Tag Archives: kids in the kitchen

Dec27

Auntie Tammy’s Gluten-Free Spaetzle

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After binge-watching a whole season of Master Chef Junior in two days, Samantha was fired up to create something in the kitchen.  My sister Tammy gifted me a very cool contraption for making Spaetzle, and with a pot of our Mom’s homemade turkey soup bubbling in the slow cooker the day after Christmas, these little German pasta dumplings sounded like the perfect addition.IMG_2985

Spaetzle starts with a dough that you pass through something that looks like a cheese grater (you could use a sieve with large holes) directly into boiling water.  You can add it to another dish like we did, or season with olive oil and fresh herbs for a super-easy side dish.

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Gluten-Free Spaetzle (serves 4):

1/2 cup of milk (at room temperature)

2 eggs (at room temperature)

1 1/2 cups King Arthur Gluten Free Flour

1/8 tsp xanthan gum

1/2 tsp salt

Salt a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Combine milk and eggs in a small bowl. Combine remaining ingredients in a large bowl, then stir in wet ingredients.  Pass dough through the Spaetzle maker into the boiling water; Spaetzle will float when cooked, which takes about 1 minute.  Remove with a slotted spoon and toss with a little oil to keep from sticking.

Apr8

Five Eggs and a Nest

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Rice Krispie M&M Eggs

This recipe for “Hidden Surprise Easter Egg Treats” was too hard to resist.  You use the ingredients for Rice Krispie Squares, but instead mold the ingredients into plastic egg halves and fill with M&M’s.  My girls had a ton of fun making them — there is nothing quite like using melted marshmallows as glue, and getting to snack on M&M’s throughout the process.  While these aren’t going to win any healthy food competitions, they are pretty light as far as dessert goes, and we opted for the whole grain “brown” Rice Krispies.  Most importantly, they got a good lesson in improvisation:  we were making six eggs (and there would be six people at our dinner table), but the eggs must have been a little two large, as we ran out of “egg” near the end and had to make one “nest”.  My mother was gracious enough to request that one.

Rice Krispie and M&M Eggs (Adapted from Kellogg’s “Hidden Surprise Easter Egg Treats”):

6 Plastic snap-apart 3×2-inch Easter eggs

1 1/2 tbsp butter

2 cups mini marshmallows

3 cups whole grain Rice Krispies

1/4 to 1/2 cup M&M’s (we used white chocolate and dark chocolate)

Clean, then coat the inside of plastic eggs with cooking spray.  In a medium saucepan, melt butter over low heat.  Add marshmallows and stir until completely melted.  Remove from heat.  Add Rice Krispies and stir until well coated.

Using greased hands, firmly press 1/4 cup of the cereal mixture into each plastic egg half.  Use fingers to make hollow center in each half.  Remove from molds.  Place on wax paper and cool slightly.  Place about 6 M&M’s in one half of each egg.  Gently press two halves of each egg together until they stick.  Cool completely.

Feb3

Pint-Sized Caprese

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Caprese Pops

I love shopping at Central Market.  It’s a good idea to go on an empty stomach, as they are always sampling a ton of delicious food.  I was picking up some fresh basil when I saw a woman putting together skewers of tomato, basil, and mozzarella.  After enjoying my little treat, I decided we definitely had to have Caprese Pops as our salad with dinner.

This dish (I’m not sure you can even call it a recipe) was easy enough to assign to my seven and four-year old daughters — and they loved making them.  I set out grape tomatoes, basil leaves, cubes of mozzarella, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a grinder of sea salt (I like Maldon), and pepper.  They did the rest.  It seemed the tomatoes were magically removed from their skewers after reaching the dinner table, but I was happy that they at least tried them.

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