Baking

This morning we had great fun baking cookies and cheese straws.

I love baking and cooking. Before kids, I spent loads more time in the kitchen, coming up with new recipes and cooking old favourites. It is one of my hobbies, (alongside reading) that relaxs me and destresses me.
We have hosted many a dinner party, which sounds far grander than it was! (It usually involved spag bol, eaten sat around in the living room with copious amounts of red wine and lovely friends.) But I did enjoy experimenting with new foods and would occasionally surprise my guests with something new and use them as guinea pigs!

Since Megan was born though, I understandably haven't spent as much time as I would like cooking or being creative in the kitchen.

However I do make sure that I take the time to cook and bake with Megan and more recently Ben too.  From an early age we have made cakes and biscuits, just for fun or special occasions, like birthdays.
Both of them love it, the making, the mess and just that special time of baking together.  Megan is even getting very good at the washing up too!

I think its important to teach them about making their own meals and cakes etc.  I was taught how to cook and bake by my mum and those skills have been developed in my own kitchen.  And now it is my turn to pass those skills to my children.  Not only is it cheaper to cook your own food, it can also be healthier. Don't get me wrong, I'm not stood in the kitchen every day cooking from scratch, no chance!  Chicken nuggets, fish fingers and chips play a part in our meal times, just not every day, maybe just once or twice a week. And I don't cook casseroles or fiddly time consuming meals every day either. We might have pasta and sauce one night, (cheap and cheerful and EVERYONE likes it!), rice and something another night, sausage and mash, homemade pizzas, homemade quiche, pastie pie, chilli, casseroles and stews. A great mix of ready to eat food and homemade concoctions.

So today we made cookies, 3 different types, chocolate, smarties and sprinkles. And cheese straws!  It was great fun, lovely and messy, especially the 'rubbing in' part. 

Here are a few pictures from our baking morning.