Best High-altitude Snickerdoodles (so far)

A surprisingly reliable recipe for smiles

These cookies once fetched $50/plate at a charity bake sale. That may speak better of the donor than the cookie, but trust me, this is a worthwhile cookie. A crunch on the outside, a chewy softness on the inside. (For those of you who bake at sea level, just know that those are not givens with snickerdoodles at high altitudes.)

I have to thank Owl, who has never complained at all the taste-testing involved in getting this recipe right.

These cookies freeze very well after being baked. It is always nice to have something in the freezer for a last-minute get-together. Thaw at room temperature for an hour. Then be prepared for compliments.

Youngest owl-cat said, "Smile, cookie!"

High-altitude Snickerdoodles
Note: You can chill the dough or bake right away. I haven't noticed a great difference in flavor or texture, but sometimes it is convenient to chill the dough. The dough is a bit wetter when baking right away, but it tastes the same after baking.

Dry stuff:
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Other stuff:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening (helps with the softness)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons milk

Sugar-cinnamon stuff:
1-3 tablespoons cinnamon, depending on your taste buds (I really like 3 tablespoons.)
3 tablespoons sugar

0. If baking right away, preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. Mix dry stuff and set aside. Mix cinnamon-sugar stuff and set aside.
2. Cream butter, shortening, and sugar.
3. Add eggs to butter, then the vanilla, then the milk.
4. Mix well.
5. Add the dry stuff slowly. Mix until it all comes together.
6. Optional: Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill.
7. Roll dough into balls (2 tablespoons is a good starting place. Adjust when you find your preferred size. I have even made big 1/4-cup dough balls. Big cookies make Owl feel special.)
8. Roll dough balls in sugar-cinnamon stuff.
9. Bake. In my oven, it is about 8 minutes for 1-tablespoon balls, about 10 minutes for 2-tablespoon balls. Bake until puffy and the dough still looks a little wet in the creases.  The edges will be firm and slightly golden, but they may not look quite done to you. (See picture below.)
10. Cool on sheets for 2-5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.
11. Enjoy while warm. Share if you must.

Puffy cookies right out of the oven. They will deflate a bit.

Raspberry Ice Cream

Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. 
--Wallace Stevens

Three more "get-ups"* and the oldest owl-cats will be in school. They are ready. Their mother is not, so she is plying them with rare treats. 

*"get-up"-n-how my mother counts down to a special occasion, as in (literally) three more times "getting up"

Raspberry Ice Cream
2 cups raspberries (frozen fine, but thaw a bit first)
3/4 cup sugar

1 cup milk 
2 cups heavy cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

0. Make sure your ducks are in a row for making ice cream. For us, with a cuisinart ice cream maker, our bowl needs to be frozen. For some of you, that will mean the whole rock salt/ice thing. For those without ice cream makers, try this ziploc bag solution.
1. Blend berries with sugar in the blender.
2. Strain puree through a fine-mesh sieve.
3. Mix puree with remaining ingredients.
4. Freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions. Here are mine.
5. Enjoy--with children or with warm brownies.

Blueberry coffecake

Coffee cake (or, as we call it here in the land where the Bong-tree grows, "breakfast cake" or "giant muffin") is beautiful to eye and tongue. It can be made better, however. Add fruit.

In the fall and winter I like to dice a fresh apple. In spring and summer I add a cup of thawed frozen blueberries. I fold them in after I combine the ingredients together, before I pour them in the pan. It takes a few minutes longer to cook, but wow. It almost makes me want to open a B&B so I can share it with the world.

And yes, that's a cast iron skillet. It makes a beautiful muffin.

Cooking with kids: Quick pizza dough

Friday night dinners are made by the oldest owl-cat (10 years old). Owl and I have been surprised at how able he is in the kitchen. I think most kids like to get into the kitchen and feel independent, but maybe that is because I did. The funny thing is, my mother hated to cook, so instead of believing me that I liked to cook, she did most of the cooking as a service to me. I am guessing that she thought I would have to do enough of that later. (I love you, Mom.)

