Little Chefs

When K turned 9 at the end of April, she wanted a cooking party. (Well, first she wanted a pool party, but thought of it too late and all the indoor pools were booked). It worked out great, so I thought I would share what we did.

First, we kept it small. She invited 8 girls from school, and only 6 were able to come. Awesome!

Second, we kept it simple. The girls were "making" three dishes. We did pizzas, smoothies, and cookies.

Third, we had tons of fun!

When each girl arrived, she was given a chef's apron off (ebay - $2 each), a small rolling pin ($1 each), and a chef's hat ($1 each). We had written the kids' names on both the hat and the apron in fabric marker. They could then spend 15 minutes of so decorating them more.

Then they washed their hands, and came and sat at the kitchen table. They each got a pile of flour and a lump of dough. On the table were bowls of sauce, cheeses, and pepperoni. Once they rolled out their dough and made their pizza, I put it on the pizza stone to go in the oven. If I ever do this again, I will figure out a way to label them, because it was hard to tell whose was whose when it was done. Ditto for the cookies later!

We cleaned that up, and then the girls lined up outside the kitchen. They came in two at a time (I had two blenders) and helped put together their smoothie. We had vanilla yogurt, mango, orange and apple juice, frozen mangos, bananas, strawberries and raspberries. We also had big straws and fancy drink umbrellas. The smoothies were a HUGE hit. The girls loved trying the different flavors and combinations.

They ran around playing a bit, then the pizza was done. The girls came in and ate, and then we had our one organized game - feel the shape. I bought this 101 cookie cutter pack, and we laid about 50 of the cutters on a table with a sheet over it. The girls had to reach under the sheet and try and determine the shape of the cookie cutter without looking. Each girl could get up to 5 cookie cutters.

Then it was back in the kitchen, where they were given a lump of cookie dough (premade by pillsbury) and tons of sprinkles and decorations. Again, wish we had somehow labeled whose cookies were whose! There was also frosting when the cookies were done. The girls had a blast with this (and despite a few tears over cookie-owner confusion), and loved their designs.

They each left with their outfits, rolling pins, and cookie cutters.

It was a big hit, and everyone had fun!