Wormy Apple Burgers or Help with a Picky Eater

Burgers and Tater Tots!! Dinner of champions and 4 year olds! Yes, I realize this isn't the most glamorous looking meal. When you are working with new foods and preschoolers, familiarity trumps fancy.

As a general rule, we all eat the same thing at dinner. Sure there are times when we have leftovers and everyone eats something different, or I'll let Blockette have something like nuggets and Mrblocko and I will eat something a little more grown up. Most of the time our plates look very similar.

This goes back to the days when Blockette was in food therapy. Blockette had difficulties with the transition between phase 2 and phase 3/solid foods. She just didn't want to chew. A good portion of her problem was the result of stubbornness. (Where did that come from?!) Anyhow, one of the rules while she was in therapy was to eat what she eats. Ew. I cringe thinking about all the weird food combinations I ingested. (Think french fries dipped in grape jelly and tartar sauce. Gag!)

When Blockette graduated from therapy, I continued to use many of the therapy rules on a daily basis. The rules not only became effective tools to get a picky toddler to eat, but to try new things as well. The concept behind this particular rule is: kids are instant replay buttons. If they see a certain behavior enough times they will mimic that behavior, whether it is a good one or not.

This isn't an instant fix for the picky eater problem. It took us many frustrating months of trial and error to figure out the specifics of what would work the best for Blockette. There are days when it doesn't work at all. (Like, say when she has Bronchitis.) However, if you look at the big picture, most of the time she tries a lot of new things with little or no objection.

The other therapy rules we still use are:
1. Who ever is home at meal time, we sit down together at the table. This also means she is not allowed to get up from the table unless she asks first.

2. No TV. This used to be no distractions at all. I used to have to close the window curtain because even that was too distracting.

3. If we are having a new food, some of it has to be on her plate, and she has to try at least one bite.

4. If she wants dessert she has to eat all of her dinner. This sometimes encourages her to get past that first bite of new food. A lot of times she realizes she likes the new food on the third bite.

5. She can't have her drink until she has finished her meal. This eliminates saying she is full from her beverage. We are working on removing this rule now by allowing her to have half her drink during the meal.

6. Getting her involved in making the meal. If she helps make the meal she has pride in it and is more inclined to eat it.

7. She has 40 minutes to eat her meal. It's her choice to eat if she wants to, but when the timer goes off the meal is over and the table is cleared. This was one of the more difficult rules for me at the beginning of therapy. I was convinced Blockette was going to starve because she was going to screw around/stall/do anything but eat. Then the therapist pointed out that most people eat a Thanksgiving dinner in less than 40 minutes. This includes going back for seconds (or even thirds) and dessert. Blockette has not wasted away from starvation and I haven't gone insane from 3 hour dinners (or lunches or breakfasts). Most of the time we don't even have to set the timer. She just eats like a normal person. Then there are days when she can only manage 2 bites in those 40 minutes. When that happens, you'd better believe she wolfs down her next meal.

8.Finding fun new names for food. Sometimes if the food sounds fun, it makes it fun to eat.

Rule #8 is my favorite. I told Blockette the meal pictured above was called Wormy apple burgers. This might not work for a lot of little girls, but I know Blockette finds the idea of eating worms hilarious. I also told her the "worms" were made from apples. She has it in her head that she doesn't like onions. (Maybe I should write a rule #9-- down right trickery!)

Mrblocko and I saw this recipe for Autumn Harvest Burger with Caramelized Onion and Apple last year on Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown: Burgers. This recipe wasn't the winner, but we sure thought it looked tasty.

The recipe says to make 4 burgers, but we thought the portion size would be insane for us. Instead we made 8 bun sized burgers and 2 half size burgers for Blockette. Four of the burgers we stuck in the freezer, uncooked, to eat another day. We did use all of the Caramelized onion and apple topping for the 4 regular and 2 small burgers. I really liked the onion and apples together, and totally pigged out on it.

