Summer break is here! We are a week in and maybe you have already heard the "I’m bored" whine from your kids. Usually I avoid this the same way my parents did. You say, "I’m bored, you do chores!"
There was a never-ending list of to-dos in our house, from vacuuming and sweeping to stacking wood. We would avoid all of it just by spending time in the woods building forts and making coffee can cookers to fry hot dogs. We’d pretend they were squirrels or other random animals we had caught in the wild.
Now, I don’t want to encourage you to send your kids outside with some weinies and a book of matches, so I thought I would present another way to get your kids cooking this summer.
If you remember the movie "Julie and Julia," Julie spent an entire year cooking her way through Julia Child’s first cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cuisine." I found an amazing little cookbook called the "Alpha Bakery" at a garage sale the other day and it gave me the idea that a parent could take the summer and cook their way through 26 recipes following the letters of the alphabet.
Here are some ideas, A to Z:
A – Apple crisp, avocado dip, ants on a log
B – Anything with bacon, banana bread, boiled eggs
C – Coleslaw, chicken bites, carrot cake muffins
D – Deviled eggs (to use your boiled eggs, see B) doughnuts, deep dish pizza
E – Everything omelets, egg salad, eagle brand seven layer bars
F – Fajitas, French toast, fudge brownies
G – Gingerbread cookies, green eggs and ham, graham cracker bars
H – Honey lemonade, honey bee cookies, ham and bean soup
I – Ice cream sandwiches, Italian dressing, ice cream cone cupcakes
J – Jelly roll cake, jam (easy freezer), jelly bean cupcakes
K – Kabobs, Kool-aid playdough, kart wheel cookies
L – Lemon bars, lolli pops, leek soup
M – Macaroni and cheese, mini muffins, mud pie
N – Nutty popcorn, Nutella biscuits, nana’s apple cake
O – Oatmeal cookies, olive tapenade, orange marmalade
P – Puppy chow, pancakes, pretzels
Q – Quesadilla, quick cheeseburger pie, quiche
R – Rocky road cake, rhubarb cobbler, refried beans
S – Strawberry shortcakes, spaghetti, squash soup
T – Toffee apples, tuna salad, tomato soup
U – Upside down cake, unbaked cookies, ultimate cheesecake
V – Veggie dip, vanilla cupcakes, vegetable soup
W – Waffles, wings, white fudge
X – X-tra special anything
Y – Yogurt cups, yellow cake, yam chips
Z – Zip-lock fudge, zingy orange crush, zesty crackers (Nothing with zucchini!)
Peace.
Sandy Holthaus of rural South Haven loves to cook. She and her husband, Michael, have a college-aged daughter and two sons in school. Holthaus is active in the community and has many interests and hobbies. She is originally from near Grand Marais. The Tastes Like Home column appears regularly.