Gifts of Food
Regina Murphy
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
This is the season for giving. It’s really easy to put together some friendly gifts to take to people you know, and maybe even people you don’t!
These are things I discovered at the fair this fall that anyone can do and are especially kid-friendly. These no-cook snack mixes can be scooped into clear jars and the lids decorated with a round of fabric and a ribbon or two to make a very nice, personal, tasty present.
Jessica Klumpe is an 8-year-old student at Olpe Elementary. She is a member of the “Busy Beavers” 4-H club, and this was her second year competing in the fair. She had entries in beef, crafts, horses and food.
Jessica won a blue ribbon last year for her no-bake cookies (“my most favorite cookie ever!” she says), and a blue ribbon this year for her snack mix. It was presented in a glass pint jar and the lid was decorated with green and white material imprinted with the 4-H cloverleaf.
Jessica really likes cooking. She and her mom Cindy looked through several cookbooks for a good snack mix, found one Jessica liked and then changed it to fit her tastes. She added chocolate chip Teddy Grahams and pretzels! Jessica says, “I really love to cook cookies and brownies with my mom!”
JESSICA’S KIDDY CRUNCH
1 cup chocolate coated candies
1 cup peanuts, salted or plain
1 cup chocolate covered raisins
1 cup Teddy Grahams
1 cup pretzels
Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Store in an airtight container. Makes 10 servings.
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Raegen Root came back to The Gazette with her award-winning snack mix. She’s the one who shared a Halloween recipe in October. She came up with the name because she’s a pretty busy girl! Between 4-H, Brownies, gymnastics and I don’t know what else it’s amazing that she has time to cook.
Raegen said she’d been looking through all kinds of cookbooks and didn’t see a snack mix that met her needs, so she came up with this one all on her own. She had learned about snack mixes at a recent 4-H meeting. This snack mix is brightly colored with fruit jellies, Cheez-Its and M&M’s providing a lot of color. You can use whatever flavor Cheerios you like (multigrain!) and some of the Jelly Belly fruit snacks are made with real fruit juice and extra vitamin C.
Raegen’s mom, Rolanda, helped dress up the jars with very pretty yellow fabric imprinted with little bumblebees draped over the lid and wrapped in a black ribbon. They hauled an entire box of these treats up to family in Iowa for Thanksgiving!
RAEGEN’S “BEE”-ZY
GIRL MIX
1 cup animal crackers
1/3 cup M&M’s
1/3 cup mini-marshmallows
2/3 cup Cheez-It crackers
1 cup pretzels
1/3 cup raisins
1 cup Cheerios
1/3 cup fruit snacks
Toss everything together in a bowl and seal in an airtight container.
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David Fowler is 9 years old and he attends classes at William Allen White Elementary. His grandparents, Tom and Ruth Fowler, helped him design a snack mix for this year’s fair, which won a purple ribbon. David likes baseball, soccer, piano and violin. He also sings in the youth choir at First Presbyterian church. He is a member of Logan Avenue 4-H
DAVID’S ANIMAL
FUN MIX
2 cups Cheerios
2 cups Honey Nut Cheerios
1 1/2 cups animal crackers
1 1/2 cups pretzel twists
1 1/2 cups cheese snack crackers (David used Goldfish)
1 (5.5 oz) pkg. any variety fruit snacks
1/2 cup each, plain M&M’s, peanut M&M’s, peanuts,
cranberry-raisins, and grape-raisins
Mix it all up and store in an airtight container.
The mixture of animal crackers and goldfish crackers make this a lot of fun!
Congratulations to all these kids for their wonderful ideas and willingness to share with us! Next week we’ll have even more easy food gift ideas. Let’s get cooking!