For most of us Christmas is a time of year for sharing time with our loved ones. It is an especially important time for our children who thrive on the magic of the season and those traditions that create lasting childhood memories. For them, the excitement of Christmas starts long before Christmas Day and they love nothing better than being involved in the festive preparations. Baking cookies is one tradition that has stood the test of time and has been passed down from mother to child for generations.
Being involved in Christmas preparations always evokes warm abiding memories warmth and closeness. Baking Christmas treats such as cookie and candy is a wonderful ritual that can be shared with your kids and brings so much pleasure and is a wonderful tradition to share if you plan it properly in advance.
Make sure you start the day in the best frame of mind, which means everyone should have had a good nights’ sleep. It’s also not a good idea to let the kids pick at the raw ingredients you are using to bake the cookies or candy, however tempting. So, start the day with a sustaining breakfast or lunch before you begin your Christmas cookie bake. An upset tummy can spoil the memory of the day for everyone and it is never too soon the teach your children a rule basic cooking rules.
Everyone will be eager to be involved in the prepartion and cooking process. Allow the kids the freedom to try out the kitchen appliances for the first time and have fun by experimenting with the ingredients and creating their own individual cookies. They will love seeing the end results and will take great pleasure in showing the rest of the family their little works of art.
Don’t plan your cookie baking for the day before you are expecting guests or need your kitchen to be in pristine condition. Expect chaos and take a relaxed attitude towards if for one day. You will enjoy the experience all the more if you are not stressing over spills. The kitchen can be put back to its original state, having fun on this occasion is far more important. Your kids wil really appreciate being less restricted and you they will love you for it. The whole experience can be rewarding for all of you.
Baking cookies with your kids should be a happy and stress free time. Create the ideal conditions for your Christmas cookie cooking day so that you and your kids will enjoy every minute of it.
Don’t plan your baking event the day before you are expecting guests or need your kitchen to be in pristine condition! Take a relaxed attitude towards the fact that the kitchen will be in some degree of chaos. You will enjoy the experience all the more if you are not stressing over spills!
Finally, be completely organised and have everything you are likely to need on hand. Kids can have a short attention span and won’t enjoy a trip to buy missing ingredients when they are eager to start cooking! Being prepared for this Christmas cookie cooking day can make all the difference to your enjoyment and theirs. Follow all the guidelines and your day is sure to be a great success and one you and your children will want to recreate every year.
Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/baking-christmas-cookies-secrets-of-cookie-making-revealed-708697.html
Children are like sponges. They absorb every bit of information that is given to them, especially if it is presented in a fun and easy to learn way. It’s never too early to begin teaching the concepts of math to your children. Opportunities for math abound in our everyday lives. Once you begin to notice them, you’ll soon be guilty of seeing math in everything you do!
Story time with your child is an excellent starting point. Virtually any book that you choose to read will have countless opportunities for math discussion. If you are reading ‘The Three Little Pigs’, don’t just breeze through it. Make sure that you stop on every page and give your child time to absorb the pictures. Ask questions about what they see, but be sure to offer constant encouragement even if they give an incorrect answer. The key to learning is to constantly provide a positive experience. By doing this, your child will always be eager to learn. As you look at the pictures with them, ask questions such as, “How many pigs do you see on this page?” or “How many apples are on this tree?” If your child seems stuck, happily count out loud for them. As a general rule, count everything you see, literally. You can count the stairs as you climb them, or the socks as you are taking them out of the dryer together. The opportunities are endless. Is your child a picky eater? Try saying, “Just take five more bites and you will be done”, and then of course count them out.
Playing capacity games while you are cooking is both educational and extremely fun. Your child will love pouring liquids from one container to another. Prepare them for learning measurements by asking them which container can hold more or less, and by letting them handle the different measuring cups, spoons, etc. Amaze them by doing special tricks, like pouring a cup full of cereal into a measuring cup, then crushing it and then presenting the new compressed, much smaller measurement.
