Cooking with your kids

I enjoy getting into the kitchen with my kids, teaching them how to cook and bake and knowing that they will be able to survive when adults. What is the saying give him a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime. That is my philosophy with cooking and my children. Around age 6 I will start letting them use the toaster and the microwave and we move up from there into baking and cooking full course meals. Now that my children are older they love food competitions. I give them $20.00 and take them to the store they have a theme, ground beef or chicken or a vegetable and they have to make a dish. It's a steal from food networks food challenge shows, but made for home fun. It brings out the best in them and they are so proud of their hard work. My husband and I will judge along with a neighbor or friend. It's a lot of fun and this summer they have had a few cooking competitions. Most recently a ground beef competition where my 14 year old son made a delicious baked ziti and my 10 year old, now 11 years old made a Mexican ground beef casserole. They were hard to judge both being so tasty. Recently my daughter made monkey bread and I wanted to share the recipe. Maybe you could share it with your child.

16 to 20 whole pecans

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 10 oz cans refrigerator biscuits

Directions:

Grease a muffin pan. Place 2 or 3 whole pecans in each cup, and sprinkle half of the chopped pecans over them. In a saucepan melt the butter. Add the sugar, water, and the remaining chopped nuts. Cut the biscuits in thirds and roll into balls. Place 3 in each cup, then drizzle with sauce. Add 2 balls and drizzle with the remaining sauce. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 15 minutes.