what is the best way for cooking with (little cousins)?

Answer 1

Whatever you are cooking or baking
1) have all the ingredients pre-measured in little dishes before cousins get there
2) make sure you teach them that it is important to wash their hands before beginning
3) if they can read, have a recipe for each one to follow along with, and if they can't read, still give them a recipe to take home with them
4) give them aprons to put on to dress for the occassion and keep their clothes clean ( a long time ago, when my boys were little, I sent away for a chef hat, oven mitts, and aprons from Robin Hood. It was fun for them, and me, when they dressed up for the occassion!)
5) cookies are a good idea, but sometimes hard to mix by hand...I used to let the kids make pizzas using premade pizza dough, or even english muffins
6) ask them simple questions throughout the process, about their likes and dislikes with food, their favorite colors, animals, etc. That way there will be fewer or no awkward silences.
7) clean up is part of cooking...let them do as much as they can - even get them a step stool to reach the sink to do dishes.
8) have your camera ready to take photos - great for memory books, and for chats later with your cousins
9) remain completely calm through the whole experience, and praise them along the way

I sincerely hope this helps. It's brought back a lot of sweet memories to me. Thank you!

Answer 2

1] start with baking cookies - make their favorite, and that will give them incentive!
2] everybody washes/dries their hands [ and forearms for littles ]
3] keep damp paper towels handy [3-4]
4] unwrap butter - show kids how and clean up as you go along. Measure sugar[s] and cream into butter. [ use a mixer if they are old enough/have arms strong enough to handle it, but do some safety checks first.]
5] cream butter, sugar, vanilla etc. according to recipe.
6] add eggs,and mix until smooth.
7] measure all dry ingredients into small bowl, while demonstrating how to measure each type of ingredient Set aside.
8] add dry ingredients, a little at a time, until smooth.
9] add chips/nuts/raisins, whatever is in recipe.
10] preheat oven to desired temp.
11] prepare cookie sheets
12] drop cookies in neat little piles/balls - try not to get stray pieces of dough on sheet, because they will not come off easily.
13] set timer for middle of cookie range - if instructions say
7 - 11 minutes,set for nine. Check at timer, they should be golden brown [ slightly lighter than a graham cracker ]
Remove cookies to cool, place on clean paperbag, or pastry paper.

Answer 3

Depends on the age of the cousins. Cookies are always a good way to start little chefs.

Answer 4

The answer about decorating cupcakes was a good one. I used to get kids to make cornflake cakes. Melt chocolate in a bowl in the microwave, then add cornflakes. When it's fairly cool, put a spoon full of mixture into small cases. Or hard boil eggs and let them paint faces on them. Google cookery for kids

Answer 5

I have two books for children by Gold Medal (flour)
Alpha Bakery Children's Cookbook
And
The Rainbow Bakery
Each are $2.00
Alpha& Ranibow Bakery Cookbooks
PO Box 3031
Maple Plain, MN 55592-3031
No web site listed
You might check at the grocers on the flour bag???

Answer 6

something that doesn't actually involve cooking.

mix different fruit juices to make popsicles- freeze in ice cube trays and use toothpicks or popsicle sticks to stick in when half frozen to make different flavors.

buy or pre-bake cookies, cupcakes and decorate- with different fun frostings, fruits, etc.

basically things that they feel TOTALLY involved in- so don't say 'let's make spaghetti' and then you have to do all of the cooking and they don't feel like they are helping.

making some kind of cookies where the prep is important would be fun- try peanut butter balls (they roll the dough into balls), cut out cookies, etc, etc.

Answer 7

depending on their age you can do a variety of things, if they are younger than five I'd do something like making colored icing with them by placing the ingredients in a zip lock bags and having them mush it around till it comes out to be a sweet topping for the cupcakes/cookies you have baked previously [the bags can be substituted with small bowls and spoons.

Answer 8

Have a Mexican night time. Taco's are cheep and handy. Ground red meat, taco seasoning, taco shells or flour tortillas (is determined by when you desire crunchy or delicate.. you'll even combine them to make your possess double decker), cheese, lettuce, salsa, and bitter cream. VOILA!

Answer 9

marinate them over night