Triple Layer Pumpkin Pie Recipe
Triple Layer Pumpkin Pie Recipe
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Category Archives: Recipe
What to bring to friend who catered lunch for the First Lady?
I just made my banana cream pie (http://www.mykidsreallyeatthis.com/accidental-baker/). Should I make something else too?
One potato, two potato…
I really, really thought I was going to have more time to write when the kids got back to school, but I seem to have less time than before. I try to write late at night after the kids are in bed, but lately I keep falling asleep when I’m reading bedtime stories, much to the chagrin of my kids. I mean I’m actually falling asleep during the story. My sons have been known to pry open my eyes, poke me and yell, “Wake up!” or ” Mommy, keep reading!” So, I have been remiss in the frequency of my posts. But today, I’ve made some time.
Here are two potato recipes that the kids love. One is a fairly quick and very easy soup recipe, the other, scalloped potatoes, takes more time both in preparation and in baking. But they are favorites within my immediate and extended family. My husband is often requested to make the scalloped potatoes at family holiday gatherings.
Potato Leek Soup
3 large potatoes (russet or similar)
3 leeks (whites only)
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste (careful with the salt since the broth probably has enough)
Cut the leeks lengthwise then stand upright in cold water to wash. Once fully rinsed, chop and place in sauce pan. Peel and chop potatoes then add to leeks. Add broth.
Simmer until potatoes are soft (about 25 minutes). Take off heat and add cream. Season with fresh ground pepper and, if needed, salt. 
Use immersion blender to purée (standing blender will work too). 
Serve. Can chill and serve cold too (Vichyssoise).
My eldest loves this so much he squealed when I showed it to him. He could barely wait for a taste. 
His enthusiasm led my middle son’s curiosity to try it as well which then spread to my youngest, who normally stays away from creamy soups. They all loved it. Sometimes peer pressure is a good thing.
Scalloped potatoes to follow…
Curried Chickpeas, Kale, Potatoes & Lentils
Not only am I on a curry kick but I am loving chickpeas (garbanzo beans) lately. Luckily my kids like them too. Hummus is one of their favorite snack foods and they won’t object to falafel or chickpeas in any dish I make. I don’t think I started eating them until I got to university and tried falafel for the first time from the cart in the Octagon. (Dunedin’s town ‘square’ is actually octagonal.)
The other night I made a different version of my Spiced Chickpeas and Potatoes from the other week. This time I added a bunch of kale from our shared harvest (CSA), lentils and fennel seeds, which added a nice flavor dimension. It was perfect for warming little ones up on these chillier autumn nights. My eldest son declared it “delicious” and that he “loved it” and not surprisingly my middle son said he didn’t like it because it was too spicy but he ate more than half of it before he gave up on it. My youngest son missed out on it because he fell asleep before dinner after a busy day of play dates and running around. 
It’s fairly easy to make especially since I used canned chickpeas and precooked belgua lentils from Trader Joe’s.
Curried Chickpeas, Potatoes, Kale and Lentils
- Olive oil
- 1-2 shallots, diced (or med onion)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp turmeric
- tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/4 tsp cayenne (adjust if needed)
- 2 cans chickpeas
- 5 sm/med potatoes cut into bite sized pieces (with skins on)
- 1 cup chicken stock (vegetable stock if vegetarian)
- bunch kale, remove large stems and cut into strips
- lentils (I used the beluga lentils- 1 cup)
- 3 large tomatoes, peeled and crushed
- 1 Tbsp fresh thai basil, chopped
- 1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- sea salt and ground pepper to taste
- 2 Tbsp lime juice (had no lemon)
Sauté shallot and garlic. Add spices and stir for a minute or two. Stir in chickpeas, potatoes, tomatoes, kale and stock, salt and pepper to taste. (I think I should have added it later, but it was fine). 
Cook for 20 minutes then add the lentils, basil and parsley. 
Cook for another 10-20 minutes. This can be made in crock pot but I suggest sautéing onion/shallot and garlic and then heating the spices over the stove first then adding it all to slow cooker. Cook on low for 5 hours or high for 3.
I loved the additional flavor that the fennel seeds added and the kale really went well with the other ingredients. Of course you can tailor this to suit your tastes and what’s in your pantry/refrigerator. I find that eating less meat is not only healthful and good for the environment but less expensive. Not that I ever break the food down into it’s nutritional parts; still it was interesting to find out that not only is there plenty of protein (even vegetarian version) and fiber in this dish, it also is fairly high in folate and other vitamins and minerals. Meaning it is really good for you and your kids, as well as tasting fabulous.
My eldest son and I had the leftovers for lunch the following 2 days.
