Bumpie Sweets

In early December my 7-year-old invented a cookie recipe that she dubbed "bumpie sweets." Staying as true to her original recipe as possible, we worked together to tweak the quantities, add some ingredients, and fine-tune the method.

Here is the original recipe as first written by my daughter (not bad for a 1st grader, eh?):

Bumpie Sweets!

Mix together:
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp peppermint extract (or flavoring--we couldn't find extract)
2 cups flour

Melt 1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows and 1/4 cup butter. Then add to the above.

Mix in an additional 2 cups flour. (If dough is too dry at this point, add a splash of milk.*) Mix in 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, and optionally, 1/2 cup crushed candy canes.** Due to the marshmallows, the dough is very stiff, and only becomes moreso as the dough cools.

Drop onto a greased cookie sheet and press lightly with your fingertips to flatten slightly. The cookies will not spread out much, so feel free to crowd the cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. They really are bumpy, and you'll know they're done when the edges and bumps just brown slightly.

*The first time we made the Bumpie Sweets--when they were still in their experimental stage--I added the ingredients in the above order. The second time, I tried adding all 4 cups of flour before the melted marshmallows. This didn't work well and I had to add some moisture in the form of a splash of milk. There hasn't been a 3rd rendition yet to see if the above method will remain true. It should, as that was our first and more successful attempt.

**We had no candy canes for the first attempt, which was the origin of the peppermint flavoring. In the photo below, the left-hand cookies have only chocolate chips. The right-hand cookies have crushed candy canes.

These cookies are fluffy and delicious. Everyone in the family likes them--even my non-mint-lover.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi

This dish is so delicious and, amazingly, everyone in my family likes it. It's a bit time-consuming, but definitely worth it. I've made it a few times and there's definitely a learning curve involved, so hopefully I can share some tips that I've discovered to make creating these yummy little dumplings a little easier.

This recipe comes from the October 2008 issue of Sunset magazine and is an excellent fall meal. I recommend doubling the recipe when you make the dough and freezing half of it. This gets you more bang for your butternut-baking buck.

Butternut Squash Gnocchi

1 butternut squash 2 -3 pounds
2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 tsp nutmeg
3 1/2 cups flour
3 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, plus additional for serving

Preheat oven to 425°. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Place the squash cut-side-down on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake until squash is tender, approximately 40 minutes.

(For speed, you may choose to microwave the squash for 10-20 minutes. Poke holes in the flesh first; cut and discard seeds after cooking. The original Sunset recipe calls for microwaving, but I ultimately found that to be more of a hassle and mess. Putting the squash in the oven is a much more hands-off--and to me, less stressful--way to cook it.)

When squash is fork tender, remove from oven and scrape out flesh with a spoon. Place 2 cups of squash in a bowl with the salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Mix well. Add flour, 1 cup at a time, until it turns into a dough. (You may want to use a mixer with a dough hook, but a wooden spoon and elbow grease work fine, too.) Turn the dough out onto a flour surface and knead, adding flour as necessary if too sticky.

Cut the dough in half and cover one half with plastic wrap. Working on the other half in sections, roll out into ropes, and cut these ropes into small gnocchi pieces (about 1x1 in).

Place the pieces onto a lightly flour baking sheet until you have finished working with the first half of dough. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt liberally.

Use a wide, flat spatula to transfer the gnocchi from the baking sheet into the boiling water. This helps prevent splashing and keeps most of the flour from going into the water. (I also use the spatula to transfer the gnocchi from the counter to the baking sheet. It just makes it a little faster.) Once the gnocchi are in the water, give them a good stir to make sure they aren't sticking together.

Boil gnocchi until they rise to the surface, about 4 minutes; cook 30 seconds longer and remove with a slotted spoon, making sure water drains from gnocchi. Place in a serving bowl and cover to keep warm while you prepare and cook the other half of the dough. To serve, gently toss with butter and parmesan and add more seasoning to taste. Yum!

Lollipop Cookies

Listed as "Cookie Pops" in Anne Byrn's The Cake Mix Doctor, I made these fun and easy cookies to take to my daughter's class on her birthday. They were a hit with her classmates!

Lollipop Cookies
shortening for greasing the pans
1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix
1 cup flour
1 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup honey
2 large eggs
1 cup colored sprinkles
48-55 wooden craft sticks

Preheat oven to 375° and lightly grease two cookie sheets with shortening. Place cake mix, flour, melted butter, honey, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Mix on low for another minute. The cookie dough will be thick.

Shape dough into 1-inch balls. (I have a spring-loaded cookie scoop that I used to get the dough out of the bowl. It must be a 2-inch scoop, though, as I found it necessary to cut each scoop in half. Still, I think this helped me to make more uniform balls than I would have on my own.) Pour the colored sprinkles into a shallow bowl and roll the balls in them. (I didn't measure my sprinkles before starting, but it used up more than I expected and I finished the batch with a mix of green and pink colored sugar crystals--anything would work.)

