Tag Archives: cooking

For your Guardians of Ga’Hoole fan: Hoot Owl Cookies

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My daughter is a huge fan of the Guardians of Ga’ Hoole books, so this recipe for cutey owl faces in cookie form was a big hit. The recipe is from Hershey’s Chocolate and Cocoa Cookbook (which I’m guessing is out of print).

Hoot Owl Cookies

Makes approximately 2 1/2 dozen

3/4 cup butter or margarine

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

2 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup Hershey’s Cocoa

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon water

1/4 cup Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips

1/2 cup whole cashew nuts

Cream butter or margarine, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla in large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Blend flour mixture into creamed mixture. Remove two-thirds of the dough to a floured surface. In small bowl combine cocoa and baking soda; add to remaining dough. Blend water into chocolate dough.

Roll half of the vanilla dough into a 10 x 4 inch rectangle. Shape half of the chocolate dough into a roll 10 inches long; place in center of rectangle of vanilla dough. Mold sides of vanilla dough around roll of chocolate dough. Repeat shaping steps with remaining dough. Wrap in plastic wrap; chill at least 2 hours or overnight.

Cut dough into 1/8 inch thick slices; lay two slices together side-by-side on a greased cookie sheet. Pinch a corner of each slice to form ears. Place a peanut butter chip in the center of each slice for eyes; press a cashew nut between slices for a beak. Bake a 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet ; cool on rack.

The Homeschool Village is swapping kids in the kitchen recipes. Add your recipe and find new ones for your family here.

**

Can you believe I just now realized my girl celebrates 12 years today?? I am a bad mother.

Nah. If she were home, I would’ve remembered right away.

We haven’t heard a word from them at camp; no news is good news, right? I’m glad she and her brother are having fun, but I do so miss them. Especially today.

Reading: Female Nomad and Friends by Rita Golden Gelman

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Female Nomad and Friends (Tales of Breaking Free and Breaking Bread Around the World) by Rita Golden Gelman

Reactions: Enjoyed immensely. Not as much as her first travelogue, Tales of a Female Nomad, but quite close.

This travelogue is different from her first book in that Female Nomad and Friends is not written entirely by Golden Gelman. The stories come from other women travelers (with a handful contributed by Rita, and one man) who share their adventures of life on the road. All of the stories share a common thread of food. Eating exotic dishes, helping in the kitchen without sharing the same language, cooking for new friends.

Add Rita Golden Gelman to the list of People I Would Love to Meet. Her life so different from my own!

Now that I’m done with the book, I’m going to try out the recipes that appeal to me. Yes, the book has recipes! Brilliant. I’ll be trying out the Thai dishes first.

Why I read the book: I can’t get enough of these books – women traveling the world, adventures into unknown lands. I love traveling; the packing, airports, meeting new people, the joy of returning to tell friends and family what you discovered. Dreaming of going back again.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had such an adventure. If I miss one thing about being single, it’s the freedom to pick up and GO. Raising a family and homeschooling has kept me close to my home turf these past years. I think that’s why I enjoy these women travelogues so much. I can live vicariously through them.

Homeschool – mom moment: Since I loved Tales of a Female Nomad so much, I was happy to find Golden Gelman’s new book at the bookstore the other day as I shopped with my 11 year old. When she read the cover, she immediately recognized the author’s name. Our favorite children’s book by Rita is Pizza Pat. Care to guess how many times I’ve read it aloud? It’s a good thing I like it too.

Female Nomad and Friends by Rita Golden Gelman

Experiments with chocolate

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I say experiments, because I’m not much of a baker or a cook. I’m purely in Food Survival mode most of the time, because at the end of the day when it comes to dinner prep, I want easy and fast. Hence, no great culinary feats for me.

Unless I’m inspired. And, oh my, file this post under I’m inspired. During a public library gleaning with the kids, I found Pure Chocolate (Divine Desserts and Sweets from the Creator of Fran’s Chocolates) by Fran Bigelow (with Helene Siegel.)  Look what I made with homemade crust (the crust construction always intimidates me.) According to Fran, this is one of the easier recipes.

chocolate tart

And it was easy. The most difficult aspect turned out to be setting aside time to make the crust, allowing for proper chill time (Stop snickering; I’d rather read than bake.)

Not sure if the crust is meant to slip that far down from the lip of the pan, but I’ll take it for my first attempt. Taste? It’s made with semi-sweet chocolate which only one of the kids didn’t enjoy (Peter made a face; silly child. He will come to the Dark Side, soon enough.)

The happy news is a copy of this book is going to come live at my house so I can conduct more experiments at my leisure. And look at that face! This child needs to be raised with good tastes in fine desserts. Plus I need more bakers around here. I can find the recipes, the kids can do the cooking. Washing the dishes can be the price I pay. Sounds like a win/win to me, no?

You can find the recipe on page 79 if I happen to inspire you bake your own Pure Chocolate Tart.