Summer 2011, Day 1: Eggs in a Basket

Hello, everybody. Well, it seems it's that time of year again. We're starting the cooking challenge again. But this year, it's not only focused on Jamie Oliver. We're using Ellie Krieger's cookbooks, as well as some of our favorites from last year.

This year will also be different due to the fact that we're not going to be doing the challenge everyday. Maybe 2 or 3 times a week. Because last year, the cooking really dominated my summer.

Today, for the very first entry, I did Eggs in a Basket from Ellie's So Easy cookbook. My mom read about Ellie in a magazine, then she started watching Healthy Appetite, her show. Soooo...

It was somewhat easy. It's not technically easy if I actually have to wake up (I got up at 11:30 today after 11 hours of sleep... tragic), get up, and make food.

Anyway, for this recipe, I got a piece of my GF bread from the freezer. We made some from a a mix using the bread machine about 2 weeks ago. I have slices frozen. I cut a hole in it using a 3 inch cookie cutter. Use a pastry brush to spread melted butter, or a spoon to spread softened butter onto both sides of the bread. After that, what you do is you put it in a pan and crack your egg into the hole. You also put the little 3 inch circle you cut out into the pan.

Then you cook it until the egg white hardens. Flip it and cook it for another minute or so, depending if you like it runny or rock solid.

In the recipe, you're supposed to put turkey and asparagus on top, but I said, "Chale! Let's just throw some sausage in there." Because sausage is the best food known to man. I don't know if Ellie Krieger would approve, since I didn't get my veggies, but, "Sabes que," it's my lunch so I can do whatever I want.

It was good. I will do it again.

Two things: put butter on the little cut out circle of bread, and serve with hash browns, which I did.

Two thumbs up.

Day 80 - Dumplings Galore

Dumplings.

A lot of people have a big BIG love for them.  My son happens to be one of them.  We’ve made gluten free pot stickers before, and that was my plan for today.  More gluten free pot stickers (which are pretty good).  But I got a little ambitious, decided to change it up, and went with steamed dumplings instead.


I come from California, home of dim sum (2nd home, actually, after, you know, China). Dim sum is Chinese breakfast and while I’ve heard they have some good places in Dallas, I’ve yet to venture that way, and so I decided to try to make some yummy dim sum-like dumplings on my own (with the kids).

They were surprisingly easy.  What got complicated was that we decided to make 5 kinds.  That’s what happens when you have a 10 year old vegetarian, a 13 year old child with celiac disease, some meat-eaters, and a type 1 diabetic all in one household.  You have to meet all needs.

So nothing is particularly easy in our kitchen.  But we’ve done pretty well, and our dumpling extravaganza was a major success.

The great thing about this dumpling adventure was discovering that the gluten free dumplings are gluten free by nature.  The wrappers are JUST like the ones at the dim sum restaurant and that’s just how they are--made of white rice flour and tapioca starch.

We made gluten free pork and gluten free shrimp dumplings.  We made pork dumplings and shrimp dumplings with wonton wrappers.  And we made vegetarian dumplings with bean sprouts, scallions, nappa cabbage, and ginger.

The recipes were from this awesome website all about... DUMPLINGS!

So, if you have an hour... or three... try your own dumpling extravaganza.  You won’t be sorry.

Day 80 - A Thanksgiving Feast

 It has been quite a while since we have posted about our cooking.  But that is not to say we have not been cooking.  Don't judge people by their lack of blogging.  The reason why we have not been blogging much is because we've been quite busy.  More than busy, actually.  Super duper busy.  My parents went to San Antonio.  We stayed with our Grandparents.  Plus school.  And after school stuff.  Plus I got sick with bronchitis 5 weeks ago and it did not get better until about 3 days ago.

Today's the 80th day of our challenge.  We're going to cook and blog occasionally because it's so busy for us.  I don't know if it is for you, but it is for us and so we hope you like our blogging when we do it.

Okay, onto today.  Today my mom and me have made multiple things.  Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving and 24 people will be having dinner, we have to prepare tons and tons of stuff.  I'll name the things we are cooking:

• Stuffing
• Pumpkin Cheesecake
• GF Rolls
• Pear Butter
• GF Pumpkin Bread

I think that is all.  Phew!  That is a lot.  We haven't done the pear butter, nor the rolls yet, and trust me, making all that other stuff takes a long time, people.

