Wizards in the Kitchen

My mother turned us on to cooking by introducing my older sister and me to Betty Crocker in the 1970's. My sister first received the Betty Crocker Easy Bake Oven that baked cookie and cake batter prepared from packaged mixes with heat generated from an electric light bulb inside the small toy oven. When we had used up the Easy Bake mixes, we improvised our own from scratch. We also prepared whimsical salads inspired by the technicolor photos illustrating our Betty Crocker's New Boys and Girls Cookbook. A family favorite was the bunny salad, canned pear halves trussed up with cinnamon candy noses, cottage cheese tails, and almond slivers for ears. The appeal of these recipes was less their flavor and more the challenge of making ingredients (pears) look like other things (rabbits). Like many American girls and boys growing up in the 1970's, we fell in love with cooking by being encouraged to play with our food. Of course, we were also learning our way around a kitchen at a time when mothers were beginning to work outside the home in record numbers. This meant "real" meals slow-cooked from scratch were quickly replaced with processed, packaged foods reheated in microwaves not unlike the Easy Bake Oven.

Like the Betty Crocker cookbook of my childhood, Ruth Yaron's Super Baby Food features plenty of suggestions for making mealtimes special for kids. Recipes include Toddler Hors d'Oeuvres, Flying Saucers (sandwiches on round bread) and Teddy Bear Pancakes. But Yaron's book, which has become my baby food bible, provides tips for preparing fun and healthful meals for children and common sense advice for stretching your grocery budget. Yaron insists that her own kids, raised on the organic produce and vegetarian diet she promotes, have "super" immune systems and rarely get sick. That means they spend fewer days recuperating and have more time for play! Sections of her book are entitled "Feeding Your Super Baby", "Toddler (and Grown-up) Recipes", "Food Decorating", and "Let's Have a Party!". There are also chapters on environmentally safe cleaners, home-made baby products, starting a windowsill garden, and Arts and Crafts... everything new Moms and Dads need to know about making those first years with baby contended ones and more. Other kid's cookbooks available at our local library include those for children with special dietary needs (vegetarian, wheat-free, low calorie, etc.) and, for the more adventurous, international cuisine.

Teach Mama, a mother of three young children and an educator, writes an inspirational blog dedicated to sharing ideas for "learning through meaningful time and play". In her post "More Counting and Cooking with Cora", TM describes her toddler daughter's enthusiasm for helping in the kitchen and her own desire to capitalize on this impelling instructional opportunity. She enlists her daughter in counting pieces of potato as TM cuts them for dinner or sorting colorful vegetables (carrots, broccoli, grape tomatoes) by hue, sneaking learning into an every day activity. On "New for Us Friday", her older children participate in exciting new educational activities during the afternoons following half-days at school. One afternoon, they made Zip-loc Bag Ice-Cream at home, an enriching experiment in culinary science. The added benefit was getting to eat the ice cream that the children made themselves!

Ruth Reichl, former editor-in-chief of "Gourmet" magazine, has a sophisticated relationship with food and writes about its correlation to her family life. She most recently wrote a memoir entitled Not Becoming My Mother: and Other Things She Taught Me Along the Way. In the book, Reichl describes her mother, born in 1908, as an educated woman who sacrificed her career ambitions, even in the new era of women's emancipation, to fulfill her obligations as housewife. She also suffered from depression and taste "blindness". According to Reichl, her mother once served bad meat covered in chocolate, forgoing consumability for creativity. A career woman and mother, Reichl left her post as New York Times restaurant critic to be home earlier in the evenings to make dinner with her family. She encouraged her teenage son to help (he chopped while she cooked) and found this eased him into talking about his day at a time when teens often distance themselves from their parents. Reichl declares this was the best time in her life, a period when the members of her family "entered each other's lives in a really profound way." But to make it happen, she had to plan ahead. Every Sunday, she spent a few hours choosing easy-to-fix recipes, preparing a menu for the week in advance, and shopping for the ingredients.

"Gourmet" magazine, respected for its thought-provoking articles regarding the politics of food, recently folded, but the website still features content from the print publication, plenty of recipes, reviews of restaurants and cookbooks, and instructional videos. My favorite series are "Extreme Frugality", a food writer's experiment in zero spending, and "The Kid's Menu" which offers fresh perspectives for parents who cook.

