Toddler Times – Sidewalk Chalk Paint

LP loves playing outside.  We have a water table, and a tiny tiny kiddy pool for her to play in, but sometimes I want something creative for her to do as well.  We’ve discovered the joys of homemade sidewalk chalk paint.  I love this stuff because she has painted on everything outside and herself and it hasn’t stained.  Not the sidewalk, or her skin, or the front door, or the windows.  Usually, she just gets to run around in a diaper and paint, but if the pool/water table are out, she wears a swimsuit.  The recipe we use for our sidewalk chalk paint is 1/4 c cornstarch, 1/4 c water, food coloring until it’s the tint you want.  Luckily, cornstarch and water don’t taste very good, so I don’t need to worry about her ingesting a ton of it.  The first time we painted, we used sponge brushes.  I don’t recommend this as the sponges just got seriously clogged with cornstarch and didn’t paint too much.  Brushes worked much better.  And cleanup of this is easy!  I’ve used both baby food jars and muffin tins to hold our colors.  And I put it on a rimmed baking tray to carry in and out of the house.  We even used this at playgroup one week and it was a big hit.

Even though it’s a week late…

…I hope this makes up for it. Things simply got a bit hectic last Wednesday when I realized upon waking up that we were supposed to leave THAT day for Thanksgiving vacation. But here you go. We decorated a bit for Christmas tonight. Setting up some lights and knick-knacks, setting aside tree decorations for a week or two in the future, and planning which outdoor lights will go where on Saturday when we set things up in the front yard. I know many people who have already decorated all out for the holidays, and others who are dead set against doing it this early in the month. But seeing as the next few weeks are so crazy for us what with the play and Doxa and vacations, we’re putting up decorations when we have time. So here’s a recipe to get your holidays started right – the molasses cookie recipe everyone loves and credits to me – which they shouldn’t, considering I got it from my friend, Sarah, who got it from The Best Recipe cookbook (correct me if I’m wrong, Sarah).

The Perfect Molasses Spice Cookies

Ingredients:
– 2 1/4 c AP flour
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1 tsp ground ginger
– 1/4 tsp ground allspice
– 1/2 c brown sugar
– 1 large egg
– 1/3 cup unsulphured molasses
– 2 tsp baking soda
– 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
– 3/4 tsp ground cloves
– 12 Tb butter (yup, 12) softened
– 1/2 cup plus 1/3 cup c granulated sugar, separated
– 1 tsp vanilla extract

Adjust racks to upper and lower middle positions in your oven and heat to 375 degrees F. Whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and spices together in a medium bowl; set aside.

Either by hand or with an electric mixer, cream butter, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until light & fluffy, about 3 minutes with a mixer at medium speed. Scrape sides of bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the egg, vanilla, and molasses. Beat until combined, about 30 seconds. Scrape sides of the bowl.

Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined, about 30 seconds.

Place the remaining 1/3 cup granulated sugar in a shallow bowl. Working with at 2 Tb of dough at a time, roll dough into 1 and 3/4 inch balls. Roll balls of dough in the sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 to 2 inches apart.

Bake, reversing position of cookie sheets (top to bottom and front to back) halfway through baking time, until outer edges are set and centers are soft and puffy, 11 to 13 minutes. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 to 3 minutes before transferring to cooling racks with a wide spatula.

Makes approx 20 cookies.

And that picture at the top – that’s not one of these cookies. That’s gingerbread.

Tasty

As promised, here’s my “made up” recipe for marinara sauce. I took what I liked about the other homemade sauces I’ve tried…and combined them. The wine can be omitted, but know that the type of wine you use (and if it isn’t there) adds a lot to the flavor. This makes enough for 3 large servings if you don’t drown your pasta in sauce. Or, alternately, enough for one box of pasta of the penne variety.

Add approx. 2 Tb of olive oil to a large saucepan over medium low heat. Empty 2 cans of low or no salt diced tomatoes (or the proportionate amount of fresh diced) into the pan. Normally, I drain one can and include the juice from the other. I tend to like a chunkier sauce so hence the draining. Thinly slice 2 large shallots and stir in. Smash one clove of garlic and toss it in. Run another clove of garlic through a garlic press and add that. Stir in 1 Tb of garlic salt if you like it super garlicky like we do. Add approx 2 tsp dried rosemary and 2 tsp dried oregano, or the approx amount of Italian seasoning.

Then grab a full bodied red wine and stir in 3/4 cup. Yep – 3/4 a cup. Or more, if you really like red wine. My favorite to use is “Pantheon” from Terra Blanca, but my brother informs me it is now sold out. So he suggests finding a red wine blend that is very full bodied to sub. (Pantheon is 81% Nebbiolo, 17% Cab Sauvignon, and 2% Dolcetto if you’d like to try and find something comparable – good luck) Bring this mix to a simmer and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally and smashing the larger bits of tomato.

After the 15 minutes of simmering, add a dash of Mrs. Dash original (hah!) and 3 Tb of butter. Allow to simmer 15 minutes more, or until it reaches the consistency you desire. If it becomes too dry, try squishing some more of the tomatoes.

At this point, I try to have my pasta all cooked – then I drain it and simply add it to the pan with the sauce, stirring to coat. I serve it with freshly grated Parmesan and those delicious small loaves of french bread you can pick up at Albertsons’ for 99 cents.

This is by FAR not as sweet a sauce as one you get from a jar, considering the only sugar in it comes from the tomatoes and the wine. And much of the time, I add a lot of spices as I enjoy a lot of herb-y flavors on my pasta. I also tend to use whole wheat pasta, which makes the whole meal feel much denser. I have tried adding meat, but the savory balance is thrown off a bit if you try to add meatballs or ground beef to the mixture. I am very tempted to try it with mushrooms or over chicken parmigiana. Feel free to add or subtract as you see fit. Enjoy!