FOODIE: Easy Pita Pizzas

This post isn't so much a recipe as it is a really easy tip for feeding kids or pulling together a quick meal on a whim. We've made these for years now, since Lucy was a wee one. My girls, like most kids, are huge pizza lovers. Also, like most kids, they are incredibly picky eaters and we're lucky if we can get them to eat one vegetable and one fruit a day. And believe me, like most parents, we try like hell to introduce new foods and keep them on a balanced diet, yadda, yadda, yadda. But guess what? These little pizzas help mama keep her sanity on the whole food issue.

We always keep a stash of whole wheat or white pitas in the freezer, along with a jar of bottled pizza sauce. I take them out as needed; I broil the pitas a bit after rubbing them with olive oil and sprinkling with a bit of kosher salt to crisp them up. I usually take the sauce out of the freezer ahead of time to defrost on the counter or, if I forget, just put it in the microwave for a minute or so. After toasting the pitas, spread on some sauce and whatever toppings we can find in the fridge, pantry or leftover. The individual sizes are perfect for kids and my girls love 'decorating' their own pizzas. They love pepperoni, so I buy large bags of the lower fat turkey pepperoni. I often add fresh veggies to mine and feta if we have it. Leftover taco fillings with salsa as the sauce instead of tomato make great Mexican pizzas, as do fresh tomato slices and basil from the garden during the summer. Toss the toppings on and pop them in the oven. I often broil mine for just a few minutes if I'm in a hurry and, if not, bake on 350 degrees for about ten minutes. And I usually use a cookie sheet to bake our mini pizzas on, not a muffin tin, but it was already out on the counter and I was being lazy.


I love the simplicity of this for a quick lunch for the girls; kitchen shears cut up tiny slices perfect for little hands. These pizzas also make a delicious family dinner paired with a quick tossed salad.

THRIFTY: Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

For the past four years, I've become increasingly obsessed with consumption, reuse and recycling. I chronicled our adventures about living on The Compact in 2009 here, as well as my turn as a radical homemaker. I've recently become very interested in this zero waste home and blog - a family in California who either composts, reuses or refuses unnecessary junk into their lives, particularly in the way of food and product packaging.





This year I've decided to experiment with a few homemade household items. When we ran out of dishwasher soap last week, I researched a few homemade options. There are a ton of recipes and recommendations out there on the Internets, but I decided upon 1 cup Borax mixed with 1 cup baking soda. Put in a jar and shake. It's that easy. I use a tiny plastic scoop that I think came with some coffee once as my measure. It is probably about a tablespoon in size, and I typically use one scoop per load. For the rinse agent, I've been using plain vinegar. So far, so good. The only problem are the hard water stains on our glassware, which admittedly were problematic even before changing up the dishwashing soap. Perhaps the vinegar isn't quite cutting it? Hmmm. Again, it's only been about a week, so in a sense the jury's still out on this one. I do think my new concoction is doing the job just as well as the more expensive commercial detergent we were previously using.


Stay tuned, as I'm moving on to making more household items from scratch. I gave up shampoo and conditioner in favor of baking soda and apple cider vinegar a few years back, and am excited to try my hand at homemade deodorant and toothpowder next.

KIDDOS: Keva Blocks


We discovered KEVA blocks while attending our first Discover Engineering Day at Boise State University last year. The day is free for families and full of fabulous scientific fun stuff, like playing with robots and building rockets to riding a hovercraft and understanding atoms.

It was during the BLOCKFEST event, though, that we had the most hands-on fun. It lasted about an hour, and you rotated to different stations each 10 minutes or so. Different blocks were presented at each area, from giant cardboard ones that the kids used to build towering structures they could crawl inside of to these tiny maple planks.



