Dear Aunt Gaylon,

Meatloaf and mashed potatoes is a staple in our household, so this was a natural to try about a week before Halloween. She had a fun time measuring and dumping the ingredients into the bowl. Her eyes widened when I put in the eggs -- it promised to be a sloppy mess! Then her jaw dropped when I told her to stick her hands in and mix it all up. I dumped it into the baking pan, and she smoothed it out, patting it down toddler-style.

Meanwhile we got the potatoes cooking (we used russets, and I made them in the microwave). The bread toasted up quickly in a toaster oven, and she got her second happy surprise: squirting ketchup from a bag! She's too young to spell, so she just made designs.

She took a shot at mashing the potatoes -- it was hard at first and I helped, then it was fun playing in her food. She wanted to make a sand castle out of it. I showed her how to make a ghost and she took the bag out of my hands excitedly. This is definitely toddler fun, as is the decorating part. We found that using aluminum foil, shiny side up, worked just as well as parchment paper for this part of the project.




Overall, the toddler-accessible portion of these two recipes is high, and this kept the two of us happily occupied in the kitchen for about 2 hours. The meatloaf recipe is definitely kid-food, with the ketchup and pickle flavors. We all thought that next time we'd add more cheese. It disappeared very fast.

=Abigail's Dad, Matt