Whole Wheat Pop Tarts from Scratch!

Since my life has been occupied by play rehearsals, I have asked a very good friend of mine if I could feature a Facebook post of hers on my blog. So, please, enjoy! (Thanks, Natalie!) And I am seriously annoyted with the new Blogger because now I can't get my font size to be the same as before. Immaterial, I know. But it irks me.

Whole Wheat Pop Tarts from Scratch!

Start by making a pie crust as follows:

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/3 cup butter
4-5 Tablespoons cold water

I made this using a food processor but I'm sure you can do it by hand. Mix the wheat and salt. Cut in the butter until it resembles a crumb. Add the water until you get it to form a ball. Divide the dough into equal halves. Roll out into a square . You want it to be pretty thin but not so thin you can't peel it off the counter without tearing it. Cut off any rough edges so that it looks like a square. Cut into 6 rectangles. Place 3 rectangles on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Add your favorite filling and spread without reaching the edges of the dough. (I used jam but you could use Nutella or almost anything else. You can even make them savory like a calzone, or fill it with pesto...endless possibilities!) Put the other 3 rectangles on top of the filled ones and gently press edges with a fork to close. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Beat 1 egg with 1 Tbs. water. Brush onto the top of the pop tarts. (Optional.) Poke holes in the top with a fork.

Bake at 375 for approx. 20 minutes or until golden brown. Promptly remove to cooling rack.

I got this idea from the book "The Homemade Pantry" By Alana Chernila.

Protocol Droid Pasta

Wanna guess whose idea this was? (It's supposed to resemble C-3PO, in case you can't tell. And if you don't know who C-3PO is, I applaud you.)

Kiddo had Spring Break this week, so since Friday is my day off, it was just him and me at home for a while. I asked him what he thought we should do, and he decided we should cook something together, but not just anything--something out of this Star Wars cook book. We eventually settled on Protocol Droid Pasta, which is very little cooking, mostly assembly. And I wouldn't consider this a kid's recipe, because there wasn't a whole lot I could have him do. But the end result sorta came out like it was supposed to, except for the fact that I didn't have any turmeric with which to dye the cauliflower yellow. And my pile of pasta wasn't shaped like a head.

As far as difficulty goes, there isn't any. And it tastes pretty simple, too. I ended up stirring in more pine nuts--rather than the two the recipe calls for--which added some texture and flavor.

I'm not going to be able to share this recipe, because it isn't available anywhere except for in the book, but I can tell you what's in it: tri-color spaghetti, chicken stock, parmesan, and cauliflower and pine nuts as garnish. Then then face plates are sourdough bread brushed with olive oil and dusted with garlic salt. Tada!

Mexican Mochi Pizza

Three culinary worlds have collided with my boredom and landed on a plate. I know, right?!

First of all, lemme describe mochi. Er, rather, let's have Wikipedia describe it: "Mochi is a Japanese rice cake made of glutinous rice (not to be confused with gluten) pounded into paste and molded into shape." I found this at Whole Paycheck--read that today while reading a different recipe and it make me laugh--when I was searching for gluten-free stuff. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it until I googled "mochi pizza". I found this video, and got inspired.

Fast-forward several weeks. Since today is Friday and I'm home alone, I decided to play around with my burrito leftovers. As I was pulling them out of the fridge, I came across the mochi and had the perfect idea: Mexican mochi pizza! I pan-fried the mochi according to the above video and then layered beans, Tapatio (hot sauce), cheese, sauteed bell pepper, taco meat. After the photo, I added a few slices of avocado, too. DELISH!

This was a pretty ingenious idea, if I do say so myself. Now, a note about mochi--it's dense. I used only half of the 6 oz. block and it was too much. But it tastes fine, not like anything, really. Makes it versatile. When I make the other half, I'm gonna bake it as directed on the package, and I'll try to remember to leave a comment here about it.