Stirring Up Fun with Food

INTRODUCTION

EVEN HER TOMBSTONE READ, "She saved the world… a lot." I am also a wife, a mother, and—since I am writing this—an author.

Food and the experience of cooking mean something different to everyone, but to me they have always been about family. Mealtimes have always been when I "unplug" for a bit and engage in real, honest connections. Once I had kids, this experience became even more important. I wanted my kids not just to love food and to make healthy choices, but to experience the special bonding that happens in the kitchen and around the table.

How often do you hear "My kid doesn't eat vegetables" or "My kid only eats white food"? I was determined that I would never utter these phrases about my kids. And I knew from the start that I didn't want to hide ingredients. I wanted my children to know what they were eating, and through exploration, I believed they would learn to love different flavors (even Brussels sprouts—peeled apart, seasoned with a little truffle salt and shaved Parmesan cheese, and baked did the trick). By making them creative and fun, I was able to remove the stigma that vegetables weren't delicious.

I learned quickly that to get my kids to be adventurous with their choices, I had to involve them in the process of preparing food. Next came the tricky part. Unlike my husband, who went to culinary school, my related expertise thus far had been restricted to keeping up with the latest restaurants and making reservations at them. So I wound up learning about cooking with my kids, and sometimes even being taught a thing or two. What I initially thought would be intimidating became an adventure. In all honesty, at first I was worried that it was too late for me to learn, but I found the reality to be the exact opposite.

I discovered a new creative outlet that I was actually good at, and I realized that making fun food with my kids was about more than just getting them to eat. Measuring ingredients; pulling together pots, pans, and bowls; stirring, whisking, dumping, rolling, skewering—and waiting—are skills that helped them develop self-confidence, expand their vocabulary and creative thinking, and sharpen math concepts as well as their fine and gross motor skills (and mine too, for that matter).

But why food crafting? (And what exactly is food crafting, you might wonder?) As there is no truly acknowledged definition of food crafting, we will have to go with mine:

Why stop at cutting brownies into squares? Why not put them on a stick and decorate them? Why not fold broccoli spears into a yummy cheesy muffin? Isn't it more fun to eat food out of a jar? I quickly realized that the possibilities for presenting were endless. Now, don't get me wrong: not all my ideas were home runs. But creativity takes practice, and ultimately it leads to invention, so I just kept trying. (Someone once told me that the difference between success and failure is trying one more time. So true.)

The best part of this book is that whether you are a novice or an expert, these recipes are for you.

And one last thought on cooking and ingredients: I know that choosing ingredients can be confusing these days, as there are so many healthy-sounding buzzwords like "natural" and "local." I like to choose my ingredients using the same philosophy with which I live my life: everything as fresh as possible, as unadulterated as possible, and made as close to home as possible. That's not to say I don't love a runny Camembert from France. What's more, while I love to indulge in a great sweet treat (or a savory one, for that matter), the main things I try to avoid are overprocessed foods and ingredients. I do not see a reason for using artificial colors when most colors can be extracted from plants (there are even dye-free sprinkles!). The only way I can be completely sure of what I am putting in my body (and my family's bodies) is to prepare our food myself—or more precisely, prepare it together with family and friends. It's the ideal group activity.

With the same spirit that I approached Foodstirs, Gia Russo, my friend, business partner, and coauthor, approached Stirring Up Fun with Food. We both have children—I have my daughter, Charlotte, and son, Rocky, and Gia has her son, Grayden. As soon as the kids could stand on a stepstool to reach the counters in our respective kitchens, we involved them in cooking. Of course, there is nothing like a kid to turn almost any activity into child's play, and that's when it occurred to us that playing with our food was not only fun, but mandatory! Making an apple pie is always fun, but putting a bite of it on a stick (here) is so much more fun! Making their dads cards for Father's Day is a big deal, but spelling out what they want to say in fruit (here) makes the entire act of making, presenting, and receiving so much more thrilling. As mothers of school-age kids, we have packed dozens and dozens of lunches and understand the challenge of keeping it interesting. Threading almost anything onto a skewer does the trick; one of our favorite five-minute gourmet lunches is tortellini threaded onto a skewer (here) and served with a simple tomato dipping sauce.

In the following twelve chapters, organized by month, we've devised food for holidays, celebrations, and seasonal gatherings that is meant to add flair and excitement not only to your table, but to the preparation that happens beforehand.

Making it fun to make food is what we're after. If you own muffin tins, skewers, toothpicks, cookie cutters, mason jars, and juice glasses, you're halfway there. These are our go-to vessels and tools for making familiar dishes more interesting to prepare and to eat. We've witnessed how simply presenting a particular food in a fresh way can turn a "No way!" into a "Yes, please." If you slide a Caesar salad on a stick (yes, on a stick—check out here), there is a 100 percent greater chance that even the pickiest eater will go for it.

But the recipes that follow are not just for kids. In fact, we've tested every single one of them on adults. And it turns out that dads are just as intrigued by a Father's Day grilled cheese sandwich shaped like a tie (here) as the kids are entertained by making it. Young cooks love to make Mom a bouquet of flowers cut from vegetables (here) as much as she enjoys eating it. But it is perhaps the miniature cherry pies (here) that best exemplify what we have come to call food crafting. Baked in mason jar lids, they are easy to pop out of their molds once cooled. Why bake a pie in a pie tin when you could bake a much more charming version in a jar lid?

Our hope is that you will use the recipes on the following pages as inspiration, as a jumping-off point for coming up with your own clever food crafting ideas. So pull out your jars and ramekins, skewers and mini-muffin tins, and get crafting. You will likely find your time in the kitchen more joyful, nourishing, and satisfying than ever before.