Snow-Capped Artichokes

[spiralicious]

Snow-Capped Artichokes from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins
This cookbook is meant to be a “family friendly” cookbook to encourage involving your children in making meals, so I left the “Kids job!” note and kid's question at the end in.

serves 4

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Cauliflower Mash

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Cauliflower Mash from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins

serves 4 to 6

1 small head cauliflower (about 3 heaping cups florets)
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons warm milk
sea salt to taste
½ cup grated Cheddar or Parmesan cheese

Trim the leaves and most of the stem from the cauliflower. Pull apart the florets or cut them into pieces of uniform size so they all cook at the same speed.

Bring about an inch of water to a boil in a pot equipped with a steamer basket and a tight-fitting lid. Add the cauliflower to the basket and cover the pot. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for 5 to 7 minutes, until fork-tender.

Combine the cooked florets, butter, milk, and salt in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. If your blender has a wand attachment, use it to help the puree along; otherwise, stop occasionally and scrape down the sides of the container with a spatula. When your puree is smooth, taste and adjust seasoning. Spoon into bowls, top with grated cheese, and serve warm.

My notes:
This was a really good way to use up leftover cauliflower. My mother, for reasons that still escape me, bought a head of cauliflower that was over twice as big as my head and then was upset that we had only managed to eat half of it in a week. Luckily, I remembered this recipe was in the Adventurous Eaters Club when I was marking recipes I hadn't tried yet, but have all of the ingredients on hand.

The cauliflower we had left was closer to five cups, so I doubled the butter.

I eyeballed the milk, instead of measuring it. I was closer to two tablespoons than four and, while it worked out fine, it probably would have been better with more.

I also did not measure the cheese I topped it with when serving.

I do not own a food processor and balked at the idea of having to clean the blender, so mixed everything by hand with a dough blender/pastry cutter. It took some extra work, but it became near the consistency of mashed potatoes pretty easily. (The reason the recipe wants you to use a blender or food processor, is that they are trying to help you introduce a new vegetable to children that prefer smooth, creamy textures, which was not an issue here.)

I'd definitely make it again.

Can we get a side dish tag?

Pear-Berry Breakfast Cake

[spiralicious]

Pear-Berry Breakfast Cake from The Adventurous Eaters Club by Misha & Vicki Collins
This cookbook is meant to be a “family friendly” cookbook to encourage involving your children in making meals, so I left the “Kids job!” note in.

Makes 6 individual cakes

1 can (15 ounces) pear halves or pear slices in unsweetened pear juice
4 tablespoons butter
4 eggs
½ cup all-purpose flour
pinch of sea salt
1 ½ cups fresh raspberries or blackberries

Preheat the oven to 375 F

Drain the pear halves or slices, reserving the juice. Roughly chop the pears and set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat. When it is just melted, brush some of it on the insides of six 6-ounce ramekins. Reserve the remaining butter for the batter.

Combine the eggs, pear juice, flour, remaining melted butter, and salt in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth – a few seconds.

Kids job! Put some chopped pears in each of the buttered ramekins, then top each with a couple berries. Pour the batter over the fruit, distributing it evenly among the ramekins. Set the ramekins on a baking sheet.

Bake for 25 to 30 minutes.

Let cool for about 3 minutes, serve warm.

My notes:
While I have what feels like a billion ramekins, I don't have six of the same kind or size, so I ended up cooking three in the 6-ounce clear glass Pyrex ramekins and three in the 7-ounce Corningware. They cooked up the same.

My juice measurements may have been off because the only sized can of pears I could get was 30-ounces, so I just used half the juice from the can. (As well as half the pears.)

I used fresh chopped strawberries instead of blackberries or raspberries. They are in season and affordable here right now. The others are neither.

I melted the butter in the microwave.

I don't have a food processor and I just didn't want to try to clean raw egg out of our blender, so I used a whisk. It wasn't perfectly smooth, but it cooked up correctly. An electric hand mixer would have worked well.

The instructions make it sound like you might not be using all of the fruit, you are. It's the perfect fruit to batter ratio, if distributed evenly among the ramekins.

To evenly distribute the batter, I used a shallow gravy ladle.

It's hard to tell when they are done and I over cooked them just a touch, but they were still a huge hit. They are basically a thick, extra custardy, Dutch baby, if that helps.