Test Kitchen Tuesday—Fluffy Pancakes!

Well, peeps.

It may have taken us until halfway through Summer to manage our first Test Kitchen Tuesday (our made up, themed activity for this year), but, man, was it a wild success!

Especially if you’re judging by this full-cheeked, belly-satisfied little chef face:

In general, it’s just been a wonderful little reset day to dig in with my babies and get back to our own kind of normal.

We’ve had the best six weeks of Summer thus far, but it’s been go-go-go, so I’m very grateful to now downshift for a full 19 days that we have without family in town, out of town travel ourselves, or other hefty commitments.

This two-and-a-half-weeks is going to be our time of cooking and reading and fun schoolwork and swimming and snuggles and just really loosening our schedule and maximizing this “break” time as much as humanly possible—before our annual Oklahoma trip, and then the final two-week homestretch before the school year!

It’s amazing how times flies, and I don’t want to waste a second of it.

And speaking of not wasting…you know I was NOT going to miss an opportunity to deck my babies out in chef gear for this fun little activity of ours. ;)

I’m only bummed that the girlies’ aprons didn’t arrive with their accompanying hats, as well. Something to rectify when I have a moment!





Now. As a reminder. We always create a made-up theme to enjoy one day of the week during each Summer.

In 2019, it was Tuesday DO Day

In 2020, it was Monday, Science FUN Day

In 2021, it’s Test Kitchen Tuesday!

Chica has been increasingly interested in acting as the household sous chef for the past year or so, and for Christmas, she received this cookbook. So the kiddos are taking turns selecting the recipe and we’ll whip it up on Tuesdays! Just nothing that requires an oven, since we still don’t have one. :(

Chica’s pick for this week was fluffy pancakes—woohoo!—but we kicked things off with just practicing our cutting skills with the safety knife set that I think was actually gifted to Chica a year or so ago.

Chica’s old enough to manage without the finger guard, but it definitely came in handy for the younger two as they practiced.















I feel like if we ever have a really slow day or really cranky moods in the house, I just need to set the kiddos up, chopping a ton of fruits and veggies, ‘cause I swear they could have done this for hours, ha. 









Then, with some yummy strawberries sliced, we launched into the official recipe, with the kiddos just taking turns completing the ingredient steps.















For the record, Chicklet cracked the egg like a boss.











Now. Unfortunately, our timing with the pancake-making synced up perfectly with Daddy’s arrival home and his need to take over the kitchen during his frenzied lunch break, ha. So we kindly set our batter aside and let him confiscate the cooktop until he was fed and happy and back on his way.



And my little chefs had a tiny television break and snack to supplement their soon-to-be lunch.

Then…cooktop time, at last!



Now. It must be said that as a mother of young kiddos (more so in the past than at present time), the cooktop has always been a source of stress for me! I was always fearful of an accident or tiny hands turning knobs, but that fear has become less severe as they age, of course.



That said, I consider the cooktop to be much like the pool. I don’t want my babies to be fearful of it, but I absolutely want to instill in them the proper respect for it. And do my best to educate them—and remind them they’re NEVER allowed to touch anything without me! Ha.



Of course, since they’re still kind of small(ish) we brought over a step ladder to help keep arms up out of the heat danger zone, and allow them to better see what they were doing.

And my adorable little nuggets had a blast learning how to flip their pancakes. :)

I mean, would you just look at this joyful, PRIDEFUL smile!! That’s what these fun, themed days are all about. 





And I must say…A+, Test Kitchen, as these really are amazingly fluffy pancakes!















So…in case the gazillion pics don’t clearly show it: the kiddos loved their chef time, and we’ll definitely make it a priority to fit in a few more rounds before our next out-of-town excursion.

And in the meantime, I’m so grateful for a morning full of school work, a ton of beautiful rain that somehow feels restorative to me and not just my lawn, and lots of plans for quality time for the remainder of this short week.

Happy INAUGURAL Test Kitchen Tuesday, peeps!

Over and out.