Cook with Misslane!

Check out the link here and Video : Cooking with Misslane

Had the fun experience of being interviewed for www.abqexposed.com last month regarding our Kids cooking classes! Thanks to the kids that came out and joined me and enjoyed another fun afternoon whipping up some banana muffins, playing with baking powder and of course  my favorite part………..eating.

We love Food Science and its always fun to experiment in the kitchen and create something healthy and fun to eat.

PS:  Remember Boys love cooking too!  In fact young boys have been my most exuberant little chefs!    I know we have lots of aspiring Young Chefs out there sign up for  a class today!!!   Keep a look out for Groupon to be advertising discount Kids classes  with  cookwithmisslane.com SOON!!

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Seems like most  kids like to experiment with ingredients and chemicals and see what happens!

Funny thing is, cooking is  like conducting an experiment in many ways!  When you put different food ingredients together you create a chemical reaction with the food and  Voila…… something happens to change the appearance or texture of the food . You end up with  either a tasty treat or a exciting  experience to learn from.

We did this  recently in some of our cooking classes this summer and plan to do more in the coming months.

One of the best ways to get to know what your ingredients  is to look at them and play with them and see what they do!  Foods all have chemical reactions when heated, cooled, mixed or kneaded.  What you put into your dough and how long you mix it contribute to the texture and density of the finished product.

Experiments with leavening ingredient can be lots of fun and teach kids how air pockets are created in our foods and make things rise.   In one of our lessons, we learned how sodium Bicarbonate ( baking soda) , baking powder and  yeast  interact with certain ingredients  to release Carbon Dioxide  bubbles and make our cakes, cookies and breads rise.   Then we has the pleasure to put it to work in one of our recipes!

Here is a easy fun experiment to do at home to see CO2 at work!

Baking Soda Bomb

Ingredients:

• paper towel
• Vinegar
• Baking soda
• Plastic zip lock bag or plastic water bottle with cap

Make sure that you do this experiment outside as it gets messy and your parents may not appreciate an explosion in the house!

Packet: Take a paper towel  and place 2 tablespoons of baking soda in the middle of the towel.  Take the sides of the towel and fold them in to the center and continue to  fold the paper into a small square packet.  Set aside.

Take a sandwich size zip lock bag  (make sure there are no holes in it)  pour 1/2 cup of  vinegar  and 1/4 cup of water into the bag and zip close.  Get your packet ready and go outside with the baggie. Carefully open the bag  enough to put in the packet and and quickly zip closed.  Shake  a couple of seconds  and drop on the ground and watch.

You will see the CO2 in action creating lots of  fizzy bubbles and as the air expands in the bag it will get bigger and bigger and finally……….if you have done your job right …….Boom it will explode.   You can also try this with a small plastic bottle and screw on the top  shake  it and throw into the air !

Join us for one of our upcoming sessions of Food Science and see what of fun things we can do together as we  play with our food!

We had another great day of cooking with Misslane last week!

This time we tackled homemade pizza dough for Pepperoni pizza Rolls and  Chocolate chip Zucchini muffins!

Here are some pics of the kids in action!  They have really done an amazing job with their baking skills and I do believe have had a blast!     Next week is our last class in this series…………….but no worries, summer is coming and we have some great classes lined up.  Just look for info here on my blog under Kids Classes!

Its a question I wanted to pose seeing I have a daughter whose favorite food is sushi.

Yes, she is 14 and does have a well developed palate but I was wondering if there were other folks out there whose kids are asking to go to dinner for sushi ?  I guess I started her on it  early and I do enjoy a nice tuna roll and baked dynamite, but its one of those things that I just didn’t expect to hear from my daughter so often.  So please  let me know if there are other folks out there who have found a kid friendly, affordable place for sushi that won’t break the pocket book .

I  admit I am a bit of a foodie and  since I am always critiquing places I eat I may as well share my findings on my Blog.

Tonight we dined at Sushi Hana Downtown on 6th and Central.   Its become a new favorite of mine.  Great ambiance,  lovely restaurant, its actually quite a big place but usually empty in the evening.  They have Happy Hour from 5:30- 7:30 and Half  off  their sushi menu. They have a nice selection of sushi rolls and Udon,  Yakitori, and traditional Japanese offerings.

The Miso Soup is tasty, very rich and tasty broth, deep caramel colored and nice touch of tofu and sliced mushrooms and green onions.  ( Forgot to take a picture…)

Squid Salad........so, so

Didn’t care much for the Squid salad which is one my daughters favorites. It was a little too chewy and rubbery,  maybe not cut  into small enough pieces and the flavor was lacking.

