I am not an imaginative person. Whether this is caused by, or results from, similarly unimaginative dreams remains to be seen. But because of this personal failing, I had to actually Google ideas for playsets to encourage Max in imaginative play.
One suggestion that popped up a few times was the ever so vague "office worker." It was suggested I place a not-loaded stapler, a rolodex, some paper clips, and junk mail, amongst other things, in a box for a child to pretend to be an office worker.
I kinda get it. I love office supplies with all my heart and walking through an office supply store is like attending a place of worship for me.
But - really? This seems more like an imagination killer. I have to believe that there are better ways of encouraging fantastic, epic play, the kind of play that as an unimaginative adult I have yet to think of. Better than shoving a stapler and junk mail in a child's face and telling them to "be creative."
And then maybe I wouldn't be so completely bereft of ideas for "imaginative play" that I have to resort to looking up things on the internet. And perhaps I wouldn't have needed to lug out cookbooks and flip to the index, looking through all the words that start with B, L and T. Because all of a sudden, I couldn't think of any foods that started with a B or an L or a T.
This month's Creative Cooking Crew Challenge is a sandwich, one built around three ingredients that start with the letters B, L, and T and are not bacon, lettuce, and tomato.
After frantically rifling through glossaries just to even think of foods starting with these three letters, we finally came up with a BLT combination of berries, liver mayonnaise and leaves, and turkey. Works really well, actually.
Here is this month's round-up of all the BLT sandwiches made by the Creative Cooking Crew this month - definitely check it out!
Here is this month's round-up of all the BLT sandwiches made by the Creative Cooking Crew this month - definitely check it out!
Ingredients
Berries, sliced (we used strawberries and blackberries)
Liver aioli
Leaves (arugula and mint)
deli Turkey meat (we used smoked turkey)
slices of multigrain bread
For the liver mayonnaise:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1 small sprig rosemary
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 pound chicken livers
1 cup mayonnaise (homemade or store-bought)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
To make the liver mayonnaise:
Melt the butter and oil in a small pan over low heat. Add the onions and rosemary. Cook until the onions are nice and soft, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Increase the heat to medium and add the chicken livers (add more oil if needed). Cook those until they are cooked through and no longer red, about ten minutes. Once the livers have cooked, take off heat. In a bowl, combine the liver and onion mixture with the mayonnaise and puree with an immersion blender until everything is smooth. Chill until ready to use.
To assemble the sandwich:
Toast two slices of bread. Spread the liver mayonnaise on one of the slices. On the other, stack slices of the turkey, arugula leaves and a bit of mint, then the berries. Top with the remaining slice of bread and eat!
