Pasta Squidward

This wonderfully creative idea for inserting dry spaghetti into the hot dog of your choice (tofu, turkey, beef, whatever) then boiling them together wound its way across the internet from the original Russian creators, who named them "Hot Dog Strikes Back," to BoingBoing, where the commentators renamed them "Squiddlies" to the Lunch in a Box Forum, where I was immediately transfixed. Of course, we have a Spongebob obsessed five year old, so at our house they became "Pasta Squidward."

These are absurdly easy to assemble, and The Kid absolutely adored making them. Half a pack of turkey dogs and a handful of spaghetti broken into half (so it would fit into the pot) were all we needed. The combination of spaghetti and meatlike sticks deserves to become an instant kid cuisine classic, like S'mores. They bring together two foods that already have strong kid appeal with the opportunity to play with your food. All they lack is a universal and instantly recognizable moniker.

After we finished making our voodoo dogs, I started the pasta water boiling and made my sauce. It was my usual tomato based pasta sauce, except I substituted a 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes for the usual huge can of tomato puree, so that it would be less liquidy and more goulash like. I like my squash a little blackened, or at least well done, so my veggies started like this:

And ended up looking like this:

Once they landed on the (poorly lit) dinosaur plate, they hitched a ride with the pincushion pasta to my son's tummy with no objections from him. Yeah!

I am shamelessly sending this unsophisticated dish to Kitchenetta at Got No Milk, one of the best looking food allergy/restricted diet foodie blogs around, who is hosting this week's Presto Pasta Nights, the long running weekly pasta round up begun by the always lovely Ruth of Once Upon a Feast.

The Firehouse Rocks

Last week The Kid's class went to the local fire station for a tour, fire safety lesson and ride on an antique fire truck included. I was luckily able to go along as a chaperone, and took advantage of the opportunity to buttonhole a paramedic and question him about various medic alerts, which have been a hot topic of conversation around here lately.

After the tour, we were all eating lunch, and one of the girls in The Kid's class asked me about his bracelet. (Interesting that she asked me instead of him, but I went with it, since his mouth was full and it gave me an opening.) I explained that if he were ever sick and a firefighter came to help him (I shamelessly pointed to the startled paramedic standing next to us), it would tell him or her about The Kid's allergies.

The paramedic was a really good sport about it and leaned over to to look at The Kid's medic alert bracelet. He read the tag aloud, then patiently answered all my questions. Here's what he had to say:

• The paramedic stated that the medic alert needed to be obvious and clearly visible. Rescue crews keep an eye out for the medic alert logo, then look more closely once they see it.
• A bracelet is better than a necklace, since sometimes a tag will be hidden on the back of the neck or beneath clothing.
• The most important information to have on there is any drug allergies. (To me this was interesting, since it was the perspective of a first responder, who is primarily concerned with emergency care.)
• I asked his opinion of medic alerts that have a phone number providing access to an individual's medical information. The paramedic stated that a child my son's age is either with a caregiver who is able to provide that information, or is at school. He said that any time he has been called to a school, the health card listing any conditions, medications, etc., has already been fetched, and that card accompanies the child if he or she is transported.

After thanking the paramedic, I had a lot to mull over. One good idea I had is to write out all of the same information that is on the school clinic card, including his doctors' contact info, and put it in The Kid's EpiPen case, that way I don't have to worry about getting tongue tied in an emergency. We may revisit the idea of a tag with a phone number accessing his medical records once he is an independent teenager.

It was a fun trip, and The Kid and I were both well educated. So thank you to the firefighters at the East Lake station!

Brought to You by Dairy Farmers, Inc.

We decided to visit MOSI today, even though The Kid's absolute favorite, the animatronic dinosaur exhibit, has left. I checked online to see what had replaced it to find this:

From The Farm To The Fridge exhibit provides guests with an opportunity to milk a life-sized mechanical cow while learning more about the true source of the calcium-enriched beverage--milk. The exhibit details the various steps of the milking process in a colorful and educational way and also includes various other features such as cow feed samples and a video filmed at a real Florida dairy farm.

I've taken a deep breath, and decided we'll go see it in the spirit of taking advantage of opportunities to educate when encountering allergens, rather than just turning tail when they are present. We'll have an extra talk about not touching before we go in and I'll bring extra wipes, just in case there are dairy samples around. This is the definitely the downside of MOSI being so hands on. A lot's going to hinge on what's actually coming out of that mechanical cow! I'll be sure to post afterward whether or not going was such a good idea.

In other news, Martha (yes, that Martha) wants you, or rather your blog. Leave a comment on this post, a continuation of her show about bloggers and blogging, and she will feature a chosen few from the multitude on her own blog. Don't worry, self-promotion can be part of a healthy lifestyle, as long as it's in moderation.

Buttermilkless Biscuits

This is the biscuit recipe I've been tweaking with the extraordinarily enthusiastic assistance of The Kid. The last few times we've made this, he's gone racing to his room to get his Ratatouille chef's hat and apron, which just adds to the adorable. He is so very proud of himself for making these biscuits, and I am grateful for his love of cooking and baking, which will hopefully stand him in good stead as he navigates his future with food allergies.

1 Tbs lemon juice + plain soy milk to equal 1 Cup
2 1/2 C all purpose flour, plus additional as needed
1 Tbs baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 C dairy free margarine, i.e., Earth Balance

Mix lemon juice and soy milk in a nonreactive measuring cup and set aside. Preheat oven to 450°F. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a medium largish bowl. Cut the margarine into small pieces, then rub into flour mixture until nice and crumbly, but stop before the margarine begins to melt! Slowly pour lemon juice and soy milk into flour mixture and stir until combined.

