The Incredible Book Eating Boy, by Oliver Jeffers

 

Skill Level: Intermediate (good shopping skills help)

We so enjoyed Oliver Jeffers’ Stuck, that I started reading some of his other books and came across this one.  The youngest grandchild saw the back of the book and started yelling “IT’S MINE IT’S MINE IT’S MINE” (he didn’t stop after three times, I just didn’t feel like typing the other 739 iterations.) I guess he thinks that anything that he’s licked or has a bite out of it is his. He’s generally right since nobody else wants what he’s licked or bitten.

 

This story is about Henry who loved books.  Like I love ice cream.  As he ate books he became smarter and smarter.  However, because this is a story which ends well, he couldn’t continue to eat them.

 I thought about books. I thought about pages.  I thought about a cover.  I thought about lasagna. Layers of “pages” inside a red (Henry’s favorite books are red) cover.  Luckily, Mr. Jeffers gave me an idea for a side dish … so I thought about broccoli. 

First, I used my handy pasta recipe with a bit of red added.  I took my 2 ¼ cups of flour, 3 eggs and dash of salt and added about a tablespoon of tomato paste.  I mixed this, then rolled it into a ball and set it aside to rest.  The color, by the way, looked like a fine aged red book … sort of orange.

 

While the dough was resting, I had to run to the store for ingredients for my dessert idea.  While there, I made a visit to the salad bar.  I gathered a nice salad of broccoli, cauliflower, corn, peppers, cherry tomatoes, snap peas and a wee bit of ranch dressing.  Perfect  side dish.  It’s already assembled.

 

When I got home, the pasta was well-rested, so I rolled it out thin, and cut some pages.  I made my pages twice the length of my baking dish, but only one times the width. 

 

 

This way, I could fold them over to make pages.

 

 

 

Because I wanted the noodles to steam a bit, I put about a teaspoon of water in the bottom of my dish.  I layered the noodles with sliced provolone, thinly sliced mushroom, thinly sliced white onions and ricotta (note the white theme here?), repeating and “opening” the red covers as I went. 

 

 

 

Technically, I had a lot more covers than pages, but as I told the boys, that happens.  In retrospect, I could have made a half recipe of red pasta and a half of white.  Then I’d have my pages as white pasta.  I’ll know better next time. 

 

I covered this with foil and baked it for about a half an hour. 

 

 

For dessert, I cut some puff pastry into rectangles.  I gave the boys plastic knives and told them to press the handle down the middle so it looked like an open book.  I baked these while the boys were eating, and then served them with some chocolate syrup for dipping.

 

 

Title	The Incredible Book Eating Boy
Author	Oliver Jefffers
Illustrator
Publisher	Philomel
Highlights /Tie in	Books Books Books
Reactions to the Book	·         We eat books Grummy! Only you cook them first. ·         IT’S MINE IT’S MINE, etc. ·         I like green books.  Grummy you need to make me a green book.  Not for the others, just for me.
Meal	·         Books (lasagna) ·         Broccoli salad ·         Puff pastry books with chocolate sauce
Reactions to the Meal	·         Grummy, why aren’t there any noodle pages? ·         Youngest grabbed his lasagna and took a bite, the others ate it in pieces.  Lots of pieces. ·         The puff pastry books were a huge hit.  Page by page by page … dipped in chocolate.  A lot of dripping chocolate.  ·         This meal required more cleanup than I’d anticipated.

 

 

 

Mac and Cheese by Sarah Weeks

Skill Level: Intermediate

The story this week is one of the I Can Read books from Scholastic.  This is a beginning reading level so I thought it would be a lot of fun to see just how much the eldest grandson could read.  He did a great job sounding the words and if I had to help with a word, he recognized it the next time it showed up in the book. 

 
Mac and Cheese is about two cats who are so different that you wonder how they ever became friends.  Not only friends, but the best of friends.  By the end of the story, you understand that it isn’t always necessary to be the same, if you enjoy being together, you can be friends.

 The menu was so obvious that I thought I should really try to show the moral of the story with this one.  I wanted to show how mac was good, cheese was good, but together, they were really good.  It worked.

