Young Chefs Galore!

Sam and I went to an open house the other day at the Young Chefs Academy in the West End, which was the highlight of our day!  (And it was a very good day to boot!)  I read about the event  in the December issue of Parenting Magazine and signed us on up pronto -- it sounded too cute to pass up, plus Sam LOVES to cook, especially baking anything!  He and his babysitter Braxton have made both homemade brownies and chocolate chip cookies together.  Special bonus - the pans were all cleaned and even put away when we got home.  She's a keeper, but I will not post her number on the Internet without her permission!

Anyway, they had a bunch of different stations set up, kind of like a scavenger hunt.  Sam's favorite was the one where you play with dough.  He was absolutely entranced by the kid-friendly pizza cutter.  I swear he cut up that dough for a good half an hour, forgetting to eat the gingerbread cookie he had just decorated at the previous station.  (Yes, a thought did run through my mind, that being, "Did I bring the wrong baby home from the hospital?")  The other stations included making Pirates' Holiday Punch and some "I Spy" Holiday Salad.  He was testing the parameter of the kid-version knife, slashing it around like an errant light saber.  Thankfully he did not prove that a kid could still maim himself with a kinder, gentler knife like that.  Oh my!  But the best was yet to come -- the door prize of a Handy Manny Tool Box filled with the recipes we made!  Jackpot!  And to top it all off, we went to the pizzeria next door and got one to go.

Honest to God, ALL Sam talked about the next three days was that snazzy pizza cutter.  So, come Monday morning after dropping him off at preschool, I was on the horn to the Young Chef Academy asking (begging?) to buy one in exchange for just about any sum of money.  I am proud to say that Santa now has possession of one in the North Pole and plans to have it in Sam's stocking on Christmas morning!  Hallelujah!  Dough for everyone -- and pizza, too!

LibbY