Welcome to episode one of Cooking With the Kings!

My kids LOVE to help out in the kitchen.  They always want to be the one to crack the egg, pour the sugar, or any thing they can do to help me out.  Usually I am a lame-o mom and I don't have them help me.  I know I should and I want to more, but most of the time I am just trying to hurry up and get something finished.  So today I decided to have the kids help me make a pumpkin coffee cake.  I didn't have any time constraints and so I decided to first measure everything out in bowls so they could just dump!  As I was prepping everything the wheels started turning.  We should do a cooking show!  A real one!  And video tape it!  

So the kids were excited about it until I told them they were going to have to talk during it.  But with a little bribery we got it going.  

We had so much fun!  I thinking we may have to make it a regular thing.  Perhaps a weekly episode of Cooking with the Kings is in order.  If you have any recipe ideas you would like to see in an episode let me know. :) 

I hope you enjoyed the show.  Please pay no attention to the coughing, nose wiping and licking of spoons or rather the blatant sticking of fingers in the batter.  When you're as cute as these kids germs don't count.

As you may have noticed after the cooking show we went to the Reptile Man

Now I am not a big fan of reptiles.  But thankfully we were at a nice safe distance that I didn't feel scared.  :) The kids however got a nice front row seat and loved it.  I thought it would be fun to get Madeline's perspective so I left the camera with her.  But first I snapped this cute picture of her and her friend Maysen and her brother Even.  You can also spot Jude in the top corner. 

There was a lot of excitement and screaming involved! 

And this morning we enjoyed the fruit of our labor

Can anyone tell me why on earth I would eat this for breakfast? Cake? seriously?  Sugar? 

Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Ingredients

• 1 package (16 ounces) pound cake mix
• 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
• 6 tablespoons water
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 
  TOPPING:
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons butter, melted

Directions

• In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Pour half of the pumpkin mixture into a greased 9-in. square baking pan.
• In a small bowl, combine the topping ingredients; sprinkle half over the batter. Carefully spread with remaining batter. Sprinkle with remaining topping (pan will be full).
• Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 9 servings.

This is a taste of home recipe.  And if you would like to look at the nutrition facts look here