For those of you with functioning ovens and kids home from school, here is a tasty time consumer.For creative great tasting "homemade" cookies in a pinch, try this shortcut from Jennifer Spaide of Greenchic.com.
As a chef it’s important to know your weaknesses in the kitchen. And I am fully willing to admit that mine is baking. If it’s more complicated than emptying a mix into a bowl, cracking a few eggs, and whisking, don’t expect me to do it well. So you can imagine the panic that pulsed through me when I was asked to bake cookies for some gift baskets.
What, me? Really?! But I was up for the challenge… or the cheat. Don’t tell, but I decided to pull a Sandra Lee and take some “semi-homemade” help from the grocery store by purchasing premade sugar cookie dough. I chose an all-natural brand because it’s a little healthier (no trans fats or high fructose corn syrup).
With the basic batter under control, and a little stress off my shoulders, I was free to get creative with the flavors & fillings. I decided to make three different kinds of cookie: Chocolate Cherry Almond, Ginger Sesame Coconut, and Orange Fig Thumb Drops. These recipes are so simple it's genius (not to toot my own horn, but “Toot toot”).
Chef Nicole has mastered the art of the kid-friendly recipe that works just as well the adults in the crowd. These Asian Turkey Vegetable Potstickers are a perfect hands-on activity for all ages. Personally, all that folding took me right back to those origami craft projects from my younger days. These little GBD packages are deceptively simple to make and very tasty. We also have a vegetarian version below. Try 'em in your house and let us know what you think.
Every year, I buy one of those boxed gingerbread house kits and my kids and I go at it. We glop it together with that glue-like petroleum by-product substance that they call icing, we decorate with the stale jelly beans and mini gum balls they provide, and we call it a day. It’s fun and the kids enjoy it. Do yours? If so, head to the Stamford Museum and Nature Center (SM and NC) this month and next to see how the pros do it. “Visions of Gingerbread: The Sweetest Architects” is the name of the exhibition that the museum is presenting as both a showcase for local bakers and as a fundraiser for the SM and NC.
What snack food is more universal and beloved than pizza? As a play on this perennial favorite we thought we would create a deconstructed pizza that kids could have fun assemblingat their desks. Instead of standard pizza crust, we are using tortillas for their flexibility and wrap-ability. Sure, you could cut up some handmade triangled pizza crust, or even pita bread for this one. Build them any way you want.
You will need a few small containers for proper travel, but your children will be the envy of the classroom.
Turkey pepperoni, shredded cheese and tortilla “pizza dippers”
Did Fairfield County seem unusually quiet last weekend as if everybody had gone somewhere? Were you wondering where the party was? I can tell you with absolute certainty that Fairfield County residents were indeed out, but there were no cocktails involved (although now that I think of it....) This was a family friendly affair...Everybody was out picking pumpkins at Jones Family Farms in Shelton CT.
We drove up to Jones on a beautiful Sunday afternoon (of course the weather has taken a turn for the worse since then) and as we pulled into the parking lot, my heart sank. I couldn’t believe there could be this many people on a single farm. It looked like Silverman’s (and not in a good way). But all was not lost. As we left the cars in their neat rows and strolled towards the actual farm, something beautiful was revealed. The vista opened to picturesque rolling hills in the distance and what seemed like acres of pumpkin fields. And these were no half-rate pumpkins. We are talking perfect pumpkins..thousands of them. We were on Pumkinseed Hill, the Fall outpost of the Jones Family Farms.
What's a party without the popcorn? These sweet and salty treats are always a favorite (remove spiders before eating). This recipe lends itself nicely to child participation...as long as they don't mind getting a little sticky.
To amp up the gruesomeness, melt some white chocolate in the microwave or over a double broiler and add 2-3 drops of red food coloring. Then drip the "blood" over the finished popcorn balls.
For a more savory snack, try adding a pinch of cayenne pepper to the caramel.
When I reluctantly moved to Los Angeles at the beginning of this decade, I missed our annual fall apple and berry picking trip so much that I dragged a posse of ex-East Coasters and their small children to the closest orchard (two hours into the desert) to pick apples one hot October Sunday. To put it mildly, apple picking in California is a sad facsimile of the real deal here in New England. The air was heavy, we were sweaty and the only ones enjoying the adventure were the children– they didn’t know any better.
Being back in New England, where there really is a fall season and apples taste like, well apples, we recently took advantage of the pick your own trifecta: September peaches, apples and raspberries and visited Bishops Orchards in Guilford, CT.
One of the things I look forward to every summer is heading out to the local farms to pick berries.There are a couple of great farms in Southern CT that are not over run with the NY crowd, and I will share them if you promise not to tell the others…
For those of you with functioning ovens and kids home from school, here is a tasty time consumer. For creative great tasting "homemade" cookies in a pinch, try this shortcut from Jennifer Spaide of Greenchic.com. 
