Pirozhki

Pirozhki are wonderful Russian buns with a sweet or savory filling. I planned to make two fillings, but Nikki insisted we make some cheese ones, too. Next time I think I'll use white flour as they are a little dry with wholewheat.

I didn't take pictures while we were cooking - Nicholas and sticky bread dough are not what I want anywhere near my camera! We used this recipe for the dough and the meat filling, but I also made a traditional cabbage-and-egg filling, which I made up from memory (I finely cut about a third of a small cabbage and two hard boiled eggs and mixed them together).

Nikki was in charge of the food processor while we were preparing our fillings - this worked well enough, even if the cabbage was a bit too finely chopped. Unfortunately, he then half-pureed the onions, but I think they still did the job...

Cooking

Nicholas has just got to the age where he is not only willing but also able to help me cook. Today, he really wanted to prepare the broccoli for our lunch. I wasn't sure that he would manage, but he insisted on trying.

He managed to saw off one head using a dinner knife, but soon acknowledged that it was too hard and settled for putting the cut broccoli in the pan for me.

He was much more successful peeling carrots. I watched him very closely with the sharp peeler, but he followed to my instructions to be safe and hold one end while peeling the other.

I did have to finish up the peeling and chopping, but he was very good at picking up every scrap of mess. He even cleaned his table for me!

Spring Playdough

Ok, so maybe I'm being hopeful with the 'Spring' theme...

Nikki helped me make some new playdough today. He poured the ingredients from the measuring cups and very carefully stirred them together.

Nikki stirring the dough mix before cooking.

 Then, once I had cooked it and kneaded it, and it was quite cool, Nikki helped to add the colour! I use the gel colours which are expensive, but they last forever and are soooo much cleaner to mix in to doughs. I dip a cocktail stick (or spoon handle or chopstick...) into the gel and the amount left on when I take it out is usually enough.

To knead it in cleanly, flatten your dough ball and wipe the gel across the top, then fold the dough before kneading. This keeps the messy gel on the inside and the colour which bleeds through is no longer pure gel so doesn't usually stain hands. Keep kneading until you get a smooth colour.

Nikki took one part with the blue gel in had great fun squeezing it until he could see blue!

Squeeze, squeeze - it's turning blue!

 And the final result: sunny yellow, sky blue and spring green:

Our spring playdough.