Celebrating Dr. Seuss' Birthday

March 2, 1904 is a celebrated day at our house.  It is the birth date of one of our favorite authors, Theodore Geisel, also know as Dr. Seuss.  We make food that is outrageous or surprising, and have a reading of some of our favorite passages.  This year, we joined up with our friends the Carters, because, hey, the more the merrier!  Toni made crazy colored pasta.  In order to get these vibrant colors,first cook the pasta to al dente then drain and rinse with cold water.  Separate the pasta into 6 ziploc baggies in which you have put some water and enough food coloring to brightly color the water.  Allow the pasta to sit for a minute to soak up the color, then rinse and put back into the boiling pot to reheat.  Serve with butter and parmesan cheese.  The kids loved it!

Canning Wild Plums

Every 10 years or so we will have enough cold in our winter to get wild plums.  They are fairly sour but delicious and not to be wasted since they are a rare treat.  This year we had a cold winter, and enough cold hours to yield plums!  My mother-in-law has a tree, and harvested a nice batch for me.  I made plum preserves out of some of them, but the pits don't like to come loose, so it makes for a messy job.  I found this great spiced plum recipe for canning whole plums, which is great because you don't have to chop and pit them.  And they smelled divine, and will be a wonderful accompaniment to roast pork or turkey right around Christmas time.  This recipe makes about 4 quarts.  

Pack your quart jars with the plums, really cram them in there.  Next, remove the plums from the jars, wash both the jars and wash your plums and put the plums in a crock or glass bowl.  In a saucepan heat 6 cups sugar and 1/2 cup cider vinegar, 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup water.  Boil for 5 minutes, then pour the mixture over the plums and let sit for 24 hours.  The next day reheat the syrup.  In the meantime boil your quart jars for 10 minutes (make sure the water is over the jars, and don't forget your lids).  Fill the jars with the plums, a cinnamon stick, a couple cloves, a star anise, and a slice of ginger.  Cover the plums with the hot syrup leaving a little space at the top.  Clean off any syrup from the rim of the jar before placing the lids on.  Process the jars in boiling water for 15 minutes before pulling out and cooling.  Don't they look gorgeous?

Back to School... 5 Fresh Ways with Peanut Butter

Sweet Potato and Sugar Snap head back to school.

Three weeks into the new school year, and if you are like me, you are already struggling to figure out what to pack in the kid's school lunchbox.  My kids like the standard pb&j, but it does get monotonous.  Here are five sandwich offerings you may not have tried:

FLUFFERNUTTER
Spread one piece of bread generously with peanut butter, and the other piece with marshmallow cream.  Mash 'em together. Voila.

PB&JB  PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLYBEAN
This is a really fun variation of PB&J.  Use jellybeans instead of jelly. Spread both pieces of bread with a thin schmere of peanut butter, and liberally sprinkle jellybeans on one of the  peanut buttered bread slices before mashing together.

PB&CC  PEANUT BUTTER AND CHOCOLATE CHIP
Same concept as above, using semi sweet chocolate chips instead of jellybeans.

PB & B:  PEANUT BUTTER AND BACON
Peanut butter really lends itself to savory as well as sweet dishes.   Fry up some crispy bacon and place in between two pieces of toasted, peanut buttered bread.  Add a drizzle of honey or maple syrup for a hot, smoky, savory, sweet, crispy treat.

PB&C  PEANUT BUTTER AND CHICKEN
This one may be for mom and dad as opposed to the kiddos, depending on how adventurous your family is with food.  Take 2 flour tortillas and place a schmere of peanut butter on each one, top with cilantro, and a chicken salad made with 1 can drained chicken breast, a sprinkle of raisins, 1 tbsp mayo, 1tsp turmeric, 1tsp cumin, salt and pepper to taste all mixed together.  Hubby adds a squirt of Srirachi sauce for some heat.

Feel free to share your peanut butter creations in the comments!

Fun and Free Evening....a Shout Out to Miller Outdoor Theater

If you are in the Houston area, you are undoubtedly familiar with Miller Outdoor Theater, the open air theater on the hill in Hermann Park.  Year round there are events, shows and concerts and they are FREE.  I remember going to see many musicals with my beloved grandmother there.  There is a seating area under a pavilion with wooden seats, where you can get closer to the action.  But we usually bring a picnic (with beer and wine!) and sit on the wonderfully grassy hill where you can spread out a picnic blanket or lawn chairs. The kids love it.  If they get bored with the show, they can run around and roll down the other side of the hill.  This summer we have enjoyed the Texas Folklife Accordion Festival, High School Musical, and this week we took the kids and met some of our favorite WT friends for the Grease Sing Along.  The movie Grease (you remember the one...with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John) was shown with lyrics posted, and the crowd was invited to sing along.  And sing along they did!  The event started at 8:30, well after dinner time for us, so our crew brought cheap champagne and a dessert picnic.  We had almond cupcakes, brownies, and chocolate covered strawberries.  Best of all, attendees were invited to dress up, and of course, we rose to the challenge.  We even made it to the final 5 in the costume contest!  It was a well attended and delightful event that everyone enjoyed - adults and kids alike.  Hopefully your town has a similar space where free concerts are held.  I, for one, am grateful for the gift that Miller Outdoor Theater has been all these years to so many generations of Houstonians, and here's hoping it is around for many more.

