Two weeks is a long time...

I didn't intentionally neglect this blog for two weeks. As the end of summer vacation approached my kids and I spent a lot of time seeing movies, scheduling playdates with friends, taking some day trips and preparing to go back to school. My older son started the second grade today so things should begin to slow down and I will soon return to my regular posting schedule.

In the meantime, a little of what we've been reading:

Me:

Mockingjay





My seven year old:

Dinosaurs Before Dark (Magic Tree House, No. 1)



(he's currently reading this aloud for his nightly homework)

My four year old:

Toy Story 2 Read-Along Storybook and CD



(Yes, we are still in a Toy Story phase right now.)

Happy Belly, Happy Smile - Fried Rice

"On Fridays I have dinner with Grandpa Sam. He owns a restaurant in Chinatown." - Happy Belly, Happy Smile, Rachel Isadora



I have reviewed books about families cooking and eating together for this blog, but I don't believe I have ever reviewed a book about a family dining together in a restaurant. Enter Rachel Isadora's Happy Belly, Happy Smile, a sweet picture book told from the point of view of a little boy who is visiting his grandfather's Chinese restaurant.

Happy Belly, Happy Smile isn't just a book about food or a book about families, it's a book about the experience of visiting a restaurant and seeing how things work from a child's perspective. Every Friday Louie visits his grandfather's restaurant in Chinatown. A frequent visitor, he knows the waiters, chefs and other restaurant staff by name and he gets an insider's view of what goes down in a working restaurant. He watches the chefs roll egg rolls and chop vegetables and the waiters bustle from table to table. When it's finally time to eat Louie and Grandpa Sam enjoy an assortment of Chinese dishes: rice, dumplings, egg rolls, spare ribs, shrimp chow mein--even fish and crabs. And a fortune cookie, of course. The book's title comes from the message inside the cookie: "Happy food, happy belly, happy smile."

Isadora's collage and oil illustrations are a treat. Scraps of paper from what appear to be real Chinese restaurant menus and are incorporated into the collages, a nice touch.

Of course, this book makes me think of Chinese food. Since converting to a gluten-free diet over a year ago, I haven't had much occasion to eat Chinese takeout. Between the wheat-based sauces, noodle dishes (my favorite) and fried foods, it just isn't the best choice. If I really want plain steamed rice and vegetables I'll get them at home. That's not what most people go to Chinese restaurants for! Fortunately, we have been able to replicate some of our favorite Chinese takeout at home. It's not quite the same but I have received high praise for my fried rice. Some would say it's even better than Chinese takeout!

Fried Rice

• 2 - 3 cups cooked rice (I prefer Calrose, or "sticky" rice, but anything will do)
• cooked lean protein (chicken, beef strips, tofu, etc.)
• 2 - 3 eggs
• 3 - 4 strips of bacon (optional)
• 1 and 1/2 cups diced fresh or frozen veggies (we use peas and carrots)
• 1/3  - 1/2 cup soy sauce
• white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• sesame seeds (to taste)
• black pepper (to taste)
• red pepper flakes (to taste)
• 3 cloves fresh garlic
• butter (optional)

Additional equipment: Large pan or wok.

1. Cook your rice. Ideally, the rice should be cold so you may want to cook it ahead of time. Or use leftover rice. I've never tried to make fried rice using the pre-cooked rice I have recently started to see in grocery stores but if you've tried it let me know!

2. If you are using bacon, cook it in the pan/wok. We started putting bacon in our fried rice because one of our favorite Japanese teppanyaki restaurants does this with their fried rice and it is unbelievably good. (I am of the opinion that bacon makes everything better.) When the bacon is cooked through, carefully remove from pan and set aside. Do not drain the pan of the bacon grease! You'll use this instead of cooking oil for the stir fry part. (Sounds gross, I know. Trust me though.)

3. Crack eggs into the pan. Stir fry the eggs with garlic and black pepper until they are no longer runny. Add your lean protein and continue to stir fry.

4. When eggs and meat are cooked through (don't worry about overcooking the egg), add the veggies; let cook another two to three minutes.

5. Now it's time to add the rice. Slowly add rice by spoonfuls. Mix well.

6. Add red pepper flakes, brown sugar, sesame seeds and splash of vinegar. Add soy sauce and a small amount of butter (the butter is optional but it does enhance the flavor--I use a tiny bit). Mix well.