We loved the KEVA planks architecture set, so asked grandma to buy it for the girls' as a joint birthday gift last year because they are quite expensive. For the 200 piece set, it's almost $70.
Here's the product description from amazon.com:

KEVA planks are construction blocks that are precision cut, identical in size and shape and made of Midwest hardwood maple. Each piece is approximately 4 inches long, 3/4 inch wide and an inch thick. These perfectly cut, identical blocks will stack with surprising stability. Their simplicity is compelling. KEVA planks are used in schools, museums, art galleries and homes to teach everything from physics to language arts to design and sculpture. By purchasing KEVA planks, we hope your home will be a creative institution as well.
We have thoroughly enjoyed these at our house. They are fun for adults and kids alike, and allow for more creative play than some other blocks we have. The blocks are pricey, though, so it might be the perfect thing to ask those grandparents or Santa for.

STYLE: Vintage Holly Hobbie Lunchbox




I still have my grade school lunchbox, a metal Holly Hobbie number from Aladdin. It was made in 1979, and likely purchased in 1980 when I was five-years-old by my mom for me as I started kindergarten. I used it for at least ten years, and ever since my mom has kept it for me. It even still has my name written on a piece of paper taped to the top in my mom's handwriting.








I love the schoolyard rules printed on the inside and the fact that I still have the thermos. We recently got this from my mom's storage after all these years and Lucy was thrilled to take it with her to first grade, although she has no idea who that girl with the big blue bonnet on the front is.







It was strange to discover how much larger our plastic tubs are these days, which, not surprisingly, indicates how much our portions have grown since the 70s. However, Lucy is a small eater and, like many six-year-olds, super picky. She likes her lunch packed bento-style, with things in small containers, like slices of ham, mini carrots, and baby dill pickles. Instead of pulling my name tag off, we added a new sticker with her name written in my handwriting. After school she told me that the thermos leaked her water all over, so the janitor had taken it away to clean it up. My heart skipped a beat, as I found myself suddenly quite concerned about the whereabouts of my beloved childhood container. She got it back, wiped clean, the very next day, with both our nametags still attached, marking the love between generations of brown-eyed grade school girls and their mothers.

KIDDOS: Homemade Playdough


Since Christmas, Alice has been really into playdough. She found our shoebox filled with all kinds of bits of old playdough, mostly mixed to a gray, dry lump. They worked for her, though, and she rolled and stacked and kneaded the stuff for hours. Finally, in our winter hibernation some inspiration hit and I decided to make our own. Honestly, I can't believe I've never made homemade playdough before. It's so easy, fun and inexpensive to create at home.

I found this recipe for the World's Best Play Dough via dig this chick and was smitten. It takes just a few ingredients from your pantry and cooks quickly on the stovetop. The only thing I changed in the recipe is adding just one or two drops of food coloring instead of 2 teaspoons as the recipe calls for.
We made all the colors in our food coloring box: red, yellow, green and blue. The dough is so soft and pliable and lasts much longer than the pre-packaged stuff. We store ours in old mason jars, but ziploc baggies or plastic containers would do as well.

We shared our new found fun with the other toddlers in our playgroup. While the mamas sat around drinking coffee and noshing, the kiddos sat happily at the kitchen table creating away. The best part about playdough is that everyday kitchen tools work great for sculpting - ice cream scoops, forks, plastic knives, cookie cutters, and rolling pins. My favorite new kitchen tool for playdough, however, is the garlic press; it makes super cool noodles or hair for your little sculpted creatures. The best part is that this has kept my insatiable preschooler occupied for hours and, while I might spend lots of time sweeping up dried bits of the playdough from the floor, its a great creative outlet.

AMY & REE: Mission Accomplished!

And here we have it, my 2010 New Years Resolution, to cook the entire cookbook, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl, completed. Done. Over. And I know I'm 11 days late. But, you know what? I'm cool like that. I've decided to give myself some slack, in life in general, but specifically in this goal. Because I loved this challenge.

