Sue's Chef

I am so excited! I have a little chef in the house. My daughter Miss O enjoys helping out in the kitchen. She will chop veggies, she will stir pasta, she will bake cookies, and much more. One Saturday morning a few weeks back, she made pancakes for all of us - a little bit burnt, but overall a good job. Then a week or so later, we baked a homemade strawberry-rhubarb pie together. She cut all of the strawberries and the rhubarb for the filling - awesome!

Miss O likes to eat healthy, and she loves flipping through my Everyday Food and Real Simple magazines to find new recipes to try. Her latest dish, Herbed Ricotta Pasta with Corn and Zucchini, came out pretty tasty. She did most of the prep and cooking herself with the exception of grilling the zucchini. She gave that job to her daddy. She refused all my offers for help, just like when she was a little girl. "I do it myself," she used to say. Kids change in so many ways, but in many ways they stay the same.

Later in the evening on the day Miss O made dinner, my husband was reminding the kids about being kids for as long as they can, and to avoid acting grown up too soon. "OK," said Miss O. "Tomorrow, I am not cooking dinner."

If you would like to make Miss O's pasta dish, here is the recipe from the June 2012 issue of Everyday Food. She omitted the dill, used frozen corn instead of fresh (she just let it thaw a bit before adding to pasta), and bow tie pasta instead of campanelle.

Herbed Ricotta Pasta with Corn and Zucchini
Serves 4

• Salt and pepper
• 3/4 pound short pasta such as campanelle
• 1 3/4 cups corn kernels (from 2 ears)
• 1 cup ricotta
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for serving grilled zucchini, chopped. (about 3 small to med. sized zucchinis
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, plus more for serving
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

To prepare zucchini: Slice thinly lengthwise. Toss with 1 tablespoon olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Grill until tender, about 2 to 3 minutes per side. Chop into bite-sized pieces.

1. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook past 3 minutes less than package instructions; add corn and cook until tender, 3 minutes. Reserve 1 cup pasta water, then drain.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup pasta water, ricotta, and Parmesan. Add pasta mixture, zucchini, basil, and dill and toss to combine. Add more pasta water if necessary to create a light sauce that coats the pasta. Season with salt and pepper and top with more basil and Parmesan if desired.

Do you know some kids who like to cook? Do they have a yummy recipe that they like to make or try? Do share ~ send me email, just click the tab in the left sidebar.

Flops to Tops: Bake once, bake twice - nice!

Mishaps in the kitchen, DIY projects gone horribly wrong, or picture-perfect crafts turning out not-so-crafty. We've all had them - FLOPS! The question is what did you do about them? Throw in the towel, start over, try again? It's the Flops to Tops feature at LeMOMade where we celebrate turning slip ups into success stories.

This is the story of two little lamb cakes. One, a fine nicely-frosted fellow, ended up on the Easter buffet. The other, well, he turned into toast, french toast that is.

It was Good Friday. I was mixing up a big bowl of poundcake batter with the help of my freckled-face son in preparation for making the most beautiful lamb cake EVER! The Kitchen Aid did its job and the cake pan was all buttered up and ready to go. I filled the pan, tied it with string, popped it in the oven, set the timer, then hoped and prayed.  I prayed the little lamb would slip right out of the pan without mishap.

Ding! The timer went off. Hmmm, some batter leaked out of the pan. No worries though because a cookie sheet caught the mess. We let the cake cool, then came the moment of truth. Did the little lamb come out of the mold without harm?

Duh Duh Duhhhhhh . . . the suspense is killing you I just know it. The little lamb flopped. He stuck to the pan, one ear fell off, and due to an unfortunate baker's error - he had no face! "We can just fix him up with frosting," I suggested to the kids. NOPE, completely unacceptable to the pint-sized connoisseurs of fine baking in the house.

Thanks goodness for the big bowl of batter! (Tip: When making a molded cake prepare extra batter just in case) So I washed the pan, which btw is a pain in the lamb's butt, and I lubed it all up again for take two. Fill, tie, bake, wait, pray, cool, unmold . . . TA DA! Except for part of an ear falling off, this lamb was good to go. Rejoice, be glad, and use a toothpick and some frosting to re-attach the ear. We frosted the cake, then added green eyes and a cute pink nose with jellybeans. We made green grass with coconut and food coloring, then decorated the plate with the grass, some jelly beans and chocolate eggs. Done!

Now, you might be wondering what happened to the first flopped lamb. After we nibbled on the overflow of cake,  we wrapped him up then put him in the freezer for two weeks or so.  About a week ago, he rose from the dead so to speak to become a tasty dinner of french toast pound cake with fresh sliced strawberries. YUM!

*I used a recipe from this story in the Chicago Tribune's Good Eating section for the poundcake, but you can use your own recipe or a store-bought poundcake - even easier!

To make the French Toast:
Whisk 2 eggs with about 1/2 cup of milk, a teaspoon of vanilla and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Dunk 1/2-inch-thick slices of poundcake in egg mixture and fry in butter over medium heat until golden brown. Flip and repeat. Serve with your favorite french toast toppings.

Do you have a baking or cooking mishap that you creatively turned into something good to eat? Other flops? Tell us about it. See the Share Some Sips section on the left.