Super Simple Learning, Unschooling Style (or: A very creative meal)

My favorite of Mal's most-requested YouTube channels is Super Simple Songs from Super Simple Learning. I like it because it's not just fourteen variations on "The Wheels on the Bus" but actually has some fun original songs. Also, because it isn't just one style of animation (in fact, there are several live-action puppet songs), so it's a lot more interesting to watch. Their seasonal songs are fun, too; we keep watching the Halloween and Christmas specials, sweating our way through them in this decidedly un-fallish Austin summer.

One of my favorite things is that, even though it's a "learning" channel, the songs are more fun than "here, learn this." I REALLY hate the songs that talk about how much fun it is to count or say the ABCs. Listen, I'm a middle-aged lady who hasn't been away from her baby more than two hours in two years, and even I have enough of a life to know that counting and saying ABCs isn't "woo hoo" fun.

Anyway, the point is that we love Super Simple Songs. However, there is one song that, while it's tons of fun and we all love it, set off my "unschooling" alarm. (A worksheet D did once as a preschooler did it, too, twelve years ago or so, before I knew I was an unschooler.)

Watch this song, enjoy it, but see if you can tell what nagged at me:




Did you catch it?

Does anyone else have a mental policy of not being able to say you don't like a food unless you try it? (Even if, as a radical unschooler, you don't enforce it.) There's a difference in saying, "That doesn't sound tasty; I'd rather not." And in stating that something is "Yucky!" just because it has ingredients that might not seem compatible.

So I saw this as a challenge.

Tonight for dinner, we had three of the four items in the song. I didn't try the doughnut juice because isn't that basically just coffee? Actually, because it'd be a dessert item and we already have one legit dessert and an appetizer that leans to the sweet side, so that's enough.

A couple of other songs talk about:
1) carrot cereal -- which would probably be great; you can find lots of recipes online for carrot cake granola, and hot bran cereal with carrots
2) lasagna milkshakes -- James found a thread somewhere about not being able to eat solids and someone swore a lasagna milkshake was unparalleled; he had an idea for a milkshake lasagna, which is also tasty-sounding, but that's not what the song says
3) spaghetti yogurt -- that'd take some thought
4) tomato pancakes -- easy and likely delicious; think crepes
5) cookie salad -- sweet version with fruit and whipped cream, or using something like a ginger snap as a crouton in an Asain-type salad?
6) cauliflower cupcakes -- Jessica Seinfeld has made a fortune publishing cookbooks with stuff like this
7) avocado lollipops -- I'm totally going to make some in the future; I love avocado anything, including ice cream, cake, icing, and cookies
Then it seems they stepped up their game and came up with some legitimately "yucky" ideas.
7) mushroom popsicles -- that one sounds pretty terrifying
8) sushi smoothies -- I'd rather have the real thing, but "that's terrific bass!"
9) pickle pudding - does it have to be pickled cucumbers? pickled beets and ginger and a savory pudding might work; also, if you use the definition "a sweet OR SAVORY steamed dish made with flour," you open up all kinds of possibilities

But this evening, we focused on these dishes:

BANANA SOUP

I found a yummy-looking recipe that was basically a smoothie in a bowl, but then further research revealed that there is an actual traditional Vietnamese soup called Che Choui including either chopped banana or corn. So we went with the banana version.

I used the recipe here, except that I doubled it, because it looked fabulous.

It said this could be served hot, cold, or room temperature. I decided to refrigerate it so we would have our choices. Here it is, ready to go into the refrigerator, hanging out with the toasted sesame seeds.

This was the final product. It thickened up a lot in the refrigerator, and even though I heated mine up (and it was so much better than the cold, even though I LIKE rice pudding, which is what it was like), it was still pretty stout. My husband and I both liked the heated version enough that we want to make it again, and try it straight off of the stove (well, with reasonable cooling) and maybe use corn just to see the difference?

So, this is one dish we'd make again, because it was just really tasty!... Not "yucky!"

POPCORN PIZZA

This is another one that could be done backwards, as there are commercial versions and recipes all over for pizza popcorn. But we wanted to do the whole thing.

This seemed like a good match for pizza (I think I had some grease on the lens; sorry about that).

It was neat! It came in a somewhat see-through bag and had these two pouches with oil and flavoring.

Complete with on-packet instructions. I'd kind of planned to use both bags, but decided to save one because I wanted to eat it on its own. That was a good thing, because we ended up with PLENTY of popcorn on our pizza!

The bag itself even had a nice little pep talk. I'm glad to know I'm not dumber than a programmable appliance. Now I feel like I can do anything!

