“Noodlemania!” Book Signing Saturday

Melissa Mikesell Barlow wanted to go beyond mac ‘n’ cheese and spaghetti with her children’s cookbook, “Noodlemania” (Quirk Books, $15.95).
“Pasta comes in so many different shapes and sizes, there are strings, ribbons, twists, curls, tubes, flowers, shells, bow-ties, letters, elbows, and more,” she said. “I thought it would be fun for kids to experiment and help create their own meals and have more options.”
She will be signing copies of “Noodlemania!” this Saturday, Sept. 7, at 2 p..m. at the King’s English Book Shop (1511 S, 1500 East, Salt Lake City).
I interviewed Melissa about her playful pasta recipes for my Standard-Examiner column.
Recipes include titles like Little Ladybug Salad, Robot Bites, Gooey Green Noodles, Curly Worms, Silly Sea Creatures, and Pink Pepperoni Flowers. Local photog Zac Williams’ colorful photos add to the fun.
Barlow said noodles lend themselves to different sauces and veggies, for better nutrition.
“If your kids are helping you, whether it’s shopping at the grocery store, or chopping up things, they are more likely to eat it,” said Barlow, a mother of three preschoolers. “The idea of the book is to involve your kids in making more healthy versions of things. There’s still some butter and cheese, but many of my recipes have lots of fresh veggies, and the vibrant colors always make the final food product look more appealing and beautiful.”
A few reader comments on my column were skeptical about the “healthy” angle because one of the recipes we ran, Under The Cheesy Seashells, uses a hotdog and no veggies. But, lots of Barlow’s recipes do use veggies, and there’s no reason you can’t add a cup of peas or chopped carrots or broccoli to the Cheesy Seashells.
Barlow came up with the idea while she was a book editor at Gibbs Smith Publishing. But somehow the noodle idea always got put on the back burner. When she left Gibbs Smith about three years ago to help with her husband’s business, she continued to work on the noodle idea, this time through Quirk Books.
Daughter Izzie, now 4, helped taste-test a lot of the recipes.
“There were some things she liked more than others,” said Barlow. “The recipes are pretty versatile. If your child doesn’t like tomatoes, you can substitute a vegetable they do like.”
For picky eaters, Barlow advises to continue to offer a variety of vegetables, even if the kids have turned up their nose in the past.
“When I cook dinner, I serve what my husband and I are having, and I figure the kids will eventually learn to like what they are being served,” said Barlow. “Our rule is that Izzie has to take a bite of everything on her plate. Sometimes she’s surprised that she likes it.”
“The main audience is for kids to prepare them with adult supervision, because you are using a hot stove,” Barlow said. “But if you have an 8-year-old or a ten-year-old who wants to make dinner, they could do it. Unless you overcook it, pasta is pretty hard to mess up. That helps build your child’s confidence that they cooked dinner for the whole family.”
Some of your recipes call for canned chicken, instead of cooking raw chicken. “I wanted one less step for the kids to have to worry about.” Barlow said. “I use a good-quality canned chicken that I buy at Costco, and you would never know it’s canned.”
In a few recipes, Barlow used food coloring to turn the noodles blue in her “Under the Cheesy Sea Shells” recipe, or green for a Purple Pasta Monster. The book also includes a recipe for homemade pasta for those who want to start out with their own from-scratch noodles.
“Most of the recipes can make a meal for a very decent price,” said Barlow. “It’s a good way to introduce kids to cooking. The recipes are fun to make and fun to eat.”
Mini Spaghetti Pizzas
8 ounces spaghetti
2 cups shredded pizza-blend cheese
1 1/4 cups marinara sauce, divided
Garlic salt, optional
Favorite pizza toppings: Onion, red and green bell pepper, mini or quartered pepperoni slices, cooked ground sausage, green or black olives, mushrooms
Cook the spaghetti according to package directions. Drain and let cool slightly.
Divide the pasta into 8 sections and twist each section into a layered circle of noodles to make your pizza “dough”. Each circle should be about 4 inches in diameter and about 1 inch thick. Line a cookie sheet with foil and spray it with nonstick cooking spray. Place each circle on the prepared cookie sheet.
Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cheese over each noodle circle and bake at 350 degrees for 3-5 minutes to melt the cheese. Top each noodle circle with a tablespoon or two of marinara sauce, or just divide sauce equally among the spaghetti pizzas. Leave some of the noodle edges showing on each so it looks like pizza dough. Sprinkle a tiny bit of garlic salt over each, if desired, and then sprinkle the remaining cheese over the sauce. Finish your pizza with your favorite toppings. Return the pizzas to the oven and bake 4-5 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and toppings have warmed through.
Makes 8 small pizzas.
— “Noodlemania” by Melissa Barlow
Quirk Books, $15.95

Under The Cheesy Sea Shells
1 1/2 cups small seashell pasta
Blue food coloring
Vinegar
1/3 cup 2 percent or whole milk
3-4 tablespoons Old English cheese spread
Dash of garlic salt
4 cooked hot dogs
Mustard
Cook the noodles according to package directions, adding a few drops of blue food coloring and 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar to the cooking water. Drain and return the noodles to the pan. In a separate pan, stir the milk and cheese spread until smooth. Season with the garlic salt and stir to combine.
To make an octopus, cut each hot dog in half lengthwise only to the middle. Then cut each half in half again so there are 4 tentacles. Repeat a third time to make 8 tentacles.
To serve, place the seashell noodles in a serving bowl. Pour the sauce over the top. Place your octopus on top of individual servings of noodles. Place two dots of mustard on each octopus to make the eyes.
— “Noodlemania” by Melissa Barlow
Quirk Books, $15.99