7. Turn up the heat and let cook until the sauce begins to caramelize. The rice on the bottom should stick a little but it shouldn't burn or fuse to the pan.

This recipe serves the four of us and provides a lot of leftovers. (I used the same amount to serve five adults and three kids a few weeks ago.) However, if you want to go all out and make a few Chinese takeout-style dishes to serve family style, I have a few suggestions:

CrockPot Broccoli Beef and CrockPot Sweet and Sour Tofu from A Year of Slow Cooking
Szechwan Beef Stir Fry from Better Homes and Gardens
General Tso's Chicken from Tyler Florence and the Food Network

These are some other great books to get you in the mood for Chinese food:

Dim Sum for Everyone! by Grace Lin
Yum Yum Dim Sum  by Amy Wilson Sanger

*Disclosure: As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small percentage of the purchase price of items purchased through the Amazon.com links on this site. Thank you for helping to support Eat Their Words!

Blueberries for Sal - Blueberry Frozen Yogurt

It's August and friends of mine in other areas of the country have been enjoying blueberry picking. I know this because I see their status updates and pictures on Facebook. While my family did recently enjoy picking strawberries and blackberries, we unfortunately don't live in an area that is very conducive to blueberry growth. We have to buy ours at the store. Even so, with blueberry season in full swing we're able to find inexpensive fresh berries in our local stores.

There's only one book I can think of to pair with  blueberry picking (or eating, as the case may be): Robert McCloskey's 1948 classic Caldecott Honor winner, Blueberries for Sal. It is the story of Sal and her mother and the day they spend picking berries to can for the winter (I had to explain canning to my kids). Like many small children, Sal is more interested in wandering and eating the berries rather than paying attention to her mother. This is how she inadvertently ends up following a mama bear--whose own distracted cub has been following Sal's mother. In the end everyone gets sorted out and Sal and her mother return home with their blueberries, nobody worse for the wear. (The lovely endpapers, which show Sal and her mother canning their harvest, are a nice touch.)

My kids laughed out loud when Sal took more interest in eating the berries than in following her mother, and again when the mother bear realized she was being followed by a human child rather than her own cub. My favorite part of the book? The pen and ink illustrations, which are blue and white rather than the traditional black and white. Love that blue! It's simple and effective and, well, just pretty.

If you are looking for ways to use up some blueberries this summer, I've got just the recipe for you! This is one of our family favorites and my husband shares equal credit for creating it. I may have made the first batch of frozen yogurt in our ice cream maker years ago but he is the one who perfected and embellished it until it became...

Blueberry Frozen Yogurt with Blueberry Truffles

Ingredients

• Vanilla yogurt (in a 32 ounce container--I prefer Dannon Naturals or Stonyfield Farms; we've used fat-free but low-fat tends to have a nicer texture)
• 1 cup blueberries (I've found frozen berries work a little better but use fresh if you have them!)
• 6 blueberry truffles OR a handful of chocolate chips
• Splash of milk

Additional equipment: Electric ice cream maker. If you don't have one, you can make the recipe as directed and stick in the freezer for a little while to give it a "frozen" consistency.

Note on the truffles: The first several times we made this frozen yogurt we used chocolate chips. At some point we decided to chop up some See's blueberry truffles we had on hand and throw those in instead. It has become our preferred way to make this yogurt but don't worry if you don't have truffles (since See's is mostly a regional California thing)! They do give it an extra blueberry kick but it is just as good with chocolate chips.

1. Pour yogurt into a mixing bowl. I usually use 1/2 to 3/4 of the container.

2. Chop truffles into small pieces and add to yogurt. If you're using chocolate chips you can chop them finely (my husband's way) or dump them in whole (my way--I am lazy and afraid of chopping off a finger...and I also like the large chunks of chocolate in my yogurt).

3. Add blueberries

4. Stir yogurt, blueberries and chocolate together. Pour into ice cream maker. Add a small splash of milk. Let churn for a half hour, or until the yogurt has the right consistency.

Here's video of what it looks like when first put in the machine:

This video was taken about ten minutes in:

About 25 minutes after the yogurt went into the machine. Ready to eat.

This recipe is easily adapted--we've made peach frozen yogurt and we've also made our own vanilla using plain Greek-style yogurt and adding sugar and vanilla. If you're trying to cut back on sugar or prefer your yogurt with more of a "bite" try making this recipe with plain yogurt instead of vanilla flavored yogurt.  However you choose to make it, it's an easy and tasty dessert.

