Popover Perfection

In the previous post I explained about our fun trip to the library, which event led to the temporary acquisition of this book, which I am very excited about. 

The truth is, I had never heard of this book, I just picked it up randomly off the shelf at the library. But it looked interesting so I gave it a little look-see. I like it because it has recipes in a format created entirely just for kids. Particularly, kids who can't read yet. It also contains a whole page or so on tips for how to involve your children more when you are cooking/baking together. Tips like letting your kid use a ruler to smooth off the top of a measuring cup so they make sure they don't get too much or too little. Genius! I've always wondered how to help them figure out how to do that part. Anyway, we brought it home and today we tried out the popover recipe. 

I've never been able to get a popover recipe to be successful. Should I even begin a paragraph with that information? Well, you should probably know that I don't get many recipes to come out overly successful. In fact, if you must know, I usually despise cooking. It's just not my thing. But I enjoy cooking with the kids so maybe I just liked this book because I thought it could act as a positive segue between my lack of interest in cooking and the kids' enthusiasm for making something-themselves-that is yummy. And the verdict is that it totally worked!  Ha!

Let me chronicle the levels of success for you:

• the popovers popped over--I've never gotten them to do that before, though I have tried many a time
• the popovers were delish--usually they are ok, but these ones were awesome!
• the kids followed the recipe, easily, all by themselves because the recipe is made up of pictures
• the steps are clear and accurate
• really, I mean this, I didn't have to read anything to them. they sat down on the floor with the cookbook between them, looked at the pictures and got to work! how cool is that?! 
• SO, when Daddy came home and I pulled the popovers out of the oven the kids could, in all honesty, say "Daddy!  We made these popovers for you!" And when he looked at me like, "Look at our poor, disillusioned children.  Aren't they cute?" I got to shake my head at him and smile and say, "No really, they really made them all by themselves." 
• The pride that my kids felt was palpable--and THAT was the best success of all :-)