Cooking With Children

Several of my grandchildren enjoy helping out in the kitchen and like to be part of the cooking process. I think this is great and there are many benefits to having your children, or grandchildren, learn to cook with you. It can be a bonding time with a child because cooks like to talk and visit with each other while they cook and its amazing what a child will share with you or want to talk about while they're cutting up apples. A child also learns about measurements, cooking temperatures, a little chemistry, nutrition, timing and how to use various tools and appliances in the kitchen, safely.

And as one daughter-in-law shared with me - if they cook it, they'll eat it!

When I was growing up, I loved to watch the cooking shows and while cooking is not quite what it was when I was a child - my grandchildren also seem to like to watch the many cooking shows on television today. Why, in today's world, there is a whole channel devoted just to cooking and more seem to be showing up on other channels. The shows I watched as a child featured one, sweet, grandmotherly looking lady, standing behind a table and stove arrangement, facing a television camera that never moved.  She had to do the moving. How times have changed as now we watch glamorous, model beautiful cooks and chefs from around the world demonstrate their skills and their cuisine?  They peer at us from inside their ovens, walk us through their gardens picking the produce they will soon prepare, cook outside on the patios of villas in Italy, what an education about the world.

It's fun to watch a child's face as he sees his finished cooking creation and then listens to family and friends tell him how good it is. What a great esteem builder.  I have a young grandson who likes to cook and he tells me often that he'd like to be a chef some day. This summer we made apple pies together and he patiently followed my instructions about safety and technique. We discussed whether we'd like brown sugar or white sugar; how much cinnamon, a little nutmeg, why we coat the apples with flour; and how to roll out the crust so everything fits and looked beautiful.We used prepared pie crusts and I know that's cheating but I love them!! I showed him how to cut out a lattice crust and I was amazed at how quickly this seven year old picked up on how to do it "by myself"! The pies came out beautifully and I think he has a real skill and a future in the area of cooking whether it's for fun or as a career. He's only seven, his career choices might change at least once more.

So the next time your child or grandchild wanders into the kitchen while you're cooking and asks "Can I help?" You say, "Absolutely!"

Clean-up is also included in this bonding process; they don't just walk off after all the fun is done. They need to follow all the steps from finding a recipe, to acquiring the needed ingredients, to creating the dish and then to clean it all up. These are steps that they can apply to many areas of their future lives and oh, the memories of cooking with you, a beloved adult.

It's time to be thinking about those Thanksgiving pies!!!

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