Playing pattern games helps prepare your child for the concepts they will need to grasp in school. If your child eats Fruit Loops or M&M’s, help arrange them in different colored rows. After this is mastered, put down a pattern, such as one green M&M, one red M&M, and then one more green M&M. Ask your child to show you what color comes next. You can play pattern games with colored clothespins, different shaped blocks, colored socks, etc. The more you play this game with your child, the more variations of the game you will discover.
Play subtraction games at snack time. If your child likes goldfish crackers, you can draw a fish bowl on a piece of paper. Place ten or twelve goldfish crackers on the paper so they are ‘in the fish bowl’. Have your child count them at the beginning and then tell you how many are left every time they eat one, or two, or three. This will teach your child the basic concept of subtraction while providing them with a fun snack time experience.
Regardless of what approach you take to incorporate math in your child’s life, realize that you are laying a foundation for their future interest or indifference to the subject. Keep it simple, don’t stress, and remember to move on to something else as soon as your child loses interest. Learning is fun, and helping your child to enjoy early learning experiences in a playful manner is one of the best gifts you can give them.
Sandy Naidu
http://www.articlesbase.com/homeschooling-articles/fun-ways-to-teach-your-kids-math-697592.html
More and more women are leaving the corporate world behind to try their hand at traditional homemaking. Being a wife and homemaker is a considerable responsibility in itself. Many women choose to work outside of the home to supplement their husband’s income and experience personal fulfillment through success in their chosen profession. The two income family is now the norm.
With the arrival of the first bundle of joy, comes many conflicting emotions and struggles. The wife and mother must now juggle attention to her husband, cooking, cleaning, shopping, errands, and motherhood with her career. Their desire may be to nurture and protect her children and husband nut the expectations and time constraints imposed upon her often force her to compromise those desires. This can result in guilt and depression in the over burdened woman.
It may not be a coincidence that divorce has become more prevalent and children more delinquent since the rise of two income families. Women are often finding themselves drained emotionally and physically from the dysfunctional patterns of behavior that are imposed on them by today’s society. Many women are fighting back by starting a home based business.
By working from home, women can now set their own hours, save time and money and spend more time with their children. With a little help, home based businesses can bring in a decent supplemental income with less hassles than the corporate world offers. Mothers can hire part time nannies instead of full time sitters and can arrange for childcare to be done in their own homes. This allows peace of mind for the mother and a chance to squeeze in quality time with the children during breaks, have picnic lunches on the lawn and never miss another chance to kiss away a fresh boo boo.
Hiring some childcare help during busy seasons in your business can help you keep your sanity. On slower days, the children can so quite well if they are kept in a structured environment and on a schedule. This takes preparation. Plan quiet times around favorite television shows, set up crafts and activities that require minimal supervision and intervention on your part. Prepare snacks and sippy cups in advance so toddlers can help themselves when hunger strikes. By keeping mealtime and naps on a schedule, you can be better prepared to give an estimated time for that conference call or know when a meeting time is absolutely out of the question.
No mother wants a stranger raising her children. Deciding to work at home with your children can be a wonderful compromise that allows you quiet those conflicting emotions of being torn between work and motherhood.
Michael Laleye
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-business-articles/taking-your-kids-to-work-a-look-at-the-home-based-business-107436.html
If you are as busy as most people you are always looking for ways to feed your family in convenient, fast, yet not-too-expensive ways. Try the following suggestions:
1. Cooking several meals for the week at one time. It may take a few hours of your time up front but will pay off in the long run when you come home each evening and have a meal ready to eat in a short amount of time. Try cooking a roast and using part of it as a main meal and then using some for sandwiches, beef stroganoff or as part of a stir-fry. Fry several pounds of hamburger and make a casserole, taco meat and chili to freeze for use later in the week.
2. After you return home from the grocery store clean all the fruits and vegetables you can. When it’s time for a meal all you will have to do is cook them or add them to a salad or soup.
3. Get ideas from the cooking shows on T.V. There are great shows that show you how to make a healthy meal in a short time.
4. Develop a revolving recipe file. If you get bogged down by the idea of having to plan 30 meals a month the recipe file is for you. For more details visit us at www.camping-outdoors-recipes.com. Let family members choose some of their favorites and put the recipes in a monthly file. Flip to day five or fifteen and there is the meal just waiting to be cooked.
