Cooking Mag Mommy

 Ever since I began this blogging thing I've wanted to post my own recipe on "Cooking Mag Mommy".  I struggle with one big question though.  What makes a recipe mine?  When am I no longer copying the ideas of others and coming up with something "original" to me?  I mean...bake at 350.  Not exactly a novel idea!   Tonight I made a pumpkin pull-apart bread adapted from a recipe I found through pinterest.com on the blog, "Sunny Side Up in San Diego". recipe link here   Earlier this week, I had made a Garlic Parmesan Pull-Apart Bread I found on the blog "The Pastry Affair" using tastespotting.com, another awesome site I've been using to find great recipes on blogs. recipe link here   The recipe I came up with used measurements and cooking techniques from both recipes but the finished product really was its own recipe.   And it was really good!  Richard and I ate over 1/2 of it while watching the World Series tonight....

There will not be a single mention of food or cooking in this entire post...wait, that was a mention!  Oh well... With Halloween right around the corner, I wanted to put in my votes for great Halloween read-alouds for preschoolers.  These are my current favorites to read to Eyrleigh and Rylynn and I'm planning on bringing them along to E's preschool class party on Monday.   Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson has all the qualities of a great preschool read-aloud.  It has a wonderful rhyming cadence and a repetative story that is easy for young children to follow.  There is even a "group participation" posibility if you want the kids to pipe up as the broom "whoosh"es away.  Last year I bought The Spooky Wheels on the Bus by J. Elizabeth Mills from the Scholastic Book Fair.  Sung to the tune of the more traditional "Wheels on the Bus", this story is a great one for preschoolers and a reader who can sing.  Usi...

I've blogged since 2008 but in the last few months, I've finally started following other blogs.  I've discovered something about myself.  I am hopelessly into themes.  Maybe it's the teacher in me but everything is more fun in themes...themed parties, themed food, themed lessons.  I know there is a large and vocal group of people that find themes cheesy but I  (and may I add, Martha Stewart) am not one of them.   I love things all tied together around one central idea. That's why I've had so much fun with Eyrleigh's parties and what I've become really addicted to looking at on blogs that show parties all centered around everything from apples to zebras. My last blog post was a seriously tardy review of our Halloween party and this post will continue that.  Here is a quick summary of our Christmas party LAST year complete with allergy friendly food ideas, a game, a craft, and some fun Christmas stories. The photo above is our table setu...

 I'm sure you've heard of Christmas in July...but Halloween in August?  And what cooking magazine is doing that theme?  Well no, Halloween in August is not a new trend, and no cooking magazine is doing a spread on it.  I've loved doing the cooking magazine reviews each month in the past but for a number of reasons, I've decided to change it up a bit on my blog.  Sure, I'll still review recipes from cooking magazine, though I won't necessarily use a current issue or even a magazine recipe.  For example, tonight I made Sweet Potato and Zucchini Bread  ( link here ) from a November 1992 issue of Bon Appetit.  I do save old cooking magazine but not that old.  I found this recipe on Epicurious, my favorite recipe site. ( link here )  I had zucchini and sweet potatoes and simply put both words in their search box.   This recipe is for bread but you can see I made muffins and had great results too.  This was actually the second...

On August 24th of last year, I wrote a innocuous little post on this blog about my husband being a good sport about my creative culinary exploits.  And then....nothing....for over 11 months.  What happened, you may ask?  Well, the picture at left tells a rather significant part of the story but not the whole thing so I'll try to summarize here in case another 11 months go by before I post again.  (Okay, I will seriously try not to do that!)  The year 2010 started off on the wrong foot with the loss of our fourth pregnancy (Thankfully, pregnancy #2 had resulted in Eyrleigh!) at 18 weeks.  We were still reeling from the devastation of that event when my only sibling, my brother Ben, committed suicide at the end of February.  Then in April, Richard's company hired a new CEO and things professionally went south from there for him.  Since a blog is a public format and could therefor be accessed by anyone, including this individual, let me suf...

My husband is a really good sport.  I was reminded on several occasions this week how many spouses, husbands in particular, would take no part in the experiment I've been blogging about for over a year and a half.  Some friends came to eat last week and the wife made a point to tell me her husband did not eat vegetables.  He's a great guy but I'm really glad I'm not married to him.   I couldn't handle a picky eater.  And I'm 100% sure a picky eater could not handle me!    Another friend, after I told her what we were having for dinner, asked very incredulously if Richard would eat that.   Tonight I think I found Richard's least favorite food.  It's sardines.  I had to eat them as a kid so though I don't love them, I can eat them.  Richard took one bite of the sardine spread and asked what I had made him eat.   The recipe for Grilled Monterey Sardines with Lemon and Herbs in the To Bi...

