Cooks in the house!!!

Yes you heard me, we have several cooks coming up here in the Huffin house! Last night I asked for volunteers and Sir N and bubba said we will. So they could not come up with anything, I suggest some kind of potato. Ok so a Potato dish is is! How i toldem have at it. They did and it was yummy.
They took potato's, peeled, hollowed them out.
Chopped onion, mushroom, carrot, celery, and I think thats about it
they mixed them together and stuffed the potato's
Baked until done! YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We will be remembering and doing this again. I think what I like most is its from their head. Thinking about what the main ingredient will be and what goes well, and making it work. On their own, I did not help, no one did! This happens a lot. I need to blog more and put it up!

Next Cooking moment was a few weeks ago. Sir N said he wanted to make spagetti, ok cool. We can arrange that. He says "from scratch" no biggie, do it all the time- ha I thought. His scratch and mine are different.
He made a list of what he needed- right down to amounts of each thing. On this list was fresh tomato, fresh green, yellow and red pepper, and much more fresh veggies.
Ok what ya doing I ask, no sauce, canned tomato, tomato sauce at least? He says big "NO"
So I went and picked it up. Now I have to say at this point I was a little uneasy at what we would end up with. We are talking a 9 year old making it up himself, from fresh ingredients.
I am sure other parents can understand the worry, (panic), mind running with endless outcomes.
But I have tried very hard to not stop creative process in the kids.
I got it all home, asked if he wanted help, nope he says. He went to work
When it was done it was so AWESOME he did not make enough. We pigged! it was great! We cant get enough. He made it again the other night and it was delicous!
Little chefs in my house!

We decided to take the potato dish and do it as a breakfast dish for Christmas breakfast!
We will use breakfast foods for it, prep work the night before, and throw in oven come morning! I'll tell ya how it turns out.

Raviolies?? Ya well they started out that way

I had not made pasta- home made pasta for a long time. Feeling a little more like getting back to my normal cooking these days so I decided we were making home made raviolis! Cheese raviolis! So I put the stuff in pasta maker- and turn it on- it goes! and stops after oh maybe 20 seconds. We repeat this process till I am totally ticked! SO I set up the food processor with the dough mixers and go that route. Mix it all up. I decide the kids are going to want to help, why not make them cute raviolis! I pull out the larger cookie cutters, a heart, circle, octagon, and house shape. This should be fun right? 

Have Nanna mix up the cheese filling for me. I roll out the dough and kids go to town! cutting shapes, we fill with a spoon, pinch edges together to seal it up. So after doing this for what seems like forever- really was not to long but when you have a 3,5,7 and 10 year old helping time stretches! Now don't get me wrong it was fun. They were having fun and adorable. Chubby laughs and says "I am awesome chef! HAHAHA!" It was great. made me laugh hard.

So first batch cooks! HMM some of the filling leaked out it seems, oh well, not a biggie.

So me and nanna think on new idea for rest, kids have mostly lost interest, not totally but they are ready to try a new method also. So I roll out a LARGE piece of dough, use pizza cutter and make a slice. I fill it every little ways, fold over and cut, pinch edges and cook. Even more filling runs out, but still taste yummy. 

Well by now I am bored, hungry and want to be done. Nanna says why don't we just spread the cheese over 1/2 the dough, fold it over, cut it, pinch it and call it good. Hey that sounds good! So we dump and spread! fold, and hm may not work but lets give it a try. I slice into squares. But they are all so full there is no edged to pinch any of them shut! lol so we squish them together as good as possible, loosing filling in the process. What started out looking like cute little raviolis now looks like a mushy mess of gooey dough covered in slimy cheese!

But I figure in the end it gets chewed and looks yucky anyway so hey we can start out looking yucky! Don't mean it tastes gross right? Into the boiling water they go! We loose more cheese filling! drain when done and put into a bowl. Now a lot of the cheese filling at this point leaked out into the water and kinda made its own sauce. Some of it was put in the pasta ( I say pasta because I am not sure they qualify as raviolis, raviolis are supposed to have filling, this does not for the most part!)

I make the Alfredo sauce, pout it over, mix it up and we eat. Amazingly enough they turned out good! Not as many lost their filling as we thought. and it was good. Here is the recipe

Pasta dough- this is from my friend Dulie- I doubled it 

Basic pasta

 4  eggs

1 tbsp water

3-1/2 cups flour, you can sift it, seems to make mixing time easier for me.

1/2 tsp salt

I added onion powder- no measurement just dumped, and garlic powder, just dumped. I used a lot, the dough tasted like garlic and onion It was good 

This is where I change the recipe some, I add all ingredients and mix, as it needed more moisture I used milk until it was moist as I wanted. Dulie uses water

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cheese filling

1 container cottage cheese

cheddar cheese                                                                                            I mix them together, this is kind of an eye ball it thing. You can use whatever cheese you want, mix it up and call it good. My kids love this mix

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Alfredo sauce

1 package cream cheese

1 cube real butter

melt, mixing a lot, it wont really melt just get all gloppy

add bottle of shredded mozzarella/Romano cheese (one or both)is- this is where it melts. 

Add milk enough to make consistency you want. It can be thick or thin, your choice  . This stuff is good Pour over pasta                           

            

 

dinner tonight

Tonight we are using the Dutch Oven!

I took 2 Lbs ground turkey, crumbled in bottom of pan mixed garlic powder and onion powder into it

sliced potatoes, turnups, green peppers, onion, broccolie,and mushrooms and put ontop of turkey. 

1 can tomatoe sauce

1 can cream of celery soup, 1 can cream of mushroom soup mix with 1 can water poured over the top

put lid on cook in oven at 350 for about 1 hour

lunch was- top ramen noodles for kids, I skipped it

Breakfast- kids cereal and yogurt

me- yogurt with flax mix

Also tried a new recipe for my yogurt. Its still in the making. If it works out I'll share it. If not I am dumping and not telling anyone! I also found a couple new sites with recipes for yogurt that sound good

ways to flavor home made yogurt!

https://www.dvo.com/newsletter/monthly/2003/june/0603tabletalk3.html

new recipe

http://www.phamfatale.com/id_123/title_Agave-blended-Homemade-Yogurt-with-Kumquat-Preserves-without-using-a-Yogurt-Maker/