Strawberries N Cream Pudding Cookies

Here's my Pinterest board for food.

And the next recipe I followed was for Strawberries N Cream Pudding Cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter softened
• 2 TB strawberry jello
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 3.5 oz. box white chocolate pudding package instant
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 bag white chocolate chips 

 

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Cream butter, sugar and jello together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, pudding mix, baking soda and salt. Slowly add to butter mixture. Mix well. Add vanilla.
4. Stir in white chocolate chips.
5. Spoon onto a greased baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes. ENJOY!

------
I didn't take any pictures of the process and I did have to tweak the recipe a bit right away because the commissary didn't sell white chocolate pudding, but all in all, the cookies came out pretty good.

I've decided that I want to combine other pudding/jello combo's and I have yet to do it a second time, but I do have a bag of puddings and jello's waiting for me to try again.

I also figured out that I have to become friends with my neighbors in my building or the Fourres will became very round.

Banana Stuffed French Toast

Ok - first entry to my foodventure. I was going to start with what I hinted at a couple of blog entries ago: the moscato cupcakes. However, the site where I got the recipe is going through some maintenance, so rather than posting a bum link, I'll move onto the next recipe.

Banana Stuffed French Toast

I was struggling to figure out what to do for Scott's birthday dinner. As an adult, he's come away from really doing anything to 'celebrate' his birthday, which is too strange to me, who 'CELEBRATES' her birthday for about a month. I would have a New Orleans' style parade if I didn't have to organize it.

But, because his birthday fell on a Monday and the weekend got away from me, I found myself scrambling at 9am to figure out what to do. I went to the Seiyu to get even the smallest gift that Violet could 'give' to her Daddy for his birthday, like the green tea Kit Kats he's grown to love, when I came across a small travel bottle of Cointreau. This reminded me that I've always wanted to try to make fancy french toast. So, the plan formed and I hit Google for the recipe. This is what I came across: banana stuffed French toast.

Here's the recipe:

Original recipe makes 6 servings

• 1 (1 pound) loaf French bread, cut into 1 inch slices
• 2 bananas, peeled and sliced
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 teaspoon water
• 1 tablespoon milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon orange liqueur
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1/4 cup butter
• confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions

1. Create a pocket about 2/3 of the way into each slice of bread by cutting along an edge. Fill pockets with 2 or 3 banana slices each.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together eggs, water, milk, vanilla extract, orange liqueur and orange zest. Dip the bread slices in the mixture, allowing slices to become saturated.
3. Melt butter in a medium skillet over medium heat. Place a few slices at a time in the skillet, and cook, turning once, until both sides are golden brown. Dust with confectioners' sugar to serve.

 

In the first run of the process, I found that I need to add more butter and make more batter for the next time: the well ran a little dry for the last few pieces. I also think that there needs to be a creamy aspect to the middle with the bananas, so the next time I'll be adding a bit of pudding in the middle just to give it that extra little kick.

I have decided that I want this to be my signature birthday dinner for my family, so this gives me the incentive to perfect this recipe. I do want to explore other recipes, like Creme Brulee French Toast or Grand Marnier French Toast (I've tried the latter and I tweaked the recipe right out the gate; more on that later). Here's hoping I keep up on this aspect to my blog.

Just keep cooking... just keep cooking...

Oh! And for the actual foodies out there: please give me tips!! I'll try to incorporate them and let you know how/when I do =)

Teach Your Children Well - Noodles, DIY puzzle, Popsicle Stick Shapes

Other ways that I have been entertaining Violet (and teaching her fine motor skills) was to use anything you can find around the house. Well, maybe not popsicle sticks, unless you eat a lot of popsicles, but that is a perfect challenge for hot, summer days.

Noodles
Finding big tubular, pasta noodles, like ziti, is easy enough and as is finding yarn. Here's what I didn't realize right away - yarn is uncooperative.

Upon my mother's suggestion, I got shoelaces. Luckily, there is a store for military gear at the BX, so I was able to get very long and sturdy shoelaces that wouldn't get mixed up with Scott's uniform. I also threw in a couple of short Solo cups (clear), an empty tissue box and one of my espresso cups for Violet to play and transfer the noodles. She loves it. She even is enthusiastic about clean-up because she gets to hold the zip-lock baggie and control the situation.

DIY Puzzles
This was the simplest activity to do. All you have to do is take a cereal box, cut it into how ever many pieces or shapes you think your kid can handle and, VOILA! got yourself a simple puzzle. I used 4 different boxes and I made sure to label the backs of the cardboard just so I can set out one puzzle at a time and not confuse Violet. We're still working on this and I found that it's easiest to take a cell phone pic of the 'finished' puzzle for her to work off of.

