Cioppino

For  our Christmas potluck, I decided to make Cioppino.

Cioppino is a tomato based seafood stew. It is an Italian American dish that originated in San Francisco and it typically consists of crabs, clams, mussels, shrimp, scallops, squid, and fish. The secret to a good Cioppino stew is in the sauce.

Here is how I made it.


You will need:


1 lb Dungennes crab legs and claws
1 lb mussels
1 lb clams
1 lb scallops
1 lb shrimp
2 pcs of Ahi tuna steaks


The sauce was the easy part as I found a pre-made bottled one at the grocery store. But a typical sauce recipe consists of water, tomatoes, red wine vinegar, onions, celery, sherry wine, bell peppers, black pepper and spices. If you cannot find pre-made sauce, a good sauce recipe can be found by clicking here.

To make the stew, put (or make) the sauce in a large pot over medium heat and warm it until it bubbles slightly. (I used two 32 fl oz jars of sauce.) Once the sauce begins to bubble add the fish and shrimp and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add the crab and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Then add the mussels and clams and continue to simmer until they open.

Lastly, add the scallops and simmer for about 5 more minutes.


Serve in a bowl with a side of garlic bread.


Make it more fancy, by serving it with a glass of your favorite wine.


Enjoy!

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

You will  need:

Boxed cake mix ( I used Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix)

3 eggs

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup water

Flat bottom ice cream cones (comes in a box of 18 or 24)

Cupcake pans

Foil

Frosting ( I used three different kinds. A betty Crocker whipped strawberry frosting, a pack of Hershey Smores Frosting, and a canned Pillsbury Vanilla Frosting)

decorations (This is optional. For this one I used colored sprinkles, red sugar, chocolate sprinkles, red M&Ms and chocolate syrup)

Make The Cake:

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.

Follow the direction on the cake box mix. I used Pillsbury Funfetti Cake mix and it called for 3 eggs, 1/3 cup oil and 1 cup water. Mix those ingredients up.

Prep the Cones:

It is important to make sure that the cones are stable when baking. So, put foil on top of the cupcake baking pans and poke holes into them to put the ice cream cones in.

Then pour in about 2/3 of cake batter into the cone. You need to leave room for the cake to rise or risk having a spilled mess.

Bake the Cake

Bake in an oven preheated to 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. Don’t worry about burning the cones. They will be fine.

The cakes are done when the toothpick comes out clean when you poke it.

When I searched on the internet, a lot said to put batter up to the inner rim. But, since this was my first time making them and I do not have the luxury of time to redo them as the party I need to bring this to is in 3 hours, I only put in a little over half. This resulted in a nice mound just on top of the cones. I did have some batter left to make 6 more cupcakes.

After baking, poke a hole at the bottom . I don’t really know why, but according to my internet search, this supposedly retains the moisture of the cake without having the moisture be all absorbed by the cones.

Now for the fun part….

Decorate

I had three different kinds of frosting. A Pillsbury canned vanilla frosting that already came with a swirly tip, a pack of premade Hershey Smores flavored chocolate frosting, and a tub of whipped Betty Crocker strawberry frosting. If you’ll ask why I have three, it’s because I could not make up my mind as to what frosting flavor I liked best and since this was my first time frosting cupcakes, I wasn’t sure which of the three would be easy to use.

The Canned Vanilla Frosting was very convenient to use. No mixing and no mess. I did leave it in a mug of hot water for a couple of minutes to soften the frosting inside to make using it easier. It was easy, however, if you are impatient like me, there is  a wait time before the frosting comes out of the nozzle. My pre-arthritic fingers were also a bit painful pressing on the nozzle the whole time, but the end result was a perfect white swirl that I topped with colored sprinkles, a dab of chocolate syrup and a red M&M.

The Chocolate Smores Frosting was stiff for me. A search on the internet said that I can whip it with a hand held mixer to add volume and make it fluffy and/or mix in some Cool Whip. I just used the mixer and I think it really didn’t increase in volume nor turned softer than how it was. I did knead the packing before I put it in my bowl, but I feel that it really did not make any difference. I put it in a piping bag with a basic round tip after blending it and swirled it on the cupcake cones. The result was still nice. I topped it with some vanilla frosting at the top to make it look like it was topped with whipped cream. Then I sprinkled it with chocolate sprinkles and added the red M&M for a finishing touch.

The Betty Crocker whipped strawberry frosting was the best. All I needed was transfer it into a piping bag and it was ready to go. It was easy, fluffy, and smooth. It came out nicely swirled on top of the cupcake cone and I just added red sugar sprinkles and a red M&M. I am certain that for the next time I'd be making cupcakes, I would go for this one.

 

Transportation

Cupcakes are easier to transport. You could easily buy cupcake pans that come with a cover that make carrying them easy while keeping the décor intact. The cupcake cones were a bit tricky. So I bought a cake box from Walmart, made holes in them, decorated it with flowers, and stuck the cupcake cones in them. This made it carrier-friendly, stable, and presentable.

Storing

As for storing, I really do not have enough information on this. I was trying to do an internet search so I could figure out how soon I can start making the cupcake cones before serving them. All my searches said to serve it immediately because the cake will transfer moisture to the cones and hey wouldn’t be crunchy if left for a long time. So I suggest, should you decide to make these, that you have ample time to make them on the day of the party itself. All in all I spent about 2 hours from prep time to cleaning up.

In the end, I find that these are too sweet for my taste, but the kids LOVED them (while the parents were left to deal with all their sugar high kiddos). Next time, I think I would use dark chocolate cake to counter the sweet frosting.

I would have to say that I didn’t do bad for my first time.

Food Art

I did two food art activities for our Thanksgiving Theme Week. This was a good project for my students who still are very “sensory seeking” in nature. This is also a good project idea for toddlers and preschoolers.

