-cranberry. YUM!)
• Gigantic Ginger-Molasses Cookies
• Vanilla Bean Snowmen
• Apricot Almond Snickerdoodles

These Snickerdoodles were actually made for our annual church bake-off last night, and they won in the cookie category! The were really good!!! Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c. chopped almonds, toasted
• 3 c. flour
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 c. sugar + 1/4 c sugar for the topping
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 3/4 c. dried apricots, chopped
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves

Directions:

1. Whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. Using a hand mixer on medium speed, cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy (5 minutes).
3. Add eggs and almond extract to butter mixture and blend until incorporated.
4. Add half of the flour mixture, beating on low until combined. Add remaining flour, beating only until just incorporated.
5. Fold almonds and apricots into the dough until evenly distributed.
6. Mix together 1/4 c. of sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves in a shallow bowl or plate.
7. Shape dough into 1.5 inch balls. Roll the dough into sugar/spice mixture.
8. Transfer cookies to greased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, until cookies are lightly browned. Cool completely and enjoy!

Another part of this year's cookie day fun was making a gingerbread house with Bennett. My dad and McPreachy did this fun project with Benny while my Mom and I were in the kitchen baking away!

We used a gingerbread house of the pre-baked variety, and it worked great. Why go to all that trouble baking the house, when decorating is really the fun part? At least that's the way I see it!

Here are the fun and delicious candy decorations.

Here's Benny-boy overseeing the construction of the house.

In all honesty, Bennett was much more excited about trying to eat all the candy decorations than he was about actually decorating the house. But he did have a lot of fun. After he got bored with it, McPreachy finished decorating it himself.

Here are a few shots of the finished product. Come along, kiddie-winkies... I'll give you the tour.

Here's the side of the house, where little graham cracker bunnies just love to frolic and play amongst the gumdrop tulips.

Here's the other side of the house. Question: What in the world is that little white swirly-swoop on top o' the lollipop? It scares me a little, as do the frosting "wigs" our gingerbread poeple are wearing. Methinks McPreachy got a little craaaazy with the frosting.

Here's the front door of our Casa de Gingerbread. Notice the very Sistine-Chapel-esque rose window above the front door (McPreachy is very cultured).

Merry Christmas, Cookie Lovers!

December: Christ, Crafts, Cookies and CRAZINESS!

To My Faithful Blog Readers (All 4 of you):

Thank you for your polite, little nudges reminding me to get this blog a-rollin' for the holidays... to trim my cyber tree, if you will. The kick in the patootey was just what I needed to drag myself away from my mile-long to-do list and give a little shout out to Christmas.

I LOVE Christmas... Very few things get me as excited as pulling out my Christmas decorations and getting things decked for the holidays. But each year, things seem to be getting crazier and CRAZIER and CRAZIER! I think my problem is that I want to do it ALL! The baking, the homemade gifts, the fun family traditions, the caroling, the decorating... I could go on forever baby (name that Christmas movie). A few days ago, only mere hours into December, I was already on the verge of a nervous breakdown. There are simply not enough hours in December to do it all, and I need to come to grips with that if I'm going to enjoy my Christmas and make it meaningful for my family. So I am *trying* to remember to slow down amidst all the things I want to do. I am *trying* to pace myself and just take time to sit on the couch with the ones I love, looking at our tree and drinking cocoa!
It's not easy to say no to some things that I really want to do, but I'm *trying.* (somehow, putting asterisks on the word *trying* softens the meaning of the word and gives me a little more grace in the event that I fail horribly.)

But seriously, this year my goal is to remember God's Son and His birth each time I do something Christmasy... to do things that point to Jesus and bring joy to my family, myself and others instead of just doing task after task out of obligation.

I know, I know... who ever thought Casey Crocker had all these deep thoughts just swimming around in that bleached-blonde head of hers. Not me... that's for sure!