5. Enlist the help of the members of your family. As soon as the kids are old enough divide up the cooking responsibilities. Let everyone take turns with specific tasks or the whole meal. Pair these meals with fruit and veggies that have already been washed and cut-up and you are ready for dinner.
6. Share the cooking with friends or neighbors. I’ve known people who cook four or five of the same meal and then trade with four or five other people. This works best when people share the same basic ideas on what they like and don’t like. It’s a great idea though for a very easy week of evening meals.
7. Save coupons for those convenience things at the grocery store. They have entire entrees and dinners either fresh or frozen. Sometimes they are rather pricy but with the coupons they are good to have on hand for an evening when everyone is running in different directions and time is of the essence.
8. its O.K. to eat out from time to time. You can also login on to www.apples-recipes.com. Clip coupons for these occasions and if you have kids keep a look-out for the places that have special prices for children. Some of the fast-food restaurants are trying to offer item choices that are a little healthier.
9. Many larger cities have businesses that prepare food for the evening meal. They seem expensive at first but are so convenient and available for one person or entire families. There are many menu choices and meals cooked for special diets. When you calculate the groceries you buy and the times you eat out each week, this may work for you.
10. Combine several of the above ideas into a plan that is best for you.
It is possible with a little planning to cook meals that are quick and easy without spending hours in the kitchen every day.
ravi.dec2008
http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/best-type-of-tips-you-are-always-looking-for-cooking-694676.html
“Dear Lord, we thank you for this food, and we ask you to bless it — especially tonight because Daddy cooked it. Amen.”
All right, so perhaps I’m not quite as good of a cook as my wife. You have to understand, though, back in the old days, when I was single, there really wasn’t much of a demand for me to do any cooking.
My main foods at that time were cereal, peanut butter, pizza, and burritos. Not all together, of course — well maybe in certain combinations — but generally I ate them separately.
Now, suddenly, I’m married with four kids and…
Well, I guess that didn’t exactly happen suddenly, but…
Anyway, my wife and I both work, but since I work at home I’m often the one that does the cooking.
I had to do some learning in the beginning. I remember my wife used to come into the kitchen while I was cooking and say, “Smells like you scorched the food.”
About the first ten times this happened, I just sort of ignored her. Eventually, however, I got curious.
“What do you mean by ‘scorching’?” I asked.
“Scorching is when the food on the bottom of the pan sticks and burns to an inedible crisp,” she answered coldly. It seemed to me she was implying that it was a bad thing, too.
“It makes the whole pot full taste burned,” she continued with a look of disgust on her face. To which I replied, “What? You can prevent that?”
After that, I started taking a few lessons from her on how to cook. She taught me about stirring the food while it’s in the pot, not cooking everything on high, greasing pans before putting food in them, blowing the foam off of the pot when the macaroni starts boiling over, and other advanced techniques. Eventually, I started getting pretty good at a few things so I decided to try something a little more complicated.
I tried making bread.
Now, I’m really good at making biscuits. In fact, they are one of my specialties, but they’re not quite as complicated as making bread.
First, there was this whole idea of “kneading” the bread. My wife came up to me just after I’d broken my second wooden spoon while trying to stir more flour into an already thick lump of dough.
“No, no, no!” she cried, obviously distressed over the death of the spoon. “You are supposed to KNEAD the bread!”
“Of course I NEED the bread!” I replied. “Why do you think I’m making it?”
However, it’s the whole idea of letting it “raise” that has proven to be the most difficult for me to master. You wouldn’t think it would be all that hard. I mean, all that is required is to simply let the dough sit around by itself for a while. And in fact, that’s really not the problem. It’s the coming back on time later that I find so challenging.
The last time I tried to make bread I set it aside to let it raise, just like I was supposed to do, and went about my business.
Some time later, I just happened to be walking through the kitchen when I noticed this giant balloon sitting in a bread pan with a towel thrown over the top of it.
“What have the kids done now?” I thought to myself as I lifted the towel. “Oh yeah! I’m making bread today,” I concluded.
I hadn’t noticed that the recipe was called “Balloon Bread”, but apparently that’s what it was. So, I threw it in the oven and proceeded to cook it. A giant loaf of bread for all my hungry kids to feed on for a few days sounded good to me.