For additional activities to go along with Blueberries for Sal, see Scholastic's Blueberries for Sal page. Here you'll find some math activities and questions for discussion.

*Disclosure: As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small percentage of the purchase price of items purchased through the Amazon.com links on this site. Thank you for helping to support Eat Their Words!

Saturdays and Teacakes - Teacakes

"She opened the over door and the kitchen filled with a smell sweeter than summer gardenias--the smell of teacakes."  - Saturdays and Teacakes, Lester L. Laminack

When I was growing up I had a very close relationship with my grandfather. Due to the early deaths of my other three grandparents he was the only one I was really knew and he was, in a way, like a third parent to me and my sister. Some of my favorite memories are of going on walks together, eating cheese and crackers in front of The Young and the Restless and--when I was in upper elementary school--getting involved in stamp collecting together. My grandpa adored all of his grandchildren and bonded with all of us in different ways. For those of us who lived near him, he never missed a dance recital, concert, big sporting event or graduation. He also made it a priority to visit his other grandchildren who lived across the country. I miss him every day and think about him often--especially when I see my boys enjoying things he would have enjoyed, like getting excited about planting flowers in our garden or playing an instrument.

(Me and Poppa, circa 1981)

Saturdays and Teacakes by Lester Laminack is the story of a boy and his grandmother (Mammaw) and the special relationship between a child and a grandparent. Their standing Saturday date is a ritual that begins with the main character setting off on his bike and riding through town until he reaches her home. Their day includes sharing breakfast, doing yardwork, eating lunch (with fresh tomatoes from the garden) and--finally--making and eating Mammaw's special teacakes. Chris Soentpiet's lovely, Rockwell-inspired watercolor illustrations firmly place the story in a not-so-distant past and evoke feelings of nostalgia for a bygone era--a time when little kids really did ride their bikes through town (without helmets!) and gas station attendants wore spiffy uniforms. Despite the setting, the story is one all who have a special bond with a grandparent can relate to.

Laminack's publisher, Peachtree Publishers, has a recipe for "Mammaw Thompson's Teacakes" on their website. I adapted it to be gluten-free.

Teacakes (adapted from "Mammaw Thompson's Teacakes", Lester L. Laminack)

Ingredients:

• 2 sticks butter (I used Smart Balance Butter Blend)
• 3.5 cups flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 3 teaspoons vanilla

Note: I halved the recipe--the last time we made cookies (and these are, despite the name, cookies) for this blog we didn't end up eating all of them. I used slightly less sugar than the recipe called for because the flour blend I used already has sugar in it. If you aren't following a gluten-free diet and are interested in making these cookies you'll definitely want to check out the original recipe on Peachtree's site rather than use the one I've provided.

1. In mixing bowl, cream softened butter and sugar.

2. Beat eggs and vanilla together. Add to butter and sugar and mix well.

3. Add flour, mix well until all ingredients are combined.

4. The original recipe says to roll out the dough and use a cookie cutter or the rim of a glass to cut into circles. I really didn't want to mess with that; I made drop cookies instead. Normally I abhor those Airbake cookie sheets but I recently read that they work well with gluten-free baked goods. Since I was at my mom's house while making these I decided to give the Airbake sheet a try.

5. Bake at 375* for about 15 minutes.

(The boys and my nephew, enjoying their teacakes after lunch.)

To be very honest, I don't think these cookies are all that different from the moon and star cookies I made last month (I'm thinking of mixing up some ganache icing to give them a different flavor). However, the cookie itself isn't the point. This book is about a special tradition shared between a grandparent and her grandchild, and the important thing is the love and the memories centered around this special recipe, not the recipe itself. It could have just as easily been called Saturdays and Tacos or Saturdays and Tofu. In my case, it might have been called 11:00 a.m. and Cheese and Crackers. I will never be able to pass the refrigerated spreadable cheese section in the grocery store without thinking of my Poppa and all of the special times we shared while spreading cheese on crackers and watching the lives of Victor Newman, Jack Abbott and the other denizens of Genoa City unfold. My parents and inlaws don't cook with my kids. They don't watch wildly inappropriate soap operas with them either. But when my dad shares ice cream bars with the boys after dinner or my mother-in-law gives them silly nicknames I see their own traditions beginning to take root.

