"dejablues" wrote

> Baking a decent cake requires skills that should have been acquired after
> learning ones way around a kitchen, where hot liquids, sharp knives, and
> open flames are a given. My kids could boil water for tea, use a
> pocketknife, and were safe with a campfire at age eight or so.

Not everyone has the same backgrounds and some kids are a little klutzier
still at 12 than others. It's about the age where they even up. As to the
cake, he may be still at the level of 'add what the box says, stir, then
bake' and there's nothing wrong with starting a kid of with that.

Lets face it. Plenty of parents dont bother to teach kids cooking at all,
til at least 15 and may not then. I wouldnt abuse someone who's at least
trying.

When we lived in Sasebo in the Navy housing, we used to get what we called
'Flock Attacks'. Thats when the flocks of kids would travel around in our
highrise and visit various places. We were a frequent stop and the reason
was we had something different than just a nintendo and computer games.
Most houses had snacks (we parents had a little group too and we made sure
it was generally healthy stuff). In our house, the kids got to *make* the
snacks.

They LOVED it. It was also *very* apparent which kids had parents who
either couldnt cook, didnt bother to cook, or did but didnt teach the kids.
I had 13-14 YO's who I would supervise with a butter knife, and 8 YO's who
showed *me* how to debone a whole chicken.

A common thing was to get a group of 6-8 of them (Charlotte in tow), let
them wander the fridge and freezer, put out everything 'interesting' and
design a meal using as many of the things as we could make match. So many
of these used a crockpot, that sales went up at the exchange for a bit
(grin). Saturday they'd start the pot, and Sunday they'd come back and eat
it all up.

Popular things to let them make:

Pancit (no 2 mixes were the same but all were good)
Rice Porridge (think fancy congee or juk)
Chicken soup (crockpot)- starting with a whole chicken and water
Stuffed whole squid (the boys loved doing that one as it looked icky)
Blooming Soy-sauce onions
Breadmaker breads, (often dough only then turned to hard rolls etc)
Pretzels and breadsticks
southern boiled peanuts
spagetti with sauce (starting with canned chopped tomatos and a spice rack)
udon (starting with flour, water etc)
Dashi (starting with dried fish and dried seaweed)

Thats just ones that come to mind over the 4 years we lived in housing. Age
of the flock members was mostly from 8-13.

On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:03:46 -0500, cshenk wrote:

> southern boiled peanuts

What are these, Carol?

Horry wrote:
> On Sat, 31 Jan 2009 23:03:46 -0500, cshenk wrote:
>
>> southern boiled peanuts
>
> What are these, Carol?

I'm not Carol, but those are a favorite in the part of my family that
comes from Mississippi and Charleston. Take a mess of *RAW* peanuts in
the shell, and boil them for several hours in very salty water. We like
to eat them cold. The peanut shells capture a little of the salty water,
and it's delicious. The peanuts themselves end up the texture of beans,
which they of course are. It's the only way I really like peanuts,
except in Thai peanut sauce.

Serene

--
Super Cool Toy Store (I've played with them, and they really are super
cool): http://supercooltoystore.com

"I am an agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at
the bottom of the garden." -- Richard Dawkins

"Serene Vannoy" wrote:
Horry wrote:

>>> southern boiled peanuts
>> >> What are these, Carol?

> I'm not Carol, but those are a favorite in the part of my family that
> comes from Mississippi and Charleston. Take a mess of *RAW* peanuts in
> the shell, and boil them for several hours in very salty water. We like to
> eat them cold. The peanut shells capture a little of the salty water, and
> it's delicious. The peanuts themselves end up the texture of beans, which
> they of course are. It's the only way I really like peanuts, except in
> Thai peanut sauce.

Hehe fellow southerner I see! I've made them many ways, not just with
salted water. With sea water, with spices added (I tend to red chiles in
pwdered form but wasabi works nicely too).

We like them warm right from the pot and just scoup out a bowl-ful with a
metal hand strainer then peel as we eat with a second bowl for the shells.

"Horry" wrote
cshenk wrote:

>> southern boiled peanuts

> What are these, Carol?

