'Tis the Season

...and today we're going to be making a gingerbread house!

I have turned to King Arthur Flour for ideas, and wouldn't you know it, they have a pdf document on Building a Gingerbread House.

A friend of mine also turned me onto this site where they demonstrated making a gingerbread castle, and I spent some time on Google looking for images for inspiration and found Gingerbread House Heaven, so we should be well-prepared in the inspiration department. Yesterday I bought a variety of candies for decorating this house - Twizzlers, Andes mints, gum drops, candy canes and many more, so we'll see what genius my kids can come up with. Tweet

Fun With Food

The Easter Bunny came a day early to my house since I won't have my kids on Easter morning. The Easter Bunny is accommodating that way. Anyway, I the Easter Bunny recalled that the kids had been screaming for Peeps, so I, that is, the Easter Bunny got some purple and yellow Peeps.

So today, I suggested PeepS'Mores.

Yum. Even  I  had one.

PeepS'Mores

Here's how you do it:

Catch a Peep and skewer it. Assemble your chocolate and graham crackers and get a reliable source of flame. I used my new little blowtorch until I ran out of butane.

*blink*

So then I just used one of the gas burners on the stove and prayed that I wouldn't have a melted mess of blackened marshmallow to clean off. 

It worked great.

Before:

Torch the Peep. He may catch fire.

That's ok. Blow out the flames.

Smush the Peep down

Make sure he's melting and oozing and then eat it.

 Kid #2's PeepS'More, chomped.

Another view of melting marshmallow:

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Mandu

We've been pretty heavy into the Friday night Pizza and movie night the past few months. Last night I thought that we needed something different. Next to pizza, my kids' favorite treat is take-out Chinese. The girls have discovered a deep and abiding love for wonton soup and pan-fried Chinese dumplings (jiaozi). If they had their way, we'd get takeout Chinese food every week!

Jiaozi are quite similar to the Korean snack Yakki-mandu/Geun-mandu, which are a popular street vendor food. Vendors would deep fry batches of frozen mandu and serve them in a waxed paper cone. Home cooks in Korea often make them fresh and then pan-fry them, as seen in the following video:







Mandu are my number one favorite street vendor food from my time in Korea. I got seriously addicted to these when I was there, and adapted a recipe for them when I got back. I like these as an appetizer for large family gatherings because when I make them, I bake them in large batches instead of subjecting them to the fryer. I also shape my mandu differently from the traditional fat crescent shape of mandu/jiaozi. Nevertheless, they are probably my most-requested party food.

A few years ago, I started letting the girls help me make the mandu. It's a time-consuming process, because for a typical party I may make as many as 200 of them. We manage to have fun together, listening to music, singing and telling jokes.


Since I am trying to spend less money on take-out in addition to getting them involved with me in the kitchen, like with the homemade personal pizzas, I thought that we could have mandu for our Friday night homemade takeout. When I mentioned it to the girls, they cheered. So yesterday, the girls and I sat at the dining room table and churned out about 120 mandu for our very own version of takeout Chinese food night.

I'm positive that I'm spending less money on takeout than I was before, and I know I am enjoying these DIY nights as much as the girls are. I hope that you enjoy this recipe. :)

Babs's Mandu

Ingredients:

• 1 Pkg egg roll wrappers (makes 80 mandu)/or 1 Pkg wonton wrappers (makes appr. 50 slightly larger mandu)*
• 2-3 eggs, beaten
• Filling (recipes and suggestions follow)
• Dipping Sauce (recipe follows)
• Cooking spray
  

*Note: I usually use the egg roll wrappers because they make more mandu for about the same price, but first you have to cut them into quarters. Take out about 20 at a time, and put the rest back in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap and a damp paper towel on top so they don’t dry out.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375, and spray a cookie sheet with the cooking spray.


2. Moisten all four edges of a wrapper with the beaten egg, and then place a scant teaspoonful of the filling into the center. Take two adjacent corners (not opposite, that is) and bring them together, then bring up the other two corners, and then press all four down onto the center, closing it into a little package.*


3. Brush the top with more egg and repeat over and over and over until you are sick of the sight of them!
   


4. Before placing the sheet in the oven, spray them with the cooking spray, then bake for 9-12 minutes, or until the tops brown. Serve with dipping sauce.
   

I usually make them in advance and then reheat them for 3 minutes in the microwave. Alternately, you can reheat them in a 300-degree oven for 15 minutes.

