Kids Cooking and Cookbook Blog

Most children love to work in the kitchen.

During this time of being restricted to our homes, we have more time to think. Perhaps we think about what we could be doing, or what we would like to be doing. And before you know it, you are thinking about what to eat again.

Yes, food and mealtimes have been a cause of concern for many. What will we eat? Do we have enough food? How do we fix what we have?

Poppy-seed kolach

Early recollections of Easter dinners bring back memories of coloring Easter eggs and making kolaches. We looked forward to sweet treats because those were given up for Lent. Usually we had a few apples that were wrapped in newspapers to help keep them from shriveling. These made up into delicious apple-filled kolaches.

This is a yeast bread that is filled with any number of fruit and other fillings. There are many variations but a couple of my favorites are the apple-filled kolaches and poppy seed kolaches, shown here.

Help your child experience the “Great Melting Pot” through food and the part it plays in America’s cultural diversity. What better way to learn about each other than by sharing the foods and customs of different parts of the country?

The cookbook, Cooking Around the Country with Kids: USA Regional Recipes and Fun Activities by Amy Houts, focuses on helping children learn how different cultures in America came to co-exist, yet continue to celebrate their uniqueness. By settling in different parts of the country, people developed distinctive dishes based on what was harvested and available.

Here are 12 fun, food-related projects you and your children can work on this summer. This will help them further explore their interest in food and cooking. Who knows, your children’s skills and enthusiasm for working with food may be taken to another level.

Children can:

• begin a food journal by listing favorite foods. Include best food and holiday memories.
• plan certain meals or menus for a week, then note results in journal.
• collect favorite recipes and create own cookbook.
• take a field trip to the farmers market with family.
• grow radishes, green onions, and/or lettuce.

Here are some tips for picking and storing apples:

• Twist or turn the apple from the branch. If you pull it, the buds next to it will break off and not bear fruit next year.

• Don’t rely on redness as a guide to flavor.  Apples come in all shades of reds, yellows and greens. Choose clear colored apples. Often those with an intense green undercast or undertone are not completely ripe. Those with a dull yellowish-green undercast may be too ripe.

Image via Wikipedia

Do you eat only because you need food to stay alive? Or only for good health? Of course not! There are so many reasons why you choose to eat the food you do.

Food choices are based on cultural, religious, social, or psychological reasons. Even your own personal values enter into choosing foods. Sometimes, too, you eat what you eat because it’s the only food available when you need it.

Image by Thomas Hawk via Flickr

Here is a good read about England and their long apple history. This universal fruit has fans the world over – but some fans are more discriminating than others.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/14/apple-britain-gala-traditional

I enjoyed reading how apples are viewed by others across the ocean. Hope you enjoy it, too!

Best to you,

Lee Jackson
Author: From the Apple Orchard – Recipes for Apple Lovers
Apples, Apples, Everywhere – Favorite Recipes From America’s Orchards

Image via Wikipedia

Soup makes a good hearty meal, or an addition to a meal, in most any season. When the wind is blowing and the snow is falling, as it is today, I like to make soup and enjoy its comfort and warmth.

Here is a soup recipe from Amy Houts’ cookbook for children, Cooking Around the Country With Kids: USA Regional Recipes and Fun Activities. In here, Amy features recipes from different regions of the USA, including Alaska and Hawaii. Children can really engage in the history of the United States by learning more about each region through the food grown there and then preparing the food.

Image via Wikipedia

All of our children’s books purchased between now and December 10 can be autographed upon request. Authors will be happy to sign their books. Children love to “get to know” the author. This includes the following books:

The Littlest Christmas Kitten
Cooking Around the Country With Kids: USA Regional Recipes and Fun Activities
Cooking Around the Calendar With Kids: Holiday and Seasonal Food and Fun
Listening to the Mukies and Their Character Building Adventures

See more info about them at http://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com

Thinking Christmas!

Lee Jackson
Images Unlimited Books
Books for children, families and parenting professionals
http://www.imagesunlimitedpub.com

For those mornings when you have just a bit more time (that does happen sometimes?) get your kids to help you make this coffee cake together. It uses prepared biscuits so it’s a snap to make.

Peeling the apples may take the longest, but this recipe only requires 2 apples. Can you peel the whole apple in one long piece?

As one “long-ago apple saying” goes: If you close your eyes and toss the long peel to the floor, whatever alphabet shape it most represents is the  first initial of the person you will marry!