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Pickled Onions

It always amazes me how much fun little one has with simple things like a big bowl of onions. A lot of recipes he can't help with the final hot cooking phase but it doesn't stop him getting in on the pre-cooking bit! I was making jars of these as Christmas presents and I ended up having to get a whole new batch of onions as he wanted to play with the first lot.

Ingredients
Lots of pickling onions (these are dirt cheap from any greengrocer or you can use shallots)
Large batch of malt vinegar
Pickling spices. (these vary, I used mustard seeds and black pepper corns and coriander seeds. You can use them separately or buy them in bags from shops. The mix will vary but be brave!)
Dried chilli (you can either put the dried chilli straight in the jar or if you don't have any then get some cayenne pepper or even a few shakes of piri piri spices/cajan spices or whatever you happen to have.)

Method
Give little one and mini man a big pile of onions and several jars. They spent ages putting them in and taking them out of the jars until little man finally decided they would be much better off in the dolls house. Makes perfect sense when you think about it.

Soak the onions for an hour in cold water, top and tail them and peel off the skins. The next bit is grown up only. Put the jars on newspaper in the oven and bake until very hot. Boil the lids in hot water. Take everything out and fill up with onions, add spices and vinegar to the top of the jar. Seal with the lids and leave to cool.

These make excellent economical presents and you can let the little ones decorate the jars with nice labels, pretty fabric lids and ribbon or even get them to paint the jars.

Vegetable Soup

Some of the recipes tend to be an excuse to muck about with different fruit and vegetables and I don't believe there is anything wrong with that. I found that it encourages them to learn about the variety and even taste them raw or cooked. A recipe like soup can also be a helpful way of getting extra veg into their diet because the finished product doesn't look like vegetables!

Ingredients
1 onion (I let them play with it, but I find it best to have one already chopped and lightly fried in advance for this recipe as a base)
Other root vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, butter-nut squash
Other vegetables you have in the cupboard such as peas, cauliflower, spinach, cabbage and all of these can be fresh or frozen
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 pint chicken or vegetable stock

Method
Dump the vegetables in a bowl in front of the little ones and see what happens. They can spend ages mucking about with them. Always remember to do a walrus impression if you can, you are a responsible parent giving them a firm grounding for bar room jokes later on. Think of their future, do. Once they have become bored, try slicing the squash in half so they can help scoop out the middle. You need to be creative and let them help where they can. I often sit at the table and they pass me the vegetables to peel and chop.

Once all the veg (and the pre-prepared onion) is in the saucepan, take it to the kitchen and add the stock and tomatoes along with any herbs you are using and a few lentils if you have them. Simmer until the vegetables are cooked and then blend to preferred consistency.

Choco Crispies

My favourite recipe for sweet things is rice crispy cakes because you can pretty much throw in any different kind of breakfast cereal and it works brilliantly. They are quick and simple to make, but possibly the most messy because the kids inevitably get right in there.

Ingredients
1 medium size bar of chocolate or chocolate cake icing. It doesn't have to be the best chocolate (Sainsbury's does basics chocolate for about 30p a bar)
Approx half a box of cereal such as cornflakes/rice crispies/shredded wheat etc

Method
Melt the chocolate yourself and ensure that it is cool enough to touch. This is best done by breaking it up and placing it in a bowl and then putting the bowl over a saucepan of hot water. If you microwave it, make sure you watch it closely and keep stirring or you might um..set it on fire..possibly..if you are a wally-brain or something.
Present the happy children with the bowl, the cereal and a spoon. Watch with an indulgent smile as they put their heads into the bowl. Mix up any remaining mixture and place in cake cases. Put the cake case in the fridge to set. Put on headphones with calm, relaxing music and wait patiently for the sugar kick to wear off the kids.

Heads and Cocktails

Sometimes you need to slam back a few shots while you're cooking and why should the little ones feel any different. Any of the supermarkets do a huge number of concentrated fruit juices and usually you can get them 3 for around 2-3 pounds.

Be aware that some of the concentrate juices have added sugar, especially cranberry and blueberry drinks. I'm not recommending this as a staple to their diet and more than the cake recipe, but as a tasting treat. I used concentrate instead of fresh squeezed because my carpet doesn't need the pulp frankly.

Ingredients
Between 3-5 large cartons of different flavoured juice. I found the following:
Elderflower and apple
Blueberry
Grape and cranberry
Note: These are of course all non alcoholic drinks before anyone panics and dials social services!

Method
The idea here is to get them to taste the juices individually and then have fun mixing them together themselves to see the colours change and the flavours change. If it's warm weather then it's a good idea to do it outside and if you are feeling adventurous then make sure you have plenty of towels!

Jam and Apple Tarts

Pastry! Love it. So do they and so many different cutters out there although I favour the traditional granny round curly edge ones.

Ingredients
4oz plain flour
2oz butter
a splash or two of cold water
Any kind of jam, but if you are using the apples then a purple berry jam is best

Method
when the butter is cold, throw it in a bowl with the flour. Get little man to rub it altogether. Best to have a cloth standing by so they can wipe their hands every two seconds before going in again. When the butter and flour looks a big like lumpy clumpy breadcrumbs, add some water a little bit at a time and make a dough. Roll it out and get little man to cut out round shapes. He can put the shapes into a greased tin. (I never grease anything, i use a pastry brush to get him to paint the tray with oil. Seems to work.) Add some small pieces of apple with each one and a dollop of jam. Put in the oven at about 200 for about twelve minutes.

Space Cookies

What do you mean that's an inappropriate name for a children's recipe? Prude. Introducing our new chef "mini man"...

Ingredients
2oz softened butter
black food colouring
1oz icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
3oz plain flour
star cookie cutters
silver decorative balls and silver sparkle dust (available from cake decorating stores)

Method
Mix the butter, icing sugar and dye and vanilla in a bowl. Grimace at the weird black sludge and remember when you used to delight in making recipes that involved delicate herbs, spices and "drizzling". If using a small baby in this recipe, remove bowl from mini man's head and wipe clean with a damp cloth. Explain to little one that mini man does not go in the bowl.

Having scraped the black sludge off them both, put it into the flour and mix again. It should form a dough. If it doesn't then add more flour or water depending. Roll out the dough on a board and then cut out stars. Put on a greased baking tray and press on some silver balls. Bake at about 180 for about ten mins. When done, dust them with the sparkly dust. You will have a black star cookie with silver sparkles and balls. And that's what makes it spacey....