Don’t you just love it when your food teaches you something? Or is that just me? Anyway, please welcome Catherine, today’s guest blogger, who is sharing a tasty, and educational, kid-friendly recipe.
My name is Catherine, and I’m beyond thrilled to be guest posting for you today here at Alli-n-Son! I’m a stay-at-home mom of the cutest Munchkin you ever saw, and our family is moving from the New York City area to Florida as we speak. I blog recipes, a few easy crafts, and my adventures in mommydom over at Make Myself at Home.
One of my main goals is to get The Munchkin in the kitchen as much as possible, so today I thought I’d share with you a fun activity you can do with your own “kitchen helpers.”
The 24th of July was Pioneer Day, a state holiday in Utah that honors the day in 1847 that the Mormon pioneers first entered the Salt Lake Valley. I come from strong pioneer stock & wanted to find a fun way to share our heritage with The Munchkin, so I came up with these fun edible covered wagons.
Even if you don’t have ancestors who crossed the Plains, the pioneers’ contributions to our nation’s history are significant to everyone. Besides, who didn’t grow up playing Oregon Trail in their school’s computer lab? Here’s what you need to share this bit of history with your kids.
For Each Cover Wagon:
- approx. 1 ½ graham cracker sheets
- 2 pretzel sticks
- melted chocolate (below)
- 4 Keebler Fudge Shoppe Mini Fudge Stripes cookies
- frosting (below)
- 2 Barnums Animal Cookies
- 2 marshmallows
- 1 Teddy Graham
- 1 Twizzlers Pull-n-Peel String
One thing I’ve learned through lots of trial and error (and even more messes) is that, when you have kids — especially young ones — helping you in the kitchen, prep work is your friend. So before you invite your child to come help you:
- Set aside one of your graham cracker sheets. Break the remaining one into quarters. Save one of those quarters. Take two more and cut them in half lengthwise with a very sharp, not serrated knife (follow the dots!). Set aside two of those, then take one and cut it in half widthwise with the same knife. You should have a quarter, two eighths, and a sixteenth:
- Use your knife to trim your pretzel sticks to less than a half inch longer on each side than the width of your quartered graham cracker.
- Melt about ½ cup (or less, depending on how many of these you plan to make) of chocolate chips with just a touch of oil in a small bowl in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir until it’s smooth. Then spoon it into a piping bag or small Ziploc bag with a corner cut off.
- Place some wax paper on a small flat surface (I used the inside of a large, shallow Snap-Lock container). Take the cookies you’ll be using and place them face-down on the wax paper (the solid chocolate side should be facing you). Rotate the tip of your knife in the center circle to scrape out the excess chocolate and widen the hole.
- Squeeze some chocolate into the holes of half of the cookies, then place the end of a pretzel stick into the chocolate so that it stands up.
- Once you’ve assembled all of them, stick the whole container in the freezer to set up.
- Now make your frosting. I whipped a ½ stick of softened butter, then beat in 1 cup powdered sugar, ¼ tsp. clear vanilla, a heaping teaspoon of meringue powder, and just enough half-and-half to make it a spreadable consistency. You can use the premade kind too; just make sure that you mix in meringue powder so that it sets and holds everything together. Scoop the frosting into another piping bag or Ziploc bag with a corner snipped off.
- Pull your container of half-axles out of the freezer. Place the rest of your cookies face-down on the paper, then squeeze the chocolate into the holes & very carefully place the other end of your pretzel sticks into the hole to make a whole axle. Put them back in the freezer until you’re ready for them.
- Okay. Now you can invite the kids to come help.
- Pull out some of your animal crackers. Some face left and some face right. Let your child choose one of each. This way the detail on both cookies can face out when they’re “harnessed” to the wagon. Admittedly, giraffes, camels, and lions aren’t the most historically accurate…
- Grab your full graham cracker sheet and two axles. Pipe some frosting to the bottom of each wheel of your axle, then stick it to one end of the sheet. Do the same thing with the other axle, positioning it a little over an inch in front of the first one. Pipe a line of frosting across the top of the pretzel sticks and lay your quarter graham cracker on top.
- Create “walls” on the back and sides of your wagon with your eighth and sixteenth graham cracker. Pipe a line of frosting on the bottom of each one, as well as the corners where they meet. Bet you never thought you’d get to use your mad Gingerbread House skills in the middle of July!
- Pipe a little frosting on the “feet” of your animal crackers, then stand them up at the front of your graham cracker sheet.
- Now take your marshmallows and stick them together end to end with a dot of frosting. Pipe the tops of your “walls” and stick the marshmallows on top.
- Put a big glob of frosting on the front of the wagon in front of the marshmallows. Stand the Teddy Graham on top of the glob so he’s “driving.”
- You’re almost done! Now just put dots of frosting on the tops of the wagon walls near the Teddy’s hands, and very carefully add a dot of frosting to the outside of each animal. Carefully loop your Twizzlers string around to make reins (you’ll need to trim off about 1.5 inches with your thumbnail) with an end in each one of Teddy’s hands. Ta da!
I hope that you enjoyed playing in the kitchen with your kids today! Thanks so much to Allison for letting me share this fun activity with you. I hope to see you over at Make Myself at Home soon!
Did you know that you can save my recipes in your very own recipe box, courtesy of ZipList? Just click on the link above, under "recipes" to get started. Want to learn more? Hop on over to read about this awesome new feature.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh my gosh! How cute is that!! What a great snack to make in the kitchen with kids!
these are too cute! i am 4th grade teacher and teach california history. when we teach westward movement we make wagons out of milk cartons but i am guessing the kids would LOVE to make something edible instead! might have to give this a try this year! thanks!
What a great idea Erin! Sounds like this would be perfect for your school kids.
I LOVE this!! I laughed so much when I saw it, how adorable!!
I just about rolled off my chair from CUTENESS SHOCK…here from Tidy Mom…I am lovin THIS! Great job.
I’m so glad you stopped by Trisha. They are just adorable aren’t they?
Beyond adorable! I must make some with my munchkins! Thanks so much for the detailed tutorial.
Your little helper is a little Doll Baby. Those wagons are the cutest little treats they are just precious. I am passing this along to family and friends. Thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday and hope to see you again real soon! Hope you are having a great week end.
Miz Helen
I’m sure that Catherine is thrilled that you are passing alone her recipe. She did such a great job, didn’t she?
Fun project, my Grand kiddos would love to build these!
Yum, that looks like a yummy way to learn.
Those are absolutely ADORABLE and what a fun and tasty way to teach a lesson!
This is so cute…I used to love to make things like this when my kids were younger!
Thanks to everyone for the kind comments! We had the best time together making (& eating!) these!
@Miz Helen, yes, my kitchen helper is a doll. We love her.
Thanks again to Allison for letting me post!