Place the dough balls two inches apart on the greased cookie sheets. I staggered the rows of balls to allow room for placing the sticks (see below).

Bake the cookies until the edges are light brown, 8-12 minutes (10 minutes in my oven). Remove the pan from the oven and immediately insert a craft stick halfway into the side of each cookie. (This was much easier than I expected.) Let the cookies rest on the cookie sheet for 1 minute.

Carefully remove the cookies (also easier than anticipated) with a spatula and place on wire racks to cool completely, 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough!

Note: The Cake Mix Doctor says you can replace the yellow cake mix with a chocolate or devil's food cake mix. I'm sure any cake flavor would work.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting

I found this recipe in a 2007 Better Homes & Gardens magazine. The original recipe was for cupcakes, and it seemed like a great way to use up some of summer's abundant zucchini crop. The second time I made it, instead of cupcakes I made a 3-layer cake with 8-inch rounds. Now, you should understand that traditional birthday cake in my family is a 3-layer cake with a very rich chocolate frosting. Three layers of chocolate cake just seemed natural, no matter what the frosting.

It took me TWO large glasses of milk to get through that first slice of 3-layer chocolate zucchini cake with peanut butter frosting. Since then I have made this cake in two layers with 9-inch round pans. This is our favorite summertime cake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cake
from Better Homes and Gardens magazine (adapted by me!)

2 cups shredded zucchini
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cooking oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans. In a large bowl stir together zucchini, eggs, sugar, oil, and vanilla. Add remaining ingredients and stir until combined. Pour batter into prepared pans and bake about 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for about 10 minutes. Remove and cool completely before frosting.

Peanut Butter Frosting
from The Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 stick butter, at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 Tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl, cream together peanut butter and butter with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, about 30-60 seconds. Stop the machine and add powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp milk, and the vanilla. Blend on low speed until the sugar is well combined, 1-2 minutes. Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting lightens and is fluffy, 1 minute more. Blend in up to 1 Tbsp milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

Penne with Courgette

Courgette is the French word for zucchini and is also the word used in Britain, where I got this recipe. I found it in the Stilton Church Cookery Book which we bought when we went to the May Day celebrations, including cheese rolling, in the village of Stilton. I've adapted the recipe just a bit and we continue to use the British title. Our entire family likes this pasta dish, which is an excellent use of a summer garden's bounty.

Penne with Courgette
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium zucchinis/courgettes (or 1 large, approx. 1 lb.), washed and coarsely grated
16 oz. penne pasta
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. heavy whipping cream
salt and freshly ground pepper
handful of fresh basil leaves
freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the penne and cook until al dente. Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for a couple of minutes, until garlic becomes fragrant. Add grated zucchini and cook, stirring quickly, until they are really hot and still have a little bite to them. In a small bowl, beat the eggs, season with salt and pepper, and add cream.

When pasta is cooked, drain lightly and return to the pot. Add the egg mixture to the pasta, stirring constantly so it cooks in the heat of the pasta. Add the zucchini, torn basil leaves, and ground pepper. Put into a serving bowl and top generously with grated cheese. Serve with more cheese for diners to add as desired.

Serves 4.

Smooth & Creamy Tomato Soup

I got this one from a friend who has written a book that includes a lot of recipes. She asked me to test out several dishes and give her feedback. She's in luck, because this one got a favorable rating from the entire family! My 4-year-old made a yummy noise that the girls have adopted (it sounds more-or-less like slurping) and said, "Delicious!" My toddler was practically licking the bowl by the end of the meal. (He also had a large amount of soup in his hair, so maybe licking it isn't saying much.) I served it with some crusty bread and fresh fruit, and we will definitely repeat this dinner.

Of this soup, my friend says, "It turns a beautiful dark orange color, so it doesn’t look like its store-bought counterpart, but it’s absolutely delicious." We agree. Smooth & Creamy Tomato Soup
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1 small onion, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/4 tsp. baking soda
4 cups fresh or canned (drained) tomatoes, chopped
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. garlic
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups milk

Heat oil and melt butter in a soup pot on medium-high heat. Add celery and onion and sauté until soft. Add soda, stir until the mixture turns yellow and lets off a distinctive smell. Immediately add tomatoes, salt, pepper and garlic. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes. At this point, you want the mixture to be thick with little liquid. If it’s still thin, turn up the heat and boil off some of the liquid. Pour into a blender and puree, or use that handy immersion blender.* Pour soup back into pot and add milk. Heat, stirring until thickened.

*At this point, you can refrigerate or freeze, and then just take it out, (thaw, if necessary), add the milk, and re-heat. You can also add more or less milk to your own taste.

