Today

I'm blogging from my cellular device, therefore please forgive my silly iPhone (talking to you Siri) for any random auto correction.  I wanted to quickly thank you for watching THE TODAY SHOW THIS MORNING!?  Did that actually just happen?  Here are some things I learned...

1. Hair/make-up stylists are magical people.  My baby woke up eleventy times last night, and you can barely see my raccoon eye rings.

2. Food stylists are also magical.  I want that job in my next life.

3. Did I welcome Al to his own talk show?

4. Everyone there is lovely - beyond nice and helpful and I didn't want to leave.

5. That's sort of a lie, I could use a nap.

6. I love you people. 

(7. Sweater from J Crew)

8. Wow...

The sun will come out...

...TOMORROW!!

Mini Vegan Banana Muffins

Do you believe in the universe trying to tell you something?  Listen to my story...

Once Upon A Time, I agreed to bake 100 mini muffins for Jack's preschool snack.  There are roughly 80 kids, and some like seconds.  In true Siri fashion, I left this project to the very last minute (like every term paper in college), and had planned to bake after my kids fell asleep last night.  Promptly, at bedtime, the power went out.  Carson was at work, Jack was freaking out, and I looked like this...

  

What, you don't keep a headband flashlight on your nightstand like Carson does?  p.s. What are those four freaky dots coming out of my neck???  I look like I'm waiting for my spaceship.  Anyway, I wake up at 2am to a screaming baby I'm attempting to sleep train, and it's still black outside.  I start to panic.  I begin to imagine 80 kids coming at me like walking zombies, begging for their snack.  I cannot let this happen.  And then, at 3am, the power comes back on!  I dance in bed!  I set my alarm for 5am.  Oh, and the baby wakes up two more times.  

So it's early, and I'm drinking a pot of coffee.  I start to make Mini Vegan Banana Muffins using this bread recipe (which I doubled, cooking the muffins for 13 minutes) because a few of the kids are allergic to dairy and nuts.  I decide to look at the allergy list one more time and I see one little girl who is allergic to cinnamon.  I have already put cinnamon in the batter.  I THROW THE BATTER AWAY and thoroughly scrub everything to remove any cinnamon residue.  I curse cinnamon allergies.  I drink more coffee.  I begin again.  I'm about to pour the soy milk in only I look, and I see that I didn't buy soy milk - I bought almond milk.  Almond milk, for kids with severe nut allergies.  CURSE EVERYTHING!!!!!!  I google "alternatives to almond milk" and google tells me "soy milk" thanks for NOTHING GOOGLE.  So I use water in place of milk.  I think these muffins are going to taste like rat poison and all the kids will make up mean songs about Jack D's Mommy.  I plug along anyway...

Guess what?  They were freaking delicious.  Like, really, really good.  Oh and I added dairy free chocolate chips because I want all the kids to make up nice songs about Jack D's Mommy.  

I think the lesson here, that the Universe is trying to teach me, is to quit trying to be Super Mom.  It's okay that I shower rarely and brush my hair even less and drop off my son at school wearing the same outfit everyday and eat chocolate chips every night by the handful.  It's okay!  It's okay.  It's okay? 

Siriously Delicious on TODAY

What is your morning routine like?  For as long as I can remember, mine has included the Today Show.  It was always on our TV... as a kid, in college, and now as an adult (although Sesame Street is slowly taking over my life).  There's something so comforting about hearing those familiar voices, if even in the background.  I like knowing that on any given morning I'll turn on my TV, and they'll be there.    

Next Wednesday the 27th, if you turn on your TV in the 9 o'clock hour, I'll be there.
I'll be on the Today Show.

I just wrote that sentence and laughed at myself, like, you silly billy head NO YOU WON'T.

But yes, I will.  So tune in please : )

(image)

Baked Tostada

We partake in Taco Tuesday pretty much every week, either at our local Mexican restaurant or at home.  Last night we stayed in, but to shake things up a bit I decided to turn my taco into a baked tostada.  That's the beauty of tacos, they're sort of made to order.  Carson often turns his into a taco salad, Jack prefers a quesadilla, and after last night, I think frequent the tostada route.
I just said "frequent the tostada route."  

