Cereal-ously?

Happy National Cereal Day!  As I mentioned yesterday I really wanted to avoid doing something cliche.  So instead we went to the whole other extreme - we just had cereal!

I bought a whole bunch of different kinds of cereal and we set up our own cereal bar.  Everyone got to create their own cereal with their own mix and toppings.  It was great!  The boys even went back for seconds.

Then after baths tonight we decided to play with our food a little bit.  Everyone set out to create some cereal masterpieces.  Check out the action below.

Peanut clusters tomorrow :) Until then...

When we got home from MOPS this morning we pulled out the play doh for awhile :)  Bragging side note:  I was told that Noah was an EXCELLENT helper in the MOPS nursery today and that he was so good with the smaller kids they wanted to hire him as a baby-sitter.  Go big bro Noah!

Our cereal bar fixings

Noah steps up to create his cereal

Kayla too

And Grant :)

Cereal Art

I'm not sure if more cereal made it on Mikayla's necklace or in her belly.  She did manage to pick out all the marshmallows from the entire bowl of Lucky Charms...

A Frozen Feast fit for the gods

At my Bridal Shower, the guests were asked to contribute a few of their favorite easy recipes for me to use in my married life.  Some of those recipes I have pulled out countless times (Ann Smith's penny pinching pizza is a favorite!).  As you can imagine, among his favorites are the ones Grant's mom, Caren, gave me to me.  The first was for Lemon Chicken.  It always comes out "good but not as good as Mom's" which I will take any day.  There are some things that will never rank up there with Mom's.  No one, and I mean no one including myself, can make chicken wings to rival my Mama's, so I completely understand.

But the other recipe (which from if I understand Grant correctly was a stand-by of his Step-Dad's actually) was for what was called "Food of the gods"  When I saw that today was Frozen Food Day I knew this was the perfect 'recipe' to pull out.

Food of the gods has to be a favorite of pretty much EVERY kid I know.  It's pretty simple - breaded chicken strips (we substituted chicken rings today, you use what ya got), mozzarella sticks and a veggie side (which I will note on the 'recipe' specifically said veggie in butter, hehe).  Grant added that there must be honey for dipping.

It was no surprise that dinner flew off my table tonight.  I added a fruit smoothie to round out the meal and my kids scarfed it down.  Thanks Bryant's for the perfect way to celebrate Frozen Food Day today :)  Oh, side note for anyone out there keeping track, it is also National Frozen Food month - so if Food of the gods sounds yummy to you, make sure you pick up the fixings for it some time this month!

It is also White Chocolate Cheesecake Day.  I didn't really want to make a whole cheesecake (there is still a little bit of tiramisu to get through yet) and I've been really wanting to make some cookies, so I searched out a recipe for cheesecake cookies!  I found a great recipe, tweaked it to include some white chocolate and a few strawberries for good measure and whipped up a half batch.  They were so cute when they came out of the oven!  They were still all ooey and gooey (so much so that  even though the recipe warned this is what they were supposed to look like I didn't believe they were done and stuck 'em back in for a few more minutes...)  The recipe said they had to be kept in either the fridge or the freezer, so I stuck some in both places so we could compare which we liked better.

So after dinner flew off the table I pulled out the cookies.  Grant said he liked them.  Not his favorite but they were good.  He said it didn't make him think 'cheesecake' but rather eating cookie dough.  I'd agree - I thought they needed more cream cheese.  The chocolate taste was definitely there but that lushness of a cheesecake was missing.  Noah, on the other hand, would have eaten the whole batch of them if I would have let him.  I'm not kidding.  I finally cut him off after five cookies.  Kayla (my non-dessert eater) enjoyed them as well.  I will definitely be making these again next time Noah is super good as a treat.

Cereal Day tomorrow - you'll want to check out what I ended up coming up with.  I was trying to avoid the cliche rice krispie treats or chex mix and I'm kind of excited about what we'll be doing instead.  Plus we're going to do a cereal art project tomorrow night!  Until then...

White chocolate cheesecake cookies

I was trying to get a good picture of the white chocolate chunks but the lighting and I were having a fight

Smoothies for Frozen Food Day

Food of the gods

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

The start of Kid Kitchen - they wanted to wear the chef hats they made at storytime last week

Mixing up the first kind of doodles

This is the dough we ended up with 

Rolling them up

Ready for the oven

And so the beating of the egg whites begins

We got stiff peaks!

