Little Cooks with Books: Apple Picking Time and The Yummiest Apple Cake Ever!

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This weekend the kids and I went apple picking at Solebury Orchards.  The weather was beautiful, the apples were juicy and crisp, the cider doughnuts were warm...the perfect Fall day.

Now, I am home with about 15lbs of apples.  Let the baking and cooking begin!

I am planning on making this crockpot applesauce and this crockpot apple butter.  Then, I will be making my most favorite apple baked good ever.   It is an apple cake with a caramel glaze, and it is so super yummy!  A dear friend gave it to me.  It is one of her family recipes.  She says I can share it with you, though!  Go pick some apples and make this cake!

Kathy's Apple Cake

Ingredients:

The Cake

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cups oil

2 cups sugar

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 cups chopped apples (fine)

1 1/2 cups pecans

The Glaze

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cups milk

1 stick butter

Directions:

Combine the dry ingredients. 

Mix the eggs, oil, and vanilla together.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients
a little at time while mixing.

Stir in apples and nuts.

Bake in a greased and floured bundt pan
for about an hour at 350 degrees.

Take out of oven and let rest on cooling rack
for a few minutes.

Then turn it over on a large plate

and let cool for an hour.

Make the glaze by boiling the ingredients

for 2 1/2 minutes and then allowing it to cool.

Once cool, pour it over the cake.

As you and your little ones enjoy the cake, be sure to read them Apple Picking Time.   A story about how a little girl, named Anna, is determined to help harvest the apples in her family's orchard.  The illustrations, created with pastels and watercolor washes, are beautiful.

Enjoy!

See you in two weeks with another Little Cooks with Books activity!

Keep Cookin',
Tara
www.ittybittybookworm.com
www.ittybittybookworms.blogspot.com

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Apples, Apples, Everywhere

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Fall is my absolute favorite season.  The leaves change color, children and teachers are excited to embark on a journey of learning, Starbucks begins to offer Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and it is apple and pumpkin picking time.  There is so much to anticipate!

With much anticipation, my kids and I are planning on going to an apple festival at Linvilla Orchards.  There will be hayrides, pony rides, face painting, children's entertainment, costumed characters, games, contests, music, apple treats and recipes, candy apples, and much more.  We can't wait!  In fact, in preparation, we are already reading apple-themed books and planning what we will bake with all of the apples we are going to pick.

Here are our favorite apple-themed books:

In this book, two sisters observe and describe the cycle of an apple tree.  At the end of the story, the girls use the apples from the tree to make and bake a lovely apple pie.  We love the illustrations in this book.  They are colorful and use a paint and paper collage technique

We are huge Steven Kellogg fans, so this book is definitely one of our favorites.  It is all about the life and times of Johnny Appleseed.  It describes how Johnny traveled around scattering appleseeds and telling Bible and adventure stories to everyone he met. 

A true classic!  This book is about a lion, a tiger, and a dog who compete in an apple balancing contest.  With simple illustrations, rhymes, and sight words, it is a perfect choice for beginning readers. 

Here are some of my favorite apple recipes:

Caramel Apple Biscuit Pops

www.pillsbury.com

 Squirmy, Wormy Apples

The Family Kitchen

Apple Turnovers

www.kraftrecipes.com

What is your favorite apple recipe?  Share it with us in a comment!

See you in two weeks with another Little Cooks with Books activity!

Keep Cookin',
Tara
www.ittybittybookworm.com
www.ittybittybookworms.blogspot.com

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Little Cooks with Books ~ Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

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My children love the book Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.  They think it is hilarious and like to discuss what they wish would fall from the sky.  The girls heard from their friends at school that they movie was great, so we bought it this weekend.  It was really cute, and  all three children enjoyed it (which is a miracle).

After spending a weekend in Chewandswallow, it only made since to make meatballs for our Little Cooks with Books cooking lesson, so that is exactly what we did.  This cooking lesson went much better than our lesson last weekend.  The girls took turns and cooperated nicely.  Best of all the meatballs turned out perfectly!  Sam and Gracen were so proud to serve them at dinner (with spaghetti marinara).

My Goals for This Lesson ~

• Practice reading a recipe.
• Discuss abbreviations commonly used in recipes (For example:  T for tablespoon and tsp for teaspoon).
• Measuring dry ingredients.
• Cracking eggs.
• Roll the meat into balls.  

The Recipe ~  This recipe came from Mommy's Kitchen.

Ingredients

1 1/2 lbs ground beef (85% lean)
2 - eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 T. dried minced onion (We used fresh onion.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
1/2 tsp pepper

 

 Cutting an onion with our Curious Chef Large Nylon Knife and Green Pepper Cutting Board.

  

 Gracen sautes some onion.

 

Squishing all of the ingredients together.

