Kitchen Meets Culinary Clutz

....*Sigh* I never did get around to trying my hand at baking the Dainty Cinderellas today. I had to trade in my oven mitts for a stethoscope this weekend.  After spending the past 4-days nursing my baby back to health I did nothing more than drag around lethargically feeling so tired I couldn't even make myself rest if I wanted to. (I'll try and bake those cookies tomorrow.)

It looks as though we are over the danger zone with this flu virus and my little one's fever has held steady not going over 101°F. today. She still has her icky cough but that's to be expected. I just hope it doesn't keep her up all night.

I was pleased that my kids let me retreat to my bedroom for a quick 2-hr nap this afternoon. The nap did me some good. It gave me enough energy to whip up dinner tonight! I think it will be safe to sleep in my room tonight.  For the past 3 nights I had camped out in the family room with BbGirl at my side to have her temperature monitored.

Call me a nut but I keep a Fever Log when my kids are ill just in case we have to make an Urgent Care or ER visit. It helps to give the doctors an idea of what's been going on, and how I've been treating their symptoms before seeking medical attention.  I started doing this when my oldest daughter was an infant and dealt with a series of unexplainable seizures accompanied by fevers that lasted for up to 10-days where tests could prove no trace of viruses.

I hope my daughter and I can get a full night's rest tonight. We'd like to be wide-eyed and energized for school on monday.

Below is an image of the Fever Log I use. If you CLICK HERE you can be redirected to the Printer Friendly Version. Make sure that your printer settings are set to "Landscape" before printing the document. After printing, if you'd like your log to be in Note Pad form (Like mine is, pictured above)  print out 5-10 copies and cut each page down the center. Affix one staple at the top to turn into a super-cool notepad like mine!

I love collecting cookbooks. I especially love finding vintage cookbooks that are worn and tattered!

While at the Red Rooster Antique Mall last summer, the store owner helped me dig out all his cookbooks. I only purchased the ones that looked like they were loved (i.e. stained, used/abused and left with remnants of flour dust in the the creases of each delicate page.) I took home a good handful of cookbooks that day. I will only share a few of my new books so as not to bore you.

Some of these cookbooks and cook-booklets amaze me. I found one called "Sweets" which was published in 1920 that has a small handful of candy recipes as well as advertisement for it's Vegetable Compound product for women by the Lydia E. Pinkham Medicine Company. If you're interested in knowing what the heck Vegetable Compound is, CLICK HERE to be directed to Mr. John Brand's Buckaroo Leather blog. There is a complete article there that I found to be quite interesting indeed!

This lady actually "brewed" her own home remedies for ...*a-hem* "Women Complaints". I'm interested in finding out if these recipes are legitimate, and I am pleased to say that I have an entire weekend in the kitchen to try my hand at one or two of these recipes! I will use my brood of kids as my guinea pigs. They don't mind taking the responsibility of being the home chef's guinea pigs! (At least, I don't think they mind... can't say I've ever asked.)


This cookbook, "The Joy of Cooking" by Irma S. Rombauer, has definitely been through the wringer. The pages are dusted with old flour, stained with liquid ingredients and the spine looks as though it was dropped into a pot of mashed potatoes. It has definitely been loved and cherished for over 68 years!

Mama taught us how to make Apple Crisp. She'd make it for us in the cool autumn mornings or sometimes in the mid-afternoons when we came indoors from play.

Mikey's my baby brother. He was the cutest little guy, and he loved apple crisp as much as the rest of us.

Isn't he adorable? He used to run around pretending he was Zorro with a blanket tied around his neck and a wooden sword in hand. If you weren't quick enough you'd get whacked with the sword. (Our big sissy was never quick enough. hahaha!)

Mikey learned real quick how to make our Mama's yummy Apple Crisp and became a pro at it. His crisp was so good we deemed Mikey the Apple Crisp Fixer-Upper Person and when we wanted Apple Crisp we knew It was Mikey who could make it best when Mama was busy.

I'm hungry this morning and I have a hankering for some of my baby brother's Apple Crisp. I'd make him fly his butt out here to whip me some up but he's in heaven right now and I miss him. (I pre-prepped a pan of crisp to bring to school with me. I'll throw it in the oven when I get there this morning and share it with the class!)

