Desserts to Make with your Kids

Since today is National Pi Day, my 6-year-old son and I baked a pumpkin pie (his favorite). It reminded me of how fun and easy it is to make desserts with kids. Here are a few of my favorite dessert recipes that are great to make with a young assistant!

Pumpkin Pie

If you use a pre-made pie crust, making a pumpkin pie is pretty much an issue of dumping all the ingredients into a big bowl and stirring. Older kids can help measure; younger ones can break the eggs and whisk. There are hundreds of pumpkin pie recipes out there, but the one on the back of the One Pie brand canned pumpkin is easy and delicious – not too spicy for young palates, and the molasses adds extra flavor and sweetness.

Frozen pie crust
1 cup sugar
1 Tbsp cornstarch
scant ½ tsp salt
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin or squash
 2 eggs, beaten (with hand whisk or electric mixer)
1-1/2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/8 cup molasses
1-1/2 cups milk

Pre-bake pie crust according to package directions. Cool completely.

Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and spices in a large bowl. Stir in pumpkin, eggs, butter, molasses, and milk. Pour into cooled pie crust. If you have extra filling, pour it into ramekins, set ramekins in a baking dish and add water to close to level of filling and bake alongside pie. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 50 minutes. Filling should be slightly jiggly in the center, but will set as the pie cools.

Resurrection Rolls

These sweet, doughy desserts are fun as an Easter treat, since they symbolize the empty tomb, but they’re a fun treat any time of year. This recipe is great for really little ones because there’s no measuring required.

Frozen crescent roll dough
Marshmallows (full size)
Melted butter
Sugar and cinnamon, mixed together

Spray a cookie sheet with non-stick spray. Arrange balls of crescent roll dough, leaving about 2 inches between balls. Flatten each ball into a 3” diameter circle (it’s fun to squish with the bottom of a drinking glass). Place a marshmallow in the center and wrap the dough around it, pinching to close completely. Roll in the palm of your hand to smooth and seal. Brush generously with butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Return to greased cookie sheet and cover with plastic wrap sprayed with non-stick spray. Let rise till doubled (~30-60 minutes). Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.

Lime Fascination

This was one of my absolute favorite desserts as a kid – to eat AND to make. The hardest part was waiting for the jello to set before moving on to the next step! If you don’t wait long enough, you end up with a layered dessert with mostly green jello on the bottom and mostly whipped cream on the top. Delicious either way, though!

Crust:
2 cups chocolate wafer cookie crumbs (a pre-made chocolate pie crust will also work, as will crushed chocolate graham crackers) - use either a food processor or a rolling pin to make crumbs
4 Tbsp melted butter

Filling:
1 (13 oz.) can evaporated milk
1 pkg lime jello
1-1/4 cups boiling water
¼ cup lime juice (can substitute lemon juice)
1 cup sugar

Combine chocolate and butter. Set aside a few tablespoons for topping (or use chocolate jimmies) and press remainder into the bottom of a 9” square baking dish.

Chill the evaporated milk by refrigerating overnight or placing in the freezer for about 15 minutes. In a medium bowl, dissolve the jello in boiling water. Add the sugar and lime juice and stir until completely dissolved. Cool slightly (you can scant the boiling water and add a few ice cubes at this point), then refrigerate until partially set.

Pour the evaporated milk into a large mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer (start on low and increase speed) until it forms a solid, whipped-cream-like foam.

When the jello is partially set, beat until a light, airy texture. Fold into evaporated milk, mixing until color is even and not streaky. Pour over the crumb crust. Smooth with spatula and sprinkle with reserved crumbs (or chocolate jimmies). Cover with plastic wrap (hold up with toothpicks if necessary to avoid sticking) and chill for several hours before serving.

Gingerbread Boys

There’s something universally appealing about making gingerbread boys. These cookies are just as delicious cut into squares with a knife or circles with a drinking glass, but kids love using a cookie cutter to make little boys and girls. This recipe is moist and delicious enough to not need icing, but if your kids are artistic, feel free to add icing decorations after the cookies are cooled.

