Cooking With Kids

Kids are enthusiastic cooks—and good ones, too. Given encouragement and supervision they can become fantastic cooks who take a major role in preparing family meals. Not only is that a great help for the whole family, but it often leads to a life-long interest and love of cooking.

Take me, for instance. I started my cooking career at the tender age of 3. This actually is a perfect age, as parents of toddlers can tell you. A child of this age wants to do whatever the grown-ups do and often drives mom (especially) or dad crazy by following him/her around all the time trying to do whatever the adult is doing. Put toddlers to work and you won’t regret it.

Cookies make the obvious best first cooking experience. They are fun, they are easy, they are versatile and they can take a lot of abuse. Let your child have pretty much free reign, but explain as you go why you make yours as you do. My mom would say while making pie dough (her specialty), “See, I barely touch it as I gather it into a ball in the bowl. Then I only roll it out once.” I would continue to play with my dough, but after it was baked, mine was gray and tough. Then Mom could explain that all that handling had caused it.

By age 6 or so, I had learned to make a perfect pie crust and delicious, pretty cookies. The oohs and aahs I received from family and guests kept me going. This is a good age to teach your child to use the sharp tools. I remember my mom taking a carrot and with the sharp chef’s knife, lopping off a finger-sized piece. “That’s what can happen to a finger if you’re not very, very careful.” I remember my granddaughter Crystal at age 8, standing on a stool with a chef’s knife chopping vegetables for a dish we were making. I was right opposite her, watching carefully but letting her do it. She was ecstatic that someone was letting her use the knife—no one ever had before. She was very, very careful and did a great job. Graters are another tool that can be taught around this age.

Once the sharp tools are out of the way, the next hurdle is the range. This needs to wait until 10 or so I think. Supervision for quite awhile is a good idea. You know your child—some are capable earlier than others. When a child has shown the ability to handle the range, the time has come to allow him/her to make a complete family meal.

The first time this is undertaken, the adult should stay with the procedure from start to finish for a lot of reasons. First, planning and shopping are needed. But once the actual cooking is underway, timing becomes the biggest problem. I served my first family meal at age 12—I did everything alone. We ate at 11:30 PM.

Here are two dishes we made while down in Florida with the grandkids (ages 10 and 12). They were a great success—and two dishes the kids have now in their repertoire.

Tacos

This taco recipe came from my 7th grade Home Ec class when I was living in the Los Angeles area. The teacher was Mexican and she swore this was the authentic way to make tacos. The one change I have made is the taco seasoning pack instead of the individual seasonings. The potato not only adds flavor, but the potato starch helps to thicken the filling, so if you opt to use your own spices, the mixture still thickens well.

8 soft flour tortillas or 12 pre-formed crisp corn taco shells (we prefer the soft)
12 ounces hamburger meat
1 medium potato
1 envelope taco seasoning mix
½ onion, chopped fine (optional)

Condiments:
Shredded cheddar cheese
Thinly sliced iceberg lettuce
Finely chopped fresh tomatoes (or use canned diced tomatoes)
Chopped ripe olives
Finely diced avocado
Sour cream
Taco sauce or salsa

Scrub potato well and grate with skin on, using medium grating blades of a box grater right into a bowl so juice is with potato. Do not squeeze or drain. Set aside.
Fry hamburger and onions (if using) and grated potato in skillet on medium heat. Cook and stir for about 10 minutes. When hamburger is medium brown, drain fat. Add the contents of the taco seasoning mix envelope to the skillet and follow directions on package. Fill tortillas with 2 Tbsp. of filling and set out the condiments in bowls.


Yellow cake with Penuche Frosting

Everyone raves about this frosting. It is a real winner.

1 Duncan Hines Classic Yellow Cake Mix

Make cake exactly as the box says. This will require 3 eggs, 1 1/3 cups water and 1/3 cup vegetable oil.

Frosting
½ cup butter (one stick)
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
¼ cup milk
2 cups sifted powdered sugar

Melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in brown sugar. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring. Stir in milk. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly. Set the pan in cold water. When syrup is lukewarm (bottom of pan is just warm, not hot), stir in powdered sugar. Set pan in ice water. Beat until thick enough to spread. If frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar. If too thick, add a few drops of hot water.