Ellis has been interested in cooking lately and wants to learn how to make a dish by herself, so I found a cooking class where they could make spinach and artichoke ravioli from scratch and lava cake. Elliot was dragged into it, which he says was “against his will”, but he was a good sport about it and accompanied his sister since she gets nervous taking classes by herself. Thankfully, he was happier than expected and proud of learning new skills.
The class was described as a parent and child class, which means a parent takes the class with a child if they are under 9, but if the child is 12 years old, they can take the class by themselves. Well, Ellis is only 11, but the instructor said it was okay if accompanied by her brother. 🙂 They were the only table out of 3 to work without parents, so they were working slower than the other tables. I’m glad they didn’t get discouraged but worked at their pace and finished the dishes.
Both kids want to try this recipe at home. If we make it again, I’ll share stories of how it went. But first I have to look into the pasta making machine and ravioli cutter thing. Thanks for reading everyone!
41 responses to “Ending the year with a cooking class”
Have a happy New Year’s and greatly blessed 2025 ✨🙏♥️
Thank you! Wishing you the best as well.
Thanks to an unfortunate combination of circumstances, I happen to know that you can cut ravioli very nicely with a cutter like this. It’s $50 cheaper than the Williams Sonoma, and works perfectly well. If the kids really get into pasta making, you can move up. A friend who makes pasta of all sorts works only with a nice, sharp knife and one of these wheels. He also dries his noodles and linguine on the back of a kitchen chair…
I hope the unfortunate circumstance didn’t involve any kitchen accidents or injuries!
Thank you for the link to the cutter. It looks like a useful cutter and a low investment to start the ravioli making process. Your friend sounds like a pro and must make some chewy and delicious noodles! One of my other readers just told me that you could make it by hand too. Wow, there are lots of options.
I like the cutter you linked. Now to find the pasta machine to press out flat pasta.
They can invite me for lunch! Well, perhaps you’d better sample it first. Happy New Year, folks!
You’re so right…I may want to try it first before we have guests over. But once it passes the tasting test, please join us!!
˛¸.o•°“°•o.˛¸˛.o•°★°•o.˛¸˛.o•°“°•o.˛¸
★ WiSh y0u And YouR FaMiLY ★
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Happy & Healthy New Year!
Great that Ellis is taking an interest in cooking classes. I hope she will be able to take more with a variety of dishes! Ravioli can be made from scratch by hand without a machine!
Wishing you and your family a healthier 2025!
I hope Ellis will learn how to make more dishes! She likes to do things with her hands, like crafts, cooking, and crocheting. I was surprised that Elliot enjoyed the class too. Maybe I can let them do some cooking instead of me and Chris doing all of it these days.
I didn’t know you could make ravioli by hand! I’m not sure how it would turn out. You should see our handmade dumplings….they look like alien saucers.
Wishing you and Lucy a healthy and fabulous new year!!
Excellent work by Ellis. And Elliott. 🥳 Happy New Year!
Thank you! They worked hard and were very proud of their dishes.
Happy New Year guys.
Thank you! You too.
How fun 🤩
We’ve been doing a cooking project once per month with the library spice club. Cooking is a great life skill for everyone!
Oh yes, I remember your spice club cooking! It’s great to cook with the kids. I agree that it’s a great life skill and it builds confidence in them too.
Let’s keep cooking with our kids this year! Let’s go, homeschooling mama. 🙂
Agreed 👍
I’m planning on continuing one cooking project per month. This month’s spice is brown mustard seed… 🤷🏻♀️ I’m not yet sure what we’ll be making…?
That’s great! I have no idea what brown mustard seed would taste like. It’ll be interesting to see what you concoct with that seed.
That looks like loads of fun for both kids – look at those big smiles on their faces. That’s a worthwhile skill that I never learned and I regret it. I am a whiz at making crockpot dinners – dump ingredients, stir and push “start” – two hours later, dinner is served!
We have a crockpot but haven’t used it more than a handful of times. I should take it out and see what we could make. It’s so big and the counter space is limited. If it works and makes yummy meals, then that’s great! Do you have a go-to recipe you use?
Yes, both kids had a lot of fun and they were very pleased with the dishes they made. I just ordered ramekins and bittersweet chocolate to make the lava cake. As for ravioli, that’s going to take more time to make. lol
I am not talented in the cooking or baking department so when I got the crockpot, I went on Amazon and ordered several spiral-bound cookbooks, then latched onto an easy recipe and have just used that, but the cookbooks have desserts and items like pizza that you can make. I always said I try them when I retired … hmm, I need more hours in the day. I will send you a site where I have gotten ideas and on going there I learned the woman no longer runs the site; she left to open a restaurant with her husband, but this guy took over and has all Allison’s restaurants there. You can follow by e-mail. For me, I use canned veggies: one large can of: corn, green beans, carrots and peas. I buy the salt-free as I try to watch my sodium intake. On the bottom of the crockpot I put two cans of mushroom soup (heart healthy) (sometimes I use celery soup), then whole-grain noodles. Sometimes I use those lentil or chickpea noodles that come in red, usually plain old elbow noodles. Then I put the four cans of vegetables on top. If it is a holiday, I put in half-box of Stove-Top Stuffing on top of the noodles and that is good and for holidays I use a canister of the Durkee Onion Rings which I stir in after it is done (two hours on high). I always used to use two large cans of the white chicken in the can which made it really tasty, but it was high in sodium. I have several friends my age who have had strokes from high blood pressure, so after that I started watching my sodium intake so eliminated the chicken – too bad as it was good. Sometimes I vary it with tomato sauce instead of the two canned soups or add a can of julienned beets or canned tomatoes, but that is it … not very exciting, but I get my veggies in. I will send you the site in a separate comment.
