Breakfast Pie

In Crockett Johnson's Harold and the Purple Crayon Harold draws a picnic with "all nine kinds of pie that Harold  liked best." Gaby and I name all 9 pies that WE like best, which can change from day to day, but usually include chocolate pie and now "breakfast pie" (quiche).

So we made breakfast pie on Saturday. This is also known as quiche.

Gaby drying the spinach

Breakfast Pie (adapted from Weelicious Ham and Asparagus Quiche)

4 large eggs
1/4 cup milk (or half and half)
1 cup shredded cheese
3-4 pieces cooked bacon, crumpled*
~5 pieces raw spinach, roughly chopped or ripped*
1/2 tsp salt
1 unbaked pie crust

*You can substitute any cooked meat and green vegetable you have lying around. I've made it with asparagus, beans, chicken, spinach, anything really.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. In a bowl whisk together all ingredients (except crust)
3. Lightly grease pie pan or small frying pan and lay crust in pan
4. Pour mixture into pan and bake in oven for 50 minutes or until golden brown.

Gaby enjoying(?) the pie

The Carrot (Seed) Muffins

Lately we are obsessed with The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss. We read it over and over. We read it inside and outside, on the potty, on the couch, everywhere. I came to thinking what I could make that had to do with carrots, and found this carrot muffin recipe on Super Healthy Kids. I modified them a bit per some of the comments and they turned out great! My little gardener loves to help!

Carrot (Seed) Muffins

1 Cup Flour (1/2 white, ½ whole wheat)1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour3/4 cup Brown Sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup carrot (about 4 large carrots) pureed with 1 banana

1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
A bit of milk if they look too dry

1. Cover the carrots in a microwave safe bowl and steam for 2-3 minutes.

2. Combine carrots, vanilla, applesauce, eggs, banana in blender until liquid forms.

3. Mix the dry ingredients in large bowl.

4. Mix all ingredients until moistened. Add milk (or water, or apple juice) if it looks too dry.

5. Bake in 350 oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

Even though these were great, they were a little dry. I think I would do 1 cup white and 1 cup whole wheat flour (instead of 1/2 and 1.5) and increase the applesauce to 1 cup. 

Oooh! Matisse Bars

My mom is on a mission to make my budding artist into an art aficionado. So she has been slowing giving her art appreciation books. One of Gaby's favorite books recently is Oooh! Matisse by Mil Niepold. Gaby loves reading it, and is getting very good at it herself.




Anyway, we have a lot of O cereal in the pantry, and I've been dying to do something with it. I thought of making O-treats, like Rice Krispies treats. But I've never made those, so I wouldn't know how to convert them. I'm in love with another blog/website dedicated to cooking for kids. Weelicious is where I got my recipe for what we call "Oooh Matisse bars." Gaby loved them, and Gaby's classmates love them too!

Oooh Matisse bars - adapted from Weelicious "O" Cookies

1/2 Cup Peanut Butter
1/2 Cup Corn Syrup - yes, I know. It's all I had!
4 Cups O’s Cereal 

1. Place the nut butter and corn syrup in a small saucepan over low to medium heat and warm for 2 minutes or until it becomes smooth and combined.
2. Place the cereal in a bowl.
3. Pour the warm peanut butter/corn syrup mixture into the bowl with the cereal and stir to combine.
4. Place the mixture into a 9 x 9 inch ungreased pan, pat down and then cut into bars. As the O’s mixture cools, it will harden.

Challah Time!

We are signed up for PJ Library, which sends us a free book every month with a Jewish theme. In my house, books are for learning, and so what better way to learn about our Jewish heritage than with books. Gaby loves here PJ books and gets so excited when they come in the mail. We've been reading It's Challah Time by Latifa Berry Kropf for a few months now. This is our second batch of challah. She had a great time helping me make it (and eating flour)!

It's Challah Time Challah recipe
Makes 2-3 large loafs

2 Tbs yeast                                                2 eggs

1/2 cup warm water                                   2 tsp salt

1 tsp honey                                                1 Tbs cinnamon

3 cups whole wheat flour + 1 cup white flour  1 Tbs vanilla

1/2 cup oil                                                  1 1/2 cups warm water

1/2 cup honey                                            Up to 3 cups white flour

1. In a small bowl mix yeast with 1/2 c. warm water and 1 tsp honey. Let bubble.

2. In a large bowl mix the whole wheat flour, oil, honey, eggs, salt, cinnamon, vanilla.

3. Add the yeast mixture and the 1 1/2 c. water.

4. Add white flour one cup at a time and when the dough is firm, begin kneading it.

5. Keep kneading until dough is not sticky anymore, keep adding white flour.

6. Put dough in oiled bowl and cover with damp cloth. Let rise 1-2 hours.

7. Place and braid on oiled baking sheet. Let rise 1 more hour.

8. Bake in preheated 325 F oven for about 20 minutes.

Finished Challah. You can see where Gaby and my husband couldn't wait to take a taste!

Duck on a Bike

Silly Goose and I went to the library for a Wee Read Berkshire County story hour. The story of the day was Duck on a Bike by David Shannon.

Duck on a Bike is a silly book about a duck riding a bike and passing all his animal friends. It incorporates all the animal sounds (moo, oink, neigh, etc) plus what the animal is thinking about seeing the duck on the bike. Silly Goose enjoyed it, and the next story, but lost interest after that.

We played awhile and then made paper a paper duck.

Paper Ducks
1 piece of yellow paper, folded in half
1 piece of yellow paper, not folded
1 piece of brown paper
pencil
scissors
glue
crayons

1. Trace your LO's hand on the folded yellow paper. Cut out the hands to make 2 wings.
2. Trace your LO's foot on the other piece of yellow paper. Cut out the foot to make the duck's body.
3. Cut 2 triangles from the brown paper to make the duck's feet.
4. Glue all together.
5. Add eyes (either googly or with crayon).
6. Allow LO to color in the duck.

Silly Goose wanted to hang her duck on the wall with the other model duck. So there it stayed at the library.

The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah

We got the children's picture book The Little Red Hen and the Passover Matzah by Leslie Kimmelman out of the library the other day. I remember fondly the story of the Little Red Hen, so I thought this would be a nice Jewish twist.

It's the classic Little Red Hen story, she wants to grow her own wheat to make her own Matzah. She asks her friends every step of the way, but they refuse to help her. At the end she makes a nice Passover Seder complete with homemade matzah and of course her friends want to come and eat.

Gaby loves reading. But she loves helping me cook and making our "own" food (own donuts, own pizza, own challah, own matzah!) even more. So we decided to make our own matzah. We even timed ourselves to see if we could stick to the traditional 18 minutes. But we ran out of time! Might be because the cookie cutter part took 10 minutes!

 The recipe is very simple.
Little Red Hen (& Gaby's) Matzah recipe

Preheat oven to 500 deg F.
4 cups flour (3 white flour, 1 whole wheat flour)
~1 cup water

1. Mix until incoporated.
2. Turn out on floured surface and kneed until smooth and no longer sticky. You may need to add water.
3. Mold or use cookie cutters to desired shape - make sure it's as thin as you can get it with a rolling pin!
4. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet for 5 mins, or until golden brown on top.