Although coconut is quite delicious straight from the package, toasting it for a few minutes give it a slightly crunchy and dried texture that is perfect for many recipes. And it’s lightly browned color makes it perfect for garnishing.

On occasion I have seen prepackaged toasted coconut, however it is quite expensive and not always available. Besides, it is super easy and less expensive to simply toast it at home in the oven.

I know some people recommend only toasting the coconut until dry, removing it from the oven before it gets any color; but I think a golden brown color on the coconut is attractive and flavorful, so that is how I make it.

Toasted Coconut

You could easily use more coconut, but be sure to only bake it in a thin layer, so that it browns evenly.

• 2 cups shredded coconut (I used sweetened)

1. Preheat oven to 300. Spread coconut in a thin layer on a rimmed baking sheet or pie plate. Place in oven and bake about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until coconut is dry and slightly golden in color (you don’t want to over brown it). If you prefer a colorless toasted coconut, simply watch it more closely and remove it from the oven as soon as it appears dry, but hasn’t quite began to change color.

Flora Desserts, quick and easy toating coconut at home

We love a good tea at our house, so when I saw a recipe for a Chai Tea Mix in a Christmas with Southern Living cookbook I knew we’d have to give it a try.

This recipe is super easy to make, the most time-consuming part is probably accumulating all the ingredients. And with no actual cooking required, it’s a great kitchen project to make with even the youngest chef (who could do everything but use the food processor). The end result is a spicy, flavorful Chai Tea Mix perfect for a cold winter day; and perfect for gift-giving as well. It also smells amazing, like a spicy, holiday potpourri.

We tried the mix dissolved in water, milk, and soy milk. And although they all worked, we think the Chai Tea tastes much better made with milk or soy milk; the version with water tasted very weak.

Although I have an embarrassing amount of spices in my cupboards, if these aren’t spices you typically use, you’ll need to collect a few things. I would check out a grocery store with a bulk foods department for small amounts of these spices (at incredibly low prices); however, most baking aisles are full of 50% off spices this time of year.

Here’s my daughter mixing up all the ingredients.

And the finished Chai Tea Mix all jarred up and ready to give away.

Chai Tea Mix

Makes 5 1/2 cups mix.

If you don’t have superfine sugar, you could use regular granulated sugar; however, you’ll want to place it in the food processor with the tea and spices.

• 2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups unsweetened instant tea
• 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
• 1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 cup powdered nondairy creamer
• 1 cup French vanilla-flavored powdered nondairy creamer

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine the tea and spices. Blend for about 1 minutes, or until mixture becomes a fine powder. Pour the mixture into a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients, stirring until mixed thoroughly.
2. Spoon tea mix into gift jars and label with a tag with the directions: “To serve, stir 2 heaping teaspoons Chai Tea Mix into a mug of hot milk.”

Flora Cooking With Kids, Drinks, Food Gifts, Kids Cook Monday

I realize this post isn’t actually about making food (at least not for people), but it is something we made in our kitchen.

Friday was the first day of Winter Break at my house and I am already trying to find activities for my preschooler. If you haven’t had a four-year-old around for a while, let me tell you, they are busy, busy little creatures. And from my experience, it’s far better to find something productive for them to do, before they find something to entertain themselves.

So, today after breakfast we made bird feeders for our backyard. I thought today would be a great day for this craft project, as my kitchen floor was filthy and a bit of birdseed and popcorn wasn’t going to hurt anything.

This task is a bit messy, so if it’s warm enough, it might be best to tackle making bird feeders in the great outdoors, where the actual birds live. This would allow the birds to clean up any mess that was left behind and save you the much dreaded job of mopping your kitchen floor.

The Pine Cone Feeder is a pretty standard homemade bird feeder; in fact I am fairly certain I made some of these when I was in elementary school. We used pine cones, peanut butter, and bird seed. I found bird seed in the bulk bin, so 1 cup cost me under 25 cents; even if you have to buy packaged bird seed, this is a a very inexpensive craft. I should mention, if you have peanut allergies at your house, you can use shortening, lard, or even margarine in place of the peanut butter.

We hung our pine cone feeder among our arborvitaes and the birds have been going crazy over it. In fact, we feel a little bad we didn’t make more, because they are fighting over it.

Pine Cone Feeder:

The finished product is not so pretty, but the birds LOVE it.

Pine Cone Feeder

• pine cone
• a few tablespoons peanut butter (or shortening, lard, margarine, etc)
• bird seed

1. Tie a string or ribbon around one end of the pine cone. Using a knife or spoon, spread the peanut butter all of the pine cone. Roll the pine cone in the bird seed, or for a messier method, sprinkle the bird seed all over the pine cone (as my daughter did).

 

Popcorn Feeder:

The Cranberry Popcorn Feeder was my daughter’s idea after reading about a similar activity in first grade anthology that included the book Popcorn by Alex Moran. And of course after the story, there was a “For the Birds” project. Of the two, this was my favorite, as it is pretty hanging in the bare tree, and far less messy to create.

