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• Cooking With Your Kids = Getting Your Kids to Cook

  Which in my case = letting go of the reins enough to let the kids in the kitchen. Anyone else have this problem? Theoretically, I have no problem with my kids cooking. I would love for them to cook. It's a life skill I know they'll need eventually, and cooking together can be a lot of fun, a bonding experience. Plus it can unbond YOU from the kitchen. So why can't I embrace these concepts?  Read More... Posted Oct 23 2007, 07:32 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: kids, cooking, cooking with kids

• Kitchenista: Cupcake Cuteness

  When a friend showed up to our barbecue last weekend with this pan of cupcakes, I assumed she'd picked them up at Whole Foods (it's what I would have done). Turns out these treats were home baked, and the pretty little daisies were placed with the help of a five-year-old kitchen accomplice. Slices of marshmallow naturally warp themselves into flower petal-ish shapes when cut, and surround a gumdrop center. Fun to make, fun to eat, and a week later my kids are still wistfully reminiscing about them. Posted Aug 24 2007, 02:00 PM by Patti with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: baking, kitchenista, cooking with kids, cupcakes

• Kitchenista: Kids Make Homemade Veggie Tacos

  I never thought I would say this, but the Teletubbies are BRILLIANT. My 3-year old sometimes insists on watching that strangely hypnotic brain-sucking show, and a couple of weeks ago the video segment showed kids making their own tacos with homemade tortillas. "Hmm," I thought. "I know an easy homemade tortilla recipe, and the kids would like adding their own black beans, chopped tomatoes, lettuce, and cheese, and we'd have an awesome meal!" An awesome meal that I WOULD NOT HAVE TO COOK. Read More... Posted Aug 17 2007, 02:53 PM by Karen Murphy with | with no comments Filed under: kitchenista, cooking with kids, tacos

• Kitchenista: Kids Can Make Tortillas!

  Until I read this from our friends at Parenthacks, I had totally forgotten just how easy and how very satisfying making homemade tortillas is. Simple ingredients, kid-friendly in the making and the eating, and best of all, they're very very easy and totally FUN! HOMEMADE TORTILLAS 1 cup flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup water In a large bowl, toss the flour and salt together. Make a well in the flour, add water, and mix everything together till the dough holds together. Knead briefly in the bowl, adding a bit more flour as necessary. Divide the dough into four parts, and, with a floured rolling pin, roll each out into a thin, 6-inch, uh, circle. (They needn't actually resemble circles). Cook in an ungreased skillet over medium heat till little brown spots appear on the tortilla. Flip and repeat. Spread with butter (and honey, jam, or savory fillings) and eat. NOTE:  This is the recipe straight from Parenthacks. Did you notice it says "divide into four parts"? Does anyone else think that if you're going to go to the trouble fun of mixing, rolling, and flipping, you should make WAAAY more than a paltry four? Plus, I've got three kids, which would mean that each of us only gets...one. Seriously not enough. Feel free to quadruple the recipe. At least. Leftovers can be wrapped and taste great the next day. Trust me. Posted Jul 27 2007, 05:48 PM by Karen Murphy with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: kids, cooking, kitchenista, cooking with kids, tortillas, homemade tortillas

• Kitchenista: Mac and Cheese Revisited (Yet Again)

  For awhile now, I've been pondering The Mac and Cheese Question. Between facing the truth about "natural" macaroni and cheese products, reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, and just a general consciousness-raising about food processing and production in general, I'm just not so crazy about putting a box of bright-orange noodles on the table and calling it lunch. Come wintertime I'm more than happy to undergo the process of making a big pan of baked mac from scratch, but my kids want their cheesy noodles year-round, and finding an alternative to the Blue Box (or the purple one) that's quick and easy, that both tastes good and is good, has been a trick: bechamel sauce takes time, grated cheese alone is too stringy. But I think I've got it now. Ladies and gents, your lunch is ready: Mac & Cheese Boil your choice of pasta according to the package directions (any shape that floats your boat, and may I suggest spinach-filled tortellini or ravioli?). When the pasta is cooked, drain it and return it to the pan. Then add a generous spoonful of plain yogurt—whole milk for the littlest diners or the skinny minis, reduced or nonfat for everyone else—and stir it up. Add your favorite grated cheese to your taste and stir until melted (thin with a little milk if necessary). If you like, add peas or other leftover vegetables, shredded chicken or chopped ham, or whatever your favorite mac and cheese add-ins might be (I'm a purist myself). This is definitely a meal that's ripe for child-participation, too. Vegans and the lactose-intolerant need not despair, this works with soygurt and cheese substitutes. Try soy feta, it doesn't really melt but if you throw some chopped tomatoes in at the end, you'll have yourself a delicious Greek-ish flavor. Is it really quick? As fast as making Kraft according to the package instructions if you use pre-grated cheese or do the grating while you wait for the pasta to cook. I timed it. And you can control where the ingredients come from, how they were manufactured, and what their fat and nutrient contents are. Gotta love being in control in some sense, even if you're serving up mac & cheese by request for the fourth day in a row.   Posted Jul 11 2007, 02:00 PM by Patti with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: cooking for kids, kitchenista, cooking with kids, macaroni and cheese

• Kitchenista: Lake Cake

  As you read this, I'm on an airplane from San Francisco to Minneapolis, knitting something, drinking terrible wine, and changing DVDs every hour and a half or so. Then I'll ride in a minivan for two hours, at the end of which I'll tuck my kids, then myself, into bed at my in-laws' cabin in Wisconsin where I'll be spending the week. Jealous? You'll be even more so when you get a load of one of our family's favorite summer-at-the-lake traditions, the annual Lake Cake. My sister-in-law Susan introduced this cake to the family when her daughters were just old enough to help decorate, and it's been on the menu every year since. It's just not summer until we find some new twist: Swedish fish to embed in the Jello lake, gummi inner tubes for the Teddy Grahams to float in, a replica of our floating swim dock made out of part of a candy bar, a graham cracker cabin. It's the summer version of decorating a gingerbread house, and we expect it will be something my nieces and my own girls will probably be orchestrating for their own kids in a couple of decades, when they'll hopefully be serving it on the deck at the same cabin. The original recipe comes from Woman's Day and is presented as a layer cake, but in the interest of having more to decorate, we make it as a sheet cake.  I have yet to eat a piece of "lake", but the rest of the family fights for those slices (*shudder*). It's ripe for variation—swimming pool, ocean, Mediterranean—blue Jello is incredibly versatile (*shudder again*). Posted Jun 27 2007, 12:01 PM by Patti with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: activities, baking, cooking, cake, summer, kitchenista, cooking with kids