I made up a portion of a recipe of pasta dough (1 cup flour, 1 extra large egg, some salt, about a tsp of water) and set that aside to rest.

 One of the fastest melting cheeses is Velveeta.  I needed a fast melting cheese because I was making Cheese (the cat) out of cheese, Mac (the cat) out of pasta, and then pouring a hot sauce over them to help melt it all together into a friendship.

So I took pre-sliced Velveeta since it’s much thinner than I could ever slice it and then dredged the slices in flour to keep the Cheese (the cat) from sticking together.  Just to add a bit to the flavor, I added some sweet Hungarian paprika and some smoked Spanish (hot) paprika to the flour.  Using a cat shaped cookie cutter, I cut 3 slices of Velveeta cats for each plate. This might be a good activity for your grandchildren, but knowing mine, I know I’d never have any Cheese (the cat) for any plate. They’d eat them as soon as they cut them.

 I saved the “voids” or uncut cheese parts and the dredging mixture for the sauce. 

 

Next came the salad.  I wanted to make sure the boys got a lot of protein so I topped some beautiful red leaf lettuce with some light red kidney and black beans as well as some shelled edamame.  I added some crumbles of boiled egg and topped the whole thing with a very light sprinkling of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.

 

I wanted a crispy garnish that tied to the story, so I made some baked Parmesan crisps in the shape of cat’s heads and added chive whiskers.  Using my largest biscuit cutter (3” diameter), I filled the round shape with about 3 tablespoons of pre-shredded Parmesan. I added a bit more to shape some ears once I removed the biscuit cutter and then added my chive whiskers.  These baked in a 350 degree oven for about 5 minutes.  Keep an eye on them, though, they burn quickly.

 

 

Now that my pasta dough had rested, I rolled it out as thin as I could and using my smallest round biscuit cutter (about 1” diameter), I cut a bunch of pasta circles.  Then, holding the pasta disc in one hand, I dampened an edge, about 1/3 of the circumference of the circle with water.  I then pinched two ears on that dampened edge.  This leaves a little cup shaped depression to collect sauce, while looking somewhat like a cat (Mac).

 

While the water boiled for the pasta, I started the sauce, melting 3 tablespoons of unsalted butter, adding 3 tablespoons of the dredging mix (safe because it only touched the cheese, no meats), and stirred, creating a roux.  The paprika that was added made this a nice orange/red color.  I then added about a cup of milk and the cheese voids to let those melt.

 

 

Once the Mac (the cat) and sauce were done, I finished the plates.  I added the Mac (the cat) so the Mac (the cat) and Cheese (the cat) were clearly distinct on the plate, but then as I poured the sauce over them and had the boys stir, it all came together in a story.

 

Our dessert was our normal standby – fruit (strawberries, bananas),  nuts (pecans) and pie crust cinnamon cookies.

 

 

Title	Mac and Cheese
Author	Sarah Weeks
Illustrator	Jane Manning
Publisher	Scholastic Books
Highlights /Tie in	Cats, Title (Mac and Cheese), Not the same, but together = GREAT
Reactions to the Book	·         So Mac and Cheese are friends Grummy.  They sit together. ·         That’s like at lunch Grummy.  We sit together at lunch with our friends.  It’s better that way. ·         That’s another blue hat
Meal	·         Mac and Cheese – Pasta “Mac” and Velveeta “Cheese”, beschamel ·         Salad, multi bean and egg protein salad ·         Dessert – Strawberries, bananas and pecans with Cat piecrust cookies
Reactions to the Meal	·         The boys loved watching me pour the sauce over their cats, then they had to mix them ·         SCHEEEEZE ·         The dressing on the salad wasn’t that big a hit (soy sauce and rice wine vinegar), but the beans were. ·         We need a book called Tuna Salad, Grummy.

 

It feels good to cook the books!

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 ...

 

Tips and Tricks - Chapter 2

The important thing to remember is that no matter how hard you try, it’s unlikely that you’ll end up with a realistic recreation of whatever it is you’re trying to represent.  And if you do end up with a lifelike whatever, you’ve probably spent too much time making it.  Time you could spend laughing with the kids.

