Tasty Tuesdays--Frozen Yogurt and Fruishi

We are already back to our normal school schedule, but we didn't get to make all of our recipes for cooking class, so we spent part of our day making the last two.

Frozen Yogurt
30 oz fudge
2 oz honeycomb, optional
3 oz chocolate chip cookies
2/3 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. confectioners' sugar
2 1/2 c. natural yogurt (we used half plain and half vanilla)
1/ 14 c. mini marshmallows

(That is what the recipe called for, but there was also a side not saying we could experiment with other ingredients.  We used brownies instead of fudge and cookies.  We didn't use the honeycomb.  We used the marshmallows and added a banana.  Next time we make it we want to do only fruit.)

1. Carefully chop the fudge and honeycomb and cookies (or brownies in our case) into tiny pieces.
2. Pour the cream into a mixing bowl and sift in the sugar.  Lightly whip the cream into soft peaks.
3. Gently fold the yogurt and other treats in to the cream mixture using a plastic spatula or metal spoon.
4. Spoon the mixture into a Tupperware, cover and freeze.  After 2 hours, stir to prevent ice crystals from forming (it should probably be done every hour instead) and then freeze again for a total of 4 hours.  If it thaws, do not refreeze. 

Super Yummy!

Frushi
1 1/4 c. water
1 c. uncooked sushi rice
1/4 c. sugar
1/4 c. coconut milk
dash of salt

orange sections
raspberries
other fruit toppings
vanilla yogurt for dipping

1. Bring water and rice to a boil in a medium saucepan.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 15 minutes or until water is almost absorbed.  Remove from heat; let stand, covered 15 minutes.
2. Place rice in a large bowl.  Add sugar, coconut milk, and salt, stirring gently until well combined.  Cover and let stand 20 minutes.
3.  Line a baking sheet with waxed paper.  Lightly coat hands with cooking spray.  Divide rice mixture into 20 equal portions, shaping each into a ball (about 1 rounded tablespoon each). Lightly press each rice ball into an oval between palms; place ovals on lined baking sheet.  If your hands become sticky, you may have to wash your hands and coat them again. 
4. Top rice ovals with fruit, pressing gently so that it sticks.  If the fruit won't stick to the rice use a dab of honey to "glue" it. 
5. Cover and chill frushi until ready to serve.  Serve with yogurt for dipping. 

We had to use forks to eat it because most of the balls didn't stick together (maybe because our rice was only medium grain instead of short).  We weren't able to dip into the yogurt either.  It was a fun treat, but I'm not sure if we'll make it again. 

Tasty Tuesday--Cupcakes

We followed a super easy recipe for the cupcakes we made for this cooking class. 

11 tbl. unsalted butter, softened
3/4 c. sugar
1 14 c. self-rising flour
3 eggs, whisked
1/2 tsp. vanilla

The kids and I are big fans of cream cheese frosting, so we made that instead of the icing suggested in the recipe book.  So much better!  The kids colored the frosting and decorated their cupcakes. 

Tasty Tuesday--Fruits & Veggies

We read All About Fruits and All About Vegetables today then made some yummy fruit and vegetable dips. 

Yummm-kin Pumpkin Dip
3/4 c. cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. packed brown sugar
1/2 c. canned pumpkin (we used the pumpkin from our garden)
1 Tbl. maple syrup
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Combine cream cheeses, brown sugar, and pumpkin in a medium bowl.  Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well combined.
2. Add syrup and cinnamon and beat until smooth.
3. Cover and chill 30 minutes before serving.
4. Enjoy this dip with peeled apple slices or cinnamon pita chips.

Note: We tried this dip with all the fruits, but only liked it with apples and pita chips.  We thought it would be good with pears, too.  It was OK with bananas, but not good with raspberries, peaches, strawberries or grapes.

Creamy Ranch Dip
1/2 c. cream cheese, softened
3 Tbl. buttermilk
2 Tbl. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp. chopped fresh dill (we used dried and forgot to change the amount--good thing we like dill)
1/2 tsp. minced fresh garlic
1/4 tsp. onion powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground black pepper

1. Combine cream cheese and buttermilk in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk until blended.
2. Stir in parsley, dill, garlic, onion powder, salt, and pepper.
3. Serve this dip with baby carrots, broccoli florets or other fresh veggies (we also had peppers, celery and cucumbers).

Note: This dip was extra runny, but it is probably because we used frozen and thawed cream cheese.  We added it to some homemade ranch dressing and that thickened it. 

