Over the holidays, my brother and his family from Hawai’i came to visit with us for a little over a week or so. You may remember a little from this post that I have one older brother, Matthew, who lives in Maryland with a wife, Margaux, and two kids (Anna and Peter) and another older, older brother Sean, who lives in Hawai’i with his wife Lurana, and two twin girls – Ruby and Teia.
Recently I’d been hearing snippets here and there about some kitchen adventures and activities that Lurana had been able to get her kids to participate in – at least with a small degree of success – so I thought I would embrace that as their Christmas gift and see if I couldn’t do something to encourage it.
So we got them some personalized chef’s gear.
They’re still working on the whole idea that the rolling pin is NOT a weapon.
It took a little while to bring some focus to the whole endeavor (I had to compete with the marble rollaway toy pictured in the background of the first two pictures, and if you’ve ever played with one of those you know that is some stiff competition), but once we got going the girls were great.
To try out the new gear, we decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies and a batch of coconut macaroons.
The most common question… can we taste the cookie dough yet?
Anna helped out too, she was just as involved as the others.
| ESTIMATED CALORIC INFO | |
|---|---|
| Serving Size | 1 cookie |
| Calories from Protein | 3% |
| Calories from Fat | 27% |
| Calories from Carbs | 70% |
| Total Calories | 110 |
The coconut macaroons were really awesome but the yield was pretty low (like 10 cookies). I’d suggest at least doubling the recipe to make it even worth making because they will definitely go fast.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 18-20 minutes
Ingredients…
- 1 cup shredded coconut
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 egg white
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees fahrenheit.
2. Separate the egg yolk from the egg white, reserve the yolk and try to find another use for it.
I was pretty impressed here… Teia had no fear of working with the egg and was happy to volunteer to separate out the white.
Okay, next step…
3. Add the egg white and cream of tartar in a medium sized bowl.
4. Beat with an electric mixer (you can do it by hand if you want, too) until the whites are fluffy and peaked. Gradually add the sugar. Almost done…
5. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until the flakes are just turning golden brown. The kitchen will smell fantastic as the coconut toasts.
Me: “So, Ruby, you know now that you have your chef’s hat and apron and cookbook, you can make these cookies at home any time you want.”
Ruby: “What! No, we can’t.”
Me: “Of course you can – you know how to do it now.”
Ruby: “But they won’t ever be good. They won’t be as good as these cookies now.”
Me: “Sure they will, why wouldn’t they be?”
Ruby: “Well … cause… we won’t have an expert there to make them with us.”
<3