We decided to omit the bun for a few reasons. First, we weren't sure that all the toppings would stay put. Second, Blockette sometimes gets a bit overwhelmed by all the bread in the bun. All the onion and apple and cheese on top would have made for a sandwich that was too thick for her to bite into. Third, we had enough carbs with the tater tots. Mrblocko and I agreed that the burger would have tasted good on an onion roll, but overall, we didn't miss the bun.

We cooked up enough burgers to have one as a leftover meal later in the week. I find that reheating burgers can be tricky without drying them out. These burgers were moist enough that wasn't a problem. Instead of having the leftovers in burger form, I chopped them up and reheated them in a pan with the onion/apple topping. Had I been thinking, I would have added a few scrambled eggs. The leftovers would have made a tasty omelet!

An open letter to the man walking outside of the mall with his daughter

Dear Sir,
I saw you walking toward the mall with your daughter as we were returning to our car. She could not have been more than 8 years old. I couldn't help noticing she was not wearing a coat. I realize 50 degrees is pretty mild for this time of year. However, it is NOT warm enough for your daughter to be taking the long trek from the back of the parking lot to the mall entrance in a tank dress. Maybe you forgot that it is late November, not August or September?

I couldn't help overhearing you talk to her as you passed us. I heard you say something like, "See everyone else is wearing winter jackets, but you don't want to wear one." I am sorry that I was rude. You see I had just dealt with an extremely rude sales clerk and left the mall because of it. You were the first person I encountered and I took my frustration out on you. Still, that is no excuse for me being rude in return. When I heard what you said to your daughter, I tried to bite my tongue, but obviously I was unsuccessful. Maybe you didn't even hear me, I did mutter it under my breath. I'll never know if you heard me, because I kept on walking.

Rude or not, I do stand by what I said. You ARE the parent. It's your job to clothe your child in seasonally appropriate clothing when out and about in the elements. So what if your kid is going to have a fit in public because you won't let them wear what they want. Suck it up. A fit in public is better than the flu. If you don't want to lug around a jacket in the mall, at least make your kid wear something with sleeves for pete sake.

Respectfully,
Mrsblocko

More Leftover Halloween Candy Recipes

Here are some more recipes I thought would be a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy. Since ours is finally gone, I won't be testing these delicious looking recipes any time soon. I'm posting them here so I can find them easily next year.

Snickers Carmelitas from Cookie Madness.
Snickery Peanut butter and oat cookies from Cookie Madness.

Candy bar stuffed baked apples from CDKitchen. (uses toffee and nougat based candy)

Butterfinger Delight from Recipezaar. (ice cream and pudding bar)
Butterfinger cookies from CD Kitchen. (peanut butter cookie)
Chocolate fudge Butterfinger cookies from Picky Palate.
Butterfinger pie from Recipezaar. (cream cheese and cool whip based pie)

Candy bar croissant from Recipezaar. (uses refrigerator croissants and misc candy)

Milky Way Bundt from CDkitchen.
Halloween candy bundt from Baking Bites (brown sugar bundt with misc candy)

Italian Buttermilk Chops

Powdered buttermilk is my new best friend. The brand that I buy is from saco foods. I don't have any particular brand loyalty. This is just the brand that good old Meijers carries. Before I heard about powdered buttermilk, I'd always cringe when I saw there was a recipe that required that particular ingredient. Most recipes that call for buttermilk only require about a cup. So what do you do with the leftover stuff? You either have to plan out another recipe that uses the leftover buttermilk, or toss it out because it spoiled.

The powdered buttermilk wasn't the cheapest thing ever. If you are an infrequent user of buttermilk, like me, it winds up costing the same or less because you aren't throwing your money away.

Yeah, I know you can make your own buttermilk with a cup of regular milk and a Tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice. I tried that once with vinegar. The milk was supposed to curdle after a few minutes. It didn't after 20. The milk smelled so vinegary that I decided to forget about the whole thing. It may work for some people, but not me.

