what's on the pantry door for this week

What are you eating this week? Here's our menu. We have leeks coming out of our ears in our garden (hooray that we didn't kill them) so tonight we're having my 7 year old's favorite,

Potato Leek Soup

2 medium leeks, diced

1 small onion, diced

4 T butter

4-5 c. diced potatoes

4 T flour

6 c. chicken broth

1 c. heavy cream

salt to taste

Cook onions and leeks in butter for 2-3 minutes. Add flour slowly, then add the chicken broth. Salt to taste, and bring to a boil. Add potatoes. Cook 20 - 30 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Add cream and serve with crunchy bread.

Yum.

Do you have any hearty vegetarian dishes that your kids love? We're trying to move more that direction and I'd love to find more winning (and filling) recipes to bookmark.

Also not dead yet in our garden, our mint box (see below). I LOVE having mint around because I LOVE this recipe for mint chocolate chip ice cream, which is my most favorite thing to make in the summer. Mint ice cream with real mint tastes totally different than store-mint chocolate chip ice cream (which I also happen to love) - but if you like the taste of mint leaves it's like a minty backyard party in your mouth.

When all else fails -

- make toast!

This is my new go-to mantra. This fall has been busy for our family and I just sometimes need to take a minute and eat some warm bread with butter. I'm sure you can relate.

Here's my recipe (it freezes really well, is light enough for PB sandwiches, and makes five good size loaves). It will make your house smell so good. And, FYI, I substitute honey for the brown sugar, and add about a teaspoon of cinnamon.

The Cookie King

Steve and I got married 13 falls ago, a week before he started medical school in San Francisco. Thus started an extremely fun, but extremely poor (in the money sense), phase of life for us. We lived in a series of tiny little apartments perched on foggy eucalyptus-y scented hills in the inner Sunset, and subsisted mostly on rosemary roasted potatoes and bread.

But no matter how empty our bank account got, we always had one vital ingredient in our small pantry: CRISCO. Because you can't make the king of all chocolate chip cookies without it. We've flirted over the years with other non-crisco recipes (this one is really good, too), but we always come back to you, dear crisco-laden morsel of wonderfulness. The dough is fantastically tasty, and somehow, I don't understand it, but the cookies are even better the second - and if they make it this long - the third days. (Ok, actually if I think about it I guess the highly processed nature of shortening might have something to do with it.)

So, my gift, from me to you:

Steve's Chocolate Chippers (no idea where the original recipe is from)

mix: 1 c. crisco, 1 c. sugar, 1/2 c. brown sugar, 2 eggs, 2 t. vanilla

add 2 1/4 c. flour, 1 t. baking soda, 1/2 t. salt, and mix

When ingredients are just coming together, add chocolate chips (as many as you like).

Do NOT over-mix dough.

Bake at 375 for about 8 minutes.

christmas merriment

Today we will have a little tour of our life in our house during Christmas vacation. I cleaned this table off just for this picture, so I hope you fully enjoy it.



I like making these sugar scenes each year, but as I look at this picture I realize it looks like one of the dwarves is attacking the other with a shovel. Merry Christmas!



This year we made it all the way to December 22 before the advent calendar was stripped of the delicious jelly wreaths. I think last year they were all gone by the 16th - could it be that my children are learning self-control?



I love how my 8 year old little boy wraps with binder paper. For some reason that just really warms my heart. Also, the 6 year old has been wrapping all kinds of books from our family bookshelves and who knows what else. She reminds me a lot of Aunt Edna from Christmas Vacation. I'm wondering if on Christmas morning we might find the dead, wrapped carcass of our neighbor's guinea pig.



This is the kind of thing that happens around here when the kids are not entertained by their school teachers at school: animal torture. Poor Calvin. So humiliating. Those are ballerina skirts. And a tiara (which you can't see from this angle).



Graham cracker frosting houses. It doesn't really get any fancier than that around here.







Time to make treats for friends and neighbors... these apple hand pies were fun to make. My leg went numb while I was making them. Who am I kidding, my leg is numb all the time now (final weeks of pregnancy fun).

Have a wonderful holiday! Stay safe and warm!

white tunic-y dotted swiss top. and burger recipe. yum.

This is a little top that started out as perhaps a dress for the baby. But then I got going, stitch by stitch on a lazy Saturday morning, and by the time I'd done the pleats in the front and back, it just seemed like a swingy, hot-weather tunic for a girl who's covered in body art (pretty much a constant stream of it, all the time) was this particular piece of fabric's inevitable destination.

On a totally unrelated note, I have found my new summer go-to dinner, courtesy of my very gourmet sister-in-law Diane (whose amazing home in New York I hope to show you pictures of soon. No pressure, Diane, if you happen to read this).

Here is a quick, easy recipe for the best TURKEY BURGERS you will ever eat:
1 lb. ground turkey, 2 T. balsamic vinegar, 1 c. grated cheddar cheese, 1 t. salt, 2 T. dried minced onions, 1 T. garlic powder. Easy. Mix up, shape, and grill... so savory and so quick! My kids, the husband and I are all in delicious burger heaven when we devour these. And you can be too.

fudge + marshmallows

Today I tried making "Momma Reiner's Chocolate Covered Marshmallows" as seen on the Martha show last week. Above, Martha and Momma's. Below, mine.

Martha would be so ashamed!

may the force be with you

Because I have been running around getting ready for the big beach trip - and entertaining small ones who like to rise and shine at 6am - I'm taking a stroll down memory lane today and posting a picture of my son's birthday cake from earlier this year. i'm pretty proud of this: a texas chocolate sheet cake (great, simple chocolate cake & frosting recipie, see end of post) with a hole cut in the corner for a ramekin filled with dry ice & water. From which Darth Vadar emerged. It was a biiiiig hit amongst the kindergarten crowd. (I found the idea on some Star Wars message board -- let me tell you, there's a lot of interesting stuff that comes up when you google "star wars" and "birthday". particularly on you tube).

Texas Chocolate Cake
melt together:
1 stick margarine, 1/2 c. cooking oil, 4 T. cocoa, 1 c. water
mix:
2 c. flour, 2 c. sugar, 1 t. baking soda
Pour the hot butter mixture over the flour mixture.
Beat and add:
2 eggs, 1 t. vanilla, 1/2 c. buttermilk (which I never have on hand, so I substitute 1/2 c. milk + 1 T. vinegar)
Bake in a jellyroll pan at 350 for about 18 minutes - then keep checking for doneness. you don't want to overcook this cake, and it's pretty shallow!

Texas Icing
Heat until almost boiling:
1 stick margarine
4 T. cocoa
1/3 c. buttermilk

In mixer, put:
1 lb. powdered sugar, 1/2 t. salt. 1 t. vanilla. Mix with the cocoa mixture.

*tip: pour the frosting on the cake BEFORE the cake cools! Then it kind of seeps into the surface of the cake and makes it really moist and yummy. Enjoy!

cupcake quest

i'm not really such a good cook, and one of the things i would like to learn how to do well is make a decent cupcake. Here's the most recent attempt, a simple vanilla with cream cheese frosting and a small dot of fondant. i noticed the seven-month old eyeing them and i realized... yes, i made cupcakes that look like breasts.