Owl had his own night to cook from age 8. He remembers making cinnamon rolls and jambalaya. Owl had a lot of siblings (10). They all learned to cook well with that much experience, and now family dinners are very tasty events.

Kids will need supervision making pizza at first (especially with the oven), but the patience required will come easily as you think forward to all those great meals they are going to cook for you in your old age.

Quick Pizza Dough

Dry stuff:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

Wet stuff:

1 cup warm water

2 teaspoons yeast*

1 teaspoon sugar

2 tablespoons oil

0. Heat oven to 425 degrees

1. Mix wet stuff.

2. Mix dry stuff.

3. Add wet stuff to dry stuff and mix very well. You can use a mixer like a KitchenAid or Bosch, but hands work well too. It just takes longer (and then you have crazy dough hands you can chase your little brother with).

4. Let rest 5 minutes.

5. Oil your pan. 

6. Press into pan with oiled hands (pictured below). If there are a few flour lumps, just massage them as you press out the dough. If the dough doesn't want to stretch out, just let it rest a few minutes and then go back to pressing it.

6. Add pizza ingredients (Owl-cats like spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni.)

7. Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

8. Enjoy!

*I am baking at high altitude. If this doesn't rise nicely for you sea-level devils, try 2 1/2 teaspoons of yeast.

Pressing out the pizza dough.

And for the grownups--deep dish veggie pizza with alfredo

Eating weeds: Purslane trumps pizza

For once, I am out of words. The middle owl-cat (7) proclaimed in a fit of passion that he prefers this dinner to pizza.

Michael Pollan tipped me off to the culinary potential of this unassuming weed that is full of vitamins and omega-3s. We tried it a while ago in a salad, but it is a bit hard to eat raw after weeding it out of the vegetable patch for years. It may be a bit like someone telling you, "Go ahead, add raw chicken to your salad. It's actually a real cancer fighter!" It's just hard to get past some things.

But after I tried out this recipe for verdolagas last week, we had to have it again this week. It's that good.

I hate to replicate recipes that another hard-working food-blogger has put together and deserves credit for. I will describe the basic steps, so you get an idea of what it is. Then you can go to the source for the recipe. It's brilliant.

Of course, you could always substitute spinach for the purslane, but how fun would that be?

Verdolagas (see link for full recipe; my recommendations in italics):

1. Make a simple green tomatillo salsa in the blender.
2. Boil 2 diced potatoes in salted water (suggested, but not used in the original)
3. Wash and chop the purslane (stems and all).
4. Boil the purslane. Add a little lemon or lime juice to the water in an attempt to preserve the color of the bright green leaves.
5. Heat oil in a pan. Toss in some garlic. Add the green salsa.
6. Drain purslane and add it to the green salsa.
7. Drain potatoes and add it to the green salsa and purslane.
8. Heat a cast iron pan. Heat corn tortillas on the cast iron until there are brown specks on one side. I make a quesadilla with a corn tortilla, split it open and proceed with step 9. The owl-cats like cheddar. I like feta in mine. 
9. Fill tortillas and roll up like a taquito. Or fill with other veggies and eat like a taco.
10. Be prepared for compliments.

Quinoa bowl, pasta bowl: adults happy, kids happy (and a parenting book review too!)

I have to redeem myself after the gazpacho post. I do care about my children--and even their taste buds.

A great parenting book is John Gottman's Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child: The Heart of Parenting. For me, the central theme of this book is very other-centered, that you need to respect your child and his emotions. (I only have boys, so this is not being gender-exclusive. I am sure you want to understand girls too, though I am beginning to think I wouldn't know how to.) 

Gottman says you need to have empathy, to imagine your child’s emotional world, and seek to understand him. You need to imagine how dependent he is on you and how he perceives your actions toward him. (He asks something like, "Would you like it if one of your co-workers were to treat you in a similar manner?") Gottman sees your goal as a parent as being able to help your child deal effectively with strong emotions and to help him be independent in that, to become a “self-soother.” 

So when I try to empathize with my children's taste buds, I think of my own taste buds as a child. Rhubarb was out of the question as were beets and turnips and other things I didn't even know I liked until I was 30. My mom didn't push the issue and now I eat almost anything (except Skittles, blood sausage, and sodium benzoate).

