Kiddie Kitchen Capers

What's the most stressful thing you did today? For me, it was keeping twenty little hands safely away from a 300 degree griddle during their first grade cooking party while they cooked pancakes!

When the kids achieve certain goals, their teacher lets them pick a party; they opted for a pancake-omelette party this time around. And because Dylan gushed to his teacher that "my mommy is an Italian chef" - which is patently untrue, by the way - I was roped in to chaperone this party.

So, the unnerving part of the morning: keeping them from getting burnt. The great part: watching them, in groups of four or five, create with a recipe. Some tables wanted to use all of the ingredients (bananas, blueberries, strawberries, and chocolate chips); some tables wanted some cinnamon, others didn't. Some topped theirs with only syrup, some used syrup and whipped cream. And at the end of the breakfast, they had to make a cookbook.

What a great, hands-on way to teach and reinforce measuring, fractions, and healthy eating. Okay, the chocolate chips in pancakes probably weren't the healthiest, but I heard most of the kids order their omelettes with spinach. Popeye would be proud. I surely was.

The "engreadens" for Dylan's super "pangcakes" = "flower, blueberri, egg, wipcreme." Love that kid.

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