Happy Holidays!

As you probably have noticed from our lack of posts, we are taking a bit of a "holiday" from Mish+Mash to enjoy some quality time with our families. I hope you all have the opportunity to do the same. We think its important to enjoy all these moments that seem to fly by so quickly and just slow down for as long as you can to just take them in. We wish you all a fabulous Holiday Season and all the best for the coming New Year! We'll be back on Monday with new posts, including some birthday party planning tips, and lots of new exciting info on our upcoming classes at Stir. Thank you for all your support and for making our first year such a great one. We've truly enjoyed getting to meet some of you in person and can't wait to share lots of yummy recipes in 2011! xo

Christmas Morning Breakfast!

I am particularly excited for Christmas morning this year now that Sofia is two years old and will be able to fully appreciate the surprise of seeing wrapped gifts appear under the tree. We are also starting our own family holiday traditions this year. One Italian tradition that I can't wait to share with my family is Panettone, an Italian sweet bread that is served during Christmas and New Year. You can make it from scratch or buy it at specialty markets like Whole Foods, Tonys Market, and Sunflower. My favorite comes from Williams-Sonoma. You can eat it simply toasted with a little butter but I love making it to French toast. This is a recipe I found many years ago and after the first bite I never had to try another!

Panettone French Toast w/ Coconut Milk

Ingredients:

1/2 vanilla bean

2/3 cup coconut milk

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

4 tablespoons butter

8 slices Panettone

Directions:

Split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Put the coconut milk, eggs, sugar, vanilla seeds, and cardamom in a bowl and beat well. Pour the mixture in a shallow dish.

Heat half the butter in a large skillet. Dip 2 slices of Panettone into the egg mixture and saute until golden on both sides. Repeat with the remaining slices and serve dusted with confectioners' sugar.

To Serve:

confectioners' sugar for dusting

blueberries

yogurt

The Reinvention of Leftovers

I am always looking for creative ways to reinvent leftovers - this a big part of how I keep to a strict weekly grocery budget of $100-$150 a week. I make sure to use my leftovers instead of cooking every night and watching them just go to waste. It totally kills me when I throw away all my culinary creations on Monday morning to take out to the trash. It's a big money waster as well. So instead I plan all my meals a week at a time with leftovers included. It saves me a lot of time as well. 

Here is a recipe I found Family Friendly Food that I can't wait to try. I often will buy an already roasted Chicken from Costco - they are really good and already cooked and give me a lot of options that don't take any time whatsoever.

Creamy Orecchiette with Roasted Vegetables, Chicken, and Leafy Greens



Leftovers:
1/2 onion, small chopped
1/3 roasted whole chicken, pulled/cut to large bite-size pieces
3 breakfast sausages, diced
3-4 cups roasted vegetables (potatoes, yams, sweet potatoes, rutabagas), diced if not already
Blanched kale and chard, chopped
½ cup crème fraiche  (substitute with heavy cream.)
1/3 cup grated cheese (mozzarella, monterrey jack, or parmesean)

Pantry items:
Olive oil
1 clove garlic
½ box of orecchiette or any kind of short pasta


Bring water and salt to a boil and cook the pasta according to the instructions on the box.
Meanwhile, in a big big skillet sauté onion in olive oil until it softens. Add the garlic clove. Move to the side of the skillet and add the leftovers. Warm it all up good.
When pasta is ready, drain and add to the leftovers, add salt, ground black pepper, and crème fraiche. Mix and toss it all together. Serve with grated cheese.

Makes 6 servings

Scrumptious Flourless Cookies

I'm a sucker for cookies. I really am. The season brings out the worst in me, tempting me to make batch upon batch, with very few people around to eat them. When I found this recipe, I got pretty excited- these treats are amazing to the taste buds and much more nutritious than sugar, butter, and flour loaded cookies we are used to.

Scrumptious Flourless Cookies

3 large, ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup coconut oil, barely warm (or, alternatively olive oil or 1/2 c coconut oil and 1/2 cup grapeseed)
2 cups rolled oats
2/3 cup almond meal
1/3 cup coconut, finely shredded and unsweetened
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
6-7 oz semi sweet chocolate chips or dark chocolate bar chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, racks in top third.

