Hunter’s and Amary’s Saturday Night Menu
Jiffy Dog Casserole
Bourbon and Brown Sugar Baked Beans
Fresh Cantaloupe
Cranberry and Concord Grape Juice
Need:
1 8×10 casserole
1 small Pyrex bowl
4 thick hot pads
2 boxes of Jiffy Corn Bread Mix
1 8-count package of beef hot dogs
1 Medium-sized muskmelon
2 liter bottle of Cranberry and Concord Grape Juice
2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
Small Amount of Shortening
Pre-Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
Willing children who like to help with supper.
With a large cutting board and two bread and butter knives, show young helpers how to slice the hot dogs in bite sized pieces. Set aside. Use fingers to grease the large 8×10 casserole with shortening. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Have some wipes and paper towels handy for clean-up because the shortening is fun but messy. Dab any missed places when your helpers are finished.
In a large mixing bowl, let them add the ingredients for the Jiffy mix: 2 boxes of cornbread mix, 2 eggs, and 2/3 cup of milk, then stir. Let the children add the hot dog bits they set aside earlier to their cornbread mix. Pour it all into the greased 8X10 casserole dish and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.
Clean the cutting board. Slice the muskmelon in half. Give your helpers large spoons and a bowl to put the muskmelon seeds they dig out in. Use your judgement about when they are done, because they’ll dig to China if you let them. Slicing the muskmelon into serving size pieces is an adult activity, so while that’s being done, let the children set the table, and pour the juice.
Hunter used the can open to open the can of baked beans, spoon them into the small Pyrex bowl, and put them in the micro-wave while the casserole finished cooking. They were done when we were ready to serve supper the second time.
This supper didn’t take place without any mishaps. Hunter thought he was turning off the oven light and turned off the oven instead. So at the end of 20 minutes when I went to get the casserole, it wasn’t cooked. We had to re-heat the oven and start over again cooking it. The Cornbread didn’t rise the way it would have if it hadn’t had 20 minutes to go flat, but it did cook to a golden brown anyway.
Meanwhile Amary, who is only 3, had a melt-down waiting on supper to be finished and ate her weight in muskmelon before the casserole every came out of the oven. But that’s part of cooking with kids. We’re going to try it again when the oven is actually pre-heated to 400 degrees F. and ready to cook supper.
However, our supper made a great picture, and we all ate some of everything. It was tasty and we washed it down with juice. t’s all part of learning to cook, and the kids really love the time they spend together doing this.