A family of greasers.

WT Food Review: Denny's Maple Bacon Sundae

We don't often find ourselves at Denny's, but the Monday after our van broke down in Lufkin, Texas (there is no better place to have your car break down, btw.  Four different cars stopped to see if they could help.  They couldn't.)  we found ourselves there.  We were there because we had to call Nana and Papa to pick us up, and tow the dead van back to Houston.  And, on the way home Papa got hungry, so we stopped for a snack at Denny's.  It has been maybe 20 years since I have eaten at a Denny's and not a whole lot has changed, including the waitstaff, but they did have a few interesting new menu items.  One of the more intriguing being the Maple Bacon Sundae, and it is just as it sounds, vanilla ice cream topped with maple flavored syrup, chocolate syrup and crumbled bacon.  Personally, I think the chocolate interfered with the experience.  Chocolate is a very strong flavor, as are maple and bacon, and it was a lot competing on the plate.  The bacon was not as crisp or as hot as would have been desired, but overall, Denny's gets an A- for me for concept.  I can certainly see what they are trying to achieve with it - the creaminess, smokiness, sweetness, spiciness and the coldness versus the hot crisp bacon sounds like a winning combination.  I think, however, this one would be better if made at home with real maple syrup and crispy hot bacon.  I don't know what occasion one might have to make this at home, Canada Day, maybe after a plate of poutine.  Needless to say, Sugar Snap loved it and the entire thing was devoured.  Well done, Denny's!

Papa and Sugar Snap "share" a sundae.

Staycation...JAPAN w/ recipe

Every summer my family takes a 3 month staycation to a different country.  We learn some of the language, learn about the culture, watch films and read books from the country, and I make almost all of the meals from recipes from that country.  We are knee deep into Japan right now, and we have tried eating everything from raw tuna to grilled eel, to squid with edamame.  The Japanese are wacky-fun and if you don't believe me go Google images for "harajuku".  At the same time steeped in tradition and a rich culture of their own, the Japanese are fascinated by the West, particularly America, and have their own take on everything from soda pop, fashion, pop culture,technology and food. Take for example, pizza.  The Japanese put lots of things Americans would never consider on pizza - shrimp, corn, squid ink, seaweed, tuna, maple syrup, fried eggs.  They even have several booming pizza chains, one of which is called Strawberry Cone, which has nothing whatsoever to do with ice cream.  I just had to share this great recipe we tried for Japanese pizza -open your mind here, it's different, but different good.  I realize that it's not "White Trash",  but I have to admit a certain kinship with the Japanese with their wacky creativity and their love of kitsch.

 So, I present to you, Japanese Pizza:

Start with 1 pizza crust - buy one pre made, or make your own.  Partially bake it, since you will only be heating up the toppings.

Top with Aurora sauce:  1/2 c. ketchup, 1/2 c. mayonnaise, 2 Tbsp. mango chutney, 2 Tbsp. tomato paste.  Whisk together and spread over the crust.  This makes a spicy, fruity, creamy, tomatoey base for your pizza.

Add cooked shrimp, crumbled crispy bacon, green onions, diced tomatoes, 2 cloves chopped garlic, and 1 c. canned corn, drained.  Cook at 400 degrees until crispy and hot.  Remove from oven and drizzle with a squirt of mayonnaise, Japanese Kewpie brand if you can find it at an Asian market.
There is no cheese.

Adding the corn

Really, it's delicious.
Well played, Japan!

Yum!

We Be Jammin'

Sunny chopping peaches and cherries for her jam

Here's a great end of summer thing to do with your friends:  a canning party!  My friend and fellow white trash Sunny had never canned anything before and wanted a tutorial.  We met up at Toni's kitchen (hers is the largest):  Sunny, Toni, Stacey, and me.  We all brought cans enough for us and to share, plenty of produce to pickle and can.  We spent about 4 hours and came away with quarts, pints and half pints of peach/cherry jam, drunken cherries, drunken peaches, pickled jalapenos, sriracha pickles, dilly beans, lemon curd, and pickled onions.  The sriracha pickles were an experiment.  I added sriracha sauce (hubby's favorite all time condiment.  It finds its way onto everything from huevos rancheros to chili) to pickle brine.  The brine came out pink, and smelled nice, but they need to set a while before I open them.  All the other recipes we found on the web and they all turned out great, as far as we can tell!

Stirring the lemon curd

The end result!