The Traveling Pan

Magnolia Tree

This past week our stateside cooking adventure took us to Mississippi. While we were researching recipes it became very clear that two dishes are synonymous with the Magnolia State – catfish and Mississippi Mud Pie. It also happens that I need a dessert to take downstate to a family get together this weekend.

My family has a traveling 9″x13″ pan that always carries my favorite dessert when it makes its way up to this part of the state – my Grandma’s Blackberry Cobbler. Then when we head south, my mom whips up a chocolate dessert to take back in the pan. It just so happened that this time, the pan was at my house, giving us the perfect opportunity to try the Mississippi Mud Cake (similar to the pie, but suitable to this size baking dish).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m not big on baking cakes and especially cakes that involve icing; but there are two things I love about this recipe: 1) It’s easy. 2) It’s supposed to look like mud. I figured that the kids and I could tackle this one. We chose Paula Deen’s recipe because she too is synonymous with the south. Continue reading

More Deliciousness from New Zealand

As promised, we have one more delicious recipe from New Zealand. I think that to-date this has been my favorite cooking destination on this adventure and I know that many of these recipes will become part of our regular rotation. Earlier this week, Mr. N and I baked up these little gems – ANZAC Biscuits.

They are a traditional treat from both Australia and New Zealand and were often sent to soldiers in the Great War; thus the name Australian and New Zealand Army Corp or ANZAC biscuits. The traditional recipe is easy to make and the biscuits last for weeks without perishing. Continue reading

Miss A’s Big Day

I say these next words with pride and joy (and a touch of sadness), Miss A is  now officially out of diapers. She’s been out of diapers for a few months, but now we’re officially past the “training” point. So this week we celebrated with a “Big Girl” party at Grammie’s house complete with all of Miss A’s favorites – mac and cheese, baby oranges, hot dogs and a new dessert that we found on First Look, Then Cook – Peanut Butter Cupcakes.  Continue reading

Answer: Electric Tinker Toys, A Two-Year Old and Penne Rigoletto, Question: What items are on your kitchen table?

What do you get when you combine a missing ingredient, a last-minute recipe change-up, a child trying to jump out of a grocery cart, noise from four different sources (not counting the children) in our little kitchen, a frazzled mom, a child standing on top of the kitchen table, a burned thumb and biscuits spilled on the bottom of the oven?

One upside down six-year old and a delicious meal.  Continue reading

Special Thursday Night Edition–Holland Style

Today we continued our tour of Holland with Appelmoesand Slavinken.  20 inches of snow gave Mr. N a snow day, and me too, and so we decided to cook a day early.  Mom picked the recipes and they were awfully good winter fare.

Appelmoes is, I suppose, the Dutch word for applesauce, and this was good and very easy to make.  I peeled the apples and Mr. N willingly diced them.  Last week he was petrified of the knife, but today he started grabbing for it and talking like he was an old pro who sliced and diced things all the time.  Quite a lot of progress in a week, I was proud of him.  Nervous though, and nervous his little sister’s gonna want to start chopping things too.  While Mom finished dicing, Mr. N juiced the lemon, then drank the excess straight!  Miss A wasn’t so keen on that.  A little bit of spice, a little bit of microwaving, and a little bit of mashing and we had Appelmoes.  Continue reading

Hunting for a Dutch Experience

These next few weeks we’re heading to Holland – land of tulips, wooden shoes, windmills, and Amsterdam. Admittedly we don’t know much about Holland but we do have a bit in our ancestry somewhere along the line. So tonight we’re going to dive in and get in touch with some of our roots. On the menu some traditional Dutch fare: Jachtschotel(Hunter’s Dish) served with Poached Pears. Continue reading