Chowder!

We found a clever new cartoon this Saturday. Lillie and I were watching one of our cooking shows and after deciding on asparagus (or Spair-a-gara-kiss) and chicken for dinner, we started clicking around. This listing said "Chowder" and, well, I love a good chowder...

Lillie loved Chowder from the start - it was silly, colorful and fast paced. Definitely more engaging than watching some middle-aged woman on PBS roast vegetables.

Here is the description from the Cartoon Network website:

"A young child by the name of Chowder is the chef's apprentice. Chowder believes that one day, he will be a widely respected chef like the one he is working with, Mung Daal. However, Chowder has a problem. He cannot stop gorging himself on the culinary delights by which he finds himself surrounded."


Chowder is a sensor overload of color and imagery - they also occasionally abandon the animation for funky photos of actual or imagined food and they even have puppets! It was created bu C.H. Greenblatt of Spongebob fame. Check out his blog here.

The show has a similar quirkinesspants to it but the animation is much more stylized and artistic. It has a fast paced 70's Schoolhouse Rock animation style meets Alice in Wonderland feel to it. The culinary theme was the clincher for me.

"You don't know what your missing, if your not in the kitchen." -Mung Daal

Go to the website for showtimes, kid-themed recipes and more...

http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/chowder/index.html


Here is a recipe I pulled from the site:

CRUMBLE ZU-COIN-IES

Ingredients:
½ cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
3 tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
¼ tsp. pepper
3 cups thinly sliced zucchini "coins" (about 1 lb.)
2 egg whites (lightly beaten)
Cooking spray

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Combine first three ingredients, stir well.
3. Dip zucchini slices in egg whites, dredge in breadcrumb mixture
4. Coat baking sheet with cooking spray, place zucchini in a single layer on sheet.
5. Bake for 20 minutes.
6. Turn zucchini over and bake an additional 15 minutes or until outside is crispy and browned.

*Note: Zu-coin-ies are not official legal tender.