Category Archives: Kid friendly

Kid friendly things to eat and do

Cooking with Kids – Three flavours of Peanut Butter Cups: Butterscotch Double Peanut Butter, Cookies & Cream, Cinnamon & Praline

I like being loaned children. You see I’m a fantastic aunt or friend of a parent. I can keep them entertained for a few hours usually with something food related. I don’t mean babies, I find the little things quite difficult to reason with-for starters they don’t answer back when you ask them what is wrong and try rationalising or bargaining with a baby, it just doesn’t happen.  So when my friend Teena mentioned baby sitting her niece and her niece’s love of Peanut Butter cups, I knew that she was my little chef for the day.

I had been dying to make some more peanut butter cups ever since my precious supply of Elvis Peanut Butter and Banana Cups started to dwindle. Barbara so thoughtfully sent me some wonderful items to aid me in my quest for the never ending peanut butter cups. She sent me some peanut butter flavoured chocolate and a Peanut Butter cup mold. I sought out advice from some of my friends that gave me such fantastic ideas for the Pocky. I decided to make a Double Peanut Butter and Butterscotch version; Cookies & Cream Oreo and a Cinnamon and Praline Peanut Butter cup.

The measures below are approximate – it depends on the size of your pans – but if you happen to be using larger patty pans then you may have to adjust quantities. I found that they were too difficult to pop out of the Wilton mold so we resorted to making most of them in patty pans (my patty pans measured 3.5cms on the base and 2.3cms in height). As a precautionary measure I’d suggest refrigerating these, particularly the butterscotch variety. All in all it took 2 hours to make 36 of these with most of the time waiting for the chocolate to set and some time running around and watching The Disney Channel. Kids are often tough critics and they can be resoundingly blunt but Cookies & Cream Chick and her little brother as well as the adults adored these. And stay tuned for my next recipe, a Bannoffee Peanut Butter cup!

Yesterday was also Day One of my Lean Cuisine challenge where I was sent a 5 day supply of Lean Cuisine to eat for Lunch and Dinner. It’s been years since I cracked one open although I do remember liking a Chicken Marsala dish that came with rice and wild rice (well I liked the chicken part, not the rice so much). My fellow Lean Cuisine testers are ChocolateSuze and Jenius.

Sundried Tomato Cheese filled Tortellini

I was hungry, mainly because my fridge was full of cake and cake making ingredients and we were one day pre our weekly shopping expedition so I chose the Sundried Tomato Tortellini meal (368 calories, 97% fat free). I felt like pasta as it was a little chilly that day and I am crazy about sundried tomatoes. Heating it up for the requisite time I stirred it and let it cool for a bit before digging in. The pasta sauce was actually quite nice, in fact it reminded me of my favourite supermarket bottled pasta the Creamy Basil and Tomato Remano sauce from Aldi. The cheese filled tortellini wasn’t too bad although I do prefer it a bit more al dente and more filled with filling (they were a little deflated). Although considering it took all of 5 minutes to heat it wasn’t too bad at all especially for the calories.

For dinner I went for pasta again as I figured it would be more filling. I tried the Rich Beef Lasagne (388 cals). It took twelve minutes to cook in two six minute bursts and although it looked quite thin and pale, I paired it with some baby spinach, sweet corn kernels and my favourite Simon Johnson Sweet Onions of Tropea. I was happier with this dish, the lasagne was saucey and great for the number of calories. I don’t eat a lot of lasagne as I have this awful habit of attempting to eat the whole thing so this innate portion controlling suited me. I did get a bit peckish later that evening so I had a snack (wholemeal buttered bread with tuna). Now just to see if I lose any weight…

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46 comments | April 21, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Cooking with Kids: Afghan Cookies

I first tried these on our recent trip to New Zealand. I’m usually a good sharer and will offer my dining companion a taste or half of what I’m eating. Not so in this case. I was greedy and unrepentant. I had never tried a biscuit or cookie like this before. It was a thick cookie with an intriguing texture, dry but not desert-dry, with a slightly crispy crunchy touch to it-the closest that I could describe it was similar to cookie crossed with a cupcake-the cupcake part due to the icing. Plus a walnut half on the top.

