Whats Cookin?

Oh my goodness. The state of nutrition in this household is DIRE. With Daddy gone it is rather hard to be motivated to make an entire meal. I try to make sure that there are at least fruits and veggies on the plate... even if they are seated next to a sad little shriveled up microwaved hot dog. I am currently keeping a food journal of everything Finn eats in an attempt to get to the root of his on going tum tum issues and let me tell you after the doctor sees it she will surely report me for child malnutrition. Alright it is not that bad. We have gone through 2 bunches of bananas in 3 days so at least we are all getting calcium right ha! What there has been plenty of is deserts! I can't help myself. The blogosphere is bursting at the seams with yummy recipes at the moment and I had to share my favorite so far. But first a little background. Is it just me or has the world outside of the US failed to catch on to the deliciousness that is chocolate and peanut butter? Now maybe you don't care for this combination yourself (coughcrazycough) but it is my favorite treat. Peanut butter itself is hard enough to acquire here in Timor so I can forget any sort of PB/Choc combo. I started thinking about easter candy yesterday when one of my friends in London bragged on Facebook that she was devouring a cadbury creme egg-- so mean-- and I got to thinking about how much I love those Reeses eggs that come out around Easter. You know the ones? With a TON of extra peanut butter? ;lakdfjalks;djfl;kasdjfl;kajsdflk sorry my fingers slipped on the drool that had covered my keyboard. Well I knew I couldn't have them mailed here, they would get to me a waxy yucky puddle so it was nothing but serendipity that when I clicked over to one of my fav party blogs, One Charming Party, I saw these:

Photo: Nicole Hill Gerulat via One Charming Party

Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh. Home made peanut butter cups? I totally know this idea is not new and there are probably TONS of recipes out there, but what I loved about this particular recipe is the in depth instructions from the bloggers Mom. You know it works if it has been passed down! Now shockingly enough I do not own a kitchen aide. Yeah I know, I am like the only baker on earth who doesn't own one. Every time I bake with friends the conversation drifts to why in the world I still use a hand mixer. To be honest I always feel like there is something more important to spend the money on... you know like shipping peanut butter in from the states ha! Anyway I had to bum my friends kitchen aid off her so I could use the "paddle" attachment mentioned in the tutorial

Photo: Nicole Hill Gerulat via One Charming Party

Let me just say being able to make these bad boys might be reason enough to buy a kitchen aid. I didn't make any of the white chocolate ones, I am not a white chocolate fan (I know blasphemous) but the chocolate ones were so good I ate them all while sitting and sewing. Holy a million calories, but totally worth it. It is funny because when I am feeling homesick I bake. I want something that tastes like it should, something that tastes like home. While these don't taste like Reese's peanut butter cups (because they are 100 times better) eating something so good was like taking a mini vacation. So if you need a respite whip yourself up a batch of these, and don't feel like you have to share, I totally didn't :)

Roll it on out

I have a super fun Tricks and Trades planned for this week but I have to wait until my photo shoot for my valentines dress for this weeks Project Run and Play... which may be a while as I had to literally rip the first dress off my little model as she looked at me and said "am I going to have to wear this forever?" Which I thought was the low point until she ran to her mom and cried "it is too small, now she will have to use Carmen" (a smaller friend) oh man.... that was the low point. I try to tell myself at least she loved it right? (yes I will be making one in a larger size in an attempt to make it up to her). 

This week we have been cooking a lot of deserts to get ready for Valentine's day! I wanted to use my personalized cookies for the cute kids in Sawyer and Finn's classes. The problem was I had yet to find a roll out sugar cookie recipe that I loved and didn't taste like flour. This is a bummer since they are perfect for every holiday. But miracle of miracles I found the most amazing recipe this week!

image source

I love to use All Reciepes.com because of the rating system, although I find it hilarious when people give something five stars and then in their comments basically change the entire recipe ha! 

I found THIS recipe that was 4 1/2 stars and rated by close to 700 people. Oh my goodness do I LOVE it! It makes a HUGE batch and I bet you already have everything you need on hand. 