Before we could make the Pumpkin Cheesecake, we had to make GF gingersnaps.



Because the recipe calls for gingersnaps for the crust and we had to make it GF for my brother.  So we did GF gingersnaps from this good cookbook.

Then I made the crust by crushing the gingersnaps.



Then came the filling which called for some kind of thing called Frangelico which we did not have because we can't buy it in our town.  We didn't have any substitutes for that stuff, so my mom called our neighbor and she had almond extract and that would do the trick, so thank you, Mrs. Spratlen!



I will post the recipe tomorrow if it tastes good.






Putting on the sour cream topping


Then we made stuffing.  Of course I am vegetarian and won't eat the sausage or turkey or anything for Thanksgiving.  My brother does not like stuffing so we didn't make this GF, but I made mine vegetarian.  My mom helped me make a vegetable broth.  I absolutely love stuffing for all my life.




The reason we are making so many pumpkin deserts is because all my family loves pumpkin, and not just love it, but LOVE pumpkin stuff.  So we made pumpkin bread, which is GF and which Jared has made before... thank you, Mrs. Stutzman, maker of the best pumpkin bread ever!



I took a break while everything was cooking, and I deserved the break.  My mom and I had been working nonstop from 10 to 1:30.  Imagine cooking for that period of time.  For my break I played a game on the DS called Carnival Games, which, by the way, is very fun.  You get to pretend to go to a real carnival.  You get tickets and get prizes and go to really fun games like you were really at a carnival.

You get cotton candy, and you get all this stuff you want.  My favorite game is The Dart game.  There are 3, but I like the one where you shoot octopuses.  It is pretty fun.  There are a bunch of different games people would enjoy.  I would recommend Carnival Games!  It's a fun game for kids.  Jared likes it, too, and so does Caleb.

Happy Thanksgiving to you!!!

Day 79 - Enchiladas

Recipe From Our Mom

Hello, my name is Jared. What's your name?

Mexican is one of my favorite foods. Every time when my older brother's girlfriends come over, we mostly have Mexican food. We don't make it as since we've been doing this blog, but we've been still been cooking it.

Yesterday I also got a haircut. I don't have to wear a hairnet anymore. Actually, I've never worn a hairnet, but that's irrelevant.

Anyway...

Today we made enchiladas. It wasn't really super difficult. My mom cleaned out the seeds and veins in some dried pasilla chilis then boiled them for around 2 hours.

They do not smell good. They definitely do not. But once you get over the smell, it's not so bad.

Blend the chilis with some water or broth, a good lug of tomato sauce, salt, and some Adobo.

Then you have to strain out the skin flakes.

You grate a bit of Jack cheese, chop some olives, and we used leftover chicken for some of them. Heat up some corn tortillas in the microwave until they are soft.

Then fill them, roll them up, and you have a delicioso meal!

We forgot to take a finished picture, so sorry 'bout that!

2 THUMBS UP!

Day 78 - Strawberry Fruit Leather

Recipe from MOM Magazine

You probably thought we forgot about you, but no. Mmm-mmm. No.

I'd never forget about any of you!

I was sick this last week and stayed home from school for 3 days. Our family was really busy. My mom had to finish her book. She's a writer and has a due date. My brothers had band. My dad works.

We cooked, but didn't blog.

But today I am blogging. While we were at the doctor last week, my mom saw a recipe in MOM Magazine to make Strawberry Fruit Leather. It looked good so she copied the recipe into her phone and then later, after we had strawberries, we made it.

All I had to do was puree the strawberries. Of course you wash them and cut off the stems. Jared did this with me.

You just puree them in the blender. This means to blend them like a smoothie. Then you add 1 tablespoon of honey. You can actually add a little more honey, or some sugar. We didn't and our fruit leather is very tart. Or you can find sweeter strawberries.

So then you put parchment paper on a baking sheet with sides. You pour the strawberries on the paper and spread it really thin.

You bake it for 2-3 hours at 250 degrees, then let it sit overnight.

We cut it into strips and rolled it up.

I think you could do this with other fruit, too, like raspberries, and stuff. It is cool!!!

1 THUMB UP because ours was really tart.