  

Scooping meatballs with our Curious Chef Ice Cream Scoop.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

 

The finished product.

The Results ~  The girls did very well with all of the goals.  The only part with which they needed assistance was making the meatballs a consistent size.  I gave them a scoop to use and that helped.  I also used the opportunity to explain that when they make meatballs or cookies they all have to be the same size so that they will cook evenly and at the same rate.  I told them that if they had some big meatballs and some little ones then the little ones would be done way before the big ones.  This made sense to them.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs Activities and Printables

• Printables for Grades 2-4 
• Discussion Questions Grades 1-3
• Weather Activities Pre-K and Kindergarten 
• Pre-K Weather Printables
• On-line Game
• Coloring Pages 
• Spaghetti and Meatball Hat Craft
• We Can All Be Meteorologists Craft

Republished from March 2010 on Raising Itty-Bitty Bookworms

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Little Cooks with Books ~ Eggs

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When my oldest daughter, Samantha,  first became interested in cooking, one of the first things I taught her how to make was scrambled eggs.  They are inexpensive, healthy, versatile, and easy and quick to prepare.  The perfect dish for a young chef, and one that she will probably make a lot in her lifetime.

Since that first cooking lesson, Samantha has become a talented scrambler of eggs.  She has learned how to add veggies and/or cheese.  She has also used them to make a scrambled egg sandwich and a breakfast burrito.

Here are the basic steps I showed her during our scrambled egg lesson:

1. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat.  
2. While the pan is heating, whisk the eggs with milk and salt.  Use 1 teaspoon of milk for each egg.  Salt to taste.  This is the perfect opportunity to show your child how to whisk. The perfect whisk ~ use a whisk to beat the eggs in a tilted motion for about two minutes.  The eggs should look "frothy".
3. Melt a tablespoon of butter in the pan.
4. Add the eggs.
5.  When the eggs start to set, use a spatula to push the eggs into the center of the pan. Continue this motion to cook all of the eggs.  
6. Use the spatula to break up any large pieces.   
7. Flip the eggs.  Allow them to cook for 15-30 more seconds.  
8. Scoop eggs onto plate.  Season with salt and/or pepper. 

 Gracen, my picky eater, does not partake in eggs.  However, she has been enjoying the practice of cracking them.  She is now the designated egg cracker in our house.  Here is the technique I taught her:

1.  Hold the egg and lightly tap it on the edge of the bowl.  You don't want the egg to crack completely.  Instead, you just want to make a dent in the eggshell.
2. Use your two thumbs to dig into the dent and pull apart the two sides of the shell.  
3. Allow the egg to slide into the bowl.  

This is not an easy skill.  In fact, I don't always get it right and have been known to have to fish out small specks of shell.  However, Gracen loves practicing and is getting better at it each time she tries.

For a fun "egg" related book, I chose  Eloise Breaks Some Eggs (Ready-to-Read. Level 1).  Both girls love the movie "Eloise", so I thought they might enjoy this book in which Eloise's Nanny tries to teach her to cook.  It is the perfect read for Gracen because she can read it all by herself, and it is a little silly.  Samantha was not too into it.  She thought it was too "young".  Wes enjoyed Eloise's quirky sense of humor. 

Another appropriate book selection for a scrambled egg lesson is Scrambled Eggs Super.  It is a tall tale about a boy named Peter T. Hooper who is tired of his mom's scrambled hen eggs.  His food boredom leads him to tell his friend, Liz, about how he went on a journey to collect many different types of eggs.  He explains that he used the eggs (and some other creative ingredients) to create "Scrambled eggs Super-Dee-Dooper-Dee-Booper, Special deluxe a-la-Peter T. Hooper".   This is a super fun book told in the classic over-the-top Dr. Seuss style.

See you in two weeks with another Little Cooks with Books activity!

Keep Cookin',
Tara
www.ittybittybookworm.com
www.ittybittybookworms.blogspot.com

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Little Cooks with Books ~ Strawberry Jam

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When I saw the baskets of beautiful strawberries at my local farmer's market, I knew exactly what we would make for our Little Cooks with Books activity.  Strawberry Freezer Jam!  I had never made it and had been wanting to try, so this was the perfect time. I immediately knew which books I would use, as well. 

Jamberry was one of Wes's favorite books when he was three years old.  He loved it's "sing-song" rhythm and fun rhymes.  We read it so much that he knew the rhyming words by heart.  This is a perfect book for a preschool read aloud. Be prepared to read it many times!

The Giant Jam Sandwich (Sandpiper Book)is a hilarious book about the people of a town named "Itching Down".  When Itching Down becomes invaded by wasps, the townspeople try trapping them in a gigantic strawberry jam sandwich.  My children enjoyed the humor and outlandish antics in this book.  It's rhyming verse makes it a great read aloud choice.

