Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids

Calorie-free Bake Sale for Haiti

Who doesn't love a bake sale? I know that I am a soft touch for kids bearing homemade goodies. All those brownies, cookies, cakes, even marshmallows...and calories. Well, you knew there had to be a downside, didn't you?

But what if you could buy all those tempting treats and not eat a calorie? Better, what if the money went for a good cause?

My wonderful tech editor, Michelle Stern, of What's Cooking may just have your answer: Buy a Virtual Slice of Dessert…and Help Haiti. (my 'contribution' is those marshmallows, recipe here: Berry Marshmallows with Chocolate recipe.

The virtual bake sale is simple. Just go to What's Cooking and click on the Donate button. You will be taken to First Giving, which is handling the donations. All proceeds go to Red Cross for their rescue efforts in Haiti.

Then go make yourself something sweet to munch. I'd share my marshmallows, but they are really hard to squish through the tubes of the Internet.

Harry Potter Fans Go Vegan

Dumbledore's Vegan Army materialized recently in a "dark corner of the internet" and it promises to be a fun site for kids, Harry Potter fans or not. Potter themed recipes like Butterbeer Sandwich Cookies and Delightfully Dark Mark Cookies sit alongside more the Muggley, but still tempting, Pumpkin Pasties.

I really like that the recipes start from scratch without any prepared components, and that they aren't dumbed down for kids. The recipes are, so far, mostly sweet,but I think that is because the blog started up around the movie premiere and only has a few posts so far - and none since July. I hope to see a broader range of recipes if they continue posting.

Sites We Love: What's Cooking

One of the joys of writing a book is the opportunity to work with some fabulous people. Michelle Stern, the owner of What's Cooking, a San Francisco area cooking school for kids, is one of those people. She was the technical editor for the cookbook, a largely thankless task that involves cleaning up after a tired, stressed writer and making that writer look good. For a book with ~70 recipes (I really should count them someday.) and almost 400 images, this is no small thing, but she does so much more:

• Michelle is dedicated to raising awareness of important issues like hunger, mixing educational efforts with direct action to benefit communities in need. She's a regular participant in events like the Great American Bake Sale and Music for the Hungry, incorporating community service into her work with kids and food.
• She can teach kids cooking classes without a kitchen!
• Healthy, kid-friendly recipes.
• Her garden has an extra row that was planted so that it could be donated to the local food bank.
• She walks the walk when it comes to the environment. Reusable school lunch supplies, homemade egg dyes from food, heck, even her chickens recycle!
• She catered the Celebrity Poker Tournament at the 2006 Emmy Awards, which just sounds like a blast!
• What's Cooking's twitter stream is full of interesting tidbits.

In what I see as a great idea, Michelle has recently started offering consulting services sharing her expertise in areas ranging from curriculum design for kids cooking classes to helping establish a "green" business (What's Cooking is a certified Green business). You can even learn how to throw a cooking party for your child's next birthday, with plans for age-appropriate food and activities, and even food-themed invitations and party favors.

The service that I think is probably going to be most popular, however, is helping families deal with power struggles and picky eaters, which are huge issues for some folks. Michelle's strategies include getting the kids into the kitchen, of course, with Michelle showing how to select recipes, tools, and so on.  I can only imagine how many parents would love a few hours of an expert's time to help them have more enjoyable family meals.

Those are just some of the reasons we love What's Cooking. Check out the site and see if you don't just agree.

Weekend fun with New World Geek

Patti Schiendelman, a self-describe "mom, indexer, editor, cook, gardener, and maker of things" is one of the many talented people I was fortunate enough to work with on the book. She is a meticulous, and infinitely patient, indexer who tolerated daily harassment email from me, mostly asking her to do something that she had, of course, already thought of. (If you are writing a book and need an indexer, you could not do better than Patti. And I am not just saying that so she will work with me on my next book. Really.)

New World Geek is where Patti plays, and it is worth a stop when you are looking for fun weekend projects to do with the kids.