Cooking Day at Camp Kreitzer

I love spending time with my grandkids. Two of the local grandsons decided awhile back that they want to do "cooking day" with Grandma every week. So for the past month or so we meet weekly to learn cooking skills and enjoy the results. One of the big benefits is that it gets them away from the computer games. They bring their Ipads to do math tutoring with their grandfather (They're home schooled), but that's it. Bike riding, board and card games, and cooking are the fun for the day. They are becoming quite the little chefs.

One of our little chefs.

You might think the boys would be asking to make cupcakes, cookies, and other sweets. 

They haven't. 

The first week they wanted to make quiche. Then it was fish fingers and fries. Another week we made shepherds pie although Jude doesn't like it, so he opted out that day and built contraptions with the dominoes. We made chicken fried rice another week. Yesterday we made pretzels. Next week they want to do fish fingers and fries again. We made sweet potato fries last time. Those didn't go over that well, so we'll be doing regular fries this time. If you want to try our pretzel recipe, it's online here. 

I've also done cake decorating with one of our granddaughters and a friend. I'm no expert, but I have cake decorating tips and parchment paper to make the icing bags. 

I cut the cupcakes in half, tops and bottoms, to give them more to decorate. Actually, I liked them better that way and may do that in the future. Since most kids like frosting more than cake, that strategy works well.

We spent a fun afternoon chatting and decorating and the results were charming. Often at Easter the  decorate a lamb cake for the centerpiece on the dining room table.

Larry and I look forward to any day we can spend time with our grandkids. We wish everyone lived nearby. Often the day ends with the kids riding in or driving the tractor. Our John Deere and trampoline are the "amusement park" activities at Camp Kreitzer along with the bonfire site where we gather to cook hot dogs, s'mores and tell stories and jokes and listen to our son do Emo comedy routines. (If you don't know Emo, check him out on YouTube.) Most of Emo's routines are clean. He's definitely different and very funny!

Some of the older grandkids are too busy to spend a day cooking or baking so we try to make "dates" with meals out to hear all about their activities. Or we go to a game, a recital, a play, etc. to cheer them on and go out for ice cream afterwards if they're free.

Being grandparents is a fun stage of life. We thank God we are still healthy enough to have active fun with the kids. As we slow down, we will focus more on less active pursuits like games

Bon appetit!