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The summer, which seemed to be crawling along, has sped up its pace now that I realized school is starting in a week. So I better post those berry recipes and children’s cooking activities I promised you!

I found out from our resident gardener (my husband) that we have some raspberry and blackberry bushes that ripen early in the summer, and other  bushes that ripen later on. No wonder we seem to have pints and pints of berries all summer long. Lucky us!

A couple of weekends ago, daddy was golfing, so I had Nathan and Lucie out picking berries in the morning when it was still cool. I love my children, but they can be very lazy. They kept telling me that they were tired, hot and hungry and couldn’t find any more berries to pick. (The trick is that you have to lift the branches to get to the berries in the back.)

I figured out a solution. I wore a garden glove on my left hand to push up the branches. (Berry bushes have thorns.) Then I picked berries with my right hand and dropped them into a collender that Nathan was holding. Lucie was in charge of swatting away all the mosquitos that were trying to bite me through my clothes, and running around the yard screaming, “Oh my god, mommy, a wasp!”

Using this sure fire method, “we” picked enough berries to make berry cobbler to a friend’s home for dinner with enough left over (and then some) for berry pancakes.

Berry Pancakes

1. Make pancakes according to your favorite recipe. I use Krusteaz pancake mix that I buy in the large bag at Costco – it’s delicious and convenient. I like to make the batter using equal parts mix and milk – it’s more runny that way. However, Krusteaz mix does contain eggs, but it’s the last ingredient on the package. Lucie’s egg allergy hasn’t been that bad lately and she doesn’t seem to have problems eating baked goods with small amounts of eggs.
2. We have a non-stick double burner griddle always on the stove, so making pancakes is super easy. I turn on the burners to medium. When it’s hot enough, I melt a little butter on the griddle then spoon the pancake batter on to the griddle.
3. After letting the pancakes cook for 30 seconds (the batter must be gooey on stop) I sprinkle the berries over the pancakes. I’ve found that if you mix the berries into the batter, the batter turns pink or purple and your berries turn into mush.
4. I let the pancakes cook another 30 seconds or so. Then I spoon a thin layer of batter on top. That way when you cook the pancakes, the juicy, warm berries are in the middle. If you don’t, when you flip the pancake, the berries are cooking directly on the griddle, bubbling away and getting messy.
5. When the batter on top sets, I flip the pancakes and cook until they’re golden brown.
6. We like to serve pancakes with a smidgen of butter and real maple syrup.

KITCHEN TIP: Cut pancakes with large pizza wheel cutter. It’s so much easier than sawing away with a butter knife. You get cleaner edges, and the kids find it amusing that you’re cutting pancakes with a pizza tool. That funny mommy!

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In My Backyard by Valarie Giogas and illustrated by Katherine Zecca is a wonderful counting and rhyming book for ages four to eight. Familiar wild backyard animals from foxes to squirrels are featured. If your child is like my daughter Lucie, baby animals are the coolest thing around. So I liked how each animal is shown by baby as well as family group name.

Each stanza gives readers information on the animals including including what they eat, where they live, or what kind of noise they make. So not only are you getting an entertaining story, but your children are learning about wildlife that’s all around us.

As with all Sylvan Dell Publishing children’s books, there’s also a “For Creative Minds” section. It includes animal facts, how to watch for signs of wildlife, and what to do if you find an injured animal.

So what kind of animals are in your backyard?

We have our neighborhood cat, the occasional rattlesnake under the deck, birds, and a zillion grasshoppers, flies, and mosquitos. Nearby we have foxes, prairie dogs, and frogs in the pond at the golf course. Some folks even have toads living in their window wells. Our neighbors had a garter snake living in theirs.

We also have lots of wasps that we have to watch out for when we pick blackberries. The challenging thing about berries is that you have to part the bushes, which are full of thorns, to get at all the berries. But we managed to pick enough to make a blackberry cobbler.