Summer Soup

This one comes from Favourite Farmhouse Recipes: Traditional Country Fare, a small cookbook I picked up when we lived in England a few years ago. This can certainly be eaten during any season, but it uses up some of the plentiful green things that come from summer gardens. I've adjusted the measurements in the original recipe from British to American.

Two of my three children, including the toddler, really liked this for dinner last night. My oldest asked if I would make it again tonight. She'll have to settle for the leftovers, I suppose.

Summer Soup
2 T. butter
1 onion, finely chopped
6-8 pieces of bacon, chopped
½ cucumber, peeled and cubed
1 potato, peeled and cubed
1 head of green leaf lettuce, cleaned and shredded
1/3 cup + 1 T. flour
salt & pepper
Pinch of mixed herbs
1 ½ cups chicken or ham stock
1 ½ cups milk

Melt the butter in a large pot. Add bacon and cook until nearly crisp. Add the onion, cucumber and potato. Slowly sauté until onion is soft. Add the lettuce; cover and cook for 5 minutes. Sprinkle in the flour and salt & pepper and mix well. Add the herbs and stock. When it thickens, add the milk and simmer gently until the potato is cooked. Put in a blender and process until smooth, then return to the pan; or use an immersion blender. Heat through and serve.

Pasta with Lemon Cream Sauce

This has a nice light taste to it, although I'm sure the cream doesn't make it so light on the calories. Oh well!! I got this from http://www.allrecipes.com/, and adapted it just a bit. I serve this with green peas on the side, which the adults tend to mix in, while the kids eat them separately. To make this dish a little heartier, you can add cooked chicken and broccoli (or the aforementioned peas).

Pasta with Lemon Cream Sauce
2 T. butter
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3/4 cup chicken broth
zest of one lemon
juice of one lemon
zest of one lime or approx. 2 tsp. lime juice
1 lb. pasta of your choice (We like bowties or rotini.)

In a sauce pan, combine the butter, cream, and chicken broth. Simmer over medium heat until reduced by about half. As the sauce simmers, heat salted water until it comes to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain and put into a serving bowl. Add the citrus juices and zest to the reduced cream sauce, pour over the pasta, and stir to combine. Eat!

Tip for Juicing Citrus Fruit: Zap your lemons, limes, etc. in the microwave for about 20 seconds and you'll get more juice out of them. You can also roll them around on the counter with the heel of your palm.

Chicken Delicious...A Little

I invented this recipe one Sunday afternoon when I was short an ingredient or two for another favorite recipe. I had already begun cooking the chicken, so I had to figure out something to do with it. A quick perusing of the fridge and freezer, and voila!

The dish met with a favorable response from the family as we sat down to dinner. "What should we call this? We should name it," I said. My then-5-year-old daughter exclaimed, "Chicken Delicious!" As the meal progressed and she wasn't eating anymore of it, we asked her why not. "You said it was Chicken Delicious. Why aren't you eating it?" I asked.

"Well, maybe it's just Chicken Delicious...A Little," she answered. The name stuck.

Chicken Delicious...A Little

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 T. olive oil

2 T. sun-dried tomatoes

2-3 oz. frozen spinach, thawed, drained, and squeezed of excess moisture

approx. 1/4 lb. chicken, cooked and shredded

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls

approx. 1/2 cup cottage cheese

Cover tomatoes in water and let soak as you prepare other ingredients. Sauté garlic and onion in oil. Drain tomatoes and coarsely chop. Add tomatoes and spinach to pan and sauté for another few minutes. Stir in chicken and turn off heat.

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Open crescent rolls and spread on the sheet, as shown:

Top with cottage cheese and then chicken-spinach mixture, going down the center of the dough. Fold dough over top of filling and bake 375°F for 10-12 minutes. (Check after 10 minutes.) Remove from pan and cut into pieces to serve. Serves 4.

"1-2-3 family bean!"

I remember a mealtime ritual from my childhood. I recall it as a fun game. Its origins are uncertain, but I'm sure my parents invented it as a means to get their four children to eat the less desireable items on our plates. Whenever someone said, "Family bean (or potato or carrot or meatloaf)!" everyone at the table was required to simultaneously take a bit of that food. As parents of young children ourselves, my husband and I now frequently invoke this rule at the dinner table. Of course, as I did, the children think it's a game.

Four years ago I decided to compile a family cookbook from amongst favorite recipes of my parents, my brothers, and their wives. Two years ago when the collection was finally complete and I was ready to take the book to the local copy shop, I decided to title it Family Bean! in honor of the dinners of my childhood.

Now I've decided to blog about the cooking adventures in my own kitchen (and the reception they get at my family dinner table--will we have to invoke "family bean"?), sharing my recipes, my successes, and (rarely, I hope) my failures. You'll see some old favorites, as well as the new recipes I invent or acquire from magazines, cookbooks, and friends.

Happy cooking...and eating!