Sparkle Kitchen
Explore a world of culinary delight with our Sparkle Kitchen category. Discover mouthwatering recipes, cooking tips, and kitchen adventures to satisfy your appetite and spark your creativity in the kitchen.
Sparkle Kitchen: Tiny Tacos
These tiny taco shells take just a few extra minutes to cut out and bake, but they're so cute for little hands. Below, I've filled ours with the comfort-food, Midwestern fixings of my childhood, but you should stuff them with whatever you like.
Sparkle Kitchen: Grilled Pizza
The practice of cooking in mud – or earth – ovens dates back to the earliest human civilizations. At it's most primitive, a mud oven is an uncovered pit in the ground, with the ground itself being used to capture heat.
sparkle kitchen: apple strudel
Traditional strudel is rolled out to be “skin thin” or thin enough that you can read a newspaper through it. While that may be a goal to aspire to, this mixture of modern puff pastry dough, apples, and warm spices will be delicious even if your dough isn't transparent.
sparkle kitchen: baguette sandwich
Wrapped in foil or parchment paper, this unfussy sandwich is delicious and also travels well, which makes it a perfect lunch for a picnic, or even a ferry ride if you happen to be taking one.
Sopapilla Cheese Cake
While this recipe is for a deep, New York style cheesecake — rather than Manny's grandmother's bars — the honey, warm spices, and strip of crisps tortilla are a nod to a classic sopapilla. Give it a try and make Mona proud!
Sparkle Kitchen: Soul-Soothing Noodles
Sometimes we all need the soul-soothing that a big bowl of soup provides, particularly when we’ve had a bad day or are feeling sick. This is our go-to recipe!
sparkle kitchen: bbq tofu
While it's not typical barbecue joint fare, barbecue tofu is a delicious nibble to set out as an appetizer at a party or during the peckish hour before dinner.
Sparkle Kitchen: Peach Pecan Pancakes
The extra thickness of these pancakes makes them perfectly suited to being stuffed with goodies. Try them with Dante's peaches and pecans or whatever else you can imagine up. Then, get ready for an incredible day.
NINE Outdoor Recipes and Crafts
This week we are EXPLORING our State and National Parks. There are so many wonderful things to see and do and explore there you hardly need our help. But we thought we'd give you a few ideas to help enrich your experience no matter where you are exploring.
Sparkle Kitchen: Fruit Leather
When I was little, my dad and I hiked in the redwoods, and he would often let me dash ahead on the trail to see the forest first, just like Martin & Sylvia do. When I got tired from all that running, one of my favorite snacks was a bright red, “fruit roll-up.” For my kiddos, we don't do fruit roll-ups, but we do enjoy homemade fruit leather.
Sparkle Kitchen: Flower-y Summer Salad
This week's recipe is far more lovely and appealing than grub-y grubs, although it's just as wild. This week we're making a gorgeous summer salad with edible flowers.
Sparkle Kitchen: Avocado Yogurt Dip
Just like Martin and Sylvia, any good mother's helper knows that it's important to give your younger charges a delicious, healthy snack. Today, we're going to talk about one you can grow in your own backyard.
NINE Sparkle Recipes and Crafts for the 4th of July
Americans have been celebrating the 4th of July with food, dancing, and fireworks since 1776. This week, in celebration of that day, we bring you some yummy Independence Day-inspired recipes and crafts to bring an extra bit of sparkle to your celebration.
Chickpea Burgers
Try a batch of these chickpea burgers for your 4th of July barbecue. Even your devout carnivore friends will enjoy a bite!
Sparkle Kitchen: Roasted Blueberry Popsicles
Every friend who stops by in the summer should be greeted with one of these icy cool, blueberry popsicles.
NINE Best Sparkle Summer Recipes and Crafts
We've got you covered for summer with great crafts and recipes to keep you exploring.
Sparkle Kitchen: Mangos with Vanilla Bean
The fruit of a species of native orchid, Madagascar vanilla beans are famous the world over for their heady fragrance and sweet taste. Their tiny, gooey seeds will lend a unique, luxurious flavor to anything you want to add them to. Mixed with bright summer fruit, Madagascar vanilla beans make a simple, sunshine-y dessert.
Sparkle Kitchen: Roasted Strawberry Sauce
By slow roasting fresh strawberries, you turn a succulent treat into something truly decadent. As the strawberries cook down, their natural sugars concentrate into a thick, jammy sauce that's as delicious on biscuits as it is on a bowl of dark chocolate ice cream.
Sparkle Kitchen: Kebabs
In The Welcoming Feast, a three-part Martin & Sylvia collection of stories, Daddy's new colleague, Rami Hadid, and his family are coming over for dinner. Martin is generally hesitant about meeting new people, but when he learns that the Hadid's are Muslim and that Rami has lots of stories about growing up in Syria, he is very curious.
Nine Sparkle Recipes and Crafts for Summer Travel
Whether you're planning to hit the road or "staycationing" right at home this summer, we created a round-up of fantastic sparkle recipes and crafts to help get your vacation off to a great start.
