The Children's Culinary Academy

Spring Chives

This time of year is exciting because the earth is warming, flowers are quietly unfurling themselves towards the brightest sun we’ve seen in months, and the grass is greening up. I start to anticipate the bounty the vegetable garden will yield long before the first chives emerge.

And they have emerged.

They were the first things I saw as I walked slowly up the garden steps this week. Bright green and eager, they stand at the center of what was a large patch of herbs. The rest of the garden is brown and black and a tangle of straw-colored stems left trapped under last season’s early snow.

There are already worms and weeds taking up residence. The worms we love. The weeds not so much.

Megan and Amelia gave us some young asparagus and strawberry plants. They were ready to be planted, so on Saturday I took the Kids Cafe class out to the garden after we made Chive, Ham, and Potato Frittatas and Blueberry Lemon Muffins and we put those little plants in the wet, warm ground. 

I must admit that I had no clue how to plant asparagus. First we planted them upside down (!), but I quickly realized my error and ran out after the kids left to replant them roots down.

After I got home that afternoon I did some research and came to learn that although this time I’d gotten them the right way round they still needed to be replanted. Note to self (and anyone else wishing to plant asparagus):

1) dig a trench

2) make a mound of dirt the length of said trench

3) put asparagus plants along the trench, 12 to 18 inches apart, spreading their roots out over the mound of dirt.

4) cover with dirt up to the crown.

And now I have to hope that no one inadvertantly digs them up or steps on them (hello person with the giant shoe whose swirly-bottomed soles left prints all over the newly turned earth around the wrongly planted asparagus—USE THE PATHS!!)

Other than that this week we used chives in as many things as we could manage—frittatas, potato pancakes, and lovely green beans with lemon and butter. Nicole even said she doesn’t normally eat green beans, but she definitely enjoyed these!

Tots and Pans and Kids Cafe kids also made some truly yummy Blueberry Lemon Muffins (loaves) with wheat germ, yogurt, and oats. Delicious and healthy!

Young Epicureans also made Lime Shortbread drizzled with white chocolate, Ciabatta bread, and Sundried Tomato and Green Olive Stuffed Chicken Breasts.

Emily, our resident vegetarian, made some pasta and sauce, which everyone enjoyed.

(Huh? No, way was this picture staged!)

And now, some gratuitous cuteness:

Many thanks to Chloe for taking all these fabulous pictures for me and to Fran and Gina for helping with clean up again!

Session Five is Rockin'!

I know! I’ve been remiss! But I haven’t forgotten to blog, I’ve just been so busy I haven’t had the time to get on here and post the usual weekly reports about what’s going on in the kitchen these days. Busy because of the exciting upcoming April Vacation program, a bunch of birthday parties, the upcoming summer program (which is booking up so fast it’s making my head spin!), and some other projects that will hopefully be announced very soon. Time is just flying by here. I can hardly believe that we’re already two weeks into the Tots and Pans and Young Epicureans sessions and three weeks into the two Kids Café Sessions.

We kicked off Kids Café with Potato Gnocchi and Almond Pesto, which was a huge hit with the kids. That day we also had a visit from a writer and photographer from Cape Cod Magazine. Julie Arruda generously volunteered her time in the kitchen that day to help keep the troops in line while the photographer did her shoot and the writer interviewed and observed the class. Many thanks to Julie! As far as I know we’re expecting to be featured in the May issue. I’ll be sure to post details as they happen.

 

With the number of kids in some of these classes I’m starting to feel like I’m working the line in a restaurant again! Lots of pots and pans to keep track of.

 

During the second Kids Café class we threw together some Pinto Gallo from a recipe book given to me by Eva and Lisa Sloate who had just come back from Costa Rica. To my surprise, a lot of the kids loved it! I guess there was no need to throw them a bone with the Lava Cake….

Kids Café’s new Saturday class made almond-crusted, oven-baked chicken fingers instead of Pinto Gallo, and they loved them!

