photo by Corvidean

Today is the day that this mom turns forty years old. Some call that over-the-hill. Others say 40 is the new 30. For me, forty is good. I am at a place in my life where I am happy and excited to continue moving forward. I have two amazing kids, a wonderful man in my life and a great plan for moving my life and work onward.

I am one of those people that is excited about getting ‘old’. Since my twenties I’ve been thinking of the things I can say and do when I’m in my 70s and 80s. Each year I figure I can get a little bit crazier and it’ll just be written off as ‘advancing age’. I guess that’s the biggest thing that each year teaches…be yourself.

When I was a teenager, I was very much myself.  I felt unstoppable with ideas and opinions and grand plans. Then life happened–not that life was bad, it’s exactly as it should have been. But while trying to be what I thought I was supposed to be, I lost some of that unstoppable-ness.

That life that happened (and is still happening), it has taught me. I think now at forty, I’m feeling a bit more unstoppable again. And, since I’ve experienced some of those ‘life happening’ events, I’m much better equipped to remain unstoppable.

Here’s to forty amazing years, and another forty+ crazy ones to come!

Happy November 29th Everyone!

Kelly

Photo: William Dickey; Styling: Rose Nguyen

Sometimes family schedules can make family cooking challenging. After school-practices, appointments, games…it can be difficult to prepare and eat a family meal together.  This doesn’t mean, however, that we can’t squeeze in some time in the kitchen having fun. With a little planning, the week can present itself an hour or two. We have three ideas for you and your kids spend that free time and they all involve fun together in the kitchen.

Idea 1:
Baking - When most people think about cooking with their kids, they think of baking, at least that’s my perception. The reason is because making cookies from scratch or mixing up or decorating cupcakes is a simple way to get the kids in the kitchen with you.

Here are some baking together tips:

• Take some time with the kiddies to pick out a specific recipe that you want to bake together
• Prepare the shopping list together as well, first checking the cupboards for what you already have, and then going to purchase the rest
• Plan the date and time you’re going to have your baking adventure and make sure there are no other distractions.
• Enjoy your baked creation together and share with others in the family that didn’t help!

Idea 2:
Food Related Experiments – If you have kids that are interested in science, or even just doing experiments with food, you can probably get them in the kitchen cooking and learning with a Science Experiment You Can Eat. We’ve made up our own experiments, some of them not so edible, but with this book by Vicki Cobb, you can investigate things from Suspensions, Colloids and Emulsions to Microbes and Enzymes. Each experiment has an edible component and an observation section to help summarize what you learned.

Idea 3:
Preparing Special Meals – By special meals, I mean things like Mom, Dad, Brother or Sister’s birthday, or maybe just because it’s Friday.  Any day can be a special day if everyone involved decides it is. By planning a special meal day and building up anticipation, everyone will be excited when the day actually arrives. Alex, Soph and I like to do party nights when we make snacky super items together, then spread out a blanket in the living room and eat picnic style while we watch a movie, or something on Netflix.

Here are some tips for planning your ‘special meal’ night:

• Pick the special day or event together. If it’s for a family member’s birthday, you can surprise them or include them. If you do include them, you can always plan a surprise part of the meal (like cake) that you make separately.
• Have everyone decide  ahead of time what they will be working on…who’s cutting veggies, who’s preparing marinades, who’s stirring and who’s pouring. It may seem like a lot of upfront work, but it will pay off with a smooth running kitchen.
• Don’t stop at the food, why not decorate up the table to match a theme?  Placemats and name cards can be made in advance, or you can just break out the picnic blanket and eat off of paper plates–whatever you decide.

We hope one of these ideas inspires you to set aside a few hours in the coming weeks to have some fun as a family, cooking up some tasty treats.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone,

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. Don’t forget to sign-up for our email list so you get your weekly recap of all or our ideas and the show!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! On this, one of the most cooking-centric days of deliciousness of the year, we’re going to be sharing a recipe from Birthday in a Box! We love birthday in a box for party supplies, theme ideas and even recipes. Recipes like this one–Jazzed Up Juice.

Jazzed Up Juice is a fun beverage for guests to sip on while snacking on maybe a few bacon sage squash bites?

We wish you all a blessed Thanksgiving and are thankful to have you as a fan–Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. Check out these fun ice cube trays for making adorable juice cubes for your jazzed up juice

P.P.S. If you need some ideas for your Black Friday or Cyber Monday Shopping list, don’t forget to check out our Gift Guide!

Today we’re sharing our experience and thoughts on one of the recipes from the cookbook, Teen Cuisine by Matthew Locricchio. You might have seen our review of the cookbook, and we wanted to share our experience with a couple of the recipes, so we’re starting with this one: Not-An-Ordinary Grilled Cheese Sandwich.