I just used a Pillsbury dough, and started off with light sauce and some sauteed mushrooms.

Actually, I baked the crust for about 8 minutes first, then put on the sauce, mushrooms, and most of the cheese and baked it 8 minutes, THEN I added the popcorn and the rest of the cheese and baked it until the Parmesan on the popcorn started browning.

You know what? My husband and I both really liked it. My fourteen-year-old pulled the popcorn off, but I think she thought it was burnt. My toddler, the reason for all of this, was having a dinnertime "no nap today" meltdown, so except for about three bites of the banana soup, he really didn't participate. He spent a great deal of time on the floor crying about various and sundry issues important to him. (Keeping it real, internets.)

If I made this again, I'd put more cheese on top to keep the popcorn from falling off so easily. I'd probably pre-cut the crust because getting even the biggest cutter in there without pushing the kernels around was a challenge. But it was tasty. Not quite as good as macaroni and cheese pizza, but definitely good... which is great because we have another meal's worth left over.

And finally, for dessert...

BROCCOLI ICE CREAM

Just as I suspected, there were lots of recipes for broccoli ice cream. Some were like the banana soup recipe I mentioned: Basically smoothies. We've had fruit/green smoothies, and that's not what we wanted. We wanted actual broccoli ice cream.

The two recipes I found that I liked best had something in common: a strong flavor profile meant to mask whatever mild broccoli flavor might be left behind after steaming. One was cocoa and cherries, and the other mint. Although both sounded excellent, I liked the idea of the green ice cream, and it was the one that actually went through an ice cream machine, so we went with that recipe.

Except.

You might notice that both of those recipes are healthy alternatives to full-on desserts, and I actually wanted a full-on dessert flavor, so I modified the Food and Yoga for Life recipe a bit. First, I used chocolate chips (I'd intended to use mini chips, but when you use Instacart, sometimes you're at the mercy of your shopper). Second, I used powdered sugar in place of the stevia and coconut syrup. Oh, and actual butter in the place of coconut butter. But it was the same idea.

I have to say that something was up in the pictures on that recipe site. Several options: 1) She has a much better food processor/blender than I do. 2) She has a lot more time than I do. 3) She trained the puree. 4) There was some food-styling license given. Because I had little tidbits of broccoli in the final product. I actually didn't mind at all. I wasn't trying to fool anyone, just our taste buds. So it helps you to see that this is legitimately broccoli ice cream.

Ready to hit the fridge!

Later, churning.

We ate it soft-serve consistency, straight out of the ice cream maker. It was extremely tasty, just like a mint chocolate chip ice cream with a bit of consistency.

I probably won't make this one again, just because making ice cream is a process and I kind of like to jump all over the place with it. If I were to use broccoli again, and I would, I'd do the cocoa cherry one.

In summary: We went through a lot of trouble to show Mal something he likely will never remember, so we'll have to do it again. Well, and the truth is that we have fun doing this kind of thing, so we have a good time planning challenges like this. I say "we" because I would have had a complete nervous breakdown trying to get all of this together (and REALLY for the clean-up process) with the state my child was in if James hadn't jumped in and done whatever he could. He's a great guy!

Anyway, the point is that we don't ever want to default to knee-jerk reactions to food or anything else that we might not have considered before.

But we *do* like making the faces and singing the songs. And we appreciate Super Simple Learning for putting this in front of us! Check out their website for fun coloring pages and cool caregiver/teacher ideas.

Review: Voodoo Doughnut V Austin

It's truly a shame that Voodoo Doughnut has been in Austin for nearly a year and I didn't make it over until yesterday. When we lived downtown, it would have been an easy (and dangerous!) jaunt that we probably would have made every month or so. Anyway, it was well overdue, and so we headed that way as soon as we were up and around.

6th Street Austin is very different at 8:30 AM on Saturday than it is during the weekdays or on weekend nights. Basically, it's dead. We could have parked right in front of the door but didn't because I didn't know this at the time and didn't feel like fighting for parking when the situation is what it is any other time, so I parked a couple of blocks away. Now I know, and now you know. Metered parking charges don't start until 11 AM, so as long as you're and and out by then, even if the storefront is full (as it was when we left a bit after 9), you can still park a few shops away and not pay.

The moon was out, even though the people weren't.

Actually, there *are* a few people out on the streets in downtown Austin at 8:30 on Saturday morning. They are: Fitness enthusiasts, homeless people (we've missed them since moving away), and other people going to Voodoo Donut.

