Dim Sum Sunday - Kid's Choice

Today's Dim Sum Kid's Choice is letting the young chefs have some fun in the kitchen. Our Main Course is brought to us by Elizabeth of Gardening under the Florida Sun. Spaghetti and Sicilian Meatballs.

Today we turned Elizabeth loose in the kitchen, with an added twist of whatever she cooked, Shamu had to cook too. Great twist Shamy!

Elizabeth's pick was Spaghetti with Sicilian Meatballs.

She started out by chopping up some basil for the sauce.

Adding a little olive oil.

Couple cans of diced tomatoes, and the sauce was ready to simmer on the stove for about an hour.

On to the meatballs...Grinding up some pepper to add to the milk, egg, breadcrumbs, and sweet sausage.

Mix, mix, mix.

She had a blast rolling out the meatballs!
Which really surprised me, I thought she'd ask either John or me to do this part, but she was in there with both hands.

Way to go Elizabeth! You made us a fabulous dinner of spaghetti and meatballs.

Photographer's Note: Not going back to ground beef meatball ever again. These sausage meatballs are so good and juicy.

MS and The Sweeties of Making Space decided that making cookies was the perfect activity for wiggly, energetic kids. Lots of stirring, mixing, pouring and cookie formation.

Today’s theme was really exceptional. Kids’ Choice works differently than any other Dim Sum in which I’ve participated, though I just jumped into the fray recently so it may have been done before. Here’s the explanatory post, complete with frightening photos of disaster looming. LOL Now, here’s how it worked around here: I decided what my children and I would make together (they’re young enough that I am not up for leaving them in the kitchen alone – see above under “disaster looming”). I then let Shamy know what our Kids’ Choice was (oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!!); she then made her own version.

I picked cookies because I recently bought cookie sheets and parchment paper; and the children and I have made cookies from mixes before, but not from scratch. Chocolate chip cookies seemed like a no-brainer, and the oatmeal seemed to hint at something that might possibly be marginally healthy (don’t laugh too hard). I asked around for tried-and-true recipes, since I was looking for a classic that I could appropriate into my own cookie-baking repertoire. A friend who bakes all the time suggested Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from Allrecipes.com She said when she takes these to potlucks they fly away. This seemed like a good recommendation. Here’s the recipe, just copied and pasted from the site.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 1/2 cup raisins (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Beat butter or margarine, sugars and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add flour and salt, mix well.
2. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and add to mixture. Stir in rolled oats, raisins and chocolate chips.
3. Drop by teaspoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 10-12 minutes. Don't over cook.

We made it exactly as the recipe recommended, and well, may I just say that when you put two sticks of butter together with a bag of chocolate chips and throw in some sugar, flour and oatmeal, you just really really can’t possibly go wrong. Haha

This turned out to be a great recipe to do with young children. No eggs, so feel free to eat the batter. The batter is really easy to stir, even for small hands and arms. The many different sizes and shapes of cookies all cooked evenly at the same time. A most excellent recipe for a distracted mom who hasn’t made a chocolate chip cookie in thirty years, supervising young children who – well, who REALLY REALLY REALLY want to cook. And talk. And sing. And dance. All at the same time. And of course each one MUST have my full attention. So yeah. This is a household that needs a cookie recipe that’s not especially high maintenance. We’ve found it. Holy moly we have FOUND it. (Special note to those who know my family a bit more than I’ve revealed here: on my blog I ask that commenters not refer to the number, ages, names, or genders of my children. You can call them The Sweeties if you want a handy nickname. Thanks!)

Photographer's note: Normally I'm an oatmeal raisin girl...but these cookies just might turn my head.