I loved pushing myself way outside of my culinary comfort zone and learning how easy and rewarding it is to make things like your own whipped cream and pie crust and fried chicken. The Pioneer Woman makes cooking fun and easy, but at the same time teaches you down-home skills that should be part of every person's kitchen tools. And while her recipes were filled with necessary skills, they were also filled with fat. And butter. And sugar. I felt myself packing on the pounds with her solid, country foods and, sometimes, I eliminated some of the salt, butter, and replaced whole wheat flour for white. This challenge made me feel brave that way - able to take a recipe and change it up to my liking. And certainly not all the Pioneer Woman's recipes are like these; she's got an amazing website filled with lighter fare and even vegetarian recipes.

For the last two weeks of December, I cooked like crazy, making recipes out of the book. And I have to say, spending hours in the kitchen over the holidays with the Pioneer Woman was a blast. I really wanted New Years Eve to be my final hurrah, and invited lots of families to join ours in a celebration of 2011 and my big accomplishment. I planned to make the last seven recipes that night for all my friends. I did, in fact, make seven recipes and they were great, by all accounts. (We had so many guests and I had drunk so much sangria by that point that I had but a bite of each one.) The party was great fun, but I was still left with a few recipes to conquer. Here's some pics of the goodness that has been the past month of my life:

The Roasted Beef Tenderloin was a little too rare for my taste, but I'm a wussy red meat eater. The marinade was delicious, primarily because it included bacon grease (yum). Recipe link here (which also includes the recipe for PW's Burgundy Mushrooms which I served on New Years Eve but did not get a photo of because they went fast and I was too drunk. They are good, but cook all day (seriously, like nine hours) and take a whole liter of wine).


The Buttermilk Fried Chicken was kind of a greasy mess, but the breading was crunchy and tasty. I'd give it a shot if I were you, but I make a yummy oven baked version that is just as good.


This, my friends, is really damn good. It's Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich, with grilled cube steak slices and onions on a crusty roll. We added mushrooms and melted swiss on the top and served it with a green salad on the side. We now call this Our Favorite Use for Cube Steak Sandwich.

This was the first time I've ever made homemade buttermilk biscuits, and I couldn't believe how easy they were. And how much I adore using my pastry cutter and my biscuit cutter in the same recipe. Even better with homemade raspberry jam on top.
New Year's Eve menu signage taken the next morning. Yeah, you can't hardly read it now, but it listed the seven (supposed to be) final recipes: BBQ Jalapeno Poppers, Simple Perfect Chili, Potato Skins, Sangria, Guacamole, Burgundy Mushrooms and Creme Brulee.

Creme Brulee dishes, completely scraped clean, the morning after. It was THAT good.

Sangria pitcher with fruit remnants. I believe all the orange vodka, orange rum, red and white wine concoction ended up gone within the first hour or two of the party. In my glass alone. (There was more than one pitcher, okay?)


This photo of the fried Onion Strings wasn't blurry because I had drunk too much beer, but because my other hand was busy shoving handfuls of these into my mouth. One of my favorite recipes in the book, these are better than I've ever purchased at any state fair. And that's sayin' a lot.
I just thought the Cowboy Calzones were good, but my inlaws and Eric loved them. Since I was running out of time in 2010 and, quite frankly, was busting my buns in the kitchen around the holidays already, I cheated and used store bought pizza dough instead of making it from scratch.

Iny's Prune Cake was so hyped up in the book that I expected more. It was good and moist, but a little too moist, to the point of soggy. Could be my mixing of the caramel topping, but it didn't last more than one night.


I made the Breakfast Bowls for Christmas morning with my inlaws. They were easy and really dang good. Sorry, but I can't find a link to them.

Along with the Breakfast Bowls, I made the Marmalade Muffins for Christmas morning. Topped with a marmalade and brown sugar melted topping, these are too die for. They made way more than 24 mini muffins, which was good, because my father in law and I each downed about 7 fresh out of the oven.

