Tuesday, November 08, 2005

a couple of old favorites, and one new

I haven't been cooking much lately, since first my mom was here, and now my in-laws, helping out with the kids and the house while I recover from the surgery. I did spend (what seemed like) all day Friday on DD's birthday cake, but that was more like a art project rather than cooking.

Making the frosting was kind of like cooking: I had to find a new recipe that would produce good results using trans-fat-free organic shortening. (I use Spectrum). I was very pleased with this one: Snow White Buttercream Icing from the Wilton site. As is typical for me, I tweaked it the very first time I made it, ditching the almond extract and doubling up the vanilla, and substituting powdered egg whites (Just Whites) and 1/4 tsp cream of tartar for the meringue powder. (I had some, just very very little -- how annoying to see the container and think that there was a useable amount in there! I have to remember not to do that again!) The frosting has a very nice flavor, plus excellent texture and stability for decorating even with the organic shortening, so I'm sure I'll be using it a lot in the years to come.


Anyway, on Sunday I did do some cooking, but just a little, as DH and I went out for a nice Thai dinner and left the kids home with Nana and Papa. To sweeten the deal for them, I made my version of Kay's Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms from Dana Carpender's 500 Low-Carb Recipes book. They are awesome, and everyone loves them:

Crab Stuffed Mushrooms

1 pound fresh white button mushrooms, cleaned
1 can (6+1/2 ounces) flaked crab (Trader Joe's is very good)
2 ounces cream cheese
1/4 C mayonnaise
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
Tabasco

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Remove the stems from the mushrooms. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with foil and spray the bottom with no-stick cooking spray. Arrange the mushroom caps, open side up, in the baking pan.

Put the cream cheese in a small mixing bowl and microwave for 15-30 seconds to soften it. Add the crab, cheeses, pepper and at least one dash of Tabasco, more if you like things a little spicier. Mix well.

Spoon the mixture into the mushroom caps, trying to put roughly the same amount into each cap so they will all cook at the same rate.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour at 325, or until the mushrooms are cooked through. Serve hot, but they taste fine even when they've cooled off.

These freeze reasonably well after they've been cooked. Leftovers can be successfully reheated briefly in the microwave.

Note: Dana's original recipe called for an ungodly amount of scallions -- 10 to 12, finely sliced, and double the amount of pepper. We're just not into scallions that much around here, and would rather have more Tabasco than all that black pepper. But I've heard raves about the original recipe, too, so give it a try if you like think you'd like all those crunchy scallions in the nice crabby, cheesy pouf on top of the mushroom.


* * *

While we were out to dinner, I remembered that I had volunteered to make playdough for DS2's pre-school class. They have a different color every other week, and there's a sign up sheet that goes around periodically asking the parents to step up and make it for the class. I usually like to make green playdough in December, and have more than once added peppermint oil so it smells really good. This year someone else signed up for that week, so I took this week's, which was yellow. No big deal. Anyone who is around little kids much should know how to make this. The ingredients are cheap and it's a fun rainy-day activity to make the playdough.

For DS2's classroom, I doubled the recipe and needed DH to finish the stirring for me. For a regular size batch, you'll still need to do a fair amount of stirring, but it's not too athletic. I have found through the years that using olive oil instead of vegetable oil helps smooth out the lumps more quickly and gives the playdough a really nice texture, so now I always use it.

Cooked Playdough

2 C flour
1 C salt
2 C water
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 T oil
food coloring

Add the food coloring to the water, first; use a lot or the playdough will be a very pale color. Then mix all ingredients together in a sturdy pot. Stir until very few lumps remain. Cook over medium heat until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan and achieves that playdough consistency. Do not undercook or it will be very sticky and unusable. Turn out of the pan onto a clean surface and knead it until it is cool. Store in an airtight container or ziploc bag. Keeps 3 months when covered; do not refrigerate.

You can add a packet of unsweetened Kool-Aid drink mix (I added lemonade to the yellow I made) to the water in the initial step to give the playdough a nicer smell. You can also add extracts or flavored oils for fragrance towards the end of cooking, or knead in glitter to make the play dough more interesting.

The only downside to this recipe is that you get rather a large quantity of one color. But don't try adding the color afterwards, because it just doesn't work!

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