The reason we decided to try this recipe was less about the grilled cheese and more about how it is made. The ingredients are basic, but you’ll notice in the ingredients picture there’s milk; That’s not the only not-so-ordinary thing about this grilled cheese.

Here are some of the things that make this sandwich a bit different:

• The crust is removed from the bread
• The cheese is made into a filling by grating it and combining it with milk
• The bread is brushed with melted butter on the outsides

How do these differences affect the sandwich? Well, they were still basically grilled cheese sandwiches. The cheese might have seemed a bit creamier and the kids loved the removal of the crust. They were very good, but taste wise, they were fairly ordinary. However, their not-so-ordinary preparation made cooking them a little more fun that the basic grilled cheese sandwich.

While Sophia grated the cheese, Alex removed bread crusts and I got the pan ready. Then Sophia melted butter while Alex prepared the cheese filling. We had fun making them–much more fun than just slapping a slice of cheese on some bread, buttering the outside and throwing it in a pan.

Another extra-ordinary thing about this these grilled cheeses—they look fancy. It’s probably the crust removal, and knowing that the cheese was more than just cheese, but we felt fancy eating them

If you’d like more of our thoughts on this cookbook, check out our Teen Cuisine Cookbook Review. You can also learn more about it at Amazon.com.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. Have you checked out our 2011 Gift Guide for the Mini-Chef in your life?

Squash is a vegetable that Alex and I love…Sophie not so much. She does like bacon though, and helping make our Bacon Sage Squash Bites. They’re a great pre-dinner appetizer while your guests are waiting for the main course.

If you want to make them yourself, find the recipe here: Bacon Sage Squash Bites Recipe.

Enjoy the show and Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. Have you checked out our 2011 Gift Guide yet? Check it out now!

Today we’re going to share our thoughts on six of Barbara Beery’s Cook Books. All of the books are filled with beautiful photographs of recipes that fit the theme of the book. The layout and design, as you can see from the photo, are very girl-centric and part of the appeal of the books.

The recipes range from baked and sweet to savory and sandwich-y and they are all on theme with the title of the book they appear in. Here are some highlights from each:

Spa Princess Cookbook: Time at the spa means relaxing spa treatments along with delicious spa treats. That is exactly what this book provides. In addition to the various smoothies, drinks and snacks, there’s an entire section for food-based (non-edible) spa treatments!

Pink Princess Cupcakes: This is a cupcake book, filled with cupcakes, all of them with princess flair. The first 12 page of the book contain Baking Tips, five basic cupcake recipes and several frosting recipes. The rest of the pages provide decorating information for the different kinds of cupcake cuteness.

Pink Princess Tea Parties: For a tea party, you need beverages and snacks, and that is just what you’ll find in this cookbook. Lots of sugary cookies, cakes and snacks, and a sandwich section with a few non-sweet treats.

Pink Ponies Cookbook: A few savory recipes are interspersed amongst all the sugary delights in this pony themed recipe collection. Unicorn Punch, Winner’s Circle Donuts and Pony Pops Cupcakes are a few of the concoctions you’ll find.

Fairies Cookbook: Magically sweet baked goods fill the pages of this cookbook. You’ll be sure to find the perfect Sparkly cookie, colorful beverage or frosted cupcakes in this Fairy Cookbook.

Mermaid Cookbook: This book overflows with sea-themed treats—Lots of fruit and yogurts, beach-y sandwiches, cool iced drinks; plus, some topical snacks and desserts.

As I previously mentioned, all of these books are, for lack of a better term, ‘girly’ and the majority of the recipes in each are baking-centric, sugary treats. These books are for girls who love sparkles, pastels, princesses and enjoy making pretty, sweet delights—Girls like my Sophia ;D
We own all of these books and Sophia loves them. She will browse through them for hours, planning what we’re going to try. At this point, we’ve only made a few of the recipes from the Spa Princess and Pink Ponies books, mainly because we just cannot eat that much sugar.

The recipes we’ve tried include: Marshmallow Cloud Fluff, Fairy Dust Lollipops, and Little Ponytail Puffs, and the Sweet Princess Sugar Scrub. Each was simple enough that there was something for any level of kid cook to help with—Mixing, cutting, spreading, decorating and compiling. All of the recipes are adorable with beautiful layout and photos, adding to the charm of these books.

The biggest downside to these books, in my opinion, is that nearly all of the recipes are sweet. Now, they are specialty cookbooks, and I am not a huge lover of sugary things, so that may be clouding my opinion. But, if you’re looking for healthy recipes, these are not the books to get.

