Greeted with much excitement from my two little karate-masters-in-training, Kung Fu Panda was released last week to DVD. But which version should you buy? Wide or full screen DVD, Blu-Ray, Kung Fu Panda Two  Pack: Kung Fu Panda and Secrets of the Furious in wide or full screen, the pre-Wrapped and Ready for Christmasversion, or the Spanish version?

So many choices! We have the two pack, which is a bargain since it’s a only little more (or possibly less) than the single version depending on where you buy it. I do love the pre-wrapped version for easy holiday giving, too. (I love shopping, but HATE wrapping.) This year Paramount Home Entertainment is pre-wrapping three of their biggest titles – Iron Man, Kung Fu Panda, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The pre-wrapped DVDs will be on shelves at most retailers by November 30 or December 7.

But what to eat while you’re watching Po and the Furious Five defeat Tai Lung? Well, last summer while the movie was still in theaters, I suggested dim sum. But instead, stay home and make some hot ramen noodle soup!

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The title of Helen Cooper’s beautifully illustrated book Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story is somewhat misleading. While it is about a group of animal friends who have a ripe pumpkin for pumpkin soup, they end up making several different soups – fish, mushroom, beet and finally yellow/orange/red veggie soup – for their fussy friend Duck.

(Honestly, if it was me I would have given duck a couple of dollars and told him to go to the feed store.)

If you have a fussy eater at home in the four to eight-year-old age range, I’m sure Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story will be a popular children’s book at your home. All summer we’ve been struggling with Nathan being picky. I’m thinking of sharing Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story with him to inspire him to prepare a meal with me. 

Now that he’s such a good reader, I could have him pick an item like a soup to research in my large collection of cookbooks. If he finds a recipe he thinks sounds yummy, I will try making it for him as long as he helps write up a list, go shopping with me, and cut, chop and measure ingredients. After all, if he has more say in the planning and preparation, maybe he’ll actually eat what I cook up.

Since I know Nathan loves beets, we’ll be making the recipe included in Delicious! A Pumpkin Soup Story.

Pink Soup!

Ingredients:

1. 3 medium-size beets
2. 3 – 4 tablespoons of olive oil
3. 1 chopped onion
4. 5 cups of water
5. 1 or 2 cups of milk
6. salt and pepper to taste
7. yogurt or sour cream

Directions:

1. Put the beets in a medium-size saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes.
2. Drain the beets and let them cool. The skins will then be easy to peel. Chop up the beets.
3. In a large saucepan, heat the oil and sauté the onion on very low heat until it is translucent. This will take about 5 minutes.
4. Now add the beets and cook them for 5 minutes.
5. Next, pour in the water and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20 minutes.
6. Let the mixture cool and then mash it, or, better still, puree it in a blender.
7. Pour it back into the saucepan and stir in the milk and seasonings.
8. Slowly bring the mixture to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes more, then pour into bowls.
9. Plop in a large dollop of yogurt or sour cream, and stir.

Even if you’re not Irish (I’m not, but my kids are on their father’s side) I hope you will spend time reading some Irish folk and fairy tales. There are some wonderful books out there that will certainly appeal to your whole family, like:

• Strange Irish Tales for Children for ages 4 to 8
• A Pot O’ Gold: A Treasury Of Irish Stories, Poetry, Folklore, And (of Course) BlarneyFor ages 5 through 13, children will learn about St. Patrick, Finn McCool, and St. Bridget as well as fairies and leprechauns. There are also selections about Ireland’s food, music, pride, scholars, land and blessings, curses, cures, war cries, limericks, folk riddles, and lullabies are also included. This looked so good, I put it on my Amazon wish list.
• Tales from Old Ireland – For ages 7 to 11, this book is a collection of some of the best-known and perhaps best-loved Irish folktales including: Children of Lir; the Irish Cinderella; Fair, Brown, and Trembling; Lusmore and the Fairies; Son of an Otter, Son of a Wolf; The Twelve Wild Geese, and a few more.

And what to make for St. Patrick’s Day that’s traditional yet the kids will like? Many ideas come courtesy of IrelandsEye.com’s recipe page. Here are a couple:

Potato Soup
Serves six

The basis of a good soup – especially a simple soup such as this – is a good stock. The soup should be made with a white stock, that is, water in which a chicken, ham or bacon has been boiled. Alternatively, stock can be made from a ham bone or chicken carcass boiled with a few root vegetables and herbs as available, and an onion. The stock should be drained, allowed to cool and the fat removed from the surface. (I won’t tell anyone you used stock from a can though. I do too.)

