Fun with Food

Working in the kitchen with the kids can be a wonderful experience for everyone. It is a time to learn by having fun together.

Cream together oleo and almond paste. Beat in sugar and eggs. Add salt and flour. Place in 9X13 pan (pat even) Sprinkle nuts on top. Bake 40 minutes. Makes 32 bars.

Beat egg then stir in milk and oil, mix the remainder and add blueberries. Pour into lined muffin Pans. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar for a crunchy crust. Makes 12 muffins.

Heat oven to 400 degrees bake for 20 to 22 minutes.

Note: Use blended oil or 100% vegetable oil; 100% canola oil tends to make baked items drier. I usually double this recipe and the kids eat them for snacks.

Thoroughly cream butter and sugar. Add egg, milk, vanilla, and peppermint extract; beat well. Sift flour and baking powder; add gradually to creamed mixture, mixing till smooth.

Divide the dough in half and add a few drops of red food coloring. Give kids pieces of the white dough and roll out into a snake or worm shape(that’s all I can think of calling it). Give them a piece of the red dough and have them do the same. Then have them cut off pieces of both colors about 4-5 inches, have them slightly twist the two pieces together and shape into a candy cane. Place on a ungreased cookie sheet and bake as above directions. because these are the first that the Kids will want to eat these first because they are cool. What’s great is less sugar because they don’t get iced. You can also make small braided wreath cookies, along with candy cane cookies. If the dough is too soft to roll add a little bit more flour or refrigerate for a few hours before rolling out.

Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 minutes; cool makes 72.

If you don’t have time to build a whole house for each child try this. Make a gingerbread cookie recipe that requires you to roll out the gingerbread dough. Then cut out house shapes. Bake and cool. Give each child his/her very own house to decorate. Have bowls of various candy decorations to make their house come alive. Use pre-made frosting to make the candies stay on and eat your reward after everyone is done. Great idea for a kids get together, school holiday party or birthday party.

Submitted by R. Scheel, Fun-Attic Inc.

Spread 1½ cups margarine onto a 10×12 sheet of wax paper. Chill 1 hour. In a large bowl mix 1¼ cups flour, sugar, salt, cornstarch and dry yeast. Combine milk, water and ¼ cup margarine in bowl and microwave until liquids are warm not hot. (Margarine does not need to melt) Gradually add to dry ingredients and beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Add 2 egg yolks and 1 egg white and 1 cup flour. Beat at high speed 2 minutes. Add enough additional flour (usually the rest of the flour) to make a stiff batter; stir just until blended. Cover tightly; chill at least 1 hour. On a lightly floured board, roll chilled dough into a 12×16″ rectangle. Place margarine slab on 2/3 of dough. Fold uncovered third over middle section cover with remaining third. Give dough a quarter turn; roll into a 12×16″ rectangle ;fold as above. Turn, roll and fold once more; chill 1 hour. Repeat procedure of 2 rollings foldings, turnings and chillings 2 more times. Refrigerate overnight. On a lightly floured board, divide dough in half. Roll half the dough into a 15×6″ rectangle. Cut 12 strips 15x½”. Twist each strip and form into a circle, sealing ends well. Place on greased baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate 1 hour or over night. Combine reserved egg white with water. Brush rolls with egg white. Bake in 350′ oven about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from baking sheets and cool on wire racks. Frost with confectioners’ sugar frosting and decorate with colored sprinkles.

In one clean milk jug add the salt, vanilla, sugar, half & half and optional eggs. Fill the rest of the milk jug with milk so that it’s almost full. You’ll need some space at the top so that you can shake up the mixture. Place the cap on the top and carefully shake the mixture until all the ingredients are well mixed. If you have a pull off cap always keep your hand over the cap. Once the mixture is completely mixed, pour one cup of mixture into a small resealable bag. The mixture will give you about 16 cups so you can give each participant one bag or assign two participants per bag to share one cup of mixture. At that time they can decide if they would like to add fresh fruit. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons for fresh fruit. Place the small bag of mixture into one large resealable bag filled half way with crushed ice. Have the participants add about ½ cup of salt over the ice and seal the large bag. They will take turns shaking and moving the mixture around in the crushed ice. You can add additional salt if need. Once mixture has become frozen ice cream, divide it up and enjoy your rewards. Makes about 16 cups or 32 (½ cups) of ice cream.

