If you like cooking, you probably like cooking with your kids. Cookies, pizza, meatballs and snacks are some of our old stand-by’s, but sometimes spicing up  the recipe or kitchen activity requires outside influence. For us, that means one of three things is going to happen:

1. Cook Book Searching – When Alex and Soph get bored and a hunger for that elusive ‘something’ sets in, one of the first places they head to is our book shelf, filled with various cookbooks. Alex also refers to online sources, but for the most part, our cookbook shelves are the first choice for cooking activity research.

Sophia usually heads for books that contain sweets. Her favorite books for browsing include Mrs. Fields Cookie Cookbook and any of the Barbara Beery Princess Cookbooks (particularly the Pink Princess Cupcake Cookbook).

For Alex, it depends on his mood. Lately, his favorite book for the non-sweet has been Teen Cuisine by Matthew Locricchio. And, just like Soph, Mrs. Fields Cookie Cookbook is a favorite as well.

2. Let’s Try Mixing Stuff Together – the kids are both big fans of science, especially science experiments. I try to keep baking soda and vinegar on hand at all times, just because it provides a quick ‘kitchen science fix’…although it never stops there. So, this mom decided to step in and organize these ‘mixing’ sessions.

The first thing I did was get online and do a bit of research. I found some websites and a few books, here’s a list of the resources I found and that we refer to:

3. Kids Cooking Club & Kids Cooking Lessons- Another option we might choose when we need some fun that isn’t in our standard repertoire is a recipe from the Kids Cooking Club. We’ve only been members since September, so we don’t have that many of the monthly recipes yet, but, each month has additional recipes and menus from their website and they’ve recently started a forum where visitors can learn and share (if you’re a member, stop by our page and say hi!)

We also have started working through Kids Cooking Activities eBook, ‘Kids Cooking Lessons.’ It’s 67 pages of recipes, lessons, activities, glossaries and certificates for kids ages  6 to 18. It’s divided into age-based sections – Assistant Chef, ages 3 to 6; Chef-In-Training, ages 7 to 11; Junior Chef, ages 12 to 15; and Senior Chef, ages 16 to 18. Each section contains 13 lessons and is packed with great information that facilitates kitchen fun and learning.

Sooo, if you and your kids get that urge to venture into new territory and try something different in the kitchen for the New Year, maybe one of our methods will help you find the perfect activity or recipe to scratch that itch.

Happy Family Cooking Everyone,

Kelly, Alex and Sophia

P.S. You can find more cook books we like in the ‘Kids Cooking Recipe Books‘ section!

One sure way to get the kids in the kitchen, at least at our house, is to say the word ‘experiment’. We’ve done all of the traditional kitchen experimentation—baking soda and vinegar, sugar crystals, an egg in vinegar, etc.—Recently, though, I’ve been trying to make edible food items more science-y by presenting them as more of an experiment.

Some foods and recipes work better for this than others. For example, in our episode of 2 Kids Cooking TV, ‘Making Mozzerella, the kids and I had fun making delicious cheese while learning about separating milk into its various parts.

Some other real food that would work well in the edible food experiment arena include:
• Making mayonnaise and hollandaise sauce (Emulsions)
• Making Ice Cream in a Bag (Freezing Point Depression and Colligative Properties)
• Meringues and Soufflés (The Power of Egg Whites)
• Cottage Cheese and Ricotta (Catalysts and Coagulation)

There are some other ideas at ‘The Accidental Scientist: The Science of Cooking’ website that we like as well. They have experiments involving bread, pickles, candy, eggs, spices and meat. Each section includes recipes, explanations and activities.

We hope one or more of these ideas draw you and your kids into the kitchen to have some edible science fun. As Alex, Sophia and I work our way through these experiments, we’ll be sure to record each one and share via the show, of course

Have fun cooking together!

Alex, Sophia and Mom

P.S. If you have any ideas for edible experiments you’ve done, let us know by posting a comment below or by sharing over on our fan page wall at Facebook!

A couple of weeks ago, Alex, Soph and I tried one of our Kitchen Chemistry Experiments–we made our very own fresh mozzarella cheese. Both of the kids love science, and learning about making cheese seemed right up their alley…plus I’ve always thought it would be fun to try. I was right, it is fun. But, beware, it’s kind of addicting too. Maybe I’m just a perfectionist, but I can’t stop trying to get each batch a little more perfect. Luckily, Sophia is a fresh mozzarella eating monster, she just scarf’s it right up

If it’s something you’ve wanted to try, you definitely should. You’ll see just how easy it is in this episode. If you want more detail on exactly what we did, check out our Kitchen Chemistry: Making Mozzarella post.

Happy Cheese-making everyone!

Oh, and don’t forget to give us a follow over on Twitter or maybe fan us on Facebook, we like to keep in touch with our viewers

We love science, and since cooking can and does involve science, we end up doing lots of kitchen experiments–sometimes they involve food, sometimes just mixing stuff together to see what happens This week, though, we’ve had a focus on cheese-making, mozzarella cheese-making to be specific.

Before we made our first attempt, I did lots of research online. Mainly because two of the ingredients you need (Rennet, Citric Acid) are a bit challenging to find in a local store. In order to get my hands on the rennet, I spoke with the cheese department at Lund’s in NE Minneapolis. They sent me to the Lunds in Uptown, where I bought two boxes so I had plenty to work with. Citric acid, which I thought wouldn’t be that difficult to find, well, I never actually found any. I ended up using lemon juice (despite some recommendations not too). After the first batch, I found some ‘Fruit Fresh’ which contains citric acid & absorbic acid, both of which I had read were acceptable. (NOTE: you can get these ingredients online from a variety of places, I’d recommend one, but I didn’t order it online. If you have a source, please share!)

Anyway, we’ll share more of the details on each specific batch on February 27 when we post our experience on Two Kids Cooking TV. But, in the meantime, if you want to try you’re own, here’s the main recipe I followed:

How to Make Great Fresh Mozzarella Cheese at the Instructables website…it is step-by-step and easy to follow.

I also had some questions answered The New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.

My advice:
-lemon juice does work (I used about 1/8 to 1/4 cup)
-If you use tap water, boil and cool it first–it does kill the rennet if you don’t
-do Not over stretch it, it gets really dense if you do.

Again, we taped our second try and will be sharing it on the show in a couple weeks, so if you want to see how we did it, make sure to get on our mailing list, follow us on Twitter or Facebook or subscribe to our feed.