This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

Cooking Skill Level: EASY

Once again we have a book by one of my very favorite authors, Jon Klassen.  He’s so good at what he does.  Again, the story features a hat.  One that doesn’t belong to the fish that’s wearing it. 

The menu for this was just so obvious to me.  Hats, two sizes of fish, crab on a log, underwater plants to hide in and maybe a bit of seascaping (shells).

This is how I built the story:

First, I worked on the underwater plants.  I love to give the boys different lettuces since they grew some the summer before last and they remember that it comes in all shapes and colors.  The little “Artisan” lettuces that you can find these days are so wonderful for landscaping/seascaping a story.  I dressed this with a tiny bit of balsamic vinegar and oil.

 

 Then I added the logs; celery and cream cheese.  I needed the cream cheese to keep the crab’s claws in place.  The claws were made of mostly stripped thyme twigs.  I saved the stripped leaves for later.  For the body of the crab, I cut a cherry tomato in half and stuck it onto the cream cheese between the claws.  Make sure you play with the claws, you can turn them to face the hiding place (lettuce), or have them waving at the kids, or even covering the crab’s face. 

 

Next I placed my two fish on the plate.  The big fish was simply a fish stick.  The little fish was just a piece of a fish stick.  Of course I had to put a hat on the little fish.

 

Orecchiete again for the hats, this time blue.  I found some organic all natural food coloring on the Internet, but decided I’d use what I had for cake decorating.  At first, I used way too much.  Obviously…

 

 So I tamed that a bit and added in some pasta shells so I could use them in seascaping the plate. 

I added some mozzarella perlini, tiny little pearls of cheese, to the shells to look like all the bubbles you see throughout the story.

 

Dessert was some blackberries (which could look like hats if you squint hard enough) and whipped cream.

 

When we sat down for dinner, I got a high five from the oldest.  He was very proud of how Grummy is learning to cook for boys.  They were all impressed that their tongues and fingers turned blue, but it didn’t stop them from eating and talking about the story.  The middle one wasn’t sure whether he liked this story or I Want My Hat Back better.  He definitely likes fish stories, but we didn’t get carrots with this one Grummy.  Fish don’t like carrots like rabbits do.

Making conversation was sometimes a challenge when we started these dinners.  The boys’ attention was often scattered.  With time, they have become experts at discussing books, themes, food, and ideas.  Plus, I know they will always remember these times and hopefully do the same with their own children and grands.

 

Title	This Is Not My Hat
Author	Jon Klassen
Illustrator	Jon Klassen
Publisher	Candlewick Press
Highlights /Tie in	Blue Hat, Fish (one big, one small)
Reactions to the Book	·         The oldest caught on immediately that this was a book by someone we “knew” – “A HAT? Grummy, ANOTHER HAT” ·         Swim practice on the couch – no winners in the race, they pretty much stayed in one place just waving limbs around
Meal	·         Hats: Orecchiete (blue) ·         Fish sticks ·         Shell pasta ·         Salad that looks like water plants (good for hiding)(sort of) ·         Crab on a log
Reactions to the Meal	·         Pasta hats on each finger, old news (old hat?) ·         The big fish stick chased the little one into the salad.  The littlest grandson chewed on the stick of thyme for a while, then gave it to me.  Sharing is nice. ·         A lot of time spent on putting the perlini “bubbles” into the shells

Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin

 

Cooking Skill Level: SUPER EASY

Tacos, tacos, tacos.  We made a LOT of tacos.  Why? Because Dragons LOVE Tacos.  So, it seems, do little boys.  We made vegetable tacos, beef tacos, peanut butter tacos, cheese tacos, raisin tacos, s’more tacos, inside out tacos, taco cakes.  Loads of tacos. 

 In the book, you see hoards of dragons (or is it pods of dragons?) eating tacos of all sorts.  I think we pretty much covered a lot of the types.

The first trick here is to make a lot of fillings, but in small amounts.  The second trick is to trim your tortillas so they’re very small.  Take a regular sized tortilla that you would use for a taco, about 6-8”.  Place your hand on it aligning the tip of your fingers with one edge.  See how it pretty much is the same size as your hand?  Consider how small it should be for a grandchild’s hand.  This will make it much less messy and so much easier for them to handle.  And, kids love kid-sized foods. (I know there’s a study out there about that, but I’ve never bothered to find it).

