Cooking Up Some Fun!

I had the pleasure recently to spend a few hours in the kitchen with a small group of wonderful girls.  (Yes, my daughter was one of them.)  The 4-H club that I co-advise with two other remarkably talented women held a project work session.  I worked with the girls whose projects include cooking and Carrie and DiAnn worked with the seamstresses in the group. 



Future Food Network Stars!



This was our first project work session and I chose to keep things very basic.  Also, being that we did this at DiAnn's house and I didn't want to make a HUGE mess...I selected a couple of no-bake type goodies for the girls to prepare.  These girls are no strangers in the kitchen and I was delighted by the wealth of knowledge they already have with how to measure ingredients and following the steps in a recipe, etc.

We used measuring spoons for the sticky honey.  And we tried very hard to take turns too!

We used measuring cups for the equally sticky peanut butter!

Then we stirred, and stirred and...

...and stirred some more.

While our peanut butter concoction chilled in the fridge, we set to work on creating these tasty little masterpieces.  I recently attended a workshop where they not only demonstrated various snacks that are easy and fun for kids to prepare, but also to encourage children to try out new foods.  Sometimes, if a food is new or unusual, kids are more likely to try it out if it's served in a fun way or if they helped to prepare it.  In this case, we did both!

After making a horizontal slit about halfway through our dried apricots, we add a pretzel twist.  Then you add a little dab of cream cheese to act as the "glue" that hold the mini chocolate chip "eye" in place!

These girls look very serious and deliberate about the work at hand.  But don't let this picture fool you.  There were more giggles and smiles than you can imagine!

And, voila!  Just like that.  You should know.  The girls arranged our little apricot fish and the crunchy peanut butter balls on the platter themselves.  After all, presentation is everything!

Mother and daughter working together.

I think our kitchen shenanigans distracted the sewers in the group.  I overheard the other two advisors discuss moving the sewing into another room the next time.  Ooops!

Older, more experienced members of the club took the time to share their expertise with younger club members.  Talk about a positive role model!
 


Another winning Mother-Daughter team!