Fruit Dip
1 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1 7 oz. jar of marshmallow cream

1. Blend until smooth.

Note: This dip is a favorite and goes well with all the fruits.  I mixed it with the pumpkin dip and enjoyed that flavor with the pita chips. 

Tasty Tuesday--Grains

Summer is here and our school schedule changes a little to accommodate the season.  As often as possible we will do school, but we will also add fun activities.  Each day of the week has a fun activity scheduled under theme: Make-it Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Wow Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday, and Friend Friday.  Tasty Tuesday will include our annual cooking class activities. 

I found a set of books at the library called "All About _____".  There are 5 books for each of the major food groups.  I thought I could implement a little academic learning into our cooking class.  Today we learned about grains and each kid made their own loaf of bread following a recipe in the book.  We are also going to plant some wheat grass and go to Sprouts to check out some other grains (we were only familiar with wheat, rice, corn, barley, and oats). 

We grind grains and make bread often in our house using a mixer, so kneading by had was a new experience.  The recipe was in ounces, so we learned how to use a scale to measure.  The kids loved the idea of having their own loaf all to themselves. 

Lem'n Berry Cheesecake

In honor of National Cheesecake Day on July 30th, we made a cheesecake for cooking class.
Lem'n Berry Cheesecake
1 pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 c. lemonade flavor drink mix
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 c. milk
2 c. thawed cool whip whipped topping
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 c. mixed berries

Beat cream cheese, drink mix and sugar in large bowl with mixer until well blended.  Gradually beat in milk, whisk in cool whip.
Spoon into crust.
Refrigerate 1 hour.  Top with berries just before serving.

Verdict?  Too sour! 

Maybe the problem was that we used the individual drink mixes for water bottles instead of the mix for 1/2 gallon pictures.  We could hardly finish our slices.  Plus it was super runny!  I tried to salvage it today and turned it into a smoothy.  I added milk some frozen berries and frozen bananas and a little more sugar.  It was still a little sour, but more bearable.  Too bad.  I love cheesecake and the sour-ness ruined it. 

Zucchini Cake

After my recent post about so much zucchini my grandma Garrett came to my rescue with some yummy recipes.  We decided to make one for cooking class. 

Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Cake
3 eggs
1 c. oil (I used 1/2 c. oil and 1/2 c. applesauce)
2 c. sugar (I used 1 c. sugar)
2 tsp. vanilla
2 c. chopped zucchini
1 c. crushed, drained pineapple
3 c. flour
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 c. chopped nuts (I omitted)
1 c. currants or raisins
Beat together eggs, oil, sugar, and vanilla until thick and foamy.  Fold in zucchini and pineapple.  Combine dry ingredients, and stir into mixture.  Add nuts and raisins.  Pu in 2 greased and floured loaf tins.  Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  (I used a 9x13 cake pan and decreased the time to 30 minutes.)

Because we already had a treat for Ephram's birthday, we took the cake to my parent's house before going to the train park and shared it with everyone there.  I added a cream cheese frosting to the cake which was a bad idea.  It should have been left plain. 

I Scream, You Scream

We all scream for ice cream!

We decided to make ice cream today for cooking class. We invited a family from the ward and had an ice cream party. It was super fun, but the ice cream never turned into ice cream--it stayed a liquid, so we just drank it instead.

I had some ice cream mixes (just add milk/cream and mix) and thought it would be fun to make it in a #10 can. Have you ever done that? You put the mix and milk into a 1 pound can, attach the lid and put it into the big can. Add ice and salt and put on the other lid. Then roll for 8-10 minutes. We sat on a blanket and rolled it around FOREVER while playing mind games, but it stayed a liquid. Bummer.
The family that came over isn't one that we usually hang out with, but I wanted to get to know them better. The kids got along great and the mom and I visited for a couple of hours. I'm glad that we invited them to join us in our fun.

Turkish Delight

The kids and I are reading the Chronicles of Narnia. While reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, we were intrigued with the Turkish delight that Edmund requested from the white witch. We decided to make some. I found a recipe and we made a batch yesterday. It took us ALL morning. There was a lot of time spent stirring over the stove. After all that work we decided that we didn't like it. The rose flavor was too strong. I would go back and try it with less flavoring, but it was too much work. If I find it at the store I might try it but I don't think we'll ever make it again.

Ingredients:
4 c. granulated sugar
1 c. cornstarch
1 tsp cream of tartar
1 Tbl lemon juice
4 1/4 c. water
1 1/2 Tbl rose water
1 c. confectioners sugar

A candy thermometer is also needed.

