Squash That Your Kids Can't Get Enough Of

Doesn't that sound too good to be true?? My friend Jill shared this recipe this week. My kids are pretty good eaters, but squash isn't something they love to hear that we're having. Once I have managed to fry it in that PERFECT way, but usually I manage to make it soggy or squishy or otherwise unappealing.

When I saw this recipe, I thought it would be worth a try. Nutrionally, I imagine it is equivalent to fried squash, but the effect is so different!

The recipe according to Jill:

In food processor, combine squash, onio

• Two cups of squash, finely chopped (like food processor fine)
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 egg or egg sub.
• 1 tsp salt or seasoned salt and some pepper
• 1/2 cup flour (Jill used quinoa flour plus a tsp of sugar)
• Optional for flavor: parmesan cheese. I think you could use nutritional yeast
• vegetable oil

In food processor, combine squash with onion and grind well. Add egg, salt and pepper. Stir in flour. Add parmesan/sugar/nutritional yeast if desired.

Heat oil in skillet. Drop batter by tablespoons into oil. Cook until golden. Drain on paper towels. Taste....sprinkle with salt if needed. Don't tell them what it is. They look like little pancakes or hushpuppies!

So, that's pretty much what I did. I used a tsp of salt, and then noticed the seasoned salt option, so I added some of that too, along with a shake of garlic powder. I think these led to my son declaring that they taste like curly fries. (Not that we EVER eat at Arby's. What?) I spun the squash and onion around in my manual food processor until it resembled corn meal, and I used regular all-purpose flour.

I did not conceal the recipe from my kids - they helped me with it! My older daughter has a new buzz phrase lately when I'm plying new foods on their tastebuds: "A New Taste Sensation!" And y'all, she's totally excited. Love my girl.

I was texting my husband about this recipe while he was at work. He kind of detests squash and seemed to think I was nuts. He told a co-worker who declared there was no way she would eat a squash pancake. (Or is it more a fritter?)

Anyway, I reheated one in the toaster oven when he got home, and even old and reheated he really liked it! This recipe was much more of a hit than I could have anticipated. Add it to your repertoire!

Peanut Butter Bars, as good as Reese's

I am going to simply shamelessly repost this blog:
http://bakerlady.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/reeses-peanut-butter-bars/

We made these last week. They really ARE as good as they look.

Delicious.

My only notes: They are sticky, once they have been left out of the refrigerator for longer than 3 minutes. But that's okay, because trust me you'll eat them faster than that.

Also: That layer of chocolate is a little thinner than I prefer. Next time I will increase the amount of chocolate for the top.

Salmon and Watercress Salad, and my first food post

David was bragging about me to a few of his coworkers a few nights ago, and a dish I had prepared for dinner. A modern twist on the classic "This old thing?" line, I told him that all I did was follow an easy recipe. 

"But you didn't! You don't follow recipes,  you just look at a few pictures online and make up your own thing," he told me. And I realized that he's kind of right.  I DO start with a recipe that looks good to me, but then I'll leave out ingredients that I don't like or don't have and add things that I do. Sometimes the result is a close approximation to the intended result, and sometimes I have to admit that my product was more "loosely inspired by..." 

I have decided to start documenting my creations here. I can't promise I'll be witty or funny, or even interesting. I will attempt to photograph my dishes but will probably forget until it is half-eaten. (Do you want photos then? Please comment!) 

Mainly this will be a place for me to keep track of how I have altered/created recipes. My children keep BEGGING me to make a dish that I flippantly called "Ides of March Broccoli," but having had no idea what a hit it would be I didn't keep track of what I threw together. 

I will reference the original recipe where there is one, and note changes that I made, and why. As I said, I may sometimes omit an ingredient that I don't like - that's the advantage of being the household cook. The kids' least favorite ingredients are usually still included, in the name of teaching them to try things!  Because I'm the mom, that's why.


We have tried a few new things in the past week or two, and are getting even more creative as we try to find uses for the excess produce we receive in our Noisy Rabbit produce co-op. I will be adding them as quickly as I can, before I lose them. 

Tonight I'll start with the dish I mentioned at the beginning: a salmon salad. We received a batch of watercress in our produce basket, and I had never used watercress before. I found this recipe: Smoked Salmon & Watercress Salad With Red Onion-Caper Vinaigrette

The key to this recipe is really the dressing, which I MOSTLY made according to instructions: 

· 3 tablespoons lemon juice

· 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

· 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

· Salt and freshly ground black pepper

· 1/4 cup drained capers

· 1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced

· 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

In this case, I omitted the capers because we don't keep them on hand, and used white onion instead of red, chopped. I did also add a bit of ginger. 

I broiled our salmon, with a little butter and lemon. I wasn't sure whether the amount of watercress we had (1 bunch) was enough to feed our family of four. As it turns out, it expands and made a lot more than I expected and probably would have been enough. I still added a few things from our refrigerator to round it out though. In the end, our salad contained: 

· 1 bunch watercress, coarse stems removed

· half of a carrot, shredded

· a few leaves of spinach that we happened to have

· chopped red pepper

· bean sprouts

· sugar peas

· chopped broccoli

The result was REALLY amazing. A light dinner with a slight Asian flair. I wasn't sure how well the kids would like it, because they seem pretty convinced that they do not like fish. After a few bites, though, Stirling declared that this was the ONLY fish he wants to eat ever again. 

The watercress was a bit more strong/bitter than normal salad greens, but less so than red leaf lettuce. It blended well with the light tangy flavor of the dressing.