America’s Youngest Chef
We may have an aspiring Chef on our hands. Recently, The Well Fed Son announced that he was “writing a recipe.” He has been into writing stories and drawing pictures lately, but this was the first time he’d ever mentioned anything about recipe development.
I guess it’s not so surprising, being that The Chef and I sometimes talk, seemingly to others, ad nauseam about food and the latest recipes we’ve tried or are thinking about trying. It comes with the whole food blogging territory, I’d say? So our son, being the very observant and detailed, sweet boy that he is, watches intently as we attempt to style the latest dish we’ve made and photograph it for the blog. He has learned at his young age of 6 to wait patiently to dig in until that acceptable image had been captured. Poor thing.
But really, this latest development suggests that he enjoys, or at least, is intrigued with this recipe development process. His first recipe will be announced shortly, after he and The Chef have had a chance to make it in our “Test Kitchen”. I’m not going to give any clues, except that I have a good feeling about it. I think it’s going to be amazing for a 6-year-old, perhaps American’s youngest Chef!
Haystack Cookies Becoming Regular Family Time Tradition
So The Chef and I have been trying to involve the kids more in cooking, letting them help do things like crunch pretzels in a Zip Lock bag or stir ingredients together. We started trying to have some regular “scheduled” family time together. Life just seems to get so crazy if we are not intentional about it, we start feeling like we’re not spending any real quality time together. The kids love it. They actually talk about it during the week and make plans for how we will spend family time on Saturday.
One Saturday for family time, we made Haystack Cookies. The kids now regularly request to make them during family time. They have become a favorite family recipe for sure.
I had never heard of these Butterscotch Haystack Cookies before The Chef asked me recently if I had ever had them. He had remembered them as a child and was thinking they would be perfect to make with the kids. At the time, pre-allergy testing for our son, they were “safe” for our whole family. Now we will have to leave the cashews out, but I think the kids still will love them. The Chef says he doesn’t think we’ll miss the cashews in them too much.
- 1 12-ounce bag butterscotch chips
- 1 4-ounce can shoestring potatoes
- 1 cup peanuts or cashews, finely chopped
- Carob chips
- Watching closely, melt chips in the microwave.
- Stir in other ingredients until combined well.
- Using a teaspoon, drop onto wax paper.
- Drop a few carob chips onto each one.
- Refrigerate approximately 30 minutes to chill.
Blurb Cookbooks
So now that our son is showing an interest in cooking and recipe development, we may need a place to store his favorite recipes and those he develops with Daddy. One of our Affiliate Partners, Blurb, offers a selection of cookbooks that would be perfect for this need to preserve our son’s recipes and early memories learning to cook.
These cookbooks would also make a great gift for that student in your life getting ready to head to college this fall, full of his/her favorite recipes from home, as well as recipes that are easy for the busy college student to make, such as crock-pot recipes and more.
There are many other types of cookbooks you could make, and right now, Blurb is giving a 15% discount with the coupon code: BooksForSummer. So head on over and check them out, or make your own Blurb cookbook today!
Disclosure: Affiliate links contained in this post. Full disclosure policy here.
About the Author
Adopted at age 2, grew up in the Charlotte, NC area. Obtained Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Appalachian State University. Loves being a Mom of two and taste-testing Chef John's culinary creations and sharing them with readers.
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