Make the sugar syrup
In a small saucepan, combine lemon juice, sugar and 1 1/2 cups of water. Turn the heat on medium. Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves.
When the mixture boils, turn the heat to low. Insert the candy thermometer. Allow the mixture to simmer until the temperature reaches 240 degrees (about 30-40 minutes).
Turn the heat off and set aside.

Make the jelly base (be sure to wait until syrup is ready to begin this step)
In a medium saucepan, combine cream of tartar, cornstarch and 2 3/4 cups of water. Turn the heat on medium. Continuously stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until the lumps are dissolved and the mixture begins to boil. When the mixture achieves a glue-like consistency, stop stirring.
Add in the sugar syrup mixture and stir for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and allow to simmer for 1 hour. Stir the mixture frequently so it doesn't burn the bottom of the pan. When the mixture becomes a golden color, add in rosewater and stir until everything is combined.
Pour into a mold
Oil the sides and bottom of your container (we used a bread pan). Pour mixture into the container an spread it evenly.
Place it into refrigerator and allow to cool overnight (we waited until the afternoon--it was cool).

Server or store
Take container out of fridge and remove Turkish delight. Cut into 1 inch pieces.
Place them into a bowl of confectioners sugar and thoroughly coat them.
Store in an airtight container or eat immediately.

The kids set the beeper and took turns stirring every 2 minutes.
I tried to get some friends to eat it, but they didn't like it either. Too bad!

Freezer Fudge

We borrowed a recipe from a friend's blog and made some sugar-free freezer fudge. The kids liked it but the verdict is still out for me. I can't decide if I like the bitter taste of the chocolate. We took it to the Pottle's to share and they liked it. It was super easy to make, though.

Coconut Freezer Fudge
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. natural peanut butter (we've done a lot of recipes with peanut butter lately and my supply is getting low so we'll do something different next week--any suggestions?)
1/4 c. cocoa powder
3/4-1 c. shredded coconut (I just realized that we skipped this ingredient. I must not have written it down when I copied the recipe from the blog. Maybe it would have made the difference in my vote. We'll just have to make it again.)
1/4 c. coconut oil, melted (it must be hot in my house because the oil was already melted and don't remember it being a liquid when I bought it)
1/4 c. honey

Mix all the ingredients and spread onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Freeze for 30 minutes. Break into pieces and store in the freezer. (it melts in your hands so be prepared for a messy face and hands)

Homemade Granola Bars

We did cooking class today and made some yummy no-bake granola bars. I got the recipe from a friend. It was super easy and super tasty.

5 cups crispy rice cereal (I didn't have any so we used crushed rice chex)
4 cups cooking oats
1 cup raisins
1 cup honey
1 cup brown sugar (I want to experiment with the amount of sugar--they were really sweet)
1 cup peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

Combine cereal, oats, and raisins in a large bowl.
In a small saucepan, heat the honey and brown sugar to a boil, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and vanilla extract and blend until smooth.
Pour this over the cereal mixture and mix well. Add chocolate chips and mix thoroughly.
Divide up and press into 2 ungreased 9x13 baking dishes (we used cookie sheets). Cool. Cut each pan into 24 bars.
Next time we want to try to add different things--other dried fruit, coconut, almonds. We stored the leftovers in the fridge because we used natural peanut butter.

Peanut Butter Cookies

It's time to start cooking class again. I know that at the end of last summer I said that I wanted to continue doing it during the school year, but life got busy. I did work with the kids individually to learn how to cook different breakfasts, though. Over the summer we will have one afternoon a week when there is nothing else going on so I plugged in a cooking class. Today was the first of the summer. I decided to kill 2 (maybe 3) birds with one stone. I needed to make a thank you treat and a book club treat so we made peanut butter cookies to use for both. I found a yummy healthified recipe here.

I don't know if I'll figure out a good way to do this. The kids just have to take turns. Braedi read the recipe and doubled the amounts, then each of the kids took a turn measuring the ingredients and pouring it into the mixer.

They also used a fork to make the crisscross design.
Here is the part that I want them to work on--pulling stuff out of the oven. They are afraid of how hot it is. Corbin got this far and then would only do it with my help.
Braedi is OK with putting the pan in, but not pulling it out. I think that maybe I need to get some kid-friendly oven mitts.
I'm looking forward to the things we will get to cook this summer.