School party treats, part 1 By Edan Goode

What treat are you sending to class?

With a new school year comes the onslaught of classroom parties. Between Halloween and Valentine’s Day, there will be party after party where parents try to outdo each other to contribute the cutest, most popular treat. You know you do, admit it. We’ve all done it. We get that notice of an upcoming party and we start thinking “I’m going to make something that puts that Betsy Baker to shame, her and her homemade, hyper-decorated, personalized-with-every-kids’-initials-goodies!!!” Oh, wait, am I projecting? Sorry.

Let’s be honest here though. There is some pressure to bring a treat your child will be proud to say their parent provided, something that doesn’t have nuts, won’t leave a horrendous mess but looks and tastes fabulous. When we go to pick up our child at the end of the day, we all check our platter to see if our treat was gobbled up and peruse the competition’s – I mean, the other parents’ – platters to see if anything is left. Did your beautiful cookie beat out their cheese and crackers? Or maybe you are the type who is just at a total loss about what to bring. I feel your pain too.

Either way, let’s come together and help each other out, parents. Let’s share the burden of coming up with something terrific to provide to all those kiddos. Send me your short recipes or at least ideas for great classroom party treats. As the famous command goes: Give us your sweets, your veggies, your fruity drinks just waiting to be poured – or something to that effect.

Comment back to me, Edan Goode, right here in this blog . Include Halloween treats so we can share them right away. We might include your ideas here and in Colorado Parent magazine as the months go by.

I’ll get the ball rolling with a winter holiday treat my kids were always proud to bring:

Pretty Pretzel Rods
Ingredients:
Long pretzel rods (the big stick kind)
Chocolate and white chocolate chips
Sprinkles (jimmy’s and sanding sugar work best)

Directions:
In the microwave or double boiler, melt 1/2 a cup at a time of each kind of chip (keep them separate, of course). Pour the melted chocolate into a deep cup and plunge about three quarters of the pretzel directly into the chocolate of choice. Let the excess drip back into the cup and then lay the pretzel down on the wrack and sprinkle it. Once the pretzels are dry, present them in glasses like a flower arrangement. By the way, once you have removed the pretzels from the wrack, peel all the delicious drips off the wax paper and eat them up! Yum.

That’s mine. Send me yours.