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1/3 cup Crisco (or butter)
1 tsp vinegar (white or cider)
1 tsp baking soda, dissolved in ¼ cup hot water
¼ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp ginger
¼ tsp salt
2-2/3 cup flour (adjust as needed)

Combine all ingredients, adding flour gradually until dough is a workable consistency. Roll out on a floured board (slightly thicker dough will result in a softer cookie) and cut with a cookie cutter or drinking glass. Bake on a greased cookie sheet (cookies will spread slightly) for 5 minutes at 400.

Crazy Cake

This is a delicious, moist cake, but what makes it special is how fun it is to make. It reminds me of making mud pies! Kids love to dig wells in the dry ingredients and pour in the liquids, then mix it all together. Adults love that there’s no big mixing bowl to wash afterwards.

3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 Tbsp white vinegar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups cold water

Sift together all dry ingredients in ungreased 9x13”pan. Make three wells and pour oil into one, vinegar into another, and vanilla into the third. Pour cold water over all and stir well with fork.

Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely and frost as desired.

Fun Fudge

Fudge is always fun; mini marshmallows are always fun. Put them together, and you get double fun! And now that microwaves have taken the place of double-boilers in melting the ingredients, fudge is a much more kid-friendly recipe.

18 oz. semisweet chocolate chips
2 Tbsp margarine or butter
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups miniature marshmallows (white or multicolored)
1-1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate chips and margarine in microwave-safe bowl, 30 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until smooth. Add sweetened condensed milk and heat an additional 30-60 seconds, stirring till well blended. Fold in marshmallows and vanilla. Spread evenly in an 8” or 9” square pan lined with waxed paper. Chill 2 hours or until firm. Turn out onto cutting board and peel off waxed paper. Cut into squares and store in covered container in refrigerator. 

From Russia, with Love

A month or so ago, my son requested that we learn about France as part of homeschool. So we had “French Day.” We found the country on a map, we talked about what people wear in France, what the weather is like there, what kids study in school, what kind of games they play, and what kind of food they eat. We even found some recipes and planned out a meal that would be similar to what people in France would eat.

Yesterday, my son requested that we have another day like that, so I suggested a few countries he might choose from: Australia, Russia, Mexico, and Zimbabwe were all choices. He opted for Russia, so today we spent the morning studying what kind of clothes people in Russia wear (mostly the same as us, except traditional costumes for festivals and warm furry hats up north), what’s different about school (they start at age 6 or 7 and finish at age 16 or 17), what kinds of homes people live in (mostly high-rise apartments, sometimes with a shared kitchen or bathroom), and what people in Russia eat. I found dozens and dozens of delicious-looking recipes, several of which we’ll be trying later, but it seemed appropriate that for our first attempt at Russian cooking, we would make borscht.

Borscht is, of course, beet soup, sometimes made with beef and often made with cabbage and carrots, which is often served with a dollop of sour cream and a side of dark rye bread. I searched out a recipe that touted itself as being “easy,” and I went to the store for supplies.

Left to right: Russian rye bread, beets, cabbage, beef broth, carrots. Not pictured: an onion, salt, butter. I wasn’t sure if “real” borscht used red cabbage, smooth-leaf cabbage, or the “ruffled” cabbage shown, but I thought the ruffled cabbage would look the nicest, so that’s what I bought.

The first task was to peel and shred the beets and carrots. My assistant learned to use both a peeler and a grater during this lesson – and without bloodshed (although while shredding the beets, who would know?). 

We discovered that leaving the greens attached to the beet give it a nice handle to grab onto while peeling. Three beets gave us more than enough for the 2 cups of shredded beets called for in our recipe. 

We tried grating the carrots both end-wise and sideways. End-wise turned out to be more effective, although you have to be very careful not to grate your fingers!! We lost count of how many carrots we needed to make the 1 cup called for, because a certain assistant kept eating them before we finished shredding them. (This is most definitely NOT a bad thing.) But it was probably around 3 or 4 medium-sized carrots.

Mom took charge of chopping up the onion – the white discs looked very artistic against the remaining beet and carrot shreds on the cutting board. We didn’t bother to measure one cup – one medium-sized onion, chopped, is reasonably close to one cup. See? This is why I love making soup: approximations are king. 

Pour two cups of water and ½ teaspoon salt into a large saucepan and add the shredded beets, carrots, and onion. 