The first kind comes out of the oven

The 'dough' for the second kind

Ready for the oven

Taste test

The second kind out of the oven

Noah's taste test of the second doodle

Mac & Cheese with cheese doodle crust

Pound for Pound

Do you know why Pound Cake is called Pound Cake?  My celebration of National Pound Cake Day today caused me to research just that issue.  Nope, it's not because it weighs a pound.  Nope, it's not because the denseness of it could lead some to use it as a paper weight.  It is because in traditional recipes the cake uses a whole POUND of butter.  That's right people, four sticks of butter in one cake.  Can't you just feel your arteries clogging today?

That wasn't going to stop us Gatchel's from fully celebrating the joy of pound cake.  No, if anyone was going to screw that one up it was going to be me.  The creation of my pound cake was a series of 'oops' moments.  In fact, as I hinted in yesterday's post, I originally intended to turn my pound cake into french toast tonight.  (Because it wasn't quite decadent enough already)  Needless to say, that didn't happen.  But I'm going to chalk my miscues up to a huge success because the end result of our pound cake celebration was rave reviews from the whole crowd.

I was originally going to make up the cake yesterday afternoon during the basketball game.  Again, since I was going to turn it into french toast I decided the extra sitting time could only help it out.  I opened the fridge only to discover that my carefully planned out use of my eggs for the cake had gone to heck when I whipped up some scrambly eggs for breakfast yesterday morning.  I was two eggs short for my cake.  Okay, no worries, I'd run out after the kiddos headed to bed.

Which I did.  So it was almost 9:30 last night before I started on my cake.  I pulled out my loaf pan (I was halving the recipe I found to make a 'small' loaf size of pound cake) and went to grab my cooking spray, gave it a good shake and - damn, no spray left.  *sigh*  So I pulled out some butter and greased down my pan figuring that'd be sufficient. I also greased four cups of a mini muffin tray because after all this work I knew Grant and I were going to have to sample last night.

I'm standing there beating my ingredients together trying to determine why the sugar and butter I was whipping together wasn't light and fluffy but instead liquidy and runny.  Um, that'd be because my smart self was trying to 'cream' together eggs and butter instead of butter and sugar.  Epic fail.  I went about fixing my mistake and mixing up the rest of my cake.

I get done adding the last bit of flour (my cake had sour cream in it too that I was alternating with the flour hoping to give the cake a bit of a lighter texture) and realize that this batter is a lot thicker than I anticipated and might be a bit much for my originally planned loaf pan.  I scoop out enough for my mini muffins and pour the rest of the batter into the loaf plan.  It's pretty full but I figure we're good to go.  Into the oven.

Fifteen minutes later you can hear both my stomach and Grant's growling from the smells coming out of my oven.  It was heavenly.  All that buttery goodness.  Ten minutes later I pulled the muffin pan out and noticed the cake was definitely going to need quite a bit more time.  I set the muffin pan aside to cool for a few minutes but realized I was going to have to pop those bad boys out for a taste sooner rather than later.

This is when I realized my snag.  There was no 'popping' the muffins out.  Greased or not, they were kinda stuck.  Not inedible, just get the knife out and cut them out a bit.  I began to wonder if I was going to have similar problems with my cake.  Too late, time to taste test.  At that point, I stopped caring if I had to pry the other cake out with a crow bar, it was so dang tasty it was worth it!  The mini muffins disappeared in the blink of an eye and the aroma continued to waft from my oven.

Due to the extra batter it took well over an hour for my cake to bake.  I let it cool for about 10 minutes and then pulled out my cooling rack and crossed my fingers.  It wasn't a complete disaster.  I only lost a good size chunk on the one side but thoughts of french toast were definitely a no go now.  For half a second I considered tossing the cake, running to the store in the morning to get some cooking spray and trying again but then I remembered how yummy the cake had actually been and I decided to come up with a Plan B.

