May this Christmas fill your home with love, peace, and happiness. I hope you will find time to cook with your children this holiday and help create happy memories for them.
This is me baking cookies with my young friends. Cooking is a fantastic way to interact with your family and friends and have fun doing it.
Merry Christmas!
Lee Jackson
Help create happy memories for children by involving them in holiday activities.
Here are 5 ideas from Amy Houts’ book, Cooking Around the Calendar with Kids: Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun, that can be the start of fun family traditions.
1. Memories and baking cookies are a big part of the holiday season. Get friends together and have a cookie baking or exchange party.
2. Children can help create simple holiday gifts from the kitchen, such as Chocolate Chip Cookies in a Jar, Holiday Spice Mix, and Hearty Soup Mix.
Another grandmother told me she read this Christmas story, The Littlest Christmas Kitten, with her two little grandchildren, as they do every year. She said they never get tired of hearing it.
I think it has become a popular Christmas story because the bold pictures grab kids attention and the story keeps them guessing. Why are all the animals excited this night? Will the Mother Cat find her little lost kitten?
Image by janielianne via Flickr
Cooking with kids can be fun and create memories for years to come. Remember when the kids kept snatching cookie dough from the refrigerator? You finally had to put a toothpick in the dough with a note that said to not even think about eating it.
Here is a cookie recipe that will be tempting, either in the dough form (which they shouldn’t eat) and in the baked form (which will be hard to resist).
I hope everyone reads the response to “Get Kids in the Kitchen This Holiday”. It is a success story of how children of all ages and stages find pleasure in working with food. A little adult help, interest, and time go a long way in helping make memories for children.
Do you have a success story of how you work with children in the kitchen and some of their favorite foods? I would love to hear from you, especially how your family prepares food for the holidays.
Best to you,
Lee
Image by Sifu Renka via Flickr
Are you saying, “but it takes too long to work with my kids in the kitchen”, or “it’s too messy when they help me”? In her book, Cooking Around the Calendar with Kids: Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun, Amy Houts says that with a little planning and imagination, you can make holiday baking stress-free and enjoyable. The part children will remember is that they were able to “help” you in the kitchen.
Some points to remember when working with children:
With the busy holidays upon us, oven space may be at a premium. That is another good reason to use a crock pot. But best of all, I like to use the crock pot for meals that you can begin and forget.
Here is a wonderful recipe made by my good friend, author, and chef, Amy Houts. We had this for lunch recently when her mother from New York was visiting. She served it with relishes and chips and had apple cake for dessert – another one of my favorites!
You can find this in Amy’s new cookbook, Cooking Around the Country with Kids – USA Regional Recipes and Fun Activities on p. 206.
French Dip for Roast Beef Sandwiches
(PRLEAP.COM) The childrens book, The Littlest Christmas Kitten, touches on themes dear to the hearts of children – the love and care of mothers and the birth of Baby Jesus. It is the story of how the lost is found amid a miracle on that First Christmas.
The story is woven around the Nativity and a mother cat searching for her little lost kitten. Before the night is over there is the crying of a baby and angels singing His praises. The night’s events leave a lasting effect on all the animals, especially the cats.