It doesn’t seem like enough water, but that’s okay. Bring to a boil and simmer over low heat, covered, for 20 minutes. While this is simmering, shred the cabbage. It’s pretty difficult to shred cabbage on a grater, so I simply chopped it. I did it the same way I chiffonade basil: wrap two or three leaves together to form a tight tube, then chop along the length. In this case, I went back and chopped again at an angle so the pieces weren’t too big. 

 

I only used two leaves, but I got way more than the needed one cup. I used it all anyway. Cabbage is good for you, right? (See also: approximation comment, above.)

When the 20 minutes was up, I uncovered my simmering broth to find it nicely thickened and a gorgeous, deep purplish-red. 

I had a large box of beef broth rather than the two cans called for in the recipe, so once again, I approximated, and just used most of the box. I also dumped in the cabbage, and a tablespoon of butter. 

I realized at this point that I probably should have shredded the cabbage a lot finer, but oh well. That’s why I leave space at the bottom of all my recipes to make notes for next time!

Next we simmered for 15 minutes, but uncovered this time. The recipe called for adding a tablespoon of lemon juice right before serving, but I read in a number of comments that this is NOT traditional Russian, so I left it out (and didn’t miss it). I did, of course, top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream. 

I could not convince either my 4-year-old daughter or my husband to try it, and my 6-year-old (whose project it was to begin with) took one taste and made a face. I, however, was surprised at how delicious it was, especially considering that I dislike cabbage and am only “meh” on carrots and beets. My main objection to all three is their tendency toward bitterness, but apparently the cooking changed the chemistry in such a way that the sweetness of the onion and the hint of saltiness from the broth come forward in a very pleasant way.

If you’d like to try it for yourself, here’s the complete recipe (based on a recipe from Taste of Home)!

2 cups shredded fresh beets (about 3)

1 cup shredded carrots (about 3-4)

1 cup chopped onion (1 medium)

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cans (14-1/2 ounces each) beef broth (about 3-1/2 cups)

1 cup shredded cabbage

1 tablespoon butter

Sour cream, optional

In a saucepan, bring the beets, carrots, onion, water and salt to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add broth, cabbage and butter; simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Top each serving with a dollop of sour cream if desired. 

Prijatnovo appetita!

Photo A Day: Patterns

One of my favorite things to do with my children is to cook or bake with them. Something about working with them in the kitchen brings me back to my own childhood, and learning to cook with my own mother. I can close my eyes and picture myself in my childhood kitchen; I can see the gold-flecked white kitchen tabletop, the shiny copper-bottomed pots hanging on the avocado green pegboard, the gold-and-white fold-up stool that leaned against the wall until I needed it, the brick red block pattern of the linoleum. And I wonder if, twenty or thirty years from now, my children will be teaching their children to cook and thinking back to our round wooden table, our corner cabinet full of pots and pans, the black and white pattern of our kitchen tile.

My parents re-tiled their kitchen floor not long after I moved out, but in my minds’ eye, it will always be that brick red block pattern. That pattern was common enough that every now and then, I still stumble across a room somewhere – a friend’s house, a niece’s apartment, a church bathroom – that has the same linoleum pattern. And every time, I immediately flash back to an image of cooking with my mom in that kitchen. And suddenly, I feel very happy.

I hope that someday my children walk into a room patterned with black-and-white tiles and have a sudden memory of cooking with me in the kitchen. And I hope they smile.

Patterns.

Cooking with Kids

My kids love to help in the kitchen. Hardly a day goes by that my daughter doesn’t pull her little stepstool over to the counter next to me and ask, “What do we do now, Mama Chef?” At ages 3-1/2 and 5, my kids aren’t quite ready to do much real cooking on their own, but they love to help as much as they can. Here are a few of my favorite kid-friendly dishes that even the little ones can help with!

Scrambled Eggs

The first thing my son learned to do in the kitchen was to crack an egg. So, naturally, scrambled eggs is a dish that he loves to help prepare. I bring the egg carton over to the counter and tell him how many eggs we need, then he carefully counts them out and cracks them into the bowl. I help him add milk, salt, and pepper, then he whisks them up with a fork (I use a big bowl to help avoid spills). He butters the toast while I cook the eggs, and when they’re done he gets to make faces on his pile of eggs using Cheerios, sliced black olives, pepperoni, pieces of fruit, pretzel sticks, cheese, red hot candies, whipped cream, ketchup, and whatever else we have on hand.

