Fresh Produce

So, after the cutouts I made a few more types of cookies but then our oven broke and I couldn’t finish the last 2 recipes  I still haven’t finished the all of the cookies I had planned on making, but I have been cooking a lot aside from that. I made some delicious chocolate truffles (in peppermint and orange flavors) to give as Christmas gifts and cooked Christmas Dinner with my mom. I also made a chocolate-caramel-almond cake for a New Year’s party, in addition to many other random recipes. Anyway, many people have made resolutions for New Years to eat healthier, so I thought that I might post some recipes using fresh fruits and vegetables that kids will love to help with and love to eat. Here are some ideas for what to do with fresh ingredients:

* Make veggie chips by slicing turnips, parsnips, carrots, beets, rutabagas, or other root vegetables very thinly (use a mandoline if you have one) then spread them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake at 350 until crispy. Since these are a different kind of chip based off of a baked version of potato chips, you could always use potatoes if you aren’t feeling too adventurous. They are a great way to introduce unfamiliar vegetables to kids and they aren’t deep fried! Yay!

* From the 1951 Fannie Farmer Cookbook, “Two Pear Salads for Children,” Kids can make a Bunny by placing half of a peeled pear (cut side down) onto a bed of shredded lettuce, then decorating it with cloves for eyes, a marshmallow for a tail, a bit of pink candy for a nose, and almond slivers as ears. A “sunbonnet” is also easy to make. use a large leaf of lettuce and put a pear half inside it (cut side down), with the larger end at the top and use cloves as eyes, a bit of candy for a mouth, and pimento for a ribbon at the bottom. I think it might even be fun to cut a bow out of strawberry slices. These salads can be made using canned pears if you want to.

* Fruit ices and sorbets are delicious and kids usually love anything that is similar to ice cream. Over Christmas break, I made a recipe for pineapple carpaccio and sorbetto from an Italian cookbook. It involved slicing thin pineapple rings, topping them with powdered sugar and then a scoop of pineapple sorbet each, and then garnishing them with fresh mint leaves. To make pineapple sorbet, puree fresh pineapple in a blender or food processor, then measure 2 cups. Bring 1 cup of granulated sugar and 2 cups of water to a boil and add to the pureed pineapple. Freeze the mixture for a few hours and then serve. To make berry sherbet from the Fannie Farmer cookbook, sprinkle 2 quarts of berries with 2 cups of sugar and let stand for 2 hours. Then put them through a sieve and add 2 cups of water. Freeze, stirring with a fork every hour or so. Scoop and serve when completely frozen.

* Help kids make a salad from their favorite vegetables. Honey mustard dressing is easy to make from plain yogurt mixed with a little mayonnaise and stirred together with as much honey and yellow mustard as you like. Or search google for some other fun dressing recipes. Fruit salads are also fun to make; at cooking camp this year, we made a tropical fruit salad and served it in a half of an orange (hollowed out) then sprinkled coconut on top and added a maraschino cherry.

*Fondues are fun if you have a fondue pot. You can use the recipe for cheddar cheese fondue that I posted a few months ago and dip cauliflower, broccoli, celery, carrots, bell peppers, and other veggies into it.