One of the things about cooking that I have most loved from childhood is getting to cook for others. It’s part of the artistry-the making, the packaging (at least sometimes), and the love that pours into the entire process. We’re all big dessert fans around here, for instance, but we’re never happier when we can make dessert and share it with our friends and family. This practice of cooking with generosity has been something that we try to infuse into our classes, and even when the Yummies are struggling with sharing -or turn-taking as Mama Sonia would remind me is more appropriate at this age- our class is clearly built solely around the practice of making a dish together and eating it together.
This week we had the honor of cooking for a family who is undergoing the unimaginable. Kai, a four-year-old, was diagnosed a few weeks ago with a form of leukemia that is incurable unless he finds a bone marrow donor. His little brother, tragically, is not a match, and our entire community has swung into action to help find a match for Kai. If that wasn’t enough for one family, Kai’s daddy had been diagnosed in 2008 with incurable lymphoma. See. The Unimaginable.
After getting swabbed and praying that we were matches for Kai, the Yummy Mummies wanted to do something more for his family. And so, we cooked. The mini-chefs, while still so young, were able to contribute their effort and love to help Kai and his family in this small way.
To find out more about Kai and his story, click here.
Mama’s Meatballs
*2 eggs, room temperature and slightly beaten
*1 small zucchini or summer squash
*1 medium carrot
*1 small-medium red, Vidalia, or other sweet onion
*4 mini-chef handfuls of breadcrumbs or oat flour**
*1/4-1/2 c. parmesan cheese, grated
*2 heaping T. flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
*1 lb. ground pork
*1 lb. ground beef
*salt and pepper to taste
*a bit of canola or grapeseed oil to grease the baking sheet.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. With your mini-chef, line two rimmed baking sheets with aluminum foil or parchment and grease them with a little oil, reminding your mini-chef to get oil onto the entire rectangle of silver foil.
Next, wash the veggies together with a veggie brush. It’s helpful to sing and dance while you’re washing-we think that vegetables enjoy a bit of show while they have their bath. Notice that you must scrub pretty hard to wash the carrots, but your touch with the zucchini should be lighter, so that the skin stays in tact.
Big Person: Now cut the carrots and zucchini into chunks that will either fit through your food processor (if you have one) or that will be a bit easier to grate. Peel the skin off of the onion, chop off the woody top and quarter the onion. Grate everything together into one large bowl (If you have a food processor, grate all the veggies with your grater attachment).
Back Together Again: Now add the eggs, breadcrumbs or oat flour, parmesan, and parsley to the bowl with the veggies and stir well.
Add the meats. The easiest thing to do at this point is to use your hands to mix the meats into the other ingredients. If your mini-chef is very young, though, and still tends to put things in his or her mouth-like say, oh, raw meat- then you can use a large wooden spoon instead.
Once the ingredients are mixed together well, it’s time to shape the meatballs. There are two ways of doing this, each fun in its own way. The first way is the traditional: scoop up a little of the meatball mixture, roll it gently between your hands to form a ball, and place each ball on the prepared baking sheets. The other way, which would be the preferred way for any Yummy who is doing the afore-mentioned putting anything and everything in his or mouth. Use a very small ice cream scoop to scoop up some mixture and drop the balls right onto the baking sheets. Big Person will most likely have to help with the dropping process, but this way does go quickly.
Big Person: Place the meatballs into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes or until nicely browned and cooked all the way through.
***To make oat flour, place raw rolled oats (not quick cooking) into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until powdery.
