Some of you may know that in addition do the online show, we do a monthly, longer-format version of Two Kids Cooking on our local Public Access Station (Suburban Community Channels-15). We were recently interviewed on their Access SCC program so we thought we’d share. Here’s the full show, we’re one of the first segments.

It was a bit weird being interviewed, but the kids did a great job and my ‘Ums’ aren’t too bad…let us know what you think!

Every parent knows that life with kids is always busy. Be it a birthday party or a dance class or a baseball game, there is an unending supply of activities that need to be attended. Parents also know that kids grow up fast…the time really does fly. That is the reason why I enjoy the time the kids and I spend cooking together. I cherish every moment I can squeeze in with those kiddies.

Plus, everyone has to eat. That means, if the family cooks together, they get to spend some quality family time together AND they get to eat!

Incorporating family time into the cooking process without adding stress can be more simple than you might think. There are three three simple tips I always follow when the 2 Kids and I are in the kitchen:

1) Choose a day and a menu together
Pick out a day of the week that works best for everyone. Alex, Soph and I cook together a lot, but there are days that we prefer, like Mondays or Fridays, when we get home from school earlier. Whatever day will allow the most relaxing, non-rushed experience is the best to pick.

Choosing the menu should also be a group decision. If everyone in the family actually likes the menu, or at least parts of it, the whole experience will be much more enjoyable.

2) Go over the game plan before starting
Just like with any group event, when everyone on the team knows what the goal is, the whole process goes much more smoothly. Every time the kids I make a recipe, we run through what we’re going to be doing first. Then, once we’ve all got the same picture in our heads, we divide tasks and work our way through each step. By choosing tasks in advance, we also prevent arguments over who will do what while we’re in the middle of making the meal–and we all know that’s a good thing

3) Plan for fun, not perfection
If you’re looking for everything to go perfectly smoothly…well it won’t. Even with the amount of time Alex, Sophia and I spend in the kitchen, we still end up with extra salt in the marinade, or half an egg in the bowl, or a tipped-over bottle of lemon juice, or–I think you get the picture. The thing is, it’s these little imperfections that make the whole experience fun. Plus, the memories you make will be priceless.

Yes, life is busy, but we all know that kids grow up fast. Family time is precious and cooking together is one way to get some of that time back.

Now go, get those kids and cook something together!

Happy Family Cooking Everyone,

Kelly, Alex and Mom

It’s official, I am the mom of a teenager.  Luckily, the best teenager in the world   I know every parent says this, but I seriously do not believe that the cute little blob we brought home from the hospital is already a 13 year old mini-man.  I really hit me the other day when I was watching a Christmas episode of ours from a couple years back…his squeaky little voice and chubby cheeks.  We’ve only been doing the show for 2 1/2 years, but wow, has he grown.

I am so thankful to have such a wonderful son. He and I have a lot in common and now that he’s at an age where he can carry on a real conversation, I love talking with him. He is awesome at helping out with the show, too. If I ever put together a ‘gag-reel’ you’ll see what I mean. Soph can be a bit of a diva from time to time but Alex keeps it all calm. His big brother skills are quite well developed, as well and I know his sister would agree. For being 4+ years apart they are really close and have lots of fun together. Yes, they do fight, but overall they work well together.

This morning Soph and I sang him Happy Birthday and made him breakfast in bed, later we’re going to make him some Bread Pudding, cuz he loves it more than cake–Happy 13th Birthday Alex! We love you…

Mom & Soph

Eggs are a pretty standard breakfast food, but, our Baked Eggs add a new twist. Plus, they are one of those things that can be customized to individual tastes, so no one can say they don’t like it (well, unless they don’t like eggs I guess, but you know what I mean ).  Alex, Soph and I demonstrate how quick it is to have a fancy egg breakfast after a crazy gift opening morning.

If you are interested in trying the recipe out for yourself, you can find it here: Baked Eggs.

Enjoy the show and We hope you all have a great Holiday–Merry Christmas!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. This is our final episode of 2011, our next new shows will be out in February 2012–make sure you’re on our email list so you don’t miss it!

This week Alex and Soph share our super easy and tasty Two Kids Pancakes and Addin-In ideas. Both of them are big pancake fans and when you make the batter the night before, pancakes are super fast to make, especially if you are busy, say, opening presents ;D

We have the recipe posted here, too, if you feel like whipping up some yourself: Two Kids Pancakes.

Happy Holidays and Enjoy the show!

Alex, Sophia and Kelly

P.S. What’s your favorite Christmas morning breakfast?  Let us know with a comment!

