Things to Make - Homemade Noodles

On the drive back from Chicago, we stopped at the Historic Sauder Village - outside Toledo, OH (I'll post more on the village tomorrow). In one of the houses, a woman was making noodles. The kids seemed intrigued, so after we arrived home I decided to try making our own (using the recipe provided by the village).

This turned out to be a fantastic project for cooking with kids - not too many ingredients and lots of "kneading", so everyone had a turn to do something. Plus, all the kids loved eating the results and they tasted better than store-bought pasta. Really.

Here's the scoop (from the Historic Sauder Village):

INGREDIENTS (for approximately 1 lb of noodles): 1.5 cups flour, a pinch of salt, and 2 eggs (beaten)

1. Put the flour and a pinch of salt in a bowl and make a well in the center.

2. Pour the beaten eggs into the well.

3. Mix as needed to form a dough ball that is not too sticky.

4. Remove the ball from the bowl to a floured surface. Knead the dough for 5-7 minutes (I let each child knead for 2 minutes). Add flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the surface.

5. Cover with a cloth and let the dough rest for 20-30 minutes.

6. Divide dough into four balls and roll each ball into a circle, as large and thin as possible.

7. Cut the circles into noodles (whatever shape you want).

8. Spread noodles on a towel to dry, then refrigerate.

I still haven't mastered how long to cook them for, but even slightly undercooked, everyone enjoyed the taste. Maybe I'll eventually invest in a pasta maker, in order to get them really thin. Any suggestions on brands or types?

Happy Tuesday!! The girls start school today, kindergarten for P and 1st grade for F. Wow. And the years keep flying by.

Things to Make - Apples, Lots of Apples

As soon as we returned from Stribling Orchard, Dan and I looked at each other and said basically the same thing at the same time - "wow, that's a LOT of apples." In the orchard, it didn't seem like we had THAT many, but once the bags occupied most of our kitchen, we felt overwhelmed. So Dan hopped in the car and drove to Williams-Sonoma to purchase a corer/peeler/slicer thingy. And thus began our week of apples. Luckily, all three kids loved taking turns on the apple peeler, so our kitchen was fully-staffed. And the girls couldn't stop eating the pencil-thin strands of peel, I think they liked these better than all the apple recipes we tried.

Here's what we've made so far:

EASY APPLE CRISP (recipe include in the instruction manual for the peeler)

*5-6 cups apples (peeled, cored, and sliced)
*3/4 cup unsweetened apple juice concentrate, thawed
*2 tbs. flour
*1/2 cup rolled oats
*1/4 cup all purpose flour
*1/2 cup brown sugar
*1/4 tsp. cinnamon
*1/4 tsp. nutmeg
*1/4 cup butter

Stir together the apples, apple juice concentrate, and 1 tbs. flour. Place in a 9 x 13 baking dish.
Mix together the remaining ingredients and sprinkle over the filling. Bake at 375 degrees (190 degrees C) for 35 to 40 minutes.



SLOW COOKER APPLESAUCE (recipe from P's preschool teacher)
*8-10 apples (peeled, cored, and sliced)
*1/2 cup water
*1 teaspoon cinnamon
*1/2 cup sugar.

Cook on HIGH for 3 to 3.5 hours or until apples are falling apart.



SLOW COOKER BAKED APPLES(recipe from Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook (NYM Series))

*6 large baking apples
*2/3 cup brown sugar
*1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
*2 tablespoons butter, cut into 6 small pieces
*1/2 cup apple juice

Grease the crock pot with butter. Remove apple cores leaving 1/2 inch of flesh at the bottom. Mix cinnamon and brown sugar and pack into the apple cores. Arrange apples in cooker, right side up. If necessary, stack apples on top of each other, offset the stack apples so they aren't squarely on top of each other. Place butter on each apple and sprinkle with left over cinnamon and brown sugar mix. Cook on HIGH for 2.5 to 3.5 hours, until apples are slightly soft but not mushy.
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We still have about 1/4 bushel left, any recipe suggestions? I'm running out of steam.

Things to Make - Cooking with Seasonal Veggies (tomatoes, eggplant & squash)

This summer, we joined our first CSA (a half-share at Great Country Farms). So every week, on our doorstep, we receive one bin full of yummy veggies and fruit. In the last few weeks, such deliveries have meant a large amount of tomatoes, eggplant, and squash/zucchini. So what to do?

For the squash and/or zucchini, Real Simple published a great/simple recipe, that's a little different from most squash recipes I've found. - spaghetti with zucchini, walnuts, and raisins (I know it sounds like an odd combination, but even my husband liked it, despite the lack of meat).

For the squash/zucchini and tomatoes, allrecipes.com has a tomato/squash casserole recipe that's quite yummy. http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/tomato-zucchini-casserole/Detail.aspx

For just the tomatoes, often they're wonderful to eat as is (and so so much better than what you buy in the store) but if you want to jazz it up a little this Cooking Light recipe for tomato granita is really yummy.

Regarding the eggplant, I LOVE eggplant parm, but I hate all the steps to make it, so in an effort to make things easier, I created my own simple recipe (with help from my mother-in-law) that I find somewhat addictive. Here it is:

Darcy's Easy Eggplant Parm

ingredients - 1 medium/large eggplant, 3 fresh tomatoes, olive oil, breadcrumbs, shredded parm cheese (or, i like to use the parm, assiago, fontina, provolone blend from trader joes called "Quattro Formaggio")

1. Cut eggplant into 1/2 inch rounds and generously apply salt to the pieces. Let sit about half an hour and then pat dry with a paper towel (i know it sound silly, but this keeps the eggplant from getting soggy)
2. Brush slices with olive oil (lightly) and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes
3. Remove eggplant slices from the oven and assemble them into stacks with the tomato (cut into round slices), breadcrumbs (about a tablespoon), and cheese (i.e. eggplant, tomato, breadcrumbs, a light smattering of cheese, then repeat. So that each stack has 2 eggplants and 2 tomatoes).
4. Bake at 350 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is melted but not burned.

See, so easy, and somewhat healthy, right? Okay so cheese is bad, but at least no frying occurs.

How about everyone else? Any other suggestions for seasonal produce? I'd love to hear them.