A Simple Piñata Cookie

I was planning a lunch with a Mexican theme for our family reunion.  For dessert, several ideas on pinterest suggested a piñata cookie.  The little striped donkeys and other cut-out shapes were adorable.

After reading the instructions, I realized making even one was way beyond my patience level.  I needed twenty-four piñata cookies in a hurry!  

At a recent bake sale, I had noticed rice krispie cookies scooped on to cones.  They looked darling, and were fun to eat.  Voila, the ice cream cone-shaped piñata cookie was born.

 

Ingredient list:
sugar cones
small unwrapped candies that will fit in the cones
1 recipe of royal icing
1 recipe of rice krispie cookies, using fruit loops and fruity pebbles instead of rice cereal
cellophane and ribbon to wrap the piñata cookies

 

This is how my granddaughters helped me make a large batch in time for our fiesta!

The scoops of rice krispie cookies were made the day before.  Here is the link to the original krispie treat recipe:

In place of the rice krispie cereal, use:
3 cups fruit loop cereal
3 cups fruity pebble cereal

The royal icing was from Alton Brown, using pasturized egg whites,
available near the eggs in grocery stores.
recipe link here:

Ice cream dishes made assembly easy!  I got these years ago at a dollar store.  They look festive,
yet portion control the ice cream.  Here is a new use for them.

Fill the cones with an assortment of candy.

Spread or dip the flat side of the scooped rice krispie into the decorator icing, then place firmly on the cone.  It might be easier to pipe frosting around the edge of the cone, instead.  Royal icing makes a great edible glue.

Let the creations dry without disturbing, about 30 minutes.

Wrap in cellophane and add ribbons.  These beauties were produced in the time it would have taken to make one striped donkey!

The piñata cookie is a fingers friendly treat.  The rice krispie scoop can be eaten without getting fingers sticky,  then the candy can be eaten along with the cone.

Mexican Fiesta Lunch for Kids

Lunches during our family reunions have often been put together with little thought, other than getting those little tummies filled so that we could go on with activities.  This year, inspired by Pinterest ideas, we "visited" several countries during lunch.  Pictured here is our Mexican FIESTA lunch.  The menu included:

Cheese nachos, salsa, sour cream, grapes, fresh carrot chips, lemon lime soda, and piñata cookies. 

It would be easy to change the entree to burritos, tacos, or taquitos, with the same basic sides.

We used bright multi-colored paper products, straw hats and balloons (just out of photo range) to build the mood.  A nice touch would be  mariachi music playing in the background. 

Nachos for a crowd of children involves spreading corn chips on cookie sheets, sprinkling them with cheese, and baking a few minutes just until the cheese melts.  A pancake turner is useful in lifting the melty goodness on to each plate.

 We have found that fresh carrot chips and ranch dip is always popular with the grandkids.

A day in advance of the reunion, peel the carrots, run them through a food processor with the slicing tool, and seal them in a half quart jar with a vacuum sealer.  Prepare the dressing or dip then, too.  They are both fresh and ready to serve when needed.

We did the same thing with the grapes, washed and prepared the day before the reunion, they were fresh in the refrigerator waiting for last minute use.

Our piñata cookies were very popular, ending our Mexican fiesta.  This lunch would work very well on Cinco de Mayo.  Muy Bueno!

The Key to Kiwi

Homely on the outside and beautiful on the inside, the kiwi is a delicious fruit.  It is hard to believe that thirty years ago, they were almost unknown in the U.S.

Preparation is a little tricky.  Kiwis quickly soften to the point of flabbiness after the peel is removed.  A friend carefully peeled and quartered kiwis the night before her daughter's wedding celebration for a dramatic fruit platter.  Alas, they turned out a little too dramatic:  the kiwis were inedible after twenty-four hours in the refrigerator, and had to be tossed out just before the reception.

Some cooks serve ripe kiwis cut in half with a little spoon inserted as an appetizer for guests to walk around with in hand.  That eliminates the need to peel the fruit, and is a novel treat.  

For juiciness, include a napkin.