I've used the powdered stuff a few times now and I can't tell the difference. Ultimately that's all that matters.
These Italian Buttermilk Pork Chops, from What's Cookin Chicago, were awesome. Maybe I've been living under a rock, but I'd never heard of marinating anything in buttermilk. These chops turned out really moist and tender.

I flubbed up and forgot to add the garlic to the marinade. Mrblocko was in charge of the actual meat cooking so I had him toss in the minced garlic to the pan while he was cooking up the meat. The meat wasn't infused with garlic flavor like it would have if it had been soaking in it all day. The bits of garlic were still tasty on top of the meat.

Our chops were the thin boneless kind. I thought they would get dried out if they were baked in the oven, so Mrblocko just cooked them all the way in the pan for around 10 minutes. I don't know cause I was making rice and a salad. I really wasn't paying attention.

Blockette said we should make these again because pigs are great. She's right on both accounts. We'll be making this again, and pigs are great.

Espresso Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mrblocko went over to his friends house for a game night this weekend. He asked me if I would please make some cookies for him to bring along. I told him I would, as long as his friends were willing to be guinea pigs.

Ever since I made the Espresso Chocolate Shortbread Cookies back in June, I've been wanting to experiment some more with the espresso powder. Baking bites posted this recipe for Coffee Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies in July. It's been on my to do list, but there are just so many good things I want to make. I don't have the time, money or stomach for all the sweets on the to do list.

These must have been good because Mrblocko brought home an empty container. I thought they were just ok. I guess I was hoping they would wow my socks off like the Shortbread ones did. The coffee flavor was quite mild the first day, but grew stronger after the second day. The cookies were definitely better the second day.

My dough was extremely soft and sticky after I mixed all the ingredients together. I let the dough chill out in the fridge overnight and it was much easier to scoop into balls. These cookies really spread out a lot and made much more than 3.5 dozen stated in the recipe.

I had set aside the milk chocolate from Blockette's Halloween candy stash for baking purposes. I chopped up all the Hershey bars and kisses and came up with 1/2 cup. For the remaining cup of chocolate in the recipe, I used semi sweet chocolate chips. I think dark chocolate would pair better with the espresso. These are a grown up cookie and really deserve grown up chocolate. I'll use dark chocolate chips next time.

O.M.G. Becky, look at her Bundt

How did you celebrate National Bundt day???? Did you even know Nov 15 was National Bundt day? I would not have been thusly informed, were it not for the Food Librarian's I Like Big Bundts: 30 Days of Bundt Cakes. Really, how complete was my life not knowing this...not very I'd say.

Now that the Food Librarian's 30 Days of Bundt Cakes is over, I must admit I'm a bit sad. I really looked forward to a daily bundt recipe. I think she is enough of a bundt freak that she'll be making more in the not so distant future. At least I hope she didn't burn herself out completely. That would be a travesty. Maybe if she becomes the anti bundt queen she'll send me some of her swanky bundt pans. I totally have bundt pan envy. I mentioned a while ago I had chopped up a cup and a half of Halloween candy with the intention of using it in a bundt cake. Blockette has been eyeballing that container of candy bits every time she is in the kitchen. Whenever I would start moving and clanking around in the kitchen, she would ask if I was going to make the candy cake. I figured it was time to end Blockette's suspense. Besides, I couldn't let a mega holiday like National Bundt Day go by without paying due homage.

The recipe I used was Vanilla Bundt Cake with Halloween Candy Bits from Natalie's Killer Cuisine. The cake itself was a bit dry and on the dense side. This may have been because the batter was not mixed properly. Blockette has a creaping nose crud cold and I had to keep putting the hand mixer down to blow her nose. (Don't worry. I washed my hands at least once during the baking process. Mmmm mucus cake!)

There is also a possibility that I baked the cake too long and that was why the cake wasn't as moist as I would have liked. The recipe suggested baking between 30-50 minutes. I baked this bundt for 45 minutes. I checked the cake at 30 minutes and it was quite jiggly in the middle. I set the timer for another 15 minutes. I bet the cake would have been better if I took it out at 40 minutes.