 I try to “suggest” or give a hint of whatever it is.  For example, if I wanted to represent Rapunzel, I’d focus on the hair.  If you ask someone to describe Rapunzel, they’ll mention the hair first.  Maybe they’ll talk about the tower and how the Prince used her long hair to climb up the tower.  So the best representation of Rapunzel I could make would be her hair. 

 I’d then think about the meal, overall.  What do I want to include nutritionally?  What leftovers do I have that I can use?  What’s in my pantry? 

For Rapunzel, I’d most likely focus on vegetables.  Why was Rapunzel cloistered in the tower to begin with?  Well, her mother craved a certain salad that could only be made with leaves that grew in the Witch’s garden.  So I’d start with a great big salad.  I’d add things to suggest the story.  Then I’d add things to make it a meal.

 So I’d start by planning a salad of lettuce or spinach or other salad greens.  I’d also most likely take the opportunity to include some greens that I like, such as arugula, kale, and radicchio, since I usually have them on hand. If you think back to the story, the Prince falls from the tower and is blinded by some thorns.  Mixed spring greens have some lettucy things that look like they could be a bed of thorns.  I’d definitely make a trip to the store for that.  (I’d wait until I know what else I might need before I actually make that trip) 

What do I want to do for the hair? There are a number of things I could use (see my list below), but I want to make it so that the hair is braided and I want to use it to corral the salad on the plate. So I’m going to use bread. Bread dough is easy to make and there are a million recipes out there, but the trick I’m going to tell you is the quickest way to do the braid that I can think of. Use one of the canned pizza doughs like Pillsbury’s. I used the thin crust so it wouldn’t be too much bread. 

 

 

First, line a baking sheet with parchment and form a ring with the braid on the parchment.I turn a plate upside down on the parchment and draw an outline in pencil, then I flip the parchment over and use that pencil ring that’s showing through from the other side as a guide for making my braid ring.

 

 

Cut the dough log into (number of kids + 1) pieces. You may need more than one package of dough depending on how many kids there are and how big the salad plate is. Then cut each of those into three pieces. Roll each piece into a long “snake”. Then braid three together.  

 

 

 

Repeat this for each child’s dinner. Make an extra in case one doesn’t turn out, or in case someone is really hungry. You can get fancy and brush the braids with egg wash (an egg and some water beaten) to make it shiny. The ring needs to be a tiny bit smaller than the size of your plate, or at least the size of your salad.   

Next, I’d figure out a way to incorporate the rest of the items.  I’m going to do the bed of thorns, maybe some combs or brushes.  I could cut those shapes out of cheese.  How about some sword shapes?  A Prince usually carries a sword.  I could cut those from some carrots, long radishes, or even just use green beans.  Okay, the salad is coming along nicely. 

While the braids are baking, you can make your combs/brushes and swords.  Don’t forget cheese.  It’s easy to decorate with cheese shapes.  You can add some bits of chicken or tuna to the salad as well.  Use your imagination and remember that they don’t have to look exactly like whatever they only have to suggest whatever.

 

I’d dress the salad with a very light vinaigrette made out of mostly herbs, rice wine vinegar and grapeseed oil. 

 

 

I mentioned a list of items that could work for hair.  These are just some suggestions, and I know I’ll figure out more over time:

·         Green: spinach/basil/lettuce chiffonade, Sprouts
·         Red: finely grated carrot (the longer the stroke on the grater, the longer the hair)
·         Blond(e):  finely grated peel of a summer (yellow) squash, flesh from spaghetti squash, pasta
·         Brown: finely grated potato peel (could also be used for red, blonde or purple hair), whole wheat pasta

So that’s how I build a menu for our stories.  Read the story and step away from it.  Then think of the things that you remember most about the story.  Those are the best points to include.  I usually add some component that the boys can “build” or add on their own.  That way they have a stake in the meal and are more likely to eat it.  I don’t worry too much about mess, because we have a ritual clean up afterward.  The eldest uses the broom and dustpan.  The middle one uses a damp cloth. And the youngest points out where the messes are. 

 

Tips and Tricks - Chapter 3 will be about body parts.