*You may fold them in different ways, too; just simply fold them over into little triangles or into little envelopes. If you are using different fillings, it’s good to choose different folds just to differentiate them.

Fillings:

Beef filling: Brown approximately 1 lb ground beef (chuck, round or sirloin, but a leaner cut is better) and drain the fat. Then in a large bowl, mix the meat with chopped scallions, toasted sesame seeds and soy sauce or House of Tsang’s Korean-style Teriaki marinade (available at Price Chopper).

If you are baking these rather than frying them, YOU MUST cook the beef ahead of time. You can make these more traditionally by simmering them in broth, deep-frying or pan-frying. In those cases, you do not have to pre-cook the meat.

Crab rangoon filling: 6oz lump crab meat mixed with chopped scallions, 1 T soy sauce, diced pimento and 8oz softened cream cheese. Serve those mandu with Sweet and Sour sauce.

Tofu filling: mash tofu with a little tabasco, chopped scallions, cream cheese, sesame seeds and soy sauce. Use the same dipping sauce as the meat-filled mandu.

Dipping Sauce (Chojang):

3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
sliced green onion

Lucy demonstrates a few of the steps in making mandu:

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Pizza for Shannon

Pizza is a staple in my house. I might go so far as to say that pizza is the staff of life. We have Pizza & Movie Night as often as we can, and as nice as it is to get take out pizza, nothing, and I do mean nothing, beats a good homemade pizza.

I have showed my daughters how to pat out the dough and make their own personal pizzas, which delighted them. Now they don't bicker over toppings or who got more slices. It's really the perfect answer, plus they get the pleasure of cooking with Mommy. My older daughter likes watching me make the dough. I know that she is dying to give kneading the dough a try. She is already pretty adept at using a box grater to shred the block of mozzarella - I just have to be sure that she does not sneak huge handfuls of the cheese when I am not looking! The littler one loves to help out too by assembling the topping ingredients. So all told, it is time together well spent and well enjoyed.

As far as toppings go, sometimes I want something really simple, like a plain old super-cheesy pizza or a spicy pepperoni pizza; other times I get all fancy with the toppings. One of my favorites has kalamata olives, artichoke hearts and feta with a sun-dried tomato pesto. It is a fairly oily and salty pizza from the brines and the feta, but on top of a cracker-thin crust and paired with some really good cheese, it is absolutely sublime.

So yeah, we take our pizza fairly seriously here. No Boboli crusts or pizza dough from a packet for me. A few weeks ago, my friend Shannon asked me for my pizza dough recipe because she said she wanted to start making pizza from scratch. I have experiemented with different dough recipes, but have settled on this, my basic pizza dough recipe. It is fairly fast-acting,and very versatile, but you have to be careful about the type of yeast you use.

Pizza

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 T RapidRise Yeast
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• Italian seasoning (optional)
• garlic powder(optional)
• onion powder (optional)



• 1 cup hot water (between 120-130 F)
• 2 T olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 450. You want the kitchen to be good and warm.
   


2. Put 2 cups of the flour in a large bowl along with the yeast granules, salt and Italian seasoning, garlic powder and onion powder.
   


3. Mix very well with a whisk, breaking up any clumps.
   


4. Test the temperature of the water (very important when you are using RapidRise yeast). When it is about 125 F, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Add this to the dry ingredients and mix well with a wooden spoon until all of the water is incorporated.
   


5. On a well-floured surface (I just use a clean counter) dump out the dough. At this point it is a wet, scary-looking, shaggy mess. Don't worry. You still have 1 cup of flour nearby.
   


6. Knead the dough and work in the extra flour one small handful at a time. It takes a good 4-6 minutes to get the right amount of flour in. Because there is oil in it, the dough will still be slightly tacky, though not sticky. If it's sticky, keep adding flour. You will use as little as 1/2 cup of flour and maybe even the entire cup. You'd be surprised what a different the humidity of the air can make.
   
   How I like to knead: I fold over half the dough and press it in, then I turn the whole ball of dough a quarter turn, and keep on folding and pressing, adding more flour to the counter and to the dough as it absorbs.
   


7. Once the dough is slightly silky, shape it into a ball, re-flour a bit of the counter, set the ball on it and dust it with more loose flour then cover it with a cloth. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes, longer is better, like 30 minutes.
   


