Here is a fun and healthy snack your kiddos will enjoy making and eating.


Take some fresh strawberries and wash and trim off the green leaves from each. Wash and dry some popsicle sticks and let your little ones push three strawberries through each stick. Place on wax paper and freeze . Once they are frozen you can transfer your Strawberry pops into freezer bags for snacking later. These work well with pretty much any fruit, my faves or grapes and watermelon. Yum!

My mom lives in San Diego very near the Tijuana, Mexico border and she is always raving about Tijuana style hotdogs. These are sold by street vendors in Tijuana and also near the border and let me tell you they are freakin' delicious! When I told Chris I was going to make him a Tijuana hotdog for dinner he was not the least impressed, in fact he had his doubts but after trying one of these dogs we have both decided that this is our new favorite way to eat a hotdog.

Tijuana Hotdog

Buns
Beef hotdogs
Bacon
Beans, cooked (pinto beans not refried)
*Salsa made with chopped tomatoes, chopped jalapenos or Serrano's, chopped white onion*
Mayonnaise

Wrap a bacon strip around each hotdog and fry in a pan until crispy. Spread mayo on the bun. Put bacon wrapped hotdog in bun, top with hot beans and salsa. Enjoy!

Penelope decided she would like to be a ghost for Halloween. I really don't know what her obsession with ghosts is right now but I tried showing her some really cute costumes and  all she says is "no, I want to be a ghost". *sigh*

Fall in Alaska

This was Penelope's lunch yesterday. The letter of the week was G so I made her a G turkey and cheese sandwich over a bed of (G)reen. Romaine and snow peas and yes she even ate the lettuce. I told her she didn't have to but she said "I want to mommy, lettuce is good". She also had pear balls (I used a melon baller), pumpkin nuts (Penelope's name for pumpkin seeds), and a gingerman cookie or Ratchet, Penelope's name for this particular gingerman. I have no idea where she got this name from but every time she would take a bite out of Ratchet the gingerman she would tell me which part of his anatomy she was eating. She's a strange little one. ;)

When we were in Vegas Chris and I had dinner one night at Otto in the Venetian. I had a really yummy Arugula salad, my first one. It was fresh Arugula with shaved Parmesan and an olive oil dressing. Very simple but really good. Since I had some Arugula in the fridge I decided to make a salad for dinner tonight only kicked up a notch.

Today we woke up to frost and a very cold morning. Time to start bundling up Penelope for school because it looks like our fall is just about over and winter is just around the corner. I decided to make Penelope a beach oasis in her muffin tin today because surprisingly, since I am not a beach person, that's where I wish I was today. I am not ready for snow yet!

I decided to make Penelope some Yaki Onigiri or "Grilled Rice Balls" for lunch today.

Yaki Onigiri

Sauce

2 tsp Soy Sauce
2 tsp Sake (rice wine)
2 tsp Mirin (similar to Sake only sweeter)
2 tsp Sesame Oil
1 tsp Furikake, Toasted Sesame and Nori flavor (Japanese rice seasoning)

1 cup of cooked Short Grain or Sushi Rice warm

Combine all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and mix, set aside. To form the Onigiri you can use your hands or use a mold specifically for Onigiri. I have Onigiri molds so I used a cylinder shaped one. Onigiri can also be formed into balls or triangles and filled with things like Umeboshi (Japanese preserved pickled plum), tuna and mayo, or whatever your tummy desires. They can also be wrapped with Nori (dried seaweed wrapper). If you are using your hands to form the Onigiri make sure your hands are wet so the rice does not stick to them. Once your Onigiri is formed lightly brush the sauce mixture on one side and grill in a pan sauce side down till the outside is browned and crispy. Brush sauce on the top side and then flip over to brown and crisp. These make yummy on the go snacks!
If you notice my Onigiri has egg in it. I actually added a little raw egg to the rice mixture because I thought Pen would like it better. I was right she loved her rice balls! I served them to her with some smoked salmon that a friend caught and smoked himself. Very good stuff. Penelope however was not a fan. More for me!

