Chocolate Icebox Cake, Take 2

Last Thanksgiving I pulled out my recipe for chocolate icebox cake. We hadn't even been in the new house a full two months and I had just finished repairing the cabinetry and trim and repainting (3 coats plus primer!) the kitchen, entryway, family room, living room, dining room, hallway, and Munch's bedroom. I had unpacked some of our basic kitchen supplies, but had yet to tackle the stacks of boxes in every room of the house. I hadn't yet unearthed half my wardrobe and the majority of my shoes and hoped they'd be found before the cold weather started. Not only that, but I had done all that work on the house late into the evenings AFTER a full day teaching kindergarten. Those first months of school are always the most busy and tiring part of the year because the kids are still SO young at that point and then I even had report cards and parent-teacher conferences as well.

I was nowhere near attaining a comfort level in my new kitchen, nor did I have the confidence (or tools!) in it yet to just whip things up at a moment's notice. An icebox cake, requiring only the effort of my pulling out the mixer to whip the cream and corralling a five year old to put it together, was a perfect solution for a dessert to bring to dinner at my parents'. The cake was a beautiful success- luscious layers of dark chocolate wafers sandwiched between lightly sweetened vanilla whipped cream, which after an overnight refrigeration had softened into thin layers of "cake".

Munch and I had assembled the cake in my favorite cake carrier from my old Williams Sonoma days. It comes with a springform round that clamps onto a stainless steel serving platter with an acrylic lid and carrying handle that fastens the whole thing shut. It's perfect for any type of cake that requires a springform, yet since the serving platter is already incorporated into the design, I no longer end up losing track of my springform bases when I transport desserts. The whole contraption has seen better days though, and there's now a crack in the domed lid. I'm used to its quirks though, but had forgotten that Munch wasn't.

We had arrived at my parents' in a bit of a rush and I remember feeling harried. Munch proudly announced that she would bring the cake in, and as she is so responsible and the cake was in the backseat with her, I didn't think twice. I was steps away from the car when I heard a terrible clatter- and turned around to find the cake upended onto the ground! The carrying handle had jiggled loose and slipped off the cake carrier, sending the dessert, its base, and lid in various directions. Our beautiful layered icebox cake was now a sloppy mess on my parents' gravel driveway. My exhaustion hit me immediately and for once, I had no words of comfort for poor Munch who was horrified at the mistake. My extreme silence left her even more unsettled and within moments, I think we were both in tears in that driveway.

Fast forward a few more months. The kitchen has been unpacked AND its contents rearranged after using it a while. As I'd been assigned to bring dessert to my sister's tomorrow, I figured it was time to revisit the icebox cake. Once again, assembling the layers went quickly and smoothly. Munch even had the chance to operate the mixer and watch the cream as it thickened to soft peaks. The cake is now sitting overnight in the refrigerator, waiting to be taken to lunch tomorrow. And Munch's words of wisdom this time around? "Carry the cake plate from the BOTTOM!"

Planning Ahead...

"Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr. Seuss is a popular gift for graduates. I didn't really think much of it though until this week when a parent of a former student brought her copy to me and asked me to sign it- for her first grader! Turns out she is collecting signatures from her daughter's teachers every year to be given as a high school graduation gift. Now THAT is planning ahead! And so much more special than just gifting the book. I enjoyed writing a note in its pages, thinking ahead to the person this student would become. And I immediately went out and got a copy for Munch to begin doing the same. Now that I've posted this, I wonder how many copies will be passing through my classroom over the next few weeks...

Navajo Tacos

Dinner tonight was Navajo tacos, a favorite recipe, that I haven't made since the move. It's basically tacos on Indian fry bread. I remember my first taste of fry bread many years ago when a student's parent of Native American descent made it for a cultural heritage day. How could you go wrong with fried dough? Yum! So I was glad to come across a fairly straightforward recipe for fry bread a few years ago. It's delicious plain, as a "shell" for taco fillings, or drizzled with honey, like a sopiapilla. What I am especially loving lately is that Munch is definitely eating like an older kid now. Her serving sizes are more consistent and easier to plan for and she can serve herself in the kitchen (so I can sit down at the table sooner AND stay there even when she wants seconds!)

Indian Fry Bread
3 1/2 c. flour (plus more for rolling dough)
2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/4 c. warm water

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the warm water and mix thoroughly to create a loose, sticky dough. Set dough aside to rest 10-15 minutes. With floured hands, knead the dough a few turns and set aside to rest a few more minutes. Heat about an inch of oil in a frying pan. Meanwhile, divide dough into 12 equal pieces and roll out on a floured board. Fry until golden on both sides and drain on a paper towel. Serve these right away! Makes 12 approx 6-inch dia. rounds.

Fashion Plate

I just love flipping through kids' clothing catalogs- Chasing Fireflies, Mini Boden, Garnet Hill for girls- and so does Munch. She circles all her favorite outfits in the catalogs and jots notes all around them. So, just when I think that I'm depriving poor Munch of a fabulous, up-to-date wardrobe due to our limited budget, she reminds me it's not about what you wear, it's how you wear it! This clearance rack,$8 plaid dress I brought home from Target made her day and inspired this winning combination. How I wish I could bottle that attitude and confidence!

Favorite flashbacks: Alphabet Activities, Letter R

Revisiting some of my favorite posts and projects...

Alphabet Activities: Letter R

Munch and I had "R Day" a couple of weeks back...or is it a couple of MONTHS now? We did the usual routine of making the letter with wood pieces and practicing writing it, but the fun part was making the rainbow cookies. The cookies themselves tasted just okay and I might tweak the dough in the future, but the best part was how sturdy it was and its texture lent itself well to lots of handling. This activity was particularly fun because Munch and I could revisit primary colors and color mixing as well. I got the recipe from the DLTK's Sites: Growing Together, which has been my resource for a lot of the great alphabet activities Munch and I have done together. The original recipe calls for forming the dough into one large rainbow, from which kids can break off pieces, but I like our smaller rainbows better.

Rainbow Cookies
1 c. sugar
1 c. butter, softened
2 c. flour
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
food coloring- red, blue, and yellow

In a mixer, beat together the sugar and butter. Scrape down the bowl before adding the egg and vanilla. Mix well to combine. Add the flour and mix well. Turn the dough out onto a board and divide dough into three balls. Add a different food coloring (red, yellow, blue) to each ball until dough is desired color. I kneaded in the food coloring before handing it off to Munch to finish just to be sure the color didn't ooze out and stain the work area.Divide each ball of dough into three smaller balls (I actually broke each ball of dough in half to start, then one half in half again, if that makes sense since I knew I would be combining colors). Leave the large dough ball its original color and use the remaining smaller two to mix with the other primary colors. Here's Munch kneading red and blue- it made the strangest grey-ish purple so added more coloring to it to make it more vibrant- it ended up fine once I baked it, not grey at all.Next we took each of our six colors and flattened it into a long rectangle.Then we stacked/layered the colored rectangles, beginning with purple at the bottom-I sliced the dough thinly, about 1/3-inch or so, then passed them to Munch to shape into a rainbow curve.After putting them on a parchment-lined baking sheet, we baked the cookies at 350 degrees for 9-11 minutes, until they just began to turn golden at the edges. This batch is all ready for the oven!