Voodoo Donut started in Portland, Oregon, where there are now two outlets of the shop. There is another in Eugene, OR, and a fourth in Denver, Colorado. Austin is the fifth shop, and just so you know: all of them take cash only. There is a convenient (if spendy) ATM in the store, in case you forgot.

My first impression upon entering: This place is too cool and quirky for me to be allowed in. It's the kind of doughnut shop I'd like to be if I were a doughnut shop, but I'd probably only be like a Ken's Donuts or maybe a Donut Hole. Anyway, I was quickly put at ease by the number of families who were there getting their iced yeast bread fix. Again, I'm sure the clientele was totally different five hours before we got there, just after the bars closed. I'll bet those are some good times.

There are display carousels and menus around, in case you didn't memorize what you wanted before you got there. Each carousel has a shelf that is labeled vegan, so you know what to order if that's how you roll.

 

The vegan 'nuts

We ordered several we'd decided in advance we *had* to have. James: Voodoo (voodoo doll with a pretzel stake and chocolate icing, filled with raspberry jelly/blood), pothole (cream-filled bar, chocolate icing, crushed Oreos, and white icing "stripes" down the road), and bacon maple bar (just what it sounds like). Moi: mango tango (mango-filled, vanilla frosting, with Tang powder dusting the top) and Memphis Mafia (fried dough with bananas and cinnamon, topped with glaze, chocolate frosting, peanut butter, peanuts and chocolate chips... because I like to keep it subtle). Then we got a Voodoo for D and a plain chocolate doughnut for Mal.

I was not prepared for how big the Memphis Mafia was going to be. I took this as a comparison, but it was really about four times the size of the chocolate doughnut, if you add in the height and total spread. And the chocolate-iced doughnut isn't a mini, either.

After we sat down, I really looked around to appreciate the fun decor of the place. I especially liked their simulated trees with signature doughnuts adorning the limbs.

Another fun thing is the chalkboard paint in the stalls of the restroom. Kept my little 'un busy whilst I conducted some business. (This isn't what he drew, but I'm sure he was feelin' it.)

The doughnuts were excellent. I mean, doughnut dough should be doughnut dough, but it's tastier some places than others (like Round Rock Donuts has it down with their egg yolk base, whereas Krispy Kreme, though fine, is just like puffy air coated with different toppings or pumped with fillings, and it doesn't really taste like you've eaten anything other than sugary air). And some places must not fry their doughnuts in hot enough oil because they're greasy (not mentioning any names) or the opposite of Krispy Kreme, where they're so dense (not in a good cake donut way, but like a day-old smooshed donut that used to be maybe good), they're easy to dismiss as "not real food."

The doughnuts here are a good bread product by themselves. I'd eat one that wasn't iced or glazed. It is a yeasty, light (but not too airy) yellowish fried bread. They don't feel greasy (though our take-home box attests to some oil now that it's Day Two), and they don't taste heavy. And the icings and toppings don't seem to have been mass-produced three years ago, nor do they dry to a crunch on the top of the doughnuts.

I'd have taken one of each from this shelf, if I only had a week to live, anyway.

We have to go back! There are several more that I really want to try. One they have advertised in the store, but not their website: the viscous hibiscus, which has hibiscus frosting and is half-dipped in chocolate sprinkles. But I also want to sample the glazed buttermilk bar and the grape ape (vanilla frosting, grape "dust," and lavender sprinkles.)

That's one more thing: Thinking to use instant beverage powder (Tang, tea, lemonade, and grape, from what I can tell) is a stroke of genius that is so simple, I can't believe it wasn't utilized earlier. 

So, go ahead, even if you can't drive to downtown Austin at the moment (or Portland, Eugene, or Denver), look over here at their menu and see if you can't whip up the inspiration to do it soon! You'll be glad that you did.

The Austin Voodoo Donut is open 24 hours, and you can even get married there, if you really want do. Details on the website.

This is What the Internet is All About...

Avenue Q's assertion aside, I am confident that this story represents one of the greatest uses of the internet, in terms of global shrinkage and the community of mankind and all of that hippie stuff.

A few weeks ago, I tried my first Cadbury Mini Eggs of the year, and of this new era of American chocolate replacing the genuine Cadbury Dairy Milk. Well, eww. They were subpar and disappointing. They had some white chocolate ones, and those were all right. But neither was anywhere near as good as last year's eggs (I should have stocked up!) and the regular chocolate ones... might as well have been big old M&Ms. Disappointing.

I took to social media to complain about this, because, you know, it's the 21st Century and that's what we do. Actually, for years now, I've told people that if they want something, just to put it out there on Facebook and the things have a way of happening.

To that end, I posted in a group of breastfeeding mamas of kids who are a year + since there seem to be a lot of Brits in the group. From their side, I heard that, sadly, Cadbury has changed the recipe of the mini eggs in Great Britain as well, and that now they blow equally badly.

It's funny: I've posted several things to that group, including videos of Mal feeding and doing various things, but that's the most response I've received to any post so far. More than a hundred people commented. Several offered to get me the eggs if I wanted to compare, and while that was sweet, I didn't feel like paying shipping for something that was that widely panned.

One woman, however, messaged me that she was, at that moment, eating Cadbury Snow Bites, which she described as similar to Mini Eggs, if you suck the powder off of them. She offered to send me some. Obviously, I found some on Amazon, so I told her if she could get them to me for less than $8 a bag, I'd take them!

She messaged me later and said that she got two and shipping was 7 pounds, which is roughly $10, so it saved me $6. Woo hoo!

Well, yesterday I got the package. First of all, shipping was 7.7 pounds, so she was just being nice. Then I realized she'd been *very* nice.

I was so happy to see the goodies; it was totally worth getting stung in the butt by a wasp on the walk down to the mailbox! So, there are two caramel Cadbury "eggs" (in name only; they're truffles). There's a "twisted" creme "egg," which is a truffle that looks like it's been twisted. The Eclair was a lot like a soft Werther's filled with runny caramel. The Fudge was a fudge-filled chocolate, and then the Whip was light chocolate. The Dairy Milk was just that delicious chocolate.

What about the Snow Bites?

They're round, but roughly the same circumference as the thickest part of a Mini Egg.

There is a light dusting of sugar and cornstarch, kind of similar to what's on a marshmallow.

The sugar shell isn't as thick as on the Mini Eggs, but, goodness, see that pretty Dairy Milk chocolate inside? Yayyy!

So, thanks to the internet, a lady on the other side of the world with nothing in common with me other than the fact that we both have toddler nurslings ran out to the store, bought candy, and sent it off in the mail, just because we were connected by a group on Facebook.

This is the internet at its finest!

Please Make These! Pumpkin Gingersnap S'mores!

A few weeks ago, I came across a blog with which I'm marginally obsessed, if that's a thing. I mean, I don't have all day to spend reading up on past installments, but when I get some time, I like to scroll through. This lady has neat ideas, and I kind of want to be adopted into her family. I keep telling myself that we'll be able to do awesome crafty stuff like she does some day soon when Mal's needs aren't so pressing that they take all of my brain energy so that I'm left with no way to plan anything ever.

Anyhoo, the one post I could not get out of my head was Pumpkin Gingerbread S'mores. Hello. That sounds amazing. I wanted to make some, but came a little too late to the pumpkin spice marshmallow game, apparently. After seeing the exorbitant price sellers on Amazon were charging, I thought, "Duh. I can make them."

Making marshmallows is fun and easy and not much more expensive than buying them at the store... only they taste much, much better. Seriously, when I say "easy," I mean it. I've never had a batch of marshmallows *not* turn out good, which is something I cannot say for almost anything else I've ever made: cake, cookies, bread, candies, etc.

I found this pumpkin spice marshmallow recipe to use.

Beautiful pan of marshmallow. You can see the spices!

After they've been cut and dusted with corn starch.

My plan was to get Trader Joe's Triple Ginger Snaps because they are perfectly spicy and amazing. But first, I forgot to get them when I was at TJ's. Then, I thought, "The marshmallows and the chocolate will be square-ish. Why not make a pan of ginger snaps myself and cut them like graham crackers?

Fortunately, I found a good and easy recipe for those, too.

One review made me laugh; he complains about how all he can taste is the baking soda and ginger. Well, 1) I'd be willing to bet someone put 2 Tbsp. of baking soda instead of 2 tsp., and 2) they're GINGER snaps. You're SUPPOSED to taste the ginger.

I thought they were perfect.

I decided to use Cadbury's milk chocolate bars for the chocolate, because, I'm sorry, I know Hershey's owns them now, but the chocolate is still a lot smoother and better-tasting than the traditional Hershey bar.

Took the individual ingredients to our Thanksgiving luncheon and put them together there.

Isn't it beautiful?!

I baked them at a temperature I have no idea what it was (the oven was already on from cooking a ham), but just watched until the chocolate was glossy and the marshmallows started to wilt and brown around the edges. (I thought about using the broiler but have a notoriously difficult time with those things and did NOT want to waste any of this!)

So, my gosh, I can't even begin to tell you how rich and delicious these were. They were like having a slice of autumn jump into my mouth. No treacle annoyance, though it was plenty sweet. Just... just look...

Yeah. Try it. You will be glad that you did!

Review: Taco Bell's Cap'n Crunch Delights

When I saw these on the interwebs, I knew I had to try.

The response from my Facebook friends was mixed, but pretty much either in the "These are awesome!" camp or on the "Yuck! I'd rather eat a skunk tail" side.

Which made me want to try them even more.

So, first, here's the ad:

Here is how they're described on Taco Bell's website: "The new Cap'n Crunch™ Delights™ are warm, light pastries, coated with fruityCap'n Crunch's Crunch Berries™ cereal and filled with creamy, sweet milk icing."

So now you know.

Now here's my experience with them.

First a caveat: These might look and taste much better freshly fried at the store. I had to drive mine home, so they spent about half an hour in the car.

We got a 4-pack, which is just under two bucks, which means we are looking at about $.50 per... uh, ball... for lack of a better word.

Here we go!

Hmm... the ground cereal doesn't really show too well on the red dough. Maybe it's just a bad angle or bad light? I moved them to an area with more natural light.

Uck. Not much better. Still doesn't look too appetizing. The colors just get lost in the glaze and the red. This might be different when they're fresher.

Time to taste one!

Well, then. It looked like my drive home had caused the icing to absorb up into the pastry. So, no real milky icing to report.

However, it tasted good. It didn't have a Cap'n Crunch taste, though. It tasted like a doughnut hole that had been rolled in any kind of sugar or cookie or something vaguely sweet but random. Good, but not proprietarily-flavored, as far as I was concerned.

The second one I tried fared better in the filling department. And I stood by a window to take its picture, so you could actually see it.

There ya go.

Again, good. Tasty. Like a doughnut hole. No biggie. Not disgusting. Stirred no particular opinion either way. James said something about how it wasn't horrible. It might be a weird choice for Taco Bell, though, as I don't really see a tie between its cuisine and doughnut holes, but that's probably why I'm not in charge of their marketing.

Austin Google fiber space and event

This morning, we braved the "traffic delays" (dead stop for half an hour) to go downtown... And, yes, we could have walked faster, but my daughter had somewhere to be at 11, so we needed to be able to get out quickly (at which time the streets were back open again).

Where did we go?

The old Austin children's museum!

...Which is now the HQ for Google fiber here in Austin. We've been meaning to go check it out, anyway, but today they had an event, Saturday Morning Cartoons, wherein they were showing stuff from Disney Junior and, allegedly, XD (which is how we got my 13-year-old to go, though they never showed any XD when we were there), and having breakfast.

The first thing I have to tell you is that about nine months ago or so, there was a similar event at a downtown hotel that was a pancake breakfast (I think affiliated with ACL or some other larger event), and they took RSVPs, but they had reached their fire-marshal-approved limit about 20 minutes before the event even started, so even though we all got there when it was supposed to begin, we were turned away. So, I was a little nervous about arriving at this thing as it began, but our road was closed down for the run, and my teen doesn't do really early mornings.

However... there were more staff there than visitors when we arrived! (5:2 before we got there.)

First, the space.

It's a big, wide-open room with various couches and poofs on which you can sit and watch the big-screen television or use your own device using Google fiber's 1 gigabit internet. (See my girl there on the left in the "Gravity Falls" pine tree trucker hat? "Gravity Falls." You know, from Disney XD. We were kinda hoping.)

There is an interactive area to compare the regular internet speeds versus Google fiber. I loved the mouse. There are a couple of other televisions streaming programming, too. 

The space is very comfortable. A lot of the couches have blankets, in case you get chilly. Nice touch.

The Star Wars cartoon actually looked pretty interesting.

Also, there are signs up in the common area that say, basically, your presence is acknowledgement and agreement that you might be photographed and your image used without compensation or further permission, so if you don't like it, you

Today, though, was special. In addition to the displays, wi-fi, and complimentary copies of the NY Times newspaper, they provided...

... breakfast! Including...

...a doughnut bar! It included chocolate, glazed, blueberry, and cinnamon doughnut holes as well as scones. They had chocolate syrup, vanilla icing, maple syrup, sprinkles, and bacon bits for toppings!

Oh, and milk, coffee, and OJ.

I was super impressed by my idea of chocolate syrup and bacon. However, it was the cinnamon doughnut holes that were super addictive! Nonetheless, my husband ended up co-opting the choco-bacon thing, too.

If you're in the downtown area, Google fiber space is worth dropping into just to check it out. But you might as well take a gander at their website and see if anything special is going on. They have a couple of kick-off (and closing) happy hours coming up, and a tailgate party next Saturday afternoon!