| | Published April 1st, 2009
| Cook It in a Cup First a Book, Now a Summer Camp!
| | By Jill McTaggart |  | | Cook It in a Cup
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My eleven year old daughter, Sophia, has inherited a sweet tooth from both sides of our families. She is ready and willing to bake brownies every day of the week. I tried to get her to expand her repertoire and met with zero success until our friend in Lafayette, Julia Myall, announced she was publishing a cook book for kids. Her cook book is the best selling Cook it in a Cup.
Immediately, I looked it up on-line and ordered several copies for my own kids and the kids I cook with every day, as the Foods teacher, at JM Intermediate School in Moraga.
Cook it in a Cup is ingenious in so many ways. It is a small, brightly colored book formatted with a simple food selection ranging from breakfast in a cup, super sides, and sweet treats. Of course, Sophia gravitated right to the brownie recipe. Now any brownie recipe that is not from a box and calls for unsweetened chocolate squares as well as chocolate chips is right up our alley! They are divine. They are as chewy in the middle and lightly crispy on top as any from a cookbook for grown ups we've ever made.
But the highlight of the book is that it comes with 6 brightly colored silicone cups for the chef/kids to use to bake all the recipes in. These cups can sit on any cookie sheet and go directly in the oven. I love these cups because it is automatic portion control, especially when cooking for our family or a few friends, everyone just gets a cup portion. (Some infighting may arise regarding favorite colors etc, but that is to be expected.) For instance when we bake the sweets we limit ourselves to just the one cup instead of cutting a bigger than needed (although wanted oh so badly wanted) piece of the brownie or lemon bar, or strawberry shortcake.
The Little Pear Pie recipe is perfect for Moragans that live near the pear orchards. The pear orchards at Camino Pablo and Moraga Road are open to the public. And I can think of no better field trip than a walk over to there in mid-summer just as the heavy pears are about to plunk off their stems, and use them for the pies. The recipe calls for frozen puff pastry so that part is doable for cooks of all ages. The cups from the cookbook are turned upside down to make rounds to be used as the pie portion of the pear pies. I told you it was ingenious.
Another fabulous recipe that inverts the cups is the Crispy Potato Nests. Potatoes are thinly grated and mixed with olive oil and garlic, and then heaped on top of the upside down cups. The potatoes are baked and then after they are cooled, set right side up again and become sweet, yummy nests. My students use the inside of the nests to dollop very generous amounts of ketchup.
I have cooked nearly everything in the book and they all worked beautifully and easily. Ben, my nine year old son, is a master of the sinfully simple Nacho Cups. These are a delicious mixture of chips, refried beans, and cheese baked for 10 minutes into a gooey delight. When I am not around, Ben has tried the Nacho Cups in the microwave to a soggier, but still good result.
The cups are dishwasher safe and fairly easy to clean. They do have ribs so you need to use a sponge with an nylon abrasive to clean them. Kids need to be supervised, of course, as cutting and baking is involved.
I am such a fan that Julia and I have teamed up to host the very first Cook it in a Cup Camp this summer at Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School. There will be two different sessions a day. A 8:30-10:30 for chefs 6 years old to 10 years old and a 11:00-2:00pm for more advanced chefs aged 10 and up. Dates are Session 1: June 22-June 26,
Session 2: July 13 - July 17,
Session 3: July 20 - July 25
at JM Intermediate School. Check out the website at Cook it in a Cup.com for details.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA