Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Cooking with Kids!



I love cooking with my four year-old nephew! Our culinary repertoire is limited because, well, he is four, but he loves to assist in the kitchen! With my sister, his mommy, he helps out by mixing cookie dough, sprinkling cinnamon on French toast, and whisks eggs for scrambling.

He and I make homemade pizza together and he does most of the work as we sing "That's Amore" by Dino (he knows the words) and flips the pizza dough. In his chef hat and choo-choo train apron, he is quite a talent in the kitchen already. I have my agenda...I would love to see him as a famous chef one day!

Last week I gave him The Toddler Cookbook by Annabel Karmel in order to expand our recipes in the kitchen. I went out and got some new ice pop holders (if you have kids, get these because they have a straw on the bottom which takes care of drips - no mess!) so we could make Tropical Pops. They were basically pina colada pops minus the rum...they were delicious! As you can see from the photo, they were also nephew approved! We made them on Saturday when New York was having gorgeously warm spring weather, so it was the perfect treat. He was a good sous chef and helped measure out and pour ingredients! I think his favorite part was playing with the citrus juicer!

Tropical Pops (Courtesy of The Toddler Cookbook by Annabel Karmel)

Ingredients:
1 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple in juices
1/2 cup of coconut milk
1/3 cup of superfine sugar
juice of one lime

Directions:
Blend all ingredients in a blender and then pour into ice pop molds and place in freezer. Allow pops to freeze for at least six hour but preferably overnight.

7 comments:

  1. I love this idea! I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to cook with me :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are a nice aunt! Cooking with kids is fun but takes a lot of patience and nice easy recipes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So cute ,ur nephew is so so cutey and i aint neither an aunt nor mother but await my turn patiently :-))))

    ReplyDelete
  4. So cute! I already let me little one do a couple of things like dump sugar, etc. Never too early to start, right? (I also bookmarked those popsicle molds. So cool!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Don't you just love it? When my nieces were wee girls we used to cook together. The youngest has pursued a career as a dietitian and she said it was because of the time we spent together. Sooo, you see, without even knowing it, we do have influence.

    Gosh those pops look good. Will have to make them for the grands. Thanks so much for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love Annabel Karmel, and have a couple of her cookbooks... Many of her recipes for older children are sophisticated enough to please adults too! I relied on her for puree inspirations back when my son actually ate every vegetable under the sun, I'm hoping he'll grow out of this phase so I can make more of her great foods for kids. I'm sure he'll love these pops now though!

    ReplyDelete