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There’s a poetry month? You bet. And what better way to celebrate it than online with the RIF (Reading Is Fundamental) folks!

Kids can also look at artwork to help inspire them to write poetry. There are also booklists and a list of the top 40 poems for kids. There’s also the Poetry Splatter game, sorta like a cross between a Mad Libs and throwing paint. I tried out the Are You a Good Chef? one for ages 6-8, and this is what I got:

When you cook spaghetti do you make a tasty sauce?
Do you prepare a salad with fresh veggies that you toss?
When folks eat your food, do they laugh with glee?
Then perhaps a chef is what you should be.

O.K. so I’m a waaaay better blogger than a poet, but you get the idea.

Now I have a confession to make - I really don’t like poetry. Well, I didn’t care for what my English teachers assigned us to read. But when I read children’s poetry out loud to Nathan and Lucie, I suprised how much fun it is. Two of our favorite poetry books come from Usborne Books:

• Poems for Little Children - For ages four and up, the illustrations are as delicious as the words.
• Poems for Young Children - For ages seven and up, this book is full This hilarious limericks, enchanting nature poems and fun nonsense verses.

And finally a food recipe poem from Sydney Smith (1771–1845). I really do think you can make the salad dressing from this poem.

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Easter has snuck up on us, and I’m trying to figure out when we’ll have time to decorate our eggs. Since my husband has a business dinner on Friday, I’ve invited a long time buddy of Nathan’s to come over with his mom and color eggs. It may be a recipe for disaster - two hyper first graders and a moody preschooler - but at least we’ll get it done.

I love hard boiled eggs, and so does Nathan. But with Lucie’s egg allergies and me trying to loose some weight, we’re limited to the number of “egg imbibers” in the household. There’s the usual egg salad sandwiches and deviled eggs. There’s my husband’s favorite recipe, too - mash up eggs with fork, put lots of butter, salt and pepper on top, heat in the microwave.

But what else can we do with all those eggs that are kid friendly? (For some grown up uses for hard boiled eggs - we’re talking pate here folks - check out About.com’s hard-boiled egg recipe list and Top 10 Ways to Use Up Hard-Boiled Eggs.) How about this fun idea?

Hard-Boiled Egg Mice from FamilyFun.com
Makes 2 mice.

With chive tails, radish ears, and olive eyes, hard-boiled eggs get transformed into whimsical critters (that like to be served wedges of cheese and some salt and pepper, please).

Ingredients:

1. 1 Egg
2. 1 Black olive
3. 1 Radish
4. 2 Fresh chives
5. 1 Tiny Swiss cheese wedge

Directions:

1. Place the egg in a small saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for 1 minute, then turn off the heat. Cover the saucepan and let the egg sit in the hot water for 12 minutes.
2. Once the time is up, run the egg under cold water to cool. Then ask your child to roll the egg on all sides to crack the shell. Peel under running water.
3. Slice the egg in half lengthwise. Place the halves yolk side down on a plate. (Alternatively, you can slice off a bit of the bottom of a peeled, hard-boiled egg so it can sit flat on a plate.) Slice tiny black olive “eyes” and radish “ears.” Then make small slits in the egg halves for the eyes and ears and push in the olives and radishes. Add chive tails.
4. Serve the pair of egg mice with a wedge of Swiss cheese for a playful lunch.

Food & Wine magazine is holding a cooking contest for kids. In their August issue, they’ll profile some of the most talented young cooks in the U.S. and tell their readers about the recipes these kids love to make.

If you’re the parent of a child age 6-16 who’s a whiz in the kitchen and whose dream is to become the next Emeril Lagasse or Giada De Laurentiis, Food & Wine wants to know about him or her! Please tell us about your kid cook and send us his or her favorite recipe - it can be an original dish, a family recipe or a recipe from TV, a cookbook or another source.

Two Grand Prize Winners will each receive a selection of cooking tools (average retail value of each prize is $170). Two runners-up each get a $50 American Express Gift Card. For complete official rules, visit foodandwine.com.

Details and Paperwork

To learn more about The Ultimate Kid Cook Contest (the "Contest") download the Contest entry form and fax it to 212/764-2177 or mail it to: Food & Wine Ultimate Kid Cook Contest, 1120 Avenue of the Americas, 9th Floor, New York, NY 10036. Food & Wine will pick the winners by April 23, 2007 and reprint their favorite recipes in the August issue.*

Download the Contest entry form. (You’ll need Adobe Reader to view the PDF.)

* No purchase necessary to enter or win. Entrants (parents of the kid cooks) must be legal U.S. residents 18 years or older. All mailed entries must be postmarked by April 14, 2007 and received by April 20, 2007. All faxed entries must be received by April 14, 2007.

Matzoh (also called matzo, matzah, or matza) is the traditional substitute for bread during Passover. According to the Torah, when the children of Israel were leaving ancient Egypt, they had no time to wait until their bread rose. So they baked it before it had a chance to rise, and the result was matzoh. For Passover, the ingredients for matzoh are limited to flour and water only.

Needless to say, it’s a bit tasteless, so there’s a big need to diguise or dress it up. One way to do that is to make it into a candy.

Matzoh-Almond Bark from Diana’s Desserts
Makes 12 servings

Ingredients:

1. 5 to 6 pieces plain matzos
2. 1 cup unsalted butter
3. 1 cup granulated or brown sugar
4. 12 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
5. 1/2 cup slivered almonds, crushed (walnuts or pecans may be substituted for the almonds if desired)

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 C). Line a cookie sheet or jellyroll pan with aluminum foil topped with parchment paper and lay the matzo in a single layer so that it completely covers the bottom of the pan.
2. In a saucepan, melt the butter and sugar over low heat. Raise the heat and boil the mixture for 3 minutes.
3. Pour the butter and sugar mixture over the matzo and spread it with the back of a spoon. Place the matzo in the oven for 5 minutes.
4. Remove pan from the oven and immediately pour the chocolate chips over the matzo.
5. Return the pan to the oven for 30 seconds to melt the chocolate. Remove the pan from the oven and smooth the chocolate evenly over the matzo with a spatula.
6. Sprinkle the crushed almonds (or crushed walnuts or pecans) over the top. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight. Break into pieces and serve. Matzo Bark keeps for about 1 week covered in the refrigerator.

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