A trifle seemed kind of obvious but boring.  Here it is 11pm and all I can think is "Dang, I need a cup of coffee, I'm going to be up for awhile figuring this one out."  Inspiration - coffee.  Tiramisu Pound Cake!  I even had everything I would need to whip it up.  And yes, we could have just celebrated by eating the pound cake as it was (I did save a piece for the kids to try since Grant and I already had) but I was afraid we'd be stuck with leftover pound cake all week.  It was good, but come on, it's got 4 sticks of butter in it!  And sour cream!  Geesh :-p  So instead I added coffee, chocolate, some kahlua, heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and cream cheese, duh!  (Side note, the extra bonus was that this can be kept in the fridge for up to a week.  Side side note - as I write this half the tiramisu is already gone so I don't think this will be an issue)

It was a hit!  Noah is calling it "Tiramipie" (lol!) and I'm not sure that I saw it on his plate before it disappeared.  Even Kayla who is kind of hit or miss sometimes on dessert loved it.  Grant said it didn't quite live up to Baked Alaska (he has confided that he dreams about Baked Alaska) but it was really really good.  Considering the days of anxiousness over the baked alaska and the last minute whip up of this one, I'm calling it a major win.

So lessons of the day - butter is good.  Make sure you have eggs and cooking spray.  Looks are good but taste is everything. Plan B is sometimes better than Plan A.

Pound cake, consider yourself laughed at (by me during all my mistakes) and celebrated by the Gatchel crew.  Kid Kitchen tomorrow where we explore the age old question - what the heck is that orange powder on a cheese puff?  That's right - tomorrow is National Cheese Doodle Day and we're whipping up not one, but two versions of homemade cheetos in Kid Kitchen for a Taste Off. Until then...

Pound Cake Tiramisu

Side view

Nom nom nom nom nom

Mulling over the Cold

 I am getting a little tired of the cold and being stuck inside and today's food (cold cuts) had me wishing we could pack up dinner and go for a picnic.  So we did.  Kind of.  Just inside :)

Cold cuts are so versatile I had no problem come up with ideas how to celebrate today.  And since we found out they love things like salami (just ask Papa how much Noah loves salami) and pastrami I was willing to be a little more daring.  So you'll have to check out my cold cut creations below.

It's also National Mulled Wine Day.  Grant and I warmed up with some this afternoon while watching Michigan defeat Michigan State.  It reminded me a lot of the wassail that Sean made when we were in college, just a little bit heavier.  A nice warm-up on a chilly afternoon.

We took a family trip to Ikea today.  I love Ikea, it cracks me up to see how much stuff can be stuffed in such a small space.  We didn't make any major purchases (we didn't expect to) but the highlight of our trip was finding some cute bowls. plates and utensils for the kiddos.  They love to have their own 'color' that matches, hmmm, wonder where they get that anal retentive trait from... On the way home I opened it up and found the 'warning' label that went along with it.  There were (and I exaggerate not and took a picture to prove it) 29 languages that the warning was written in.  Ikea takes global sales to a whole new level!

Back to school tomorrow and we're all going to pack on some weight tomorrow with the 'toasty' (there's your hint) idea I have to celebrate pound cake.  Until then...

Cold cut salad.  I know it looks weird but everyone loved it.  Noah gave it an 8 even

 Mulled wine

 Our picnic dinner - cold cut pinwheels, peaches and red skinned potato salad - yum yum, tastes like summer to me!

 Just the front of the Ikea warning page...

 So the fire wouldn't cooperate to let us make 'smores but I whipped some up in the microwave anyway :)

Our picnic

Top Banana

 I make something around here called upside down Banana Cream pie.  My family begs for it.  Whipped cream, then banana cream pie pudding, then banana coins (slices) all topped off with crushed graham crackers.  It seemed the logical go to for National Banana Cream Pie Day which of course means that I wasn't going to touch it with a ten foot pole today.  What's the fun in this project if we just stick with things that we know we like?  Plus, using pudding to make the pie, totally cheating.

So I decided I'd make my very first banana cream pie.  Legitimately, no pre-packaged pudding here.  I knew the custard filling can be a little tricky but you're talking to the girl who conquered Baked Alaska what's a little custard filling?  But since it's just the four of us this weekend and I didn't know who else I may be able to pawn leftover pie off on (Grant's co-workers LOVE me as they are reaping the benefits of my project during the week.  None of the dozen peanut butter muffins I sent yesterday made it home) I decided I was going to half the recipe and make mini individual pies.  I cut circles out of my pie dough and flipped my muffin tin over and baked little pie shells on it.  (Aren't I clever??) Halving the recipe made 6 mini pies which I knew wouldn't take long to disappear (there's only one left in my fridge as of 7pm this evening).  Noah claimed they were the best dessert he's ever had (I think he was trying to earn brownie points) and Grant rated them an 8 on a scale of 10, so maybe next time I'll be a little bolder and actually make the whole pie.