I simply used some craft wire I had for making necklaces, but you’ll want to make sure the ends aren’t too sharp if the kids are threading the popcorn and dried fruit themselves.

Dried Fruit & Popcorn Feeder

1. craft wire (we used leftover necklace wire, a circle of wire about 6 inches in diameter)
2. 1/4 cup or so popped popcorn
3. 1-2 tablespoons dried fruit

1. Being careful of any sharp ends, thread the popcorn and dried fruit alternately on the wire. Twist the ends together, or insert in fruit so that it forms a completed circle. Tie a string or ribbon if desired before hanging outside.

So, if the kids in your life get a little bored this winter, you might consider spending an afternoon making bird feeders. The project is simple, fun, and affordable. Hey, I am a very not-crafty person, if I can do it, I am pretty sure anyone can.

Flora Cooking With Kids, Kitchen Extras dried fruit and popcorn feeders, pine cone bird feeders

Peppermint bark is a simple and delicious holiday treat. In fact, I can’t believe people buy the stuff, it’s so easy to make.

Although I typically make mine with white chocolate and peppermints (or candy canes), I keep seeing it in catalogs and stores with both dark and white chocolate layers. And of course I had to give this version a try.

My family gave this Double Chocolate Peppermint Bark two thumbs up. I made the layers of chocolate thin, so each bite wasn’t overwhelming; however, it is still pretty sweet.

Making Peppermint is super easy, in fact I think it’s one of the best holiday recipes to make with the kids. From crushing candy canes, to breaking the final product into bite-size pieces, this recipe provides plenty of hands on kitchen fun.

And even though this recipe is super simple, I think it’s pretty and tasty enough to share with family and friends.

And for some reason, I really want to crush this stuff up and sprinkle it on a big bowl of ice cream. Just a thought

Here is the first chocolate layer, spread fairly thin.

And here is the finished product.

Double Chocolate Peppermint Bark

This is one of those recipes that doesn’t actually have to be measured accurately to work, so it’s a great treat to make with the kids.

• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet or dark chocolate chocolate chips (or chocolate melts)
• 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips (or white chocolate melts)
• about 1/2 cup crushed candy canes or hard peppermint candies (I place them in a sealed plastic bag and smash with a rolling pin)

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the semi-sweet chocolate in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth, stirring as needed.
3. Using a rubber spatula or table knife, spread the chocolate evenly across the prepared baking sheet. I made this layer really thin, but you can spread it to your desired preference. Refrigerate or freeze the chocolate layer until firm (about 5-10 minutes in the freezer or a bit longer in the fridge).
4. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave the white chocolate in 30 second intervals until melted and smooth, stirring as needed. Pour the white chocolate over the hardened chocolate layer and spread carefully to evenly coat (some of the dark chocolate was showing through, but I didn’t stress too much). Immediately sprinkle the crushed peppermint candies over the white chocolate layer and return to the freezer or fridge to harden. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container (we like to keep it in the fridge).

Flora Cooking With Kids, Desserts, Food Gifts, Holidays & Special Occasions gluten-free holiday candy

We love caramel corn at my house and we always make a batch or two for sharing in December. This year I thought I would mix things up a bit, and branch out from the standard caramel coating and try a nice cinnamon popcorn.

Although quite a few variations of cinnamon popcorn exist, I decided to adapt a recipe that uses Red Hot candies. I must admit, I am probably so fond of this idea because those fiery cinnamon candies were a childhood favorite of mine.

This recipe is super easy, in fact the hardest thing about it may just be finding Red Hots. I seriously went to 5 grocery stores and ultimately found Red Hots at the Dollar Tree. Go figure. I know other similar cinnamon candies exist, but Ferrara Pan Candy Company (the maker or Red Hots, Lemon Heads, etc) do not use any gluten ingredients in any of their products, so it was really the brand I was looking for.

Although Red Hots are bit spicy, this Cinnamon Popcorn isn’t too hot due to the addition of corn syrup and butter. I typically shy away from corn syrup in baking, but I haven’t found anything works quite as well in these coated popcorn recipes.

The final product is crunchy, colorful, and full of cinnamon flavor. Unfortunately the color is more hot pink than red (which I think would have been more desirable this time of year), but it is definitely a fun treat to make at home with the kids!

Cinnamon Popcorn

• 1/2 cup unpopped popcorn kernels
• 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup Red Hot Candies

1. Grease or butter a 9×13 dish or roasting pan. Preheat oven to 200.
2. Pop popcorn in an air popper (I ended up with approximately 16 cups of popcorn). Remove any unpopped kernels. Place popcorn in a large bowl.
3. In a small saucepan, combine butter, corn syrup, and Red Hot candies. Heat over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until the mixture boils and the candies are completely melted. Pour over the popcorn and stir to evenly coat. Place coated popcorn into the prepared dish and bake in oven for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Allow to cool, break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

 

 

Flora Cooking With Kids, Desserts, Food Gifts cinnamon popcorn, red hot popcorn