If you think kids say the darndest things, check out what they cook:
Chocolate-spinach cookies, chocolate egg filet, Brian`s breakfast blob (a bag of confectioners` sugar and 12 strawberries, over pancakes), hamburger topped with ice cream and peanut butter.
How about an olive-and-ice cream float, ”koogle moogle” (whipped raw egg with sugar and lemon juice), peanut butter-jelly-and-pepperoni pizza, and leftover tea and coffee mixed in the bottom of a Fisher Price drum set?
At least, that`s what they say they cook.
As the entries came rolling in for our kids` Summertime Recipe Contest, the way to a youngster`s heart became clear. Make it snacks, not vegetables. Make it fast-often in the microwave oven. For the fun of it, make edible eyes, nose and a mouth for a face. And use mounds of layered Jell-O, chocolate chips, marshmallows, bananas, tortillas and maraschino cherries, not necessarily together.
For this Food Guide contest, young people ages 7 through 11 were invited to submit a favorite recipe, draw a picture of the finished dish and write a letter about why the recipe is their favorite. The Food Guide staff sifted through 225 entries and, based on the creativity of the letters, the pictures and the recipes, selected six recipes to test.
To help judge the finished dishes, we invited Gary Nelson, 8, of Chicago, and Michelle Havlick, 11, of Willow Springs, to join the Food Guide staff as judges to sample and rate the recipes in The Tribune test kitchen.
Michelle, who had been nibbling her way through the dishes, and Gary, who had caught a loose tooth on a previous preparation, dug into the final entry and gave perfect scores to our 1st-place winner: An ”excellent, awesome, sort-of-nutritious chocolate pizza” submitted by 10-year-old Ben Lawson of Rockford.
Ben`s pizza is a clear winner that starts with a giant chocolate chip cookie crust, followed by successive layers of frozen vanilla yogurt, creamy fudge topping, sliced bananas (that`s the ”pepperoni”) and shaved white chocolate (that`s the ”cheese”).
”Kids who like to cook usually have to convince either their mom or dad that they should let them cook. That usually involves convincing the parents that the recipe isn`t ALL junk food or ALL sugar or ALL bad for you,” Ben wrote in his winning entry.
”Plus, the kid has to convince his mom or dad that the recipe will taste good. That`s why my recipe for `excellent, awesome, sort-of-nutritious chocolate pizza` should win.
”The kid can say `Mom, I want to try this recipe.` When the mom starts to ask `What`s in it?`, the kid just has to say `It has a cookie crust but it has stuff in it like yogurt and bananas.` Then the kid just has to say `And you`ll like it, Mom, because it has chocolate in it.` Guaranteed to work with 9 out of 10 moms.”
If that sounds like a future actor-lawyer-chef, those are exactly the paths that Ben sees for himself.
Ben, who will be in the 6th grade at Washington Elementary School, got to the state level with his school`s chess team. He plays front center or center defense on the local Scorpions soccer team and this summer is taking golf lessons and an advanced chess class and is earning his swimming merit badge at Boy Scout camp. And he had one of the leads-the baker, no less-in his school`s summer play production, ”Into the Woods.”
Gerri Lynne Lascola, 11, of Chicago, snapped up second place with dirt pudding, a mass of chocolate pudding, Cool Whip and cream cheese in a crushed Oreo cookie crust. Gerri got the idea from a recipe in the parents` newsletter at St. Rene`s Catholic School, Chicago, where it was a big hit with the other students when Gerri whipped it up for hobby day.
Brooke Batiste, 9, of Mt. Prospect, won the 3d place award for her rendition of ”Quick Start,” a breakfast drink made with pineapple juice, bananas, vanilla yogurt, strawberries and wheat germ, an idea gleaned from the back of a pineapple can. ”Wild idea,” said judge Michelle. And Brooke had just made it for breakfast the morning we called her with the news.
Honorable mention goes to Erin Linnihan, 9, of Glen Ellyn, for her spinach souffle; Kristin Ann Hilleary, 9, also of Glen Ellyn, for crispy, chocolatey ”friendly spiders”; and Patrick Kelly, 7, of Cicero, for Mickey Mouse pancakes.
From the entries we received, we learned quite a bit about Chicago`s young cooks. Many, including Paul Landahl, 9, of Chicago, are eager computer bugs who not only can write but also illustrate a recipe in intricate dots and dashes on the machines. Boys, as well as girls, are cooking at home. Some, such as Ryan Cusack, 10, of Naperville, are allowed to plan the family meal once a week and are encouraged to make up recipes.
True friends cook together and enter a contest together, as demonstrated by the joint entry from ”best friends” Jamie Slack and Joelle Hanson, both 11, who live just a few street numbers apart in Mokena. Some young cooks are practical: ”Put the cap on the blender” when making frozen fruit juice drinks, advises Mark Hill, 11, of Palatine. Some are hungry for adventure:
”Enjoy while reading a Hardy Boys book,” suggests John Palmer, 9, of Barrington.
Many teachers, like Carol Salemi of Naperville, used the contest for a class assignment:
”I made it part of our creative writing lesson,” said Salemi, who teaches 2d grade at Brookdale Elementary School, Naperville. ”I told them to think about foods that maybe sound yucky together but, if you like them individually, might be good.”
And with this encouragement from Salemi, the food world was introduced-in grown-up, cursive handwriting-to Kara Meyer`s cake that is topped with mashed carrots and red-hot candies, and to Jeremy Albertsen`s ”the red ick,” a mixture of spaghetti sauce, Parmesan cheese, pancakes, frosting and shark bits.
Taste comes in the darndest combinations. –
EXCELLENT, AWESOME, SORT OF NUTRITIOUS CHOCOLATE PIZZA
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 13 to 15 minutes
Freezing time: 2 to 3 hours
Yield: One 14-inch pizza
This 1st-place winner from Ben Lawson, 10, of Rockford earned perfect scores from our two youthful judges. Ben uses Pillsbury cookie dough for the pizza ”crust.”
1 package (20 ounces) chocolate chip cookie dough
1 quart frozen vanilla yogurt, preferably chocolate chip, slightly thawed
1 jar (19 ounces) chocolate fudge topping
2 bananas
1 bar (3 ounces) white chocolate
1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Pat cookie dough to cover a round, 14- by 1/2-inch metal or foil pizza pan. Bake until golden brown, 13 to 15 minutes. Cool completely on wire rack.
2. Scoop frozen yogurt onto crust. Cover with wax paper. Press down with a spatula to flatten yogurt. Try to make an even, flat layer. Keep the wax paper on top, and put crust and yogurt in freezer to harden, about 1 hour.
3. Remove from freezer and remove wax paper. Spread chocolate fudge topping on the yogurt, saving a little topping to drizzle on top later. This is the pizza`s sauce.
4. Peel and slice bananas. Place them on top of the sauce. This is the pizza`s ”pepperoni.” Drizzle remaining chocolate topping over bananas.
5. Use a potato peeler to shave the white chocolate on top of the pizza. This white chocolate looks just like the pizza`s cheese. Cut the pizza in wedges and serve.
