Sandwiches are quick and easy for lunch or even a light dinner, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be fun. This recipe is really more of an activity that makes sandwich and a family cooking adventure. When we make these, we customize our own fixings and pick our own shapes, but you could easily simplify the ingredients and use the same cookie cutter for them all; then serve them as part of a Christmas lunch buffet for the kids their friends.

The veggies are a standard item on our table here at the 2 Kids house. They are so easy to prepare and obviously healthy. And, since Alex and Soph are purists of sorts when it comes to food–well you can get more ‘pure’ then washed and cut up, right?

Sandwich Filling Ideas:
Roast Beef
Honey Ham
Salami
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Mayo
Lettuce
Cucumbers
Radishes
Marble Jack Cheese
Cheddar Cheese
etc…
Bread

Veggie Suggestions:
Green Peppers
Cucumbers
Carrots
Celery

In addition to your favorite sandwich fixings, you’ll need some Holiday Cookie Cutters. The best kind are those metal ones, but plastic ones with deep sides work well too.

Start by getting the veggies prepared; peel and cut anything that needs to be peeled and cut. Slice veggies like cucumbers or radishes really thin if you’ll be including them as filling for the sandwiches too.

Next, it’s time to build your sandwich. Put the mayo, mustard, butter or whatever sauce-like item you have on the bread. Then layer the meat, cheese, veggies or whatever on the sandwich. I recommend not getting thicker than the edges of your cookie cutters or you might have a challenge when it’s time to cut the shapes.

Once you’re satisfied with your sandwich, put the top on and prepare to ‘cookie cutter’ it. If you cutters are large, you’ll probably only get one cut per sandwich, but some cutters are the perfect size to get two. (We eat the ’scraps’ too–no need to waste deliciousness). As you cut, you may need to run a knife around the outer edge of the cutter if it’s not pulling away. Some meats are harder to cut through than others. Carefully push the sandwich out of the cookie cutter and you’ll have a super cute AND super tasty sandwich treat!

The next step is presentation. You know Soph wouldn’t let us eat our food ’til it’s properly arranged and looking beautiful You can serve them on single plates, one serving per person, or family style–they taste good either way.

Have fun making these Christmas-y sandwiches together and make sure to keep tuning in each Saturday for new episodes of Two Kids Cooking. Alex and Soph will show you exactly how we make this recipe in a couple of weeks.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Perogies are dumplings stuffed with various fillings. They are traditional in Poland, and since Alex and Soph are half Polish (on their dad’s side), we make them every year for the holidays. Alex & Soph’s recipe is a potato filled perogie that is boiled and served with sour cream. And, although there are a few steps, it’s fun teaching the kids about this traditional, family recipe. We have a great time making them together, plus they’re super tasty.

Pasta:
1 cup flour
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Large egg

Pour all the ingredients together in a food processor. Mix until everything comes together and then roll into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 1 hour. (Note: More traditional recipes just put the flour on the table, make a well in the middle, crack in the egg (no oil) and mix by hand. I prefer my recipe because the dough is easier to work with and it’s waaaay less messy.)

Filling:
5 potatoes
4 slices bacon
4 Tablespoons Butter
1/2 Cup Whole Milk
Salt and Pepper to taste

Peel and boil the potatoes until they are soft.

While the potatoes are boiling, fry the bacon until crisp. When it’s done, crumble it into bacony bits.

When the potatoes are done, drain them and then mash them with a potato masher. Next, add the butter, milk, bacon bits and salt and pepper. We like to use a hand mixer to beat it all together and smooth out the potatoes. If you feel it’s too dry, add additional milk.

Assembly

First, roll out half of the pasta to about 1/8 inch thick (we use our pasta machine because we have one and we like it ). You will need extra flour to eliminate sticking, so before rolling, make sure to sprinkle some down. Then, using a 3 inch round cookie cutter (or a glass) to cut several rounds. Next, take about a tablespoon or so of the filling mixture and place it in the center of the round. Fold the round over and pinch the edges together to seal tightly. Continue this process ’til you’re out of filling or dough or both. As you finish each perogie, lay it on a foil-covered baking sheet that is lightly sprinkled with flour…the perogies will stick to each other if the set close for too long. Now, you can freeze them for later or boil them and eat.

