Dutch Baby Kitchen Magic

Once in awhile, I get lucky enough to enjoy a weekend of tea parties, toenail painting and Dutch Babies.

My darling 6-year-old niece Thaya showed up last weekend with a backpack full of little girl treasures: glittery fingernail polish; stickers and paper scraps; floppy cuddly stuffed animal friends.

Thaya brightens our home with constant cheery chatter and occasional pleas like : “Let’s Make Dutch Babies!” she squeals.

And then my kitchen fills with laughter, cracking eggs, poofs of flour. I get to see the world with six-year-old eyes again for a moment in time.

The iconic American dish Dutch Babies are, like six-year-olds, full of magic and wonder. You whisk together eggs, flour, milk and pour the mixture into a hot buttered skillet and slide it into the oven, Then, in amazement, you pull out a puffed brown cloud. Magical!

I hope every child in the universe gets to make a Dutch Baby at least once. Life is just better with Dutch Babies. It just is.

DUTCH BABY PANCAKE

4 Tbs unsalted butter
4 large eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup half-and-half

For the topping:
4 tablespoons melted butter
Juice of 1 lemon
Powdered sugar

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Place a large cast iron skillet in the oven until very hot. Melt the 4 Tbs butter in the skillet. In a blender, whir together the eggs, flour, salt and half-and-half.

Pour the batter into the skillet over the melted butter. Slide the skillet into the oven, and bake for 25 minutes.

Remove the puffed pancakes from the oven, transfer them to a plate or shallow bowl, and pour on butter, sprinkle on lemon juice, and dust with powdered sugar. Serve immediately.

Other adventurous Dutch Babies:

Dutch Baby, Never Enough Thyme
Chocolate Dutch Baby, Shutterbean
Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Dutch Baby, Go Dairy Free
Dutch Baby, Just a Taste
Blueberry Dutch Baby, Smith Bites

– posted by Donna

Want to start a fun new holiday meal tradition and keep the kids occupied whilst you slave in the kitchen? Try this fun and super easy way to make your own homemade butter for the holidays! My kids LOVED to do this when they were little!

It’s too easy to even call it a recipe, but here goes:

Pour some very cold heavy cream into a jar (plastic is a good idea if small kids will be helping). Add a pinch of salt. Put the lid on the jar and then tape it closed with duct tape or heavy mailing tape. Use several thicknesses, just to be sure. Then hand the jar to your kids (willing adults will work, too!) and let them shake, roll and otherwise agitate it for anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes, depending on how much and how frequently you shake the jar.

Then, open the jar and pour off the liquid – hey! I think this is the real “buttermilk, no?. Scoop out the ball of butter that has formed and Voila! Homemade butter!

– posted by Donna

Budget Friendly Halloween Treats: Spider Topped Deviled Eggs

Can you believe it’s time to dig out the Halloween recipes?!

It’s not too often that you see low-carb Halloween treats – and such cute ones at that! This recipe for jazzed-up deviled eggs is one of the most fun of any holiday treats I have ever made. I make them every year!

This is a great recipe for kids to make with just a little help from an adult – deviled eggs are something my kids could make from about the age of 8. All you do to turn them into a festive holiday appetizer is top them with black olives cut to look like spiders.

You won’t believe how easy these are to make! Just make up a batch of your favorite deviled eggs. I like them pretty plain – just smash the yolks with mustard and mayo. For about 8 eggs, I use two cans of olives – one “jumbo” and one “large.” Cut each large olive in half and place on top in the middle of each deviled egg to form the spider’s “body.” Then, cut a jumbo olive lengthwise to form six spider “legs” and stick them on next to the body. That’s it!

We here at Fab Frugal Food have been inspired many times by the recipes of Kalyn at Kalyn’s kitchen – her low-glycemic deliciousness is fabulous! I decided that the world needed another low-glycemic treat on the holiday that puts sugar at the center of the festivities!

Almost-instant, frugal low-sugar Halloween treats that look fabulous! Martha, are you jealous?

Here are some other festive Halloween recipes by fellow food bloggers:
Witches and Wizards Treats, Farenheit 350
Three Homemade Candy Recipes,The Hungry Mouse
Halloween Dinner Menu, Yum Sugar
Halloween Recipe Treats, My Wooden Spoon
Pumpkin Pie Bites, Bakerella

– posted by Donna

Will your kids guess the secret (and healthy!) ingredient? You may even be surprised yourself: Tofu!

I’m posting this now for you moms who might want to keep a bowl in the fridge for after-school snacks or put in kids’ lunches. It’s great hot or cold. My son Jake will stand in front of the fridge with a fork and eat it right out of the fridge until I catch him!

