RADDISH

The best part of our homeschool exploration so far is discovering the personalized learning that can be designed. At a neighborhood elementary school you are provided with all the opportunities that the school offers, has designed, and planned. With homeschool we are developing our own methods and opportunites for our individual kids' needs and interests with the guidance and recommendations of our Homeschool Teacher and wonderful charter school team. :)

One of the coolest homeschooling projects we've started this fall is a Raddish Kids subscription box!

(I didn't even know before we started homeschooling that these subscription boxes would be eligible for our charter funding, but there are TONS of varieties, and so much fun already!)

Raddish Kids is a monthly cooking box that gets mailed to you. Inside there is a kitchen tool for the month, and recipe cards that outline your shopping list, there are games to play, dinner table conversation cards, and a patch to iron on to your very own apron!

The goal is to help kids find the joy in cooking healthy meals, but also to build safety skills, help with reading comprehension, learn organization, some cool geography, and how to plan.

First of all, Kate LOVES getting mail. The kids enjoy checking the mail with us, even if it's just flyers and junk. When Kate saw a package show up with her own name on it, she was thrilled! The surprise of things inside was a major bonus. haha!

The boxes are themed for the month, and October was all about Monsters. :) A potato masher is the tool, and all the culinary dishes were monster themed: 5-Eyed Breakfast Bake, Broccoli Swamp Fritters, and Monster Mash Meatloaves.

Together we looked through her box of supplies and she got to pick which recipe she wanted to make first. It was really cool to see her naturally take ownership of the box and tell us what days of the week we would be making each meal. She would also "read" her recipe cards to anyone and everyone. The artwork and pictures in these menu cards are adorable! It makes the steps easy to follow, and even with a 5-year old she was able to easily tell me what she needed and what ingredients to use first.

Kate was very confident that the 5-Eyed Breakfast Bake would be the best meal to start with. This dish is inspired by traditional Shakshuka of North Africa.

We practiced writing our "S" and wrote "shakshuka" on a post-it, then located Tunisia/Libya/Israel on our world map.

We wrote a grocery list together and went to the store. Kate picked out all the food she wanted and we used the self check-out so that she could scan all of her own groceries. :)

At home I was there to assist her, but let her lead on getting all the food out she needed and all the kitchen tools.

I helped with some of the chopping work, like the onions... While covering her eyes with her hands Kate said, "Why do they put so many spices in onions??!" haha. I think it was quite the surprise for her. Kate mixed everything together with a spoon, poured ingredients into the skillet, and cracked the eggs all on her own! She has never been so involved in making an entire recipe from start to finish. 

It was wonderful to see Kate so excited about her food. She helped clean up the counter and asked me to take pictures of her with her dish.

If this was a dinner I decided to make for the family, she hardly would have touched it. But because she got to choose the dish and make it herself she was excited and ready to dig right in and eat lots of bites!

 The very next night Kate wanted to make her Monster Mash Meatloaves for our friends. They turned out amazing! Individual meatloaves cooked in a muffin tin with mashed sweet potatoes on top <3 best="" definitely="" dinners="" ever="" had.="" nbsp="" of="" one="" span="" the="" ve="" we="">

I really appreciate these Raddish boxes already. As a mom of two young kids (who are sometimes very picky eaters), as a homeschooler, and also as a studying nutritionist, it is really cool to see how Raddish has developed these learning tools. I'm sure it takes a lot of research, planning, and preparation, but the result is SO well worth it. Kate has been raving about her meals, and loves to tell everyone about it. We can't wait to keep cooking together!

General Conference Peach Pastries

This weekend was General Conference, which also means time for baking and eating delicious food!

I've never been a huge fan of cinnamon rolls, but we do like fruity pastries around here. ;) For Sunday we decided to try a peach pastry that I had saved to Pinterest long ago.

To my dismay, I pulled up the recipe and it was all in Russian. HAHA

SO with some quick thinking, skimming, and deduction, I followed the pictures, threw in my own ideas, and came up with this recipe:

1) I bought that delightful Pepperidge Farm frozen puff pastry from the store
2) Let it thaw out
3) While the pastry dough was thawing, I pre-heated the oven to 350, and cooked up a bag of frozen peaches with butter in a medium saucepan over low heat on the stovetop. I let the peaches get thoroughly warmed and then drained the butter/juice into a bowl.

4) I cut the unfolded pastry sheets into fourths

5) Using a steak knife I sliced four corners of the square pastry pieces and made sure to leave about a half inch of the centers of each side in tact.

6) I scooped about 1/3 cup of cooked peaches into the center of each pastry square.

7) Then I connected opposite corners of each pastry border into the center to make a star-like shape criss-crossing over the peach pile.

8) Melted butter was brushed over the tops, and cinnamon sugar was sprinkled, then into the oven they went for 20-30 minutes! (until golden brown and puffed to delicious proportions)

9) Powdered sugar was sprinkled for the final snowflake effect.

These peach pastries were enjoyed by all!

The kids said such cute things like, "These are BEAUTIFUL!" and "oooh, delicious!!" :D That's definitely a win in my book!