Making the pies didn't seem like quite enough, though, so I decided to find another way to celebrate  banana cream pie - at breakfast!  I made banana cream pie yogurt parfaits.  Okay, so Nilla wafers and whipped cream might not be the ideal breakfast foods, but the homemade banana cream yogurt (vanilla yogurt and fresh banana in the blender with a dash of vanilla - yum yum yum!) and crushed cinnamon toast crunch cereal set it off, right?

We've had kind of a lazy day around here today.  It is bitter cold or at least seems that way with the wind and overcast skies so plans to go sledding were scrapped.  The kids are desperate to burn off some energy (and Grant and I are desperate to let them) and run around but it makes it difficult right now being stuck inside.  Isn't spring here yet?  I thought that stupid groundhog predicted an early end to winter, what gives?  On the upside Grant and the kiddos headed to the Home Depot build this morning (Home Depot, I love ya - you make my kiddos happy every month with these workshops!) and created some race cars.   You'll have to scroll down and see what ended up happening with the cars here this afternoon.

Thinking about making a family trip to Ikea tomorrow (who doesn't love a ginormous Swedish furniture store??) and we'll be celebrating Cold Cuts and mulled wine.  What a combo!  Until then...

Banana cream pie a la breakfast

Nilla wafers (crushed), banana cream pie yogurt, cinnamon toast crunch, more yogurt, more nilla wafers and all topped off with some whipped cream

 Mini banana cream pie

 Kinda cute, huh?

 So suddenly, a gnome and a car show up to race cars in the middle of my living room...

Peanut Butter Madness

Above is the end result of today's celebrating.  We polished off not just one, but almost two full jars of peanut butter.  What can I say - we Gatchel's are nuts for peanut butter.  Happy National Peanut Butter Lover's Day!

We already had a Peanut Butter Day but apparently that's not enough for our fine nation.  We needed a whole other day just to celebrate those that love peanut butter.  Well count all four of us Gatchel's in!  And since I never do anything the easy way, I made it my mission to have peanut butter be the star of every meal today.  Snacks, too!  Thus the end result is the picture above.

You can peruse the pictures below to see all of our peanut butter creations today.  I'm not going to go through them blow by blow, you'll just have to trust me when I say we seriously celebrated peanut butter.

It's also National Fruit Compote day.  If you're anything like me your response to that is "What the heck is fruit compote?"  The answer - a whole bunch of fruit baked tossed together and baked at a really low temperature for a really long time basically turning it into fruit mush.  A huge hit with Noah and Kayla but a definite pass for the adults.  It even looked sad to me.  So sad that I had to put ice cream on it before I served it just to try to breathe some life back into it.  Oh well, the kids will be enjoying it for the next few days :)

In other news today, I'm more and more convinced every day that this project is expanding my kids palates in ways that I never would have thought.  As if it's not crazy enough already with their love of pastrami, clam chowder and things that taste like hot buttered rum, you can add mini peppers to the list.  I don't know if you've seen those miniature bell peppers in red, orange and yellow that you can buy by the bagful.  We've had them a couple of times before with my parents. I didn't realize how much the kids adored them, though.  We came across a bag at the grocery store when Noah practically starts dancing and begging me to buy them.  Bell peppers.  A four year old.  What parent in their right mind is not going to jump all over that?  If that wasn't enough, he carried them through the store and then insisted that we open them so he could start munching on them as soon as we got back to the car even though he had just finished lunch.  Bell peppers.  A four year old.  I love it.

Alright, we've just started our movie for movie night and I'm going to whip up some peanut butter and jelly milkshakes for the perfect sweet ending to today.  Banana cream pie multiple ways tomorrow!  Until then...

Peanut Butter muffins for breakfast

 Peanut Butter and Jelly pizza tortilla for lunch

 The way Kristi best loves to celebrate National Peanut Butter Lovers Day

 Fruit compote...

 Even with ice cream it still looks sad

Peanut Butter pasta (incidentally, everyone loved this - especially Kayla.  Grant said it was a little trippy eating noodles and peanut butter at the same time)

 Hand dipped peanut butter snacks for with the movie

These are peanut butter and chocolate honey balls.  I coated some in Nilla wafers and some in graham crackers