In large bowl combine bananas, vanilla extract, coconut oil, and grapeseed oil if using. Set aside. In another bowl whisk together all dry ingredients except chocolate. Add dry to wet and stir until combined. Fold in chocolate chunks/ chips. The dough is looser than a standard cookie dough, don't worry about this. Drop dollops of the dough, each about 2 tsp in size, an inch apart, onto a parchment or Silpat lined baking sheet. Bake for 12-14 min. Makes about 3 dozen bite-sized cookies.

Tis the Season ...

As a mom, the thing I notice most about the winter months is the frequency in which kids get sick and how hard we try our best to stop it from happening repeatedly. I am a firm believer that you can feed your kids foods full of vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin C, Zinc, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and Vitamin E to help boost your kids immune system. I also believe it is okay for kids to get sick because it is also a way to build their immune system, however ask any mom of a kid who seemingly catches everything and appears to spend the entire winter with one long cold and she would probably beg to differ. Children also tend to get sick back to back due to their immune system being weak after being sick and the tendency to not eat well when they don't feel well. So this is the time to bump up their nutrition and make certain you are doing your best to help them get healthy quickly. I am a big fan of using smoothies to add nutrition and make certain my daughter is getting plenty of vitamins and minerals. Since kids appetites are so erratic I like to use healthy homemade smoothies as a way of making sure she is getting everything she needs especially when she is getting over an illness. Here's one from Dr. Sears that is full of ingredients to make sure your little one has what they need to stay healthy this winter. You can substitute ingredients as needed according to your kids age. 

IMMUNE BOOSTING SMOOTHIE

*Drink this smoothie daily upon school entry in September, upon beginning daycare, upon exposure to a contagious illness, or when you or your child feels a cold coming on. 

2 cups milk or soy or rice beverage 
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt
1 serving of a multinutrient supplement (go to www.askdrsears.com for info) 
one frozen banana, cut up
1/2 cup frozen blueberries
1/2 cup each of your favorite fruit, frozen (e.g., organic strawberries, papaya, mango)
1 tbsp. flax oil or 2 tbsp. flaxseed meal (Because fiber steadies the absorption of carbohydrates and therefore contributes to a steadier blood sugar we suggest using rich sources of fiber, such as flaxseed meal (i.e., ground flax seeds, containing both the oil and fiber), although flax oil has a more palatable consistency than flaxseed meal. For additional fiber, if you don't mind an even grainier texture, add 1 tbsp. or more of oat bran.)
3 ounces tofu
10 mg. zinc
100 mcg. selenium
50-100 IU vitamin E
1 serving soy isolate powder (optional)
2 tbsp. peanut butter (optional)

Combine all the ingredients and blend until smooth. Serve immediately after blending while the mixture still has a bubbly milkshake-like consistency.

First Stir Class

Our Finger Foodies, Ready-Made Meals in a Snap class went really well last night. We loved working out of Stir's brand new kitchen (the space! the appliances and new cookware! the open bar! need I go on?) but even more than that we enjoyed a great group of ladies who were enthusiastic about stockpiling some yummy nutritious food for their toddlers. Thanks for your support, Melissa, Lacy, Katie, and Kelly! We'll update our blog soon with January classes that will soon be open for registration.

Stir Opening Party

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The Stir Cooking School opening party was this weekend, and boy, are we blown away by the new space Katy Hume has recently opened. It is beyond belief- retro modern, state of the art kitchen with individual islands for more hands on, and just plain fun! I can envision this place getting busy, and getting busy quickly. We had a great time serving dessert upstairs and seeing our families and friends there- we are so happy for Katy and are excited to start teaching out of this venue tomorrow night!

Homemade Ornaments

We're looking for simple ways to celebrate the holiday season this year, and I think these homemade ornaments may be just the ticket. Check out the rest of the winter edition of Rythym of the Home for some homey, back-to-basics ideas for creating traditions with your little one.

New Cookbook on its Way!

I don't often write about a cookbook sight unseen, but the mere anticipation of this ones arrival on my doorstep has me too excited not to share. It's all about family meals and how to make them fun and easy and healthy and yummy and....well all those things that Mish+Mash stands for. It's really the core of why we do what we do, so yeah I'm pretty excited to read a cookbook that shares our mission. Plus its by the creators of Cookie Magazine - which I am still mourning the loss of along with Domino - two magazines I have yet to find proper replacements for. But now at least I can savor a whole cookbook by these fabulous women and cook up all sorts of fabulous creations for my family. I will, of course, share every tasty detail with you all!!