*As an Amazon affiliate I earn a small commission when purchases are made via the Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Eat Their Words!

Maisy Makes Lemonade - Lemonade

"It's hot today. Maisy is having a nice cold drink. Mmmm. Lemonade."  - Maisy Makes Lemonade, Lucy Cousins


You may have noticed that lately the recipes on my blog have tied into the season--summer is the time for sweet, refreshing delights like fruit salad and strawberry shortcake. Another quintessential summer treat? Lemonade. What's more, it's easy to prepare. Even very young children can get involved.

Maisy Makes Lemonade was a library find. My four year old is in a stage where he still enjoys simple and comforting books like Cousins' Maisy books just as much as he enjoys more mature fare such as Batman versus the Joker. He was quite taken with both on a recent library trip and while neither would have necessarily been what I'd have chosen for him, I do think it's important to give my kids the ability to choose their own books at the library.

So I was going through the stack of library books to read one more time before our beach vacation and as I picked up Maisy Makes Lemonade I thought, Well, there's a good topic for the blog.

For those not familiar with Maisy (though if you have a toddler/preschooler, you should be), she's a mouse who--along with her various animal friends--experiences things that most kids are familiar with. In addition to making lemonade there are Maisy books about going to bed, going shopping, and going to places like the dentist or on vacation. They're told simply with a minimal amount of text on each page and cute, colorful illustrations. The storyline in Maisy Makes Lemonade is simple and predictable (to adults): Maisy shares her lemonade with her friend Eddie (an elephant) and they run out. They decide to make another pitcher. They pick lemons from Maisy's tree and make their lemonade, step by step. Then they enjoy their refreshing beverage. My kids wanted to make their own lemonade after reading it. If you have a small child, it's a good opportunity to suggest making lemonade "just like Maisy."

Lemonade

Ingredients:

• 6 lemons (or, enough to yield 1 cup of lemon juice)
• 1/2 cup sugar (I used a combination of regular and raw sugar)
• 5 cups water

1. Slice lemons in half and juice them. We don't have a citrus juicer so I let the boys do it by hand. You need one cup of juice for this recipe.

2. Pour juice through a strainer (into the pitcher you'll be using) to separate juice from seeds.

3. Add sugar and water. Stir everything together. Lemonade is ready to serve, unless you'd like to chill it first.

It was 90* the day we made this! We waited until it cooled off a little and drank it outside.

Disclosure: As an Amazon affiliate I earn a small commission from Amazon purchases via the links and search tools on this site. Thank you for supporting Eat Their Words!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Salad

"On Monday he ate through one apple. But he was still hungry."        - The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle

Is there a parent or teacher on the planet who isn't familiar with Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar? We've had our well-loved (board book) copy since my older son's first birthday and it's still a book my four and seven year olds occasionally enjoy. The great thing about it is that it can enjoyed on various levels. For babies and toddlers it's a good introduction to colors, counting, and the names of fruits. With older children it can be used to spark conversation about the caterpillar/butterfly lifecycle. Its unique design also appeals to kids. I remember being absolutely fascinated by this book as a child--there was always a long waitlist for Eric Carle books at my elementary school's library.

Do I even need to bother with a summary for this book? In short, the newborn caterpillar hatches from his egg and spends a week eating various foods before spinning his cocoon and eventually emerging as a "beautiful butterfly." It's illustrated in Carle's trademark style and the pages with the fruits he eats are staggered in size with die cut holes in the fruits to represent the caterpillar's bites.

The board book version we have is especially sturdy and has held up to years of use.

Our recipe for this week is simple and comes straight from the book: Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Salad. It uses as its ingredients the very foods the titular caterpillar ate during the week before building his cocoon. My kids and I enjoy making fruit salad in the summer; there is such an abundance of great, fresh, summery fruit. This was a perfect "cooking" project and snack for a summer day.

Hungry Caterpillar Fruit Salad

In addition to the fruits mentioned in the book, I like my fruit salad to include bananas, blueberries, cherries and whatever else happens to be in season (never any melon though). However, I wanted to stick as close to the amounts in the story as possible. I made an exception for the orange. Five oranges? That's a lot of oranges. Might have been doable if clementines were in season but they're not. Thus, one really large orange as a stand in for the five mini oranges. Were I making this in the winter (but then, strawberries and plums would be out of season) I would use five clementines.