Serene pretty much tagged it but there are variations. I was always told
(just as she says) they have to be 'raw' peanuts in the shell (meaning not
roasted before hand) but actually I found out that isnt true. Pre roasted,
even pre-roasted salted work fine. The critical thing is they are still in
the shell. They will not work right if deshelled first. You kinda end up
with hot peanut butter soup if they are de-shelled first ;-) Although fun,
it's not the same dish.

Below are 3 MM posts I had on then and you can see a bit of progression as
well as a shift when Don developed a sodium related high blood pressure so I
had to develop a workable recipe (I now add 2 TS salt to that one but it's
not in the post to do it).

Although a perfect one for kids to make, it has the drawback in that it
takes time to develop. I did however do this one for a cooking picnic
(drove 500 miles almost on the dot from here to gab with friends and talk
and make food). In that case, I had a mere 24 hours and ran the crockpot on
high for 12 of it. That first day after 24 hours cooking (12 on high) they
were not bad at all. at 48 hours (all but 12 on low), they were *quite*
good. Best I will admit though is 72 hours or so on low.
MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: Xxcarol's Salt Boiled Peanuts
Categories: Snacks, Xxcarol, Crockpot
Yield: 4 Servings

Peanuts
Salt
Water

Fill crockpot about 1/2 full with peanuts (In shell preferred in my
house) Add water to about 2 inches below top. Salt heavily. (1/4 cup
is not unusual)

Set on low for 12 hours or so.

Please note: This recipe can be made on the stove, but costs an arm
and a leg in electric or gas bills because the heating time isnt
reduced. Energy costs are *much* lower this way. Taste is best if the
peanuts are raw-still in shell, not even roasted (and they are
cheaper to buy that way too!)..

xxcarol From: Carol Shenkenberger Date: 09 Jun 98

MMMMM

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: Xxcarol's Boiled Peanuts
Categories: Xxcarol, Appetizers, Crockpot
Yield: 15 Servings

1 lb Peanuts in shell
1/4 c Salt
1 tb Red Pepper
Water to cover

I love munchies! These are perfect for a salty snack and are very
inexpensive to make. Take a bag of peanuts, still in the shells (raw
or can be roasted already, makes little difference) and fill the
crockpot to 3/4 full. Now, add water to 1 inch below brim (yes dear,
they float and as they cook down, this is the rare recipe you will
add water to!). Now, add 1/4 cup salt. Sounds like alot but you want
very salty water. (Option, you can use seawater like we do in costal
Georgia!). If you like a bit of 'spice' add a hot red pepper powder
of your choice to it.

Set crockpot on low. As it cooks the shells down, you will probably
need to add a little water. This process will take about 3 days til
they are 'just right' (Nutmeat soft and salty-spicey).

Stovetop version- set on lowest setting. Will cost more than crockpot
running and time is not reduced.

Pressure-cooker version- I found the results very disappointing (no
flavor to the peanuts) so dumped them in the crockpot for 3 days. ;-)

From the kitchen of: xxcarol From: Carol Shenkenberger Date: 10-19-00
Cooking

MMMMM

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: Xxcarol's lower sodium peanuts
Categories: Xxcarol, Crockpot
Yield: 4 Servings

4 c Peanuts in the shell, raw
3 tb Datu Puti brand soy sauce
7 ea Cloves garlic
1 ts Red Korean chile powder

This is the first of a growing set with variations on how to make
'salt boiled peanuts' in a crockpot, which are sodium reduced enough
to allow a cup of peanuts in the shell for a day's serving on a
2,000mg sodium diet.

Place 4 cups of raw peanuts, still in shell, in a smallish crockpot
(one that holds 6 cups is perfect). Add the soy sauce and peeled
whole garlic cloves and chile powder to taste. The Soy here is a
brand called 'Datu Puti' and is about 1/2 the sodium of 'Kikkoman
lite'. The 'Korean Chile powder' is hard to obtain in some areas of
the world so to make a substitute, use 1/2 hot-sweet paprika and 1/2
cayenne pepper.

Add enough water to fill and place heavy glass lid on crockpot to
make them stay down. Run on low for 3 days. They will be edible
after 2 days but are much better 3rd day.

Alternative additions: Black fresh ground pepper, 1 TS suggested.

From the Sasebo Japan kitchen of: xxcarol 2SEP2006

MMMMM