I don't know that I"ll try this recipe again. I came across 2 other candy bar bundt recipes that I'll give a test drive once we are overloaded with candy again. I'll post links to them later in the week, along with several other recipes that call for leftover Halloween candy.

I sprayed the bejeezus out of the pan with Pam with flour. When I thought there was enough I gave it another coat. I also sprayed the pan immediately before pouring in the batter. There was only minor stickage in 3 spots when I unmolded the cake. I was able to stick them back on cake. The top of the cake is so mottled looking from all the different candies that the minor patchwork is not noticeable.

Also, if you take a good look at the picture above, the cake is sitting on a cooling rack. For some reason I turned the cake onto a cooling rack instead of a plate. That was not a brilliant move. I very carefully cut a few slices from the cake while it was on the rack and then moved it to a plate. I tried to move it to a plate before I cut into it, but the darn thing started to crack. Hopefully, I'll remember not to do that with the next bundt I make.

One more thing, this is the first cake I made from scratch. I usually just wimp out and use the mix from a box. I was feeling pretty special making a cake from scratch until I found out that Mrblocko had made a cake from scratch before we met. At least when I made my first cake from scratch I didn't use a tablespoon of salt when the recipe called for a teaspoon!!!!

Mystery Surprise Chocolate Chip Cookies

I mentioned in my Trouble with Halloween post that I was going to wait to make these cookies until Blockette had eaten all her Halloween candy. We were having some difficulties getting her to eat her Tuna Noodle Hotdish. I figured cookies had a higher bribery power than plain candy. Since these cookies had Halloween candy inside them, they were worth their weight in gold to the fussy four year old. She ate her dinner and got her just reward.

I found the recipe for Snicker Surprise cookies on What's Cookin Chicago. They couldn't be easier to make. First, whip up a batch of your favorite chocolate chip cookie dough. Use a small cookie scoop and form all the dough into balls. Take one dough ball and smoosh it flat. Take half a Halloween size candy bar and place it in the middle. Take another dough ball and cover the top of the candy. Smoosh the dough around to form a large dough ball. I stuck mine in the freezer for later consumption. I used them right from the freezer, with no defrosting, and they took about 15 min to bake.

Can I say how much I love having frozen cookie dough in the freezer? No. I can't. There aren't words enough! I don't understand why I didn't do this before??? I can make just enough for "right now" and not have to worry about the leftovers sobbing in the pantry about how they would much rather be in my belly than the cold impersonal pantry. For those of you who don't know, cookies are quiet in the freezer. It's like they are in suspended animation. Sometimes they cry out, but it's really muffled. Maybe we've just got a good seal on the freezer door. All I know is I'm not eating a cookie (or 2 or 3 or 4) every time I go in the kitchen.

I used the Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe for the cookie dough. For half the batter I used regular semi-sweet chips, and the other half I used mini semi-sweet. I was curious as to which version would taste better. The verdict was, that they were both good for different reasons. The mini chip cookies had small bits of chocolate in each bite. Chocolate in each bite is never a bad thing. The regular chip cookies had a stronger chocolaty flavor when you got a chip. You also got to taste the plain dough. All good things. I'll make a half and half batch again so we can get the benefits of both tasty cookie versions.

The cookies in the small batch you see below contained: Milky Way, Twix and Snickers. Further research is needed to be sure which cookie-candy combo was the best. There are still untested mystery cookies with Butterfinger, Crunch and Kit Kat in them. I don't think a verdict can be reached until all versions have been sampled.

A really weird thing happens to some of the cookies while they are baking. See this one?
All the chocolate melted off and pooled at the base of the cookie. You can see the caramel and nougat from the Milky Way peeking out from the top. Nekkid candy bar ain't got no clothes on!!!! Don't worry. I personally put this one out of it's misery. And yes, I did rejoice in the carnage.