How to Cook Gnocchi with Kids

Gnocchi is a sort-of-pasta made out of potato! It's a very straight forward cooking activity that kids would definitely adore every step.

So here is how we enjoyed the gnocchi making at Carluccio's one fine Saturday morning!

Step 1: Eat breakfast! Well, the kids were supposedly cooking breakfast for us - but they need to nourish themselves first, right? Besides nobody should cook with their stomach empty. Bad for the cook, bad for whoever will eat the food - simply because, nothing might be left to eat! So here goes our little chef eating his breakfast at Carluccios.

Step 2: Prepare the utensils (bowl), ingredients (pre-cooked potato mash, flour and egg) and cute-chef materials (see that chef hat with little drawings on them - they made them as pre-cooking activity! Releases the stress of away from cooking. 

Step 3: Knead the potato mix! Mash away, babies! This activity is great for kids to learn texture through sense of touch. Gotta love the multi-sensory things going on here for kids development. For sure, my kids will be going to be successful - thanks cooking classes! 

Step 4: Time to do some more serious kneading of the potatoes  - until the kids are complaining, which might take more than thirty minutes so for sure, there's some homogenous mixture and good quiet time for breakfast for parents. Weeee! 

Step 5: Remove the mixture from the bowl. And then knead the mixture some more!  

Step 6: Time to cut and roll!  For my pre-schooler, we were discussing the concept of "long and short" during this fun activity. For my key stage 1 student, we were discussing the concept of "fractions - quarters, 1/10 and so on." It is really fun taking the classroom out of loop when learning! 

And then we sing - rolling, rolling, rolling!... la la la 

Step 7: Bond with the Chef while cutting the rolls! 

Step 8: The gnocchi is now ready for the desired sauces! Pose with the proud dad!

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Step 9: Now toss with your favorite sauce - tomato, cream or pesto! Serve immediately. 

Step 9: Enjoy eating! 

Step 10: Reward the kids for completing the lesson - pose with Chef with Certificate of Completion!

We should do this activity again! If not at home, Carluccios is really a very homey place to make kids appreciate Italian food - eating and cooking alike.


Keep exploring!
 

Turknoys with Grandparents in Turkey

This time last year, the kids were with their grandparents in Turkey. They cry every evening whenever we checked on them over the phone. They missed us and we missed them terribly. Truly, being able to provide to kids a good life while being with them physically is a great blessing nowadays.

In Philippines, it became very typical routine for family, especially OFW families to be away from kids. Kids grow up with their grandparents. Sometimes, I wonder whether this is fair for the grand parents and the kids themselves.

Our eldest, as most of us who personally know us know, grow up with her grandmother for the first three years of her life. As much as I hate to admit it, it was more of a convenience on my part. I was able to live without being a "mother" to her. Of course, I obliged my mom and sisters to upload pictures of her in the internet so I could see how she is growing up (I will be eternally grateful for my family for taking care of her while I was away.) It was not easy to leave her everytime I go home to  Philippines to see her, but it was almost impossible to leave her when I experienced how it was to become a hands on mom, being physically together with my children.

I know realized that not only I gave up the right to influence her attitude in the early years of her life (which may or may not be good!) but I also missed on those little happiness everyday seeing her achieve important milestones in her growing up years. And there is a lot... a LOT of happiness everyday just being with kids, seeing their "firsts"; first smile, first words, first kick, first time falling off the bed, first time falling off anything!

While I know a lot of Filipino kids growing up with their grandchildren, on the other hand, my Western mom friends are arguing whether to leave their kids with the grandparents for one to two weeks over the summer. And most of them are hesitant to leave the kids for so many reasons I sometimes curse them for how fortunate they are for having so many alternative options not to be away from their kids while they earn horrendous amount of money - I am taking responsibility for that little lapse of insanity taking a take at a superior race; sorry!


The two situations are extreme and when you look at it ( and I have lots of times), it sometimes boil down to what every parent thinks is best for the children, considering all the constraints at hand. Most of the Filipinos abroad don't even have the opportunity to bring their kids with them, whilst they have a great need of money which they can only earn in other countries to be able to support their kids. It sucks big time that they had to be away from kids to be able to do that; such is a great sacrifice a parent would be able to bear for kids.

Other nationalities may have other constraints that I may not know but I'm sure that they do sacrifice for kids too.


Anyhow, onto my reminiscing...

These photos were taken exactly a year ago and the kids were away from us for less than two weeks and I was already going crazy! As a result, we changed our vacation plans and joined the kids as soon as we could. The feeling of being together with them is always cherished. Everyday is a blessing  to be together indeed!

teaching the kids how to cook!

fresh from the garden!  

kids cooking! hahha

getting pro at cutting veggies!

wow!

now with the kofta!

hurry up! I am hungry!

breakfast al fresco during summer 2011

Oh well, it was a great opportunity for them to learn how to cook  - a skill they would never learn from their mom anyways. Sometimes, it is great to learn skills from  others.

Happy Summer 2012 everyone! I hope everyone is having a blast. (As of this writing, Philippines is going through horrendous amount of rain - my thoughts and prayers are with all of my kabayans.)


Keep exploring!