This week the kids and I demonstrate our Ham & Cheese Breakfast Bake recipe.  This is a great breakfast for Christmas morning when everyone is focused on opening presents and having fun as a family.  It can be made the night before and stuck in the fridge until baking–and is actually better if you do.

We shared the recipe a couple of weeks ago, and you can check that out for the details: Ham & Cheese Breakfast Bake.

We’ll be back next week with our Two Kids Pancakes recipe, another great make ahead and whip up quickly in the morning recipe.

In the meantime, if you’ve still got holiday gifts to aquire, make sure to check out or share our Gift Guide:  Kids Cooking Gifts: The Best Gifts for the Mini-Chef in Your Life.

Enjoy the show and Have a Great Holiday Season!

Happy Family Cooking,

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

You see all those jars in that picture? Don’t the contents of those jars look sweet and delicious? Although I wish I could say I was that ambitious, I am not the one who made all that beautiful Jelly and Jam. It is the work of my boyfriends parents. I am, however, usually lucky enough to get some in my Christmas stocking each year and I love it!

Another gift of sorts that I look forward to each year are from a co-worker. The gift is really for the entire department, but we all get excited when we get the email that the package has arrived.   What is this gift? Well, every year, one of the developers in our department brings in about a dozen assorted breads that his wife makes–zucchini, banana, banana chocolate-chip, pumpkin, lemon, etc…  I’m telling you, these breads are way better than donuts any day.

Just as much as I enjoy receiving these gifts, I bet there are people on your list that would too!  I’m not saying you should go out and buy some berries to make jam; but, if your pantry is over-flowing from an abundant harvest, why not share the fruits of your labor in the form of a gift?  And even if you don’t have a cupboard filled with jelly, baking a few loaves of bread is not only fun to do with the kids, but another gift that anyone would love to receive.  If you’re feeling ambitions, you could even make multiple mini-loaves for each recipient and package them up with a couple of jams or jellies.

People have closets filled with things. Things that, many of which will eventually be tossed, donated or they are just never used.  So, why not give a gift that tingles the taste buds and fills the belly instead of just another thing?

Happy Holiday Family Cooking Everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

Do you have some people on your list that have a sweet tooth? If so, why not bake them up some sweet treats customized to their own tastes.

If you’re feeling like venturing beyond the Christmas cookie, there are other options. Two of our favorites are chocolates and suckers.  Soph in particular likes making the chocolates, she actually came up with the idea for the ones we make on her own (you can see them in the picture). We buy Dolci Frutta chocolate to dip fruit in, like strawberries and bananas. Soph thought since it tastes so good, and since she can melt it so easily, why not make pour it into molds and make fancy chocolates. Then she decided we should get some of the white chocolate Dolci Frutta and decorate the chocolates–so we did!

Another fun candy we like to make is suckers. We adapted our larger suckers from a recipe we got from the Barbara Beery, Pink Ponies Cookbook.  (which we recently reviewed.)

For ours, we made different shaped molds out of aluminum foil. The Christmas tree was made freehand and the star was made by forming the foil around a star-shaped cookie cutter.  The important thing is to keep bottom of the foil mold as contiguous as possible; any cracks or holes will mean leakage. For the stick, you could buy official sucker sticks, but we used skewers that we cut in half and removed the sharp tip. Then we stuck them through the side of the foil and about half way up the middle of the mold to make sure they’d be sufficiently covered by the sucker.

Once the molds were complete, we took some jolly ranchers, put them in a plastic bag and smashed ‘em with a hammer. This is fun, but make sure to let the kiddies know that a jolly rancher does not require over-the-head, slamming force to break, a few taps are sufficient to break them into pieces, and that’s all that’s necessary.  We took the broken pieces and placed them in the molds.  Our molds were a bit over 1/2 inch high and we filled them to the top.

To melt them into suckers, we placed them in a 350 degree oven for about 6 minutes. Watch them carefully! Once they are melted, promptly remove them and set them some place to cool. If you leave them in too long, they will burn–burnt jolly rancher does not taste good, trust me.

Once they cooled, we removed them from their molds and wrapped them up all cute with treat bags as covers and sparkly ribbon.

If you want to get fancier with your suckers or candies, you can find hard candy molds online, but for those, you pour the hot sucker syrup into the molds which we think is a bit riskier than melting in the oven–especially when the kids are helping.

These are just a couple of sweet treat ideas from the kitchen. If you’re not a candy maker, a gift of cookies, brownies or bars would be appreciated by any lover of sweet things. Plus, a gift from the kitchen is just as much fun to make as it is give (and receive!).

Happy family cooking everyone!

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. Checked out our 2 Kids Cooking Recipes page for all of our holiday recipes