Kids in the Kitchen
@belindayhughes (1096)
United States
February 7, 2013 3:50pm CST
When I was little, I used to stand on a chair and make waffles. During football season, my sister and I would make peanut butter cookie dough on Saturday afternoons, then bake them up after the college games for our fifth quarter parties. In the summer, I helped Mom add the ingredients for ice cream into the churn, then added the ice and salt and cranked the handle. My grandmother taught me how to make fruit cobblers and different ways with vegetables. Her sister taught me her cornbread sticks recipe. My father's sister taught me her quick and easy cinnamon crisps recipe with leftover pie crust dough. And a student teacher in my first grade class brought a canning jar churn and some buttermilk and taught us how to make butter in class. Nowadays, more parents are looking for kid friendly recipes or ways to make recipes more kid friendly. It helps kids learn to fend for themselves, makes meals more fun, enhances their family time experience and makes great memories.
3 people like this
4 responses
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
8 Feb 13
My littlest stands on a stool to stir pans and is a dab hand at chopping veg. The elder is quite a competent cook now, probably because I let him play around in the kitchen when he was younger. It's a really valuable skill and the best time to learn kitchen skills is at your mother's (or father's) side when young.
1 person likes this
@belindayhughes (1096)
• United States
9 Feb 13
Pizza from scratch is one of the best ways to teach kids in the kitchen ever! Everyone can join in the fun so easily. Have you tried doing a pizza grill party? I saw it on TV's Barefoot Contessa once. She made the crusts and prepped the toppings ahead of time, while her hubby fired up the grill. Then the guests arrived, went down the line in the kitchen applying their toppings of choice and carried them outside to the grill master. It only took a few minutes for the toppings to meld and the cheese to melt. Then they were served at the picnic table, where she had place settings and pitchers of drinks and flowers. Your oldest and youngest could both participate with several aspects of this. As for your youngest, there are some recipes on my blog for grilled cake desserts. That would be an astoundingly delicious contribution for him. Just a few thoughts.
@belindayhughes (1096)
• United States
9 Feb 13
Hello, GreenMoo, nice to meet you! That is so awesome that your kids were taught in the kitchen at your side, and that your oldest has built on those skills. Lucky kid chefs! What are some of your sldest's signature dishes now? What do you cook together as a family when everyone's home?
@youless (112672)
• Guangzhou, China
8 Feb 13
I can tell that you are good at cooking because you have enough experience of it since you were a child. How nice it is! As today not many people who know how to cook and I personally think this is a disappointment. Knowing how to cook is a sign of independence. Since that, you can take good care of yourself and others. Your family did teach you the best thing.
@belindayhughes (1096)
• United States
8 Feb 13
Agreed, youless, definitely! Kids learning to cook in the comfort of their home kitchen is a priceless survival skill. So many people eat out now because they simply do not know how to cook other than microwave and delivery or takeout. Carrie Bradshaw keeping sweaters in her oven was a great example of where many are today. I like that eventually her character landed a partner who does know how to cook, does it well and enjoys it. Mr. Big is a great role model for today's guys. When you teach a kid to cook in the home kitchen, they can make it anywhere.
@wolfie34 (26771)
• United Kingdom
7 Feb 13
That is what I regret when I was at school not being able to get into cookery classes, back then it was more for girls, crazy I know, I mean blokes need to know how to cook for themselves, they cannot rely on their partner to do all the cooking for them, that's if they have a partner. So I missed out there, I did help mum cook when I was a child, cakes mostly, I enjoyed eating them, but if I remember rightly, I didn't enjoy making them as much! Now in 40s I have to admit that I can't cook! Only the bare essentials but nothing elaborate and certainly not a full roast dinner.
1 person likes this
@belindayhughes (1096)
• United States
8 Feb 13
Hello again, wolfie, my friend, and thanks for another meaningful response. I took cookery in school, but I didn't enjoy sour tastes, tomatoes, garlic and onions then, so it wasn't much fun at the time. I'm enjoying my taste buds maturing and discovering vinaigrettes and a variety of cuisines, dishes and flavor profiles. Guys really do need to learn cookery to survive with or without a partner. For instance, my first college partner successfully cleared his family out for a night and cooked and served me a magnificent candlelit dinner. I was very impressed! It's a handy skill for guys to have for birthdays, Valentine's Day, holidays, anniversaries and so on. And not just for lovers, but also for having friends over, participating in potlucks, saving money when times are lean, consoling themselves from a rough situation and cooking healing foods when oneself a friend is ill or low in their spirits. All families should encourage their kids to spend plenty of time in the kitchen learning to cook.
@redredrose (1105)
• United States
7 Feb 13
I have some wonderful childhood memories of my mom and i in the kitchen cooking or my grandmother and i in the kitchen. I didn't always help my grandmother cook sometimes i read aloud to her from a book i was reading but i did help her cook and i loved it.Sometimes shed tell me what the ingredients were and id get them from the pantry or fridge. My mom taught me how to cook somethings and how to grill when i was older and those memories stay with me forever. Wish my grandmother was alive today to still cook with me.
@belindayhughes (1096)
• United States
7 Feb 13
Hello, redredrose, hope all is well with you. It's nice that we have happy memories of cooking with our moms and grandmothers, isn't it? I know some people who learned to read from cookbooks.
