Pineapple Pasta (???)

While I was out running this morning, our friend Yashi helped the kids make lunch. They LOVE it. I'm a little surprised.

Here's the Girlchild talking about their creation:

She just told me, "This Pineapple Pasta creation is brilliant. I want to have it for lunch every day."


I'm not so sure.



*note about the penne: we only ever buy whole wheat pasta. 
The kids don't mind it because it's all they get! :)

Girlchild, processing her injury

Girlchild took a tumble down the stairs of her school chum, and unfortunately I was a good 40 minutes away when it happened. Needless to say, by the time I got there, the school chum was fairly shaken up as well. My heart aches for the poor Mama who had to deal with my screaming, bleeding child and also her own terrified munchkin. I have a bottle of wine for the Mama, but check out what the the girl made for her friend:

She called her socks "Naughty Socks" because she said of her fall, "It was all my socks' fault."

 Here's the picture she drew of herself in the hospital. The fish stickers represent the TV, which had the "Aquarium channel" playing.
The people in the room are (in order from L to R) me, Brian, Dr. Eric, Nurse Anna and Dr. Moorhead.
Yes, the surgeon's name was really Eric, and yes, the nurse was really Anna. I know ~ weird, right??

Anna was knocked out for the procedure, but not all the way. She was aware that they put a sheet over her face, so she drew it on the picture.

I have a whole other post to write about how brave my daughter is. I'm so impressed with her, I can hardly stand it. But I'll save that for another post!

Princess Tea Party

Girlchild was invited to a tea party Saturday at a friend's house. A "School Mate" as she says.

When Brian first told her of the invitation, her response was serious and direct.
"I want to do that," she declared.

She already also had a girlfriend play date set up for Sunday, so to make sure the Boy didn't feel left out, we arranged for him to spend time with my parents this weekend.

Anna was so excited about the tea party, she immediately started asking me about it as soon as we got up Saturday morning. We figured out which dress she would wear, then she wanted to paint tea party pictures. We haven't painted much since summer, so I agreed.
{You know what's odd about the dress? It's the same one she wore to my mom's birthday tea party nearly two years ago. I think the girl has been mostly growing up rather than out.}

Here's the Girl working on her paintings:

 Notice my paintbrush water sitting so close to my coffee cup? Yeah, not a good idea.

Here are all of the tea party pictures:

 Tea pot, two tea cups, a cake and a flower scene. All painted solely by Anna, except the one cup:

 It's been a while since I've painted anything but botanicals, but I had fun with this little tea cup.

Here are the four girls sitting for their tea party. It was so adorable, the little hostess {who wore a Disney Cinderella dress, its should be noted} employed her daddy and little brother to be servers, they wore ties and had aprons tied around their waists, and even held tea towels draped over their forearms. So cute, what good sports.

 The girls had a spirited discussion about Halloween costumes:

It was a fun day, and Anna & I are already planning a reciprocal tea party.

My Christmas tree is not perfect, but it's perfect.

It's a new phenomenon for me to share Christmas tree decorating duties with anyone. I used to be really picky about how it all went together. I would spend hours as a child re-arranging the family tree, and have really enjoyed having my own tree as an adult. The kids were mildly interested in helping me last year, but I did most of it without them, then let them add a few ornaments around the bottom at the end. They were fine with that, I think. To be honest, in the past I didn't really care if they were fine with it!

This year, we did the whole thing together, and WOW, was that ever fun.

They were so enamored with the process; delighted to look at each ornament and find the perfect spot for each one. Anna said to me several times, "Mama! This is SO MUCH FUN!"

I agree, Darling.

Louie was quick to inhabit empty ornament boxes!

A sad moment for me came when I pulled out this rottweiler ornament. Our friends Pete & Karen gave it to Brian and I the Christmas after Kato died. It looks a lot like Kato, in fact.

The weird thing about that ornament is how the front leg broke off. The same front leg that Sancho lost when he first got bone cancer. So now the rottweiler ornament is a tribute to both K-Doggy and Sancho. Sweet memories.