Once mine were prepared I made enough that said "heart breaker" to give one to each child

Then I made a personalized one for each of their classmates

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It is funny though because when your child goes to an international school you really need to pay attention to how his classmates spell their names. I already made one little girl cry this week, I don't need to do it again by spelling someones name wrong on a cookie :) We are going to decorate them this weekend so they can be delivered on Monday. I explained to the boys that Valentines is an American holiday so not to expect any in return. You can imagine how thrilled they were this morning when they both received a valentine in the mail from their Granny. Finn actually took his to movie night tonight to show his friends. Thanks Granny!

Holy Mackerel!

I feel I need to be honest about my motivation behind "What's cookin' good lookin' Wednesdays. Cooking dinner seriously stresses me out. This has been multiplied by a million since moving to Timor where there are always runs on items (currently you couldn't find butter to save your life) so you have to constantly be changing your menus according to what happens to be available at the TINY grocery store that day. The red meat here tastes appalling and if you would like chicken you must buy it whole and then cut it up yourself (which is what we do most days). I am sad to say I am not one of those amazing blogger girls who loves to do every craft and cook, baking? Yes. Coming up with a new meal every night that is nutritious and delicious? Not so much. I thought if I set aside one day a week on the blog to devote to cooking it would guarantee my family gets at least one good meal HA! It is really not that bad. We probably end up doing "Brinner" only once every 3 weeks. Anyway, almost as if to off set the shortage of palatable meat here there are always fresh (and as organic as you could get) veggies and fruits that are super cheap, although sometimes questionable in quality. The other item available in droves is--fish. Ugh. Something else you should know? I hate fish. I know it is totally odd for a girl who grew up next to the beach to hate fish but I do. I try so hard to like it but I always end up gagging. My husband LOVES fish, I mean L-O-V-E-S it and we both really want our children to like it, which means it must be made, and made often. Luckily a wonderful friend of ours who works here with USAID owns a boat and started up his own little NGO. Every weekend he takes out the same group of local guys and they fish all day. On their way home Peter sends out a text letting us know what they hauled in and that it will be available in front of the embassy. The guys then debone, flay... whatever the fishy term is the fish and separate it into generous amounts in freezer ziplock bags for five bucks each!!! All the money the local men keep so it is also a great deal for them. How easy and awesome is that? This week they caught Mackerel. The boys were soooo bummed when they saw they bag. They were totally hoping for "a fish with eye balls" :) (Mommy was sooo grateful for the bag) We received five large cuts.

I kinda thought they looked like mustaches or lips smiling at me.

Sawyer was positively giddy to help me prepare the fish.

He even helped light the grill (All eyebrows remain intact). I didn't know what season works best with Macrel and the internet wasn't work so I went with what my mother in law (who is a fabulous fish chef) uses on salmon, lemon and old bay seasoning.

I cut four lemons in half and Sawyer squeezed the guts out of them

(He also learned the valuable lesson that lemon juice and cuts are not a happy combination-- but he was "brave" enough to continue) We then shook on a hefty amount of the Old Bays and wrapped them all up in tinfoil and threw them on the barbie. While that was cooking I made some couscous.

I LOVE couscous, especially here in Asia when I feel like I am eating a bag of white rice everyday.
Surprisingly enough you can find quite a few varieties of it here, but plain is still my favorite. I couldn't find any fresh peas at the veggie market today so we resorted to our frozen stash. We invited out wonderful neighbor Brenda over for dinner (who also does not like fish), because apparently I need moral support when it comes to eating seafood. I am happy to report that is was delicious!!! The Mackerel didn't taste anything like fish ha! I actually had two helpings (the second was mainly a result of  reminding myself how crucial Omega 3's are and how little I actually get). Evie packed hers away and it only took minor coaxing for the boys to eat theirs. If you are like me and are not a fish fan and happen to get cornered in a situation where you have to eat it, go for the Mackerel my friend. You will NOT regret it. For you fish lovers out there if you have a recipe that involves fish, that you love please send it my way, especially if it ends up barely tasting like fish ha! I hope your dinner was as happy as ours!

Come back tomorrow to find out the winner of the Couture Cutie dress! Thanks for all your comments, I love reading them!