KIDS TIRAMISU

This is a very fake version of tiramisu. It takes just minutes to prepare it and children love it. I had six boys at home today and had to fight so that they would wait to eat the last cup until we had taken a picture...

You need:
- savoyard biscuits (one and a half per bowl/glass)
- decaffeinated coffee (one cup)
- a tub of double cream
- two tablespoons of mascarpone cheese
- icing sugar (two table spoons, though this depends on your children's taste)
- drinking chocolate powder (we use Cadbury's)
- a little bit of dark chocolate

Dunk the biscuits into the coffee and put them at the bottom of the bowl. Whip the cream a little bit (soft peaks only)add the mascarpone and the icing sugar and spoon this on top of the biscuits. Sprinkle the chocolate power on top. With a knife or vegetable peeler make a few shavings of dark chocolate and sprinkle them on top of the whole thing. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Making this is easy for the children. You need to double the amount of biscuits as they keep eating them as they go.

MEATLOAF

There are lots of different recipes for meatloaf. We used one from Martha Stewart though we changed a few ingredients (and most of the quantities):

- 250 gr minced beef
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 2 cloves of garlic
- a handful of parsley
- 2 handfuls of breadcrumbs
- 100 gr bacon
- 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 egg
- salt and pepper

- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons of tomato ketchup

You can also add a bit of celery or red pepper or any other kind of herb.

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees.
Wash and peal all the vegetables and herbs. Mince the veggies and herbs very finely in a food processor. Mix them well with the meat and all the other ingredients except for the sugar and tomato ketchup. Put the mixture into a non-stick loaf tin. Separately mix the sugar and tomato ketchup and paint the meatloaf top with it. Bake it in the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Provided you let them use a fork or wooden spoon to mix the ingredients with the raw meat, children like helping to prepare this. Mine like to eat it with mash potatoes and (even more!) tomato ketchup.

FISH AND CHIPS THE SPANISH WAY

In Spain people tend to eat a lot of fish. Fried fish is normally cooked in a thin (not crunchy) batter. In Spain people use hake but cod works well too.

You need:
- 4 slices of cod (1-2 cm thick)
- salt
- plain flour
- 1 beaten egg and a little bit of milk (a couple of spoonfuls)
- plenty of olive oil

Heat the oil (high heat) in a small frying pan. Salt the fish, dust it in the flour (on all sides). Shake it to get rid of the excess flour. Coat it in the egg and milk mixture and fry it for a couple of minutes on each sides ( reduce the heat to medium once you put the fish in) Fish is better underdone than overdone, but if the slices of fish are too thick and you are concerned that the children may be put off by slightly underdone fish get the for 20 seconds (no more) into the microwave oven.