When I returned, I kept thinking about how much I’d like to make these again so I asked Tammy from Wee Treats By Tammy who is a NZ food blogger if she knew a good recipe for them. She knew straight away what I wanted and sent me the recipe from the fantastic “Ladies, a plate” cookbook by Alexa Johnston. The cookbook’s title is a reference to the community events where women were asked to bake goodies and the invitations would begin with a “Ladies, a plate”. The recipe was from a Mrs Marian Benton’s recipe book which was lent to the author by Benton’s daughter. The gorgeous and easy to work with glossy chocolate icing was developed by Lois Daish.

Looking through the recipe I thought that it was simple and straightforward. Simple enough to get M’s sons S and In to give it a try. Like many mums she wants her kids to have cooking skills and encouraging them to start making their own items is a good start so we arranged to do this at Adrienne and Nick’s house where we managed to drag the boys away from their Wii obsession into making some cookies. The reward? As many cookies you can stuff into your waiting mouth. And with that, the deal was instantly struck and the Wii temporarily forgotten for S.

The best part of baking

As for the etymology of the name, there are plenty of theories and none with a consensus as to being the correct one. Some say that they resemble the craggy mountains of Afghanistan, some say that they were made by Afghan settlers in Australia although they’re definitely more of a NZ thing than they are here. One theory also purports that the cookies resemble the Afghani people with the cookie their skin, the icing the hair and the walnut their turban.

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60 comments | March 26, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Creme Brulee Fudge: A Tale of Three Fudges

How much do I love thee reader? A lot apparently, making 3 batches of fudge, in order to find a good, reliable recipe that anyone, anytime could produce. After writing about the delicious Crème Brûlée fudge we had in Arrowtown, New Zealand, I had readers asking for a recipe and I was also curious to have some for myself. What I didn’t realise is that the sugary stuff is more temperamental than a macaron. I think I’m a moderately skilled cook but when my first two batches failed I started to get despondent, then angry. I’m sure that alongside 7 stages of grief, there are 7 stages to fudge failure and I can really understand why the word “Fudge!!” is uttered as an expletive to some. Apparently, the weather can affect fudge making and canny experienced fudge makers will not bother to make it if the weather is humid or rainy. And even then there’s no guarantee that it will work. And I am living proof. I even bought myself a sugar thermometer to aid me in my pursuit of Creme Brulee fudge.

“Patience dear” is an oft repeated phrase around me. I am the most impatient person that I know. For me, it has to happen right now, then then and right there. I often have the Veruca Salt song “I Want It Now” ringing in my ears. One thing that forces patience on me is fudge making. Waiting until all of the sugar has dissolved on a low heat to stirring it constantly instead of running off to check your computer, the waiting for the soft ball stage to materialise-all things that requires a measure of patience that I don’t seem to have.

1st lot, delicious but unset

Like Goldilocks (or should I call myself Ravenlocks?), my first batch wasn’t right. With orders to test for soft ball using iced water (which I did, much like when I did it for the marshmallow) and orders to beat it straight away from Nigella the whole thing turned out grainy due to the partial crystallisation of the sugar when I stirred it during the crucial cooling process and it didn’t set properly due to the humid weather although I have to admit, flavour-wise, it tasted great.

My second lot once I bought the sugar thermometer was creamier, due to waiting for the temperature to drop to 40C which took 1.5 hours. It also didn’t set. And I know people will say that it’s because I didn’t reach the soft ball stage but I disagree, I did as I watched the thermometer like a hawk. This fudge however was gorgeously creamy and ungrainy so had it set, it would have been perfection.

Gathering myself together I came across a food proof, weather proof and method proof recipe for fudge which involved using marshmallows. It’s easier and quicker and miraculously set pretty much straight away, Even better was that it had a gorgeous creaminess. Flavour-wise I do think I preferred the first two but only by a small amount. The relative ease and reliability of this recipe means that it’s the winner for me.