Popsicle Stick Shapes
This is also a very simple project. Make simple shapes, ie. triangle, rectangle, diamond and square, out of popsicle sticks, trace them onto a piece of construction paper, and allow your kid to place the sticks on top of the traced lines to learn shapes. The extra step I took was to then put the construction paper in a page protector so that I can keep a lot of the loose papers in a three-ring binder for easy access. This also keeps Violet from ripping up the paper, just in case the destructive mood strikes her.

Teach your children well - Clay

In the past several months, I have been very motivated to actually implement the activities I pin on my Pinterest board for contructive kid play. There are friends of mine who are out there who have asked to be included in what I discover works. So, I'll try to keep track of Violet (and my) progress on the blog. I'll try to add as many personal pictures of either making each project or action shots of Violet playing with it, as well as the links of where I got the ideas just in case anyone wants to explore any of the sites I stumble upon.

The first activity I'll post is about clay. Yes, you can purchase Play-Doh and skip the whole process of making your own clay. Your arms and upper back may thank you. However, I HATE the smell of Play-Doh - I'm not even sure why. So, when I found a recipe for clay AND the fact that, miracle of all miracles, the commissary actually carries the gel food coloring, I forged ahead and made clay, like my mother did for us.

The major difference between the clay my Mom made and this clay recipe was that it didn't leave the hands grainy or tasting like a salt lick. That was a nice discovery. Here's the recipe:

Make clay
Ingredients:

1 cup water

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
2 tbsp cream of tartar
gel food coloring
*I used Wilton brand in Rose, Orange, Lemon Yellow, Leaf Green, Sky Blue, and Violet

Directions:

1. Pour the water and vegetable oil in a saucepan. Add in the flour, salt, cream of tarter and a teaspoon or two of gel food coloring. Lightly stir together to combine.
   *The dough will end up being about the same color that it is now, so add more food coloring now if you want the color to be richer/brighter.
2. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly. It should be done in about 4-5 minutes. Because you might panic and think you've ruined it, here is a breakdown of what it looks like throughout the cooking process:
   • Minute 1: The mixture will combine, and look smooth and beautiful!
   • Minute 2: You'll start to get chunks. Make sure to keep scraping the bottom and edges of the pan to prevent any pieces from burning.
   • Minute 3: This is where you might begin to worry that you've messed it up. Looks like a clumpy mess. Don't panic! Just keep stirring!!
   • Minute 4: The dough will start to form into a ball. You'll know when it's ready when it's not sticky and pulls away from the pan. You can test by pressing the dough with your fingers. It will be hot!
3. Remove the dough from the pan and place on a plate to cool.
4. Once cool, knead the dough. This can be done by you or little helpers!
5. To store, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in a sealed container.
   *I purchased a couple of 5-pack Rubbermaid TakeAlongs® containers (17 oz) at WalMart and the dough fits perfectly!

A few notes:

• Each batch makes about 2 cups of dough. You need to make a new batch for each color. It took me less than an hour to make all 6 batches.
• Surprisingly, the food coloring doesn't come off on your hands at all.
• The dough is safe to eat, but it is disgusting!
• Buy more cream of tartar than you think you'll need. I got 2 1/2 batches from one 1.5 oz container.
• Regular liquid food coloring will also work, but I think the gel makes the color a little more vibrant. Liquid food coloring may also come off on your hands

And some of my own pictures:

This was just the right size for storage

 All together, I made 6 colors: red, blue, yellow, green, orange and purple. The green was the easiest secondary color to make since there was a green food coloring tube already. I just added a bit more blue to make it a tad more vibrant. The orange was a bit tough, but I think it turned out alright and the purple was hardest of all. Mixing your own coloring helps insert your own creativity in the process, which I really liked.

So far, it's a pretty big hit and I figure if the clay dries out or the something odd happens to the clay (I'm always a little worried about things molding in this humidity), Violet will just be more and more useful as a helper in the making of her own toys.

Also, a helpful tip: if you have carpeting like I do, using a shower curtain as a drop cloth is the cheapest solution I can come up with to avoid any bits of clay being flung (accidentally or otherwise) and ground into the carpet.

Everybody come and play, Throw every last care away

There is a community center here on base called the Yujo. One of the great things they do for you here is provide maps to all sorts of local interest points: zoos, amusement parks, shopping centers, etc.

Scott and I were looking at the map indicating secondhand stores around the base. There is a chain of these stores called Hard Off and they sell everything from toys to clothes, housewares to small furniture items. I've heard from others who have found electronics and records. We were able to find a cabinet for 1260 yen. and it is definitely a fun place to treasure hunt and I've only been to one of them.

What we finally bought

It was during our driving around trying to find this place that we accidentally got a little lost and found the Aeon Mall. Again, I've heard others talk about this place, but I didn't get to experience it until the next time the Fourre family decided to go on a local adventure.