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Almost four years ago, a two-year-old Nathan and I flew out to Washington D.C. to attend my sister Michele’s baby shower. Even though I felt like hell because I was pregnant with Lucie - and flying with a toddler is another sort of hell - I had to go!

One of my fondest memories of the trip - besides seeing my mom and my sister pregnant-out-to-there with my nephew Oliver - was the rhubarb cobbler served at the shower. Being pregnant, I never knew what reaction I’d have to food. But this cobbler! It was heavenly - sweet, warm, comforting, and delicious. I ate five servings, as did one of my sister’s pregnant friends. (Note to Michele - please have Amy email me the recipe.)

So when I saw rhubarb prominently displayed at the store next to the strawberries last week, the memories - and a jonesing for rhubarb - prompted me to find something similar. I quickly consulted The Family Kitchen : Easy and Delicious Recipes for Parents and Kids to Make and Enjoy Together for some kid-friendly recipes.

Author Debra Ponzek is the chef and owner of the Connecticut specialty food chain Aux Délices, and a former executive chef of Montrachet in New York City. As she writes in The Family Kitchen, “this book is about the possibilities for connecting with your kids and enjoying your family by cooking together.” Sounds like my kind of cookbook.

Ponzek doesn’t believe in goofy kid food (no smiley faced pizzas here) but in healthful, delicious food that the whole family will enjoy creating and eating together. In each recipe, she also gives tips on how kids can help out in the kitchen.

When I spotted her recipe for Rhubarb, Strawberry and Apple Crisp, I knew I found a good one, especially since it didn’t contain eggs. (We believe that Lucie is allergic to eggs. I think she may be growing out of this allergy, but her peanut one is getting worse. She goes for allergy testing at National Jewish Hospital in Denver this summer to confirm this.)

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We collect Lucie books, though the name is always spelled with the English “y” instead of the French “ie.” (She’s named after her French great-great-great grandmother Lucie and I’m named after my French grandmother, Anne-Marie, thus the “e” after Ann.) So when I spotted Lucy’s Secret at the library, I had to get it for our summer reading program time. In keeping with the Lucie theme, we also checked out two of Rosemary Well’s McDuff books, McDuff Moves In and McDuff Goes to School. (Lucy is the name of McDuff’s owner.)

The kids enjoyed the books, but it’s going to be challenging to find 30 minutes each day to read to them. I don’t think mid-afternoon is a good time since the kids were bored after 15 minutes. Yesterday, I read to them at 5 p.m. just before making dinner. There’s always bed time, of course, but I may try breakfast time, too.

With some planning, all three books would go along with some fun family activities. Lucy’s Secret is about planting seeds and waiting for flowers to grow. This book would go great with a little gardening or a visit to the local botanical gardens.

Both the McDuff books mention food. Vanilla rice pudding plays an important part in McDuff Moves In. And in McDuff Goes to School, Lucy brings a peach cobbler over to new neighbor, Celeste. McDuff Goes to School also features a lesson on how to say get down, sit, heel, lie down, jump, stay and come to your dog in French.

So let’s join McDuff and his owners Lucy and Fred in the kitchen. Here’s a quickly made - and enjoyed - vanilla rice pudding recipe from Kraft Foods.

15-Minute Vanilla Rice Pudding Recipe
Prep Time: 5 min
Total Time: 15 min
Makes: 6 servings, about 1/2 cup each

Ingredients:

1. 3 cups milk, divided
2. 1 cup MINUTE White Rice, uncooked
3. 1/3 cup raisins (optional)
4. 1 pkg. (4-serving size) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding & Pie

Filling:

1. Bring 1 cup of the milk to boil in medium saucepan.
2. Stir in rice and raisins; cover.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Let stand 5 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, prepare pudding as directed on package with remaining 2 cups milk.
6. Add rice mixture to prepared pudding; stir.
7. Cover surface of pudding with plastic wrap; cool 5 minutes. Stir.
8. Serve warm or chilled.

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