Yesterday was my Japanese lesson and we incorporated another cooking lesson into it. We made Okonomiyaki, a savory Japanese pancake. Okonomi means "what you like" and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked". Here is the basic recipe for the Okonomiyaki we made but there are several variations of this dish depending on what you like. Some additions are mochi, pork, and cheese. As usual the recipe below was not measured but based on the amount of flour we used will make 2 large pancakes.

Okonomiyaki

Approximately 2 Cups of flour- Kona
Baking Powder
Potato Starch- Katakuriko
1 Egg- Tamago
A couple splashes of Soy Sauce- Shoyu
A small amount of Salt- Shio
A small amount of Sugar- Sato
Water- Mizu
Shredded Cabbage- Kyabetso
Chopped Green Onion- Tamanegi
Shrimp- Ebi
Okonomiyaki Sauce
Mayonnaise
Mustard
Bonito Flakes

Mix the first seven ingredients in a large bowl, it will form a sticky dough. Then add water until it becomes the consistency of pancake batter. Then add the cabbage and green onion and mix together. On a griddle or in a large omelet or crepe pan put a little Canola oil and cook the shrimp for a few minutes till done. Spread the shrimp out on the pan and pour the batter over so they are completely covered. Let the batter cook through on one side and then flip over to finish cooking the other side. Put the pancake on a plate and top with Okonomiyaki sauce making vertical and horizontal lines. Do the same with the mayo and mustard. (Traditionally you would use a spicy Japanese mustard that I did not have.) I did not have mayo in a squeeze bottle so what I did was mix the mayo with a little mustard and then dolloped it over the pancake . Finally add the Bonito flakes on top. This is when my teacher pointed out they start dancing. :) You'll see. This was really delicious and I will be making it again and again.

The letter of the week at Penelope's school is E. I didn't have anything that started with an E to put in the first tier of her bento other then dark chocolate covered Edamame. Does that count?

So for today's Taste Me Tuesday I thought I would share something a little different. Living in Alaska hunting and fishing is a very popular pastime and freezers are pretty well stocked here with all kinds of fresh game and seafood. In fact we had to buy a deep freezer for our garage because our neighbor kept supplying us with halibut, salmon, and cod, and just recently we received some bear, caribou, and moose meat. Yum! Since moose meat is not all that common in the lower 48 states I thought I would share what is a very delicious meat with you. That's right you heard me, it's delicious! We received some ground moose and it looks and tastes very similar to ground beef only much better! I am not kidding. Moose is high in protein and low in fat and tastes like really really really good beef, not game-y at all. The first time I had moose meat was several years ago in Anchorage when a friend of Chris' invited us over for a spaghetti dinner. I must say I was not very excited as I am not a big spaghetti fan but let me tell you this was the best spaghetti I have ever had and guess what it was made out of moose! So tonight when I was deciding what to make with our ground moose I decided to try something similar to my first moose meal encounter and I made some moose baked ziti. SOOO GOOD!!!

Baked Ziti made with Moose Meat

1lb. Ziti Cooked
1 lb. Ground Moose (you can use beef or turkey)
1 8oz Container of Sour Cream
1 and 1/2 Jars of Marinara Sauce
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Grated Parmesan Cheese
Salt & Pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic Salt
Italian Seasoning

Put cooked ziti in a large casserole dish and stir in the container of sour cream. Meanwhile brown meat and season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic salt, and Italian seasoning.  Once cooked drain any liquid and add 1 jar of Marinara sauce to it. Add the remaining 1/2 jar of sauce to the pasta in the casserole dish along with a large handful of mozzarella and some grated Parmesan and mix. Then add the meat and another handful of mozzarella and mix again. Top pasta with some Parmesan and another large handful of mozzarella and then cover and bake for 30 minutes at 375. Remove cover and continue to bake for another 10 minutes. Serve with warm crusty bread and a green salad.

Penelope's sunflower bloomed! She was so excited when she saw it as was I cause I was sure we would run out of sun before it flowered. I was wrong! YAY!

Here it was when we first planted it.

Then here when it first sprouted.

Growing some more here.

And here it is after we replanted it.

And finally here it is today!

Penelope had to create a poster for school to share a little about herself with her classmates.

We are back from our vacation thanks to Pilot Penelope!