Family Fun Cooking Holidays

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

President's Day is here and with the cold and snowy winter weather, you may be looking for some fun activities for your kids to do if you are stuck inside the house. As I write this, a record forty-nine out of fifty states have at least some snow on the ground, so stuck-in-the-house very well may have been the case for you this weekend. When you get tired of building snowmen and sledding, and don't feel like braving the treacherous roads or crowds to shop the President's Day sales, why not try a fun filled day of cooking?

Right here on CDKitchen, there is a list of Fun Food Holidays. You can find it if you scroll to the bottom right corner of the homepage. Since President's weekend falls at a time when there isn't much to do outside, you can declare it your own family fun cooking holiday. Spend the day indoors trying out new recipes with your kids!

There are also recipes just for President's Day in the fun food holiday section, featuring many of our former presidents' and first ladies' favorite dishes. From Martha Washington's Candies to Ronald Reagan's Hamburger Soup, you could spend the whole day making Presidential specialties.

More currently, you can try some of President Barack Obama's favorites, such as his favorite thing to cook, the Obama family recipe for chili below. It's the perfect thing to spend some time cooking (and eating) on a brisk winter afternoon. Another great Presidential recipe I have tried is Laura Bush's Cowboy Cookies. They are a delicious twist on a chocolate chip cookie featuring a combination of oats, chocolate chips, pecans, and coconuts. They bake up light and crispy and are loved by both kids and adults.

But you don't have to bring politics into the kitchen on President's Day. You can cook up some of your own family specialties or try some new recipes and show your kids a thing or two about cooking in the process. If they are old enough you can even work on some recipes that they can then eventually do on their own.

Just make sure your kids know the rules you have set forth for when they do have unsupervised time in the kitchen, such as no appliance cooking or using sharp utensils without adult supervision. I loved to cook as a kid but wasn't allowed to cook on my own with any heat source other then the microwave until after I was about ten years old. We used to love making finger food snacks like deviled eggs, and open faced sandwiches. Another favorite was a banana smoothie we would make with milk and bananas, and a powdered mix.

Our no-real-cooking rule was put into place because, back in my very early cooking days, my sister and I nearly burnt the kitchen down with a toaster oven fire! I think it was at that point that our parents bought us a cookbook for no-bake cookies. There are many types of no-bake cookies, but the most popular ones would have to be the good old Rice Krispie treat. They are so delicious when made with real butter from scratch, and a great easy recipe to show your little ones this weekend!

Serves/Makes: 6

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped (or to taste)
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound ground turkey or beef
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon ground oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 3 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 can red kidney beans

Serves/Makes: 36

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• 3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 2 cups sweetened flake coconut
• 2 cups chopped pecans