Every so often, I get the chance to be “The Cooking Mom” at Explorer Parent Participation Preschool, where almost 4-year-old Ava spends a couple mornings a week. Let me be clear – I am NOT a good cook. Not at all. I don’t enjoy cooking, as a rule. But, there are exceptions to every rule. I do like cooking at Thanksgiving (because it is social, it involves wine…at least in my family, and I don’t have to do it all, just one dish or two). I enjoy baking (I learned from my Grandma Nita how to make peach cobbler, from my mother how to make pumpkin bread and whole wheat bread, and from my dad how to make peanut butter cookies). And I like being “The Cooking Mom” at preschool.
I’m not sure why I like cooking at preschool so much. Probably because my kids like it so much. We get to decide what we’re going to make, go shop for everything, and they help me prepare it. This is in stark contrast to our everyday cooking life, which involves Get Your Own Cereal for Breakfast (MAYBE pancakes on the weekends…), the Same Old Sandwich packed for lunch every day at school, and Throw Something Together Dinner (or Order Out!).
This last week for snack at preschool, I employed some fun ideas from a new cookbook, Annabel Karmel’s Top 100 Finger Foods. Gorgeous photos, they inspire ME to cook more, they really do. Because cooking at preschool does not involve a huge amount of 1) time, or 2) equipment (there is no oven or stove, although we do have a toaster oven, electric skillet and hot plate – I did make sausage, eggs and toast a few weeks ago, which the kids loved…4 girls gobbled up 16 sausages in 5 seconds and demanded more…), I decided to try one of the dishes from the “Snacks” section of Annabel Karmel’s book:
Salad Lollipops
I know…I didn’t REALLY cook.
But it was inventive and here is what I learned:
Kids at preschool love skewers. Probably kids anywhere love skewers, actually.
They can choose what they want to put on there, have fun doing it, will probably forget that what they are skewering and, in turn, will probably forget that they “don’t like” the food they have just skewered and just eat it, thus….TRYING SOMETHING NEW! Aha!
It was very SPRINGY. Ava even picked the purple hydrangeas to act as a centerpiece.
I swear I am going to try a recipe from the book that actually involves COOKING. I swear it. Maybe this weekend when my sister is here - see, that way, it will be social and involve wine and I won’t have to do it all. Just the way I like it.
This post is inspired by the SV Moms Group Book Club. I received a copy of the book from the publisher for review in connection with the book club, but was not obligated to post about the book. To read more posts in the book club, visit the SV Moms Blog Book Club page.