So, now that I've made everything in the book, here's our votes for best of the best:
Eric's top five favorites are:

1) Creme Brulee
2) Rib-Eye Steak with Whiskey Cream Sauce
3) Marlboro Man's Favorite Sandwich
4) Edna Mae's Sour Cream Pancakes
5) Marmalade Muffins


And mine:

1) Creme Brulee
2) BBQ Jalapeno Poppers
3) PW Breakfast Burritos
4) Cinnamon Rolls
5) Olive Cheese Bread

While the cookbook sits next to me on the couch as I type, I lovingly look at how tattered it's become. And also how loved; the book has wandered around the house with all of us over the past year. Eric's taken it to bed, choosing a recipe for me to make for the next night's dinner. Lucy and Alice have laughed at the pictures of PW's puppies and cows. I've pretty much lugged the book from room to room, studying baking times and ingredients. The pages are tagged and grease splattered and covered with penned notes. Just how a cookbook should be.

AMY & REE: My Favorite Meatloaf


I made PW's favorite meatloaf with her creamy rosemary potato recipe (posted above) one night for dinner. It is a big hamburger loaf made the traditional way, except it's covered with bacon and a spicy ketchup topping. We thought it was pretty good, but, like all meatloaf, much better the next day. I almost love meatloaf sandwiches better than the warm night-before dinner version. This meatloaf was fine, but my favorite version of this classic is still my mozzarella turkey one.

AMY & REE: Flat Apple Pie

This flat apple pie recipe actually makes two pies, but I cheated a bit and used premade pie dough because, friends, I'm on a deadline here, with just a few days to so. It's pretty small, but boy is it delicious. And easy. I took PW's advice and drizzled caramel topping on the top. Add to that some homemade whipped cream and OMG, people. I took this to the BSU bowl game party and those folks couldn't stop raving about it. Highly recommended.

AMY & REE: Chicken Pot Pie

This recipe for turkey pot pie on PW's website is exactly the same as the chicken pot pie recipe in her cookbook, just substituting chicken for turkey. I made this last night for dinner for the inlaws who just got in for the holiday. It was a perfect winter night recipe. The addition of thyme is perfect and she's right about salting it to taste. Again, I cheated with the pie crust, and used pre-made since I'm short on time. Give it a shot, it's worth it! Would be a perfect use for Christmas dinner turkey leftovers.

AMY & REE: Basic Breakfast Potatoes & Breakfast Burritos

PW's Basic Breakfast Potatoes are a super easy way to make homemade hashbrowns and are basic enough to make a huge batch of and use in other recipes, like her Breakfast Burritos which I made with them. (The potatoes are also a perfect use for a few leftover baked potatoes from another dinner, by the way.) Anyhow, they are good alone, but are great with the breakfast burritos, which are really basic - salsa, sausage, cheese, egg and potatoes. The recipe makes a big batch, enough for a Saturday morning family breakfast and leaving you with 8-10 to freeze for later. Microwave for about 3 minutes (probably less if you don't have a 20 year old microwave oven like I do) and take them on the go. I love them.


AMY & REE: Olive Cheese Bread

Okay, ladies, PW calls her Olive Cheese Bread 'cowgirl food' and I couldn't agree more. While Eric didn't love it, I did. And Alice did. While we all had a slice or two with our dinner that night, the next day she and I ate a half loaf of the stuff. It is rich and yummy and olive-y goodness. Perfect for noshing all day and is especially complimentary to wine. So, of course, there wasn't enough time to take a picture of it between shoving it's melty, salty crispiness into my mouth.

AMY & REE: Beans and Cornbread

Sometimes we're just too busy eating to take pictures of the food. I always remember afterwards, though, and think, "I'll get pics of the leftovers tomorrow." Then Eric eats the leftovers as an almost-midnight-snack well before tomorrow comes, or we pack them into lunch sacks and I totally forget. This was one of those meals.