Brownies (from a mix)

We provide a snack for coffee hour after church once a month or so, and my son loves to tell everyone that he made the brownies that we bring. As well as cracking the eggs (of course), his job is to read the directions and tell me how much of everything we need. I use a marker to draw a line on the glass measuring cup if he needs a little help with the water or oil, and if the recipe calls for butter, we count the tablespoon marks and use a butter knife to cut off the right-sized piece. He does the initial stirring (I taught him “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” while making brownies!) and count how many strokes we use, I help him scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula and give it a few more good mixes, then he finishes it up. He sprays the baking pan with non-stick spray, then I hold up the heavy glass bowl while he scrapes the batter into the pan. We practice “greater than” and “less than” as we set the oven temperature (“Which is hotter, 325 degrees or 350 degrees?”), then he sets the timer. When the brownies are all done and cooled, we cut them together and count how many brownies we made.

Meatloaf and Meatballs

A lot of people are grossed out by the feeling of raw ground meat in their hands, but I find that squishing very satisfying, and so do my kids. My son helps read the recipe and measure out the various ingredients, then we dig in with both hands to mix everything together. We taste the various spices and the breadcrumbs as we put them in, and talk about the flavors each one adds to the final product. We even talk about what we could use instead of certain ingredients: What if we were out of bread crumbs? What else do we have that’s in the grain group that’s kind of dry that we could substitute? (We came up with cereal, potato flakes, and crushed tortilla chips.) What could we use instead of ketchup? What else do we have that’s made from the same thing as ketchup? (Our answer was fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, and salsa.)

Sandwiches

Spreading filling on a sandwich is a slightly trickier skill than I first realized. It takes a bit of practice to get the knife at just the right angle so it pushes the filling onto the bread instead of scraping it off. Although peanut butter is a favorite, its stickiness makes it harder to spread, so try starting your kids spreading the jelly side while you do the peanut butter, or spreading mustard or mayo or butter on a cold cut sandwich, or spreading tuna or chicken salad. They can also practice cutting the sandwich in half or carefully lining up a cookie cutter to cut the sandwich into a shape. When they learn their shapes, you can challenge them to figure out how to try to cut the sandwich into rectangles or triangles. If you want to get really creative, let them choose their own sandwich fillings. My son has requested things as varied as chicken with lettuce and apples and a touch of mayo (surprisingly delicious) to bacon and cheese and grapes (not surprisingly, somewhat less successful). We practice nutrition by choosing a meat, a fruit or vegetable, and a dairy product to balance the grain of the bread.

Edible Playdough

Cooking doesn’t necessarily have to be food, although this playdough is perfectly edible. There are plenty of variations on the recipe, but I like to use one cup of creamy peanut butter, two cups of non-fat dry milk powder, and half a cup of honey. Kids learn different techniques for measuring different types of ingredients: peanut butter has to be smooshed into a measuring cup, milk powder needs to be shaken down until it’s level, and honey is a liquid that drizzles into the cup. You can talk about how there’s twice as much milk powder as there is peanut butter, and half as much honey. We discuss how adding a bit more or less of each ingredient would change the texture of the dough. Sometimes we make a hypothesis about it and then do an experiment to find out if our hypthesis was right! And of course, there’s plenty of fine motor skills and creativity involving the final product. You can also give the kids chocolate chips, jimmies, cereal, M&Ms, and other small edibles to decorate their artwork.

And besides all the skills mentioned above, cooking with kids helps teach them basic hygiene and food safety (my kids now run right to the bathroom to wash their hands whenever I call them into the kitchen to help me cook), healthy menu planning, reading, following directions, and math skills like fractions and units of measure. They’re more likely to try new foods if they helped to make them. You can use food to talk about geography (where do grapes come from?), anatomy (what part of the chicken did this come from?), and nutrition (why do I let you eat lots of fruit but candy is only a sometimes food?). Plus, it’s just plain fun to play around in the kitchen with your kids.

So…what do we do now, Mama Chef?

The Care and Feeding of Picky Eaters

I was a picky eater myself as a child (and, to a lesser degree, still am as an adult), so it was no surprise that I gave birth to a couple of picky eaters. After much trial and error and putting on a few pounds (okay, more than a few) from eating my failures and tearing out my hair, I’ve discovered a few survival tips for moms trying to cook for picky eaters.

1.  Presentation is key

Food that is appealing to a kid’s eye will also be appealing to his or her taste buds. Instead of serving fruit on the side of the plate, use it to make a smiley face right on top of whatever you’re serving – scrambled eggs, pancakes, a sandwich, a slice of meatloaf, a scoop of pasta. Instead of (or as well as) fruit, pick whatever random treats your kids like: a couple of jellybeans, a handful of breakfast cereal, pickles and olives, goldfish crackers, chocolate jimmies. You can even add some "goop" for dipping, like ketchup, ranch dressing, hummus, or jam. Your kids will eat the fun stuff and then forget to stop when they reach the healthy stuff underneath. (Hopefully.) And don’t underestimate the value of cutting things into interesting shapes. Cookie cutters aren’t just for cookies; they work on sandwiches, toast, cheese, cold cuts, pancakes.

And on the flip side of this one, if you make it look – or sound – over-the-top disgusting, kids (especially boys) will eat it out of pure curiosity. Be sure to make lots of repulsed noises while the child is eating. Thanks to Calvin’s mom for this advice.

Admittedly, this approach has a few drawbacks.

2.  Creative use of leftovers

If your kids are anything like mine, there are always leftover bits on their plates. One of my kids eats the hotdog and ignores the bun; the other demolishes the bun but ignores the hotdog. So I offer each of them both bun and dog, then swap their plates. Or I’ll save the uneaten hotdog slices and throw them in with some leftover mac & cheese at the next meal. When I make soup and there’s lots of leftover broth, I throw in that half-serving of rice, handful of cooked carrots, and few bites of grilled chicken left over from last night’s dinner and make myself a bowl of soup. If sandwiches are on the menu, I use their uneaten sandwich crusts to fill out my meal of that same leftover rice, carrots, and chicken. 

But my favorite use for leftovers is to do a "smorgasbord" lunch. Fill a plate with tiny servings of a lot of different things: a few bites of pork, a tiny spoonful of peas, a plop of applesauce, six blueberries, half a graham cracker, two broccoli florets, a few cheese cubes - whatever's on hand. Mix a few treats in with the healthy stuff, like a small handful of sweet cereal or pieces of their favorite fruit, and get creative with dipping sauces - let them try some spicy mustard, salsa, or balsamic vinegar along with more familiar sauces. 

Sometimes I sneak in a few "exotics," like marinated artichokes.

3.  Let them help
My kids love to help in the kitchen, and they will eat (or at least try) almost anything that they helped make. Even the littlest kids can help tear up lettuce, beat an egg, stir together batter, and mix meatballs. Kids who can read can help you follow a recipe or directions. Older kids can break eggs, measure ingredients, chop vegetables, and use the stove. As well as keeping them where you can keep an eye on them while you make dinner, you get the added bonus of an opportunity to teach nutrition, hygiene, chemistry, math, and reading. Not to mention, it’s laying the foundation for having them prepare dinner on their own once in a while so you get a break from kitchen duty!

This approach may take a good bit of practice before it’s successful, however.

4.  Variety really is the spice of life

I’ve read all kind of statistics stating that children need to be offered a food X number of times before they’re willing to try it, or that they need to try a food Y number of times before they decide they like it. I’m not sure if I buy any of those statistics, but I do know that kids are moody and sometimes they’re not willing to try something but other times they are. So I keep offering them different foods, even if they have tried them before. I don’t force them to eat more than a taste, and sometimes not even that, but the foods are there if I happen to catch them in the right mood. Maybe it’s only a 1 in 100 chance that they’ll try it, but if it’s not on their plate, it’s a 0 in 100 chance.

Even when it doesn’t work, the results can be quite entertaining.