Ingredients:

• 1 apple
• 2 pears
• 3 plums
• 4 strawberries
• 5 oranges (5 clementines, or 1 large orange)

1. Wash fruit. 

2. Peel, slice and/or cut fruit as necessary. I cut everything into bitesized chunks. My seven year old helped with the strawberries.

3. Place sliced fruit in bowl and toss to mix. I added a splash of lemon juice to prevent browning.

I served this with lunch; it would also make a good dessert. Or breakfast, if paired with yogurt.

Eric Carle has a great website with his bio, lists of his books, FAQs, games, coloring sheets and more. There are even instructions on how to make a collage in his signature style. His blog can be found here.


Disclosure: As an Amazon affiliate, I earn a small commission from Amazon purchases made through the links and search tool on this site.

The Beatles in Popular Culture

Before we conclude this week--and because I have no other place to put this so it may as well go on my blog--I have two examples of the Beatles in popular culture that I ran across this week. If you pay close enough attention (and know what you're looking for) you will start to find their influence everywhere. In these two particular examples, they're used in advertising.

Exhibit A:

"All you need is loaf" button from Tillamook Cheese. (Sorry for the blurry quality.) A play, obviously, on the Beatles lyric "All You Need is Love." We received these from Tillamook reps who were promoting their products at a local grocery store earlier this week.

Exhibit B:

Bag from Lucky Brand Jeans store. Upon receiving it I thought, That looks like it was inspired by the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover.

Then I turned the bag on its side and saw that it was designed by Sir Peter Blake. Who is most famous for designing the Sgt. Pepper cover. So there you go.

Beatles Activities for Kids

This week has been all about learning more about one of our favorite bands, the Beatles. Earlier in the week we made strawberry shortcake (to go with "Strawberry Fields Forever") and drew pictures inspired by the music of the Beatles. Here are some of the other things we've been doing:

Watching (bits and pieces of) The Beatles Anthology DVDs. Specifically, we watched the part that includes discussion of "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "Penny Lane". The Anthology DVDs include "promotional films" the Beatles made for the songs, which are really very early examples of music videos and, in my opinion, pretty sophisticated for the era. Watching these videos opened up more discussion about the Beatles but my four year old is still a little young for them, I think. He lost interest fairly early on. My seven year old was very interested and probably would enjoy watching more of the Anthology DVDs at another time.



Playing Beatles Rock Band on XBox. The Rock Band video games (games in general, actually) are something we enjoy as an entire family. If you're not familiar with the concept of this series of video games, you basically use color coded "cues" on the screen to "play" the songs on the instruments that come with the game. My older son likes singing (he does particularly well on "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds") and playing the guitar. My younger son plays the drums, though he usually needs help. I think this game is a great way to introduce the younger generation to the music of the Beatles. (Especially since their music is not yet available on iTunes, which seems to be where so many kids get their music these days.) The graphics are exceptionally well done. The opening sequence (view it here) is amazing. And yes, I know that there is a big difference between playing games like Rock Band and playing real instruments, but this game has paved the way for my boys' interest in learning to play real instruments. Now, I'm not advocating going out and buying a gaming system just so you can play this game, but if you already have one it is worth at least renting (can you still rent video games?) or borrowing from a friend.

Playing The Beatles Games from the National Museums Liverpool. I helped my boys take the quiz to determine which Beatle they are most like. Despite their very different answers they both got John Lennon.

I probably would not have been as inspired to teach my kids about the  Beatles--beyond simply playing the music--if I had not had a Beatles background to use as a jumping off point. In addition to the Anthology DVDs (which I saw when it originally aired as a television documentary/mini-series many years ago), there are a few other resources I recommend to any fan who wants to learn more. The very first Beatles biography I read was Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation by Philip Norman and I still think it is one of the very best Beatle biographies out there. It would be great for teens who have an interest in the Beatles. The Beatles Anthology (book) is basically a rehashing of the documentary but it is (like much of the documentary) in the Beatles' own words and contains amazing pictures. (My only complaint is the size--it's large and difficult to look at when I have kids on my lap. Hence my desire for a Beatles book for kids.) Backbeat is a 1994 movie about the Beatles' first bass player, Stu Sutcliffe, and the early days of the Beatles. Again, this is suitable for teens but not for young kids like mine due to its R rating.

Are you and your kids fans of the Beatles? I want to know about Beatles activities other families have enjoyed. Please leave your ideas in the comments section!