Having spent too much time in front of the computer one day last week, Mamma Gee and I retired to the anti chamber, whereupon we commenced channel surfing. As there were no vampire shows on, the remote magically made its way to SpeedTV. Imagine that! We came across The Racing Chef and since combining food and racing is like food for my soul, we stuck around. Chef Nicky Morse’s style isn’t our usual TV chef fare, but he presented this super easy tailgate party idea that looked like a lot of fun. What Chef Nicky didn’t mention is that Pizza Boats are also great food for the kids to make.

In the show, Morse and his guest (I hate to admit I don’t remember the guy’s name) made four different styles of PB, showing just how easy it is to feed a crowd with a wide variety of tastes.

After the break, we’ve got instructions and lots of great photos. I’m not going to list any ingredients for this one, as all you need are a couple of baguettes and your imagination.

To begin with, tear off a couple of sheets of aluminum foil that are slightly longer than your bread and scrunch up the sides a bit to resemble a boat. Cut your load in half horizontally as if you were cutting it to make garlic bread. This is a task best left to Mom or Dad or older kids if they are competent with a knife. Now the fun begins and the kids can take over.

Tear out the middle of both halves, so you have a trough to contain your toppings. Set the torn out bits aside to make croutons or something. Or, like us, you can dip them in whatever is handy.

You might even be bad and toss one or two at the dog. Just so long as Mom isn’t watching!

A big part of this recipe is making something fun and easy, so we used the ever present Ragu spaghetti sauce for this one. The kids like it and it is easy. As you can see, 9 year old Riley enjoyed spooning in a layer of tomatoey goodness.

As this example is a kid friendly traditional version, we chose pepperoni as the next topping. Never wanting to be conventional though, Riley added in a heavy layer of meaty chunks.

What else would you put on top of a pepperoni PB but a thick layer of cheesiness. Sticking with our easy theme, we worked with a pre packaged, Tex Mex, grated cheese to add a bit of spice and colour.

Pop these puppies in a preheated (400 deg F) oven for about 20 minutes or till nicely browned and the cheese is bubbly. Remove and let them cool a bit before cutting. The foil boats make transporting the PB’s easy and clean up is a snap.

Mom and Dad wanted to switch things up a bit, so we decided to do a BBQ version including grilled chicken. Earlier in the week we had found a giant bottle of Budweiser BBQ sauce at Costco that looked nice so this was a perfect opportunity to give it a test drive.

We grilled a couple of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts and slathered them in the sauce. While they rested, we spooned in a layer of Bud BBQ sauce into the boat. Thinly slice the chicken and stuff the trough and then smother it with the Tex Mex cheese. Heavenly!

Beyond the kid friendly aspect, the beauty of these is that the possibilities are endless. Chef Nicky piled on some massive raw shrimp, which looked perfectly juicy after cooking. You wouldn’t want to precook them, as they would be rubber. You could use alfredo pasta sauce with grilled veggies topped with asiago cheese. Beef, onions and peppers might look like a hoagie, but you know your guests would gobble them up. Regardless of what you choose to fill them with, the kids will love them and so will the guests at your next party!

What fillings are you going to try?

Our sixteen year-old daughter loves to eat.  So when she approached me and said it was time to make some soup, I didnt’ realize how much soup she meant.  Two of her favourite things are bacon and cheese so that is the soup we started with.  Below is our recipe for Cheesy Potato and Bacon Soup.

What you need:

8 slices of bacon (more if you prefer), sliced into 1 inch pieces

1 cup onions, chopped

8 cups chicken broth

8 cups potatoes, peeled and cubed

1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded

Salt and pepper to taste

In a pot, cook the bacon until crispy (or to your liking).   Remove and keep warm.

Saute the onions in the bacon fat, adding a tsp of olive oil if needed, until onions are translucent and tender.

Stir in chicken stock and potatoes and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat, cover and continue to cook until the potatoes are tender (about 15 minutes).  Remove from heat, let mixture cool and puree in small batches in a food processor.

Return to pot and add cheese, a handful at a time until melted, but do not boil.

Add bacon and stir.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve in bowls and add chopped, cooked bacon as a garnish if desired.

Serves 6-8

Who woulda thought? A cooking with kids blog that has a recipe for Kitty Litter Cake! Kidskuisine has the somewhat frightening cake treat, along with a whole lot more. Recipes are designed to be easy and fun for kids to make and eat. Some of the cooler treats for Halloween included Glycol Punch, Pumpkin Gut Nachos and even Pond Scum.

We’ve got birthdays coming up, and I’ll be the boys will want to gross out their friends with a litter box full of cat crap!

The perv in me just couldn’t leave this one alone. Wrap yer nanner folks!

Seriously though, while this looks more at home in a sex shop, it belongs in your kid’s lunch box. Say goodbye to the dastardly squished banana and hello to the firm, unblemished fruit. Your offspring will thank you for protecting their daily source of potassium.

No word if they offer a magnum model for those rare xtra long monkey treats.

Get your very own Banana Guards here

After chasing the kids around with a bag of pork chops soaking in red stuff, they were all determined that they weren’t going to eat that stuff. How things changed when they tasted it. Everybody loves that pork you get with chinese food take out, the pork with the nice red colour that penetrates into the meat and has a nice sweet taste. Now, you can have it at home. Best of all, it’s really easy! Our 5 year old, who doesn’t eat much meat, came back for seconds and ate almost a whole huge chop by himself.

Recipe:

1 1/2 cups of hoisin sauce
1 cup of oyster sauce
1/4 cup of black bean garlic sauce
3 cloves of garlic, chopped (if you’re lazy like me, use a huge tbsp of prechopped stuff)
1 tbsp of chopped, peeled fresh ginger (I grated it)
1 teaspoon of red food colouring
6 nice fat pork rib chops

mix the first 6 ingredients in a bowl.
Place chops in a big ziplok bag. Pour in the mixture from the bowl, squeeze out the air and stick em in the fridge. Leave them there for 3-5 days. We actually left them in the beer fridge for 6 days.

When cooking time comes:
Preheat the broiler – we used the default 500 degrees.

Line a baking sheet with foil. This is a killer recommendation, as it cuts down on the clean up.
Remove chops from marinade & put them on the sheet. Don’t drain off the marinade, as you want them to be goopy.
We followed the instructions and cooked them for 9 minutes a side. When you turn them over, they look a little raw, but it all evens out & they are perfect.

We sliced the chops thin, like you would have from Wong’s delivery, but you could serve them as regular chops. It might be a good idea to make a couple of extras to slice up and add to some noodles.

The menu suggestion from Bon Appetit included a funky applesauce and something else that sounded like it would take too much time. I had no interest, so I don’t even remember what it was! Instead, we took the easy route & used some Asian Home Gourmet brand Singapore stir fry noodles, tossed with a half a bag of pre shredded coleslaw. Easy, colourful and very tasty!

A funny aside about the noodles. Twelve year old Shelby loved them. 5 Year old Riley hated them. The freak of the house, 7 year old Duncan hated the noodles, but picked out and ate ALL of the cabbage!!

Overall, this recipe was a huge hit in the house and I think it will become a staple. Next time, I think we’ll try the chops on the barbie.

The boys wanted Corn Flakes after hockey this morning and I suppose I wasn’t really surprised when I found the box empty! I thought we had another box down in the pantry, so I sent the boys on a mission and they came back with a new box of Frosted Flakes. I’m not sure where they came from, but I must have bought them on sale one day. I hadn’t had Frosted Flakes in years. Crispy & sweet, but not too sweet. I had forgotten how good they are. Definately a guilty pleasure!