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The lovely Sarah has been in my Kids Café class for both sessions, so I was thrilled to help give her a birthday party to remember. The girls really enjoyed themselves. The pictures tell the story.
Even mom and dad had fun!
For more information about cooking birthdays at Highfield email me or call Highfield Hall at 508.495.1878.
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:
When I asked the Young Epicureans what they wanted to do for the last class Stephen piped up with a quick, "SUSHI!" Chloe, from the Kids Café is also a huge sushi fan and had been asking for it since the first session. I'd put them off because sushi requires a little bit of extra focus. Not to mention some tools I didn't yet have in the kitchen. Namely, these:
Rice paddles and bamboo mats. It's quite possible to make sushi without either of them, but I knew the plastic wrap method would be much too difficult for the kids, so I ordered a bunch from Ming's Pantry, which turned out to be right up the road in New Bedford, of all places!
When I told the Kids Café and Young Epicureans kids that we'd be making Sushi some of them were a little worried because they thought they were going to have to eat raw fish. I let them worry until the day we were scheduled to do it, and then explained to them that sushi is actually just "vinegar rice." It is often garnished with raw fish and vegetables, but it doesn't require raw fish. Sashimi, on the other hand, which we weren't making, is raw fish.
I gathered together some sushi rice (a medium grain), nori, a rainbow of bell peppers, celery, cucumber, avocado, carrots, tofu, and some fresh herbs, and we made sushi. The rice is easy to make. Just rinse the rice in water until it is no longer cloudy, steam it, and then season it with a mixture of rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and mirin. Some people recommend fanning the rice so it will become shiny and have a pearl-like appearance, but I wasn't particularly concerned about that for this exercise. I figured we'd be lucky to get something the even approximated the look of a California roll.
I have to say that the kids, all of them, surprised me. The Kids Café cooks really enjoyed the prep. There were even some moments of extreme silence, which hasn't happened since the first day of the first class ever when they were all too terrified to do anything but stand silently at attention. The peeled and julienned and chiffonaded (is that a word?) their little hearts out.
They had the focus of a herd of Ninjas. And they made some pretty fantastic-looking sushi rolls.
We also made fresh Thai spring rolls
My teenagers did a great job the Friday before too
In addition to Sushi and fresh rolls, the Young Epicureans got to make Thai fried bananas—basically just bananas wrapped in eggroll wrappers and pan friend. I suggested rolling the banana in Chinese Five Spice powder and sugar first, but no one was brave enough to try.
Henry's a very nonchalant chef. Calm and collected.
Emily, on the other hand…I'm not sure who took this picture, but it's a beauty!
Stephen thoroughly enjoyed his Thai fresh roll (although I think the peanut dipping sauce was a little too spicy for him). AGAIN we missed Dominique—she was in a chorale competition. Her group won, so I guess it was worth missing all of us for something a lot less tasty.
I've kind of adopted this little policy in my head that if I know I'm going to challenge the kids' taste buds one week I'll spoil them a little bit the week before. Call it a false sense of security, if you will. This is not to say that we go crazy and make, say, candy houses and chocolate flowers (although now that I've said it the idea intrigues me) or break out a box of mac and cheese (I'm not the least bit intrigued by that idea), but I'll usually give them a break with something I know they're going to love—like things made with enriched bread dough. The only trouble with yeast bread was that I couldn't figure out how to accomplish some good artisanal loaves in these short, once-a-week classes. First of all, we don't have a mixer big enough to handle a large amount of dough and all that mixing and kneading by hand would more than likely be too difficult for all the kids (including my Young Epicureans) and secondly, there simply isn't enough time for all the mixing, rising, punching, rising, and proofing in one class.
And then I found this:
What a great book! The mixing is minimal and the dough does all the hard work by itself. All the kids have to do is combine the ingredients in a bowl, make sure everything is incorporated, and then leave it on the counter to rise. Then it goes in the refrigerator for up to five days. It's so easy that I was even able to have the Kids Café class mix small, individual batches and combine them in one big plastic container for later use. There were variations in each little batch, but together they made a great dough.
For Friday's Young Epicureans class I mixed the initial batch of dough (they mixed another one later for the Kids Café class). While I was mixing someone came into the kitchen to talk to me and I lost track of what I was doing. As a result I halved the amount of water I needed and doubled the amount of honey. Since we were doing sticky buns in that class I decided to let it go, but cautioned the kids that it was going to take extra time to rise. Because of my error we didn't bake any that night and instead everyone took them home to rise overnight for baking in the morning. Just so I could see the results myself I brought a batch home too and was pleasantly surprised.
(I'm most likely going to adopt the accidental recipe and use it instead of the recipe from the book!)
That same night the Young Epicureans made Souffléed Banana Pancakes with caramelized bananas and every one of them came out great. (Unfortunately I was camera-less that night, so you'll just have to take my word for it.)
Two days later my Kids Café kids made pecan sticky buns too, but they also made Challah bread.
They enjoyed rolling and braiding the dough.
And they decorated with poppy seeds. A few of them seemed underwhelmed with the size of their loaves, but their disappointment dissolved the moment the hot, steaming, golden breads emerged from the oven.
My favorite part of the day (and I think it might be theirs too!) is when they get to taste what they've eaten. Inevitably a group of them ends up under the small table having a conversation while they devour the fruits of their labor.
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 19th 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!
