Kids Cooking and Cookbook Blog Site

I once read that Julia Child said there were some foods you could eat over the sink. A peach was one of those foods. That’s why I ate a juicy peach for breakfast this morning “over the sink”.

Can you think of other foods that fall into this category?

Lee Jackson
Home and Family Living Coach
Check out my website here

The last two posts have concentrated on the deep-fried indulging world of fair and festival food. Today I want to consider how to have safe eating and drinking experiences at those events.

Remember that food safety practices should be followed at fairs just as they are at home.

Practice cleanliness.

Keep raw food from contaminating other food.
Don’t cut fresh vegetables or fruits on the same cutting surface as you prepare raw meat.

Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold.

What should you consider before buying food from a food stand or other vendor?

Does the workstation look clean?
Is there a sink for employees to wash hands?
Do the workers look clean? Are they wearing hair nets and gloves?
Is there refrigeration on-site?
How are they keeping insects away from the food?

What are healthy food alternatives to consider at fairs and festivals?

* Fresh fruits — Apples and bananas are great choices, but they are often dipped in chocolate or caramel. Any pineapple or kiwi fruit? Do they have any fruit drinks, even some “exotic” fruit drinks? These would be a better choice than any of the regular or diet pop or sodas.

* Fresh vegetables — you probably won’t find any of these except for French fried potatoes, potato chips, and other high-fat items.

* Calcium-rich foods — Are there any low-fat yogurts without added sugars? You will probably find lots of ice cream combinations – all with a high sugar content. Other foods rich in calcium include cheese, whole fish, leafy green vegetables and broccoli, which you probably won’t find available.

* There will be lots of protein foods – hot-dogs, hamburgers, turkey legs, fried chicken, and other variations. Here again you should keep in mind  sanitation and the way it is prepared. Does it look like a healthy choice?

Are you bringing food from home?

You can prepare foods to bring from home which will be healthier and cheaper than any at the fair. Here again keep in mind food handling and storage times. Wash hands before handling any food. Bring hand sanitizers or disposable wipes in case there isn’t any place to wash hands. All perishable foods should be in a cooler or insulated bag. Food should not be set out of the cooler for longer than two hours. If it is a very hot day, cut this time down to one hour or less. You can still enjoy the festive atmosphere while eating with your family.

However you choose to eat at these events, make sure you have a food-safe summer by reducing your risk of foodborne illnesses.

Sign up for my free newsletter and get tips, articles, special offerings and bonuses available only to subscribers.

Lee Jackson
Home and Family Living Coach
http://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com

Image via Wikipedia

Funnel Cakes are those light, crispy, deep-fat fried masses of novelty type confections served at country and state fairs, usually served warm and sprinkled with powdered sugar. (They are served warm because there’s usually a crowd waiting in line for the next cake to come out of the fryer). They are made by pouring batter through a funnel into hot cooking oil in a circular pattern and deep frying until golden-brown. Usually associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch, they are now served widely and have become a fair-going favorite.

Here is a Funnel Cake recipe we made in our family and consumer sciences class one day when many of the students were gone on a field trip and only a few remained. We had been studying quick breads and I thought this was an easy recipe that fit loosely into this category, didn’t make a large batch, and was fun to make.

You can make these in the traditional round swirls, or make Funnel Cake Sticks, as does Café Renee, a new stand near the World of Disney store and the theme park entrances in Orlando, Florida.

Funnel Cakes

2 cups flour
2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups milk

Oil for frying

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl with wire whisk. In another bowl, beat egg and milk. Add sugar, stir to dissolve. Add dry ingredients and (using egg beater or mixer) beat until smooth.

Heat at least 1 inch of oil to 375 degrees F. in either a deep fryer or a skillet. To form each funnel cake, place one finger over hole in bottom of funnel. Carefully fill funnel with batter. Over hot oil remove finger and make circular or other shapes with batter, making cake as large as you desire. Cook for 1 minute and using tongs or two spatulas turn funnel cake. Cook until golden brown, about another minute or so. Drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or use other toppings. Serve warm.