Young Epicureans took a stab at a full Costa Rican menu, which also included Coco Flan (coconut flan) and corn and cheese empanadas.

The kids weren’t huge fans of the flan, but their parents were practically slurping them off the plates at pick-up, so I think it’s safe to say they were a success. We had some trouble with the cornmeal dough for the empanadas, but the kids had a good lesson in fixing things on the fly and ended up enjoying the empanadas more than I could have predicted in light of the ribbing I was getting over the goofy recipe I’d given them.

Tots and Pans made some tasty breakfast cookies in their first week. C.J. was nervous at first, but as soon as I let him put his hands in a big bowl of flour he was hooked. Big smiles for the rest of the morning!

Maci’s well into her second session with me and continues to be a great eater and a very attentive and independent mini chef.

 

Reilly, who has been with me since the beginning, is practically a pro at this point, and she seems to be adjusting well to her new baby brother. Morgan cracked me up last week with her white terrycloth visor.

Wheat-free cornbread and pumpkin bread (not wheat free) kept this lot of tots busy in their second week of class.

Kids Café this past Sunday created beautiful roasted vegetable tarts with part whole-wheat flour, herbed crusts.

Young Epicureans took on a huge challenge this week with Middle Eastern food. They made pita bread, falafel, lemon tahini sauce, and spicy ground turkey “kebabs,” that we grilled on a tabletop electric grill.

I’m thrilled to report that they challenged their taste buds and left the kitchen with some really great-looking food. (There were a few who burned falafel, but all in all, a great job.) I also finally got smart and implemented a cleaning schedule for both Kids Café and Young Epicureans and it worked beautifully. The list of jobs is posted on the refrigerator, so there’s no confusion about who should be doing what and lo and behold, the kitchen was pretty near to spotless when the Young Epis left on Friday night! Kids Café did a good job too. I’m looking forward to next week and the upcoming April vacation session!

Now that we’re all caught up we can wish Delaney and Allison happy birthdays!

Delaney’s group did pizza and cake and Allison’s party did oven-baked chicken fingers and Lava Cakes (at Allison’s request because this is her second birthday party at Highfield!).

***A HUGE thank you to Fran for all of her recent cleaning help!!!!***

Chocolate Crinkles

My Tots were so great about trying new foods this session that I decided to treat them to chocolate cookies this week. They mixed…

And rolled…

And rolled some more…

Then they baked and blended (banana berry smoothies!), did some coloring and

 

And ate and ate and ate.

Another Full Week and the Question: Has Dylan Squidward Finally Arrived?

A couple of weeks ago, I asked Reilly, one of my Tots, what her new baby brother's name would be. He was due to arrive within the month, so I figured they'd picked out a name already. Without missing a beat, Reilly replied, "Dylan Squidward!" For those of you living on Mars, Squidward is the name of a rather unattractive squidlike creature on the cartoon, Spongebob Squarepants. You know, the square, yellow sponge who lives in a pineapple under the sea…. Somehow I doubt the wee lad's real name will involve a Spongebob character, but when Reilly didn't come to class this week I had to wonder whether little Dylan Squidward had made his entrance. If he has, I'd like to offer my congratulations to Taylor, Barry, and Reilly, teller of tales and singer of songs (she does a fantastic rendition of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, by the way).

In the kitchen, the week started with some gorgeous calzones in the two Kids Café classes. They began by sautéing spinach (the first time on the stove for some!), then they mixed the filling (ricotta, egg, spinach) together, rolled out some beautiful ciabatta dough, placed the filling on one half, folded and crimped. Then we popped them into a very hot oven.

 

Instead of the predictable marinara for dipping, we created an extra tasty honey-dijon sauce. A home run!

The week rolled on and on Wednesday afternoon I welcomed the Ostroff family and guests to a birthday party in the Highfield kitchen.

 

It was an afternoon of pizza, cake, and some good old fashioned birthday fun!