8. When you are ready to shape it, remove the cloth. It ought to have risen nicely - if it did not, chances are the kitchen is too cold or the yeast died. So sad. :(
   
   Punch it down and divide it into pieces. It makes 2 12-inch pizzas or 4 smaller personal pizzas. or, if you are careful and patient, 3 10-inch pizzas with cracker-thin crusts.
   


9. Oil a pan with olive oil (or cooking spray).
   


10. Place the ball of dough in the center, and starting in the middle of the ball, flatten it gently. DO NOT PULL or STRETCH THE DOUGH That will just rip holes in it. With your fingertips, press down, gently flattening the dough. It is elastic and will stretch out if you are patient. I turn the pan as I do it to keep it even. If you find that the dough is a little bit resistant and springs back into a smaller shape, put it aside near the oven and let it sit for 5 minutes. The heat will help relax the dough until it's ready to be patted out to a large circle.
    


11. Optional- let it sit in a warm spot and rise 10 minutes... OR
    


12. Top it immediately with sauce and toppings.
    


13. Bake in a wicked hot oven (450 F) for 9-12 minutes. It really depends on the thickness of your crust, the accuracy of your oven, how may toppings you have. At about 9 minutes in, check on it.
    


14. Let sit for a good 5 minutes before slicing.
    

Notes:

• Flour I prefer bread flour, but all-purpose works fine too, especially with 1 tablespoon of gluten per cup of flour, but if you have only All Purpose flour, that will be just fine. All the extra gluten does is give the dough a bit more structure. If you like a really cracker-thin crust, though, you might not need the extra gluten.
  


• Yeast I have made this with regular old active yeast (non Bread machine, non RapidRise), and have had good results, even with a shorter rising time, although it will probably NOT be ready in just a 10-minute rise. Plan on at least a 30-minute rise PLUS a second rise for 10 minutes once you have the dough patted into shape.
  


• Kneading Your first time with this recipe may be weird, especially if you are not used to kneading. This starts out as a very rough, sticky dough, so you have to be generous with the flour and don't be gentle with the dough either. Work that flour in there. It is TOTALLY therapeutic and definitely worth it.
  


• Optional Seasonings I have been using this recipe for, no joke, 10 years now. I only recently hit on adding garlic powder and onion powder to the dry ingredients at the start. The kids both commented on how awesome it was. You can add finely grated parm too if you like, though really I like to save the cheese for the topping.
  
  You may use a bit of whole wheat flour too, but I would not substitute more than 1 cup of the AP flour for WW. After that point you really have to do some fancy finagling and add extra gluten to get the texture right. JMO.
  


• Pans I really like the perforated pizza pans, especially if I go a little heavy-handed with the toppings. Sometimes a lot of raw veggies can make things a bit soggy.
  
  However, when the girls make their own personal pizzas, I just use cookie sheets. If you really like a thicker crust, I would suggest using a perforated pan and lowering the heat to 400/425 and baking it longer.
  
  If you have a pizza stone, then I am jealous.
  


• Adjustments This recipe halves very well to make one pizza. You can also take those halved measurements and add it to the regular recipe to make 3 pizzas. It also doubles nicely to make an obscene amount of pizza.
  
  ALSO! If you make the regular batch but decide that you just aren't feeling gluttonous enough to eat 2 whole pizzas in one sitting, you can take the 2nd ball of dough and put it in a plastic bread bag and stick it in the fridge. Give it some room in the bag because it WILL expand.
  
  When you are ready to make it, say, the next day, take it out and let it come to room temperature. Then shape to fit the pan, top, bake and devour.

Gallery of Pizzas

Here is my younger daughter's favorite, your standard pepperoni pizza.

She really patted out the dough on her own after I got her started with the ball of dough. The first time she made this, she layered the pepperoni slices on so thickly, it looked as though the pizza was shellacked with pepperoni!

She ended up pulling off almost all of them, but she still devoured the pizza.




This is my older daughter's specialty: the stuffed-crust, super-cheesey pizza.

She pats out the dough extra wide so that the crusts are super thin and hanging over the edge of the pan. Then she takes string cheese and rips it into long, thin shreds, places them around the perimeter and rolls up the extra crust around it.

She finishes it off by mounding it with shredded mozzarella and grated parmigiano and pecorino.




My most recent pizza, this is a white pizza topped with andouille, red potato and a sprinkling of thyme.

I really wanted something different and was not in the mood for a tomato sauce base.


It was really, really delicious. Tweet