Makes about 4 smaller funnel cakes or 2 large ones.

Check out other fun and special treats in Amy Houts new book for kids and grown-ups, Cooking Around the Country with Kids: USA Regional Recipes and Food Activities. Click here to look around.

Lee Jackson
Home and Family Living Coach
Books for kids, families, and parenting professionals

http://www.ImagesUnlimitedPub.com

Image via Wikipedia

People are lured to county and state fairs for all sorts of reasons – carnival rides, clowns, petting zoos, tractor pulls, and 4-H exhibits. Others come for the stunts, races, music, parades, and of course fair food!

There are community groups hosting food stands all over the fairgrounds. They offer a smorgasbord of fair treats, from brats and turkey legs to ice cream and root beer floats. Fair-goers can see and enjoy funnel cakes being made as well as cotton candy.

It is reported that the Iowa State Fair will have five new foods on a stick this year. “Fair Squares” will have squares of crispy rice cereal and marshmallows in plain or peanut butter flavor on a stick. An “Octodog”, will make its first appearance at the fair. It is a mini-sausage shaped like an octopus. Octodogs are not only fun, but may be a safer way to serve and eat hotdogs. The hotdog is among the top ten items found on many lists concerning choking occurrences in young children. This is especially true when the hotdog is cut crosswise. When they are cut the long way, or linear, they are less likely to cause choking in children.

Octodogs can be made at home. There are tools for cutting the hot dogs, but they can be hand sliced as well, cutting the dog up to about an inch from one end. The trick to getting good results is to briefly freeze the sausage for 20 minutes to firm things up before cutting. Using a cooking spray like Pam on the cutting blade and then boiling or frying briefly helps to fan out the hotdog creating the octopus effect. If you’re feeling super-ambitious, you can decorate octodogs with little eyes and mouths. Stick sesame or other seeds onto the head with a little honey, or use cream cheese or another sticky spread to affix little round cutouts of sliced cheese for the facial features.

Another food on a stick to be featured will be “Twinkie Logs”. These are frozen Twinkies dipped in white chocolate and rolled in nuts and dipped in white chocolate. Other new frozen confections will include tiramisu, turtle mousse and strawberry-cream flavored bars.

I can almost taste the chocolate, nuts, and caramel sauce in the turtle mousse. What’s a fair-goer to do?  Is this the one exception to eating healthy?  Where are the fruits and vegetables and other low-fat, low/no sugar foods? Only in the 4-H garden produce exhibit areas, I suppose.

What are your favorite foods when you go to the fair?

I’d love to hear your comments on how you handle festivals, children, and healthy foods.

Lee Jackson
Home and Family Living Coach

I’m proud to be an American. For all our faults and shortcomings, I feel blessed to live in a country free from tyranny and persecution. I value the freedoms we hold dear. May God continue to bless America, the home of the brave and the land of the free.

Lee Jackson, CFCS
Home and family living coach

I just came back from the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) meeting in Cleveland. One of the highlights of the meeting was hearing Michael F. Roizen, M.D. talk about living every day to the fullest through a healthy lifestyle. He and Dr. Oz host a show on Oprah and Friends radio where they discuss healing techniques, preventative medicine and the latest in health news. They also share a daily syndicated newspaper column. He is currently chief wellness officer and chair of the Wellness Institute at the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Roizen pointed out 4 areas of choices we make that impact our longevity and quality of life. They are:
tobacco
food choices and portion size
physical activity
stress

“No smoking” campaigns have greatly lessened the tobacco usage in the US, but smoking is on the rise again, according to his statements.

Here is information from Dr. Roizen about food choices and portion size:

Eliminate or limit saturated fat and trans fats. These kinds of fats are found mostly in meats, luncheon meats, full-fat dairy products, baked goods, fried fast foods, and palm and coconut oils.
Avoid simple sugars, including syrup (corn, malt, rice, maple).
Stay away from most white, processed food.
Use a smaller sized plate, such as a 9-inch rather than the more traditional larger sizes.

