Stars by Mary Lyn Ray

Cooking Skill Level: SUPER EASY

This is one of the first books we cooked.  There was nothing amazingly special about the menu, it was all about the book.  This is a beautiful book.  The potential stars, real stars, things that are star-shaped, even cut out stars.  It’s just a wonderful book, as in filled with wonder.  It really struck a chord with the boys, so much so that I had to cut out stars (and write a teeny note from Grummy on each one) and put them in the world’s smallest jeans pockets.  I understand that only one of the three got washed with the jeans.  The resultant spitball was found the next time he wore the jeans, so all is well.  The other two have torn and ragged starlike shapes on their bookshelves. 

The menu was so simple for this meal.  For the sandwiches, I used my largest star cookie cutter and cut cheese slices, cold cuts, lettuce and bread all the same size. I put 2 bread stars on each plate, and a bunch of the cheese, lettuce and cold cuts so that the boys could assemble their own sandwiches. As always, this gives them incentive to actually eat the food.

 

Because I’m a savvy Grummy, I manned the condiment squirt bottles and “dressed” the sandwiches on request. Of course I made the boys repeat“Oh most wonderful Grummy, please may I have some [insert condiment name or color here]”. I do that just to hear the giggles in their voices.

 I used store-bought pasta in star shapes (Stellini and Pastini) to make a quick pasta salad.  These are pretty easy to find.  If you can’t find them, you could always use the cooked lasagna noodle or fresh pasta recipe and cut out the smallest stars you can find.

I like to toss my diced carrots and my peas into the boiling pasta water just a minute before the pasta is done to give them a tiny bit of tenderness.  I think it also helps them absorb some of the dressing.  The dressing itself is just a quarter cup of buttermilk, a quarter cup of plain yogurt, lots of dried or finely chopped fresh herbs (parsley, dill, chive, basil, tarragon, etc.), some salt and some pepper.  I just drain the pasta and toss it all together with the dressing.  Then I chill it for at least a half an hour.  Remember when cooking Stellini and Pastini, they’re so small, they cook really fast, so you want to be careful to avoid a bowl of mush, it’s better undercooked.

 

 

For dessert, we had fruit (pears) cut into star shapes and the “voids”, the area that’s left after you cut out a star.  That’s so you can look through it and get the point of view of the star (according to the eldest, this is how a star sees, Grummy).

 

Again, we cleaned up after dinner, and read the book again.  This was at the request of the youngest one.  The other two actually sat still through a second reading, even pointing out the same things I’d pointed out during our first reading. 

I love doing this.

Title	Stars
Author	Mary Lyn Ray
Illustrator	Marla Frazee
Publisher	Beach Lane Books, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division
Highlights /Tie in	Stars
Reactions to the Book	·         The boys liked the way the illustrator placed “surprise” stars throughout ·         Grummy Note: this is a really beautiful story.  All of the boys were intrigued with the idea of keeping a paper star in their pocket for when they couldn’t see the real ones.
Meal	·         Pasta Salad: Stellini/Pastini (small star pasta used in soups, 2 sizes) with peas and diced carrots with buttermilk dressing ·         Star Sandwiches: Bread, cold cuts, cheese, lettuce all cut with same sized star cookie cutters ·         Dessert: Fruits (melon, nectarine, etc) cut using small star cookie cutter (use both the star and the “void” in the slice of fruit)
Reactions to the Meal	·         Boys loved the pasta salad, tried eating it one teeny star at a time ·         Sandwiches were a huge hit, each one was able to make the sandwich of their choice ·         Middle one tried two stars of cheese with one star of bread in the middle

 

Keep checking, I'll be doing another tips and tricks posting.