In the Kitchen…..

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Do any of you cook with your kids? I wasn’t always keen on the idea. Even when thinking about it as a class. It was hard for me to let go and slow down long enough to even allow my children to help. For me, I just wanted to get it done and over with so I could move on and do the next thing. Pretty selfish hu? I was. Life was always busy, I just had the mindset to go, go, go!

When I finally got over myself, I realized I needed to lighten up and have fun. The thing is baking and cooking can be very educational and enjoyable. Education: You can teach fractions, measurements….timing. oh yes, the timing! *Ü* Enjoyable: It’s a fun way to hang out with your children and talk.

Oh, and I can’t forget… family recipes…. You can pass down traditions to your children and talk about where the recipe came from and how. My grandmother loved to cook and bake.

I have 2 recipes that I have from my grandmother for baking that are my favorite. Banana bread and molasses cookies. The banana bread was actually the first thing I ever taught my kids how to make. Shawn and Christian used to take turns per ingredient and would then argue who got to hold the mixer! *Ü* RyLee being small at the time got to turn the handle on this little gadget I had to crush the nuts. That was always her job.

Now that they are older we have moved on from banana bread and cookies! Now we watch Food Network. One of our favorite shows for cooking is Good Eats with Alton Brown Its a science show about food. You would have to look through the listings, but the show offers a lot of great recipes and the why you do what you do for cooking and baking… there is a method to the madness. Its science but with food!

One of RyLee, my daughters favorite episodes of Good Eats was when he made homemade marshmallows! Yup! Marshmallows! This guy filled an entire episode on the how and the why of making marshmallows. Marshmallows!

When we began, we started off simple. Banana bread! Not just any banana bread, but great grama W’s banana bread! After banana bread, cookies….after cookies, muffins, then… you get the picture. RyLee probably loves to cook more than any of us! She jumps at the chance and has become very independent in her 11 years. *Ü*

We are still working our way up to actual full meals like dinner, but they have breakfast, lunch and baking down to a science! They help more in the kitchen then they ever have.

Like I mentioned, food network is a great resource, but you can Google just about anything now a days! The internet is full of kid friendly recipes. If you are like us, I bet you might have a few family recipes you can pass down to your children, like my grama did to mine. Grama W is no longer with us, but her memory and wonderful recipes are.