Food + Family = Fun
By Fay A. Klingler

Can you smell comfort? Can you hear safety or reassurance? Can unity, joy, or love be tasted? Yes, whenever friends and family gather in healthy conversation, laughter, and sharing something good with each other. Definitely when that shared something is food. Cooking and eating — enjoying wholesome food together — is an integral part of comfort gatherings, whether the gathering is in a tidy kitchen or around a campfire. The aroma of special spices, the sound of ingredients being chopped or swished with stirring, the flavor of that baked-just-right slice of homemade bread can impart never-forgotten feelings of warmth and security.

Busy lifestyles often cheat us of together time, opportunities to relax and learn of each other’s goodness, how we fit in, and who we are. But everyone has to eat. Food sustains life. As a grandmother, I prefer to look at the attributes of food by the many favorable occasions afforded by its preparation and consumption — occasions that provide time for family members to connect, develop relationships, and bond. Having imaginative fun preparing and eating food together can soothe the nerves, link the family, and improve individual health.

Here is one idea from The LDS Grandparents’ Idea Book, p. 104.

We enjoy spontaneous get-togethers. Sometimes, in the summer, we’ll just call everyone on the spur of the moment and everyone who is available will come over to the house to eat watermelon or root beer floats or to have a water balloon fight.

Consider expanding that idea to include making the root beer or the ice cream. Or increase the fun by having a watermelon seed-spitting contest.

The following idea also comes from The LDS Grandparents’ Idea Book, p. 85.

I made some ‘From Grandma’s Bakery’ labels. Occasionally I make cookies or cakes or breads for my grandchildren. I put the food in a paper or plastic bag and put one of my labels on it before I deliver it. The label serves as a loving reminder of where the food came from.

How about picking a holiday to deliver surprise treats, like May Day cupcakes, 4^th of July popcorn balls, or Halloween licorice-leg spiders?

One year, we had a cupcake-decorating contest. I mailed out a basic, white cake recipe. Each of our children’s families made the recipe (into cupcakes) and included their “secret” ingredients. Then they decorated the cupcakes to fit the theme of our party. They brought their creations to our backyard gathering. We invited a neighbor to be the judge and had enough winning categories so every family got a prize. You might have a cookie fest or a candy fest or a pizza fest. Or have the family bring food using a specific ingredient. How many things can you make with corn or flour tortillas?

Decorate your home like a restaurant. Give it a title and put up a sign for the evening’s gathering where the children help you cook and act as the waiters or waitresses to serve their parents a special meal. Let the children choose the menu items and help prepare a printed menu for the guests.

When my grandson Austin was too young to read, I made a menu using pictures. He took the menu to each guest and asked him or her what he or she wanted to eat. Austin marked the menu and brought it into the kitchen, where we put the appropriate food items on the plate for each person. He served the food and later helped me clean up. He even dressed up for the grand occasion!

Another idea is to have a smell-guessing contest. While being blindfolded, can your grandchildren tell what foods are on the tray by just smelling them? The winner might earn a date out alone with you for a hike, movie, or dinner. Or maybe the prize is a new book or stickers.

Many months have special dates to link a gathering. March, for instance, is national noodle month and national peanut month. May is national egg month and national strawberry month. July is hot dog month and September is honey month. That month would be a wonderful time to gather the family to make homemade honey taffy!

Did you know that April 26^th is national pretzel day? (You can find more information at http://homeschooling.about.com) I gathered my grandchildren for a pretzel-making party. They had a lot of fun shaping the dough, cooking, and eating their cheese pretzels.

Here is a recipe you might want to try with your grandchildren. They could shape the dough into pretzels, sticks, or rounds.

Cream the butter until fluffy; beat in the cheese and mustard. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and cayenne pepper. Then add to the butter mixture and stir just until the combined mixture holds together. Be careful not to over mix. Form into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Chill the ball for 30 minutes. Divide into one-tablespoon-size balls; roll each ball into a ten-inch stick-shaped strip. Twist the ends over each strip to form the pretzel. Place the pretzels on parchment paper on baking sheets. Brush the pretzels with egg white; sprinkle with poppy or sesame seeds. Bake in a 375-degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until pretzels are a pale golden color. The recipe makes about two dozen small pretzels.

Carma Sirrine, a Meridian reader, wrote to me about how much fun her family has gathering to eat dinner and making homemade doughnuts. She makes the dough ahead of time, and when their meal is over and the little ones are playing outside, the older grandchildren (age seven and up) roll and cut the dough. They place the cut dough on wax paper to rise again before cooking.

We use a regular bottle lid for cutting the doughnuts and the lid of any small bottle, such as vanilla, for making the holes. Since heating the oil can be a risky business I always take care of cooking the dough. I cook the doughnuts in the oil until they are lightly brown on one side. Then I turn them to cook the other side. It only takes a minute or less to do this. With a large spoon with holes in it, I take the hot doughnuts out of the oil and place them in a metal bowl with paper towels on the bottom to absorb some of the oil. Then the grandchildren whisk the doughnuts to the cabinet, where anxious hands are ready to do the ‘sugar part,’ quickly rolling the doughnuts and holes in granulated sugar or confectioners sugar. Sometimes we add a little cinnamon to the regular sugar.

As soon as the doughnuts and holes have cooled enough to be eaten, the pans are taken outside, where the families are visiting or playing games, and the delicious treats are distributed around. They disappear in such a short time that we wonder if we made them at all!

Here is Carma’s recipe. It makes about 40 doughnuts.

Place the dough in a pan covered with a dishtowel until double in bulk. Place in a warm place for quick rising. Punch down and let rise again. Then roll the dough out on a cloth or plastic or wax paper. The dough should be about 1/3 inch thick. Cut the doughnuts and holes and place on another piece of wax paper. Then let rise until about double in bulk (or a little less as the children are getting anxious).

Heat about an inch of oil in a sturdy metal pan with high sides. Test with one of the holes. The oil is ready when the dough quickly becomes lightly browned. The whole process takes about 2 to 2 and one-half hours.

In conclusion, I’d like to share a brief note from Warren Pugh, regarding last month’s grandparenting article, “Discovering Nature with Your Grandchildren.” Warren wrote,

Few walks with grandchildren are more rewarding than when you teach them to carefully roll rocks over to discover the little critters that live in their own dark, hidden underworld. Centipedes, potato bugs, worms, and small crabs at the beach excitedly scurry around when their privacy is invaded. Replacing the rocks requires the deftness of a jeweler, but what excitement for children and adults alike!

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