Summer Drinks Kids Can Make

We had a hot day today, and the kids asked to make Line Cooler. And yes that is line with an ‘n’, not ‘lime’. Our recipe is adapted from the Line Cook Cooler in The Grit Cookbook. The Grit is a restaurant in Athens, Georgia and don’t you know that they know a thing or two about heat and humidity. I’ve sent this recipe to several people and no one ever tries it. I know the ingredients don’t sound like they could possibly add up to much, but I promise that it’s worth the try. The taste is so cooling … Continue reading →

Experimenting with Ice Cream Sandwiches

Valorie’s blog on Homemade Ice Cream Sandwiches made me remember a fun ice cream place from my college days. It was called Serendipity. To get there you had to go down a tiny staircase. The store was actually below sidewalk level. And since serendipity means an accidental discovery of something pleasant, valuable, or useful, I thought the name of this tiny little ice cream store fit perfectly. They sold all kinds of ice cream, but my favorite was their design– it –yourself ice cream sandwiches. First you picked from chocolate, sugar, oatmeal, or chocolate chip cookies. These were large fresh-baked … Continue reading →

No Cook Dinner

I’m almost embarrassed to tell you what I fed my family tonight for dinner. But since they thought it was great fun, I’ll tell you. We had a big, busy day with a trip to the movies, the health food store, the big warehouse store, and exercising at the YMCA. By the time we got home we were all tired, and the house was very hot. We don’t have air conditioning, and most of the time we don’t really need it here in Colorado. Today though, some cooling air would have been nice. The house was too hot to cook … Continue reading →

Popcorn Fun on a Cold, Rainy Day

I’ve been busy with the kids this week shopping for spring and summer clothes, and enjoying an easier spring break schedule. Today a mixture of ice and rain is falling, so we aren’t planning on going anywhere. It’s a good day to be lazy, watch a movie or two and have some popcorn. I try not to buy a lot of microwave popcorn. There are some very nasty sounding chemicals in it. I’d heard that you could pop your own corn in a regular lunch sack. I hesitated to try it, but it works great. We put a couple of … Continue reading →

Italian Sodas – Easy Recipes for Kids to Make

Italian sodas look beautiful and seem very fancy and indulgent. They are, however, extremely fun and easy to make. Start with a big glass full of ice. Add sparkling water or club soda, and a tablespoon or two of flavored syrups. These syrups can be found in the coffee section of most grocery stores, coffee shops, gourmet food stores, and are also available from Amazon. They come in myriad of flavors: vanilla, white chocolate, caramel, raspberry, pumpkin spice, peppermint, Tiramisu, amaretto, lime, cranberry, hazelnut, crème de menthe, Irish Crème, coconut, coffee, and even pomegranate and mango. A lot of the … Continue reading →

Easy Super Bowl Snacks Kids Can Make

We actually don’t watch a lot of football at my house. But the Super Bowl is fun, even though some of us are more interested in the commercials than the game. And of course there are the snacks, too! Here are some snacks kids love and that they can help make. Brown Sugar Dip (that tastes like caramel) 1-8 ounce package softened cream cheese 1 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla Mix the package of cream cheese with the brown sugar and vanilla. It really does taste like caramel. We like it with apples. It’s also really good on pretzels. … Continue reading →

Flavored Hot Chocolate Fun

Our family loves hot chocolate. We like to get a little fancy with it and have fun coming up with different flavor combinations. Hot chocolate is hard to mess up. It’s a great way to have kids do some creative cooking. I have a selection of coffee syrups. Our favorite flavors are vanilla, caramel, peppermint, and raspberry. Here are some of our favorite combinations. I also like to mix a mug with ½ coffee and ½ flavored hot chocolate. Not only is it fewer calories, but it tastes like a fancy coffee store treat. Peppermint: Add either a splash of … Continue reading →

Canned Biscuit Doughnuts

How do you make doughnuts from canned biscuits? It’s really very simple. My husband introduced me to these years ago on a camping trip. He learned how to make them in Boy Scouts when he was young. He’s continued this fun tradition with our own Boy Scout Troop. He makes the doughnuts for our family when we go camping. And sometimes he does them just for a snow day or weekend treat. You start with a can of canned biscuits from the dairy section of the supermarket. You don’t want the fancy flaky layer kind, just the basic ones. My … Continue reading →

Homemade Root Beer Experiment

Do your kids like root beer? One of my children wanted a homemade root beer kit for Christmas. He didn’t get it. The kit looked complicated and was expensive. To create the root beer involved steeping roots and sterilizing bottles. It didn’t sound like much fun to me. A few days ago at the store we spotted Root Beer Concentrate next to the vanilla and peppermint extracts. One the back was a simple recipe for root beer so we tried it. In a saucepan you bring one and a half cups water to a boil. Stir in ¾ c up … Continue reading →

Cooking With Kids – White Chocolate Pretzels

I’ve been looking for easy things for my kids to help with. Tonight we made some pretzels with white chocolate drizzle. They turned out fine, and they have a nice sweet and salty taste. The kids like them better than I do. I thought it would be an easy, easy thing to make since it didn’t involve an oven. It’s not completely uncomplicated. We melted white baking chips in the microwave. You can also use a double boiler. If I end up making these again, I will use the double boiler. Microwaving chocolate is very tricky. You need to do … Continue reading →