Guest Author - Marci Ann Peterson

We love the show Good Eats, starring Alton Brown, on Food Network. My husband was the one to discover the show and fell in love with it immediately. I do admit that I was more resistant to the show, but eventually fell in love with it as well. And even our two daughters enjoy watching Good Eats.

Now you might be asking yourself, what does Good Eats have to do with Children's TV? Well, it is a great show for all ages, it's clean, and easy to understand.

Those of you who have been visiting my site regularly know that we home school our daughters, now 5 and 6, I have talked about this small fact often. The other day I had a light bulb moment, I could use Good Eats to teach them the science behind food. Why hadn't I thought of it before, maybe it was due to the fact that in my mind I have Food Network clustered with the grown up programs not the children's programs. Maybe it was because I never thought about trying to make any of the things with the girls. But it was probably because I hadn't seen the homemade marshmallow episode.

Yes, homemade marshmallows, after seeing the episode all I could think about was wouldn't that be one of the funnest science classes ever. The girls love marshmallows, honestly what kid doesn't? And they would get a kick out of making marshmallows themselves.

So, we re-watched the show with our trusty remote in hand so Mom could write down everything needed and how to accomplish the task of making marshmallows. After the recipe was written down we then needed to make a trip to the store to buy the few supplies that we didn't already have. After all supplies were gathered together we commenced the cooking part of our task. Be forewarned, when he says that the marshmallows are extremely sticky, well lets just say that extremely was an understatement. After accomplishing our task we watched the episode again while our marshmallows sat, they do have to set for at least four hours.

How did our experiment turn out? The girls and my husband love them! Me, well I'm not a plain marshmallow fan, mix it with Rice Krispies and now I'm on board. My husband even likes them better than the store bought bagged kind. The girls, well as long as they get their sugar they don't seem to care which way they get it!

Good Eats is created and hosted by Alton Brown. Brown teaches the audience the science behind the food as well as technique, history of different foods, and the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of cooking equipment. The show focuses on familiar dishes that can be made at home.

Brown is a huge advocate of multi-purpose tools, he only has one uni-tasker in his kitchen--the fire extinguisher! I love the fact that he hates uni-taskers. I don't end up feeling like I have to go out and buy every single new gadget out there to prepare his dishes. This saves me a ton of money as we are trying to be more budget minded and get out of debt!

Each episode has a specific theme, either a single ingredient or cooking technique. Though he does have more general themed episodes, such as Thanksgiving or "Man Food."

Brown's distinct personality and sense of humor shine through during each episode. There are even recurring characters that frequently make an appearance on the show, some of Brown's own family have appeared on the show. Specialists that hold real-life positions often appear on the show as themselves to offer advice and or information on whatever topic is being discussed.

So what did I learn through all this? That a show that we all enjoy as a family can be used as a teaching tool for my kids education! This week we are going to make sweet pickles. Where did we get the idea? You guessed it, Good Eats!

If you love Good Eats as much as we do, then you might want to check out Alton Brown's cookbooks, yes, we do have them all! Or maybe a DVD or two!