The  Sushi rolls however, made up for the lack of flavor and they were beautiful and tasty.

We decided on 3 rolls and here are pictures of two of them , Fire Roll and Love Knight.  They were similar. They both had shrimp tempura in the center and salmon, except one had avocado . Sushi was fresh and the right amount sauce.  I especially liked the one with the avocado and my daughter enjoyed them both.

I do hope that you will  take a night to check out Sushi Hana,  Downtown.  We just discovered it  a month ago, but I fear that they may not be around long if we don’t get the word out and fill the place with customers soon.  Since the price is right and the service is friendly, and the sushi is tasty stop by and give it try and let me know what you think.   They do a nice Bento lunch special as well, but I haven’t tried it yet.  Let me know if you have ?      Arigato!     Comment me and let me  know where you like to go?

This week in class  we had the pleasure of practicing our measuring and baking skills together and made Oatmeal Blondies and Silver dollar pancakes.

I think everyone had a blast  and the kids really enjoyed making and eating their creations!

The cool thing about these recipes is they use a  convenient baking mix we call Everyday Baking Mix.

It is easy to make and can be used for several different recipe variations.

I’m posting it here for all of you to try out……..it stores for up to 3 months in an airtight container.

Just be sure to mix it up before measuring out for your recipes.  Enjoy!

Everyday Baking Mix

v 6 Cups all purpose flour

v 3 Cups sugar

v 2 Tablespoons baking powder

v 1 Tablespoons salt

In a large bowl, whisk together 6 c. flour (spooned and leveled), 3 c sugar, baking powder and salt.  Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 months. Whisk before using.  Makes about 9 cups

Use it to make the following 3 Recipes

Chewy Oatmeal Blondies

• 1 stick butter room temperature
• ½ Cup  packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 ½  Cup Everyday baking mix (spooned and leveled)
• 1 Cup old fashioned oats/ not quick oats

Preheat oven 350. Brush 8’’ square baking pan with butter. Line bottom and 2 sides with parchment paper letting 2’’ overhang on both sides.

Using an electric mixer beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add egg beat until combined with mixer on low, gradually and slowly add baking mix.  Mix until combined.  Mix in ¾ cup of oats.  Pour batter into pan.

Using a butter knife, smooth batter evenly in pan, and sprinkle remaining oats on top pressing gently.   Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Using overhang on sides of pan, transfer brownies to a wire rack to cool.

Toothpick test:  The toothpick test is one of the best and most accurate ways to judge the doneness of baked items such as cakes and brownies.  One simply takes a clean toothpick and gently pushes it into the middle of the pan.  If the toothpick comes out clean without any batter attached to it, you will know that the cake is done.  If it comes out still gooey and sticky more time is needed in the oven.

Silver Dollar Pancakes with chocolate sauce

WE made these with chocolate chips instead of chocolate sauce! Just put a  handful of semis sweet chips in the batter before you  cook them .  They are great either way.

• 2 teaspoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for skillet
• 1 large egg
• 1 cup milk
• 1 ¼ cups everyday baking mix
• 1/3 cup store bought chocolate sauce or chocolate hazelnut spread
• ½ cup vanilla ice cream

Caution hot stove or griddle!  Adult Supervision required for young children!

1. 1. In a medium bowl, whisk together butter, egg and 2/3 cup milk. Add baking mix, whisk lightly just until moistened.

IMPORTANT ( DO NOT OVERMIX; a few small lumps are fine).

1. Preheat oven to 200. Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium, very lightly butter the bottom of the pan.
2. Drop 2 -3 tablespoons of batter onto the hot skillet or griddle.  Cook until surface of pancakes have some bubbles and a few have burst, 1 to 2 minutes. Flip pancakes with a thin spatula, and cook until browned on the underside another 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Transfer pancakes to a baking sheet, cover loosely with foil and put into the preheated oven to stay warm. Continue to make pancakes with remaining batter, adding more butter to skillet as necessary.
4. Recipe should make about 12 pancakes.
5. In a small saucepan combine chocolate sauce with 1/3 cup milk. Bring to a simmer over medium low, and whisk until smooth.

Serve pancakes topped with chocolate sauce and ice cream.

Jam Sandwich Cookies

4 cups Everyday baking mix

1 cup (2 sticks ) butter cold unsalted , cut into pieces

½ cup milk

¾ cup seedless jam or jelly any flavor

(Recipe makes 36 cookies/  18 sandwiches)

1. Preheat oven to 350. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.. In a food processor, pulse baking mix and butter until mixture resembles coarse meal.  Add milk; pulse until a thick dough forms.
2. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons on to cookie sheets, 4 inches apart.
3. Bake until cookies begin to turn golden but center is still pale, approx 12-14 minutes. Rotate sheets halfway through.
4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Spread flat side of half of the cookies with 2 teaspoons jam each
6. Sandwich cookies with the remaining cookies.

