Lesson 3: Baby iron chef

I’ve never been particularly gifted in the cooking/baking department and it was not for a lack of trying. My dad was an excellent cook and my mom bakes some really delish cakes but I’ve come to consider myself to be more of the food taster sort. Although that’s mostly due to my discerning palate and not my lack of ability in the kitchen.

That’s not stopping me from introducing my kids to the fine art of culinary magic though. I hear skills like these can skip a generation so there’s a pretty good chance one of my kids will grow up to be the next Gordon Ramsey, minus the bad temper. Ok, I may have been watching too much Junior Masterchef but I can’t help it, kids that cook are SO CUTE.

So yesterday, I aproned them, cleared out my kitchen, dragged out my pots and basically gave them permission to make as big a mess as they could. Seriously, that’s what I said, “go ahead kids, make a mess” and they were all like ” YAYY MAKE A MESS!!”

They started  out stirring plastic fruits with a ladle, but then got bored very quickly and started bugging me for “real rice” to cook. The real rice was in fact a bag of barley grains (expired? does uncooked barley even expire?) I’ve kept in my fridge for the last 3 years but they obviously couldn’t tell the difference. Well, baby girl tried to eat a handful but made a face and spat it out.

They’ve probably still got a long way to go before knowing how to whip up a Boeuf Bourguignon, but they did learn several lessons from this little experience which I consider to be extremely valuable.

1. Real chefs wear aprons. Extra points for cute, bright yellow ones.

2. Raw barley tastes disgusting. Cooked barley is just a little less so.

3. It’s ok if you eventually can’t cook, you can always pay someone to do it.

4. Things usually get messy when you cook, that’s ok.

5. As with everything else, the important thing is to have fun.