Chug-a Chug-a Choo-Choo

Our Memorial Day weekend adventure to Missouri as told by Kaitlyn...


We go to the zoo - the St. Louis zoo. I see elephant, bear and lion - roar!

Wow - this zoo has a choo-choo train. I want to ride the Choo-choo train!!!!
Somebody said that I'd see Sea Lions get fed. Let's go please...
Look Pa, look! The sea lions get fish.
My first time seeing Flamingos. They have long legs.
It's so nice to have mommy, daddy, pa and g'am push me around the zoo in my stroller.
Look daddy - I see a bear.
The bear playing with a ball. Ooohhhh!
Daddy, I don't know about these bears.
More bears - they're big!
The Choo-choo train!!!! I want to ride the choo-choo train!!!
Yeah, I get to ride the Choo-choo train!!!
Hi Pa and G'am!!
Zebras go "ney."
Family shot - I'm not interested. Heehee!
I love playing in water. It's wet!
A hippo is hiding in there.
"Oh hippo... I see you!"
Daddy, look hippo!
More water...

Almost time to wrap up our day at the zoo.
Now we're at the cabin on the lake. I drive the boat - vrooom!!
I had to turn the wheels over to G'am. Now I hang out with Aunt Nan.
Cheese!!
Look, I fishing! Well, okay, Aunt Nan caught these fish.
Time to relax a little bit with G'am and cousin Evie.
Watch me!! We're doing the head, shoulder, knees and toes song. It's fun!

Wow - these adults sure wear me out! I had a great time with my family at the lake. Thanks for coming to visit me Great Pa, Uncle Bob, Aunt Nan, Evie and Matt!

More Knife Skills

So, it's taken me almost two weeks to figure out the blog.spot is no longer uploading videos through Google, now they're through YouTube. This is why it's taken me SO long to post this entry. Sorry it's so big - I now have to learn YouTube. Yes, I know, I'm way behind on the times!


We recently learned some new knife skills in our cooking class. We've learned to section citrus, flower a green onion (for a garnish), flute a mushroom and tourner a potato (make it look like a football). I'm going to show you how to section citrus and flower a green onion in this video. Hopefully a future installment will show you the other two skills (I'm still practicing :-) ).




Here are some photos of the green onion:

Slice the onion first (see video) and then place it in cold water.

After 1/2 hour to 1 hour of soaking in ice cold water, look at the end result!

Side Dishes for You!

I have three recipes to share from my cooking class without any photos. I'm to afraid to take our digital camera to class to take photos as I can see myself dropping it in the fryer, on the griddle or in a big sink of soapy water.

Sauteed Broccoli Medley

• 2 medium to large size broccoli crowns, cut into pieces per your size preference
• 2-3 cloves garlic (add as much or as little as you want), minced
• 1 red bell pepper, small chop
• 1 green bell pepper, small chop
• 1 red or yellow onion, medium dice
• Ground Black Pepper
  
• Kosher Salt
  
• Olive Oil - probably 2 T, maybe 3T. You need enough to lightly coat all veggies.
  
• Optional: Parmesan Cheese

Prep all ingredients. Heat olive oil in saute pan and add broccoli. Saute broccoli for five to seven minutes before adding remaining ingredients. I like to add garlic last to ensure it doesn't get overly brown. My classmate added all the ingredients at once and sauteed them together for the same amount of time. Add salt and pepper to taste. Plan to saute vegetables for 12 to 15 minutes and serve. Optional: sprinkle grated Parmesan cheese on top if desired.

Go Blue Dad loved this dish. We've made it three times since the class!

Amaretto Carrots

• 5 regular sized Carrots; peeled and cut in obliques, julienne, rounds, etc.
  
• 1 to 2 T clarified butter (if you don't have it, just use regular butter, but do not burn it)
  
• Kosher Salt
• Pepper
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup of Amaretto

Prep carrots. Melt butter in saute pan and add carrots, salt and pepper. Saute carrots until you feel they are two to three minutes from achieving the perfect edible texture and pour the Amaretto in the saute pan. Using the flame from a gas burner, pull your saute pan handle towards you and tilt the farthest point of the pan towards the flame/back of stove, so the Amaretto creeps up the side of the pan almost to the edge of it. Allow the amaretto to 'flambe' (yes, catch on fire!), thus burning off the alcohol. Simmer carrots in liquid for two to three minutes to allow the butter and amaretto to thicken slightly and coat the carrots. Serve and enjoy! FYI: do not pour alcohol over an open flame into saute pan and do not keep alcohol bottle near saute pan or stove top. I recommend using a measure cup to pour alcohol into saute pan for safety!