Eric, being three, got tired and crashed on Brian before too long. As did Louie, but Louie will take any opportunity to crash on Brian.

 Anna was with me until the very end. She had a little melt-down when I wouldn't let her put up my Swarovski snowflakes. I've been buying one each year since Brian and I got married. They are very expensive, and very special. As a compromise, I laid them all out and we talked about each one. Important things that happened each year, what the snowflakes represent. Even why 2001, 2002 & 2003 are each a little bit broken because Sancho knocked over the Christmas tree in 2003. She was especially interested in 2005 and 2007, as those were the years she and her brother were born. (I'm kicking myself now for not buying an extra one those years so they could each have the one from their birth year!) I finally agreed to allow her to hand me the snowflakes, one at a time, and I put them on the tree. It seemed like a good compromise to both of us.

2005 Swarovski Snowflake

It was so much more fun for me to share this experience with the kids, and I couldn't be happier with the final result.

I love that the ribbons we use as garlands are unevenly clumped together. I love that Eric wanted to place all the animal ornaments, and Anna only wanted to place "The Pretty Things."

It's not perfect, but Wow, is it ever PERFECT.

 

And we only broke three bulbs.

The Girlchild's Birthday Dinner

My mom always asked my brothers and me what we wanted for our birthday dinners. It was so fun to get to choose, but I always chose the same thing: Beef Stroganof. My mom makes the most amazing Beef Stroganof. One year, I wanted a pink party, so she made strawberry cake, served strawberry ice cream, and for the meal we had ham and pink mashed potatoes. My mom inspires me in so many ways!

For her birthday, the Girl said she wanted "Birthday Soup" and "Pink Noodles," so I stole a page from Mom's book.

Toast!

When questioned, she explained that Birthday Soup is made with chicken broth, potatoes and tomatoes. Easy enough! I have a template* for soup that works for me every time.

ANNA'S BIRTHDAY SOUP

Saute in a dutch oven with a little olive oil:

1 medium onion, peeled & diced

4-5 potatoes, peeled & diced (I used a couple Yukon golds mixed in with baking potatoes. Baking potatoes are best, but I was running low. Yukons aren't my first choice for this because they get a little rubbery when mashed, but they worked fine mixed in the soup.

sea salt & Penzey's India Tellicherry black pepper (my fave)

When softened a bit, add 

3 cloves of minced garlic

14 oz (1 can) stewed tomatoes

28 oz (1 large can) crushed or diced tomatoes

2 quarts of organic chicken broth

About a tablespoon total of dried parsley & basil

Simmer gently for about 30 minutes, until the potatoes are all the way soft.

Turn off heat, puree using an immersion blender, and season to taste.

At this point, I added a touch of cream, which does not follow my usual soup format. Jeanie wisely also added a four-pepper blend, which really was perfect.

Serve with freshly grated parmigiano Reggiano and crusty bread.

OK, so Birthday Soup... Check.

Anna & AmmaKee with Birthday Soup. It's kind of pink, anyway.

"Pink Noodles" were a little more tricky. At first I thought about pureeing beet or tomato into my pasta dough, but that wouldn't really be pink enough, and it would take a long time to roast the beets. So I settled on food coloring. Fortunately, I have several different colors of the Wilton cake-decorating colors and was able to add enough blue to balance out the orange-ness of hot pink added to eggs. Also fortunately, I had my sister-in-law Tammy there to help me figure it out.

I use Giada De Laurentiis's fresh pasta recipe, FYI.

The result was a delightfully off-putting hot pink pasta. 

But what to serve over the Pink Noodles? What else is pink and delicious? I'll tell what is pink and delicious. Shrimp and pancetta, that's what. Here's what I did:

Saute chopped pancetta and sliced crimini mushrooms until mushrooms are about halfway softened. Add a little butter to get the rendering started, as well as a tiny bit of salt (not too much since the pancetta is salty) and some fresh ground pepper.