I was especially interested in his comment: “Teach cooking!” By preparing food in the home we can make a much more direct effect on our health.

Concerning physical activity, Dr. Roizen said to walk 30 minutes every day. Using a pedometer is helpful.

Five minutes of meditation morning and evening would help with stress control.

These were only some of the highlights that I wanted to share with you today.

Lee Jackson, CFCS
Home and Family Living Coach

Earlier I wrote about the spiral/non-spiral cookbook situation. Today I want to tell you about another of our apple

Apples, Apples Everywhere - Favorite Recipes From America's Orchards

cookbooks and how we solved the “cookbook stay open” issue. This cookbook, Apples, Apples Everywhere – Favorite Recipes From America’s Orchards, is a little bit larger than From the Apple Orchard and a different type of binding was used on it – one that allows it to stay open better. The larger size also helps it stay open.

The cookbook doesn’t snap shut when you take your eyes off the page. This “stay flat” binding is a big help when hands have flour and you don’t want to lose the recipe page. In printer jargon, the binding goes by different names, but I just call it “the binding that stays open”.

When checking out cookbooks, you will see that some stay open better than others. We’ve been very happy with the way Apples, Apples Everywhere responds to kitchen counter etiquette. I’m glad we chose that type because it really makes the cooks happier.

Lee Jackson
Images Unlimited Publishing
Books for cooks and apple lovers,
kids, families, and parenting professionals
http://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com

One of our cookbooks, From the Apple Orchard – Recipes for Apple Lovers, sold out in the plastic spiral binding format.  We only have the non-spiral cookbooks left in that title. So today we ordered a bunch with the spirals. Some of our customers have ordered the non-spirals in the past – they are a little cheaper – but most really prefer the cookbook to stay open and order the spiral ones.

What are your preferences? Would you buy a cookbook without the spiral if it were $2.00 cheaper? $3? $4? $5?? Your input will help us with further print runs. Thanks!

Lee Jackson
Images Unlimited Publishing

Books for cooks and apple lovers,
kids, families and parenting professionals
http://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com

Good content here on helping your children listen better. See http://bit.ly/b9eNis. It has lots of good suggestions for parenting.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Learning Effective Communication Skills (personal-work-habits.suite101.com)

Now that school is over, or almost over, children will be home for longer periods. Make those days productive and fun. Working with them in the kitchen can be a fun, educational and a safe activity, providing certain rules are followed.

Following directions
In all aspects of life, there are certain rules that must be followed. Working in the kitchen requires certain rules and directions as well. Depending on the age of the child, you may need to repeat directions on how to do different jobs.

Tell and then show the child what needs to be done. Show how to “cut-in” butter into a flour-sugar mixture, for example, using two table knives or a pastry blender. Explain what “folding-in” means and use the spatula to show how you gently bring the spatula over and over to “fold-in” the ingredient. This often refers to folding-in beaten egg whites into the remainder of the ingredients.

Some children can remember a list of more than one jobs. For example, for some you can say: please get out the big bowl, the mixing spoon and the measuring cups. For others, asking the child to do one or two jobs at a time may be appropriate.

Read the recipe out loud to help everyone know what you will be doing. Pictures help, too.

Offer praise and thanks

Make sure you praise the child for offering to help and the work  done. You can also offer such statements as: “We really make a good team here in the kitchen.” “You are doing such a good job of following directions”. “Thank you for helping today.” Won’t our family be surprised when they taste what we made today?”

Following safety rules
There are certain safety rules that must be followed when working with children in the kitchen, such as:

Always wash your hands before working in the kitchen.
Young children should not use sharp knives.
Small appliances are not play toys.
Potholders and not towels are for handling hot dishes. Towels could catch fire from the stove.
Handles of pots and pans should be turned inward.
Always use a separate spoon when tasting food.

Do you have stories about working with children in the kitchen?

Related articles by Zemanta