I’ve also given you the recipe for the other two fudges should you wish to try them. Perhaps given the right weather where you are and a certain planetary alignment and your astrological moon in the correct position, it may set for you (just consider yourself warned ;) ). In any case, bruleeing the stuff is easy, in fact I don’t know why it isn’t done more often. Just sprinkle with a little sugar (fudge contains enough of the stuff anyway so only a bit is needed) and blowtorch to you heart’s content, being careful not to set the paper or oiled foil on fire. It’s not exactly like the Remarkable Sweet Shop stuff in Arrowtown, New Zealand but it’s fabulously good and will win friends and influence people.

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54 comments | March 16, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

The Counter Burger, Crows Nest (and the 450g burger)

If you’re in any doubt that the American chain The Counter burger has come to town, take a peek at the menu. For the first thing that my eyes rest upon is a Peanut Butter Shake. If that isn’t American I don’t know what is. Today we’re having lunch at The Counter burger, where you can get a fully customised burger that your heart or tastebud desires. I was first tipped off about The Counter by an NQN reader-got to love tips!

It’s table service here and when you sit down, you get a clipboard with a 5 part checklist of items that you can choose from starting from the patty (Beef, Turkey, Chicken or Vegetarian), then a cheese (from a list of 10 including horseradish cheddar, Gruyere and Danish blue), then some extra toppings (from a list of 18 regular toppings and a list of 10 premium toppings) and then a sauce (from a list of 17) and then a bun (hamburger bun, English muffin or wholemeal). This gives us a potential for 312,120 plus burgers! For low carb eaters, there is also the breadless option where instead of having it in a bun, you’re given the patty and toppings on top of salad leaves. We are literally staring at the menu, pencil paused in our hand, for about 10 minutes. For the terminally indecisive there are burger combinations already laid out.

Surfboard decorations

We are not sure what size patty we’d like so we look at the table next to us. Theirs looks like a fat juicy burger patty and they tell us it’s a 150g one and very filling (in fact they leave some of it behind). My husband rises to the challenge and chooses a 300g burger, despite being egged on to try the 450gram burger by the other customer who wants to see how big it would be. I am relieved to see that the item that I saw on the website, the Maryland Crab Cake burger is indeed the burger of the month here as I had presumed that it was a US only burger but everything there seemed to marry up exactly with the other locations.

Oooh Angus beef!

We ask the waitress about the shakes, apparently the peanut butter one is rather large and rich and she suggests sharing it and she also suggests combining a peanut butter and chocolate shake with malt which delights me as I am a big Reese’s peanut butter cup fan. We also share an order of 50 50 fries with half onion strings and half sweet potato chips.

Peanut butter and chocolate malted shake $5 (one of the two glasses)

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64 comments | February 17, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Blood Clot and Brain Cupcakes-Happy Friday the 13th for tomorrow!

Look away if you’re squeamish and if you’re not, peer into my dark mind. As you may know, Halloween is my kind of holiday. Sure, I live in the wrong country for this as we don’t really celebrate it but give me Friday the 13th as an interim measure between the long year that stretches between Halloweens. I love anything dark and ghoulish so I was excited to be able to have a little bit of Halloween in February. Nothing bad has ever happened to me on Friday the 13th (that is one date where I truly do notice if bad things happen).

The brain decoration idea came from the very copied and popular cupcakes book Hey There Cupcake! by Claire Crespo. I thought that I’d make it a touch more grotesque with a blood clot hidden inside the cupcake. I needed a fairly stiff batter, one that would hold a clot so to speak so I turned to the Jam Donut cupcakes I made a while back. The cake itself is quite dense and whilst 4 cups of icing sugar sounds like a freakish amount… ok yes it is and there’s no other way to pitch it.

As with all things Halloween related, I took out my box of tricks and decided to ghoulify an already ghoulish cupcake idea. I would have loved to have some surgeon’s implements for the task but unfortunately my doctor friend Soph lives in another state and I’m sure the local hospital wouldn’t understand my need to borrow brain surgery tools overnight. Of course I could have paid them in one of these cupcakes. I hope that my broken mirror and bloodied knife suffices.

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70 comments | February 12, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella