Image: sxc.hu

Most kids beg to help in the kitchen when they’re young, but moms sometimes feel they don’t have the time to let inexperienced fingers at the food.  So sandwich making may be a good way to learn.

I recall a 4-year old niece being so excited because I let her help me make lunch sandwiches.  Apparently she’d never had this experience before, so was thrilled simply to spread bread with butter or mayonnaise.

Then we placed simple sandwich fillings on the bread.  She proudly carried the finished food to the table and announced to her cousins, “I made the sandwiches.”

How can children help? Much depends on their age and experience, but your having the patience to let youngsters loose in the kitchen will yield rewards later on when they can prepare entire meals themselves.

They can:

• Help plan the picnic menu
• Make sandwiches with simple, easy to spread fillings.
• Arrange celery and carrot sticks on a platter or place in a bag to tote along.
• Spread icing over cupcakes.
• Help stir various incredients….sandwich fillings, the icing for cupcakes, cake and cookie batter.
• Make instant type puddings
• Tear lettuce and add other incredients for salad.
• Making fruit punch
• Arrange pretty napkins and plates at the picnic table.

How do you incorporate your youngsters’ help at picnic time? This can be a fun family time.

Post from: Blisstree

Family Food Preparation at Picnic Time

Image: sxc.hu

These are times for gathering picnic memories to share in later years with children and grandchildren.  Some picnics also become annual affairs and create traditions in families.

The types of foods prepared or toted along are many.  You can barbecue on the spot or make sandwiches and salads to enjoy during meal breaks.

Picnic possibilities:

• Make sandwiches to take in a cooler during travels.  My dad liked to take Sunday drives and found various picnic spots to stop and eat.
• Backpacking calls for foods that carry well, aren’t refrigerated and take up less space.
• Backyard picnics can be cookouts, a quick sandwich, foods you’d serve indoors, etc.
• Children enjoy picnics of almost any type and find their favorite spots.  My husband and his brothers had a “picnic rock” on their farm where they’d take their sandwiches at lunch time.  My siblings and I had a “flat rock” on our farm that was a favorite spot.
• Tailgating picnics at sports games have become very popular for friends and families.

What are some of your favorite family picnic spots?  Do you have family picnic memories?

Post from: Blisstree

The Joy of Family Picnics

Image: sxc.hu

 One of Father’s favorite picnic spots was found at the top of a cliff overlooking the Hudson River and the mid-Hudson bridge across the river from Poughkeepsie.  (We lived in a farming town 15 miles east of there.)  Father would relax in his lawn chair, enjoy his lunch, and watch the boats plying the river. 

 Mother took us children for a walk around the area.  There was a place for cars to park and trails to follow.  As the sun began dipping into the western sky, we knew it was time to pack up and drive home again.  There was always the evening milking to do, even though it was Father’s Day.  And Sunday was the hired man’s day off.

Do you have Father’s Day memories?  Are you making Father’s Day memories that you and your children will recall?

Post from: Blisstree

Dad’s Day, Picnics & Hudson River Memories

So, another summer is coming to a close with the Labor Day Weekend upon us. One last trip to the beach or the lake before summer vacation season officially ends and it’s back to school again.

Here we will be having another holiday weekend cook-out with some friends and family.But that will have to wait until after I work Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning for me. But the grill will fire up and the grill master will make the burgers and hot dogs that stay in your kids memories as special times. Granted I have offered up a few “burnt offerings” from my grill.

It’s true though, some of my best summer memories were at family cookouts out at “Forget’s Pond” in when I was a kid. That’s one thing I think we have been good about. It used to be more about family getting together as my in-laws would come over with pasta salad and fruit salad, the kind with the miniature marshmallows in it. They would spend time with the grandkids, and of course the younger kids had to go for a ride with them. Most of the time it was around the block.

This Monday we will have our oldest daughter, son-in-law and our two grandkids. Some friends will be here with their 5 boys. Theirs and our boys will probably end up playing and swimming in the creek out back making their childhood memories. Then there will be the burgers, hot dogs and all the other goodies to eat and snack on until everyone is tired and worn out and has to get ready for another week of work or school. Still with their new memories running through their minds.

Here in Texas it will feel like summer for a while longer as its still in the upper 80’s and nineties. We will still have a couple or three more reasons to fire up my grill but summer will gone.

Y’all have a Happy & Safe Labor Day !

Image:Morguefile

Post from: Blisstree

Summer Memories