Our kids and cooking

[Lori in PA]

Lovely, Diana! And, thank you, Susan, for resurrecting this thread. I didn't know it existed.

[snowangel]

No pictures, but Peter (age 10) has mastered the over-easy egg on toast! Guess who's cooking breakfast tomorrow?

[snowangel]

The best part of dinner tonight:

Peter no longer needs knife supervision, and knows to wash it in hot water and dry it afterwards before replacing it in it's proper place. "Don't worry, Mom, I won't put it in the dishwasher!"

Another chest-puffing moment of pride.

[helenjp]

My kids seem to be on diverging paths...

Son2 dug through my recipe books till he found a recipe for taralli (a sweetish yeast-raised dough formed into small rings, boiled, and then baked), which he made a creditable job of. A few days later, he made a batch of snickerdoodles to take to church, because he thinks buying cookies for morning tea is a waste of money when they are so easy to make!

Meanwhile, son1 decided to make himself breakfast, poured about half a cup of oil into a frypan, heated it to something approaching fission point, dumped an egg in, and then transferred the whole oily, charred mess onto his plate and ate it. After that, he spent the entire day in bed recovering...

[Lori in PA]

Oh, dear! When dd was about 10 she made a tripled recipe of pancakes. She read 3 cups of oil instead of 3 tablespoons. She ate the resulting concoction of fried bread and was VERY FULL all day.

[C. sapidus]

My purpose is to make the justifiably proud parents a bit prouder. Elder son loves to eat, but prefers to let others do the food preparation. He did express interest in grilled cheese sandwiches, so today I taught him how to make them. He seemed pretty charged up about it, so perhaps his interest will grow over time.

Younger son is fascinated with bending the physical universe to his will, and that includes an interest in cooking. He has pretty good knife skills and loves to make scrambled eggs, tea, and instant hot chocolate. He is also the undisputed master of microwaved spaghetti-Os and Jamaican beef patties. He recently discovered Ramen noodles, so we had a soup course at yesterday’s dinner. He considered making more Ramen noodles for breakfast, but wiser counsel prevailed.

Younger son has a major sugar Jones, so once he learns to make dessert we will never get him out of the kitchen.

[Kouign Aman]

The munchkin long since graduated from the baby-food thread, and recently began helping in the kitchen.

How did / would you approach engaging your child's interest in cooking?

What recipes work/ed well?

When do / did you allow them to help with things on the stove, in the oven, that needed cutting?

The munchkin is 2 1/2, and owns egg-breaking in our home. No one else may break eggs in sight of the munchkin. This is a very vigorously guarded prerogative. Over the last month, we've progressed to tapping the wide part intead of the end, and I'm spending progressively less time fishing out scraps of shell.

Munchkin happily stirs, empties measuring cups, etc, but isnt too patient. As an avid Sponge-Bob fan, the munchkin is a self-proclaimed fry-cook (announcing "I a Fry-Cook!" in piping treble tones) and is completely ecstatic to wield a spatula to relocate something from pan to plate. Another favorite is patting or rolling out the pizza dough and laying on the toppings. (A vinyl cloth on the floor has become one of my best friends.)

The other day, the munchkin and I made cornbread, "from scratch" chicken soup, and dumplings. Corn bread was tasted and rejected, and dumplings didnt even rate an exploratory taste. The extra stock gelled in the fridge, and the "chicken jelly" is a favorite. Go figure!

I'd love to hear stories of how you or your kids grew in the kitchen, if making stuff helped them be adventurous in trying stuff, and how you handled safety as well as interest.

[srhcb]

I'd love to hear stories of how you or your kids grew in the kitchen, if making stuff helped them be adventurous in trying stuff, and how you handled safety as well as interest.

←

My de facto grandson, Zack, now 3 1/2, stayed with us most of the time between the ages of 13 mo and 3 yrs old. I always have him in the kitchen as much as possible when I cook, if for no other reason than to give his Mom and Grandma a break.

When he was very young I'd just pull his high chair up to my center work island and give him little pieces of food to play with. Now he sits on the island itself and helps with tasks like adding ingredients, stirring, putting things away, and cleaning up.

The munchkin is 2 1/2, and owns egg-breaking in our home. No one else may break eggs in sight of the munchkin. This is a very vigorously guarded prerogative.

Zack's appropriated task was Master of the Garbage Disposal. Only he was allowed to turn it on and off. He enjoyed its making a noise "like a monster".

Several of my RecipeGullet offerings are toddler oriented, including Baby Biscuits, (for the "younger" crowd like Zack's sister "Baby Jenna"), Baby Food Brownies, Graham Crackers, Toast Boxes (from my own early days), Paste (just for fun), and my favorite, Tickle Me Cake which is, you might say, interactive!

Zack has always been a pretty good eater, but like most kids his tastes change quickly and dramatically. Some days he doesn't even like pizza! I'm sure that helping in the kitchen gives him a little better understanding of the cooking-eating connection. Now when he comes to visit he tells me about what he and Mama have cooked, and often brings me a cookie or cup cake.

Id say cooking with Zack is probably one of the most fun things I've ever done.

SB (and I've done a lot of fun things! )

Edited March 22, 2007 by srhcb (log)

[daves]

Well, mom and dad like to cook, and our 3YO is interested in what we're interested in. She will pull up a chair to the center island whenever we are prepping something for her "to help." Most of the time, she's just supervising.