A conference morning treat that's easy, delicious, AND beautiful?? I'll for sure be making these again! <3 p="">

Cooking with Jon & Steph - Pumpkin Patch Brownies

While looking for fun Halloween baking ideas on Pinterest recently, I came across this gem:

It looked and sounded amazing! But when I couldn't find the candy corn Hershey's kisses ANYWHERE, I decided to improvise with these fall favorites:

Jon doesn't even like these candy pumpkins, but he LOVED these brownies!

First, you mix the shortbread dough together. The Pinterest/blog recipe has this. It was super easy! Cream together butter and sugar, then add flour and a pinch of salt until doughy.

Then you press it into the bottom of a pan. I found this easiest to do with my fingers :)

I decided this was like the "patch" for my candy pumpkins.

 I lined the shortbread with the pumpkin cuties so that there would be about 1 per brownie. If I were to make these again (which we WILL) I would put in twice as many pumpkins.

I covered the pumpkins with this delicious Ghirardelli double chocolate brownie mix.

I have since learned that there is a TRIPLE chocolate brownie version of this. But seriously, this dessert is so rich, double was plenty!

I mediated all of the baking times from the Pinterest recipe and the back of the box. We baked our brownies in this 12x8" pan for 45 minutes and that was PERFECT.

Over the stovetop, we melted 1.5 cups semi sweet chocolate chips with 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream in a double boiler to make a chocolate ganache for the top, because I just thought that sounded better than melting down candies for the top like the Pinterest recipe suggested. And I hate store bought frosting in a can.

We poured/spread the ganache over the top of the brownies right after they came out of the oven and it bubbled a little at the edges, sealing in the amazingness of chocolate overload.

 

Even though I had to scrape the ganache off the top of mine and let Jon have it, I thought these were DELICIOUS!! (Don't worry, I braved it a couple days later with some lactaid pills, and it is SOOOOO good. And I didn't even get sick. These brownies are a miracle!)

I loved that I renamed them and they ended up being "pumpkin patch brownies" because we ate them after Family Home Evening while watching The Nightmare Before Christmas after we went to the pumpkin patch. It was perfect! I'm pretty sure that these will be made EVERY October from now on.

The best part is they are fantastic warm or cold. The shortbread layer makes a perfect buttery neutral flavor against the gooey brownie and the rich ganache on top.

Heaven. On. Earth.

Cooking with Jon & Steph - Rosemary Strawberry Shortcake Pizza

Yes, it is officially August and Baby Alston has still not arrived. In the meantime we have been keeping up with friends and all sorts of delicious fun.

This recipe was from the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. It is my nerdy homemaker side shining through. There are few things I like better than a good Better Homes and Gardens. I actually copied this recipe down on a napkin while we were over at the Joyner's a few weeks ago. I was THAT excited about it.

One thing I really liked is how the chef presenting this recipe suggested having everything totally ready to go and measured before starting to cook. A painter wouldn't start painting until they had all the colors they needed, a bowl of water and their brushes out, right? So it should be for less stressful cooking. Prep everything before you start putting together any food. It makes for a lot more fun and and easier baking! (I did not do this, unfortunately... and it made things much more interesting.)

I think the best part of this recipe was getting to use fresh Loomis strawberries. Man, I love those roadside stands in the summer. Best. Strawberries. Ever.

And we also used fresh rosemary from Jon's parent's garden. So awesome!

Rosemary Strawberry Shortcake Pizza

Prep: 30 minutes Bake: 22 minutes Oven: 400 degrees

Ingredients

1 quart (4 cups) strawberries. Rinsed and quartered.

1/4 cup honey or agave nectar

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 T chopped fresh rosemary or thyme

4 1/2 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut in small pieces

1 3/4 cups whipping cream

1 egg white lightly beaten

2 T sugar

sweetened whipped cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In large bowl, combine strawberries and honey. Let stand, stirring occasionally while prepping shortcake.

In food processor, combine flour, 1/4 cup sugar, rosemary, baking powder and salt; pulse to mix.

Add butter to flour mixture; pulse several times. While pulsing, add cream, pulsing until dough begins to come together.

Turn out dough on lightly floured surface. Knead quickly. Roll dough to 9x13 inch rectangle (1/2 inch thickness).

Transfer dough to large parchment lined baking sheet. With sharp knife, score dough in 1 1/2 inch squares. Brush dough with egg white. Sprinkle with 2 T sugar.

Bake 20-22 minutes until golden brown.

Transfer shortcake and parchment to platter. Spoon strawberries on shortcake. Drizzle with juices.

Serve in tumblers or bowls with whipped cream. (or if you're Jon - try have a little shortcake with your whipped cream...)

 

Makes 15 (2 square) servings - plus leftovers!

Of course we had to have our friends Kelly and Tadd over to taste test it for us. I think it was a success :)

***

In other adventures, we've been watching the Olympics, going on walks, trying to get out of the house and encouraging Baby Alston to come enjoy the world with us!

 We went out to Leatherby's on Monday for Breanne's birthday. (Thank goodness they have sorbet) Check out this sundae Jon had all to himself! It was so nice to be out with friends :)

Breanna came over to paint my nails on Tuesday

and drew some delightful stick figure versions of me and her as well as Margo on my big toes. We thought Baby Alston might really like the cave drawings on his/her birthday haha :)

Until then we are trying more delicious methods of bringing Baby Alston to the world. Tonight we had some Prego Pizza! Fingers crossed that I'll go into labor tonight.