Cooking with the grandchildren
We were babysitting one of our grandchildren families - two girls and a boy - on Sunday and in the evening we were taking them home and sharing dinner with them. So I thought we would make some sausage rolls - and an apple crumble - as our contribution. Initially I was going to do it all, and then I thought why not with the kids? And then I also thought they could each make their own batch with their own fillings.
Fortunately I have lots of bowls and utensils and lots of trays to put them on in the oven, plus plenty of space so everybody could happily do their own thing. Above are the finished results and let me say they were all delicious and all very different.
Of course the base meat was the same for all of them - a pork and beef mince in this instance, from the supermarket. But then it was up to them. I just told them all the kinds of things they could put in and off they went.
Abby went for parsley for her herb, lots of garlic, carrots and onion (they all had a bit of carrot and onion), and I can't quite remember what else - little bit of lemon juice I think. Zoe was basically a rosemary and lemon girl and Max and I decided on fennel - seeds and herb. Max had a lot of fun bashing the fennel seeds in the pestle and mortar and mixing it all together. Oh and we had a bit of parsley too.
And then they had to cut the pastry sheets in two, put the mixture on the edge, roll it up - like sushi they said - which shows what accomplished little cooks they are - and cut them into pieces, before making some air holes. Max had huge fun making little holes in the pastry. There were lots. So into the oven with them (click on the pictures to see the whole thing):
Which is where nanma stuffed up a little. I thought I was setting the timer, but later discovered that actually I had been turning up the heat, so for most of their cooking time they were cooking at a much higher temperature than they were supposed to, which actually didn't seem to matter, indeed may well have made them more crunchy and deliciously brown looking. There are the finished articles at the top, complete with little labels they had made.
So prior to dinner they were proudly handed around and we all compared them, with all of us commenting on how different each one was. I don't think there were any left.
The girls and I went on to make the apple crumble - Zoe did the crumble whilst Abby and I did the apples (and blueberries). Max, by this time, had lost interest. Well he is only four.
It was a lovely experience and I think they all enjoyed thinking about what they could put in it. Oh - another slight mishap - Abby was going to sprinkle cheese on her pastry before rolling it up and I was going to put cheese in my mix, but we totally forgot the cheese. So we sprinkled a little bit of parmesan on top instead.
Must do the same kind of thing another time. Maybe next weekend when we have the boys as well.