 5.  Reverse psychology really works

My husband often puts a forkful of food on the edge of my son’s plate and warns him sternly, “Do NOT eat this. This will make you grow tall and strong, and I want you to stay little. You had BETTER NOT eat this!!!” Naturally, my son immediately grabs it and sucks it down, giggling triumphantly as my husband moans in mock horror. Likewise, my daughter won’t eat a bite of the food that’s on her own plate, but if I leave a forkful of the exact same food on my own plate and tell her, “That’s mine, don’t eat it!”, it will be gone before I can blink.

The grass broccoli is always greener on someone else’s plate.

The bottom line is, you just never know what might make a child try or like something, so just keep experimenting and offering. With apologies to Thomas Edison, you haven’t failed. You’ve just found 1,000 things your kids won’t eat.

Can You Bake a Pie?

My 3-year-old son loves to help (or, more accurately, "help") in the kitchen, so it's nothing unusual for him to ask me if we can make cornbread, or pancakes, or lemonade. We make those things together on a regular basis. But today he made a different request: he asked me to make pumpkin pie with him.

We did have pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and he did like it. A lot. I haven't mentioned it since, though, so I have no idea what made him suddenly decide that he was hungry for pumpkin pie. (Actually, the word he used was "starving." Yes, he informed me, "Mama, I am STARVING! I am STARVING for pumpkin pie!") But in the realm of snacks and treats, he could do much worse than pumpkin pie, so I said sure.

And after I thought about it, I realized that pumpkin pie is one of the first things I remember making with MY mom. My special task in the process was cutting the shortening into the flour for the pie crust. I remember it being a somewhat challenging task for me, as coordinating two large butter knives with my small hands was not easy. But Mom was patient and let me take as long as I liked to get it done. (I didn't realize at the time that the longer I took to do that task, the longer I was out of her hair for the more complicated - and messy - parts of the process. Smart cookie, my mom.)

I also remember being allowed to make the scraps of pie crust into a cinnamon roll. I was proudest of that because Mom let me do it all by myself. I squished the scraps together and rolled them out, dotted the crust with butter, sprinkled it liberally with cinnamon and sugar, rolled it up and pinched the ends together, then laid it on a cookie sheet and tucked it into the oven alongside the pie. I probably peeked through the window in the oven door every 15 seconds until Mom finally pronounced it done and set it on the table to cool. And then it seemed like hours before she said it was cool enough to eat. But when it finally was cooled, there was nothing that had ever tasted to wonderful to me than my own culinary creation.

So I'm looking forward to giving my son that same sense of pride this afternoon when we make our pie. It may not taste perfect, but it will taste even better than perfection. It will taste like independence.

Someone's in the Kitchen with Mama

I spotted an article in Slate Magazine this morning about cooking with children: http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2012/03/children_cooking_how_young_can_they_be_.html. It made me feel very proud of the cooking I’ve done with my 2-1/2 year old son. I always loved cooking with my own mom, although I started at a much later age, maybe 9 or 10. But what really spurred me on to get him involved in the kitchen was when I was taking care of my then 11-year-old nephew, who happened to be a very picky eater. He was in rehearsals for a show right around the corner from our house, and my sister-in-law asked if I could pick him up for his dinner break so she wouldn’t have to make a 1-1/2 hour round-trip during rush hour. I was delighted to help, but concerned that he wouldn’t eat anything I made. But then I read an article about how children are much more willing to eat food that they helped make themselves, so I decided to recruit him to help me make homemade meatballs and marinara sauce. For a kid who generally only ate bread and cheese, he ate an impressive amount of “his” meatballs. So I decided to do the same with my own son.

At age 2-1/2, the majority of his contributions are cracking eggs, pouring milk or sugar or flour into a measuring cup, and stirring, stirring, stirring. But I can already see that he will be ready to make more significant contributions very soon. Knives and flames are still on the forbidden list, but there are plenty of recipes that include very little of either that he will be able to manage with just the tiniest bit of help from me, very soon. In fact, he has already made shepherd’s pie with my help only in browning the beef, pouring the boiling water for the mashed potatoes, and pointing out the right line on the measuring cup. My son spooned the meat into the baking dish, poured on the frozen corn, measured the milk and butter for the potatoes and stirred them up, spread them carefully over the top, and sprinkled the whole thing with shredded cheese. He was so proud of his creation! And I can imagine him making his own meatloaf the same way – cracking a few eggs, measuring out the bread crumbs and herbs and salsa, squishing everything together with freshly-washed hands, and then pressing it into a pan. In fact, every time I make a recipe, I think about what parts of it he will be able to do and how soon.