 So I set my oldest grandson to cutting the tortillas with my largest biscuit cutter.  This is a perfect task for him.  He’d cut one, then measure it with his hand, and if it fit, he’d put it in the pile.  If not (and I’m not sure how the sizes actually ended up varying, but they did), it went into the Future Dessert pile which will be frozen to use another time when I will sprinkle some cinnamon and nutmeg on them and toast them in the oven.  We used whole wheat tortillas, sun-dried tomato and spinach tortillas because they’re pretty.  I threw in a couple of my low carb tortillas just for fun.

 

 

While the tortillas were being size corrected, the two younger ones were setting the table.  4 plates, 4 spoons, 4 forks, and a 150 pack of napkins.  The napkins ended up looking like origami boulders.

 

   

Meanwhile, back at the kitchen, I prepped veggies, meats, and various other fillings.  I sliced cauliflower, creating 1/8” cross sections of “trees”. As we all know, Dragons LOVE trees too.  I roasted the “trees” and some root veggies along with some mini bell peppers in a 450 degree oven after dousing them with the cumin, cayenne (a tiny bit because that can cause stomach distress in dragons), sweet paprika  and some oil.  It only takes about 15 minutes and adds so much flavor to the veggies. 

 

I cooked up some ground beef with those same seasonings and about 2 tablespoons of tomato paste per pound of ground meat.  This could have been done with ground chicken, turkey or pork, I just happened to use beef. 

 

Using my stash of small dishes and bowls (you can also use those plastic tumblers you have left over from holiday entertaining)  I put all sorts of ingredients out for the boys to make their own tacos.  I had lettuce shreds, sliced tomatoes, the roasted veggies, shredded cheese, peanut butter, raisins, celery and chocolate chips and of course, the beef. 

 

 

This is as good a time as any to mention that if I’d had other vegetables or meats available, I would’ve used those as well or instead.  It was important that there was a variety and that the boys were able to make and try their own creations.  Peanut butter and tomatoes is not the best, but not the worst either.

I’d recommend a sun-dried tomato and basil tortilla for that one.  As you can see, there’s even a tortilla sandwich that looks like a dragon (per the middle child).  It has cheese, 3 tortillas, celery, one tomato, and two roasted carrots.  Oh, and raisins for eyes.

 

And finally, I added some salsa to the table.  If you read this story, you will understand that you must make sure it is MILD salsa.  No Jalapenos allowed.  We practiced what would happen if you had spicy salsa.  A lot.  It involved very loud burps.  I didn’t do as well as the boys did, but they assured me I could practice for next time.

 

So there are a lot of substitutions and additions that are possible for this menu.  Don’t forget that you can introduce new and interesting salsas, like watermelon and basil (which is one of the boys’ favorite desserts), honeydew, or even a banana salsa.  You can make any types of fillings you want, any sauces you want, and use any tortillas you want.  The goal is to make the kids the “authors” of their own meals.

 

Title	Dragons Love Tacos
Author	Adam Rubin
Illustrator	Daniel Salmieri
Publisher	Penguin/Dial Books for Young Readers
Highlights /Tie in	Tacos
Reactions to the Book	·         Lots of burping ·         LOTS
Meal	·         Tortillas cut to “kid size” ·         Various fillings, including Peanut Butter, veg and beef ·         MILD salsa ·         Desert tacos
Reactions to the Meal	·         The boys tried all sorts of tacos … stacked like cakes and sandwiches, folded like tacos, filled with odd combinations, rolled ·         They were told that they could try any type of taco they wanted, but must take at least one big bite of it ·         The tacos were so small that one or two bites finished the whole thing, so the ended up getting a really full meal

 

Wading through stacks of books, shopping list in hand.  Can’t wait for the next one!

Tips and Tricks - Chapter 3 Continued

Ok, I went to the store today.  I picked up a whole lot of lovely vegetables and fruits and am planning to make a lot of salads after I finish photographing body parts.

Of all times for this to happen, the fancy cauliflower went on sale and I needed the white.  So I bypassed the beautiful gold and purple varieties and went for dull cream colored.  But Grummy, you ask, why does the color matter? Well, I wanted to show how easy it is to make brains.  Then, on the way home, I realized that purple or gold brains would work too.  Ah well, I’ll get the pretty stuff next time.