When Anne and I were reunited in 1999 as a birth mother and daughter we discovered that we had many things in common, not the least of which was our shared love of cooking and enjoying good food. We spent many late nights in our kitchens cooking and catching up on a lifetime of experiences. Anne had spent many years as a vegetarian and I had been cooking for kids for many years, so we developed this wonderful synergy of healthy (Anne) meets homey (me). A wonderful thing was born of our reunion: a tofu cookbook! I am very proud of our “101 Things to do with Tofu,” published by Gibbs Smith, publisher.

This recipe was created for the book, now with a few small tweaks, and has become a Sunday lunch staple at our home. We love it even better than the roux-based mac and cheese that was its predecessor in my kitchen. It is creamy and comforting. Any Sunday, stop by my house and we’ll dish you up some surprisingly yummy “tofu mac.”

HEALTHY LUNCHBOX MAC ‘N’ CHEESE

1 bag (16 ounces) regular or whole wheat elbow macaroni
½ cup evaporated milk
1 container (16 ounces) silken tofu
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce

Cook macaroni according to directions on package, then drain and set aside. In blender, add tofu one spoonful at a time to milk, blending until smooth. Add seasoned salt and Tabasco. Pour tofu mixture into pan and cook over medium heat until bubbly. Slowly add in cheese, stirring until melted. Add in macaroni and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let sit for a few minutes before serving. Serves 6 to 8.

Other unique mac’s by food bloggers:
Triple Smokey Macaroni and Cheese, Herbivoracious
Gruyere and Tomatoes Mac and Cheese, Andrea’s Recipes
Low Carb Macaroni and Cheese, Kalyn’s Kitchen
Bacon Mac and Cheese, Not Quite Nigella
Spicy Italian Mac and Cheese, Chili Cheese Fries

More info about “101 Things To Do With Tofu” here.

– posted by Donna

Mom's Favorite Breakfast

Okay, kids, here’s how to make Mom the traditional breakfast-in-bed!

First let’s make some eggs. Take the carton out of the fridge. Mop up the ones that fell onto the floor with a dishtowel (make sure you leave the eggy dishtowel on the counter). Crack one egg into a frying pan, then turn the burner on, up as high as possible. Wait for it to  stick like glue to the bottom of the pan. Scrape it out into the sink and start over, adding half a stick of butter this time. Success! Transfer the egg to a plate, being careful to preserve the jiggly whites surrounding the raw yolk (the burnt bottom should help).  Don’t forget to season! About a tablespoon of salt should be enough. And, you know how much mom likes pepper – so unscrew the cap from the pepper shaker and pour on some pepper.

Next, let’s add some oatmeal. It’s like cereal, only hot, right? So take the canister out of the cupboard and pour some in a bowl, filling it up almost all the way, and then add some milk, just like cereal. Microwave it for 2 minutes. It’s still not soft, so try another 2 minutes. And another. Go ahead and do it for 10 minutes, then.  Remove the bowl from the microwave and wipe out the microwave with that same dishtowel you used for the eggs, and try to get most of the boiled-over oats off the side of the bowl. There’s still about half the oats left in the bowl, so add some more milk to fill it the rest of the way. Top with enough pancake syrup to form a glaze over the top.

Toast is easy. Just keep pressing the lever back down when the bread pops up! Repeat until the smoke alarm goes off. If it looks too black, just pour lots of jam on top.

Of course, it wouldn’t be complete without some coffee! Fill one of the filters up to the top and put it in the basket. She usually has two cups, you remember, so add two cups of water to the machine’s tank (use one of the measuring cups in the drawer to measure – the medium one with a “1/2″ on the handle should be about right – it probably means “one or two cups”). Turn on the machine and wait until the grounds start leaking out the side. Pour the resulting two ounces of liquid into a coffee mug and spoon out as many of the grounds as you can. Decide to give her a special treat and give her buttermilk instead of cream – that must be even better than cream. Add it to fill the mug the rest of the way.

And, remember how mom likes us to eat healthy things? Add a few carrots – she’ll love that!

Finally, pile all your items on the tray, wrapping up a spoon and a fork and a steak knife in a paper napkin. Take the dandelions you picked yesterday out of your pocket and fill a jar with some water, and place the dandelions inside.

Be careful walking up the stairs with the tray! Always stop to pick up each item as you go – ’cause Mom hates to waste things!  And make sure to tell Mom she doesn’t have to clean up the kitchen for a whole hour. It’s her special day!

Mom will be so happy that she will cry and give you lots of hugs and kisses, we promise!

–posted by Mom Donna and Daughter Anne