Most of the time, however, you need to deal with the peel.  When the outside slightly gives to the touch, it is ready to use.  Begin by cutting the fruit in half.

Isn't it beautiful?

Using a spoon, gently scoop out the pulp, all in one piece.

Slice, dice or puree the delicious half-domes.

Kiwis are delicious by themselves, on fruit plates, added to fruit salads,  in cream pies, to garnish cakes or other desserts, or pureed to use in fruit sauces, smoothies, or jam.

I recently discovered a tool designed to prepare kiwi.  It is manufactured by Zyliss.   It has a cutting edge and a scooping edge.  I found the scooper is useful to remove split or stubborn pits from peaches or plums.  It also cuts and scoops seeds out of pears. 

If you have the space, I would recommend this tool, as it is so multipurpose.  However, it does not do any better job than the  spoon and knife method I demonstrated above.

Here is the cutting edge, and it does a nice job of slicing the fruit.

Here is the scooping end.  Place the tool across the kiwi, scoop down, to insert at the top edge, then pull the handle upward, which propels the scoop fully down into the kiwi.  Turn the fruit as you cut until the circle has been completely cut.

With a little practice, you can get a smooth half dome out of the skin.  You can see I needed a little more practice here, but after doing a few, it became second nature.  If you learn how to quickly remove the skin, you are more likely to prepare, serve and eat this delicious fruit.  I made pancakes topped with Kiwi Strawberry jam, and added a sliced half dome of kiwi as a garnish.  It was delicious to have bites of fresh kiwi along with a tender bite of pancake and the homemade jam.

Cooking enhances the flavor of the kiwi.  Try makingg kiwi jam.  Here is a recipe for low sugar strawberry kiwi jam.  

Warmed in the microwave, this becomes a wonderful sauce for cheesecake.  Garnish with kiwi slices!

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Low-Sugar Kiwi Strawberry Jam

5 cups strawberry puree, using strawberries washed and hulled 
3 cups kiwi puree, using kiwis scooped from the half shell
2 boxes No or Low Sugar pectin
¼ cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon butter (butter keeps foam from forming)
3-4 cups sugar, depending on the sweetness of the pureed fruit

Yield:  6 pints

1. Puree the kiwi and strawberries separately in a good blender so that you can add each fruit until you have the correct amount pureed.  Dump each into a large cooking pot.
2. Add pectin, butter, and zest to the last batch of puree, then add to the pot.
3. Bring to a full boil, stirring constantly.
4. Add the sugar and return to a full rolling boil to allow the sugar to completely dissolve. Stirring constantly, continue to boil for another minute.  The color of the fruit will brighten to a nice red color.
5. Pour the jam into sterile jars. You will need 6 pint jars or 12 half-pint jars.  Leave at least a 1/4 space at the top of each filled jar. After they cool, store jars in the refrigerator for a few weeks, or store in the freezer.

Homemade Mashed Potatoes: from raw in the bag to the safety of the freezer

Homemade mashed potatoes are more than a comfort food.  Superior in every way to instant mashed potatoes, they can be prepared and frozen ahead for convenience without sacrificing flavor.

Consider the bags of potatoes available at Costco as a great way of saving time and money.  This bag cost $5.29.  It is simple to put in your cart and take home.  The potatoes are huge, weighing around a pound each.  The cost of the potatoes and cream cheese comes to about $.15 per serving.

The large size is an advantage if you are making mashed potatoes or potato salad,  The ratio of peel to potato is much smaller than for regular-sized potatoes.  They are not a suitable size for baking potatoes.  Baked potatoes will be the topic of a future post.  

In dealing with a twenty pound bag of large potatoes, procrastination is the main challenge.  Do not put off preparing your purchase for more than a week.  As they age, they get harder to peel, and then decomposition sets in!  Ugh.

Using a good quality peeler, will make the job go faster.  I especially like this one because it makes tiny grooves on the surface of the potato, improving the grip on the wet slippery potato surface.  The tip of most peelers can be used to remove small blemishes. 

