Fairy Poppet Present Finished!!!!

Blockette is going to her first Birthday party of someone who isn't one of the offspring of my or Mrblocko's friends. I've been feeling the crafty bug so I figured I'd kill 2 birds with one stone, and make a special present. This is the fourth poppet I've made. I got the pattern and various tutorials from ghilie's Poppet-a-long on Craftster.

This time around, I really learned a lot. I got better at attaching the hair, worked up enough courage to bake a clay nose (which involved sticking the whole head in the oven), and successfully made bendable fingers instead of paws. I also finally figured out how to make decent looking eyelids as well.

The thing that I'm most proud of with this doll is that I made the wings, dress, undies and shoes completely from scratch. I've never been good at drafting patterns. These all turned out far better than I expected. They actually look decent. Yay me!
Have you guessed yet who she is supposed to be? Maybe this will help:
Don't they look flitteriffic together?

Sure looks pink to me

So Blockette has an ear infection, and it is coming out her eyes? Apparently, that happens with kids sometimes. Who knew.

Her eyes look more pink than this picture shows. The pharmacist commented that it was the worst case of pink eye she's seen. I told her it wasn't pink eye. You could have knocked her over with a feather.

I hope Blockette never actually gets pink eye, cause her eyes would probably glow infrared and have lasers shooting out of them. Although, she'd probably think that was super cool.

Dulcie's Acorn Soup

Are you familiar with Dulcie? She's a baking talent fairy from Fairyhaven in Neverland. You know, one of Tinkerbell's friends. You don't know?? What! You mean you don't read books from the Pixie Hollow series? Blockette cannot get enough of these books, and we have read every one our library has. Dulcie is featured in Fairy Berry Bake Off and Dulcie's Taste of Magic.
I've mentioned once or twice that Blockette is not big on soup. She's also not a fan of onions or potatoes. I was in the mood for soup so I knew I'd have to do some serious scheming to get Blockette to even try Taste and Tell's corn sausage chowder. Enter Dulcie's Acorn Soup. I told Blockette I got the recipe from Dulcie and that the potatoes were actually acorns.

It worked better than I could have hoped. She ate a few spoonfuls, which were a few more than I thought she would eat. Dinner was still a battle, but at least she tried it. Strangely enough, since I told her the potatoes were acorns, I didn't hear any whining about how she didn't want to eat potatoes. I think part of the problem was that she is still sick. This soup made a lot, so I'll serve the leftovers up when she isn't getting over Bronchitis.

I made a few minor changes to the recipe. I used almost 4 c of chopped potatoes because I wanted to use up the potatoes I had in the fridge before they went bad. Since there were extra potatoes, the soup was a bit thicker than I like. I didn't drain the corn and added water until the soup was the desired consistency. I'd guess it was about a cup or 2. I'd definitely make this soup again. It was delicious!

Corn Sausage Chowder from Taste and Tell
1 lb. bulk pork sausage
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
3 cups potatoes, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 cups chicken broth
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 15 1/4-ounce can whole kernel corn, drained
1 14 3/4-ounce can cream-style corn
1 12-ounce can evaporated milk

In a 4- to 5-quart Dutch oven, cook sausage and onion until sausage is browned and cooked through. Drain well. Stir in potatoes, broth, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Stir in both cans of corn and evaporated milk. Cook until warmed through.

Crockpot Applesauce Chicken

This is another one of those ugly meals. Even if you look at the photo for crockpot applesauce chicken on Crockpot365, it it ain't perty. I figure if a high traffic website can't make something look super fancy then I shouldn't feel bad about it not looking swell either.

I used cinnamon applesauce because it was what we had on hand. I really liked the extra cinnamon taste. I also increased the amount of red pepper flakes to 1/2 tsp. I think it could have been even spicier, but then I don't think Blockette would have been able to stand the heat.

Blockette loved this meal. She was hesitant to try it at first, probably because it didn't look to appealing. Once I told her the sauce was applesauce she loved it. She even asked for the leftovers.

The leftovers were just as good as the first night. I think this was because the chicken was so moist. The pieces barely held their shape coming out of the slow cooker. Overly moist and tender chicken is never ever a bad thing. This recipe is definitely a keeper.

Crockpot applesauce chicken from A Year of Slow Cooking
4 frozen chicken breast halves or thighs (I used 2 of each)
1 1/2 cups of applesauce
1 T dried onion flakes, or 1 yellow onion, chopped finely
1 T apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

A 3 or 4 quart crockpot is the best size for this, but I did use a 6 quart. If your pot cooks fast, err on the lower end of cooking time. Put the frozen chicken pieces into your crockpot. Add the onion (if you are using the dried onion, wait and add it to the applesauce). In a bowl, mix the applesauce, vinegar, garlic, and spices together. Pour on top of the chicken. Cover and cook on low for 5-7 hours, or on high for 3-4.

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!

Autumn Harvest Burgers with Caramelized Onions from Food Network
2 tablespoons butter
2 Vidalia onions, sliced
2 Granny Smith apples, diced
2 pounds 80 percent lean ground beef
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1 egg
1 cup seasoned bread crumbs
4 large crusty rolls, split
4 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 cup blue cheese

Melt butter in skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions to hot pan and begin caramelizing, stirring occasionally. After 4 minutes or so, add apples to the onions and continue to cook until onions are golden brown, about 6 more minutes. Remove from heat when done. While onions and apples are cooking, blend together in a large bowl the ground beef, salt, pepper, thyme, Dijon, egg, and bread crumbs. Be sure ingredients are well incorporated, but don't over work. Form mixture into 4 good-sized patties. (hint: If you create a concave burger, with the center thinner than the edges, when it cooks the burger won't swell up to look like a meatball, but will remain flat and patty-like)

Heat grill to medium-high heat. Place burgers on grill and cook about 10 minutes per side, or until cooked through. As burgers are finishing (after the first flip), spread mayonnaise on both cut sides of each split roll. Place rolls on grill, mayonnaise side down, to toast for about 1 minute, or until golden. Place each burger on the bottom half of a toasted roll. Top with about 1/4 cup of blue cheese, then with a generous scoop of the caramelized onion and apple mixture. Cover with the roll and serve.

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)