Cooking With PaPaGrizz

Why You Should Let Your Children Help in the Kitchen

Cooking with children can be a lot of fun for them and helpful for you! When you let your children help with the cooking they learn a lot about the food they eat. They can see the recipe right through from the raw ingredients stage right up to the result. They will also love eating their creations, even if they contain vegetables!

Benefits of Cooking with Children

Cooking might be a chore for us but the kitchen is a fun place for kids. Cooking is educational for kids and a very good bonding experience between you and them. Children can learn new skills without noticing, which include weighing, measuring, understanding fractions and time. Schools do not tend to spend a lot of time teaching cooking skills to children so you might like to try teaching them yourself.

Getting your child involved in cooking will prepare him or her for self-sufficiency and an independent life. It is also a good way to handle fussy eaters because most children will eagerly eat something they have helped to make. The benefits of cooking with children include teaching your child an extremely useful skill.

Some Tips for Cooking with Children

You can involve children as young as four in your cooking. Before starting, you need to consider a few things. Make sure you read the recipe through with your child so you know what to do and what you need. Clear some space and get all the ingredients and utensils ready on a low surface, which your child can see.

Think about which parts of the recipe your child can do. Older children might be able to strain a bowl of boiling noodles or take something hot out of the oven but you have to be more careful with younger kids. Your child should already know not to touch sharp knives but might forget in the excitement of cooking, so keep them out of reach.

In order for your child to learn about cooking, you should explain what you are doing each step of the way. Telling your child to mix a batter does not let them know why they need to mix those particular ingredients or what is going to happen next. Kids are naturally inquisitive and you will probably find that they do not stop asking questions the whole time anyway!

Teach your child to wash their hands before handling any food. If your child is young, tell them what you are doing as you prepare the food. An older child can measure the ingredients by themselves.

Recipes to Make with Children

Children love to knead and roll out dough, mix batters and crack eggs so you could make a cake together or some cookies. Pizza is a fun food and your child can decide on the toppings and arrange them himself. Icing a cake can also be fun for a child. If it is someone's birthday, he can try to pipe a birthday message on the cake or arrange fruit on top. You might not get a particularly professional result but it will be fun for him and certainly appreciated by the recipient.

Whatever recipe you decide to make with your child, the most important thing with children cooking is to have fun. Cooking with children is an excellent bonding experience. Kids love to learn and it is always great to teach them something useful!

Enjoy!

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Heres a quick and easy no fuss no muss (is that a word?) recipe for one of my favorites. 

This makes a good Sunday after meeting lunch. After you get the beef cooked its just a matter of eating when you want to.

This can simmer all day if you wish! 

Heres the stuff you need.

1 pkg beef tips

1 pkg fresh mushrooms ( more or less depending on your taste)

1 envelope beefy onion soup mix ( I use Liptons)

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can beef broth

1 cup of water

1 cup sour cream

1 pkg egg noodles

pepper and spices to taste ( I tend to get a little creative with the cayenne peppers)

Ok lets get cooking!

I like to brown the meat first with a bit of olive oil over high heat, the idea here to sear the beef...but don't burn it!  Your just browning it here not cooking it all the way though....ok?

Combine onion soup mix, mushroom soup, sour cream and water in bowl.

In crock-pot or slow cooker, place meat and pour soup mixture over top. Cook on high temperature for 3-4 hours, until meat is very tender.

Prepare egg noodles to package directions.

Serve meat over noodles and enjoy!

Not sure if the little guy to the right

here is liking this recipe! 

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I don't know about you, but nothing says "Down Home Cooking" like a big ole' plate of fried Yard Bird!
(thats what we call Chicken here in Arkansas...)

Any how there are probably as many recipes for Southern Fried Chicken as there are Southern Fried Grandma's...heehee

You might be asking the question, Who in the world decided to take a chicken, throw some flour on it and fry the darn thing?

Whew! thats a good one and I just happened to do a little research to find the answer. ( Thats alright, you can thank me later...)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Fried chicken (also referred to as Southern Fried chicken in the United States) is the meat of chicken which is dipped in a breading mixture and then deep fried, pan fried or pressure fried. The breading seals in the juices but also absorbs the fat of the fryer. The chicken itself may be chicken pieces on the bone with skin, or boneless and skinless pieces, usually breast meat, as in chicken fingers.

It is most often made using a pressure frier, as this is the quickest method of preparation. The water inside the chicken becomes steam and escapes through the oil in a sealed chamber, increasing the pressure and lowering the cooking temperature needed. The steam also cooks the chicken through, but still allows the piece to be moist and soft inside the crispy batter.

Deep Frying has a long history of which evidence occurs in ancient cultures all over the world such as Rome, Egypt and China.Fritters had already existed in Europe since medieval times, and fried chicken was known in Europe as pollo fritto in Italy, Ga Xao in Vietnam, etc. before it became a culinary habit in the Southern United States. The Scottish who enjoyed frying their food may have brought the method with them when they migrated to Southern USA. There is also evidence of deep frying in West Africa.

What is uncertain is if it existed before European contact in that region or not. Whichever way it was introduced to the American South, fried chicken became a common staple.

Ok did that answer it for you?

Well enough foolin' around with the history stuff PaPa,... just give me the darn recipe.....

Alright quit your whinning! Keep in mind that you can take this starter recipe and add or subtract to it as you wish, just keep the basics and you can't go wrong.... Ready?

Recipe Summary
Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 14 minutes
Yield: 4 servings (or 1 serving for me...)

3 eggs
1/3 cup water
About 1 cup hot red pepper sauce
2 cups self-rising flour
1 teaspoon pepper
Basic seasoning, recipe follows
1 (1 to 2 1/2-pound) chicken, cut into pieces
Oil, for frying, preferably peanut oil

In a medium size bowl, beat the eggs with the water. Add enough hot sauce so the egg mixture is bright orange. In another bowl, combine the flour and pepper. Season the chicken with the house seasoning. Dip the seasoned chicken in the egg, and then coat well in the flour mixture.
Heat the oil to 350 degrees F in a deep pot. Do not fill the pot more than 1/2 full with oil.

Fry the chicken in the oil until brown and crisp. Dark meat takes longer then white meat. It should take dark meat about 13 to 14 minutes, white meat around 8 to 10 minutes.

Basic Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder

note: I will be adding my favorite Seasoning Recipes in another Post....

You can mix all this stuff together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

Try it out and leave a comment about how you liked it...or fed it to the dawgs (thats the way we spell "dogs" in Arkansas..:-) get use to it!

Take care All Y'all and thanks for reading,

PaPagrizz

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