I think I can speak for all the adults who were present that day when I say that we thoroughly enjoyed Bianca's cake eating technique!

Thursday brought the Tots back into the kitchen for some Chinese dumplings and fortune cookies.

Morgan did some excellent tofu-dicing

And Maci enjoyed her dumplings so much there were none left for mom when she arrived to pick her up! (Although evidence of their consumption was all over the front of her white shirt!)

Friday brought an actual Henry sighting!

Not to mention some pretty tasty upside down tomato tarts,

chocolate dipped cream puffs,

and an oven load of French (equation) bread.

What could be better than a bread basket full of the (warm) formula for the area of a circle?

G is for Granola

Granola bars, that is! The Tots made some terrific granola bars this week. They've really gotten the whole mixing thing down and even cracked their own eggs with pretty excellent results!

While the granola bars baked we colored pictures of honey bees and talked about how important that special kind of bees is to our environment. Henry and Silo (his favorite stuffed animal) joined us for that part.

And then a crazy giant honey bee sped around the prep table bzzzzzzzt bzzzzzzzzzzzzt bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzting everyone, which they all thought was supremely funny.

Though Grace wasn't initially much of a fan of the noise the kids were making

she came around eventually.

The granola bars were pretty good too. And we missed Rachael, who was out sick. Hi Rachael!

Pumpkin Bread

Pumpkin bread is Fall's answer to Summer's zucchini bread. I've got to say I like pumpkin bread better. Who wouldn't? The intoxicating aromas of ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon, all swirling around the kitchen in the crisp fall air. Mmmmm. Makes me feel like curling up by a fire and settling in with at good book. Even though they don't have the tools to express those feelings, the kids respond similarly any time cinnamon is on the table. "Mmmmm! I looooooooooooooooooooooooove cinnamon," they say. Their eyes close involuntarily and you can almost see the memory of something warm, tasty, and comforting wafting through their subconscious minds. Both the Tots and Kids Café made pumpkin bread last week.

Once again the Tots were really very cooperative and focused.

This week Henry stayed close to the wall again, but when we started coloring while we waited for the bread to come out of the oven Henry joined us and colored too. When joined us again later when it was time to cut into those steaming loaves of pumpkin-y goodness.

The Kids Café kids made pumpkin bread too, but they also made vanilla cream cheese spread (with real vanilla beans!)

When it was time to eat everyone dug in. I had some complaints from parents this week—the kids didn't leave any pumpkin bread for them to try when they picked them up!!

Fresh Air

Last Thursday started with eight three- to five-year olds…and me. I know what you're thinking. I was thinking the same thing that morning. I mean, let's face it, they had the upper hand. The thing is? They were fantastic. Incredible, even. They followed directions, took care of each other, and even helped clean up—with enthusiasm. One little guy, Henry, was nervous about joining in, so he spent most of the morning standing by a wall watching, and rather than ignoring him, the other kids engaged him constantly. They genuinely wanted him to have as much fun as they were and continued visiting and talking with him throughout the class. They even supplied him with crayons when it was time to color.

Reilly, who may have grown three inches over the summer, was as exuberant as ever. She ran into the kitchen, threw herself into my arms, told me all about the little brother who will soon be joining her family.

Roberto's back, and I think it's safe to say that he ENJOYS his creations. After our dried cherry and oatmeal cookies came out of the oven he stood silently chewing for about 20 minutes. Oh Look! An action shot!

 

When I went to close his take out container in preparation for his mother's arrival, all that was left was one single crumb. It wasn't even really a big crumb. Certainly not enough to constitute a nibble. Not even a taste, really. Ella remedied that with a donation of one of her cookies.

We are extremely happy to welcome Rachel, Grace, Amelia, Henry, and Jackson as our newest Tots. I think it's safe to say they had a good time too.

I walked out of the kitchen that day with a smile on my face. The kids were a breath of fresh air and I can't wait to see them again this week.

Tortillas and Salsa, Oh My!