Smoothies!
My kids and I love smoothies and I make them all the time. They are so good— as in, for you and taste! I use frozen fruit so there’s no need to add ice and the berries are always organic. I often put in a fresh ripe (or even over-ripe) banana or two, yogurt and juice, but I make them all different ways/combinations (endless combinations, really). Sometimes I use coconut water or milk, sometimes vanilla yogurt or a berry kafir milk but whatever combination I use they’re easy and delicious.
Today’s Smoothie
In a blender mix:
- half pack (about 1 cup) frozen mango pieces
- half a pack (about 1 cup) mixed frozen berries (blue, black, rasp) and cherries
- 1-2 ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup of vanilla drinkable organic yogurt
- 3/4 cup of coconut water
- 1 cup of all natural 100% pomegranate juice blend (pom, apple, grape, aronia berry)
Looking at the side of the blender you will want to have the liquids be about 1/2 way up the frozen fruit (anything less will be hard to blend and too frozen). If you put the largest frozen pieces on the bottom and the banana on top, it helps the process. 
Blend on high until the top of the mixture is pulled underneath and all is smooth. Serve. Enjoy.
(Honey makes a nice additional ingredient and if local can help manage seasonal allergies.)
Some fruit/juice combinations:
Strawberries, blueberries and banana with orange juice and fruit punch
Mango, blueberries and banana with pineapple juice and coconut milk/water (Mango-Blueberry Colada)
Cherry and blackberry with cranberry juice
Cooking Together: The Whole Fish
There are times when cooking is easier for me—the nights my husband is doing it. I am lucky how often he cooks considering he does this for a living and is at work most nights, especially weekends. I will often defer the cooking to him when he’s home. But, I really enjoy cooking with him, because I often learn something and because we enjoy being together and we work well together. There’s a reason or two I married him.
Today we shopped for dinner at Stew Leonard’s and I picked out the Bronzino (Bronzini) as our main. Bronzino is a Mediterranean sea bass and the ones we purchased were sustainably farm-raised in Greece. If you haven’t noticed, I love fish and because I do and cook it often, my kids do as well. I am careful what I buy and try to pick something sustainable that’s also in my budget. Fish is expensive. It was on sale today and looked fresh. Stew’s is one of our favorite places to buy fish, because the turnover is so great, the fish is very fresh. My husband told me to look at the eyes, if they’re clear and not cloudy, it’s fresher. Ok, yes, the eyes. This fish is whole, head and all. Daunting? Maybe, but not necessarily. Off-putting? That’s up to you. 
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A Day of Baking
We have new neighbors so I made some cookies and bars to bring over to them; welcome them. They haven’t moved in yet, doing renovations, but the builder was there and put them in the fridge. I got a message that did get them at least, just have to wait to meet them.
I made the Apricot In-Betweens my friend blogged about here. I actually made 3/4 of the pan with apricot and put chocolate chips in the other 1/4. 
Both tasted great.
I thought of making some chocolate cookies but didn’t have the patience (nor time) to make most recipes- melting chocolate and then chilling the dough for a couple of hours when there was a ton of housework calling out to me, just didn’t seem like the best idea. So, chocolate chip cookies are an easy thing to make. But still I wanted something, more… I found it in the form of Ghirardelli’s White Mocha Hot Chocolate Mix. I made the recipe (but just half) from just the back of a Trader Joe’s semi-sweet chocolate chip package but substituted the White Mocha mix for the white sugar. It was subtle but delicious, especially when still warm from the oven. 
Mocha Chocolate Chip Cookies
Combine:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
Set aside.
Mix until creamy:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Ghirardelli’s White Mocha mix
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
Add 1 egg and beat.
Mix in dry ingredients.
Stir in 1/2 package chocolate chips (about 6-8 oz)
Place rounded spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake at 375F (preheated) for 8-10 minutes. Makes about two dozen cookies.
I also mixed the ingredients together for the No-Knead Bread I posted here. It’s best to mix the dough the day before you’re baking it. I made this one with regular flour and just a Tbsp of ground flax-seed. Yum! Really, such a great method. I never used to bake bread, now I make it all the time!
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
A request was put in for me to bring my banana cream pie (this one I’d created the crust out of banana Cheerios) to a friend’s barbecue. But it was forecast to be one of the hottest, most horrifically humid days of the hottest July’s on record, last thing I wanted to do was stand over the stove whisking the eggs and sugar until they reach 165°F. So instead, I baked a crisp. At least I could leave the kitchen while it was in the oven. 
I had some rhubarb from my CSA and I bought some organic strawberries (we’re into blueberries round here now). They make such a great sweet-tart combination and I wanted to use up the rhubarb.
Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp
In a bowl mix:
2 cups of strawberries, cut·
1 1/2 – 2 cups of rhubarb, cut
sugar- about 1 Tbsp, just enough to coat them
juice of 1/4 lemon
2 Tbsp flour 
Crumb topping:
2 cups oats·
2 cups oat flour (or wheat flour)
1 cup minus 2 Tbsp loosely packed brown sugar
1/4 c maple syrup
1 stick butter (if you use unsalted add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt) cut into small pieces.
Mix ingredients together until you notice crumbly appearance.
Pour into 9×9 inch glass pan and top with crumb mixture.
Bake it at 400°F for 20 minutes then at 325° for 20 minutes. I warmed it later at my friend’s in the oven and served it with vanilla ice cream. 
My eldest son loved it! The other kids weren’t interested that evening, but had some as left-overs next day. Next time I’ll make nectarine and blueberry pie or crisp, my other favorite combo.
Magic Beans
In our bountiful CSA bin this week was a bag of purple string beans. 
I think they’re “burgundy” beans but not positive. If you’re ever looking for a fun vegetable to cook with kids, look no further. Really, these are truly magical. They are a rich purple outside and grassy green interior but when they cook they turn all green (almost olive colored). It’s a great thing for the kids to watch as they change colors and it just might be the thing to get the pickier eaters to actually eat some! It only takes 3 minutes to cook in already boiling water. Drain and put in ice bath when done. Can reheat with butter, salt and pepper to taste when rest of dinner is ready.
We actually got our eldest to eat string beans when he was a toddler (after refusing several times) by creating the “Green Bean Dance”. It is a family tradition now and has gotten a bit out of hand. What started as bopping in seats while munching on the beans together in unison is now full on break dancing. The funny thing is… it worked. My toddler was resistant to eating the beans and it became fun. Kind of like slurping up spaghetti is fun. Now, they all the love the taste of beans and we don’t need the dance, just occasionally have one for old time’s sake.
Looking at this photo from 2 days ago reminds me that I finally got to the pile of dirt in the corner… today.
© 2010 mykidsreallyeatthis.com
Accidental Baker
As I’ve mentioned before I’m not much of a baker, but I seem to be doing my fair share lately. I attribute some of it to getyourbakeon!, some to actually finding out how easy it is to bake delicious artisanal bread, and some to my natural curiosity when it comes to creating things that I think would go well together. I often cook this way too, occasionally it’s because I like certain combinations of flavors or that I’ve had some dish in a restaurant and I try to replicate it — even if it’s not the exact ingredients, it often doesn’t matter because it usually works out well.
I recently bought the kids Banana Cheerios thinking they’d like it, but they don’t. So, what to do with the box? Throw it away? Then two days ago I figured out what I would do with it. I had a party to go to yesterday and needed to bring something. I had some overripe bananas and decided to make banana cream pie with the Banana Cheerios as the crust. I had never seen or read about using them, just thought they’d make a good one. I looked up some recipes for graham cracker crusts and other cookie crusts, so I got the general idea of what to do.
The filling isn’t as easy as pie, but if you have some time and an instant read thermometer(I suggest you get one if you don’t— best way to figure out if your chicken or steak is done), it’s doable. I found some recipes (Icebox Pies by Lauren Chattman was my main source) and then adjusted them to my preference.
Banana Cream Pie
- 2 Tbsp cold water
- 2 tsp of gelatin (about 2/3 packet)
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
- 3 ripe bananas mashed
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp vanilla (separated into two 1 teaspoon portions)
- 5 cups Banana Cheerios
- 1 stick butter, melted
For the crust, preheat oven to 375F. In a Cuisinart, use regular metal blade to chop the cheerios until they are small crumbs. Add the melted butter and 1 tsp of vanilla. They should be mixed until they stick when pressed together. Pour mixture into pie plate and press to edges. Bake for 6-8 minutes. Set aside to cool. 
In a small bowl dissolve the gelatin in water (sprinkle on top or stir in, it works either way), set aside. Whip cream and when stiff, put in fridge for use later. In a double boiler (metal bowl over couple of inches of boiling water) whisk the eggs and sugar together (temper) until they reach 160 F. Remove from heat and beat in gelatin— mix for several minutes until creamy and fairly cool. Stir in bananas, salt and 1 tsp vanilla. Fold in 2/3 of the whipped cream. Pour into cooled crust. Chill in fridge for an hour then use the remaining whipped cream to spread on top. 
I made the bread again and also turned a failed blueberry mousse into ice cream.
© 2010 mykidsreallyeatthis.com