I grew up on beans and cornbread - it was a staple in my mom's kitchen repertoire and her childhood as well, which she imparted on us. I have fond memories of those pinto beans soaking for what seemed like days, and the salty, smoky hamhock falling to pieces once they were finally done. While my childhood cornbread usually came from a box (and, honestly, mine often still does), it was delicious with the meal and later with dark Karo syrup on top as a sweet treat.


PW's beans were great and easy and made a ton, so much that I still have a carton in my freezer. The skillet cornbread had a weird taste to me - I think it was the use of Crisco - so I didn't like it that much. My vote? Beans - yep. Cornbread - pass.

AMY & REE: Pineapple Upside-Down Cake (in an iron skillet)

I had never made cake in an iron skillet nor had I ever made pineapple upside-down cake before, so this was new to me on two levels. It was easy and fun, but a bit stressful at the flipping the cake out stage, as it always is for me. But look how beautiful! And vintage! In my cake carrier! (I could've upped the kitsch quotient if I'd added maraschino cherries, but I dislike them so.) I took this to the ladies with babies at playgroup and we enjoyed it with coffee. I think pineapple upside-down cake is something you either love or hate, but think it was a good recipe.

AMY & REE: French Breakfast Puffs

So, I just sent out our Christmas e-greeting, which captures some fun accomplishments from each of our family members throughout the year, like Lucy losing three teeth, Alice eating too many eggs, Eric watching the sun set over the Tetons and my successfully completing my Pioneer Woman cookbook challenge. Only, I lied. About myself. I'm not done with the cooking, not even close. You guys, don't judge. It was more of a 'publish a dream and it will become your reality' sort of idea. You see, I'm not going to be made a fool or a liar. I will get 'er done. Because I'm obsessive and a procrastinator and my husband will help me and I plan to cheat. Just a little teeny tiny bit.



But not yet. You see, I've been baking and broiling and beating for months now, and am just finally getting around to posting about some of the recipes. So beware, the rest of my posts for 2010 are likely to be a flurry of frantic kitchen tidbits about all the cooking that's bein' done up in here.



I made these muffins that are dipped in butter and rolled in sugar and cinnamon after baking them a while back, but they didn't last long. I've said it before, but PW sure knows her sweet stuff and I think baking is really her strong suit. These things are yummy and tasted a bit like donuts so, duh, um, I LOVE THEM. And you will, too.

Where I've Been = Manic Art/Work Mode

So, I've been a pretty shitty blogger lately, but I have been writing like crazy elsewhere. My new gig as a freelance arts writer for our local indy newsweekly, the Boise Weekly, has been fun and demands lots of evening interviews and late night sessions with my laptop. I've been producing 1-2 stories a month for them this fall, writing about anything from Iraqi refugees to improv comedy.

I'm also thrilled that my first pieces came out in Treasure Valley Family magazine, our local family publication, in the December issue. My regular monthly columns include "Shop & Tell" (a local gift/purchasing guide based on different themes), "Park Playtime" (highlighting different outdoor wonderlands in the area), and "Somewhere Over the Laundry Pile" (a sort of end of the day personal story about motherhood as I see it). I also occasionally write specialty pieces, like this one about local kids theatre auditions. Soon, I'm to be the featured mommyblogger on TVF's revamped website, so stay tuned.

Right after my layoff at the Boise Art Museum, the city of Boise Department of Arts & History snatched me up to consult with them on a pretty regular basis. I work on a number of projects devoted both to public art projects and history related ones, in addition to serving on two different committees for the organization. Lately, I've been tasked with working with local signmakers on getting appropriate labels and signage made for quite a few projects, like this one by Stephanie Bacon, a collaged installation making the Collister Branch of the Boise Public Library a really cool place:


Since June, I've been organizing an exhibition with 21 different local artists for the Trey McIntyre Project (TMP), a world-renowned contemporary dance troupe based here in Boise. Each year, Trey, the artistic director, asks a group of artists to create artworks inspired by each of the 9 dancers + 1 artistic director as a fundraiser. This year, I was asked to come on board as the project manager/curator of the event and exhibition. There was much to be coordinated, and the work load more than tripled as our opening date, December 2nd, quickly approached. Not to mention that Trey asked me to participate as an artist as well. Here's a peek at my artist webpage as well as the piece I created for the show:


Amy Pence-Brown, What you see is not all you get., found fabric, thread, frames, shelf, 2010. SOLD!