Children have more sensitive taste buds, and, according to at least one case study (our own), red heads have ultra sensitive taste buds. Before we adults congratulate ourselves on refinement, we may be able to handle more intense tastes simply because we have fewer taste buds (many of them being killed off by doing taxes).

This grain bowl was a hit at our house. It is more an amalgam of recipes that can be adjusted to taste than a single do-it-my-way-or-hit-the-highway recipe. I remembered a favorite dinner with friends--penne with pesto, green beans, and boiled potatoes. That inspired our choice of vegetables.

Everybody Happy Grain Bowls

Grains:

Cooked quinoa (favorite way to cook quinoa)

Cooked sea shell pasta

(Cooked brown rice would also be nice.)

Sauces:

Pesto

Tomato-based sauce (I use America's Test Kitchen)

(A light Alfredo would also be nice.)

Veggies:

Sauteed mushrooms (shallots are a nice addition to this)

Cooked green beans (I love the whole green beans available at my Costco)

Boiled diced potatoes (or for an extra Wow level, try my favorite roasted potatoes)

(Cooked carrots or yellow summer squash or cauliflower would have worked well for my children)

Set everything out buffet style. You can either let your children go crazy on their own or act like that grumpy guy at the pasta bar they've been to. Act extra stingy about giving them vegetables--they will want them all. Something about scarcity inspires desire.

Backward Biscuits

Sometimes we surprise the owl-cats with a backward day. We have dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner. This year the owl-cats got into metaphysical tangles about what would actually constitute an opposite day, but truly, what can we expect with a philosopher in the house?

This year, neither Owl nor I could stomach the thought of hamburgers for breakfast, so we made biscuits and gravy, which, in our habitat, is more dinner-like than breakfast-like. It was a hit, as was the rule that the owl-cats had to watch Phineas and Ferb before touching their homework.

This biscuit recipe is a white-flour indulgence. Every attempt I have made at adding whole grains has altered their flakiness.

Warm Buttermilk Biscuits
Adapted from any old biscuit recipe you can find. Again, we bake at 4500 feet, so if these don't rise as they should, you may need more leavening--many recipes call for baking powder as well, which we have found to be redundant.

2 cups flour (not whole-wheat, sorry)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons cold butter, cut into 8 chunks
1 cup buttermilk

0. Heat oven to 450 degrees.
1. Sift together dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda) in large bowl or twirl in food processor (with steel blade) a few times.
2. Cut in butter with fork, pastry blender, or by chugging the food processor around 8 times. You want the butter to still be cold. You also want some of the butter to still be in visible chunks, ranging from pea-sized to half that size.
3. Stir in buttermilk. (So if you used the food processor, dump the mixture from step 2 into another bowl.) Don't stir too much. Some of the flour will still feel two dry.
4. Dump it all out on the counter and knead until it comes together and is smooth. It will take about 10 turns to get it that way. You may need to adjust flour/buttermilk if they are too dry or too wet.
5. Roll into a rectangle, 1/2 inch thick (or thicker if you like tall biscuits). Using a round cookie cutter (or mason jar ring or glass), cut out biscuits, reforming leftover dough to cut out more. Alternately, you can just use a knife and cut into squares. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Bake 8-10 minutes.
7. Serve hot. Take one quickly before the others disappear. Butter and strawberry jam make this into dessert.

Birthday Peeps!

 Birthday revelry by torchlight

The forces of good from left to right: Little John, Maid Marian, Will Scarlet, Robin Hood (with quiver) and Allin a Dale (also Friar Tuck's backside in hideout)

 Prince John and Sheriff of Nottingham lead a flank of soldiers.

It turns out that knowing Old English is practical--for all your Anglo-Saxon cake decorating needs! 

(translation: Happy Birthday, Owl-Cat!)

The middle owl-cat (seven years old this year!) always requests this chocolate cake for his birthday. And Peeps are a regular feature on his cake. Earlier this year I read Robin Hood to the boys (this wonderful version) and we went to an amazing stage adaptation. So I surprised him with this whimsical setting on his birthday. 