For more information on Barbara Beery and all of her cookbooks, and to read more reviews, check out the Barbara Beery page on Amazon.com.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

First off, or disclosure’s sake, I’m going to let you know that we did not buy Teen Cuisine, we won it in a drawing from iFood.tv, and we’re certainly glad! It’s 200+ pages of recipes, information and tips, all aimed at the young, learning chef. The recipes included are a step-up from basic in complexity and flavor.

This cook book is perfect for a pre-teen, teen or young adult who is looking for a way to fancy up their cooking repertoire and learn a few things in the process. Although a younger child could, with assistance, prepare some of these recipes, they are designed for cook with a bit of experience under their belt.

Two of my favorite sections of this book are the Kitchen Essentials and Kitchen Equipment and Utensils sections. The Kitchen Essentials contains a list of ingredients that are used in the recipes throughout the book. It provides a brief description of each item, including the less familiar ones like Spelt Flour, Tomatillos and Chervil. The Kitchen Equipment and Utensils section, as the name indicates, is a list of lots of cool kitchen stuff. The list includes basic essentials, like Baking Sheets and Spatulas, along with a few specialty items, like a Fondue Pot and Juicer.

The kids and I have tried a couple of the recipes from the book: Crisp Oven Fries and Not-An-Ordinary Grilled Cheese Sandwich. We’ve actually made the fries more than a few times cuz they’re so good—seriously tasty OVEN-BAKED fries, totally true. We’re planning on posting more on both of these recipes, but for now, we’ll just say we liked ‘em.

If you have a super picky eater—and hence, a super picky teen-chef on your hands—the recipes in this book might be a bit adventurous for them. These recipes are for a palette that likes variety, or at the very least, to try new foods. But, the book might also inspire them to become a bit more daring in their food selection and get them to branch out, you never know.

To see more reviews or get yourself a copy, check it out a Amazon.com.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. Don’t miss any of our Kids Cooking related Product Reviews…sign-up for our email list!

This week Alex, Sophia and I share our recipe for Pumpkin Pie Pudding. Although Pumpkin Pie itself is more traditional, we like things a little non-traditional.

If you’d like to try our Pumpkin Pie Pudding yourself, you can find the recipe here.

Enjoy the show and Happy Thanksgiving Cooking Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. Did you know you can watch our show through your Roku or Boxee now!

In the picture that accompanies this post, you see a letter from my dad, Alex and Soph’s Grandpa. It contains two recipes, one is a family recipe from his childhood the other a ‘tasty dip’ recipe that he thought we’d like. My dad sends letters the old fashioned way, ink on paper written in meticulous cursive–He doesn’t have a computer or use email or the internet. We like getting stuff in the mail–especially when they it includes family recipes.

Whenever I get a recipe that family members have passed on to me, it is usually accompanied with a story about who always made it, what time of year it was prepared and memories of how it tasted. I take those recipes and tuck them into the recipe book that my mom gave me when I was in college. It’s one of those small three-ring binder recipe books with blank recipe card-like pages, ready to be filled with ingredients and instructions. When she gave it to me, it had a few of our families favorite recipes already hand-written in it. And now, I continue to add to it.

Currently, these family recipes are not in a very organized state, just pieces of paper, stuffed into the binder. Lately I’ve been thinking of other ways to preserve these recipes and pass them on to my kids and other family members. Here is what my time thinking has lead me to:

1) I’m going to go through my binder of collected recipes, organize and write down my memories of each.
2) Next, I’ll ask family members to supply additional recipes and memories the memories that go with them.
3) Then, I’ll find appropriate family photos to go with each recipe and ask family members for additional photos as necessary.
4) Finally, I’ll compile the recipes and photos into a cookbook using Lulu.com

Once the book is complete, I’ll order copies and give them as gifts to my kids and the rest of my family. I hope I have time to get this done before Christmas, these kinds of gifts are always my favorite to give and receive.

Happy Family Recipe Compiling Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. Please share ways you preserve your family recipes with a comment.

It has recently occurred to me that over the last couple of years the kids and I have shared a few recipes that are specifically ‘Thanksgiving-ish’ in nature. Since we happen to be in the month in which Thanksgiving is, we thought we’d share a recap of them, along with a few of our other relevant Thanksgiving posts. I guess you could call it a ‘flashback’ post


Two Kids Cooking Thanksgiving Recipes:

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie
Pumpkin Pie Pudding
Garlicky Mashed Potatoes
Thanksgiving Turkey Meatballs
Two Kids Squash Soup
Squash Cakes
Bacon Sage Squash Bites

Thanksgiving Activities:

Ways to Let the Kids Help with Thanksgiving Dinner
Kids in the Kitchen: Turkey Feathers, Feasting and Fondant

Thanksgiving Leftover Recipe Ideas:

Kids in the Kitchen: Thanksgiving – The Afterwards
Recipe of the Week: Thanksgiving Leftover Extravaganza

Happy Family Cooking Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia