(10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare)
By Lisa Messinger
Food and Cooking at Creators Syndicate
If you've ever been at the mercy of your sweet tooth, you have to love a cookbook whose only chapters are "Hard Candy," "Gummy Candy," "Marshmallows" and "Cookies." Well, "Candy Aisle Crafts: Create Fun Projects with Supermarket Sweets" is not so much a cookbook, as a craft book, published by the craft division of the elegant cookbook publisher Clarkson Potter of the huge Penguin Random House company.
If you prefer handfuls of hard candies, gummies and marshmallows to making them from scratch, this innovative book is for you. You also can substitute sugar-free candies of your choosing. Although you can make the cookies, cakes and cupcakes that are foundations for the designs (and you can just as easily buy them; and either way, they can be sugar-free, whole-grain, or gluten-free, too), the candies are add-ons from the aisles of your supermarket that you can happily munch as you and/or your kidlet assistants put together impressive crafts. This includes everything from tiny gumdrop panda bears to huge castles fashioned from ice cream cones.
Former Martha Stewart craft editor Jodi Levine has devised a tome of treats that should get you practicing early for unique Halloween parties.
You probably will find, though, edible party centerpieces and favors that you will want to serve all year. A good way to navigate is whether you are aiming to please kids or adults.
A few child delights:
- Gummy fish that look like they are swimming atop a cake
- Piggy cupcakes that are made with marshmallows as snouts
- Gumdrop frogs with lusciously long tongues
Adult arena:
- A virtual town of "buildings" constructed from puffed rice and other cereals
- Monograms cut from marshmallows floating in each guest's hot chocolate or coffee
- Gumdrops that resemble buzzing bees sitting atop iced teas
And there are plenty that are appropriate for both under-4 and over-40 age groups:
- Cookies "painted" like various planets
- Edible charm necklaces made from licorice and gummies
Here are some shortcut ideas that spring from Levine's lengthier crafts:
Plan Some Planets: Bring up some photos of the planets on your computer screen. Using round store-bought cookies, paint what you see with frosting and cake-decorating dye.
Snouts are In Not Out: Buy pink-frosted strawberry-flavored cupcakes, place a marshmallow on top as a "snout" and include tiny black candies as "nostrils" and two more as "eyes."
Charmed by These Necklaces: Thread gummy letters as monograms along with other candies on baker's twine for delicious jewelry party favors.
Cereal Skyline: Cut store-bought or homemade Rice Krispies squares into the shapes of houses and skyscrapers and configure on a tray into a "skyline." Use filled tray as a table centerpiece.
Fun fare like this also proves food preparation can be easy, nutritious, inexpensive, fun - and fast. They take just 10 seconds each to read and are almost that quick to prepare. The creative combinations are delicious proof that everyone has time for creating homemade specialties and, more importantly, the healthy family togetherness that goes along with it!
Another benefit: You effortlessly become a better cook, since there are no right or wrong amounts. These are virtually-can't-go-wrong combinations, so whatever you - or your kidlet helpers - choose to use can't help but draw "wows" from family members and guests.
QUICK TIP OF THE WEEK: Keep track of those small plastic ties that wrap the end of bread packages and the plastic pulls that keep orange juice, milk and other containers closed tight before the initial opening. If left on a kitchen counter instead of immediately thrown away, they easily can find their way into a mixing bowl, casserole dish or soup bowl. If accidentally swallowed, they can create gastrointestinal distress.
Lisa Messinger is a first-place winner in food and nutrition writing from the Association of Food Journalists and the National Council Against Health Fraud and author of seven food books, including the best-selling The Tofu Book: The New American Cuisine with 150 Recipes (Avery/Penguin Putnam) and Turn Your Supermarket into a Health Food Store: The Brand-Name Guide to Shopping for a Better Diet(Pharos/Scripps Howard). She writes two nationally syndicated food and nutrition columns for Creators Syndicate and had been a longtime newspaper food and health section managing editor, as well as managing editor of Gayot/Gault Millau dining review company. Lisa traveled the globe writing about top chefs for Pulitzer Prize-winning Copley News Service and has written about health and nutrition for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, Reader's Digest, Woman's World and Prevention Magazine Health Books. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
