Kids in the Kitchen

Yesterday I asked the girls to help me decide the menu for supper. They sat and flipped through the New Junior Cookbook from Better Homes and Gardens. Their decision was Chicken Fajitas and Gimme S'more (Please) Dessert.


They really didn't care about the entree. In fact, they let me do all of the work for the actual meal. They were only interested in dessert. It isn't easy for me to let them help in the kitchen, but I took a deep breath and we had a lot of fun. My middle child had a blast crushing the graham crackers with a meat mallet.



My youngest wasn't a lot of help, but she managed to sneak a few chocolate chips and marshmallows.


My oldest was the most help. She read the recipe, helped measure out ingredients and made sure everyone got an equal amount of tasks in the preparation.

The result: Thumbs up from everyone except the youngest. She just wanted more plain marshmallows and chocolate chips.



Here is the recipe for dessert, it was really easy to make and it tasted really good.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup butter
18 graham cracker squares
1/3 cup sugar
1 12 oz jar fudge ice cream topping
2 cups tiny marshmallows
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 6 oz serving size pkg instant chocolate pudding mix
1 8 oz container frozen whipped dessert topping, thawed
1/4 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chip pieces
8X8X2 inch baking pan (just a note. . .we used a 9X13 pan, we missed that direction, oops)

1. Put butter in a microwave-safe bowl. Cover bowl with waxed paper. Place in microwave and cook 40 seconds or until melted. Cover with waxed paper before starting the microwave.
2. Put graham crackers in a plastic bag and crush into fine crumbs. Pour into baking pan. Add the sugar and melted butter. Stir with a wooden spoon until mixed. (Save out 1/3 of mixture to crumble on top) Put into freezer for 10 minutes.
3. Remove lid from fudge topping. Microwave 45 seconds (we found this wasn't quite enough to have it really easy to pour. Pour over cooled crust. Sprinkle with 1 cup of marshmallows.
4. Pour milk into the large mixing bowl. Add pudding mix. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Use a rubber scraper to gently stir in half of the whipped topping. (save the rest for a future use). Pour onto marshmallows. Spread evenly on pan.
5. Sprinkle with remaining marshmallows, the saved cracker mixture and the chocolate chips. Cover with foil and freeze for at least 1 hour.