I followed Martha's easy directions here.  A corn tortilla, drizzled with olive oil, topped with your favorite stuff (here: ground turkey and cotija cheese) and then baked.  After the cheese melted and the tortilla got crispy, I removed it from the oven and added avocado, cilantro, sea salt and hot sauce.     

Stay tuned either later today or this week for a GIGANTIC ANNOUNCEMENT.

Drama...

Baking Bacon

How do you cook your bacon?  I usually let it sit over the stove on a low heat until it crisps, but over the weekend I baked it.  Baking sheet, aluminum foil, rack, cooking spray, bacon, 375, 20-30 minutes or until it crisps, I mean, REALLY crisps.  There is nothing worse than chewy bacon if you ask me.  I've also heard of cooking it in the microwave but I don't know how to do that, do you?  Learn me.  

Power Ranger Cakes

Success!  Jack turned 4!  There was a party!  The Bounce House only collapsed on the children twice!  Relax, everyone is fine, no need to call the authorities.  There were 5 cakes!

I know it sounds crazy to make that many cakes BUT, there were many, many children and as you can see - each cake is only 8 or 9 inches round (I have no idea how big my cake pans are).  The theme was Power Rangers so I thought, wouldn't it be fun for the kids to pick which color Ranger they wanted to eat in cake form?!  Does that sound weird?!  Also, when you get a little help from the store, anything is surmountable!  I made my own buttercream but used boxed white cake mix (3 of them), separated the batter into 5 bowls, used food paste to color them, and then baked them...

I love making cakes with candy melts on top (as you can see here, here and here).  It's such a fun way to make an average, store-bought or semi-homemade cake look professional and fabulous THAT'S RIGHT FABULOUS.  And it's really easy to do!  My favorite product to use are these Wilton Candy Melts, because they melt beautifully and the colors are vibrant and last.  But you could also use white chocolate and dye it (I've just found white chocolate doesn't melt as well).  All I do is conduct a 'google image' search for what I'm looking for, in this case, Power Ranger masks.  I find one that's a decent size for my cake (or I adjust the printing settings to make it so).  I place the image under parchment paper and I trace with the melted candy!  You can use a piping bag, but I always put mine in regular old sandwich bags with the ends clipped and find that works really well.      

Here, the images are taped onto the counter with parchment paper taped over that.  

They're halfway done with melted chocolate (but next time I'll use Wilton's black candy melts because the color will last longer)...

I find I have a much steadier hand if there is wine involved...

Let the melts cool and harden before placing them atop cakes.

Buttercream recipe: 4 sticks unsalted butter at room temp (I like to use European style if I know I'm really going to taste it), 4 cups powdered sugar, 1 T vanilla and 1 tsp cream (or milk).

And for no reason other than I feel like sharing, I picked up flowers for each Power Ranger too.  The ninjas look much lovelier in flower form, don't you think?  Ok, time to start planning my 6 month-old's first birthday!  Just kidding, that was a joke, no it wasn't.

(Also, a Brobee Cake and a Wubbzy Cake)

Luck of the Irish

cute...

and cute...

Have wonderfully lucky weekends.  I'm not Irish, so don't kiss me.

Some past St. Patty's Day posts here, here and here.  

Go Go Power Rangers...

...a little preview of this year's cake spectacle.  Let's just say, I am insane in the head.

But,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY JACKSON JAMES DALY!!!  

He is 4 today, and I feel like 5 minutes ago we were in the hospital memorizing his little face.  Time flies... it is the truest of all the cliches... long days, short years.  That sums up parenthood to a tee.

Tune in for the rest of the cake(s - cakes, I'm making 5) on Monday.  

