I have recently discovered a whole bunch of cookbooks for the kids. My friend, Unnamed, has two girls who've been cooking up a storm and I was inspired. The last time we went to the library I checked out several cookbooks aimed at kids, and the one I like especially is Kids Cook 1-2-3 by Rozanne Gold.The premise of the book is to use whole foods (mostly--the kids are not going to make puff pastry from scratch, you do have to buy that so it's processed, and it's white flour...but, it's puff pastry! Can that be so wrong, every once in a while?!), and use only 3 ingredients (salt and pepper excluded).
Yesterday, my daughter made a Frulotta--orange juice, a banana and sweetened condensed milk. The condensed milk was a fun discovery for my kids--they're kind of sugar deprived...although, I would call them raw honey enriched. Potato, po-tah-to.
My daughter cut up the banana, put it in the blender with the juice and I helped measure out the milk. She added 6 cubes of ice and let it whirl. We all agreed it was good, although my daughter thought it was a little too sweet! Amateur...
My son intends to make an evil thing called "Bacon Candy" which is strips of bacon, lightly sprinkled with a mixture of confectioners sugar and pumpkin spice (it's supposed to be 5 spice blend, but we don't have that--you gotta do what you gotta do) and then baked. The bacon is nitrate/nitrite free but that's about all I can say about it in regards to its healthfulness. We'll see how it tastes--I think we're going to like it.
I think I'm going to buy this book from Amazon--I saw there are plenty of used ones, in keeping with the Compact.
It's fun getting the kids in the kitchen to do what they would like to do and not just helping me in my projects. I think they'll grow more and more comfortable with food preparation and with experimenting with different ingredients and tastes and techniques.
Wait, this is homeschooling too?
Do you guys feel I'm too liberal with my Homeschooling label, or do you agree with me that all of these things are a means of learning and so are homeschooling? Is homeschooling only academic? Is learning your way around a kitchen homeschooling--Home Ec anyone? Do my kids have to wait until they're young teenagers to learn this, as they would in public school?
Discuss.
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2 comments:
I'm not of the bent that labels everything we do as homeschooling. I figure that I'd teach my kids to cook, no matter how they were schooled. But that's just me. However, I do blog about some of our cooking exploits. My goal is to have the kids each making a meal a week by the end of their 8th year on this planet. That gives me 8 months to get it right.
I am liberal with the homeschooling label and caught myself in this post! I'm sure I would also teach my kids to cook if they were schooled in some other way. I don't know, I figure learning is learning and that's what their homeschooling is about.
I like your goal.
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