If you do not wish to flambe your food, you may bring the Amaretto to a boil to remove the alcohol. Once boiling, allow it to cook the carrots for a few minutes and let the butter/Amaretto combination thicken.

Another satisfied consumer at home!

Sauteed Bok Choy

• 1 to 2 bunches of Bok Choy (belongs to cabbage family)
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
  
• Olive Oil
• Soy Sauce
• Kosher salt
• Pepper
• Clarified Butter

Prep ingredients. When cutting the Bok Choy, separate the white stem pieces from the green leaves. The white stem pieces need to cook longer than the leaves. You may cut the stem straight on or at an angle and slice them thin. Some classmates held their knives almost horizontal to make the nice, thin angled cut. Once the rest of the food is prepped. Saute the white stem, garlic, salt and pepper in butter. Once the stems have softened, add the leaves and cook until soft, but do not wilt like spinach (doesn't taste as good). At the very end, start by adding 1 teaspoon of soy sauce. Taste and add a little more at a time. Your goal is to taste the Bok Choy, garlic and soy sauce, not just the soy sauce.

I made it perfect in class, but when I tried to recreate it at home, I overcooked the Bok Choy (looked like cooked spinach) and added to much soy sauce. Go Blue Dad was not to excited about this dish.

How to Make an Elmo Cupcake

Even though we celebrated Kaitlyn's actual birthday with family, Go Blue Mommy made Elmo cupcakes for Kaitlyn to take to school with her. I made butter cream icing in Elmo colors and chocolate cupcakes with M&M's inside. Here are a couple of photos and a quick video showing you how to decorate a cupcake to look like Elmo. The only change I'd make is putting the eyes next to each other. The drawing I used had a small space in between the eyes with fur.


Kaitlyn gave a thumbs up and said that they were "yummy!"

The Saucey Sauces Worked!!!

Go Blue Dad and I attempted two sauces during the month I took my sauce class. We made a veloute (chicken piccata) and a brown sauce (red wine and baby bella mushroom sauce). Overall, we were very happy with how both sauces turned out and would make each of them again.

I only have photos of the chicken piccata for this entry, but will describe the brown sauce for those interested.


For the chicken picatta, we reviewed a recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis

• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/chicken-piccata-recipe2/index.html

and from epicurious.com

• http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Chicken-Piccata-5154

We primarily used the epicurious.com recipe, but kept both on file. I made roux (without clarified butter) to thicken the sauce and while it did, the roux did not turn as blonde or smell as nutty as the blonde roux we made in class with clarified butter. I also had to remake the roux b/c I let the unclarified butter get to hot. Once we added the roux to the sauce, it turned out very nice. Our only mistake is that we added to many capers (more than the recipe called for), so we'll adjust that next time. This was a late night dinner, so we just served it over pasta instead of preparing a full meal. Our main goal was to try to make a new sauce, so mission accomplished!


As for the brown sauce - we made a red wine mushroom sauce by combining brown stock and demi glace (made by my stepdad) along with some Chilean cabernet sauvignon wine and baby portabella mushrooms. We also added parsley, a bay leaf, thyme and pepper to the sauce in the beginning for flavor and eventually filtered it out.

As for the roux, I clarified butter the butter at home and then made a roux. It turned out better than the piccata and definitely thickened the sauce. This sauce had great depth of flavor and lingered on the taste buds and finishing a bite. Go Blue Dad said we should make it again. My only issues is that we made this dish late Sunday night (yes again!) due to a rescheduled tennis match, so I got a little impatient and added 3 tablespoons of roux, which brought the sauce very close to a gravy thickness. While it tasted very good, I would have liked it a little less thick and next time will be patience and allow the roux to thicken the sauce without adding too much.

We served this over a flat iron steak, cut very thin and served it with sauted carrots with thyme and brown rice. Next time I make this sauce, I hope to mix the meat, rice and sauce together. Yummmm - mouth watering right now!!

"I Reading"

Kaitlyn loves to read as shown in our new video. She has pulled dozens of books from her bookcase and sits on her floor reading them. Sometimes she'll put them in her backpack, put her raincoat on and pretend she's going to 'school' to see Miss Amy or Miss Shannon. You'll see she's in the middle of reading when mommy captured the video, hence the huge mess. We're still working on cleaning up after we play with our toys and books. Enjoy!






Oh, the first book she is reading is "No David" by David Shannon and Kaitlyn's says "No daddy, no!" because she knows her daddy's name is David. It's pretty funny. The next book is "If you give a mouse a cookie" by Laura ____ and she knows that the mouse gets milk, makes a mess and colors. Finally, she reads "Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss so she's saying "that Sam I am, that Sam I am" and "Dr. Seuss book". Just thought I'd offer some translation for you.