My little friend Ella requested quesadillas for the last class of the Tots 'n Pans session. Of course, I was more than happy to accommodate that request because I've made quesadillas before with both the children in the Kids Café and my Young Epicureans with a large measure of success. It's a lot of fun to make and shape one's own tortillas and these kids love to make dough. Any kind of dough. I asked, as I always do, after the dough was mixed, what to do, and Abigail raised her hand and said, "We have to let the dough rest," which Roberto followed up with, "The dough has to go night-night."

All together now: Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! How cute was that?!

And now, rather than waxing on, here's a little peek into the world of Tots 'n' Pans—more specifically, two peeks:

Tots n' Pans Talk and Chop from Highfield Chef on Vimeo.
Tots Make Quesadillas from Highfield Chef on Vimeo.

 

 

 

Tots are Goin’ Crackers!

Graham and cheese crackers, that is. No, not all in one! This last class was all about crackers, and I realize that graham crackers are really just cookies, but how many of you have actually made your own graham crackers? Uh huh. That's what I thought! These kids have one up on you now, so you better get your culinary act together. Now, you might think that graham flour is a really special flour. And, in a way, it is. But, there's no such thing as a graham plant. Graham is not a whole grain or special type of grass. In fact, it's simply a type of whole wheat flour that has been ground in such a way that it contains more bran than whole wheat flour. In the early part of the 19^th century it was named for Rev. Sylvester Graham, who believed it to be more nutritious. Today some producers, like King Arthur, still make graham flour, and if you can't find it in your grocery store some natural foods stores carry it, but you can easily approximate your own by substituting 2 Tablespoons of wheat germ for 2 Tablespoons of whole wheat flour per cup of flour in your recipe (in other words each cup of flour in your recipe would be 7/8 whole wheat flour 1/8 wheat germ).

We used all purpose flour augmented with some wheat germ simply because it is easier for the littlest kids to handle (it's more durable!), and we added honey and sprinkled the tops with cinnamon and sugar. The kids especially loved poking holes in the dough.

Some of the "crackers" had more holes than dough, it seemed!

They were all different shapes and sizes, but they looked terrific and tasted good too!

Cheese crackers were second on the agenda, and the Tots got to cut them in a wide variety of shapes.

They emerged from the oven in all their cheesy goodness just as parents were arriving, and they were yummy!

Pizza Perfect Morning

I know they're out there somewhere, but it's a rare child who doesn't like a good pizza. An even rarer child who doesn't like playing with a little pizza dough. The recipe we use in class makes for a truly epicurean experience. I might even venture to say that this dough is positively luxurious. It is easily stretched by its own weight—no need for tossing. Thank goodness, too, because who knows what could happen in a kitchen full of dough-tossing tots! As it was we had plenty of other things to get us messy.

Everyone made his or her own sauce, and let me just say right now that even though it's one of the best sauces I've ever had, it's a bit of a menace. It jumped all over Reilly's head and got in her hair! On the plus side, Reilly didn't seem to mind a bit, and was distracted by the beautiful basil and scrumptious fresh mozzarella and aged provolone we had for toppings.

 

I'm not sure how it happened, but the mozzarella disappeared almost as quickly as it was cut and let's just say it didn't all go on the pizzas. Abigail might know where it went!

What we created were truly traditional pizzas margherita, right in our own ovens. Do you know the origin of Pizza Margherita? No? Well, in 1899 Queen Marghereta visited Naples to escape the cholera epidemic that had invaded the northern part of Italy and chef Raffaelle Esposito served her a special pizza, whose colors (red tomatoes, white mozzarella, and green basil) represented the colors of the Italian flag. The Queen so enjoyed her pizza that she sent the chef a thank you note. He then decided to name the pizza after her.

The hot pizzas emerged just as parents were arriving for pick up, but we still had some time to enjoy them. Crispy chewy crust, hot and spicy sauce (we gave it a little kick with some cayenne pepper), gooey melted mozz, and aromatic cooked basil. Yum!