The Coolest Blogging Gig Yet

Guys...I've been bursting at the seams to tell you about an amazing project I got the chance to work on this summer.  On October 7th, PBS Kids is premiering a new animated show, Peg + Cat, that is so, so cute. PBS needed a few recipes that are mentioned on the show for their website, so I was contacted to help them!

The first of three recipes has now been revealed through a partnership with Whole Foods, so now I can share it with you!  This recipe is inspired by some pirates you'll see on the show.  It's a healthy snack, involves a fun craft, and teaches counting.  Check out the Pirate Fruit Salad instructions here.  You'll also be able to find this at your local Whole Foods and on their website soon - how amazing is that?

There are lots of other fantastic resources on the PBS Kids website you can explore, too.  If you have kids, you should definitely check these out!

I'll keep you posted as the others are revealed...in the meantime...go eat some fruit!  If you're feeling extra inspired, you could make some of this healthy lime fruit dip to enjoy with the Pirate Fruit Salad!



Here are a few posts other bloggers have written about the activity/snack combo - check them out!

The Mamma Maven used their Whole Foods bag to make the treasure chest and tailored the teaching to each of their kids - so cool.
Crazy About My Baybah's son looked like he had a great time.  He made SUCH a cute treasure chest!
Dancing Hotdogs did a cool video about the activity.
Spanglish Baby's kids helped with everything from shopping to washing fruit.
Ben Spark made his first trip to Whole Foods to get the supplies for the activity...and now he's a fan!

Strawberry Blueberry Rhubarb Crisp

Last week, Travis came home from a meeting with his teacher, Davy, with a few stalks of rhubarb.  Confession: I've been scared of rhubarb since I was old enough to know what it was.  Not frightened of the stalks themselves obviously.  More scared of the unknown of something that seemed SO unlikely to be paired with fruit...not having a clue what to do with it.

I stared at the stalks for a few days, trying to get up the nerve to use them.  Sunday, I remembered a blog I happened upon a few weeks ago for a Strawberry Blueberry Rhubarb Crisp.  Travis is more of a crisp person than a pie guy, so I thought this would be the perfect recipe to conquer my 'fear' with.  Our friends Laci, Christian, and their son Berkeley were coming over for dinner, and are such good friends that I felt ok about trying out a dish that might fail.  :)

Thank you, Eat More Veg, for helping me learn that I'm a rhubarb fan!  This berry rhubarb crisp is easy to make, tart AND sweet, has a pretty purple syrup, and smells delicious when cooking.  Top it off with some vanilla ice cream and it's perfect!

Ingredients

Filling
4 stalks of rhubarb, cut into 1" pieces (about 2 cups)
1 pint blueberries
1 pound strawberries, washed and quartered
1 cup sugar
1.5 Tablespoons cornstarch
3 Tablespoons orange juice

Crisp
1 cup flour
1 cup old fashioned oats
1 cup brown sugar
1.5 sticks cold butter cut into little cubes

Directions

Mix rhubarb, blueberries, and strawberries in a large bowl.  Add sugar, cornstarch and orange juice and stir to evenly coat fruit.  Spread evenly along the bottom of a pyrex dish.  I used a 9x9 dish because I wanted a thicker crisp, but you could also use a 13x9 pan - it'll just be thin!

In a medium bowl, mix flour, oats, and brown sugar.  Cut cold butter into small squares and add to crisp mixture.  Using a knife (or your clean hands), combine butter with dry ingredients.  Sprinkle crisp over the fruit, the bake at 375 degrees for 35-40 minutes, or until crust is light brown and the fruit is blubbling!

Let the crisp sit for 15-20 minutes before serving.  Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy!

Christmas Edible Arrangement

Last month, I made an Edible Arrangement to take to an Election Party we went to at our friends' Peter and Allyn's house.  For our Christmas party, I decided it would be fun to have a red, green and white arrangement, so I bought strawberries, green grapes, large and green marshmallows, and some red and green candy.

It was a great, festive addition to our food table!  Check out the how-to and tips in my previous blog!

The thing I especially liked about the Christmas arrangement was that you could make little Santa hats with the strawberries and marshmallows.  So cute!

 Happy skewering!

Edible Arrangement How-To

Tuesday, we went to an Election party at our friends Peter and Allyn's house.  I wanted to bring some fruit to snack on through the evening, but didn't want to just bring a bowl of it, so I decided to try my hand at a homemade Edible Arrangement!  I figured if it worked, it would be a fun way for everyone to enjoy their fruit, and if it didn't work, I'd just un-skewer it all and everyone could enjoy it in a bowl.  :)

Thankfully, it turned out well!

For my arrangement, I decided to use strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, grapes, cantaloupe, and marshmallows.



I put together a few tips to pass along to you, so you can make your own!  Here's what I did.

I ended up buying WAY too much fruit (since I had no idea how much I'd need for a full arrangement).  Turns out I only used one package of strawberries, one pineapple, one cantaloupe and a few bundles of the grapes.  I did use all the blueberries and most of the large marshmallows.

I wanted the pineapple to have a pleasing shape (instead of just chunks), so I cut it into rings, cut the outside off, and then used a round cookie cutter to cut circles out.

Tip:  Cookie cutters with jagged edges don't work well with the grains of the pineapple, so pick a shape that is mostly rounded, like a flower or circle.




Prepare the rest of your fruit (cut and/or wash as appropriate) and give each item its own bowl.

Now prepare your vase!  You can either use styrofoam or some of the green floral foam.  I stopped by the flower department at our grocery store and got two bars of the floral foam for about $3.  Cut the foam so it fits snugly in the vase, and you're ready!

Tip:  Push the foam down so it's about 1" below the top of the vase, so it's not visible in your arrangement.

Now for the fun part - skewering your fruit!  Put one piece of fruit on the top of the skewer.  Then start sliding fruit from the bottom to the top to fill the stick.  Make lots of different combinations as you go so your arrangement doesn't look the same all over.

Tip:  If you're using marshmallows, slide a piece of fruit on before you try to put a marshmallow on.  This will "wet" the stick enough so the marshmallow doesn't leave stickiness all over the skewer.

The skewers toward the center will need to have more fruit on them since they'll be taller.  Make some that have less fruit as you fill the arrangement in so you can stick the skewer further into the foam and round the arrangement out.  Don't push the skewer into the foam so far that the fruit is touching the foam - the bottom piece will be tainted!  (ewww)

Tip:  It's easier to stick the skewer in the foam if you take the top piece off the skewer and push from the top.  Once the skewer is in the arrangement, return the piece to the top.

Toward the end I made several half sticks and filled in the center so the arrangement was fuller throughout

Just keep adding skewers until it's perfect!

It's also lot of fun eating the fruit off of a stick.

I'm thinking of making one for Christmas that has strawberries and marshmallows to look like a candy cane.  There are so many fun themes you can do!