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Get cozy with winter treats

Enjoy cookie baking with kids, and other cozy treats on this winter holiday special.
Kayte Young/WFIU
Enjoy cookie baking with kids, and other cozy treats on this winter holiday special.

"I love cookies. They’re hands-on, there’s a lot of technique involved in them, they’re really fun and easy to do with kids, they bake quickly, they’re perfect for gift giving any time of year, and they’re great."

This week on the show, a collection of favorite wintery stories for the holiday season. We drop in on a cookie baking workshop with kids at a food pantry, we enjoy a hot cup of coffee on a chilly bike ride, and we toast up a batch of maple granola for holiday gift giving.

All that, plus CHESTNUTS on this special episode of Earth Eats. Stay with us

Cookie Class

Making cookies is a great thing to do with kids of all ages.

You can keep it simple or go all out. And even the youngest children can pour a cup of flour into a bowl or cut a shape from some rolled out cookie dough.

Mother Hubbard's Cupboard's Education Coordinator, Alissa Weiss shows workshop attendees how to melt chocolate in a double boiler
Amanda Nickey
Mother Hubbard's Cupboard's Education Coordinator, Alissa Weiss shows workshop attendees how to melt chocolate in a double boiler

Georgia O'Conner and Alyssa Weis are nutrition and youth educators at Mother Hubbards Cupboard in Bloomington Indiana. The Hub, as the locals call it, is a food pantry and community food resource center that offers regular gardening and cooking workshops for children and adults.

They've got a spacious teaching kitchen and this year they offered a special pre-holiday cookie baking workshop just for kids

About 10 young bakers and a handfull of parents lined the edges of the tall metal tables in the classroom. They had rolling pins, baking sheets and measuring cups at each station

They taught 3 different recipes, with some of the steps done ahead of time to move things along. Earth Eats sat in on the workshop and interviewed the instructors.

Note: Alissa Weiss no longer works with Mother Hubbard's Cupboard

Coffee Outside

Ever heard of Coffeeneuring? What about "coffee outside?"

My guest this week, River Bailey, fills us in on the trend.

In fact, He takes us along for the ride.

There's plenty of cool, lightweight camping gear to collect for Coffeeneuring, but you only need a few key items.
There's plenty of cool, lightweight camping gear to collect for Coffeeneuring, but you only need a few key items.

River's Checklist for Coffee Outside (with some links to River's picks):

Water

Kettle or pot

Camp stove

Fuel for stove

Coffee

Coffee making device and filter (if needed) pour-over or Aeropress

Cup

Lighter, fire starter or matches

Container or bag (to store used grounds/filter for the ride home)

A bag or pack (to carry all of the above)

Music on this episode

The Earth Eats theme music is composed by Erin Tobey and performed by Erin and Matt Tobey.

Additional music on this episode from Universal Production Music.

Credits:

The Earth Eats’ team includes: Eoban Binder, Alexis Carvajal, Alex Chambers, Mark Chilla, Toby Foster, Leo Paes, Daniella Richardson, Samantha Shemenaur, Payton Whaley and Harvest Public Media.

Earth Eats is produced, engineered and edited by Kayte Young. Our executive producer is Eric Bolstridge

Kayte Young discovered her passion for growing, cooking, foraging and preserving fresh food when she moved to Bloomington in 2007. With a background in construction, architecture, nutrition education and writing, she brings curiosity and a love of storytelling to a show about all things edible. Kayte raises bees, a small family and a yard full of food in Bloomington’s McDoel Gardens neighborhood.