Thursday, April 24, 2008

PLAYING WITH FOOD
Before the love of food comes the love of cooking. . .


Nephews Andrew and Truman

As a kid my mom let us cook and bake with her. We helped measure and mix: a pinch of this, a dash of that, a heaping teaspoon, a little sifting of flour, lots of careful egg cracking and then we'd snap on the blender and go to town.

As I grew up, my mom would turn the kitchen over to me and I created all kinds of crazy things.... once I whipped eggs whites into a meringue, added a bit of purple food coloring and some almond extract and then scooped spoonfuls onto a greased tin and baked it. I made home made pudding and froze it during the 80's when Pudding Pops were the craze. Mine turned out lumpy. Lumpy and frozen is not a good combo. I remembering pouring and shaking several spice containers into a bowl of cookie dough then throwing in almost a whole container of poppy seeds. The cookies actually tasted good.

Last weekend my nephews got a little creative with chocolate and vanilla pudding, strawberries and little shortcakes. Cooking can (and should be) playful... the way it is with children, don't you think? Maybe I should be a chef... get paid to play with food.


French Secret Chefs
Cooking with the Nephews
Andrew and Truman in the Kitchen

1 comment:

sivab said...

Jen, it sounds like you had some real talent as a kid. You are right, cooking with kids should be fun and it is awesome that you showed Andrew and Trums the way. My girl made me a delicious "Veggie Castle" for Mother's Day dinner, what a treat! Cool Site-Sara aka the twin of Rachel