Some time later, I just happened to be walking through the kitchen past the oven when I thought to myself, “Why is it so hot over here? What have the kids been messing with now?”
Amazingly, it wasn’t burned, too badly anyway. You see, once in a while I just happen to come along at roughly the right time. In the end, though, I wasn’t all that impressed with the Balloon Bread recipe. To be honest, it tasted more like sour air than bread. I don’t really remember pumping it full of carbon dioxide myself, but I’d swear that was what was in there. Hmmm, carbonated bread. What will they think of next?
One day, however, I decided to put forth a tremendous effort into my bread making. I worked hard, set timers so I’d remember what I was doing, and everything. Plus, I scrapped the Carbonated Balloon Bread recipe, and went with one from another cook book.
Harish Lath
http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/some-learning-in-the-beginning-cooking-recipes-747498.html
In the golden days of TV moms stayed home all day vacuuming the house while wearing pearls, cooking special meals, and doling out wise advice to the kids when dad wasn’t around. Meals could take all day and could involve many intricate steps and that wasn’t just on TV, it was a reflection of real life as well.
In comparison, the 21st century world is one of amazing technology and lives that are much faster paced. Mothers, For more detail go to:www.cooking-groundbeef.com.
and fathers who now take on a large part of the cooking chore, look for easy fast dinner recipes that can get the same TV mom results with a lot less real person effort. The Pilgrims didn’t have a good source for such simplicity in food, but they didn’t have the Internet either. There are a lot of sources on line to provide help to the busy family looking for a quality meal.
One steak can go a long way. Change the sides for different meal experiences. Change the spices for a trip around the world of food. Start with one large flank steak. On Monday serve steak with roasted potatoes and a salad. On Tuesday add some spices and a little salsa for a taste from south of the border and make it steak Fajitas. Wednesday’s meal combines the steak with some Teriyaki sauce, rice, and steamed vegetables for a delicious Asian inspired meal. Thursday go back to the steak and salad, this time with mashed potatoes and asparagus on the side. Friday is the day for some pita bread and Greek spices. That’s right, Gyros. A whole work day week of meals based on one main meat.
Want more ideas for that steak? OK, get the plates, glasses, spoons and forks ready. Try southwestern steak, corn, and black bean wraps; give mixed bean salad with flank steak a whirl; how about lentil and orzo salad with flank steak and feta cheese; enjoy steak, sun-dried tomato, and mozzarella couscous salad; and finally we have steak salad wraps with horseradish sauce. Now add another meat, and the variety is even more endless. For more help visit to: www.cooking-chinese-style.com.Chicken can be fried, broiled with potatoes, cut into strips and added to salad, or cooked into a soup with noodles or dumplings. Talk about meal variety.
With just a little clever planning all the meals for the week can be cooked on the weekend, then heated and served in minutes during the week. Make out the menu for the whole month, buy bulk foods and make sure to use coupons to add extreme savings to the mix. In fact, these menus and meals can also be a great learning experience for young people or college students. Put them in charge for a week or let the whole family take turns from week to week. And you thought easy fast dinner recipes were hard.
Naresh Thakur
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/what-is-the-cooking-tips-for-the-21st-century-737098.html
Some kids like to help you cook in the kitchen but they don’t understand the ingredients, especially the herbs. At first, a kid learning to cook is all about learning to follow directions and doing each step in order. They’re figuring out how to be organized and hopefully how to clean up after themselves. Along the way they also pick up what words like “sift” and “simmer” mean. Plus they learn skills like how to drain noodles through a colander or how to knead bread dough.
It seems like one of the last things they learn is how the ingredients all work together and when they can deviate from the recipe a little. An excellent way for your kids to experiment is with herbs. For more details please go to www.chef-123.com. Herbs can make a dish go from so-so to wonderful and if your chef learns about them when they’re young, there’s no telling what great meals they’ll cook for you through the years.