Combine eggs, bread crumbs, juice, brown sugar, and spices with beef and mix well. On a large sheet of foil, place beef mixture and flatten to a 10×12 inch rectangle. Arrange ham over entire top of beef and then sprinkle with cheese. Starting at the short end of the beef roll tightly jelly-roll style, using the foil to lift the edges and ends. Seal the seam and ends exceedingly well! Place seam side down in a 9X13 pan. Place in a pre-heated 500 degree oven for 15 minutes. Turn heat down to 350 degrees and bake for one hour.

Great meal for your next get-to-gether – you’ll impress even the skeptics. I usually decrease the brown sugar to 1/3 or 1/4 cup.

Mix: Shortening, sugar, eggs & flavoring. Blend in flour, soda and salt. Chill for 1 hour in the refrigerator. Break up candies into smaller pieces for the window/stained glass effect. Roll out chilled dough onto floured board about 1/8″ thick. Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters and place onto cookie sheet with aluminum foil. You might also want to lightly spray the foil with a non-flavored cooking spray. While on cookie sheets cut out little squares, triangles, or circles into the cookies to make the windows of your cookies. Place the small pieces of the broken candies into those areas so it will melt for the window effect. You can also sprinkle them with colored sugars.

Bake at 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes or until very light brown.

Makes 6-dozen 3″ cookies. For Valentines Day use a heart shaped cutter and then cut out a small heart within the cookies.

If you’re having a fall holiday party or you always have a candy dish out and you love Payday candy bars, try this idea. Fill your candy dishes with dry roasted peanuts and candy corn the combination is really great.

Butter a 9 x 13 cake pan and slightly chop 1 cup of walnuts. In a large saucepan add margarine, salt, sugar and milk. Bring to a boil and monitor with a candy thermometer for the temperature of 234 degrees. Once the mixture has reached 234 degrees remove from heat and then add the peanut butter chips, marshmallow cream and vanilla. Mix well and then add the chopped walnuts. Carefully pour into buttered pan and cool. Cut into large strips and keep refrigerated in airtight container. To serve take strips and slice into small pieces as need. This recipe came from my great grandma Lou (Luttie) who was the best fudge maker, baker and cook. Enjoy and share this great holiday treat with your family.
Submitted by R. Scheel, Fun-Attic Inc.

Ingredients:

*(instead of all vanilla we use 1 teaspoon vanilla – 1 teaspoon almond extract) or whatever combination ½ – 1½ or all of almond extract. **(instead of pecan we use walnuts)Cream butter and sugar; add 2 teaspoons water and vanilla; mix well. Blend in flour and nuts; Chill 4 hours. Shape in balls or fingers. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet at 325 degrees about 20 minutes. Remove from pan: cool slightly; roll in confectioners sugar. Makes about 3 dozen cookies.We usually roll out into fingers about 3 centimeters long and l centimeter thick. Sometimes we’ll make a double batch because they keep a long time, including the dough. They don’t have to be brown so don’t over bake them. The kids have a great time rolling these out and the dough is edible because there is no egg. Use a spoon to scoop out the dough because it sets up after being in the refrigerator. If you use your fingers they become sore later from the digging into the nuts.

Crust:
Mix all ingredients together and press into 9-inch pie pan. Bake at 450 degrees for 10-12 minutes and cool. Don’t over brown.

Filling:
Cook, sugar, water, cornstarch and food coloring until thick (about 1 minute after boiling). Remove from heat and add gelatin. Cool mixture. Add strawberries to mixture and pour into baked and cooled pie shell. Refrigerate at least 3 hours Serve with whipped cream.**Note: You’ll love this recipe because it is so quick and easy. If you have a lot of time or you’re a very patient person, to make your pie look more decorative, stand each strawberry on end in pie dish, in circular rows and then pour in filling.Our family enjoys this recipe whenever Strawberries are in season.

Spread out the fudge striped cookies onto a plate. Place one unwrapped caramel at the bottom edge of each cookie and microwave 6-8 seconds. Once slightly melted or softened add one star candy by pressing the star end into the bottom of the caramel. Add one candy corn by pressing into the middle of the caramel above the star, with the wide end towards the star and point is pointing to the center of the cookie. You may have to limit the amount you put into the microwave at a time and how long depending on your microwave.

Submitted by Jill York, Rockford MI

Remember – The object is for everyone to have fun. The moderator is the all-powerful dictator. You may at any time change the rules or boundaries or handicap players to help balance out the wide spectrum of abilities. We want the tentative athlete and the superjock to play together at the best of their abilities.

Have Fun! ?

Now here are some colorful ideas to liven up play time.
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