Cooking with Books

Creating with Books evolved from a program called Cooking with Books.

For that monthly school-aged program, every craft was an edible food craft that was based on the theme of the program. I continued with the that program for about a year and began to run out of new craft ideas and we were on a tight budget so Creating with Books opened me up to more possibilities. I still incorporate food crafts into the programs. Here are some examples:

Princess and the Pea

The peas were made of fondant that I flavored with vanilla and added green food coloring to.

I gave each child a ball of it and showed them how to form the pod and peas.

You can see how I used named squares of parchment paper for baking the pizza.

You also need an assistant to mind the oven while the program continues.

Santa Stories

Here the children made either a gingerbread reindeer or snowman cookie.

The arms and antlers are pretzels, we had raisins and red hots for eyes, buttons and nose.

The others are store-bought sugar cookies that they put red frosting and toppings on.

I Dig Potatoes!

We had a vote for their favorite potato food. French fries, tots, mashed, baked, chips...

Mashed potatoes won over french fries!? One potato, two potato, rhyme choose with one. I pick you! 

I served tots and chips while I read the above stories.

The kids had fun making the potato faces and there was a good bit of nibbling on the veggies too.

The parents loved the idea and some said "Now that's an idea I will use at home!"

I used instant potatoes and followed the instructions on the box, added salt too. Frozen corn, and peas, drained black beans, fresh peppers, celery and shredded cheddar.

 The program is from 4-5 o'clock and as one mom said when she picked up her children,

"Looks like supper to me!"