Pour in about 2 cups of dry white wine, and reduce a bit until the alcohol is mostly cooked off.

Add one pound of bay scallops and 20 oz (2 bags in this case) of medium-sized raw shrimp. Bubble gently until the scallops and shrimp are just cooked, and pour over the pasta.

Pink Noodles, with Shrimp & Bay Scallops. I know it looks nasty, but it was actually quite delicious.

 Here are a few more pics from the dinner party:

Meyer Lemon Cheesecake Marbled with Pureed Strawberry

Two Papas. Note Mike's t-shirt: Anna as a newborn!

Festive, girly-girl table

Sorry to take pictures of you all eating...

Jeanie & me

Some Litwins: Brian, Mike & Tammy

Do you have a favorite Birthday Meal?

What do you think of Anna's Pink Noodles?

Let me know!

*Soup template: Instead of tomatoes, any veggies will do. Any flavor of broth will do. Instead of potatoes, sweet potatoes or squash.

My Daughter's Kitchen Creativity: Pumpkin Slimers

The Girl and I have always loved cooking together, but she often gets frustrated with having to follow directions.

I can't begin to imagine where she gets that quality.

So now we have a fun new trick. I ask her what we should create, and she tells me the ingredients she wants to use, and a general idea of format.
Our first big one was "Pumpkin Slimers." We had a little pumpkin out on the front step, and she really wanted to cook with it. I couldn't convince her that curried pumpkin soup was a good idea, she really wanted "Slimers." While she worked on scooping out the pumpkin, I questioned her about what she had in mind for a Pumpkin Slimer. It took a while to get a description of the format out of her. She said the filling is pumpkin, eggs, sugar, milk, honey and cinnamon, and we should make the crust out of flour, butter, salt, sugar and milk. No problem — that's easy enough to translate into a pie.

"Nooooo, it's not a pie," she tells me.
She described little burritos, and if we had more time that day, I would have figured out a dessert empanada application, but alas.  I suggested lining muffin tins with the crust, and we were in business.
For the filling, we roasted the pumpkin. She was skeptical about this step, as that took what felt like an eternity to a four year old. I thought she would lose interest, but we used the time to make the crusts.
She was really insistent on the ingredients — my pie dough recipe does not include milk, but ice water. It turned out fine with milk, though. Who knew?

Grandma Edna's Perfect Pie Crust, with Anna's Modifications:

3 cups flour (I use Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour)

1 teaspoon salt

1-1/4 cup shortening (I was able to convince her that this would be better than butter)

1 egg

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 tablespoons ice water (I snuck them in)

2 tablespoons milk

Without overworking, roll out dough on lightly-floured surface. Prick holes throughout (Anna loved this part) and bake at 450º for 10 minutes, until lightly golden.

 For the filling, I looked up recipes in my favorite The Bon Appetit Cookbook, and really loved the "Spirited Pumpkin Pie" recipe from it. (I highly recommend this book, whenever I have an ingredient I want to use, I go here first to see if there is some wonderful recipe for it. I've been delighted with every recipe I've tried.)
Here's what Anna & I came up with:

PUMPKIN SLIMER FILLING

1 small pumpkin, roasted & pureed (about 3 cups)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/4 cup honey

1 tablespoon flour

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

3 large eggs

1 cup whipping cream (I use this in my coffee every morning, so it's always in the house!)

1/4 cup milk

3 tablespoons dark rum

2 teaspoons Mexican vanilla extract

Whisk it all together, adding one ingredient at a time (that worked well for Anna), then poured in to the little crusts. Bake at 375º for 20 minutes, then reduce temp to 325º and bake until centers are just set.

I'm so sorry I didn't take any pictures of the Pumpkin Slimers. We took them to my brother and sister-in-law's house for dinner with the fam, and they were a big hit. Anna was so proud, as was I. The real success, though, was the birth of a new era in our cooking together.