For those of you who, like me, love the idea of dressing Peeps up, you really should see the Washington Post Peeps Show. And then you should try it. 

What I learned:

• Peeps take well to construction-paper clothing. The no-arms thing is very helpful.
• You can stick pins in them--what a dream for a tailor to get that "just right" fit.
• You can cinch a waist out of the bunnies, but good luck doing that for chicks. 

Overnight Whole-grain Waffles

Overnight whole-grain waffles topped with yogurt and rhubarb jam

You want to sleep in. The kids do not. Hold on. This recipe may make that possible.

Alas, I have promised too much. Only time will make that possible. But this recipe is delicious, and when we fit it into our weekend routine, we may get extra sleep. Our routine:

1. Make this recipe Friday night.
2. Set out cereal.
3. Remind our children of the lovely lives hobbits lead and how they too can be hobbitish by eating first breakfast and second breakfast.
4. Try to sleep through the clanging of cereal bowls and spoons and slurping of milk.
5. Finally admit that there is no more sleep to be had with hobbits around, and get up.
6. Fire up the waffle irons and enjoy second breakfast (hoping that no dwarves show up).

Overnight Whole-grain Waffles

Adapted from "Overnight Waffles" by Mark Bittman in How to Cook Everything

Dry stuff:

1/2 teaspoon yeast

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (*see note below)

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet stuff:

2 cups milk

2 tablespoons butter, melted (or more, up to 8, as your conscience allows)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

The next morning stuff:

2 eggs

1. Mix the dry stuff.

2. Mix the wet stuff.

3. Add the wet stuff to the dry stuff. This will be a thin batter.

4. Cover bowl and leave it out overnight at room temperature. (The milk will not go sour, but if you are a microbiology major your conscience may force you to refrigerate this. I understand. Add another 1/2 teaspoon of yeast and sleep well.)

5. The next morning, brush your waffle iron lightly with oil and then heat it.

6. Separate eggs. Plop yolks into batter and stir. Beat egg whites to soft peak stage. Fold them into the batter. A bit of egg white will still be visible.

7. Bake waffles. My waffle iron requires 1 cup of batter and 2 minutes. 

8. Enjoy. 

*Note on whole wheat pastry flour: This is amazing flour and worth getting, in my opinion, from your local health food store (or, as we do--grind soft white wheat in our wheat grinder). You could also use all-purpose flour or 1 cup all purpose, 1 cup whole wheat. I also really enjoy replacing 1/2 cup of the flour with 1/2 cup cornmeal. Experiment! Enjoy!

Happy Lunes de Aguas! Caterpillar bread

Once upon a time Owl lived as a missionary in Salamanca, where the Monday after Easter week finds the city picnicking on the banks of the River Tormes. The reasons for doing so are long past (thank goodness), but we have adopted this lovely tradition of a spring picnic by water. Owl remembers walking with the rest of the town down to the river, past university buildings and farms. Everyone eats hornazo, a bready meat pie with an ornate top crust. We usually make calzones, an Italian relative of hornazo, and a convenient individual-sized picnic food.

This year we found this recipe for caterpillar bread, elegant long stuffed breads that resemble caterpillars. We used the dough and shaping instructions, but filled it with mozzarella, tomato sauce, and ground beef (because that is what we had). The dough is easy and fun to work with. I was tempted to default to my regular pizza dough, but I am glad I did not. I doubled the recipe. I don't know if I miscalculated, but I had to add more flour (1 cup for the doubled recipe) than it called for to get it to the right consistency.

Dough recipe

Our improvised filling (for 10 caterpillar breads, or double the dough recipe):
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2-3 cloves garlic
1 glug olive oil
1 14-oz can crushed tomatoes
1 lb. ground beef
spices to taste: basil, oregano, salt, pepper
ground caterpillars (just kidding)

Saute onion in olive oil until tender. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. (23 seconds) Add tomatoes and spices. Simmer until reduced by half at least. You want this fairly dry or it will split the dough when cooking.

In separate pan, brown the ground beef. Add it to tomato sauce.