Popcorn Painting

What you need:

Lots of popcorn

Glue mixed with tempera paint. I used purple, yellow, orange, and red paints.

Construction paper or tagboard

What to do:

Get a piece of  popcorn and dip it into the glue paint mixture. Then crush and smoosh it onto the construction paper or tagboard.

A very messy, but fun activity.

Just make sure that the kids do not eat the popcorn… at least not yet. It was enough motivation for my students to let them know that they can eat all the popcorn after they clean up themselves and their work centers.

Everything was really clean right after and so everyone got into the popcorn tub to get popcorn-full!

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Painting with Berries

What you need:

Resealable Sandwich bags (like Ziploc)

Red Berries, Blue Berries and Black Berries

Paint brushes

A Painting picture or a blank sheet of paper

A paper plate

What to do:

Tell the kids they will be working with berries. Tell them the names of the berries, and give them a taste of each one. Enjoy the expression on their faces, especially the first time fresh berry eaters.

Then hand each child a resealable sandwich bag, and they get to pick a berry that they want to smoosh. Put the berries in the bag and the students pop and mash the berries with their fingers. This time, they will show you not only funny facial expressions, but add sound effects as well.

Put all the same smooshed berries in a plate. All blue berries in one plate, all raspberries in one plate and all, black berries in one plate… you probably get it.

Then, using a paint brush dipped into the smooshed berry mixture, the kids paint their painting picture or create their own.

Here’s a finished project that one of my students did.

Most of the berry painting projects look like they were only colored with the same berry. That’s okay… it was fun painting with the berries anyway.

TUTU-torial

My daughter’s birthday is coming up and wanted her to look fabulous, so I decided to make her a tutu!

Making tutus are really easy. Just follow these steps.

You will need: 
Lots of 6 inch spools of Tulle in the colors that you like. For this project I used off white, light pink, purple and fuchsia.
½ inch braided elastics
Needle and thread or a sewing machine, if you have one
Large book.
Satin ribbons (this is optional, but for this project I used ½ inch old-rose colored satin ribbons)

Step 1: Measurements and the Elastic Band
Get your child’s waist measurement using the elastic band. Then take off about 2 to 3 inches from that as the elastic will stretch when you put in the tulle. Sew the edges together.

Step 2: Tulle Cutting
I measured the approximate length that I want for my daughter’s tutu, double that and cut the tulle according to that length. To illustrate, I cut about 16 inch length of tulle, for a length of about 8 inches. You need to double it when you cut the tulle because you will fold it in half when you get to tying them on the elastic band.

Step 3: Planning your Pattern
With the colors I chose, I layered three different tulle colors for one knot on the elastic. The more tulle I layer, the fluffier the tutu gets. In this case, I used three layers, layering white, light pink and purple tulle for one knot. And planned a pattern of alternating that with a three tulle layer of with white, light pink and dark pink. Then I plan on accenting the tutu by placing a satin ribbon for every 3 knots.
For this project I used a total of 24 knots. So this means I needed…

24 piecss of 16 inch tulle lengths of white

24 pieces of 16 inch tulle lengths of light pink

12 pieces of 16 inch tulle lengths of purple

12 pieces of 16 inch tulle lengths of fuchsia

8 pieces 16 inches of old rose colored satin ribbons

Step 4: Knotting
This is where the large book comes in handy. You will use this to hold your elastic. Have the elastic band wrap around the book stretching it up a bit. This will make knotting the tulle easier.
There are two ways to knot your tulle around the elastic. See the illustration.

For this project I used the first method, but used 3 layers of tulle. Keep knotting on the elastic until you finish all around it. This is actually the fun part, as this is where you see your tutu coming into life. Exciting!

Step 5: Trimming
Now I know I used 16 inches of tulle to make about an 8 inch length, but your finished tutu would have uneven edges, thus trimming edges are necessary. Take a ruler and trim the edges to about a 7 inch length. Move your ruler all round the tutu until all the edges are trimmed and even- length looking. 
Your tutu is now finished

This is what mine looked like.

Add accents to your tutu if you wish. You may hot glue some flowers on the waist band or on the tutu itself, wrap a satin ribbon around the waist band and/or make a bow. For this project though the satin ribbons were enough accents for me as I plan to have my daughter wear a headband with a flower on it and accents on her tutu might already be overkill. An important note however for using satin ribbons… to keep the edges from fraying, very quickly burn the edges of the ribbon with a lighter. It only takes a second to seam, too long and you will be having a burning mess of satin ribbon and easily combustible tulle. So be careful!

Turkey, Sundried Tomatoes, and Mushrooms Quiche

You will need

9” pie pan

Pie crust dough

1 cup cooked shredded turkey

1 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped

1 small can mushrooms, drained

3 eggs

½ tsp salt

dash of pepper

1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease the pie pan or spray with non stick cooking spray. Spread the pie crust onto the pan. Crease the edges of the dough.

Whisk the eggs. Add the milk, salt and pepper.

Put the sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms and turkey onto the pie crust. Pour in the egg mixture.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Serve and enjoy the yummy warm quiche-y goodness!

Turkey, Spinach and Cheese Quiche

You will need

9” pie pan

Pie crust dough

1 cup cooked shredded turkey

1 cup blanched, chopped and drained spinach

½ cup grated cheddar cheese

3 eggs

dash of pepper

1 cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Grease the pie pan or spray with non stick cooking spray. Spread the pie crust onto the pan. Crease the edges of the dough.

Whisk the eggs. Add the milk and pepper.

Put the spinach, turkey, and cheese onto the pie crust.

Pour in the egg mixture.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes.

Serve and enjoy!