Revamped Purple Cow

One of my favorite places to find preloved childrens books is at our local library. They have two books shelves, a magazine stand, and a free box, as you come in the door. All of the books are the same price and the proceeded go to the library: Hardcover $2, Paperback $1, Kids Books .50, yes fifty cents! They sometimes have DVDs, CDs, and VHS Tapes which I think are between $1.00 - 2.00. Magazines are .25 and the free book is well, free. I love the free box because very old, obscure items in rough shape end up there. Usually perfect candidates for being cut up and used in collages. My most recent free box find is the Canadian Scout Handbook. It doesn't have a copyright date and is from the early seventies as far as I can tell. One of the previous owners has his name scrawled inside the front cover. The book has delightful black and white images of Scouts having fun learning about such things as conservation, water activities, home and community, and leadership. The illustrations are retro fun for all as they instruct on such useful things as self rescue should you fall through the ice or how best to stay physically fit...


As usual, I just went off on a tangent that has little to do with my original post. Anyway, I should scan some images and write a post on that manual later. For now I will tell you about my latest children's book find from our local library sale shelf. We love the library because we spend a lot of time reading each day. We also love to cook and bake. So, we were excited to find a vintage 1975 Young Children's Mix and Fix Cookbook. It was put out by Parent's Magazine, a pretty mainstream publication so I am convinced that I owned this same book when I was little. My three year old looked at it on the way home and we proceeded to "read" it over the coming days and talk about which recipes to make.


The thing that kills me about retro cookbooks is what we thought passed for good food back in the day. Many of these recipes call for processed and packaged foods, lots of white bread and canned fruit. I suppose that is what was available. I would not allow Quin to make half of these recipes as is but the fun is in updating them to use fresh foods that are healthy. Even in the case of the desserts. I remember loving Purple Cows when I was a kid, or any ice cream soda for that matter. I would not let a three year old drink any kind of soda, especially purple or red or any other kind with artificial coloring. My daughter seems to be quite sensitive to colorings, and I remember my little brother was allergic to red dyes when we were young. I knew she would like an ice cream "soda" so I decided to modify the Purple Cow recipe. R. W. Knudsen makes spritzers that are actually 100% juice with carbonation. We decided to use their grape spritzer with natural vanilla ice cream and voila, we had a much healthier little float. Guess it is time to invest in some reusable curly straws, I see a lot of floats in our future. R. W. Knudsen also makes black cherry, raspberry, orange passion fruit, and tangerine spritzers, to name a few. We may also try grape juice and Perrier (yes, my kid loves Perrier, makes it interesting when we go to someone's house and they ask her what she wants to drink...).


Have you updated an old recipe to make it healthier? I am all ears, or eyes... just leave me a comment. Merci!

How to Freeze Blueberries

A couple of weeks ago I was thrilled to find 5 pound boxes of blueberries at our local grocer for $8 a box! That is the best price I have ever seen in these parts. I bought two boxes, then went back for a third. I have to admit that while I had the knowledge on how to freeze the berries, it was my wonderful hubby who did the deed. Here are 6 steps to freezing blueberries.... nothing could be more simple.


1) Buy or pick a plethora of blueberries (or any other berry for that matter).


2) Sort through them and discard smashed or green berries, as well as stems or leaves.


3) Wash berries.


4) Pour a single layer of berries onto a baking sheet and let them dry throughly.

5) Freeze berries on baking sheet.

6) Store in freezer safe containers.


Here's to blueberry pancakes all winter long! And frozen blueberries, straight out of the freezer, are one of my daughter's favorite snacks. Like little blueberries slushies. Just let thaw for a minute, then eat. Yum!

FRUIT JUICE GUMMIES!!!!

Ok, I must have died and gone to heaven! I always search any health food store for a new fruit juice gummy and I NEVER even thought about making them (which is NOT like me!!). I was THRILLED to find this recipe featured in the daily CRAFT newsletter. As it mentions, even vegetarians could make these by replacing the gelatin with agar agar. I truly can't wait to make these and now must scour the local thrift store for some tartlet molds... Thanks CRAFT and Epicurious! Oh, and rockin' Cookie Magazine where this recipe originally appeared.