Pineapple Upside-down Cupcakes
Labels: cooking
Labels: cooking
For our turkeys, we used:
It's pretty easy to make just using the picture as a guide. After separating an oreo and removing the white middle, cut (or nibble) one side to form a flat edge for it to stand up on. Glue (with frosting) the feathers (candy corn or mike and ikes) on to the oreo fanning out from the flat edge. Tail completed. Glue the body (rolo) to the other oreo piece before attaching the tail. Finish with the whopper head and the waddle (red tic tac or a piece of a red mike and ike).
When I was still a teenager, my mom informed me that I would be a terrible mother. This is why:

Yes, I made two 15x10 inch pans of brownies, which just makes it even harder to explain to my 2 1/2 year old that she can't have any.
Confession: That bottom right corner piece -the tiny little one- never made it to the dance. I gave in and let my little girl have a brownie. So, does that make me a good mom or a bad one? :)
Labels: cooking
Labels: cooking
Labels: cooking
Step 3: Making the ñoqui dough. Take the mashed potatoes and add lots and lots of flour. OK, start with 2-3 cups of flour. I add about a cup at a time until it reaches the right consistency. Mix and knead the mashed potato dough until it feels like bread dough. If it still feels sticky, add more flour.
Step 4: Forming the individual ñoqui noodles. Roll the dough into a long snake (just like you did when you played with play dough) and then cut into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces. Smaller are better, but you'll be rolling them out forever if you make hundreds of tiny ones. They look kind of like this once cut:
It is helpful, but not necessary to have a ñoqui maker. They are wooden with lots of grooves. If you don't have one, you can use the back of a fork. I've tried it and it does work, but I still prefer my ñoqui makers. In fact I think I need to buy a third one one to keep my kids from fighting over the extra one. This is a step that they love to be actively involved with. It usually means that I need to reroll a few that my kids "helped" with.
To form the ñoquis, start by flouring the ñoqui maker. Then grab one of the pieces of dough and smoosh it along the ñoqui maker with your thumb. The dough will roll out from under your thumb, curling up behind your thumb as you go. That may sound confusing, hopefully the pictures will help clarify. Please excuse my flouriness, it keeps the dough from sticking.
You should end up with a little shell shaped noodle. As you make them toss them onto a lightly floured surface. I use a cookie sheet. If you make an insanely large amount (like we do) you'll want to sprinkle flour over the ñoquis to keep them from sticking together as you layer more on top.Labels: cooking
Labels: cooking
Place in pan. Brush the melted butter on the tops of the rolls. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the rolls.
We measured out one cup of lemon juice into little Ziploc bags to freeze. Putting the bags into cups makes the pouring easier. Following my mother-in-law's recipe, it's 1 cup lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, and 2 quarts water. You may want to adjust it to your tastes.
Twenty six bags of lemon juice.
We also juiced fifteen grapefruit and thirty or so oranges, but that was before we started taking pictures.
Labels: cooking
Serve the milanesa with Argentine mayo (or Kewpie) and lemon. We also had cucumber with ranch and an apple-pear, but those didn't make it into the leftovers picture below.
We also made coconut macaroons. Sorry, it's a secret family recipe that my mom conned another family into sharing with her. As a result, I'm not allowed to share it. But they're yummy and I don't even like coconut.With all the yummy food, we had a great visit with my in-laws and were sad to say goodbye. We've already scheduled the next visit and milanesa dinner for this summer.
Hopefully I'll have a chance to make ñoquis, which the Argentines borrowed from the Italians as well. Except that the Italians spell it gnocchis. They also borrowed canelone from the Italians. I have a recipe for that too. Now I'm getting hungry.
Labels: cooking
After dinner we had a mini carnival. It's a tradition from my in-law's that we've adopted. It's great for young kids and doesn't involve staying up 'til midnight. We each were in charge of a game and handed out prizes. My son did a penny toss. You try to throw the penny as close as you can to the line without touching it. The closest wins. My daughter tampered with the results (she kept picking up the pennies) so we're not sure who won. Then we did a bean bag toss, a fishing game, and a shooting gallery (with a toy gun that shoots foam discs). Then we toasted in the New Year (I'm sure it was midnight somewhere) and did confetti poppers. The kids were thrilled and no one lost any more sleep than normal. I have "chronic insomnia with acute episodes." That's what the doctor said. By the way never take Ambien.
I have to admit that in the past I have skipped the New Year's resolution tradition. I figured why make a resolution that rarely makes it past the middle of January. But since there were a few things that I've been wanting to do anyway, I decided to make them into resolutions for 2008. I'm going to list them here, not because I expect you to care, but to help me remember and for a little accountability.
Labels: books, charity, cooking, crochet, holiday, off topic
They were a big hit. My son told me they were scary. He was talking about the good, fun kind of scary (not the Haunted House kind of scary -long story). My daughter enjoyed hers as well, starting with the frosting. She was a chocolaty mess when she finished.
To keep us from eating all of them, we took a few plates to our neighbors. Share the sugar highs! I think these will be a yearly tradition. They were a lot of fun to make and taste great!
Labels: cooking