Moscow, Idaho, ceramic artist Marilyn Lysohir's plates and cups

Rachel Linquist made these fantastic fabric dancer dolls. Check out her Etsy shop for more cuteness. Plus, she's a helluva a gal.

E.J. Pettinger writes this quirky cartoon called Mild Abandon and did these paintings of the dancers holding a fundraising carwash. He turned the paintings into calendars, that sold like hotcakes.


Amy O'Brien + Kerry Tullis make up Unit Eleven Design. They use reclaimed wood and steel and made stools with heights based on each dancer's inseam.

Susan Valiquette is a photographer who mounted her photos of each dancer after rehearsal, sweat and all, to really cool lucite boxes.

BSU printmaking professor Jill Fitterer made tiny etchings with chine colle on wood for each dancer.
The exhibition is still up and, in fact, I'm hosting a recycled arts project for kids this Saturday in their warehouse space. Whew. So far, this holiday season has been fun, but a bit exhausting, and not with the normal stuff like shipping packages and hanging holiday lights, but with work/art madness. While it's been interesting and fulfilling, managing these four part-time gigs with full-time motherhood has been a bit challenging lately. I've missed too many dinners with my family and Lucy's totally out of clean pants as I type. I'm looking forward to more nights by the fire reading books with my girls, digging my way out of the mountains of laundry, and baking up some goodies for my neighbors. Oh yeah, and a little sleep might be nice, too.

AMY & REE: Chicken Spaghetti

So, while my mad cooking skillz are on a roll, my photography ones seem to be lacking. Not to mention that the girls (read: probably Alice) destroyed our good digital camera. Like, ripped-the-pop-up-screen-off-the-hinges destroyed. So, we are now using an old one that uses batteries and sucks the juice out of them like crazy, leaving us, most days, with a dead camera. Therefore, no photos of this dish because everyone ate it so fast I wasn't able to recharge the batteries in time!

PW's Chicken Spaghetti is basically a creamy chicken casserole with spaghetti, a very yummy comfort food dish. While PW calls for boiling a whole chicken and cutting it up and using it, we used a store bought rotisserie chicken instead. (TIP: saving the carcass to boil down with some fresh herbs into chicken stock for soup is highly recommended!) Eric's conclusion: delish. Mine: just okay. Kinda reminds me of a casserole a church might provide for a funeral service.

AMY & REE: Patsy's Blackberry Cobbler

I made PW's blackberry cobbler last week to take over to a friend's house. I was feeling bad that the dinner portion I brought was take-out Papa Murphy's pizzas, and I'm on a Pioneer Woman roll here lately. The deadline looms in my future to finish out my new year's resolution to make every recipe in the book. Plus, it's fall and I always love to cuddle inside next to a warm stove in this weather. Anyhow, I had frozen blueberries my inlaws picked in the freezer and used those instead. This dish came together so quickly and easily, but it has to bake one hour, so be sure to allow for that time. I whipped some heavy cream with agave nectar for a quick and easy sweet homemade topping. By far, this is the best cobbler I've ever made. Can't wait to try it again with our frozen huckleberries from Idaho Falls!

AMY & REE: Sherried Tomato Soup


This is the perfect fall soup to make for a fancy ladies lunch. Or, who am I kidding, any lunch really, as my girls loved it, too. It is so easy and the sherry just makes it too die for. I got all silly in the head and thought I needed (much more expensive) real sherry from the liquor store, but really, you can use cooking sherry as well. It gives it an extra punch of loveliness. Paired with a fresh baguette and a simple salad, it could be lunch or dinner any day of the week in my book!