Midlife Crisis List #7 Try new recipes

This doesn't start out as new recipes, but hang in there--it finally comes around to that!

One thing I like to do is have children help me cook. It is usually messy and noisy and crazy fun!

When I was teaching a Primary class at church, I would invite my class over to my house at least twice a year for a party.  The favorite menu for those parties was individual pizza and sugar cookies

The format for most of the parties I had was the same.  The kids would arrive and I would start them on their pizzas.  Most of the time, I used English muffins for the crust.  The muffins are easy to use and are sturdy bases for pizza.  The only problem with them is that they are not big enough. Even if you use miniature pepperoni--which I think is just adorable--you can’t fit many toppings on an English muffin.  I have started to experiment with using 6-inch flour tortillas as the crust, and it seems to work well--it is large enough to hold more toppings, but still small enough for a child to eat.  One benefit of using English muffins or tortillas is that when the cheese is melted, the pizzas are done and you don’t have to worry about making sure a crust is completely cooked. That only takes about 12-15 minutes, so they don't have to wait too long to eat.

It was fun to watch the kids create their pizzas.  For a party, I would have the toppings already cut up and in bowls with serving spoons in them.  The kids would spoon the toppings they wanted onto a plate, then put together their pizza.  After the toppings were on their plate, I didn’t have to worry about them licking their fingers.  If they wanted more toppings, I could easily give them more.   Some of them were very careful and precise.  Some of them just dumped toppings onto the crust.  They all enjoyed eating the extra toppings on their plate.  As they finished a pizza, I would put it on a cookie sheet.  Putting parchment paper on the cookie sheet helps with clean-up, and, as an added bonus, you can write the name of the child next to their pizza so you don’t forget whose it is!  As soon as everyone has their first pizza complete, I put that batch in the oven.  For the first batch, I try to make sure each child has a pizza in the oven so they can all start eating at the same time!

While the pizzas were cooking, we would decorate cookies.  Since I love to bake, I briefly considered making sugar cookies for all of them, but then reality won and I bought a few dozen cookies at a bakery in one of the grocery stores.  The plus side of that is that the bakeries have different kinds of cookies that are round and flat, so the kids have a variety of cookies to decorate.  I have used sugar cookies, snicker-doodles, peanut butter cookies, and chocolate chip cookies.  All of them decorate well. I do make my own frosting, though.  It isn’t hard, doesn’t take much time, and tastes much, much better than store-bought frosting!  If I am running short on time, I can easily whip this up while the kids are making their pizzas.

Frosting

1 cube butter or margarine, softened

1-2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring

1 pound powdered sugar (or more)

Beat butter or margarine until smooth.  Add about a cup of powdered sugar and beat slowly until mixed well.  Beat in milk and vanilla.  Add rest of powdered sugar and beat until smooth and easy to spread.  If it is too thick, add a little bit of milk.  If it is too thin, add a little more powdered sugar.  For chocolate frosting, replace 1/4 cup of powdered sugar with 1/4 cup baking cocoa.  

*I usually use margarine for this--it is what I have on hand and it tastes good.  If you are more picky about frosting, use butter.  

I also briefly considered using different colors of frosting and putting it in frosting bags and letting the kids have even more fun, but decided to keep it more simple.  For some people, getting decorator bags and tips together  then filling the bags with frosting is fairly easy and quick, but it is not something I do on a regular basis, so it was more of a chore for me. What I use instead tends to be pretty messy, but very easy to prep.  I let them use sprinkles.  I know ahead of time that I will be cleaning sprinkles up from my floor for a few weeks after that--there are always some that escape the broom--but I love handing a child a jar of sprinkles and watching them work!  Again, some children just dump them on the frosting, but others are very careful and precise.  I like to have a variety of colors and shapes available.  That just makes the process more fun!  Some children like to put every single type of sprinkle on each and every cookie.  Others plan carefully and just use a few for their entire plate of cookies. Cupcakes are just as much fun as cookies, but I usually make those, so it gives the kids an opportunity to use a mixer, which adds to the fun!

Christmas Cupcakes

Sometimes, kids are concerned about the messes that are being made in my kitchen.  At one birthday party, one of my daughter’s friends came to me and let me know there was flour on my floor.  Another time, a child informed a parent about the mess that was made at my house.  My reply is always the same, “If I was worried about messes, I would not have invited you over to cook at my house!”  Messy kitchen can be cleaned.  The memories created while creating that mess is worth every minute of clean-up.

Over the summer, I found a new recipe.  I was at a friend’s house for supper and she made Pizza Casserole.  As soon as I tasted it, I knew I needed the recipe!  It was delicious!  When I asked for it, she told me just to google it.  The recipe I found was at this blog: http://www.closetcooking.com/2013/03/pepperoni-pizza-casserole.html

I really like this man’s blog and would like to make more of his recipes.  The fun parts of the Pizza Casserole recipe are that all of the toppings go in the sauce, and the cheeses are a lot of fun to mix together!  At first, I mixed them in a bowl, but then I realized kids could mush them together in a gallon plastic bag. I ended up inviting several families (at different times) over to make this casserole. With it, we made a very easy pudding pie. Then I sent the casserole and pie home with the kids for their families. 

Pudding Pie

1 graham cracker crust

1 small package pudding mix, any flavor

1 1/2 cups milk

8 ounces whipped topping

Mix pudding mix and milk.  Fold in whipped topping.  Spoon into graham cracker crust.  Chill for a few hours to set.  

 

Cutting olives and mixing cheese!

I am still adding to my list of recipes to make with children.  By the time I have grandchildren of my own, I should have a large file of recipes to make with them!