That being said, here are a few things I am really looking forward to this month:

• Taking Bennett on the Santa Claus Train at Irvine Park. This is a fun tradition, and I love seeing my son's face light up with joy when he sees the train all decorated and lit up for Christmas.
  
• Baking Cookies with my Mom. Every year we have "Cookie Day" where we bake, bake bake until we just can't bake no more!
  
• Making a Gingerbread House with Bennett. He was too young for this last year, so I'm excited to start this tradition this year.
  
• Watching some of my favorite Christmas Movies... It's a Wonderful Life, The Grinch, Home Alone 1 and 2, The Santa Clause Movies... I pack them away all year, and they are ONLY to be watched in the month of December. Those are the rules of Christmas Movies and they are unflinchingly rigid.
  
• Making and baking some cute, homemade gifts. Sorry I can't divulge my secrets yet, as a few of my blog readers will be the recipients of said gifts.
  
• Making some fun crafts with Bennett. I know a few of you have asked me about our school-time theme this month. December (like November) is proving to be a difficult month to pick a theme because anything I pick ends up being limiting. There are just so many Christmas symbols to choose from. So I'm just going to title it "Christmas Month" and call it a day. Don't worry... we will be resuming more specificly-themed months come January. Snowflake month, anyone?
  
• Taking the kids to go see Christmas lights. I LOVE bundling everyone up in the car and taking along some thermos' of hot chocolate and coffee. Last year we found an online list of the best local light displays. They were amazing!


• The food, food, food! You can expect to find some festive recipes on my blog in the coming weeks. Christmas cooking (and eating) is the BEST!


• The music! I LOVE Christmas music and only listen to it in the month of December (*see Christmas Movie Rules, above). Here is our precious man singing "Good Christian Men, Rejoice." And yes, I bribed him with a candy cane so I could catch it on film. Don't judge me. I'm only human.

And with that precious display of holiday spirit, I will bring this holiday shout out to a close.

Merry Christmas!

November School-Time: Thankfulness Month... or Pilgrim Month... or Turkey Month

For November's school time theme, we had quite a difficult time choosing between thankfulness month, pilgrim month or turkey month.

Actually, to me, it's a no-brainer... TURKEY MONTH! I always gravitate toward the craft-friendly and food-related themes!

But McPreachy said he didn't like Turkey Month because we need to expose Bennett to more history... hence Pilgrim Month was born.

But then I thought it would be great to center the month around the idea of thankfulness in preparation for Thanksgiving. So I thought maybe Thankfulness Month.

After all... we're making this wonderful Thankfulness Tree where we add leaves every day saying what we're thankful for.


Bennett has expressed thankfulness for some pretty cute/quirky/precious things, including blueberries, "happy things," and my personal favorite... the unsolicited, "I'm thankful for you, Mama!"

But you can't make thankfulness sugar cookies or cut thankfulness out of construction paper or cover thankfulness in glitter glue... so I decided it's really too obscure to be our school-time theme.

And yet... I really want to focus on the importance of thankfulness this month! It is much more important than turkeys or even pilgrims!

For those of you scoffers who say I am spending too much time thinking about something that doesn't really matter, I say "Oh P'shaw!" (This is a phrase my mom used to say all the time. It is also translated: "That's crazy talk! What do you mean my holiday school time theme doesn't matter?!") Because really, how can life possibly go on if we don't have one, all-inclusive, holiday-centered theme for school time? It is of utmost importance.

So I am therefore naming November:

"Thankful Pilgrims and Turkeys Month!"

See.. it covers all my bases in one fell swoop!

Besides our thankfulness tree, a few items on this month's academic and fun-o-demic agenda are:

• Make Oreo turkeys


• Watch "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" and "The Mayflower Voyage" (on the same DVD)


• "Churn" our own butter, Pilgrim style, yo!

To do this, place heavy whipping cream and salt in a clean Tupperware or mason
jar and shake, shake, shake it until you've got butter!

• Hand print Turkeys

• Check out some special Thanksgiving books from the library.

Here are a few that we've gotten already and love!

