Little chefs

At the fall Just Between Friends sale, I picked up a Rachael Ray kids cookbook for cheap. Last week the kids and I looked over one of the first (and presumably easiest) recipes and picked one to make for dinner. Last night was our big night. Our menu was referred to as the dipper menu-- all things that you dip. We made chicken toes, veggie salsa dip and veggies, and peanut butter-caramel dip with apples. Yum. Or Yum-o, in Rachael speak.

I was hoping this might help them engage in the kitchen and also encourage them to try some new foods-- thinking if they participated in creation, they'd want to try. Experiment gone wrong when Sam tried a celery stick and it was super-bitter, for celery. Oops.

Sam was commenting about how messy the cooking process was. They were working on the chicken, which required Kate rolling chicken in flour and dipping in egg, then Sam rolling in the breading. Sam said, "If I'd have known how messy this would be, I'd never done it!"

He came back from washing his hands a few minutes later and added, "When I grow up, we are NEVER going to do any more cooking. It's too messy!"

Kate responded, "What are you going to do then, go out for dinner every night?!"

"Well, no. I guess when I get married we'll have to cook some, because it's good for the kids. If I have kids. You know."

So, we may not have succeeded in expanding our gourmet palate, but we definitely made an impression!