Ava in the Kitchen: Calzones

Ava loves to help in the kitchen, and I love to have her there.  All I have to do is go in and rattle the measuring cups and she will appear: "Need any help Mom?"  We have a slight issue with her wanting to do more than she is physically capable of (no breaking eggs over a bowl of already mixed ingredients), but we mostly do ok if I slow way down and show her every step, and then keep my hands to myself.  Here she is making calzones with whatever we could find leftover in the fridge: rye bread dough, spinach from our garden (oh, need to get pictures of that up too!), mozzarella, chopped up steak, other stuff.  Why rye bread dough?  I have been trying out various rye bread recipes in pursuit of the most delicious rye bread I can make.  No one else seems to like rye bread, but I do, and so does my Oma, so there.  :)

I'm sure many cooks seal their calzones with a fork this way, but my mother taught me to seal this way, and I think of her every time I do it.  Teaching Ava to seal with a fork, and telling her that my mom does it the same way, was an especially poignant moment for me.  Ahhh, family.  :)

Trying to get a smile out of her. . .

Ah, there we go!