Pasta with Personality

Awhile back I bought some fun shaped pasta from the Pasta Shoppe.
Tonight we finally pulled some out.

I had put it all in a cupboard and forgot about it. I can't believe I forgot about such fun!
I better get the snowmen pasta out before Spring officially gets here. 

Gavin pulled up his chair to help out. He also took pictures.

He's getting extremely good at measuring himself. Before, I would measure and he would pour.

Now it's all him.

Even the milk. 

(as I watch in anxiety picturing the gallon hitting the floor and running under the fridge and my kitchen smelling like curdled milk like when I find a sippy cup from last week in his fort)

No really, he does an excellent job and I encourage it.

(The pouring, not the imagined disaster.)

Pigs, roosters, cows and barns.

You want to know how good it was? He ate all of it and left his hotdogs.

He left his HOTDOGS!

Mmmmmm, THAT good :)

Painting sugar cookies

With eggs and food coloring.

I now have two sets of paintbrushes. One we use to paint crafts, the other we paint food.

I also have two cupcake pans. I may possibly need a third soon.

(we use them, a lot)

For cooking and painting.

One is permanently in the bathroom.

I went a little overboard and whisked up three eggs so we could use several different colors.

Next time I will know that very little of each color is needed. One egg may have been sufficient.

I might pick up some new cookie sheets along with another cupcake pan.

(Or maybe I could Google or Pinterest some homemade extraordinary way to clean them)

Oh, how the waiting is the hardest part!
But, oh so worth the wait.
They were delicious.

Mini pizzas

We like just about anything mini and these are one of our favorites!

Mini pizzas!!

Especially because we typically have all the ingredients in the fridge/cupboard.

Tortillas, pizza sauce, Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, shredded mozzarella and of course, pepperonis!

Mix a can of pizza sauce, 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, couple shakes of Italian seasoning into a bowl.

Use the empty pizza sauce can to cut out some circles from your tortillas to fit into the cupcake pan.

 They are a perfect fit.

 After pressing each tortilla circle into the pan, we poured in some sauce. We don't put a lot of sauce in ours anymore. I learned this the first time we made them. While I like them "deep dish" style. Gavin has had some difficulty. Sometimes I do half and half. I really can't go wrong.

Add a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese and some pepperonis.

Delicious.

I failed to take a finished picture.

This recipe was found at http://www.dashingdish.com/2011/09/mini-deep-dish-pizzas/

Watermelon waffles

We are missing the 80 degrees now that we are home from Florida.

So dinner tonight is a summer time favorite. To get us feeling warm again.

If there are chocolate chips in it, Gavin will eat it. Therefore, I knew they would be a hit.
Gavin mixed up the batter. I dyed 3/4 pink and 1/4 green.
Glooped it onto the waffle iron. And with my arm very close to Gavin for fear of getting burned, he sprinkled on some watermelon seeds. (mini chocolate chips)

A circular waffle maker would be ideal. 

 But they were delicious all the same.

Nothing says sunny weather like kicking your feet up and indulging in a tasty treat.
No syrup needed.

Racing into 2012

Can you believe it?! I'm starting my 3rd year of JabberJohnsons.

I never thought I would keep it up this long.

So let's race right into 2012, shall we.

And let's do it sloppy joe style.

 I caught this idea over at Making Memories with your kids. Although instead of cucumbers, I used cheese and crackers for wheels. I also found cheese cubes in my fridge drawer to use as headlights. (the cheese cubes I bought to help get my dog to swallow some pills.) But that is another post completely.

  Fill 'er up!

 I gave him a pretzel to use as the steering wheel, but he thought reclined seats were a better use for them.

  Vrooooommmmmm, vroooommmmmmm

{he's making the noise}

 Food is fun when you can "play" with it.

 "Look, Mommy! He looks like Mater now!"

(missing headlight)

It's been nearly a month since we've done some fun food.  Due to the holidays and vacation, I've been sidetracked. I'm ready to get back to it.

Hotdog People

Gavin hasn't been feeling well the last two days and barely touched food. But today he woke up with a strong craving for hotdogs. Unfortunately for him, I made him wait until lunch time. 

Fortunately for him, I thought it would be fun to give them a little pizazz!

Hotdog people!

 I made three cuts into uncooked dogs. 

When you boil them in water, they bend up just like arms and legs.

"Now what, Mommy?"

I tried to explain how to only push the noodles in a little bit, but after several noodles shoved all the way through or breaking off, I finally made an example for him.

 He caught on quick!

They were a hit along side of some extra hotdog pieces and noodles.

Only thing missing was a bottle of mustard so I could have dotted on a couple eyeballs!

Sweet & Salty

After a few delays, we finally were able to make our special treat after school!
The post title seemed fitting, not only because this treat is created with pretzels and chocolate, but because we had a few salty days before leading us into a sweet day report from daycare.

First things first, we laid out our round pretzels onto a baking sheet.
We also snuck a few in our mouth.

 Gavin was impressive at opening an entire bag of Hershey kisses.

Placing one inside every pretzel round.

BUSTED!

But that's OK. Kisses are delicious!

Now to pop them in the oven at 225F for about 4 minutes. Just enough to soften them.

Next we took our FALL colored M&M's (aka, I took out the blue and green ones) and smooshed one down onto each kiss.

This wasn't thought out properly. I did place oven mitts on the front of the trays to avoid accidental burning. But little fingers dipping in warm chocolate was a detail I hadn't anticipated.

He didn't mind. The chocolate didn't burn. It made for some delicious finger licking.

He managed to finish about ten before growing bored. Luckily.

He hopped down to create a Lego masterpiece, and I finished them off rather quickly.

I let them set-up overnight. (I don't have a freezer or fridge to accommodate baking pans) Let me tell you they have made the most amazing incentive to continue our using the potty success!

Bread painting

Food coloring + water makes grilled cheese a little less boring.
I saw this idea for toast, but we aren't big toast eaters. No reason. We just don't.
I also should have used milk instead of water. But I honestly don't know if it mattered.

Gavin chose four colors of food coloring. The regular kind. Not that gel stuff we use for cooking and baking.

Couple drops in each cup of water.

I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for some better paint brushes. These didn't hold but a drop of paint. Or maybe that's why I should have used milk instead of water. It was a lot of dipping back and forth from paint to bread.

Slap on a little bit of butter and some cheese...

Monday night dinner.

Not exactly cuisine, but we weren't having the best of days.
Hoping for good report tomorrow so we can make our fun treat!