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I recently did a Recipe Roundup: Fun Breakfast Ideas for Kids for the FoodieView blog. Not only does it feature recipes that kids will love to cook up and eat, but they’ll appeal to all those adults who are big kids at heart. And who’s the biggest kid of them all but dad?

This Father’s Day, I hope your family will be getting together in the kitchen to cook up a breakfast made for a king. (We’re going out for dim sum, which will probably involve going to the Asian market afterwards to buy a lobster for dinner. More on this next week.)

Make Dad Some Fancy Pancakes

One great idea I missed for the Recipe Roundup was sent to me by Kendra of the My Insanity blog. She and her kids made a special School’s Out for Summer Breakfast where they put pancake batter in squeeze bottles to make pancake.Basically you use the squeeze bottle to make pancake shape outlines, let them cook for a little bit, then fill in the shapes. Here’s a picture of Kendra’s son, Trenton, and his spaceship pancakes.

You can have fun making pancakes like these for dad. If he’s a sports fan make pancakes the shapes of footballs, hockey sticks, or baseball bats. If he likes to fish, make him some fish- shaped pancakes, fishing poles, and a few hooks and worms. If I was making these for my husband, I’d make a motorcycle-shaped one!

(Kendra’s post also contains a recipe for an Orange Julius, too. Yum!)

Spend Father’s Day with Little Bear, His Dad and some good books

One of the most endearing father-son pairs in children’s books is Maurice Sendak’s Little Bear and his dad, Father Bear. Why not get a few Little Bear books for dad to read to the kids before nap or bed time? Two good choices are Father Bear’s Special Day and Father Bear Comes Home. Both are terrific books for toddlers up to children age 8.

Don’t you think Little Bear would like some honey on his pancakes? I bet your family’s “papa bear” would like some, too!

For more Father’s Day book ideas check out:

• Pig Pile Elvis Style, Lemon Bars, and Father’s Day
• Father’s Day books celebrate dads of all kinds
• Father’s Day books from Daddy Dialectic

Even if you’re not Irish, it’s fun to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day with your family. Here are some ideas:

• You can read some Irish folk and fairy tales. 
• You can learn more about the a history of the holiday by downloading St. Patrick’s Day: Not just for the Irish. (Includes traditional recipes, too.)
• You can march in your local St. Patrick’s Day parade. (One of the healthy tips I give for Staying lean and green this St. Patrick’s Day at my blog, This Mama Cooks! On a Diet.)
• You can download a St. Patrick’s Day Coloring Book and draw. (Make sure you have plenty of green crayons on hand.)
• And of course, you can cook!

Many kids might balk at eating corn beef and cabbage, so why not try an Irish breakfast pudding?

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If you’re stuck for last minute ideas, hit your local bookstore for some books, videos and CDs. Online retailers like Amazon can help get gifts quickly to out-of-state friends and relatives. (Thank goodness for overnight shipping.) And videos - easily available at your local supermarket or video store - are great holiday gifts for the whole family. You could even download some music at Amazon or iTunes and burn a CD or pre-load it on an MP3 player.

I have a lot of items to recommend, so I’m breaking it up into three posts. This one will cover the whole family, and Christmas and Hanukkah books. My next posts will cover great gift books for middle schoolers and teens. The final holiday gift post will be book recommendations for young children.

For the Whole Family

Books - The Poets’ Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family - Compiled by John Lithgow, the wide variety of carefully selected poems in this book provides the perfect introduction to appeal to readers new to poetry, and for poetry lovers to experience beloved verses in a fresh, vivid way. The book comes with a bonus MP3 CD of revelatory poetry readings by John and the familiar voices of such notable performers such as Kathy Bates, Glenn Close, Gary Sinise, and Sam Waterston. You’ll enjoy reciting or listening to these poems with the entire family.

Cookbooks - Cooking is a great way to get the whole family together and involved in something fun. I’ve updated my right sidebar with some of the best family cookbooks out there. The Usborne Books items may be difficult to get through Amazon. Instead, order directly through the company’s website. Bon appetit!