Stop now and evaluate your dough. It should be very sticky. If you are baking without assistance, continue. If there is a short person helping, I suggest adding a small amount of flour (no more than 1/4 C) until it becomes slightly more manageable. The resulting biscuits won't be quite as tender, but the amount of mess on and surrounding your child will be considerably less.

Thoroughly dust hands and surface with flour and gently turn out the dough onto it. Lightly flour the dough, and press out to about one inch in thickness. Fold the dough in half, then repeat half a dozen times. Now gently pat out dough to anywhere between one half and one full inch, depending on your preference. Using the biscuit or cookie cutter of your choice, cut out biscuits and place in nonstick baking dish. Push the remaining scraps together to cut out the last few and add to pan.

Bake for fifteen minutes or until tops turn golden brown. Serve while still hot. We like ours with margarine and honey or blueberry preserves, but they are always gone before I can get a picture!

My husband has requested that I create an allergy safe sausage gravy to pour over them, so that should be coming soon.

I am submitting our biscuits (with some trepidation, since I've seen the amazing dishes in previous ones) to Lore of Culinarty for the Original Recipes Round-Up.

Dinosaur Birthday Party

We finally had the big day! All in all, it was a roaring success (i.e., all the kids had fun and the EpiPen was unnecessary.) The first preparation for the social event of the season, after reserving a shelter at the park, was to send out the invitations. I included a slip of paper requesting that no food or drink be brought to the party and made sure I provided all my contact information for the other parents.

For the party itself, we planned a few activities for the kids. I bought a variety of bubble makers: big ones, little ones, battery operated ones, crazy wands, and a huge bottle of bubble juice. They kept the kids (and my husband!) occupied for a surprisingly long time. If you are having an outside party, I really recommend making bubbles as a noncompetitive fun activity. I'm pretty sure we'll do it again next year, and reuse all the same equipment.

For a theme activity, I made a "dinosaur dig." To hold it, I emptied out the long plastic box that my wrapping paper lives in, and filled it with sand. (We saved the sand afterward, in case we got hit by Almost Hurricane Fay.) I found this recipe for making "dinosaur eggs" and buried them, plus various other goodies, including little plastic snakes and "petrified" insects in green slime, since an archeologist never knows what he or she will find. (I had also purchased little plastic pith helmets as party hats, but they turned out to be to hot for the kids to wear in the sun.)

The food was a lot of work, but turned out great. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures before we ate, so I just got a few shots of the leftovers. (As I post all the recipes I made at the party, I'll come back and add the rest of the links.) For starters there was a vegetable tray with Ranch Dip, the always popular Dinosaur Crackers with Cilantro Hummus, and tortilla chips with Zesty Tomato Salsa.

For the meal we had Pterodactyl Drumsticks, both turkey and Sunbutter & jelly dinosaur sandwiches made with this sandwich cutter. (I wish I'd gotten a picture of the tray, since I alternated whole wheat and potato bread sandwiches, making a very pretty tesselating pattern.) I also made calzones with this pizza recipe, both vegan (for friends who keep kosher) and turkey sausage.

The all important dinosaur cake (made with this pan) was red velvet, per The Kid's request. Fearing a recreation of the scene in Steel Magnolias with the infamous armadillo groom's cake, I decide on red frosting. My mom was kind enough to do the actual decorating of the cake, since I just am not talented at creating cartoony frosting characters.

The T. Rex pinata from iParty was definitely the climax of the party. I found a three pound bag of safe candy, and stuffed that thing with enough sugar to keep The Kid and his friends buzzed for days. The pinata was unfortunately a little too sturdy, and I ended up having to partially disembowel it with the pinata stick after the kids had thoroughly beaten up on it so that they could knock the candy out of it. Here are a few suggestions for those who haven't done pinatas before: I decided against blindfolds and spinning, since there are kids with some motor/balance problems in the group. We lined them up from shortest to tallest to make sure the younger ones all had a good shot at it, which proved unnecessary, since it didn't want to break open at all. I learned it's a good idea to discretely weaken it before hand, so that the kids can actually break through it. Also, don't hang the thing until you are ready to actually hit it, since the kids just fixate on the candy in the sky as soon as it is up.

Finally, I wanted to share the gift bags we made before the party, not because they were so fabulous, but because they were inexpensive, fit the party's theme, weren't filled with cheap plastic junk, and most importantly did not have any food in them. (I always have to take away the candy The Kid gets at parties, which is frustrating for both of us.)

The bags themselves were a couple of dollars at the craft section at Walmart. I picked up the crayons for about ten cents a box in the Back to School section there. The dinosaur stickers and "Play D'oh" came from my stash, so I'm not sure exactly what their source was. I picked up the dinosaur pencils and snap together gliders (not on theme, but kinda cool) from the clearance aisle at iParty, and printed out some dinosaur coloring pages to roll up and tie with curly ribbon. To involve The Kid in the bags' preparation, we had him decorate the bags with these dinosaur stamps, which had previously been given to him as a gift by his Grandma.

It was an exhausting day, but worth all the hard work. The Kid was able to have a "normal" birthday party and can't wait for his next one!

Pop-A-Lot-A-Lot

Many, many thanks to Ben of What's Cooking for sending this awesome Tupperware Pop-A-Lot set as a prize for winning his Food for Plastic Kidz Challenge! As you can see, we've already taken them out to play, much to the Kid's delight. (He was thrilled every time that little blue ball flew out of the end, but I wasn't able to catch it with the camera.) It's definitely a classic, and one of the sturdiest toys I've seen in a long time.
Be sure to check out Ben's excellent site. It's full of delicious recipes and creative food blog events, not to mention a great source for Tupperware!