Mmmm, Blondies

No, I don't mean people with blond hair, I'm talking about the blond brownies that are oh so yummy. And so easy to make. And sooo yummy. Connor helped. 

Connor has been very interested in helping me in the kitchen lately. So I had two choices, continue to keep him out of the kitchen, with him getting very upset at me, or try to involve him in my cooking, and deal with the extra clean-up. I chose to let him help me. 

At first, I tried to just tried to keep him busy. I gave him an empty bowl and spoon one night and that satisfied him for a few minutes. The next night, I gave him a pot with a bit of flour in it and a spoon. He had a blast, but there was plenty of mess. A few nights he was simply content to stand on a chair watching me cook. 

Today, I decided to take it s step further, I let him help me cook, or, more accurately, bake. I filled the measuring cups with the ingredients and he dumped them in the bowl. I helped him crack an egg and he put it in the bowl. I mixed the ingredients together and then he used spoon to eat the mix while I was putting it in the pan. 

Normally, I pour the batter in a 9x13 pan but I decided to try something different this time. I poured the batter into my mini-muffin tin. There was enough left over to fill two heart-shaped tins. These are part of a set of 6 that were actually tied to the car on our wedding day. Don't worry, they've been cleaned many times. 

This is how they turned out.

Notice the 2 missing that I couldn't wait to eat. And sorry for the blurriness, there's a smudge on the lens I can't get off. 

Do you involve your little ones in the cooking? If so, what's your best tip for keeping it interesting?

Egg Rolls

I know it's a day late but here's the recipe for egg rolls. They came out super yummy.  

First boil 3 chicken breasts until done. While they are cooking, finely chop one bag of carrots and one head of green cabbage in a food processor. I only have a magic bullet so this step took much longer than it should have. When the chicken is done, let cool a bit and then finely chop that as well. Mix them all in a bowl and add soy sauce to taste. I use about a cup. 

Put about 1 tbsp olive oil in a saute pan and heat over medium high heat. Add 2 tbsp finely chopped garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the mixture and cook for about 7 minutes. The color will change to a darker brown (kind of like stir-fry). 

Put the mixture back into a bowl to cool. 

Get out the egg roll wrappers (my grocery store has these in the produce section of the store) and put one on a plate. You should also have a small bowl with water in it nearby. Put a heaping spoonful into the middle of the wrapper. 

Take one corner and fold it up, pushing the sauce out a bit. If there's not enough liquid to cover all the edges, dip your fingers in the water to make sure it's damp. Fold in each side corner so it looks like a house. 
Fold the top corner down and they are wrapped. Be careful with this because the wrappers can tear and then you have to double wrap. 
If you have a deep fryer you can cook these in that. If not, fill a sauce pan up with cooking oil (I used vegetable oil) and heat over medium high heat. Wait until the oil is good and hot and then start adding the egg rolls. Place them with the seams up so air can escape from the inside. I did 4 at a time. Cook for about 3 minutes or until golden brown and place on paper towels to absorb extra oil. Let cool and enjoy! The recipe makes about 36 egg rolls. 

Productivity

After my fabulous revelation that I can actually cook yesterday, I've had another good day. I woke up early and did yoga. It's been snowing all day; a huge deal in this area despite the fact it's only a dusting. I finally replaced a couple broken tiles in our kitchen. I went to the grocery store for a couple basics. And now it's naptime. 

There are lots of days recently where I don't feel productive at all. I think that's one of the downfalls of being a SAHM. Parenting is hard work, but it doesn't feel very productive. You play and clean and read books and sing songs and prepare food and then repeat. It can get kind of monotonous after a while. The immediate sense of accomplishment that you get at work is missing when you stay home. Not to mention that coming up with new and fun things to do takes a lot of creativity. So, I'm glad I felt productive for once. 

Ooo, I'm making egg rolls for the first time tonight (it's a recipe from a friend). If they turn out ok, I'll post the recipe tomorrow with pictures! 

In the meantime, if you stay home with your kids, what do you do to break the routine?

Chocolate Cupcakes

Yesterday we had a small celebration for Connor's birthday. Instead of the traditional cake, I decided to recreate something I saw at Coldstone Creamery. It's a chocolate cupcake shell, with cupcake in the bottom, a scoop of ice cream on top and then whipped cream to look like frosting. It looked delicious but a little too pricey for me. So I decided to recreate it myself. I sadly forgot to take photos while making them, but did take one of the finished product. 

The hardest part was figuring out how to make the shell. I ended up using 2 jumbo foil cupcake wrappers. I melted semi-sweet chocolate chips in a bowl (about 2 handfuls per shell), then sprayed pam on the inside of one wrapper. I used a big spoon to scoop some chocolate into the bottom of the wrapper, then scraped some more along the rim. I took the second wrapper and pammed the outside of it, then pushed it into the chocolate until it seemed like it took the correct form. I refrigerated the chocolate for a couple hours until hard. 

Next, I made a batch of cupcakes that were normal sized. I cut off the tops and put the bottom part in the shell. I topped with a scoop of ice cream and some whipped cream. I made my own cake mix and whipped cream, but you could always use store-bought. 

Here's a top view:

They were super yummy but a little too involved to make in a large quantity. I made 11 and it took probably a total of 2 hours to make them, not including refrigeration and baking times. 

I definitely recommend trying them though! I had one extra and put it in the fridge. The ice cream melted and absorbed into the cake making it extra mushy. Mmmmm. 

Oh, and I took the cupcake tops and made a chocolate trifle. Layer the cupcakes, chocolate pudding, and cool whip in that order. Repeat for a second layer and you're done. I usually use Entenmann's Chocolate Fudge Cake, but figured this would be just as yummy. Hubby is bringing it to work tomorrow so I'll let you know how they like it.