If you choose to boil them, bring the water to a boil first, then gently place them in the water. When they start floating, they’re done–3 to 5 minutes (longer if frozen). Place the cooked perogies in a bowl with some butter, and then serve individually with sour cream. Once they’ve been boiled, if we have leftovers, we like to fry them up to reheat. It adds another dimension of deliciousness.

We hope you enjoy our family recipe for perogies! In a couple of weeks, Alex and Soph will share their techniques for this family recipe, so make sure to stop back every Saturday for our next episode (or sign up for our newsletter and we’ll let you know when it’s up).

Thanks for stopping by and we hope your Holidays are Happy!

So Thanksgiving is about turkey. We like turkey. But, we also like meatballs. Since the kids are going to be eating the ‘real thing’ on Thanksgiving day at their dad’s, we celebrated at grandma’s with the meatball variety of turkey. Watch as Alex and Soph share their secrets for our Thanksgiving Turkey Meatballs…

If you want to try out Alex and Soph’s recipe, check it out: 2 Kids Cooking Thanksgiving Turkey Meatballs.

And, make sure you don’t miss an episode–sign up for our weekly email, and as a gift to you, you’ll get 6 daily emails filled with menu planning ideas that your family can cook together!

Everybody knows that Thanksgiving dinner means turkey. Since I don’t have the kids on Thanksgiving day every year, and since I don’t want them to get all turkey-ed out, when we make our day after Thanksgiving meal, it usually includes turkey meatballs.

And, I’ll just admit it now, we are meatball lovers, we have them a lot and in all meat varieties (turkey, chicken, pork and hamburger). This recipe is our favorite, we get lots of compliments on it; and let’s just face it, juicy, little balls of seasoned ground meat–you can’t go wrong!

Thanksgiving Turkey Meatballs:
1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
1 egg
3/4 cup bread crumbs (we recommend panko)
3/4 cup milk
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 Tablespoon italian seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 onions (optional)

Mix all ingredients in bowl and squish all together with your hands (kids love this part). When everything is well mixed together, form into 1 1/2 to 2 inch balls. Place on a foil covered baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 30 minutes.

Have fun making these tasty meatballs and have a great Thanksgiving!

Make sure and sign up for Alex and Soph’s weekly email so you never miss a show! Plus, you’ll get 6 days of family cooking friendly menu planning ideas, free!

Yay! It’s Halloween! We are so excited to go trick-or-treating (and thankful it’s not snowing here in good ‘ole Minnesota). Soph’s gonna be Hannah Montana, and Alex as Darth Vadar–And, Mom’s gonna be a Zombie Hippie (we’ll make sure to post photos).

Anyway, our Halloween finale closes out this season with some cute and tasty Peanut Butter Spider Cookies.

Thanks for watching and have a Spook-alicious Halloween!!

AND–>If you like our show, please let your friends know about us–email, tweet, tell all of the people who give you candy tonight, share away

Boo!

Ahh, Thanksgiving, one of the tastiest times of the year. We all know there are tons of traditional foods associated with Thanksgiving, from the turkey to the green bean casserole, and most of us have a favorite. Pumpkin pie is both Alex and Sophia’s favorite and with the ginger snap crust and creamy filling, this is our best recipe ever!

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie – Crust:
2 cups ginger cookie crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/8 tsp salt
5 Tbsp Butter, melted

We use a food processor or a hand chopper to convert the cookies to crumbs. We do the same with the walnuts. Melt the butter in the microwave. Mix the crumbs, walnuts, salt and butter in a deep, pie pan. Then press the crust in the pan and up the sides. Bake the crust for 8 to 10 minutes at 325 degrees. Then take out to cool so you can pour in the filling.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie – Filling:
6 oz. Cream cheese, softened
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs and 1 egg yolk
3/4 cup whole milk or half & half
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 dash ground cloves
1/4 salt

Beat the cream cheese until fluffy and then add 1/2 cup sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and egg yolk 1 at a time and then add the rest of the ingredients and beat until well blended. Pour filling into the crust.

We like to serve it with whip cream. You can make your own, used cool whip or the stuff in a can…whatever you serve it with, this pie is seriously delicious. We hope you think so too!