Use these excellent instructions to roll, fill, and shape.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

What we thought: Delicious--and fun to eat. It is easy to segment these breads, like an orange. The owl-cats devoured them. The almost-two-year-old loved that it was caterpillar bread. Next time we may lessen the elegance by decorating with sliced olives for eyes. We will also read The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Gluten-free banana waffles

The oldest owl-cat's friend is allergic to tree nuts, gluten, and dairy and possibly more--his siblings have additional allergies. He told my son about the banana waffles: for each person eating, mix 1 mashed ripe banana and 2 eggs. That caught my son's imagination and we tried a variation on that theme, which we found here. I didn't have arrowroot powder, so I substituted cornstarch. The coconut oil on the waffle iron added a nice flavor. The cinnamon was nice--I also added vanilla. 

I tripled this recipe for the five of us, so it looked like this:

3 ripe bananas

9 eggs

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

See the recipe for directions. They took about 2 minutes to cook in my waffle iron. I would think that a non Belgian-waffle iron is the best approach (which is what the linked recipe used as well).

We enjoyed them with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

What we thought: Owl was skeptical at first when he saw the recipe, but we all really enjoyed them--even the littlest owl-cat (22 months old) who refuses to eat eggs (but adores bananas). We will make these again!

The owl-cats clamored for more, so I had to appease them with toast. So, it may be better to think 1 recipe per person if you cook for unusually hearty appetites. 

Red lentils: the dried bean for beginners

Dried beans can be scary, what with all that sorting and boiling and draining and salting, but red lentils are a great place to begin. They are the convenience food of dried beans--no soaking and they are done within 30 minutes.

If you like apricots, this is the first red lentil recipe I would introduce you to--a red lentil apricot soup. It comes from a fun cookbook The Soup Peddler's slow and difficult Soups that you will want to read if you love soup, bicycles, and at least the idea of Austin, Texas. David Ansel, writer and Soup Peddler, began selling soup in Austin, and the best part is that he delivered the soup by bike (which is what "slow and difficult" refers to). Family and friends, you are welcome to borrow my copy, but don't keep it too long because I will miss it.

Back to the soup: I am always amazed at how much my children love this soup. It is also a satisfying soup to make.The whole truly is greater than its simple parts. It feels a little bit like magic.

Quick Vegetable Lasagna

The ethical issue with this recipe is, do you tell your children that they are devouring mushrooms and zucchini and begging for more? Or do you keep that little secret to yourself?

This isn't an issue for my sister L.W. who gave me this recipe since her children (enviably) beg for zucchini as such.

Vegetable Lasagna

With practice you can put this together in less than 30 minutes--now that is quick for lasagna--unless you really want to put that stuff from the frozen aisle into your body. Do remember to let the lasagna sit 15 minutes after baking so that you are not slurping lasagna soup.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup chopped onion
3 cloves minced garlic
3 cups sliced zucchini (about 2 medium)
2 cups sliced mushrooms (about 8 oz.)
1 28-oz jar spaghetti sauce (or homemade, but then how quick would it be?)
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons basil
1 16-oz container ricotta or cottage cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg, optional
8 oz. lasagna noodles
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
chopped parsley

0. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Heat oil in skillet. Add onion. When tender, add garlic, just letting it hit the pan and sizzle for maybe 10 seconds. Add zucchini and mushrooms and saute until tender. Add spaghetti sauce, basil, and oregano. Simmer 15 minutes.
2. In a separate bowl mix ricotta or cottage cheese, egg (if using), and Parmesan cheese. (I quite like the texture of mixing them in my food processor.)
3. In a 9 x 13 pan layer 1/3 sauce, 1/2 noodles, 1/2 cheese mixture, and 1/2 mozzarella cheese. Repeat, ending with sauce. Sprinkle parsley on top. Alternatively, you can cover the top with mozzarella if hiding the vegetables will make them more likely to be eaten.
4. Cover tightly with aluminum foil. Bake covered 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake 15 minutes longer. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Note: Can also be made day before and refrigerated until baking. It usually takes 10-15 extra minutes of cooking time.