If we're making something that really interests her (pizza and most pastry/cakes/etc), she'll insist on measuring and pouring ingredients. We help a lot with the measuring, and not as much with the pouring. I've been surprised that her interest is maintained during the whole process, and she'll usually make pretty definitive statements like "I like pepperoni!" She doesn't like pepperoni on pizza, but she happily stood there and ate a bunch of it.

She doesn't get to touch knives, and she's been really good on this point. She even hands us the table knives if we're eating out and one is in front of her.

Lately she's been playing with playdough, and she's been 'cooking' up lunch every day. She does seem relieved when she gets real phone instead of her creations at lunch. She did make a playdough fried egg yesterday, and asked for fried eggs for breakfast.

[agalarneau]

The big girl (10) complains about having dirty hands and has recently proclaimed that even peeling carrots is too much trouble. So far, it hasn't seemed worth the fight.

But the younger girl (7) and boy (5) love helping. Recently they learned how to peel shrimp:

... for their favorite coconut-milk grilled shrimp.

They love getting their aprons on, too.

It's going to be a little while before they're knife-capable, but when we have a prep army, look out!

[Busboy]

Our family always hung out in the kitchen so it was natural for the kids to eggs or stir or whatever. For some reason they've never really decided to become serious cooks, but now that they're teenagers they both have specialties -- sausage tomatoes sauce ofr spaghetti, chocolate mousse, whatever.

We let them play with the knives and the oven relatively early, maybe eight or so with the warning that sooner or later they'd cut or burn themsleves and that it hurt but they would get over it. They of course agreed and my daughter promptly burned herself her first time at the "sautee station." "I burned myself but I didn't cry," she reported. The boy was a little older when he taught himself how not to slice tomatoes and ended up with a few stitches. When your family is genetically clumsy, these things happen. We've taught basic knife skills but I foresee a few more slices (though, hopefully, not stitches) before the logic gets through.

[Kouign Aman]

That is a glorious picture of concentration - your son peeling that shrimp. If I were into 'food art' in my home, I'd be pm'ing you for permission to print it.

Oh yes, clean up.

Emptying the dishwasher still fascinates munchkin, who takes responsibility for the silverware. Hand-washing dishes is hilarious, as water is swirled, spilled, every tool (sponge/brush/etc) is tested, and we have a serious floor mop up at the end. And that is where munchkin balks - very strong resistance to mopping up the puddle. I have to laugh secretly.

I forgot to mention that breaking yolks is also a prerogative. There is something fascinating about popping it with one's fingers. We do a lot of mid-prep handwashing.

We made scalloped potatoes last night. 3rd time for me, 1st for the munchkin. I was able to slice the spud alone in kitchen, and then we (about 50/50 division of labor) buttered, layered, floured, dotted with butter. I added the milk and we cooked it in the nuclear oven so we could watch it. No nice top crust like baking would produce, but it was lots of fun to watch the milk bubble and thicken into sauce with the flour and butter. Since we all three enjoyed the food, and the process was a hoot, I think this is a keeper for us. One day the munchkin will be old enough to wait for the potatoes to bake. Right now, we operate on a very tight schedule at dinner time. I wonder if the crusty version will meet with approval?

We also steamed skinny green asparagus. All of a sudden, I hear a small voice singing "Trust in Me" from The Jungle Book (cartoon version), holding and swaying a stem of asparagus, then eating it bite by bite, asking with each "What happened to the snake?", then starting the song again. Despite multiple offerings over the past two years, this is first time asparagus was actually eaten. Happy dance! I knew I loved that movie!

Edited March 22, 2007 by Kouign Aman (log)

[doughgirl]

My oldest, Isobel, is 5 and loves to help mommy bake and cook. We mastered scrambled eggs today, she learned how to gently push them towards the middle and tilt the pan so they cooked evenly. She likes to help measure, stir, break the eggs, pour the milk... and she loves to whisk anything, that whisk is a permanent fixture in her hand. She'll go through any of my cookbooks with pictures and tell me that "we just HAVE to make this or that tomorrow mommy!"

The other day my mother-in-law was asking her about how much she liked to cook and she said, "I made the most splendid chocolate moocha (mocha) cake with mommy". I almost fell off my chair when I heard her say "splendid"....she's such a little nut.

She's not a picky eater, she's equally happy with tater tots or truffles. Last night she cleaned her plate when hubby made spinach fettuccine with chicken, asparagus, sun dried tomatoes and shitakes.

My youngest, Teagan, is 18 months and is still too little to be interested in anything but toy food and her toy kitchen. Alas, she is my picky eater...she's in a crunchy phase now, practically living on goldfish crackers.

[KarenSherwood]

My kids are interested in different things. My daughter (almost 18) likes to make homemade sushi, various dim sum fillings, brownie variations, and lovely fruit tarts. My son (14) makes heavenly omeletes, perfect fried eggs, bunches of drop cookies, and great chicken/veal parmigiana. They've both helped me out in the kitchen with various meals for many years.

My daughter is currently collecting favorite recipes (and getting exasperated with my 'chronic lack of measuring anything') for her summer away in NYC. Her dorm has a kitchen with 2 microwaves and a 6-burner stovetop, and she's planning accordingly.

[munchymom]

My boy is 4 and he loves to help in the kitchen. Our favorite weekend morning activity is to make muffins - I measure out all the ingredients and he does the pouring and mixing. Cookie baking is also a favorite.

[snowangel]

A way serious moment of maternal pride -- Peter's first pleated potsticker:

Mine is in the background, but then again, I've pleated a ton of them.

Oh me, oh my, this kid also thinks that "fish sauce is where it's at, Mom."