I could never survive on a cooking show

A couple months ago, my sister was watching me take pictures of food. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but I’d actually bought a set of cheap plastic dishes for the sheer sake of picture some food on the colors.
Foodies present on white. Food bloggers present on white. Chefs present on white. Food looks great on a white background and cameras can capture their colors best with the white. That’s just the way it is.
All the more reason she giggled at me when I gave her the option of blue or pink (okay, it was magenta, but I didn’t know if she knew what color that even was, hehe).
She watches Chopped on a regular basis and told me how she thinks of me sometimes when she sees the dishes.
“Except yours would never be picked because you’d do it with smiley faces or something. They’d think it was really cute, but you’d never win.”
Lol! It’s true! The conversation went on and we joked about me serving meatloaf rats or arranging the foods into funky shapes. She said sometimes I make them look like the chefs do and talked about how sometimes the chefs end up making a dish look really gross.
All the while, I was arranging bowls of shrimp alfredo into a pyramid.
Sure, the color is off, but the more important thing is the milk on the table you can see on the left hand side. I can get by with this because I’m not a food photographer. Or a chef. Or a photo editor.
I’m Quirky Jessi and kids like building things, even if it’s just a tower of funky colored bowls. :P
Just make it smile – Crockpot pizza

Most of us don’t have the time to make elaborate foods and I, for one, don’t have the energy or desire to always put a ton of time into a dish, even if I had the time.
But smiley faces are so simple and for some reason, they’re always so lovable. It’s one of my go-to “fun things” that the kids love, but only takes an extra 30 seconds of my time usually. I’ve talked about this before, but it’s worth repeating. Just make it smile and you’ll be surprised who will smile right along.
Crockpot Pizza
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 cup water
1 can tomato sauce
pizza seasonings (you could just use your favorite pizza sauce, too, or google a new pizza sauce recipe to try out)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 cup shredded cheese (any pizza kind you like will do)
pepperoni slices
1/2 cup sliced olives
any other pizza toppings you like
Brown beef, onion, and garlic as you normally would, making sure you drain off the grease. Mix in the sauce, seasonings, and water. Pour into the crockpot. (I don’t have issues with mine sticking, but if you’re concerned, you can grease the inside of your crockpot).
Mix the flour, milk, eggs, and cheese in a bowl. Pour over the top of the meat mixture in your crockpot. Layer on the rest of the pizza ingredients however you like (smiley face is only an example….get creative!).
Place the lid on tightly and cook for about 3-4 hours on high. When it starts looking brown and puffy, it’s ready to eat.
Learning with Chocolate Chips – The ABCs of Playing with Your Food

Do you have a toddler at home that is learning their shapes (or letters, numbers, etc)? Do you want to encourage their learning while preparing food? Using chocolate chips is a perfect and fun way to incorporate little lessons into your cooking.
*Pauses*
*Tries not to giggle*
Okay, so I’m trying really hard to give you guys some excuses to get creative with your cooking. Truth is, I don’t have a toddler at home and I just like playing with my food.

While I tend to make a lot of smiley faces, they can get old and it’s fun to branch out into other designs. With these muffins, I made several shapes. Most of them turned out pretty well, but I must say, chocolate chips are the wrong size and shape to try to make a heart. Oops!

This was my attempt at making a heart. :(
Kids or no kids, doing little things like this only takes a couple extra minutes and makes even adults crack a smile. There’s something about stepping even barely outside the norm that makes all the difference in the world. And even though the muffin is still just a muffin, they somehow taste better when they’re silly, hehe.

Creepy smiley…it’s coming to get you!
Tip: Flip the chocolate tips upside down. Not only do they look less scary, but the pointy tips will actually hold in the batter, while when done the other way, they just pop right off.


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