Cut off any bad spots with a swipe of your knife.  A heavy duty, sharp knife does a good job of quartering the potatoes.

Summer is near the end of the season, so about a quarter of the potatoes may have bad spots.  In the fall, right after harvest, the potatoes are almost perfect.

Slice the prepared potatoes in halves and then quarters.  Time estimate:   figure about a minute per spud to peel, quarter and drop in boiling water.

Boiling the quartered potatoes prevents the over-absorption of water.  It only takes a few more minutes to fully cook the quarters, and you save dicing time.

A large pot or stock pot will work well.  This is an extra large one that holds the entire 20 pound bag worth of peeled and quartered potatoes.  I begin heating the water before peeling begins, and drop the prepared quarters right in the water.

If your pot is smaller, try boiling half the bag at a time.  Cooking time varies, but after the last potato is in the pot, and a vigorous boil begins, allow about twenty minutes of cooking time. 

Test the potatoes with a knife or a fork.  When the potatoes are tender,  Pull them out of the water and let them drain like this.

While waiting for the potatoes to cook, I get my stand mixer ready.  I like to put it right by the pot of potatoes.  Any type of heavy stand mixer will do.  Mine has cookie paddles, which I also use to mash potatoes.  Measure in 12 ounces of cream cheese and a tablespoon of salt.

I prefer using whipped cream cheese from Costco, because it is so much easier to work with.  For whipped cream cheese, I measure in three one-third cup sized ice cream scoops and plop them into the bowl.

Using a large Chinese mesh scoop, I fill my mixer bowl with potatoes.  I pour about a cup of potato water into the bowl as well.

Beginning at the slow speed, I move my way up to top speed, and let the potatoes whip for about two minutes, scraping once to make sure there are no forgotten lumps.

With a small investment in time, you have produced 20 pounds of light, fluffy mashed potatoes.  

The cream cheese improves the texture for freezing. 

I do not feel the need to add butter, although that is an option.  The simple ingredients of salt and cream cheese enhance the flavor of the potatoes, without overwhelming them.

Remove the cookie paddles attachment with a paper towel to protect your fingers from the heat.

Place the potatoes in casserole dishes or foil pans of your choice.  I find a half filled disposable steam pan will serve 6 to 8 people.  If you want to be precise, use a 1/3 cup ice cream scoop to measure your servings so that you have an accurate servings count in whatever container you use.

A fully packed foil steam pan serves 16-20 hungry people.

Put plastic film over each pan of potatoes, then stack them for storage in the freezer.  Do not mash the pans together, or you will have a potato popsicle stuck to the bottom of the upper pans.  Estimated yield for twenty pounds of potatoes:  45-48 servings. 

It is a wonderful idea to prepare Thanksgiving potatoes well ahead of the holiday.

Disposable steam pans are available in quantity at Sam's Club.  Consider buying the aluminum foil lids, too.  On half filled pans, I use plastic film so that they can be stacked.  It is handy to use the foil lid if you are completely filling the pan.  The lid can be kept on during reheating.

Here are the peels from the entire batch.

With your hands, scoop them back in to the original bag to discard, for quick cleanup.

This is the entire 20 pounds of potatoes processed into mashed potatoes and in the freezer.  The stack is about 10 inches high.  Reheat a frozen pan of potatoes  intended to serve 6 to 8 people, at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour.  Double the time if the pan is loaded to serve 16-20.

For Shepard's pie, pop a frozen slab out of the foil pan, place the Shepard's pie mixture in the pan, then put the slab on top and bake.

From raw in the bag to the safety of the freezer, this method will take about an hour of your time.  I am not calculating boiling time, as the cook is free to do other things while waiting for the potatoes to cook.  

Savings of time is considerable.  There is one pot and one mixer  bowl to wash, one sink to clean out, and one trip to the freezer. With an hour of time, 45 servings of comfort food have been produced, all at a cost of $7 for the potatoes, cream cheese and foil pans.  This works out to about $.15 per serving.  

An hour to save time and money is definitely "comfort insurance."