cooking with kids_opt(my sweet daughter making her famous cheesy noodles)

Don’t miss the comments on learning to cook…it’s fascinating to see the scope of learning. I just love hearing your heart on this topic.

When did you learn to cook? Let’s be honest.
I’m curious as to how many of us learned the majority of our kitchen skills after we were living on our own or married? Now I’m sure there are specific studies that have been done on this topic, but let’s conduct one of our own…so fess up.
Learning to cook? When did that occur for you?
For me, I admit, it was after I got married. As a single working woman, I had no desire to cook for just myself, which meant I had a lot of learning to do in my first years of marriage. My mom was wonderful and tried;  I will say I mastered baking Zucchini Bread one summer in 9th grade, ( it was my chore every day for two weeks,) but I want to give this gift to my children long before they leave our home. Our eldest daughter is embracing to it naturally. She’s wound up that way, and enjoys being self sufficient. For instance, while I was typing this post, she woke up and started making breakfast at our beloved, new range But the other kids? It’s truly about taking the time to train them. (And I will add that having appliances that are fool proof makes it nearly a joy. My son knows the “pizza” button on our convection oven option as well as he knows how to load songs on his Ipod, and the fact that the pizza cooks five minutes faster as well as holds all THREE of our pizzas at once is the hugest bonus. 🙂 )
Understandably, the picture below may just appear like slave labor to you, but to my daughter (whose food love language is mashed potatoes like her mother), this is just a small step in understanding what it takes to put her favorite meal on the table. With ten pounds of potatoes to peel and mash, it’s all about team work.
homeschool helpers
My desire is to instill a love for spending time in the kitchen by making it the heart of the home. Yes, with that time comes chores. I don’t think any of us can say that we love all our time in the kitchen. I surely can’t, but I want to give them the tools so that when they fly from our nest, they are equipped in the basics of household management (yes, our sons as well).
It saddens my heart that cooking is a lost art, and I encourage you to embrace those little people in your life and share this gift with them.
Last week, my challenge was to try a little food presentation improvement. I had a few emails from friends that grabbed the nice dishes for the first time in a long time, so I was thrilled to hear that.
This week in the kitchen, why not spend some precious time, side by side with some littler ones. It doesn’t have to be your child. It could even be welcoming the neighbor to make some cookies. I know that time together would be priceless.
SO now for the fessing up time….when did you learn to cook? Or are you still learning?
Was this a gift given to you at an early age or did you do a crash course like I did with great mentors?