All three of my children participated in the making of our jam. 

Wes and Gracen washed and cut the tops off of the strawberries.  They used the Curious Chef® 3 Piece Nylon Knife Set, specifically designed for little chefs.

Samantha pureed the strawberries in the blender and then stirred in the sugar and pectin.

I found these Ball Plastic 8-Ounce Freezer Jars,which worked perfectly.  We kept two and gave the other two jars to our neighbors.

Appropriate objectives for this activity include:

• Washing fruits
• Slicing
• Measuring
• Stirring
• Pouring

Little Cooks With Books ~ Jam


Enjoy the Jam!

See you in two weeks with another Little Cooks with Books activity!

Keep Cookin',
Tara
www.ittybittybookworm.com
www.ittybittybookworms.blogspot.com

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Little Cooks with Books ~ Blueberries for Sal

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With blueberry season on the way, I thought  Blueberries for Sal was the perfect chose for this week's Little Cooks with Books activity. This Caldecott honor book is about a young girl and her mother and a young bear and his mother, who are both looking for blueberries. The illustrations consist of a single dark blue color and block prints.

Samantha and Gracen are very familiar with this book.  However, it was new to Wes.  He thoroughly enjoyed it.  His favorite part was when the young girl and young bear get mixed up and begin following the wrong mothers.  He thought it was a hilarious mistake.

To accompany this book, I decided that we would make a simple, no-bake blueberry pie.  Gracen was at a birthday party, so I let Samantha make it all by herself.   I gave her the recipe and let her go at it.  She did a great job, and did not require much help.  She did ask what "fold in the blueberries" means, so I modeled how to do it and she finished.  She was so proud that she had made the entire pie all by herself.


Little Cooks With Books ~ Blueberries for Sal

My goal for this activity was to have Samantha do as much as she could by herself.  She was successful  because she has been cooking with me for a while.  If your little cook is younger or is just starting on his or her cooking adventure, here are some objectives you can use for this lesson:

• Practice reading a recipe.
• Discuss abbreviations commonly used in recipes (For example:  T for tablespoon and tsp for teaspoon).
• Washing fruit (blueberries).
• How to "fold" in an ingredient.   
• Juicing a lemon.

I hope you and your little cook have lots of blueberry fun with Blueberries for Sal and this yummy pie.

See you in two weeks with another Little Cooks with Books activity!

Keep Cookin',
Tara
www.ittybittybookworm.com
www.ittybittybookworms.blogspot.com

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Tara from Raising Itty-Bitty Bookworms Joins Us!

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Today we are excited to welcome Tara Rison, the founder and owner of The Itty-Bitty Bookworm, a literature-based preschool curriculum, as our newest feature writer! Tara will be joining us with an exciting new bi-weekly post that will give you tips and ideas for ways to involve your kids in the kitchen.

Tara has three spirited children ages 4-9 and a sweet rescue pup named Darla. They all currently reside in the suburbs of Philadelphia where they enjoy walking and running local trails, going to the playground, reading lots of books, and cooking together. She can also be found blogging at Raising Itty-Bitty Bookworms, her personal blog, and at We Teach, where she is the group leader of The Bookworm's Bookbag. Here is a short introduction to Tara's new featured series, in her own words:

Jamie Oliver's Ted Talk got me thinking about a lot of things, but one thing in particular. American families and schools are no longer teaching children how to cook. I really hadn't thought about this, but it is so true. How can we expect our children to grow up and cook healthy meals for themselves (and/or their families) when we don't directly teach them how?

This truly resonates with me because I was never taught to cook. My mother died when I was nine years old and my father never remarried. Dad did the best he could, but with little time and money he turned to many convenience foods. This left me with little to no skill.

Without a lot of skills or “go to” recipes, I relied on a lot of frozen and boxed meals. However, a couple of years ago I made it my New Year’s Resolution to teach myself to cook. I began watching the Food Network, read cookbooks, and experimented. This was not the easiest way to learn. For this reason, I have decided to consciously teach my children how to cook.

Both of my girls are used to helping me in the kitchen and most of the time they really enjoy it. However, they usually only want to help when I am baking. Sure it is great to know how to bake cookies and quick breads, but they aren't meal recipes. Therefore, I have been having the kids help me to prepare one dinner a week. To make it fun, I connect the dinner with a children's book. We read the book as a family and then the kids and I cook the accompanying dinner. This is a fun and motivating way for them to learn how to prepare healthy, "real food" recipes.

I will be blogging all about our experiences and culinary creations in a bi-monthly post called “Little Cooks with Books” right here on ABC 123: A Learning Cooperative. I hope you will follow along. It should be interesting, and hopefully yummy.

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