Ingredients:

1. 6 medium potatoes
2. 2 medium onions
3. 6 cups stock or milk and water mixed
4. 1tbsp butter
5. parsley salt and pepper

Instructions:

1. Peel and dice the potatoes and chop the onions.
2. Melt the butter and gently cook the onions and potatoes in a covered saucepan until soft but not colored.
3. Add the liquid, adjust the seasoning to taste, sieve if wished and serve in bowls decorated with a little chopped parsley.

From A Little Irish Cookbook .

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If your children like Lemony Snicket, they’ll love Usborne’s Misadventures of Danny Cloke series. For ages 11 years and up, author Bowvayne has written two books – Spell Behind Bars and A Turn in the Grave:

At that moment he realized that everything Cyril Specter had done to get rid of Aunt Mildred had been in vain. His wicked stepmother was back. Just when Danny thinks things can’t get any worse, he discovers he’s under a hex that will make him act the giddy goat in front of his friends and family. And to top it all, he’s being haunted by a crackling Hobblegob from the spirit world of Gloom. Danny and his best friend, Imogen, must break the hex if Danny is to avoid a spell behind bars…

(Click here for more YA novel reviews.)

How about a creepy soup to go along with this spine chilling book? As usual Martha Stewart comes to our aid:

Eye-Popping Soup
A bowl of hot tomato soup will leave you cold if it stares back.

To make “eyeballs,” scoop the centers from mini mozzarella balls, and fill them with sliced pimiento-stuffed olives.

For the bug crawling along the edge of the bowl, use a toothpick to prick holes in a pitted Kalamata olive; then stick in rosemary sprigs for legs and snipped chives for antennae.

Technorati tags: soup, Halloween, recipes, Usborne Books

Behind the Mask by Yangsook Choi is a Halloween story for children ages 4 to 8. It’s a story of how a Korean-American boy connects with his deceased grandfather through the American tradition of Halloween and the Korean tradition of talchum or folk mask dancing.

This would be a perfect book for any American child who has ties to the “old country” whether it’s in Asia, Europe, Africa or South America. Behind the Mask is a beautifully illustrated book and will be enjoyed by adults as well as children.

To go along with this beautiful story, how about carving out a pumpkin to use as a soup tureen for a pumpkin bisque soup? One such example was featured in this week’s Denver Post food section. Make sure you use a pie pumpkin and not one for carving jack-o-laterns. Also, with the honey and cream, this soup is sweet and creamy enough to sneak by the palette of even the pickiest child.

Pumpkin Bisque
From chef Justin Barbour of the Colorado Chefs Association. This recipe was featured on Colorado’s Department of Agriculture’s website. (See the Colorado Farm Fresh Recipes section for more food ideas.)

Serves 2-6, depending on bowl size.

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium “pie” pumpkin (do not use jack-o-lantern pumpkins)
2. 2 tablespoons melted honey
3. 2 tablespoons oil
4. Pinch of salt, cinnamon, nutmeg
5. 2 cups chicken stock
6. 3 cups mirepoix (1 cup each celery, carrot, onion, diced small)
7. 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
8. 1 tablespoons butter
9. 1 1/2 cups cream
10. 2 teaspoons sliced ginger
11. 3 cups cream
12. 1 tablespoon honey
13. 3 teaspoon nutmeg
14. 1 cup sugar
15. 3 teaspoons cinnamon
16. 2 teaspoons salt
17. 2 small pie pumpkins for serving (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Remove pulp, seeds and skin from pie pumpkin and cut into 2-by-3-inch pieces. Toss in honey, oil, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Place on baking sheet and bake 30 minutes. Toss often; it burns easily. Sauté mirepoix and garlic in butter 2-3 minutes. Add chicken stock, bring to a boil. Remove solids and about 1/2 cup stock to a food processor or blender. Allow to cool slightly. Purée and return to pan. Strain mixture, discard solids and return liquid to pan.
3. In a separate pan, mix 1 1/2 cups cream and ginger, and reduce by half over medium heat. Add cooked pumpkin to strained stock and purée part of the mixture again. Add cream, sugar, honey, nutmeg and cinnamon. Simmer 5-10 minutes, stirring constantly and being careful to not let it come to a full boil. Add 2 teaspoons salt. For a smoother soup, strain again; for a rustic soup do not.
4. Cut the top off and gut and wipe out serving pumpkins. Recipe serves 2-3 if using pumpkin bowls or 4-6 if not.