Tomato Crostini with Whipped Feta

This picture is a hot mess.  A food stylist would slap my wrists with a ruler (because food stylists are also grammar school teachers from the olden days, right?).  In my defense, trying to take this photo was not easy because there were hands everywhere... reaching, grabbing, snatching (that's not redundant).  Basically, this was the best appetizer I've ever had.  Everything about it was perfection.  And I cannot take credit... my friend made them, Martha Stewart Beth Grealy, and she doesn't make mistakes.  The crostini was toasted perfectly, just the right amount of crisp.  The feta, whipped until it reached a heaven-like consistency, was salty and creamy.  Lemon, garlic, minced onions, heirloom tomatoes, basil, etc... THEY WERE SO GOOD.  And why wouldn't they be, Ina is responsible.  (Recipe here) 

Sweet Potato Baby Food

My daughter Etta is 6 months old already.  With Jack, I eagerly anticipated every new milestone and found myself saying "I can't wait for..." a lot.  Well, now he's almost 4 (wtf) and it all went by too fast.  SLOW DOWN FATHER TIME.  So with Etta, I'm clinging hard to each step and not wishing anything away.  Because I know the next milestone will be reached before I can even blink, and soon she'll be going to her prom with a nerdy, sweet, somewhat unattractive boy who will only look better with age and invent something major (sorry, jocks, Carson will kill you).  

I won't make a habit of posting baby food recipes, but if making your own seems like a daunting task to you - I wanted you to see that it isn't.  It takes two simple steps, and a small amount of fruit or vegetable can go a long way.  All you do is 1. cook/roast/boil/steam whatever it is you're making and then 2. puree.  Done.  If desired, add a little milk/water/formula to thin it out, but as they get older you can play with the texture.  Eventually, you can add spices or layer foods together.  The possibilities are endless!  Here, I roasted two sweet potatoes in a 400 degree oven for 1 hour (make sure to poke them multiple times with a fork so they don't explode).  I let them cool, then I peeled off the skin and pureed them in a blender (with a bit of water) until smooth.  I like to store leftovers in an ice cube tray, freeze them, and once frozen pop them in a bag and freeze that.  Instant homemade baby food.  And Etta loved it!  My sweet little 6 month-old girl who squawks like a bird and slaps her chest like Tarzan.

I'll tell you what I CAN wait for, by the by, and that is pureeing meat.  Gross.          

Chocolate Banana Brownies

It's that time of year again, when I obsess over my son's birthday party.  My to-do list is about a mile long, I woke up at 3:30am last night thinking about it and couldn't fall back asleep and OH, I decided to make 5 cakes.  That's right 5 cakes.  If you want to plan an intervention, I'd probably be a willing participant.  And while we're at the intervention, can we also tackle my obsession with googling "banana baking" recipes?  It's become a daily occurrence.  But be prepared for me to get super defensive on you and say something like, "EACH POWER RANGER NEEDS A SEPARATE CAKE AND ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH CHOCOLATE BANANA BROWNIES???"  Actually, they were slightly more cakey than I would have preferred (I'm partial to a fudgy brownie) but still pretty delicious.  So anyway, let me know what time the intervention is.

Recipe here.

1,000 Layer Lasagna

CELEBRATION!  KABLAM!  BOOM!  CHEESE!  ONE THOUSAND!!!  

When you opened this post, fireworks were supposed to go off inside of your house.  Did they?  Ugggh, Blogspot, what's wrong with you?!?  I get no 'wow factor' for 1,000 posts??  I guess they'll be sending me one thousand dollars at a later date.  They probably need my address.  Anyway.  

Welcome to my 1,000th post.  I'm glad you're here.  If you weren't here, I would be writing these words to myself, and to those tiny creatures that live inside computers and make the Internet work.  If you weren't here, well, then I just put 1,000 pieces of food in my belly for no reason at all.  But you are here!  So I bought you candles!  And I made you the best lasagna I've ever tasted!  Thank you for being here, never leave.  Let's put another '0' on that lasagna one day... one day, when the Internet can fly and I need an actual forklift to exit my house.  

