We have a really amazing little gig going in our neighborhood called the Children’s Resource Center. It’s geared for educators really, but open to everyone. We try to hit it at least every two weeks. We check out games, books, puppets – you name it. It’s basically the library concept, but with a lot more to choose from. The upside is that we get to try without the BUY. I especially love this for games since so often we buy a game, are hot on it for a couple of weeks and then it goes to rest in the game cupboard with all of the other various games that were once all the rage in this household. With the Resource Center, we just return it once the love affair is over.
The down side to this system is that we have to be uber careful of how we treat these borrowed items. Now for Big Little One and Medium Little One, this is a great lesson in responsibility. Little Little One even gets this and it’s good practice for her as well. Wee One? Not so much! Just last week I had to go slinking back to the Resource Center, head hanging, tail between my legs, and broken game board in hand. Yep, she quartered it! Maybe surgery is in her future, because it sure was a clean cut and I can’t imagine that it was that easy to rip through. I mean it WAS a game board and not her usual construction paper victim!
Recently, we have been on a little cookbook borrowing spree from the Resource Center. Now I must admit that I’m really not a fan of the kids cookbook genre. If I’m going to spend time cooking with my kiddos, I want the end result to actually taste good. My experience has been that so many kids cookbooks sacrifice taste for ease of preparation and really miss the point when it comes to actually letting the kids COOK and not just assemble. So you can imagine my jubilation when we hit on a cookbook that produced not one, not two, but three wonderful culinary treats. Yes, we were three for three. They whipped up a trio of recipes and every one was tasty. Safe to say the Around the World cookbook, will be checked out again by our little clan.
Big Little One first whipped up some marvelous scones, and in my opinion, scones are not an easy one to nail. They’re often too dry. These ones were just right – to quote Goldilocks.
Medium Little One pulled her own weight in the kitchen and served up a Tunisian soup (typically eaten at breakfast time in Tunisia) known as Leb Lebi. So easy and yet very flavorful – and no, we didn’t go all cultural and eat it for breakfast; we stuck with it as dinner fare.
And just because we force teamwork around these parts from time to time, the sisters collaborated on a little flourless chocolate cake number that even surprised me. I just wasn’t expecting great results from something made in cupcake papers and using chocolate chips. But they were good. Like really good. Like wow. Like they disappeared so fast I am sorry to say that I don’t have a photo to share with you.
So there you go. Another stereotype blown away – kids cookbooks can actually groove with some flavor and Abigail Johnson Dodge definitely does so in this one. Hope you will find some time to bond with your kiddo in the kitchen. If you do, here are a couple of the recipes mentioned above.
Real Food on the Table 