Yearly Archives: 2009

Oct 15Blog Action Day - Kids Can Fight Climate Change ...

I have a few pet peeves. One is when people chew with their mouth open. Another is when people assume that kids can’t make a difference (except to sully an otherwise clean room). While we, as adults, have lots of power (we do all of the driving and buying, at least for now), it’s best not to overlook the influence that children can have on the world. For this reason, I wanted to focus my Blog Action Day post on what kids can do in the kitchen to prevent climate change. It’s their...

Oct 12Cooking With Kids at Full Belly Farm's Hoes...

For the third year in a row, I found myself cooking with an eager and hungry group of kids atop hay bales in the middle of Full Belly Farm. We were sitting outside with dust in the air, ants skittering around, and hay bits clinging to our ingredients. It was a far cry from cooking in a sterile commercial kitchen, and to be honest, much better. We were close to our food. Most of our ingredients, in fact, were grown within a stone's throw from our makeshift kitchen. It was perfect. Just...

Oct 8Cooking With Toddlers: C is for Crunchy Carrot ...

Living with my husband has taught me that not everybody looks forward to going to work. It seems as if I am unusual in this regard. And probably in other ways, too, but that is another story. Anyhoo... One of my absolutely favorite new classes to teach is my Mommy (or Daddy...or nanny) & Me preschool class at one of our local recreation centers. Each week we meet for 45 minutes to cook and Eat The Alphabet. My whole family gets involved in the planning for these classes. We sit around...

Oct 5Kids Creating…For The Benefit of Others

I recently posted about the benefit that I am doing with Kebby from Studio4Art to fight childhood hunger in Marin County. Since it is hard to get people excited about an event that is all the way in November, I thought I'd share some photos of our students at work. Please show your support for the kids who are working working so hard on the behalf of hungry children by making an online donation.

Oct 2Soundbites: Cooking With Kids Podcasts

When I started What's Cooking 6 years ago, I didn't know if it would fly. Would anyone call me? How would they know that I was a good teacher? Would customers trust that I would be good with their children? Apparently, my worries were unfounded. My business has grown from simply doing an occasional cooking birthday party to coordinating and managing after-school cooking classes in 10 schools and working with a fantastic team of teachers. I have even managed to fool convince people in the...

Sep 27Soup – The Bowl that Keeps Feeding

Lately, I have been struggling with the direction I'd like to take my business. If What's Cooking were a non-profit organization, I might be able to get grants that would allow me to teach cooking classes to the under-served youth in our community. Yet, I don't want to spend all of my time writing grants and fundraising. I'd rather be with my students, playing with food, or writing lesson plans to get kids excited about eating healthy & sustainable food. Perhaps I should continue doing...

Sep 23Watch This Creative Cooking Video with Your Kids...

I saw this today on Facebook and had to share. Call your kids and watch it together - see if it inspires them to either cook for real, or play with their food. Either way, it may motivate them to spend more time in the kitchen! Which is your favorite? I love the bubble wrap boiling water and post-it note butter.

Sep 21BlogHer Food is almost here. I'm WhatsCook...

You know that moment when you run into an acquaintance and you realize that you can't remember her name? I am a little nervous that my entire experience at the BlogHer Food conference will be like that. I have made lots of "friends" through Facebook and Twitter, but only know them by their screen names. "Hey, SummerTomato" or "Oh my gosh, FoodieTot, I am so glad to finally meet you in person!" don't really roll off the tongue. I have a little list next to my computer of my Twitter friends...

Sep 14The Juice: Fast and Simple Breakfast Tips

Yeah! This week, my video is featured on The Juice, by BlogHer. If you could benefit from some fast and easy tips for getting a healthy breakfast into your family, take a peek.

Sep 10Classroom Challenge: Play with Produce

Classrooms around the country are invited to "produce" a produce play, alliterate with awesome apples or even "rock around the vegetable wok,” as part of the Produce for Kids® Play with Your Produce Classroom Challenge. The challenge, open to grades K to 6, asks teachers to help students discover healthy eating habits through a creative, fun classroom activity that focuses on fresh produce. Here’s how the challenge works: From Sept. 7 to Nov. 13, teachers can create and submit details about...