Each December our village has it’s annual Christmas carol night in the hall. It’s an opportunity for the whole community to come together and celebrate the end of the year, and the Christmas season. The night begins with a shared meal. Each family brings along a plate or two of food to share, and we eat together, standing up and chatting, while the kids grab the best bits before disappearing outside to run around.
After dinner, chairs are put out and carol sheets are distributed. Kids and adults grab their guitars and other instruments, and the whole community sings the great old Christmas songs together. When we first arrived at the farm five years ago, we went along to the carols and sat up the back. I wondered if or when we would start to feel like we belonged to the community. Since then both CB and Hannah have joined the musicians, and this year I did too. Perhaps we are starting to settle in.
Meg announced that she and Hannah were going to make mini Christmas puds for the carols this year. So first thing on Saturday morning, they were up and cooking. They based their recipe on this chocolate weet bix slice recipe, only instead, they rolled the mixture into balls and dribbled some white chocolate over the top. On Sunday night, they proudly served up a plate of mini Christmas puds for the community to sample. We didn’t take any home at the end of the night, so I’m calling the recipe a success.
If you’re after an easy Christmas cooking recipe for the kids, this is for you! Primary kids can easily make it without any help, while there is plenty for younger kids to “help” do.
- 9 Weet-bix (crushed)
- 1½ c desiccated coconut
- ¼c cocoa
- 100g choc chips (optional)
- few drops peppermint essence
- 1 x 400g tin condensed milk
- 125g butter
- 100g white chocolate
- A few red and green jelly snakes (or similar)
- Place Weet-bix, coconut, cocoa, and choc chips into a bowl.
- Melt the butter.
- Pour the condensed milk, butter, and peppermint essence into the bowl.
- Work quickly to ensure that all the ingredients combine
- Roll teaspoons of the mixture into little balls and place on a tray lined with baking paper.
- When all the mixture has been rolled, place the tray in the fridge for one hour.
- Chop the red and green jelly snakes into small pieces.
- Break the white chocolate into pieces, and place in a microwave-proof jug.
- Melt the chocolate in the microwave, stirring frequently until it is smooth.
- Use two teaspoons to drizzle a little white chocolate over each little ball.
- While the white chocolate is still melted, place one piece of red jelly lolly, and two pieces of green jelly lolly, on the top.
With the village carols over for another year, I’m thinking about what we want to cook and serve over the Christmas weekend. Meg has informed me that she is going to whip up another batch of her mini Christmas puds for the actual day. Bring it on!
Do your kids like to bake? What are you cooking this Christmas?
I was given a small red plastic folder ffrom my young sister for my 21st. She had pasted and copied many recipes in and I, of course, have added to them over the years. My sons are all good cooks, I taught them from an early age, and there have been discussions as to who would inherit the folder. I went through it, lots are family favourites. Put them into a Word document, and had them bound in other folders. One each. Grandson, who helps his dad cook much of the time, and is very accomplished on BBQ, saw the book when he was ten. He sat down with his dad’s copy, and carefully wenthrough it, reading well. His conclusion? He thought there were a lot there that he could do by himself and they all sounded great, so his repertoire expanded very quickly.
His Anzac biscuits are especially goo, but all types of cooking are done. Pies, cakes, casseroles, even fish, preferably barramundi his favourite.