Here are some ideas for getting your kids to play with herbs:
1. Fresh mint is a wonderful herb for kids because it smells so good and there are many different things they can do with it. They can simply put a few sprigs in a glass of water, iced tea, or lemonade for a hint of mint taste. They can chop it up small and put it in their yogurt or ice cream, or include it in muffin batter. Probably the funniest for kids is to make mint ice cubes. They just put small leaves of mint into the ice cube tray, add water, and freeze.
Take your children to a plant nursery in spring and let them smell all the different kinds of mint. It’s a really easy herb to grow – but plant it in a pot because otherwise it will spread through your garden like crazy.
2. Your kids can make herb butter. Put 2 sticks of butter out in a bowl at room temperature to soften. Then add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, cut up parsley, and some minced garlic cloves. Let the kids mash it all together and then stick it in the fridge. It can be cut into squares and served with warm bread or hot pasta.
The kids can experiment with other herbs in the butter if they smell like they go together and don’t have too strong a smell. You can also login on to www.cat-head-biscuit.com. Rosemary probably wouldn’t be a good candidate as it has a very strong smell.
3. A good place for rosemary is in bread dough, along with sage and parsley. Adding herbs to the bread dough and then kneading it is a fun hands-on experience for kids, and they really get the full effect of the herbs when the bread is baking because the smells are intensified. Ask your kids to tell you which of the herbs they smell from the baking bread.
AMITA DEVI
With eager imaginations and enthusiastic spirits having your children help you in the kitchen can be easier than you think. With the chaos of making sure you get dinner on the table on time, keeping everyone happy and cooking healthy meals it seems like challenge to integrate your child in meal preparations. Ways of letting your child help in the kitchen is always in perspective of age and abilities. So given your child is capable and ready to help you in the kitchen it can be a great learning experience for them. With some simple tips your little chef will be on their way to culinary brilliance.
One great way to get your kids involved in the kitchen is to let them feel involved. Allow them to do simple tasks like opening packages, measuring liquids and dry ingredients and fetching bowls and pots for you. This can give a child a really great sense of involvement by helping you. One great way to get your kids involved is to find out what your kids favorite recipes are.
Kids love things like cookies, cakes and desserts obviously so why not let them get in on the fun of baking. One great all time baking classic are Rice Krispies Treats. This recipe is quick, simple and most of all fun. One great idea is to have a separate batch for you kids to cook with while you do your own. Set out everything they’ll need like sugar, butter, oil etc. and let them follow along with you that way when you pull their batch out of the oven they’ll be able to see how all their hard work paid off. Seeing what they’ve baked can be very big reward for the child, not to mention they get to lick the spoon! This idea can work with any of your child’s favorite snacks such as chocolate chip cookies, cakes, muffins or cupcakes. This idea is also perfect for the holiday season!
When it comes time to make ginger bread houses and ginger bread men don’t forget to let the kids get in on all the holiday cheer. Kids can also be great helpers for the Chanukah feast, whether its matzo balls or latkes kids can be a helping hand with all the festivities.
Hands-on in the kitchen is not the only way to get a child excited about cooking and baking. You can also incorporate the fun in the kitchen into their everyday imaginative play. Alex toys has a wonderful 13 piece stainless steel cookware set that includes everything from a whisk, tea kettle, frying pan and oven mitt. Also Melissa and Doug make a great wooden slice and bake cookie set for your little future bakers. This fun set includes a tube of 12 sliceable cookies with 12 decorative toppings, a kitchen mitt, wooden cookie sheet, knife and spatula. It’s all the fun without all the mess!
Finally, what better way to complete your child’s play kitchen experience than with a delightful chef’s costume. This costume has all your little chef will need, like a white shirt, checkered skirt, chef hat and mittens. With all these great ideas, simple tips and toys your child shall be off to wow even the greatest chefs in no time!
Alycia Shapiro
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-and-family-articles/getting-kids-in-the-kitchen-707170.html
The name says it all; cooking games are actually engaging brainteasers and mind benders that are interactive, although virtual, ways of basic to expert cooking. These culinary art-inspired games, numbering by the hundreds, for more detail go to: www.cat-head-biscuit.com. Are geared in particular to kids so that they can have fun preparing and learning about food.
Listed below are some cooking games that may inspire some ladies to better ways to spending your next girl’s night out while having maximum fun at the same time?
