Glazed Pumpkin Muffins

I know the cake mix/canned pumpkin thing has been done to death but I happened to have both and actually had never gotten around to trying it.  So even though I'm late to the game, I decided to jump on the band wagon anyway.  Here's our spin on the internet's easiest recipe:

Cast of characters:  Golden Vanilla cake mix, canned pumpkin, pumpkin spice, almost empty bag of choc chips, almost empty bag of white choc chips, and one egg. 

According to most of the internet you really don't need anything except the mix and the pumpkin.  I believe it, but I wanted to add in a few more steps to keep things interesting.  Also, adding an egg lets me believe these are Good For You.  If the kids weren't helping I probably would have shredded some zucchini and added that too.

Anyway. 

These muffins are so easy it's barely a recipe.  Dump in bowl.  Mix.  Bake.  Eat.

Dump: 

 

 

 

(Why yes. He IS wearing the same shirt as in the previous post. He's ten. That explains everything right?)

 

 

Mix:



 

Scoop one cookie scoop worth of batter into each lined muffin cup:

 

 

And again (two pans worth of batter was made):*

 

 

 

*Kinda.  Because I have so many kids, yield results are very important.  Whenever possible I try to make things slightly smaller than the recipes wants so they will stretch.  I told the kids we were going to make "snack muffins" and that's the perfect description for the size we made.  These are yummy little two bite muffins.  I used a medium size cookie scoop for these and that was perfect.  If you want larger breakfast sized muffins then do two scoops of batter in each muffin cup.  You'll end up with a dozen perfectly sized muffins.

 

 

Bake (350 for 25 minutes. Or whatever- these were super moist.  Maybe they didn't bake long enough. Who cares.) and Eat- Oh look!  A monster!  RAWR!

 

 

 

I decided that they needed a glaze.  Now, I actually have a really, really good cookie glaze recipe that I will share.  But I didn't bother with it this time in the interest of time*.  We mixed some powdered sugar and milk together until it seemed glaze'ish and dribbled it onto the cupcakes.  Some of it sort of clumped together.  I'll be honest... it's not the most um... appetizing looking concoction.  But it tastes really good. 

 

 A little milk...

 

A little sugar...
 

 

Good enough.

 

 Yummy!

 

 

 

 

 

*Confession: we made this the day after our first post.  Hopes were still high, novelty still a thing, enthusiasm still present.  For about five minutes.  Seriously.  Five minutes into this project my son broke an egg all over the counter which exasperated me more than was reasonable.  I should have ended the activity then and there but instead we soldiered on in mostly silence.  Because "We Have Started A Blog and We Will Finish This!  And You Have Already Broken One Egg So If We Don't Keep Going It Will Have Been WASTED!"  And then it took me several days to start the blog post.  And then I had to hit save because I just wasn't feeling it.  And now, a week later, I think I'm ready to finally post this.  I am determined that this will NOT be our last Cooking With Monsters activity.  But I will never do back to back cooking projects again.  

 

 

But the muffins really ARE yummy.  

 

 



 



 

Squash Croquettes

Over the weekend we went to a you pick berry farm and farmers market.  We came home with a lot of squash. 

Nobody in this house is a huge fan of squash so I needed to find something to do with it that would hide what it really is.

I googled around for squash recipes and kept finding recipes for croquettes.  I skimmed a few, thought "ok I got this," and decided to just wing it without following any one recipe exactly.

Obligatory picture of artfully arranged ingredients:

Here we have:
Yellow squash- we used 3.  We could have used 4.  I was getting antsy and ten year olds are slow choppers.
One large onion
Two large eggs- these are from our chickens.  Yay chickens!
Kosher salt

Corn Meal
Breadcrumbs
Flour

(I couldn't decide what I wanted to use so I used all three.)

First- slice the yellow squash into circles.  These knives are pure komachi knives and are very, very, VERY sharp.  The sliced through the squash like buttah.

 

Still chopping...

 

 

MORE chopping...

 

Done.  Finally.

Kinda.

 

Either dice the squash really small or  put it in a food processor.  We used my kitchenaid food chopper.  I love this thing.  It's perfect for making pie crusts and dicing up veggies in a hurry.  I use it several times a week.  Also, it's red.  I like red.

 

 

 

Then scrape it out into a bowl:

 

 



Do the same with the onion. 

 

(I took over the chopping.  Things were taking um... awhile.)

 

Meanwhile, start melting some butter (oh right... you need some butter) and/or oil (also need oil).  I used butter and coconut oil.  When you are melting two fats you should always melt the one with the higher smoking point FIRST so that you don't burn one while the other is still melting.  This is especially important when making things like scampi where you want the butter to melt into the oil.  I forgot about this here and didn't decide to use the coconut oil until we were already started, so that's why the oil is so dark in the rest of the pictures.

 

 

 

All at once add the flour, breadcrumbs, and corn meal, salt, and two eggs.  And this is where maybe actually paying attention to a recipe might have been a good idea.  We started out with 1/2 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs, and a 1/4 cup of corn meal.  I decided it was to dry and added in another egg.  Then I just ended up with a sloppy mess so I started randomly dumping in more dry ingredients until it was less gloppy.  I eventually just gave up and decided the oil would sort things out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scoop some out and form into a patty.  Mine was so gloppy I couldn't actually do that... I ended up just spooning a big goop of it and putting into the oil and hoping for the best.  I flattened it out with the spatula and they actually were just fine.  Make sure your oil is REALLY hot and don't be afraid to let these get really brown. 

 

 

 

Notice the dark oil/butter.  It's not burning... just not pretty.

 

I had been abandoned and was finishing up on my own by this point.

 

Drain them on a paper towel.  If they seem like they are taking forever, spoon some of the oil on top to cook the middle faster.



 

 

Yummy!!

 

 

 

These turned out really good and I will make them again with some tweaks.  You could add nearly anything to these and I also bought some jalapenos at the market that I think I will add to some of them.  We tried these with ranch but decided we liked them plain best.  A remoulade sauce would be good too probably.  I even got my 16 year old to eat a bite and he liked them until he realized it was squash.  Then he refused to eat anymore.  I forgot to count and we were eating them as I was making them but I think I got around 10-12.  Excellent way to stretch ingredients and get veggies into kids!

 

 

  Here is a monster eating a croquette:



 

 

 





 

First post!

I decided a few months ago that I wanted to spend the summer cooking with my kids more.  I have six of them.  Normally Eoin is my main kitchen guest.  And I do mean guest.  I am NOT one of those moms who enjoys cooking with children, who relishes in the memories of flour covered counters, ingredients , and egg shell filled cookie dough.  My own mother was the same and I grew up hearing her say things like "if you're under 21 get out of the kitchen!"  I didn't learn to cook until I was already a grown up lady and married.  One day a package arrived in the mail and inside was a copy of Betty Crocker's and a card that said "Dear Jill, my mom gave me this book when I first got married and now I am giving you a copy too.  Inside you will find everything you need to know in order to cook.  Love, Mom."

It turns out that I actually like to cook and I'm pretty good at it!  I want my kids to grow up thinking that about me too so even though it feels totally un-instinctual I am trying to make a point of teaching them some basic kitchen skills.

This is NOT going to be one of those fancy foodie blogs.  I don't have the time, patience, or energy to stage elaborate photo sessions.  My kitchen is always in some level of disarray and sometimes it's just plain a mess.  I rarely use recipes anymore (despite my love of collecting cookbooks) so I tend to make up the recipe as I go along.

But it will be entertaining.  And hopefully everyone will have fun.  And maybe learn something.

(And not burn or cut themselves.  Or me.)

Oh... and there will be monsters.  Rowr!