This recipe couldn't have been more perfect to celebrate my 1,000 post.  There's obviously the name, but then there's the deliciousness.  However, I definitely made it the "Sirious" way (aka: I cheated, I made it easy, I didn't follow directions).  The recipe calls for paper-thin homemade noodles.  I bought sheets of pasta vs. making my own (Italian deli's will sell them, or even a restaurant might), and I didn't run them through a pasta maker to thin them out.  I didn't even flatten them with a rolling pin.  They looked thin enough to me, so I just went with it...  

     

The beauty of this recipe is how simple it is.  Just a few ingredients, so I decided not to skimp on quality.  I bought fresh mozzarella, used my favorite olive oil that I usually reserve for dipping in bread, really good canned tomatoes, meyer lemon zest and obviously fresh pasta.  The result tastes relatively light, lacking meat or heavy ricotta.  It gets crispy in the corners and caramely and bubbly, it's seasoned perfectly (I added oregano to the top once it came out of the oven), the lemon zest and red pepper flakes brighten it and add a subtle kick, and the fresh, salty cheese... I'm going to cry it's so good.    

Here's to 1,000 more.  Food!!!  

Grainy Mustard Brussels Sprouts

BREAKING NEWS: this is my 999th post.  Whaaaaaaaaaaa?

I know, you're thinking, what sort of crazy nonsense has she talked about for nine hundred and ninety-nine blog entries??  Cause that's what I'm thinking.  And the answer is, don't go backwards to find out. Oh those beginning posts, with my teeny, tiny blurry photos and my letters to burgers and peanut butter.  Anyways, I bet you're wondering what I have planned for my 1000th post, right?  Yeah.  I'm wondering that too...

IN OTHER BREAKING NEWS: did you know they're called BrusselS Sprouts, with an 's' at the end of brussel?  I did not know that!!  Information!!

I ripped the following recipe out of a magazine at my dentist's office (sorry Dr. B) and it was wonderful, especially if you're a fan of mustard.  If you buy those brussels sprouts that are already cleaned and halved for you (cause you're lazy like me) then this recipe will take you NO time to make:

Place 16 halved brussels sprouts in a saucepan with 2/3 cup water.  Bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and cook 5 minutes.  Stir in 1 tablespoon whole-grain mustard, 1 tablespoon butter and salt and pepper to taste.  Serve. 

See you at 1000.    

Crock Pot Ribs

Want to impress everyone you know?  I mean it, absolutely everyone you know in the world, minus maybe your vegetarian friends, but even they will be impressed because they secretly want to eat ribs too.  I know I often push that something is very easy to do, but these ribs, they are SO EXTREMELY SIMPLE.  A child could make these, no really, go get your child and I'll explain...

Child?  H e l l o  c h i l d!!!  Ok, have your mommy go get the crock pot, because it might be heavy for your iddy biddy arms.  Now Child, you can do this part, spray the pot with cooking spray, all over the bottom and sides (I like to use the olive oil kind).  Now, take a rack of pork ribs from the grocery store - what?  Pork comes from pigs.  Yes, pigs.  Yes, like Wilber.  Are you crying??  Ok, make your mommy come back and p.s. bacon comes from pigs too.

Cut the ribs into 3 or 4 slabs and generously season with salt and pepper.  Ok, here comes the most important part... you can not layer the ribs.  The skin must be touching the bottom and sides of the crock pot.  If you're making this for a large group, I recommend borrowing extra crock pots.  If you don't want to listen to me, and you do end up layering them, the result will still be tasty but you won't get that crispy exterior which is to die for.     

That's all you do.  Cooking spray, ribs, salt and pepper.  I like to cook mine on high for half the time and low for half the time - between 6 and 8 hours.  Just keep and eye on them, and when they start to fall off the bone yet have that crispy exterior, they're done.  

You can serve with your favorite BBQ sauce, but they don't need it.  We eat these plain.  They are succulent and moist and juicy and crispy all at the same time.  Now off you go, impress your friends, and I'm sorry I scarred your child for life.