October 31, 2007 - 3:45 pm
Since Halloween is supposed to be about scary things, I did one of the scariest on my list… I COOKED… WITH CHILDREN. MANY CHILDREN! I let my little people have their people over for a Halloween sleepover and for fun (theirs mostly) we tried recipes from the Shrek Cookbook recently released by D.K. Publishing.
So here’s my quickie review (I know it’s bizarre to see ME review a cookbook but hang in there).
Overall I liked The Shrek Cookbook. It contains pretty typical recipes like pancakes and hamburgers as well as your more imaginative (and disgusting) fare like swamp rat kebabs, beetle juice ripple, and frogspawn jelly.
Artwork from the movie graces every page making it a fun read for kids and more interesting for those of us who don’t own a Kiss The Cook
The only downside I could see for some parents is the inclusion of a recipe for fuzzy navel cocktails. Of course it’s a virgin recipe but some peeps may still want to have that “cocktails are only for grown-ups” conversation once the kids receive this cookbook.
And now for the treat - You thought I forgot? Never!
D.K. Publishing has kindly gifted me with two copies of the Shrek Cookbook to give to you. Since this all came about from an experience of cooking with children, I thought it would be a hoot to have a contest around that theme.
So here’s the deal. I want your stories (misery loves company after all), specifically your favorite story of cooking with kids. And since I’m not about excluding my childfree friends, your favorite memory of cooking as a kid is also a valid entry.
You have two ways to win:
1. Click on the “comments” link at the bottom of this post and tell me your story. Make sure I have your correct email address.
2. Post your story on your blog with a trackback to this page. Then shoot me an email at crankmama/at/crankmama.com and I’ll go take a look.
I’ll pick my three favorite stories from the “comments” section and my three favorite stories from the trackbacks and post them here. The readers at CrankMama will choose one winner from each.
P.S. A really great story that is left as a comment and posted with a trackback just might be chosen twice!
You have one week (till November 7th) to post your stories. The voting begins on November 8th and runs thru November 14th.
I’ll announce the two winners on November 15th.
Good luck and Happy Halloween!
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Hi Crankmama - thanks for visiting my blog today. I am afraid I don’t really have a good kids’ cooking story. I am deathly afraid of letting my kids into the kitchen because I absolutely HATE cleaning up the kitchen. It’s bad enough that I have to clean up after the BIG BOY in my life…ugh. I’m trying to figure out if I have any great “when I was a kid” stories but I don’t even have THOSE. I am LAME.
I’m adding you to my RSS feed, because your blog is great!
November 1st, 2007 at November 1, 2007 - 3:05 pmThanks Linda!
P.S. If you decide you do want to enter, you could always make something up. I’ll never know!
November 1st, 2007 at November 1, 2007 - 3:28 pmWow, this contest is wide open and I want one of those books! Here’s my favorite story of cooking as a kid:
It’s really more of a memory than a story. My favorite recipe as a kid was Wacky Cake. It’s something my Mom used to make with my sister and I about once a month. We loved it. The recipe came out of a Dutch cookbook for kids and the whole cake was mixed in the baking dish. I remember adding the dry ingredients and then having to make 3 holes for the wet ingredients. We were always very careful about those holes. It was lots of fun and we always ended up a little messy with cake batter to lick off of spoons. Good times!
November 2nd, 2007 at November 2, 2007 - 12:34 pmFrieda used to bake, believe it or not. My dear mom taught me so well! I’ll always thank her for that–not that I bake these days, mind you. But back when I was a little berry, my equally little friends would demand chocolate chip cookies on many winter Satudays.
My favorite memory from those carefree (I can pretend, can’t I?) days was when my friend Rose Ann and I, in the middle of mixing up a big vat of cookie dough, put some flour in our mouths (not kidding!) and went around the kitchen blowing it out in puffs like smoke, pretending we were. . . are you ready? Choo-choo trains. You thought I was going to say something glamerous, like famous Hollywood actresses, didn’t you? We were very young, and pretending to be trains was enough to make us laugh hysterically all afternoon–until mom came home and saw the mess we had made. Of course we cleaned it all up. Ahhh, memories.
November 2nd, 2007 at November 2, 2007 - 11:35 pm