Now that we must be careful in our spending, I have adjusted my shopping habits. For the first time in my life, I religiously use coupons and club cards for discounts and two-for-one deals at grocery stores. A vegetarian since the age of fifteen, I habitually read the list of food ingredients before buying; now I am also in the habit of comparing prices and purchasing items on sale. Many store brands, even of natural and organic products, cost less than name brands. Local, seasonal produce is often cheaper (and fresher) at both retail stores and farmers markets. I buy in bulk when it's practical, and bring my own reusable shopping bags to save a nickel for every bag. Warehouse stores (Shopper's Food Warehouse and Costco) and superstores (Wal-mart and Target Greatland) are meccas for thrifty shoppers, but the inconvenience of driving to their suburban locations prevents me from going. Instead, I walk a few blocks to shop for the best deals at retail grocers like Harris Teeter (with grocery carts fashioned like cars for the tots riding in them) or Safeway and pick up a few store brand or hard-to-find specialty items at Yes! Organic Market or Whole Foods Market. It's a good idea to check the stores' websites first for specials and on-line coupons.

Typically on weekends during Spring, Summer and Fall months, farmers markets located throughout the Washington area offer fresh produce, baked goods, cheeses and preserves at good prices. AS enjoys the adventure of these outdoor venues as there are sometimes free food samples, local musicians performing and good people-watching opportunities. A friend and his wife arranged regular home deliveries of seasonal produce from a farm discovered through our neighborhood farmers market in Adams Morgan. They save money buying organic this way but never know which fruit or vegetables or how much of each they will receive. Every monthly delivery presents a fun challenge in finding creative ways to cook new foods, from winter root vegetables to Chinese cabbage.

Whole Foods Market in Georgetown holds an indoor farmers' market every Tuesday from 4-7pm with products available from local farmers and artisans. WFM is perhaps best known for selling high quality natural and organic goods, including "Whole Baby Products" like baby formula, pureed baby food and chlorine-free diapers, but DC stores also offer free cooking classes and other programs, such as "Mommy and Me" and the "Mom's Tour". Check the website of your neighborhood store for the events calendar to learn more. On-line coupons are available on their website, as are money-saving meal plans and recipes and nutrition tips for kids and teens. The DC Chapter of the Holistic Moms Network has also invited whole food chefs and nutrition educators to speak to parents about cooking holistic meals for their families at their monthly meetings in the Cleveland Park Library.

If your youngster or teen insists on learning to cook from a "real" chef, rather than Mom or Dad, consider the Washington Post Cooking Class Listings for children's cooking classes and camps. They receive mostly good reviews from parents, but tuition can be high. The DC Department of Parks and Recreation occasionally offers FREE cooking classes, usually for teens, at community centers, but I have not heard parents recommend these. Please let me know if you have heard anything! An easy alternative is to enlist a relative or friend who is known for their culinary expertise to volunteer their time to teach your little Top Chef a thing or two. Read FoodNetwork.com's ten "safe and easy ways for the family to cook together" before getting started. My mother is happy to break out her apron and mixer to bake special treats with the grandkids on holidays, like gingerbread houses for Christmas and Rice Crispy Treat "Eggs" at Easter. Aunt K and Uncle J are the family gourmets and are pleased to test new dishes on us, their enthusiastic patrons, whenever we visit.

When I was pregnant, acquaintances with children would see my extended belly and comment "Your life is never going to be the same!". Since the prospect of suddenly morphing into a different person was a frightening one, I chose to skirt these conversations. Now that I am a Mom, I understand that some of my interests, like motorcycling, need to be put on the back burner (at least until AS is old enough to ride in a side car), but cooking is not one of them. A recipe for red sauce with sweet caramelized onions remains tucked into my art school sketchbook. It has been there, rather than in my recipe box, for 20 years to serve as a reminder. Copies of the recipe were distributed to students in a kind, impromptu gesture by a photography professor known for discovering beauty in the seemingly ordinary events of day-to-day life. Years later, in an e-mail conversation, he and I talked about the care with which he customarily set his dinner table and how I had found myself, in a moment of contended observation, enamored with the color and shape of a bunch of grapes placed as the centerpiece on mine. My former professor has since become a dear friend and mentor and continues to share his knowledge of both art and food with me. In his life as in mine, they are entwined. Every meal is a simple aesthetic experience.

Food is magic, it has the power to charm and influence people. And creative cooks are like alchemists with the power to change a common substance into one of great value. Food nourishes our bodies and minds, appeals to our senses and need for creativity, and brings people together. If parents aspire to be wizards in the kitchen, children will become enchanted by cooking, too.

Raising Art-smart Cyberkids

There is a computer in the children's section at our neighborhood library that is loaded with educational software. Now that my son can walk, he makes a bee-line for it as soon as we arrive. Here we are surrounded by hundreds of beautifully written and illustrated books, but he wants to play with a computer. If it is not already in use he climbs up into the desk chair, makes a grab for the mouse or starts tapping away at the keys. Often, though, another child is playing one of the spelling, math, drawing or music games, and AS contentedly watches. When this first happened, my heart sank a little. Then I reminded myself that 19th century critics were initially skeptical about the applications of the newly invented camera (a "soul-less" black box) until master artists and scientists showed them photography's full potential as a medium for creative expression and learning not unlike a paint brush or a book.

