Cooking with pre teens

[gourmande]

Another idea for future reference:

- Wonton wrapper ravioli or tortellini: this is so easy to make and allows for some quality time together. The first ones I made with my niece consisted of a spinach ricotta parmesan filling.

my friend and her 9 year old are going to be visiting for the weekend and we'd like to put together a menu that will be fun for her to get involved with. Her mom doesn't cook at all ...

I have the same situation going with my niece. She's now 12, but we started bonding in the kitchen when she was about 7. When I gave her a recipe box and index cards way back then, the entries were few and pretty simple. Today, her recipe file contains some pretty sophisticated stuff, and she still emails me for new ideas and recipes. Because her mom doesn't cook much, their kitchen is somewhat lacking when it comes to good tools and even certain pantry basics, so when I visit, I usually bring along a kitchen gift of some sort for her (a tool, a book, a special ingredient), which always thrills her to bits.