So our latest kids class started last week and was a big success.

The kids are having a blast learning some baking  and math skills while preparing some tasty treats.

Here are a few pics of the kids doing their THING while making home made pretzels.

Spring is here and summer is on the way. With that in mind its time to get ready for some exciting new classes and food science experiments that kids will love.

Cooking is a Science…or is it science you can eat?  Truth is its both, and  it sure can be fun experimenting with food!

When I first started cooking as a kid one of my favorite things was to do home made science experiments in the kitchen. My little brother and I used to pull out all kinds of cooking ingredients like flour and baking soda  from the pantry and look into the refrigerator for a liquid (milk, vinegar, oil, corn syrup, ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, ) and some leftovers and see what we could heat up, blow up or explode in the kitchen!  My mom would wonder what the funny smell was and then ask have you seen my meat tenderizer….I know I had a bottle here somewhere?

In honor of those kids who love science experiments and cooking, we will be teaching a Food Science Class with my friend Wendy Flybutter this summer! Its going to be fun time for all!

The plan is to take 4  weeks of classes and work with all kinds of foods such as (chocolate, breads, pizza, meat, eggs, and ice cream).  The plan is to create some fun cooking experiments that result in something fun to eat!

Where:   Third Street Arts

711 3^rd Street SW  87102

Kids Food Science Class

Ages: 9-14

Dates:  Mondays and Fridays   Beginning June

7^th , 11^th, 14, 18^th 21, 25, 28^th , July 2^nd

Register for whole session or individual Classes by

$25/ per class or   $140 for the complete session

Time: 10:30 am to 12:30 pm

Greetings my friends! Yes, the  Holidays are almost here!

Quick update:  for those of you who have read any of my previous blogs and listened to me whine about my old clunker stove,  I am happy to announce that my landlord had mercy on me, and after mentioning my concern about a possible explosion, he agreed to purchase a brand spanking new shiny black gas range! I am so excited to have a new stove I can hardly contain myself.  Not only is it nice to look at, it has a timer, and 2 high powered burners!  Now I can boil water and fry up some yummy pot stickers without having to find the matches:)  I must admit it is truly the best gift this girl could have received this holiday! So I am now happily back in the kitchen and baking away!

The weather here in New Mexico has blown in some chilly days and my daughter and I have been hunkering down trying to keep warm during our recent cold spell. I mean …cold for Albuquerque is when it drops below 40f during the daylight hours!  This is when transplanted folks from the East coast and Midwest like mom and dad whine that they moved from Boston (circa 1973) to NM to get out of this cold weather and “it’s not supposed to snow here anymore.”

So when a small crop of white flakes fall from the sky and start to gather on the ground and stick for more than an hour a lot of folks start to panic and run indoors.  I myself think that the sight of snow is euphoric. It warms my heart and reminds me of my childhood days in Chicago and Boston.   We kids bundled up in assorted hand me down sweaters and jackets, mis- matched mittens and gloves,  old hats and scarves that we usurped along the way from friends and neighbors.  I could hardly move as I tumbled through the snow with my friends spending hours outside building snow forts, and rolling snowballs and turning them into giant snowmen!

I reminisce and wonder what it would be like to once again live in a part of the country where it actually snows all day and the white stuff sticks to the ground and doesn’t melt by noon when the sun comes out?

Yet now instead of the East coast I think of the western slopes like Silverton, Colorado where my little brother and his family live year round at 9000  ft elevation.  Yep,  up in the mountains where the sky opens up and snow seems to cover the earth in a white blanket!  Great  place for skiing, snowboarding , drinking micro brewed beer from Silverton Brewery silvertonbrewing.com , and………………warmer indoor activities like playing in the kitchen!

I have found that the cold weather is a great time to fix some soup and bake some cookies and sip hot chocolate! Currently I am focusing on my holiday baking and doing my best to keep things easy this year.

I ran across a great recipe for a basic cookie dough that can make 4 different kinds of cookies.  Its easy to prepare and great fun for kids of all ages to get their hands dirty in the baking process. So with that being said, I am posting my new favorite cookie dough recipe for you and your family to play with over the winter break!   Bake some cookies and have some fun as you gather indoors and take time to enjoy

All in One Cookie Dough:  (courtesy of Everydaycooking.com)

I really enjoy this rich buttery cookie dough. Its simple to make and can be used to make several different  cookies.  Just change the shapes and add different toppings and you have an assortment of delicious cookies!