Like many other malls, it was three floors jam packed with people milling around on a Sunday afternoon. The differences were that this had better looking eateries and an arcade section that would make American kid gamers weep.

The different life levels of the mall. All of them achieved.

Do mall. DO IT!!

Look! Your kids can be rats in a maze while you shop!

Crazy arcade space

You are SO kawaii

 

Where to find music from the US

One of the weirder things I saw at the mall

Speaking of kids, there is a Babies/Toys R Us near here, too. We went last weekend to purchase some baby shower gifts and I was happy to see that even though the layout is very similar to the ones in the States, it's crammed full of things like the Toys R Us of the 80's used to be.

MOVE.YOUR.SPOOOOOON!

Anime Barbie

Creepy corner protectors... Maybe it's the Thing in a Mickey Mouse Halloween costume

Maybe it's the outfit, but Geoffrey looks vaguely Asian

Happiest Asian baby in disco threads

This is just the tip of the shopping iceberg and this is also just the places in the immediate vicinity of the base. I'm anxious to see more.

You're older than you've ever been and now you're even older, And now you're even older, And now you're even older

Today I had a very alarming realization about age. In this context, age when it pertains to babysitters.

Scott and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary next Tuesday and we've decided to spend the day as a family and then have a dinner without Violet in the evening. Which means, using a babysitter for the first time at this base. There are several people I've been alerted to as babysitters via the Facebook world, but this would be the first time we are planning to use one.

For the last couple of weeks, there has been a printout in the elevators (and then reinforced on a couple of the FB groups for Yokota-related subjects) from a 16 year old girl who is looking for babysitting jobs. Since Scott and I are only looking for a dinner out that can happen after we put Violet to bed, I figured using a cold contact would be fine since all she really has to do is make sure Violet isn't in imminent distress while sleeping, and that hardly ever happens.

So, I called her this morning to see if she was available and to give her a few details if she was. On the whole, I felt the phone conversation was... disappointing. She was completely noncommittal on her availability and spoke to me as if I were a teacher asking her if she had handed in her homework in my staff mailbox - very spacey and evasive. I even had to suggest that she makes sure that she is available for that evening and for her to text me back either way. She still didn't sound like someone who was being offered a job.

I was a babysitter from middle school up until college. I had a regular Wednesday night family, and I'm still in contact with the mother. I was never brought up in a "yes, sir/ma'am" family, but we sure did know how to talk to an adult, ESPECIALLY if they were an employer in any sense. After I got off the phone with her, I thought back on the conversation, reminding myself that she is, in fact, just 16, and was trying hard to remember how I was at the age. I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and thought, "well, I'm not really someone who looks/sounds authoritative and I'm only... wait, I'm 35. That makes me more than double her age..."

It was then that I realized that, yes, I can expect her to speak to me with some amount of respect for I am an adult. She is being asked to take care of my child and she should not act as though I'm just one of her peers. This made me feel a bit sad at first, weird for a while, and now it's really clear that I'm an adult MOMMY.

And then I got a different babysitter, who is another mommy and didn't sound spacey or evasive.

And Now for Something Completely Different

If you haven't noticed, I normally like to give my blog entries song lyrics for titles. Sometimes I modify it, sometimes the words work out beautifully and I don't have to change a thing.

I have this blog and another for what I've used (or, more honestly, absolutely abandoned recently, but plan to go back to) as a motivational track of what I've done for exercising. As I've mentioned in the last blog entry, I now have a pretty good handle on my home, so I feel freer to do the things I want to do to help me 'normalize' my life.

But, here's something completely not that.

Every now and then, I'll be posting different recipes that I will try. This is also so that I can keep track of what I've tried, the variations I have or want to implement and to keep myself motivated in these efforts. I hope to dovetail my sudden momentum on regular blogging and my food blogging to my exercising and blogging about that, too. I won't be clever enough to title my food entries with lyrics, but forgive me - I'm sad about that as well :)

I have dabbled in cooking. I know which end of the mixer to hold. I have yet to sever a limb while chopping. But am I good at cooking? Not one bit. There are various reasons why I'm 35 and still not comfortable with cooking. Mostly, it's because I HATED to cook for just myself and now that I have a little more time, a lot more inspiration and a few mouths to feed, I want to start refining whatever skills I've gathered so far.

I don't want to just be a Pinterest recipe hoarder or a cookbook collector. I want to try things out. I'm a tad handicapped by the fact that I have been and probably forever will be a picky eater, but I'll try to be braver, just so I don't pass on the same handicap to my daughter (dang kids learning by example).

But, don't judge me when you see that the majority of my food blogging is about desserts. It's easier and I must follow my bliss ;p

First up - Moscato Cupcakes. More on that after I try it!