Music - For The Kids Three is a MP3 music download available on Amazon.com. From Nettwerk Music Group it’s a unique collection of contemporary and original children’s songs performed by everyone from the Barenaked Ladies to Moby. Wow, kids music that won’t drive you crazy! A portion of the proceeds will benefit the VH1 Save the Music Foundation.

Video - One family-friendly movie to rent or buy is Arctic Tale. Rated G and set in the vast snow kingdom at the top of the world, Arctic Tale is a real life adventure from the people who brought you March Of The Penguins. Join narrator Queen Latifah as she follows two very different arctic creatures, Nanu, the polar bear cub and Seela, the walrus pup, through their struggles for survival.

For teens and adults there’s My So-Called Life - The Complete Series (with book). This short lived, realistic mid-nineties teen drama series starred Claire Danes. The show took a look at a 15-year-old girl and her trials and tribulations with being a teenager and dealing with friends, guys, parents and school.

Need some other movie ideas? Check out the following reviews on my blog, A Mama’s Rant:

• High School Musical 2
• Mr. Bean’s Holiday
• Meet the Robinsons
• The Jungle Book
• Disney Princess Enchanted Tales

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I got this recipe from Tears’n'Tantrums and I had to share. I’ll be using this for the holiday bake sale at my children’s school. The nice thing about fudge is that it’s hard to screw up, though I’ve managed to do so with the pumpkin pie fudge I made at Thanksgiving. This recipe is much better - lots more detail about how long to boil it, etc.

The nice thing about fudge is that it keeps and travels well. And if you leave the nuts out of it, almost anyone can eat it.

Eggnog Fudge

Ingredients:

1. 1/8 cup butter, chilled
2. 3 cups sugar
3. 1 cup eggnog
4. 6 ounces white chocolate chips
5. 1 1/2 cup mini-marshmallows
6. 1 cup almonds, chopped (or other nut)
7. 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
8. 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Line a 9 x 9-inch cake pan with aluminum foil and set aside.
2. Spray the sides of a large saucepan with butter-flavor non-stick spray.
3. Add the eggnog and sugar, and bring to a rolling boil over medium to medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Boil for two full minutes.
4. Fold in the marshmallows, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Bring back to a rolling boil for another 6 minutes, stirring constantly.
5. The mixture will start to turn brown, which is normal, but if you see brown flakes in the mixture then turn down the heat a little.
6. Remove from heat and add the butter, chips, and nuts. Stir until thoroughly mixed or until the mixture starts to lose its glossy appearance. Pour into prepared pan.
7. Cool at room temperature. Remove from pan, remove foil, cut into 1-inch squares.

While you’re waiting for the fudge to cool, stop by my Win a Holiday Gift Basket of Children’s Books contest. You have until December 12 at midnight to enter!

Did you know that surveys show that more than half of parents are unaware of the television rating system currently in effect, and only 16% are aware of the V-Chip in their TVs and what it can do?

In reality, the provisions of the 1990 Children’s Television Act are little known and mostly not enforced. Bottom line is that TV and cable networks are not held accountable to what is considered the minimum standard of “educational/informational” programming. 

The Smart Television Alliance believes that parents and other caregivers can make more informed choices about what and when children watch if they are provided easily accessible tools and information. 

Instead of focusing on the negative, the Smart Television Alliance promotes good programs - everything from MythBusters to The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron. They intend to grow the audience for these quality shows, and convince the networks that there is indeed a market for high quality children and family programming. 

They’re also partnering with the National Council of Women’s Organizations, the National PTA, the National Education Association, the Parent’s Choice Foundation, and 10 other non-profits all who have signed on as founding organizations. 

Check out their website at www.smarttelevisionalliance.org and sign up for the twice monthly SmartNewsletters with recommendations for quality children’s programming. And if you’ve been thinking about signing up with TiVo, check out their sponsor offer. For a limited time, TiVo will give you a free DVR (with a minimum one year subscription plan) and give a nonprofit member of the Smart Television Alliance a $25 donation!

And how about munching on some Thanksgiving popcorn balls while you’re watching TV?

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