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Lightly grease a 9 x 9-inch pan with a little bit of butter.
3. Prepare Apples as you would a pie by slicing them thin. Place in baking pan
4. Combine other ingredients, mixing with fork until large crumbs form.
5. Sprinkle crumb mix over apples.
6. Bake for 35-40 minutes. 
7. Serve warm. (Tastes awesome served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream)

Today I dared the rediculous crowds at Walmart to pick up Valentine's Day cards and goodie bags for my 8-year old daughter's classmates. While there I grabbed last minute treats for the kids and teachers in my classroom. I believe I spent a good 3-hours confined in two shopping aisles watching people fight over the last Russel Stover truffles and googly-eyed Valentine's Day cards.



It was nice to finally come home and sit down with my daughters to put all the goodie bags together. I don't think I could have gotten it done without their help!



There are 20 kids in BbGirl's classroom. Instead of the traditional Valentine's Day card, we gave everyone a novelty cup filled with pencils, balloons, and candy of course. I tied each bag with a cute ribbon!



BbGirl was hard at work practicing her cursive handwriting as she filled out each card.


After supper I went right to work at making Marshmallow Treats for the party my classroom is going to have tomorrow. I also put together three platters of these yummy treats for the school staff at my school.

Marshmallow Treats (also known as Rice Krispy Treats) are so easy to make. I remember when I was about 7-years old my Mama & big sissy taught me how to make them.


When I make my Marshmallow Treats I sprinkle the whole pan of treats with holiday sprinkles, depending on which holiday we're celebrating! Sometimes I use a few drops of food coloring to tint the marshmallow as it melts.  For a little fun, I like to cut the treats into shapes, straight out of the pan, with cookie cutters! Yum!



Say "I Love You" to your child, or someone you love, with a Sweet Treat nestled in their lunch box!

1. Melt margarine in 3-quart saucepan over low heat.
2. Add marshmallows and cook, stirring constantly, until marshmallows are melted and mixture is syrupy (If tinting marshmallow, add a few drops of food coloring during this step.)
3. Remove from heat immediately, add Crispy Rice cereal, and stir to coat evenly. 
4. Press warm mixture evenly into buttered 13" x 9" x 2" pan.
5. Cool. Cut into bars or with cookie cutters.

Makes about 32 bars.

*Tip: When pressing mixture into pan, goopy up your hands with margarine first. It helps to prevent stick fingers and burns. (This was my favorite part when I was a kid because it was just about the only time I was allowed to "play" with my food!)

Lucky for the kids we were given another snow day...

Unlucky for me, on the other hand, I should be balancing the checkbook from last week's shopping excursions but..

That blizzard was interesting...

I went stir crazy at about 9:30 p.m. last night and decided I wanted to make fudge!! I got a little carried away with the nuts because, well, I wanted my fudge to resemble the state of mind my kids were in after being held against their will inside the house and forced to tidy up. I'm pretty sure they were on the brink of insanity because it was much too cold (6°F. /windchill of -20°F.) to go outdoors and enjoy the fresh fallen snow.

This recipe is extremely easy to make. It takes maybe 10-minutes, at most, to whip it together and another 30-minutes in the fridge to set.

Enjoy!

• Cooking spray, or Canola oil for greasing pan
• 3 1/2 cups Miniature Marshmallows
• 1 1/2 cups Pecans (or walnuts), coarsely chopped, optional
• 2 cups Semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 14-oz can Sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tsp Pure Vanilla extract

Directions:

1. For easy handling and super easy clean-up, Line a 9-by-9 inch square baking pan with foil (be sure to let the foil hang over the outside edges of pan) and coat with cooking spray. 
2. Set aside 1/2 cup of marshmallows and 1/2 cup pecans.
3. In a large microwave-safe mixing bowl, microwave 2-cups chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk on HIGH for 1-minute. 
4. Stir with rubber spatula. If chocolate chips are not fully melted heat in microwave for another 30 seconds to a minute. Do not overheat.
5. Stir in vanilla extract
6. With your rubber spatula gently fold-in 3-cups of marshmallows and 1-cup of pecans.
7. Pour mixture into prepared baking pan making sure to spread evenly to the edges of the pan.
8. Sprinkle the top of fudge with reserved marshmallows and pecans.
9. With your hands press the marshmallows and nuts into fudge.
10. Cover baking pan with plastic wrap and chill in refrigerator for about 30 minutes, or until it is firm.
11. When fudge is ready to serve, lift the foil to remove the fudge out of the pan. 
12. Pull foil away from sides of fudge and slice into about 24 pieces. 

Todd Wilbur (Author of Top Secret Recipes) is one of my top favorite cookbook authors. His cookbooks were actually my saving grace when we were stationed in Okinawa, Japan for three years. Living overseas for three years we were limited to certain grocery food items, as well as a lot of our favorite restaurants.

Thank you Mr. Wilbur, you are definitely the Kitchen Clone King!