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Kids in the Kitchen

• With some help from you, children can start on the road to cooking and eating enjoyment at a very early age.  Choose tasks that are easy for them to perform with safety.   Step in when safety demands and then back out when you are not needed.
• Children enjoy eating the foods they make.  Cooking uses all of the senses and re-enforces reading and math and motor skills.  And, cooking teaches chemistry since cooking is, after all, about chemistry.  Alton Brown on Food Networks "Good Eats" does an excellent job of explaining how cooking works.  Also see the Good Eats Fan Page.
• Make a weekend breakfast special with pancakes.  Let them choose the design and color for pancakes.  For the youngest children make silver dollar, kid-sized pancakes by dropping tablespoonfuls of batter on the pan.  Make pancakes in Mickey Mouse shapes with raisins for eyes and mouth.  Add some red and blue food coloring to make purple dinosaur shaped pancakes for the Barney-age child.  Or make space ships and let the children "decorate" their own with combinations of grape and strawberry jelly and powdered sugar.
• Don't make meal time a chore for children.  Let them do more than clear dishes off the table.  Early on teach children how to set the table properly * and let them decorate the table with things they enjoy.  When you have company let them plan and participate in setting a kids table with a theme fitting the occasion. * They will thank you when they go the the fancy restaurant for their Junior Prom and know which silverware to use in front of that all important date!
• A simple starter is Ox Eye Eggs.  A child can start off by simply cutting the shape in the middle with a cookie cutter and progress as he or she gets older by toasting the bread and cooking the egg.
• Let them mix the ingredients and then stuffed celery and eat their creation immediately while you prepare the remainder of the meal.
• Include ethnic foods in your cooking routine.  Teach them and yourself to enjoy/understand the diversity of the cultures, religious differences and cuisines of the United States.  If you grew up eating with knives and forks and spoons, make a family project of  learning to eat with chopsticks.   Cook Chinese to celebrate their New Year.  Visit an Asian market, purchase "red pockets" and fill them with paper money and put at one each child's place setting, signifying that they are one year older and wiser.  If you live in a city which has an Asian market, take the children and explore the store.  Take them to the library or go online to research (let them participate) the history and lore behind the holiday.  Find out why at an upscale Chinese banquet, rice is always served at the end of the meal.
• Encourage children to learn about their family background and connect with generations of the family.  Have them ask Grandma what she ate as a girl and how cooking was different.  Give them paper and pencil so they can write down their favorite recipes from her.
• Create a special occasion by serving Cherries Jubilee.  Really, it is not difficult.
• Make food easy for children to eat.  Don't expect a four year old to be able to get those elusive little green peas to stay on a fork all the way from the plate to a tiny mouth without dribbling all over the table, child and floor.  Make a bird's nest with mashed potatoes and creamed peas.  Serve finger food, especially raw vegetables such as carrot sticks, broccoli and cauliflower.  Let them dip vegetables in salsa or low-calorie dressings.
• A Google search on "kids in the kitchens" results in 4,720,000 entries!  There is even a Cooking with Kids for Dummies book.  Visit Kids and Teen Cooking for an excellent listing of website to use as resources.

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© 2007 Carleta S. Vineys