Not as messy as you think! Instead of the usual cooking games style of cooking something from a list of ingredients provided to you, you actually have pick your brains listing down the ingredients from a given dish. Sure it’s easy to tell the main stuff like chicken with broccoli served with noodles. Try to get your friends to join you and see who can get closest to the actual list of ingredients used.
If you want something that will get you to think really creatively, then how about mixing courses? It will demand new but still appetizing ways on your part of how to serve breakfast staples at, say, dinner and salads this time around instead of a run-of-the- mill cake. This variety of cooking games is all about you getting people to run after your mouthwatering veggie pizza and orange juice crossbred with filet mignon.
What is this game like on a Nintendo DS? Surprise, this newcomer to the genre of cooking games does not have ‘levels’ or ‘stages, for more detail go to: www.breakfasts-recipes.com. ‘Nor ‘heroes,’ or even a name. The main menu offers exercises in these virtually oriented cooking skills, which is sensible. You are not expected to know right away how a stylus is used to baking the perfect cake! Any of the basic dish preparation and cooking skills may need to be studied once more by Nintendo DS users, from grilling to marinating. When you are truly ready, you get your first crack at unlocking the first recipe in a long list (well, so okay, there are indeed stages, somehow). Don’t think it’s a matter of do-this do-that instructions-following game; each recipe actually has a time limit! Overall, this is a very engaging game that kids may unfortunately find too dragging, since there are sometimes blocks of text to digest.
There are also a lot of cooking games on the Internet that resemble Cooking Mama. In some games your increased cooking abilities and higher scores mean more and more advanced recipes that can be opened for viewing and playing. Along the way, recipes can be as simple as fried stuff like eggs or bacon up to variations like cabbage rolls. Find out here how to make desserts like cream puffs. Exploring your own style in the culinary arts is highly encouraged since you can come up with your own combinations of various ingredients.
Aman Sharma
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/ways-of-basic-to-expert-cooking-695784.html
At last, flash-based cooking games are now on the web!
These games are currently the hottest right now among teens and teens around the world. Even better, most of these games are available for free on the internet, with no registration fees or installations charges. We all can recall those early days of the Internet when people couldn’t imagine entertaining themselves with stuff aside from those that come off the mall shelves, which were really costly anyway. In our case these days, for more details visit to www.300-chicken-recipe.com online games are a breeze to play with. Most children have a positive impression of the creative hustle and bustle of cooking, and only the absence of someone who teaches them correctly can lead the preparation to disaster. There are examples of online games that help your child to imagine in his head his breakfast in a particular organized sequence so that the kids understand and can remember. If kids want the easier levels, then they can learn the preparation of a cheese sandwich in several easy steps, illustrating the ready slices of bread to the grating of the cheese to sprinkling the needed condiments to it. The kids can also help their parents in cooking meals if not preparing the meal.
And all this is part of the game! Cooking games are, with all their rules and code of conduct and behavior, for more details visit to www.cooking-groundbeef.com the best means to inculcating lasting lessons into their minds. For one, the kids could learn facts and important information about the food that they would rather avoid. For example, they could learn about a certain vegetable that turns out to play an important role in a dish that is often eaten by the people he knows. These games are also surefire ways of showing the important role of nutrients in their diet.
You may be curious how to go about how to use online cooking games to help your child to be comfortable with the more mature and demanding real-life cooking game. How? Start cooking in the kitchen while at the same time, your child logs on to the web to play the game. Girls maybe more adept at it than the boys and hence the girls may learn faster. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that the guys will be allowed to give up on cooking as a very essential social skill. In any case, these young minds are forever asking questions and they should be supervised on the web to get some creative outputs from them.
On the web, it may help to know that many people actually share on the game forums their culinary ideas and comments about cooking, including recipes. Another smaller caveat is about the language barrier. There is really no worry here, since although these games may turn out to be in Asian languages, they are so informative just the same due to the easy to interpret graphics involved. Check out the latest free cooking downloads of cooking games now!
Khushwant
http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/how-to-go-about-how-to-use-online-cooking-games-to-help-your-child-721727.html