I was so excited to see Maria’s story about making pretzels with her neighbor’s kids on Twitter.  Of course, I was even more excited when she agreed to share it with you on my blog.  Can you believe I have never made pretzels?  It’s time I tried.  For sure.
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Every week I teach a cooking class to two kids in my neighborhood.  The kids are in third and fourth grade-one girl and one boy. They are so much fun! The boy has a chef’s coat and the girl wears the cutest aprons. They watch the Food Network so they know some things and they cook with their parents sometimes too. We are doing a series of classes. I sat down with them at the beginning and found out their likes/dislikes, skill level, etc. I let them pick their menus. We baked S’mores cookies-they loved those. I taught them the basics of baking and some tips/tricks.  This week, we made pretzels two ways:  pretzel bites and sweet pretzels with cinnamon sugar.  Next time we are doing a healthy breakfast.

Click on the Pretzels for the Recipe. Mmmm.

They are not afraid to get dirty in the kitchen. I make sure they read the recipe, but also teach them that is ok to have fun and play around with ingredients, flavors, etc. I make sure I demonstrate and then they do the work. They are really good about following directions. Everything has turned out great. The last two classes have been baking.  The cookies sent them into a sugar rush, so of course we had to dance and run around..ha! I gave them a folder with a cooking book, paper, pen, some fun handouts, their recipes, etc. They seem excited to try the recipes at home and share with their families.

I love how Maria sat down with these kids and planned the menus for their cooking classes.  They know she respects them enough to teach them what they wants to know – even if she puts a healthy or educational spin on it!

Do you have any favorite snacks to cook with your kids?  I’d love to hear about it!

Do you have any fun stories and photos to share about cooking with YOUR kids?  I hope to share at least one reader story every week and can’t wait to hear about your adventures in the kitchen with your kids. Here is what you need to do.

p.s.  Pass it on!