The Search for Miss Direction: Doodle of A Day

What exactly is a Cheese Doodle? This is the question I am presented with on National Cheese Doodle Day. It goes by so many names I think it's a bit hard to pin down. But whether you call it a doodle, a cheeto or a cheezy pouf consider it celebrated today! And perhaps the bigger question is what is that orange powdery stuff anyway????

We here at Kid Kitchen set out to straighten out the myth behind the doodle today. We made two different recipes for items claiming to be a cheese doodle. One was a softer kind of puff (which had no crunch to it which I could tell by reading the recipe was going to be a major hang-up with my kiddos accepting it as a cheese puff) and the other was kind of like a meringue cookie with cheese.

The kids and I had a blast making both of these. The puffy ones that got to get dirty with by mixing the dough and the rolling it into balls. As I've said before, anything that lets them get dirty is a hit. Plus they got to learn about a pastry cutter. Good times!

The second kind allowed us to play with the mixer. A lot. We beat the heck out of some egg whites. The kids were amazed by what we started with and what we ended up finishing with. Our conversation that followed about what people did before electric mixers (you mean they did it by hand, mom?) was classic. Noah decided if we had to do that he'd rather just skip Kid Kitchen.

I was really surprised at the result of our taste off between the two. I really thought they would go for the crunchy ones. I was dead wrong. I actually had to save two of the puff ones so Grant could try them too. They ate all of the rest of them in about 5 minutes! They said they liked the crunchy ones, too, but preferred the puff ones when it came down to it. Grant agreed. Well OK then. (If you want to do a taste test of your own let me know, I will be happy to share the recipes. That goes for any of the food that you come across here, by the way)

To take the celebration a step further I also whipped up some mac and cheese (a new recipe that everyone loved!) topped with some store bought cheese doodles. We will definitely be having this one again, though perhaps without the doodles. Bring on some ritz crackers for me ;-)

We also made it to the library for story time today where we talked about dinosaurs. My favorite part of the whole day - Noah drawing a picture of a dinosaur complete with spikes, hat, googly eyes with eyelashes, a beard and wearing shoes. There's an imagination for you!

And off on yet another tangent - it's official; Noah is registered for kindergarten next year. *Sigh* I filled out all the paperwork last night and after rounding out the 27 proofs of residency forms required (that is honestly only a slight exaggeration) Grant took it all over to Beechview today to get Noah signed up. Ouch, another heartstring just broke.

Frozen food and some white chocolate cheesecake tomorrow. We're borrowing a page from the book of Grant's childhood for one of the celebrations so you'll want to check us out :) Until then...

My kiddos pre-walk this morning. It was BEAUTIFUL here today, they were mad when we got home and I made them come inside. Noah claimed he didn't even need a coat. I guess my Florida baby's blood has thickened up