So ... brains.  As mentioned, you can use cauliflower.  One of the benefits of cauliflower is that it can be crunchy brains or mushy brains, or anywhere in between brains.  Sometimes that matters.  Crunchy brains and dip might be just the appetizer you’re looking for. 

 

 

Another great brain food (get it?) is pasta.  Just about any shape or form of pasta cooked and drained and left in the colander to cool will look like a brain, but elbow macaroni really works well.  If you have a small cup sized strainer, that would make great individual brains.  If you only have larger strainers, drain the pasta and dish up in small serving bowls to cool, or serve a large family style brain.  Remember, you can always drizzle all sorts of goo on your brain.  Melted cheese makes a good brain goo, marinara too. 

 

 

And sometimes you find hidden thoughts in brains.  If I asked the boys to make their own brains, I’d make sure to have a lot of thinly sliced vegetables and cheese and a lot of cookie cutters so they could cut ideas and stuff them into their brains.  I know the middle one would stuff an awful lot of cars and trucks in his brain.  The oldest would probably cut out some books and maybe a beaker or two (he loves Science).  The youngest wouldn’t bother cutting anything out. It’s food. It all belongs in his brain just as it is. 

 

 

Before we move on to other body parts, let’s talk about caricatures.  Caricatures take a prominent feature and magnify it so that it represents the person being caricatured.  This works for people, things, animals and so forth.  It’s finding the “essence” or what is outstanding about something and using that to represent it.  For example, when we talked about Rapunzel, we focused on her hair.  When we talk about a truck, it could be the wheels.  The idea is to think about the object or person or character from a child’s point of view.  What sticks out to them?  What would be the first thing they say to describe that character?   

When you’re making body parts, it might be a small detail that pulls it all together.  Not all Grandparents were born with equal veggie carving skills or dough sculpting talents, so focus on traits that are outstanding and remember the kids will believe whatever you say if you say it with authority.  Of course, Mathilda that is exactly what happens to the Spider when she tries to walk too soon after painting her toenails.

 

 Consider if you want to make a hand, use one of your grandchildren as a model.  Cut out dough or pie crust around their hand.  Or just make fingers.  If you make fingers, you can roll the dough and then add a sliced almond as a fingernail. 

 

 

How about eyes?  Grapes are a great eye.  You can peel grapes and fill a bowl full of them (my brothers did this to me when I was little) or you can cut them in half if you need them to display as rounded or sliced if you want them flat.  Consider using stuffed olives for eyes.  Again, the profile can be changed simply by halving or slicing the olive or grape.  The long root part of a radish becomes a lovely alien eye stalk.  Cut a cross in the end of a tomato and give it a good squeeze, and you have the worst possible case of pink eye ever.

 

 

One of my favorite ways of portraying birds is by creating pie crust beaks.  You can shape them to be long and pointy, bent, squashed, whatever you want it to look like.  Remember to cut the little nostril holes in the dough too.  That makes it more recognizable as a beak.  You can then place the cooked beaks on the plate strategically to just look like a bird, or you can add them to cherry tomatoes, oranges, kiwis, etc. to make full birds.

 

 

Noses can be done just like beaks.  You can attache them to heads made out of fruit or potatoes, or even out of more dough.  Remember in cooking No, David, I made David heads out of little rolls.  I could have added David noses using pieces of pie crust. 

 

One of the fixatives I like to use is ricotta cheese.  Cream cheese also works, but it’s a bit stiffer than ricotta and not as easy to dab on.  I try not to use toothpicks or inedible attachments.  I figure I want the boys to try everything on the plate, I don’t want to be pointing to certain pieces and saying, oh, except don’t eat that.  I actually made dowels out of mini carrots one time.  Who knows, I might even do some dovetailing on my cucumber slices.  Just try things out.  Don’t wait for the story; play with your own food. 

So these are just some of my ideas for Body Parts.  As I think of more, you’ll either see them incorporated into a meal for a story or in a Tips and Tricks Chapter.   The next time I need to do a Tips and Tricks, I think I’ll concentrate on accessories and clothing.  Mittens and scarves come in handy for winter time stories.  And as the boys told me, I should’ve added socks to their Bath Soup.