Last night I wrote about the corn menu in this month's Bon Appetit.  Tonight, I will echo my sentiments.  A menu based on a staple of summer is a great idea but sometimes there is too much of a good thing.  Tomatoes may be a fruit but they do not belong in dessert.   I'll begin by describing dessert first since that was the most glaring example of too much tomato.  The Tomato Tarte Tatin had some key problems.  First, the sugar did not caramelize in the time given.  Since the dessert is inverted, it's virtually impossible to tell this before it's too late.  Second, the tomato taste is still very strong.  I was eating sugary stewed tomatoes on a pastry crust.  Not very appetizing.  Third, the amount of water released by the tomatoes made the entire dish swim in liquid.  You can see the excess water around the edges of the dish in the picture.  I ate a piece but then with Richard's agreement, threw this dish away immedi...

This month's Bon Appetit has 3 menus created to make use of 3 essentials of the summer garden season.  I raved in an earlier post about the outstanding zucchini menu that I shared with our friends, the Knapp's.  Tonight was corn's turn to shine.  Last night, I made the first recipe from this menu to beef up another menu and lighten the amount 3 people had to eat from this one.  I really enjoyed the Tagliatelle with Fresh Corn Pesto and would add it to this menu if a few more people were eating with us.  Tonight, I made the other 3 recipes that began with a main dish of Grilled Mustard Chicken with Fresh Corn Polenta.  I choose to bake the chicken instead of grill it and I was happy with this change.  I find it really hard to monitor the grill temperature for bone-in chicken and often get the outside too crispy before the inside is done.  This dish has enough flavor without the added smoke of grilling as well.  The seasoning under the chicken ...

I really have been lucky.  For as much as I cook, I really should have some better stories about the stuff I've messed up on than I do.  Really, other than a Polish meal my friend Heather and I made that the salt got away from and a white chocolate cranberry cheesecake that Richard swears was the worst thing he's ever eaten, I've got very little.   (A few early blog posts may beg to differ but let's not go into that now.)   The only reason I even thought of food failures tonight is that once again I made something with white chocolate and once again, it did me wrong.   You can't really tell in the picture (I guess that was the point.) but tonight's White Chocolate Cherry Mousse Pie was full of tiny little white lumps.  They weren't lumps of chocolate as far as I could tell.  The mousse didn't congeal smoothly and it was off putting.  The cherry compote was wonderful but the pie itself, either because of or in spite of the lumps, didn't have a...

I sure hope blueberry stains come out because after tonight's meal, I had a few of them and so did Eyrleigh.  I've mentioned before one of the things I look about Bon Appetit is the magazine is enthusiastically thematic, sometimes to the edge of being cheesy.  Tonight was one of those borderline nights.  Grilled Salmon with Quick Blueberry Pan Sauce sounded strange from the get-go.  Blueberries are a quintessential fruit, little pockets of sweetness that seem only fitting at the conclusion of a meal.  Pairing them with a rich fatty fish like salmon seemed a gamble at best.  To be fair, the dish wasn't bad, though I wouldn't say it was really good either.  I just didn't think the flavors worked.  You could taste blueberry, you could taste salmon but the compliment just didn't work for me.  The herbs, garlic, and shallots helped cut the sweetness along with the vinegar but the taste of blueberry was still there.  I almost felt bear-like, r...

This month's Bon Appetit has 3 menus based completely on 3 staples of summer gardens, zucchini, corn, and tomatoes.  Tonight I played caterer again and was bringing dinner to my friends, Devi and Dan Knapp and their two girls, Sophie and Lily, ages 5 and 3.  I really enjoy this almost monthly tradition and it gives us a chance to see our good friends on a weeknight.  I try to precook as much of the meal as possible and bring everything I need, down to the salt, so I can put it together quickly with a minimum of disruption to Devi's kitchen.  Tonight I made the zucchini menu and I'll try to explain not only how the food tasted but how I packed it "to go".  The menu began with Tender Zucchini Fitters with Green Goddess Dressing.  Since the zucchini needed to be grated and drained before frying up the fritters, I actually transported the grated zucchini rolled in a dish towel.  The extra drying time was great.  I often find that anything I try to fry...

I mentioned in a post not long ago that June got away from me.  I didn't post once the whole month.  In hindsight, July wasn't much better.  I posted only four times and made only fifteen recipes from the month's Bon Appetit.  June's excuse was the bi-annual trip to my parents house in New Hampshire, where we attended my brother's burial service and a special memorial service held at his work.  The trip is usually a vacation but this year carried a bit more weight.  Our more restful summer vacations took place in the month of July and the beginning of August this year.  Eyrleigh and I got the chance to join my friend, Lynette, on a trip to Sarasota, Florida where we enjoyed the ocean for a few days and spent a day at the surprisingly extensive Ringling Circus and Art Museum.  Then on the next to last day of July, we all flew to Denver to attend the wedding of  Richard's brother, James.  We decided that spending almost $800 o...