Llamacorn Cookbook (unsolicited review)

On a whim a few week's ago I bought Syd this cookbook. It seemed cute enough and the girls love all things llama and unicorn. I didn't have high expectations but it was cute and relatively cheap and, well, pandemic. I've bought some weird shit.

 I'm here to tell you, if you need a gift for a tween or your kid is starting to want to bake, get this book. Syd is tearing through it and peruses it ALL THE TIME. And the even better is that the recipes turn out well, which I think is a boon to her confidence in the kitchen and means that we don't have to eat gross concoctions.  

Some recipes are a bit complicated, like these s'more cupcakes that called for a kitchen torch

Others are more simple. These were originally Ladybug Cookies but she took creative liberties with them. Essentially they're vanilla wafers decorated with frosting, chocolate chips, and mini-Oreos

And it's not all desserts (thankfully)! Last week Syd made us all quiche for dinner. How cute are these little flower quiches?

Averson was a big fan of the lemonade floats made with fresh-squeezed lemons and raspberry sorbet

Syd's been making so many of the recipes that I've begun gathering some of the less common supplies. Tip for if you get this cookbook: Amazon carries meringue powder and this really cute line of sprinkles in various themes including llamas (with cacti!) and unicorns, which includes the necessary unicorn horn sprinkles needed for the llamacorn cookies. 

I saw a meme the other day that said that maybe kids will come through the other side of the pandemic with all of those lifeskills we lament them not having. I think for sure Syd will come through with a lot more kitchen skills. The rest of us will probably come out with cavities and a sugar high.

The salad that defied logic

I refuse to allow picky eaters in my kitchen. That doesn't mean that there aren't any in my house, just that we don't talk about it. And our kitchen rotation is pretty predictable. Tacos, spaghetti, chili, meatloaf, and all the baked meats (pork chops, chicken, etc.). Every once in a while I'll throw something new in there, but rarely does it go over well. BUT...

One of my attempts to broaden my family's horizons was to add couscous to our pork chops, in place of the usual rice or potatoes. But I made way too much and ended up with not one but two big pyrexes-full of cooked couscous. I didn't want to toss it, so I checked allrecipes and found an awesome looking couscous and black bean salad. I knew my family would probably tolerate it, and I figured the leftovers would make good lunches.

I made a couple of changes, subbed green pepper for green onion because I misread the recipe, left out the corn because I forgot to buy it, and added chicken, garlic powder, and avocado. (I also doubled the dressing on advice of about a million reviewers).

Y'all? They LOVED it. Every single one of them. Eli scarfed a bowl and a half before I even sat down and kept going on and on about how we could make it again, add the corn, have this again, this is so good, Mama! It's like a culinary miracle.