Tips and Tricks - Chapter 3

As promised, Body Parts.

 

The top two allies in edible Body Parts are flour-based.  Pasta and bread dough.  They can be shaped, trimmed, stretched and stacked to take on just about any shape.  You can create them from scratch, buy them semi-prepared or even totally prepared.  Even better, they’re fun to play with.  I’ve had more fun with the boys by giving them their little plastic knives and a bunch of cookie cutters, rolling out some dough, and telling them to build a snowman, build a house, build a monster.  I’ve found that if you do this, you’ll get all sorts of stories from them about how such and such monster has more legs, because he likes sneakers, or the head on this one is HUMONGOUS because he tried not to sneeze and pinched his nose … I love these stories.  They make everyone laugh and amazingly, they listen to each other.  What a great skill they’re learning. 

I’ve already given my pasta recipe a few times but since I really dislike scrolling and clicking, I’m going to give it again for your convenience.  Also, here’s a very simple dough recipe for pizza dough which is probably the easiest “bread” dough to make.  It mixes well and holds up to a lot of molding and shaping. 

Remember that this might also be a good opportunity to add value to the dough, check out www.KingArthurFlour.com or www.Allrecipes.com for recipes for whole wheat and grain breads. 

Another source for doughs is the freezer section at your grocery store.  Frozen pizza dough, frozen bread dough (whole wheat or white), frozen rolls.  Frozen rolls have the added bonus of allowing you to thaw and use just a small amount, but make sure that the dough has not been baked at all prior to freezing.  If it already looks like a roll, it's probably been cooked at least a bit.

 

A final tip about bread dough creations: Make sure the kids wash their hands before they start.  You really do want the creations to be edible.

 

Pasta:

2 to 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour 3 eggs 1 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients and knead until flour is incorporated and dough is elastic.  Put in plastic bag and let rest on counter top for about ½ hour.  Dust your counter top liberally with flour and using a rolling pin, roll out the dough.  Flip the dough and flour it so it doesn’t stick, and continue rolling (turning/flipping as needed) until the dough is as thin as you can get it (it plumps when cooked, so you want it thin).  I try to get it thin enough to see my hand through it.    Use cookies cutters, knives, pizza cutter, etc. to achieve desired shapes.  In a large pan, bring a couple of quarts of water to a boil.  Salt the water. Stir the water and drop in the pasta shapes, continuing stirring for about a minute so the shapes don’t stick together.   Cook for 4-6 minutes, testing for doneness.  Drain and serve.

Just a note about this recipe … I use a flour blend, Italian Blend from King Arthur Flour Company, but All Purpose flour works as well.  I also often add dried herbs to the flour before mixing and kneading.  I’ve even been known to add spices like nutmeg or cinnamon to the water when boiling the pasta.  It doesn’t add too much flavor, rather just a hint.

 

Pizza Dough:

2 ¼  Tsp (1 envelope) active dry yeast 1 1/3 cups warm water   Combine in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a  heavy duty mixer, and let stand until yeast dissolves (approx 5 min). Add: 3 ½ to 3 ¾ cups all purpose flour 2 tbsp olive oil 1 tbsp salt

Mix by hand, or on low speed for about 1 minute to blend all ingredients.  Knead for about 10 minutes (by hand or with dough hook on mixer).  Turn dough out into a lightly greased bowl and cover.  Let rise about 1 to 1 ½ hours.   Then you can begin playing with and shaping the dough.   Bake at 425 until golden brown.

TIP:  If you have shapes that vary wildly in sizes, just keep an eye on them in the oven, and maybe even bake at a lower temperature so that the tiny pieces don’t burn.

 

I’m planning to take pictures or body parts, but there are some supplies I’ll need to get.  That means that this Chapter is to be continued…..

Supplies:

Carrots                      Olives                             Elbow Noodles
Celery                        Blueberries                   Lasagna Noodles
Potato                       Radish                            Block of cheese
Apple                        Hazelnuts                       Sliced Almonds (skin on if possible)
Cucumber                Cauliflower                    Mushrooms
Kiwi                           Rice                                 Ricotta or cream cheese
Cold Cuts

Until next time ...