My husband (Gramps) and myself (Grammie) are truly blessed, with six grandchildren. We pinch ourselves all the time! Our five granddaughters are lovin' their time in the kitchen with us, and our 3-year-old grandchild is beginning to show an interest as well. I guess you could say, we are a big group of foodies.

And, blessed we are.... Four of the grandkids live pretty close to us on the Monterey Peninsula. When we are all together, we love doing a lot of'food' related activities, like making pancakes for breakfast, and generating a family pizza challenge. What is that you ask? Simple.... We buy all of the pre-made individual kits from our neighborhood Papa Murphy's and then with our grandchildren, we set out to make masterpiece pizzas with ingredients and toppings that we dream up, and then a winner is anointed! It is amazing what food can do.

Yes, everyone in our family loves to COOK because it brings us together, creates conversation and interaction, giggles, smiles, creative time together, and above all else, an opportunity to exhibit our inner chef skills! This is a family time that we've carved from our busy lives. It's how we're creating memories with our grandchildren for certain.

Just recently, my husband and I went to visit our other two grandchildren who live in the San Diego area: Emerson Rose who's 9 and 7-year-old Maggie. Both like to cook with us, but we think little Maggie could be a budding Julia Child! For her 6th & 7th birthday celebrations, she moved to Chef Jeff Strauss's Restaurant Pamplemousse in Solana Beach, and cooked in his kitchen.

On our trip this past weekend, the girls decided we were going to have a cooking challenge...Gramps and Maggie vs. Grammie and Emerson. The subject: Italian. Every granddaughter went through two cookbooks, Fabio's Italian Kitchen Cookbook (100 favorite family recipes) and Michael Chiarello's Bottega, and they determined that each'team' would create an appetizer, entrée and dessert. In the end of it all, our competition would be judged by four adults.

The Menu

Emerson & Grammie: Italian Wedding Soup

Chicken Piccata

Warm Bananas with Brown Sugar

Vs.

Maggie & Gramps: Fabio's Momma's Meatballs

Chicken Marsala

After coming up with the menu intended to be a secret, we all went to the market to get the ingredients. Needless to say, as you can well imagine, two little girls and their grandparents were racing in 1 direction and another, because remember, this was supposed to be a secret! Laughs and giggles were only the start of our special day together.

So.... . Back from the kitchen we shared, we spent a day of dicing, slicing, and chopping. I was aware of what a very special time that was with our grandchildren -- again, so grateful for these minutes. What was supposed to be a'secret' clearly added to the fun, but we finally had to tell each other what we were cooking, because we were shared the same kitchen/cooktop and oven. Emerson and I did make a major mistake in purchasing our chicken; as much as we pounded the chicken breast, we were not successful in creating it'piccata' style. The result: our principal entrée was a bit dry and tough, but the judges cut us a little slack.

After all the food was tasted and the votes were tallied, The Great Family Cook-off ended in a tie. We all delighted in sharing and tasting our creations together. While dessert was scrumptious, the best dessert of all was just being there at the moment.

 But there is a lot more that all of us get from the experience of being together. Gramps and I can not wait for the next challenge. We expect to make this a tradition when we return to San Diego to visit the girls!