Make sure and sign up for Alex and Soph’s weekly email (look to your right). That way you’ll never miss a show!

For this week we share our interpretation of those traditional peanut butter kiss cookies–with a spooky twist of course! These treats are as cute as they are tasty, plus Alex and Soph had lots-o-fun making (and eating) ‘em.

Peanut Butter Spider Cookies:
1 bag of chocolate kisses, unwrapped
1 bag of pretzel sticks
1/2 cup butter or shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla

Beat butter and peanut butter and then add in both types of sugars and beat until fluffy. Add the egg milk and vanilla; beat well, stir together flour, baking soda and salt and then gradually beat into the mixture.

Shape the dough into balls about 1-inch in size. Roll the balls in sugar and then place on a baking pan. Bake the cookies 8 to 10 minute (until lightly browned).

Right after removing from oven, push the kisses into the ‘front’ edges of each cookie (they are the spider’s head). Then break a bunch of pretzel sticks in half and stick 6 to 8 into ‘legs’ into the sides of he cookies. There you have it, adorable Peanut Butter Spider Cookies, ready to be munched with an ice cold glass of milk–Ahhh!

Have fun with these and let us know what you think with a comment…Thank You!

Every good meal needs a good beverage for which to wash it down. These two thirst-quenching, kid-friendly, drinks are the perfect addition to any Halloween meal. One is sweet and one is sour, both are just what any costume-clad child would want with their candy-filled pillowcase, trick-or-treating haul.

Vampire Cocktail:
Green and/or Red Grapes
Grenadine or Strawberry Cordial Mixer
7-up or Tonic Water

Alien Potion:
Green and/or Red Grapes
Lime Cordial Mixer
7-up or Tonic Water
Green Food Coloring

For both beverages, the steps are the same. First, freeze the grapes overnight (or for a few hours at the minimum). Add 7 or so frozen grapes of your preferred color to a glass. Next, add two cap-fulls of cordial mixer to the glass. If you’re making the Alien Potion, add a few drops of food coloring at this point. Next Add 7-up or Tonic Water to fill the glass. Stir the beverage (and mix the food coloring in), and serve.

We hope you enjoy this sweet beverage treat! Let us know what you think with a comment and make sure to sign-up at the right so you don’t miss out on any news from Alex and Sophia…Thank You!

Happy Halloween! And, welcome to the first of our four Halloween episodes. Halloween is our favorite holiday (well, mine anyway), and we had tons of fun filming each show to share some of our scariest recipes with you.

The Marshmallow bats were invented because my kids are more than fond of chocolate covered marshmallows. This recipe is fun and spook-alicious!

The Forked-Eyeball recipe is not ours, we found it in Disney Family Fun Magazine’s October 2009 issue. We thought we test it out and share. Our thoughts:
-Delicious!
-Doesn’t look as good as the magazine, BUT, it was our first time.
-Fun and easy to make.
-Overall—> we say try it!

Enjoy the show and make sure and sign-up for our notification list so you don’t miss any news or fun ’stuff’ from Alex and Soph!

Thanks for watching! Let us know what you think or if you have any recipes you’d like to share by posting a comment below

NOTE: For tips on melting chocolate so it’s easier to work with, check out this recipe from The Global Gourmet.

Here’s another one of our gory sounding snacks that’s actually super tasty. With our wiener ‘fingers’ and homemade barbecue sauce ‘blood’, even the most faint of heart will be unable to resist.

Zombie Fingers with Blood Sauce:
1 package of cocktail wieners
1 8 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 6 oz. can of tomato paste
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 cloves garlic, crushed
4 tablespoons onion, minced
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Natural Hickory Seasoning
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons Stone Ground Dijon Mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a sauce pan. Add the garlic and onion, cooking until they’re soft. Next add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer on low for 15 to 25 minutes. Keep stirring it often so it doesn’t burn. Transfer the sauce to a serving bowl. You can make the sauce days in advance and then just warm in in the microwave before serving too.

For the Zombie Fingers, transfer the wieners to a microwavable bowl. Heat for 3 to 5 minutes, until hot. Transfer them to a platter and serve with blood sauce.

Little vampires everywhere will be waiting in line to taste these drippingly delicious delicacies (yes, I just said that… )