Category Archives: Cooking with Kids

Cooking with kids; kids in the kitchen

Apr 15Cooking with Kids: Stinging Nettle Pesto

Recently, members of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) were in San Francisco for the annual conference. Every year, the Kids in the Kitchen section does a workshop with local children to inspire them to cook and eat healthy foods. I was the co-chair for this section for two years, but ever since I returned to classroom teaching two years ago, I have been admiring their work from a distance. Fortunately for me, the San Francisco conference was close to home, and...

Mar 27Natural Dyes – a 4-H Project

Please forgive me. I am not trying to jump on the egg-dyeing bandwagon. I did that a few years ago... This time, I wanted to share an accomplishment by my eldest pride and joy. My 12-year old daughter has been in 4-H for nearly 5 years and it has been incredible to watch her self confidence bloom. Recently, we had our county Presentation Day, and my daughter and her friend decided to do a Natural Dyes project...and they won a Gold, the highest level award offered. She'll take it from here... History...

Feb 19Digital DIY Kitchen - Make It. Eat It. Write abo...

Digital DIY Kitchen – Make It. Eat It. Write about it.

IACP Kids-in-the-Kitchen has teamed up with Green Ribbon Schools & DooF ('food' backwards) to host an exciting online culinary education project for kids ages 5-18. Joining the fun in our IACP Kids' Digital DIY Kitchen is easy – and there are lots of great prizes! Here's all kids need to do: Choose a food you'd normally buy in a store or order in a restaurant, then try to make it yourself. Tell us about your kitchen adventure (in words, photos and/or video). Share the fun with...

Oct 22Advanced Prep - Working Mother's Life Saver in ...

Advanced Prep – Working Mother’s Life Saver in the Kitchen

My daughter recently started middle school and has been busy with friends, homework and cross country practice. Helping me make a meal is pretty low on her list of priorities lately, although she would rather take on that job than put away the piles of clean laundry that litter her bedroom floor. Maybe that's why I was so surprised when she offered to help me prep veggies for dinner this weekend. Now that I have returned to work full time, my time is more precious than ever. I only have...

Sep 26Kitchen Science: Cabbage Juice Chemistry

After teaching cooking classes to children for 8 years, I didn't realize that I'd ever head back to the traditional classroom to teach biology again. But I have good news on many fronts: I love it. Even more than I thought I would. All of my recent experience setting up cooking classes for children has made it much much much easier to set up labs for my biology students. And finally, it is awesome to see how many labs I can do with my students that connect to food. Take our...

Aug 16Summer Camp: Our Iron Chef Challenge

When planning our cooking summer camp, I wanted the students to be able to showcase their new culinary skills and confidence. We decided that an Iron Chef Challenge on the final day would be just the strategy. The kids selected their own teams, evaluated the ingredients we had on hand, and then planned their menus. After approval from me, they began to prepare their food. The grand finale was their "camera challenge" where they had to present their dishes to the rest of the class, some guest...

Aug 9Summer Camp: Day 3: Our Moroccan Menu

On Day 3 of our summer cooking camp, we focused on Morocco. Here is the menu, generated by my campers... Kehillah Cafe: African Beauty Rock’n Moroccan Carrot Soup: Creamy vegetarian carrot soup with a touch of honey Zesty Broccoli Braised with Olives: Al dente broccoli with olives and garnished lemon zest Couscous with Dried Apricots and Pistachios Moroccan Harcha: Delicate patties made from semolina flour and butter, topped with a drizzle of honey

Aug 1Summer Camp: Day 2 – Our Mediterranean Menu

Today, our summer camp students created a delicious menu from the Mediterranean. I must confess, there is nothing quite as sweet as hearing 14 students begging for seconds of Falafel! Kehillah Cafe Special Menu of the Day: Nóstima Noshes: ("Nóstima" translates to "delicious" in Greek, the theme of today's class) A Waffle is for Breakfast…but a Falafel is for any other meal. Try our unique Falafel Scramble – Who needs falafel patties when you can scramble together this Mediterranean...

Jul 29Summer Camp: Day 1 – Our Italian Menu

During the first day of this summer’s cooking camp, my students thought that our food was “awesome enough” for us to open a restaurant. So, we decided to capture the experience and share it with you. They called our restaurant the Kehillah Café, to honor the name of our camp. Here is our Menu of the day…Written in the words of 14 students, in 3rd – 5th grades… (This was quite the exercise in food writing and the use of synonyms and adjectives!) Kehillah Café Menu El Awesome...

Jul 27Trying our Zoku for the First Time: Pudding Pops...

My mom loves to surprise us with fun gifts for our family kitchen. And as much as we love to receive these gifts, I think it thrills her equally to hear about our adventures in the kitchen using them together. So, today's post is dedicated to her. Thanks, mama, for our new Zoku! As I was browsing through the pages of my recent issue of Cooking Light magazine, this pudding pop recipe caught my eye. I thought it would be perfect to try in our new gizmo - and yowza - it was awesome! After...