Kids Cooking and Cookbook Blog

The kitchen is one of the most dangerous places in the home, especially when children are involved.  Working with children in the kitchen requires extra care.

Some of the most common accidents in the kitchen include burns, fires, cuts, falls, electric shock, and poisoning.

You can help prevent accidents while working in the kitchen with children in many ways. Some of these include:

Remember that stove tops are hot and may stay hot long after they are turned off. Adults should cook foods on the stove top and place or remove food from the oven.

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.

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.

If you want pecan pie for Thanksgiving but hate the hassle of making a pie crust, try these Pecan Bars from Amy Houts’ new cookbook, Cooking Around the Country With Kids: USA Regional Recipes and Fun Activities. Yes, you can buy ready prepared pie crust, but here is a recipe the children will enjoy making with you from start to finish.

This recipe features a delicious product, pecans,  from this great land of ours, the USA. We are thankful, especially at this season, for the rich abundance of food available.

Image via Wikipedia

Going to the local farmers’ market with your child helps him or her learn where their food comes from. Here your child will see the many varieties of fruits and vegetables that are grown right in your own region.

Understanding that the corn in the can or frozen package really started as corn in the husks on the cob is sometimes hard for children to comprehend. Seeing carrots with bushy tops and not perfectly scrubbed clean in plastic bags can be eye-opening for them as well. Even seeing the quantities of melons in the back of pickups and truck beds piled high with corn is really quite a sight.

Children are influenced in their food choices by their friends, family, the media, and other outside factors. The commercials on TV make a huge impact on what children want to eat. This often influences what they want their parents to buy.

What is a parent to do?

• You can explain to the child that the commercials on TV are one way companies use to let the public know about their product. They make products look very special because they want you to buy their product. Sometimes they may not tell you the whole story about whatever they are trying to sell. It may not always be a wise buying choice if it is not nutritious, costs more than its worth, or other reasons.

Everything comes to an end. For many these last days in May are filled with graduation plans and parties and thinking about what the summer, and indeed, the future, will hold for them. These are very festive times as well as bitter sweet times when the joy of the present can turn into feelings of “What now?”

For those of you in this situation of having your years of study come to an end, I wish you well. May all your hopes and dreams for your future be fulfilled. Though “study”, in some form or another, continues throughout life

Get Mom’s day going in the right direction by baking her some A & B Muffins for breakfast. These are muffins without any sugar – your Mom has probably reminded you many times not to eat so much sugar. These still taste good even though they contain no sugar. Other good points: they are low in calories and you will get some nutrients from the fruits and nuts. Now you can tell her that you listen when she talks about good nutrition and the importance of the food you eat.

Most pre-school children love to “work” in the kitchen, just like grown-ups. Cooking with children can be a challenge, but it can also be a great experience for both child and adult.

Here are some jobs many preschoolers can do in the kitchen with a little supervision:

• pre-measure ingredients for recipes
• stir ingredients in a bowl
• set the table
• wash foods in a colander
• core, tear and rinse lettuce
• tear spinach
• snap beans
• shell peas
• prepare garlic cloves
• peel bananas
• stem strawberries

This just came in over my radar screen – and I want you to have this information, too. Many of you know this and have been practicing it for years, but for those who have not heard – listen up – it’s important.

• Do not drink water or any liquid from plastic bottles that have been in the sun. If the bottles have been left in the car, the heat from the sun and the plastic form certain chemicals that can leak into the water and be dangerous to the body.