These are some nice recipes in here Esther. I found it on a Facebook site I follow(ed) and there are lots of easy recipes there too. Both sites are below.
Crock Pots and Flip Flops:
https://www.crockpotsandflipflops.com/
Facebook site (Simple Crock Pot Recipes):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2427153264177140
Wow, that’s a lot of recipes! The lasagne with mushroom and sausage sounds delicious. Although I love lasagne, the cheese would do a number on me since I’m lactose intolerant. hahaha. Sometimes I risk it and eat it and pay the consequences later. Pepto Bismol to the rescue!
I think that site may have gluten-free recipes and you should look as they may have lactose-intolerant recipes as well. It is a lot of recipes. If you subscribe to the Facebook site, there are a few recipes every day – all simple recipes, so you can go and do something else. I don’t leave the house though with the crockpot on – why, because I am the perpetual worrier!
I am a perpetual worrier like you…I’d feel nervous about leaving the house with the crockpot on.
I’m glad I’m not the only one … anything that could wrong electrical wise worries me. My mom was deathly afraid of fire … I cannot get out of most of my windows, except two – the metal blinds cover them up and will not open/close. That worries me too. I am a worry wart.
You are not alone in your worries! I thought it was just me. Just got to stay mindful and alert of fire hazards.
You have a fellow worry wart friend here!
Well you have it doubly bad with the wildfires – there is a bad one going on right now in L.A. – I saw the photos on Twitter just before I came here. Just devastating … it would worry me living that close to this fire. The night of the downed wire fire, 25 feet from where I slept, will live on in my mind forever.
Yep, I believe it! A scare like that is scarring. I’m sorry you had to go through that.
We need more rain! I can’t believe another wildfire is raging in CA.
I am on Twitter and there are several trending topics about the wildfires. They showed a street where every house was gone, then another where every shop was reduced to rubble – this was along the beautiful Pacific Coast Highway they said. Isn’t this where you go to Monterey when you go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium? So sad and they said no water to put it out – didn’t they bring in tankers of water in the past?
The wildfire is crazy in SoCal and as of today afternoon, it was still raging and flying embers causing more fires to houses next door. Pacific Palisades is on PCH between Santa Monica and Malibu. Monterey is about 5 hours north of where the fire is occurring.
My mom is in SoCal but about an hour away from L.A. and she says the winds are fierce. She called to ask if we had windy weather.
I can’t believe the size and severity of this wildfire and so many homes lost!
My geography is bad … I was thinking of the PCH as I went that time on the bus trip, but I remembered the sea lions on that big rock … I think that is Monterey, so I guess they are fine if Monterey is that far away. I thought you said your mom was in SoCal and you are in NoCal … scary for her even an hour away. The pictures of the palm trees flicking the embers like they were feather dusters and flicking dust particles. I’ve watched so many videos on Twitter of this devastation.
You visited a long time ago! Yes, my mom is in SoCal but far removed from the fires. It’s so disheartening to see all the people who lost their homes and lives. I just can’t the size of this natural disaster!!
Yes, I saw a video on Twitter/X of a woman as she returned to her neighborhood – it was so sad. The videographer caught her expression and then she clapped a hand over her mouth and started crying. Every house in the neighborhood was gone, rubble, ashes – that was it. And one neighbor just lost his wife, another just lost their son … this was around Christmas, before the fire. I felt so badly for her. There is a chef there (Chef Gruel) who is cooking in his kitchen and feeding people in his parking lot, inviting the to park their cars there, those that were able to escape in their cars – have you seen the burnt-up cars? He says they could sleep there until they can find family/hotel accommodations and he is feeding people for free. People started donating to his restaurant and sending Amazon deliveries of water and supplies there.
The fires are still raging! I am in disbelief watching the news. I don’t know how the city running right now with so much emergencies, loss, and devastation. It’s so wonderful to hear of kind and generous people.
I saw a few videos earlier of all the animal rescues – some dogs being rescued from burning houses and horses being transported, some of them “strays”, to a horse sheltering area. The place regularly boards 500 horses (incredible) but they have taken in an addition 200 horses since Tuesday (even more incredible to me). A planeload of firefighters from Mexico arrived earlier today to help relieve the firemen who have been on the line all these days. Very scary … all of it, especially as the winds are once again picking up.
How fun and you learn a skill!
A skill that they can continue to build on!
Hope you are having a good first week of January.
I did and hope you did too!
Great that Ellis is taking an interest in cooking classes.
She wants to remake the lava cake she made in that class. We’re waiting for the ramekins to arrive in the mail to get started.
Very nice, She’s interested. I suggest you give advice.