*Thanksgiving at the Tappletons' by Eileen Spinelli

We love this book about a Thanksgiving dinner gone horribly wrong. We especially love the wonderful prayer at the end, which we are memorizing for Thanksgiving. It goes:

Turkeys come, and turkeys go

And trimmings can be lost we know.

But we're together, that what matters,

Not what's served upon the platters.

*One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims by B.G. Hennessy


A very cute book about the first Thanksgiving.. surprisingly
educational!

*Thanksgiving is For Giving Thanks by Margaret
Sutherland

So there you have it... "Thankful Pilgrims and Turkeys Month."
Doesn't it just warm the cockles of your heart?

Stay tuned for more thematic delights!

Faux-Fancy Dessert: Trick Your Friends and Co-horts!

No pics today, friends. But I wanted to share this wonderful idea for a faux-fancy dessert.

In case you hadn't already guessed why I call it faux-fancy, don't worry... I'll clue you in. I take sympathy on people who don't immediately put things together on their own... who stand scratching their heads while everyone else is laughing hysterically. You are not alone; I am one of you.

Anyway... I call this dessert faux-fancy because, like faux-fur...


or a faux-hawk...


...it is only pretending to be fancy when it is really quite simple. (Oh look at me... I said no pictures but I just couldn't help myself!)


Here's what I did when I needed dessert in a snap:

I took a box of one of my favorite fall staples, Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread Mix.

I prepared it according to the package directions and baked it in my mini muffin tin. Which brings us to step one for creating a faux-fancy dessert:

1. Make It Mini!
Have you ever noticed that fancy restaurants always serve tiny little portions? Or think about those darling little mini-tarts or tea sandwiches at tea houses. Those are sooooo faux-fancy! I mean come on, all they are is cream cheese and cucumber slapped between plain white bread. Ahhh, but cut them into cute little triangles and... voila! Fancy little delicacies. So next time you are getting ready to bake up a packaged-mix but you want something a little more special, consider baking them in your mini loaf pans or mini muffin tins.

Next I made a glaze for these darlin' little pumpkins... which brings us to step two for creating a faux-fancy dessert...

2. Top it, Baby!
Create a snazzy topping for your simple, out-of-the-box dessert, and your guests will be none the wiser!
In the case of the mini pumpkins (Hmmm... that sounds like a film noir waiting to happen), I made a quick and simple, yet fancy-sounding glaze. Here's the recipe:

Brown Sugar Caramel Glaze
courtesy of The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn

3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp light brown sugar
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
3 Tbsp heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

• Place all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat.
  
• Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring. Let boil for one minute, stirring often.
• Remove the pan from heat, and let the glaze thicken slightly. Spoon or spread the warm glaze onto the cake (or faux-fancy mini-cakes) of your choice.

So, like I was saying, I whipped up this delicious, DELICIOUS concoction to drizzle over the tops of my cakes... but there is still one more very important step to creating a faux-fancy dessert...

3. Dish It Up!
As with anything, presentation is everything. The way you display your dessert will really determine whether it deserves the title of faux-fancy or not. Even if your dessert isn't anything super special, you can make it special by serving it on a pretty platter and/or giving it a fancy title. On this particular occasion, I wrote out the name of the dessert on a small piece of white card stock and laid it in front of the dish. (I don't always do this, but I know some people don't like pumpkin desserts, so I took this extra step). I called them, "Mini Pumpkin Cakes with Brown Sugar Glaze." Super fancy sounding, but it took no time at all!

So there you have it! 3 easy steps to a fabulous, faux-fancy dessert.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: A DUTIFUL DISCLAIMER
Don't Forget... fanciness is fun and all, but what your guests will remember most is what a gracious hostess you were and how welcome you made them feel in your home. That's what true hospitality is all about. I really do enjoy making things fancy and special for my guests, but not when it overshadows my ability to be truly hospitable. It should be about making your guests feel special, not about impressing everyone with your mad skills (like nunchucks, for instance). And that's my two cents...