Monthly Archives: November 2018

Cooking with Kids: Cranberry Cookie Bars

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It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is almost here! My husband loves to cook, and he wanted to make something fun to bring to my family’s Thanksgiving dinner. He came across this recipe for Chewy White Chocolate Cranberry Cookie Bars on Chew Out Loud’s blog and decided to make it with Buddy. It’s perfect because they were easy to pack up and bring with us in the car. And of course, it’s always nice to have additional sweets around during the holiday.

Buddy loves to bake, so he was excited to help. The original recipe makes enough for a 8 x 8 pan, but we decided to double it and put it in a 13 x 9 pan. My husband started by cracking two eggs in a bowl, and Buddy beat them for him. 

Then they poured the eggs into the mixer along with a stick of softened, salted butter. Next, they put 1 and 1/3 cup of brown sugar into a measuring cup, and Buddy helped to pack it down. Once they measured the sugar, they added it to the mixing bowl along with 2 teaspoons vanilla. Buddy got to turn on the mixer, which he loved. It made Buddy feel like a real chef to be the one to turn the mixer on and off.

Next, they added 1 and 1/2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the mixer, and then mixed everything together. Finally, they mixed in 2 cups of fresh cranberries and a cup of white chocolate chunks. My husband and Buddy worked together to mix those last two ingredients into the batter.

The cranberry bar dough went into a greased 13 x 9 pan, which was also lined with parchment paper. They spread the dough out evenly, and then it baked for 35 minutes at 350 degrees. (The recipe says to go 30-33 minutes or until it is golden brown and puffy.)

Once the cookie has cooled, it needs to be cut into bars and topped with melted white chocolate. The final product looked fantastic, and tasted amazing! The fresh cranberries really give it great flavor, and the white chocolate was a great balance of sweetness. My family had a lot of fun making them together, and I’m looking forward to sharing them at Thanksgiving tomorrow!

Cinnamon Applesauce Thumbprint Ornaments

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Buddy makes ornaments to give as Christmas gifts every year, and this weekend we worked on this year’s ornaments. Because our family reads this blog, I don’t blog about the ornaments before we give them to keep them a surprise. So while I won’t go into detail about what we did this weekend, I do want to share the ones we made last Christmas.

I made cinnamon applesauce ornaments as a child, and every Christmas I pull them out and they still smell amazing! The previous two years, I made salt dough ornaments with Buddy, so I thought cinnamon applesauce ornaments would be a nice change of pace.

I used the recipe for cinnamon applesauce ornaments from Mc Cormick. Buddy and I mixed together 3/4 cup of applesauce with 5 ounces of cinnamon. I loved the look of the glittery cinnamon spice ornaments on Simply Notable’s blog, so we poured in some glitter into our mixture.

Buddy had a lot of fun pouring in the ingredients. Then we took turns stirring them together. Buddy was able to stir a little to start, but once it started to become dough, I needed to stir it. Once the dough was formed, I sprinkled more cinnamon on a piece of wax paper and on my rolling pin, and I rolled out the dough. Then I gave Buddy a small heart cookie cutter. We cut out the hearts together, and then I moved them to a cookie sheet.  After they were moved, I had Buddy stick his thumb in each one. Then I used a straw to cut a small hole at the top of each one. 

The ornaments baked in the oven at 200 degrees for 2 and 1/2 hours. Once they were cool, I used a silver paint pen to outline Buddy’s thumbprint. I finished the ornaments by tying a piece of red ribbon through the top. Everyone loved these ornaments! They were so cute and smelled great. I’m looking forward to pulling mine out again once I set up this year’s Christmas tree.

 

Fall Tree Pom Pom Painting

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I love doing seasonal activities, especially in the fall. When I first saw the idea of doing a fall tree painting on Crafts on Sea’s blog, I loved it. They did several paintings using different items as paint brushes. I liked the pom pom idea the best, and so did Buddy. There is a printable tree template on the blog, but I ended up just creating my own.

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During Buddy’s nap time, I got the painting materials set up. I used a marker to draw a tree trunk and branches on painting paper. Then I put washable paints on a paper plate, and put a pom pom on the end of a clothes pin. I also pulled out Buddy’s paint smock.

Buddy was so excited to start painting. He loved the idea of using a pom pom instead of a paint brush, and he was very careful with it. At first, Buddy put one dot of paint at the end of each branch. But eventually, he started adding more and more paint everywhere. 

After awhile, Buddy wanted more leaves on the paper. I suggested that he put some on the ground. However, Buddy thought it would be more fun to make them falling from the tree. So there are a lot of leaves everywhere on the paper. 

Here is Buddy’s final picture. 

Buddy had a lot of fun, and it was so easy to clean up! I threw away the paper plate, and the pom pom clothes pin, and we were done! Since we didn’t use a real paint brush, I didn’t have to clean it out at the end of our activity! We both loved this activity, and I know we’ll try pom pom painting again.