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)

Directions

1. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, sugar, and salt until light and fluffy. Add yolks, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. Add vanilla. With mixer on low, add flour; mix just until combined. Wrap in plastic; chill until firm, about 1 hour. To make ahead: Refrigerate up to 2 weeks, or freeze up to 3 months.
2. Citrus or Spice: Whisk 1 tablespoon grated lemon, lime, or orange zest (or a combination), or 1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice into the flour before adding it to the butter mixture.

• Make thumbprint cookies by rolling into tablespoon size balls and pushing a spoon in the middle to create a hole and fill with preserves or  chocolate.
• Pretzel cookies: Roll into 8 inch snakes and twist into pretzel shapes and decorate with nuts, coconut or colored sprinkles
• Make refrigerator cookies by carefully shaping into a 8 inch log and rolling into plastic wrap and rolling in your desired topping ( we like crushed pecans or walnuts)  refrigerating for 2 hours. See directions below:

1. On a large piece of parchment or waxed paper, gently form 1/2 recipe all-in-one cookie dough into an 8-inch log.
2. Fold one short end of paper over log; wedge a baking sheet against log. Holding other end of paper at an angle, push baking sheet against log while pulling on paper, creating a smooth, compact log.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Gently roll log in desired topping to coat; wrap in parchment. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.
4. Unwrap log, and place on a cutting board. Using a serrated knife, slice into 1/4-inch-thick rounds.
5. Place rounds on parchment-lined baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Bake until pale golden, 13 to 15 minutes, rotating sheets halfway through.

From Everyday Food, December 2008

Tapas are  small snacks and appetizers that are served throughout  Spain and come in many different forms,  both cold and hot.  I have tried several different recipes  and all are delicious!  Tapas are usually made with local fresh ingredients depending on the region of Spain they are from are a great way to start a meal. I hope you can find a local Tapas restaurant near you and try some tasty treats.  Its a great way to introduce new  flavors to your family and open up the door to a new culinary experience!    Get in the kitchen and be sure and try one of the tapas recipes below.

Interesting Info:   The Origin of Tapas

According to an article from About.com the origin of Tapas is sketchy but interesting. Here are several stories about the origin of tapas, which are a part of the folklore:

It is told that King Alfonso X, el Sabio or “the Wise One,” made sure that Castilian taverns serve wine accompanied by something to eat, so that the wine would not go straight to the clients’ heads.

Another story claims that while on a long trip, King Alfonso had stopped to rest in the town of Ventorillo del Chato in the province of Cádiz, and he ordered a glass of jerez or sherry. There was a gusty wind, so the inn keeper served him his glass of sherry covered by a slice of ham to prevent the sherry from getting dirty. King Alfonso apparently liked it, and when he asked for a second glass, he requested another tapa or “cover” just like the first.

Whatever the true origin of tapas, prepare one or several, then enjoy them like the Spanish do – with a relaxed attitude !

Here are a couple of recipes for some popular tapas that are  easy and delicious ! Youngsters can surely help mom an dad peel and mix the ingredients.

(Papas )PATATAS Alioli

• 3/4 pound potatoes, preferably red potatoes

• 1/2 Cup mayonnaise

• 3  cloves garlic, mashed to a paste or put through a garlic press

• 2 Tablespoons minced Italian parsley

Bring the potatoes to a boil in salted water, mixed with a little chicken broth if you wish, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the potatoes in the water, covered, until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes.

Drain and cool the potatoes in a colander.

Cut the potatoes into 3/4 inch chunks.

In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise, garlic and parsley, The mayonnaise should be a little thin to combine smoothly with the potatoes, stir in a  little fresh lemon juice ,1 or 2 tsp to dilute.

Fold in the potatoes gently, season with salt and let sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature before serving. Or make ahead and refrigerate, then return to room temperature before serving.

Enjoy!!

Ensalada de Judias Blancas  (White Bean Salad)

• 3/4 pound cooked white beans or chickpeas  (good quality canned beans rinsed work well)

• 1 medium organic tomato, cubed

• 1 hard boiled egg, sliced and cut in half

• 4 pitted cured black olives, each cit in 4 pieces

• 1 tablespoon minced parsley

• 2 tablespoons fruity olive oil

• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

• salt and 1 clove of garlic mashed

In a bowl gently combine the beans, tomato egg, olives and parsley.  In a separate bowl whisk the oil , vinegar, salt and garlic.

Carefully fold the oil and vinegar dressing  into the bean mixture and let marinate in the refrigerator for several hours.  Serve with toasted bread and enjoy!