Now I sit down beside AS at the library's computer and use digital painting tools to draw animals with basic shapes that he can identify and label by name, "Cat!", or with a sound, "Meow!". When he eventually loses interest in looking at the PC monitor, we go in search of similar subjects in some of my favorite children's books, such as Geoff Waring's Oscar and the Bird, by illustrators who use Photoshop computer software. I hope a seed of understanding will eventually begin to germinate and help AS form connections between the process of drawing animals with a computer mouse and the images he sees in published books like Waring's illustrations of Oscar the cat.

Our tech-savvy librarian has also hipped me to the fact that some children's book authors and illustrators have launched their own kid-friendly interactive websites. Mo Willems' site features games, art activities and video animations with his famous book characters, including Pigeon, Knuffle Bunny and Elephant & Piggie.

Last week, I received a phone call from my 8 year-old niece asking for help with a multi-player on-line computer game, Poptropica. Poptropica is a safe, virtual world designed by the Family Education Network (a network of educational resources for teachers, parents, and students on the internet) where kids engage in narrative quests that are both entertaining and informative. My niece had entered into a virtual art gallery and needed to match reproductions of paintings with the name of the style in which they were rendered, such as a Pablo Picasso piece with the style "Cubism". She was able to describe the images to me in enough detail that I could envision the paintings and help her successfully complete the task. She was enjoying learning about art, and I was glad to have an opportunity to play along with her.

These experiences recalled a discussion I heard pertaining to the pros and cons of children playing on-line games. Some parents and teachers express concerns that young people who sit in front of the computer for hours every day are more sedentary and have less social interaction than those who are encouraged to play sports or engage in other activities with friends. On the plus side, computer games can motivate reluctant learners by presenting educational content in an entertaining framework and provide a participatory alternative to passive television viewing.

I wondered if there were websites with free on-line gaming options that could teach us more about the city in which we live as my son and I explore them together. I discovered that the Smithsonian Institute, for one, has a Smithsonian Education site to familiarize kids, families and educators with the museum collections, special exhibitions, and upcoming events designed with young people in mind. You may explore different topics that are of interest to your student, "Everything Art", "Science and Nature", "History and Culture" or "People and Places", through interactive games and activities. Or, navigate directly to the Smithsonian Kids page for more on-line fun, such as matching games, trivia quizzes, crossword puzzles, art-making, and home or school project ideas.

The youngest computer users may especially appreciate the National Gallery of Art's interactive website NGAkids "Art Zone". Since a child must develop mark-making ("bang-dots" and scribbles, the most rudimentary visual symbols), prior to forming the controlled lines and shapes that become letters of the alphabet and subsequently the written language, demonstrating and learning how to click and drag a computer mouse to create images is a worthwhile collaborative activity for a parent and child.

The brazen young Dada artists of the first half of the 20th century embraced technology. In the Yellow Manifesto of 1928, the Dadaists proclaimed, "Machinism has revolutionized the world." It seems that nearly a century later many of us are still trying to make peace with youths' manifest fascination with machines, but playing interactive on-line games from the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art is one way for families to have fun learning about new digital media together.

Library Love and KidLit Commendations

Among my first missions after marching forward determinedly into the judicious province that is Stay-at-Home-Momdom was to reacquaint myself with the District of Columbia Public Library system. No need to buy new books or CDs, rent DVDs, subscribe to magazines or pay to download audio books and music when the public library has all this and more. They even have free wi-fi! When the librarian who issued my card informed me about the checkout limit of fifty items, I laughed out loud in amazement. I thought it unlikely that I would ever borrow so much but reconsidered after learning that parents are the ones most likely to make use of that generous provision. Especially since there is no fine for overdue children's books. Imagine that!

The DC Public Library system is a little more sophisticated than it was last time I checked. A printout of books you borrow is available upon request at the checkout counter so you can gather them from the far corners of your home and return them without worrying you've missed something. The DCPL website offers the ability to renew books online, place holds on materials and request transfers to your local branch. You are even able to download MP3's of books, music and videos! I love that I receive e-mail notifications before loans are due and when "holds" are available for pickup. You may also return books to any library branch, not just the location where you originally borrowed them. How sweet it is!

Many of the branches offer special programs at no cost. For example, computer software training is available for adults, storybook times for children, and online Homework Help for teens. There are occasional sales of used library books, family-friendly performances such a visiting dance troupes, book clubs and much more.

The Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Library, the third oldest public library building still in use in Washington, hosts several story times throughout the week to encourage literacy in the very young. Lap Time on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. features librarians reading short books and leading fledgling visitors from birth to age two and their caregivers in songs, games and fingerplay. The popular Neighbor Time is offered twice, at 10 a.m. and again at 11 a.m. on Thursdays, for children up to age five. Preschool Story Time on Tuesdays at 11 a.m. is also recommended for ages two to five. Here children may participate in singing, dancing, games, crafts and, of course, storytelling! Some of these programs are sadly underutilized by the community. A friend took her son to what was ultimately a private screening of an Elmo film because no one else showed up. Kudos to the library's media specialist for going on with the show!

The children's area at Mt. P takes up an entire floor and is stocked with many new titles and much-loved classics from board books for the wee ones to beautifully illustrated picture books well-suited to beginning bookworms to chapter books for older kids who are more voracious booklovers. Texts in the fiction section are available in several languages including English, Spanish and Vietnamese. The non-fiction collection is also impressive; I found myself perusing the Art stacks and discovering some photography books I'd love to have in my teaching collection. The board books are displayed in large wooden crates set on the floor so parents can relax and let curious toddlers plow through them without fear of disclosing an irreverence for the Dewey Decimal System. AS recently lost a shoe in there but the librarian found it in no time. Made me wonder if that happens fairly often.

Reading rooms have soft recliners for kids and are illuminated with natural light filtering in through large windows. The walls of the nooks were painted with a stunning mural, titled "Animal Circus", in the Depression era by children's book illustrator and acclaimed Disney animation artist Aurelius Battaglia (Think "Dumbo" and "Pinnochio") and are still in arguably good condition due to a protective plexiglas covering. Battaglia was a DC native and attended the Corcoran School of Art (now the Corcoran College of Art + Design). Take some time to share this local treasure and its history with your youngster. It's one of the many things that makes this city unique.

What else makes the Mt. P library our family favorite? Here are a few things that come to mind: The librarians are helpful and kid-friendly. They always ask if we need assistance and often take a moment to talk to AS. They are also careful to create a safe environment for children; I have heard them remind adults that they must be accompanied by a juvenile to stay in the youth sections. Among the biggest attractions for kids- a computer loaded with educational games (and others for web-surfing) is available.

This historic library is undergoing an "environmentally friendly and sustainable" renovation next year, and the librarian I spoke to was hopeful it will reopen after about ten months in the Spring of 2011. In the meantime, the branch will move to a temporary location and operate on a smaller scale. If you know where the temporary location will be, please let me know!

A recent radio report suggested children should be read to beginning at birth at least twice a day by their parents to stimulate language development. Encouraging very young children to turn the more manageable pages of board books, bath books or soft cloth books helps them to understand sequence and to develop motor skills. Some of AS's favorite library picks have included the interactive board books Peek-a-Who? by Nina Laden and Dear Zoo: A Lift-the-Flap Book by Rod Campbell. In fact, AS said one of his first words "Boo!" when hearing Laden's book for the umpteenth time and learned to mimic new animal sounds ("Roar!") as we read and re-read Campbell's. Author and artist Mo Willems' (formerly of Sesame Street) humorous Pigeon series is a hit with our whole family, as are the Look books by Tana Hoban which feature photographs that children view through die-cut windows to encourage more active viewing.

While AS is captive in his high chair during meals, I read to him from the more delicate picture books whose thinner pages don't withstand the rough-handling of a one-year old. Jon J. Muth's zen influenced stories Zen Shorts and Zen Ties are among the most beautifully illustrated we have discovered at the library. His watercolors are reminiscent of Japanese Sumi-e brushwork but more contemporary and whimsical. The Three Questions is another reflective story by the same author and, to my husband's satisfaction, was inspired by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy's profound short story of the same name. Each story features a panda as a pivotal character. Of course, pandas are near and dear to the hearts of adolescent Washingtonians as they are first introduced to these impressive animals at our National Zoo.

Curious to know what school-age children are reading or looking for recommendations for your child? Download an informative report by Renaissance Learning, and skim down to page 4 for a list of titles by grade and age.

If you are budget-conscious and can resist the urge to shop, Barnes and Noble bookstores host morning story times at various locations throughout the week. Browse the B&N website under "Stores and Events" for dates, times and programs. Each week they select books based on a different theme, often appropriate to the season or special holidays throughout the year. We find it is also a comfortable indoor play place on especially hot or cold days. There are usually small benches or chairs for children to curl up on with a book. If your child is in the mood to play instead, toys are provided (our local B&N has a much loved and abused train table). The staff also seem tolerant of children playing with the merchandise (such as the menagerie of stuffed animals for sale) and using the story time stage to enact their own imaginative narratives.

Which library, story time, or book satisfies your child's need to read? Please recommend one, or more!