I know he will love making chicken parmesan, whacking the chicken breasts with the little mallet, carefully laying out the squares of mozzarella, and pouring the sauce over the top. He’ll love pouring oil onto his hands to slather over a whole turkey. He’ll squeal with mock disgust as he pulls the guts out of a whole chicken and replaces them with some chunks of lemon.

But the best part will be when I break out my mother’s chocolate fudge party cake recipe that I remember learning to make with her. Or when I teach him all the different options for my grandmother’s 3-bean salad recipe. Or when I show him the intricacies of slicing my grandfather’s favorite Swedish tea ring just so. Or when I pass along my mother-in-law’s tortilla soup recipe, the one she made for me when we brought my son home from the hospital. I will love sharing all the family stories and traditions. I look forward to teaching him that Christmas means making Kinderpunch for when we decorate the tree, or having hot mulled cider simmering on the stove while the trick-or-treaters come around on Halloween. Or the first time he helps me decorate the bunny cake we make every Easter, or the gingerbread man cake we make for his dad’s birthday every year.

Food is more than food. It’s family tradition. It’s a link in a chain of family, and love, and laughter, and story-telling. And I can’t wait to carry on those traditions with my own children!

My Mom Makes the Best ___________

This morning, my son and I made cornbread together. And as I was lifting it out of the pan and smelling its buttery sweetness, I thought to myself, “My mom made the BEST cornbread.”

I’d bet that all of you, my readers, if asked to fill in the blank in the sentence “My mom makes the best ________,” wouldn’t even hesitate. You’d have an answer right away. Maybe it would be something as mundane as meatloaf or chocolate cake, or maybe it might be something a bit fancier, like Baked Alaska or boeuf bourguignon, or maybe it might be something a bit offbeat, like Dirt Pudding or curried hotdogs. But I’m sure you would come up with at least one answer without even having to think. And even if your mom isn’t much of a cook, I bet you could think of something your dad, or your grandmother, or your Aunt Delores makes that’s the absolute best, in your opinion.

I wonder what my kids will think of, years down the road, when asked about my signature dish. Will their favorite be something sweet, like my chocolate fudge cake or my Lime Fascination, something ordinary like my shepherd’s pie or my chicken pot pie, or will it be something that I don’t even think about as being special, like my fish chowder or my pumpkin pie?

Whatever it turns out to be, I only hope that part of the reason they think it’s the best is that they associate it with wonderful times spent together in the kitchen, working and laughing together with each other and with me.

I know that’s what makes my mom’s recipes so special to me.

Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah

When I was a little girl, one of my favorite things to do with my mom was to cook. As soon as I was big enough to climb on a stool and reach the kitchen counter, Mom let me help in the kitchen. She let me stir and pour and frost and crack eggs and lick the beaters. She showed me how to use measuring cups and spoons, how to read a recipe, how to know when cakes and cookies are done baking, and how to adapt a recipe when you need to. And now that my son is big enough to climb on a stool and reach the kitchen counter, I let him help in the kitchen, too.

And I’m not alone in that. My son has cooked with his older sister and his daddy as well. In fact, almost every time he hears his sister in the kitchen, he runs upstairs and announces, “I want to help cook!” It’s nearly an unspoken rule in the household that he must be invited to help with any cooking involving cracking eggs. I love how natural it is for him to do things in the kitchen.

And I try to let him do as much as possible when we cook together. Last Sunday we needed to bring something to church for coffee hour, so he and I baked brownies. I read the recipe, chose the right measuring cups and utensils, and cut open the package of mix, but he really did the majority of the work. He broke the eggs into the bowl with minimal assistance (and didn’t get a single bit of eggshell in the bowl!). He carefully dumped the mix into the bowl. He poured the oil and the water into the measuring cup and dumped it into the bowl. He squeezed the packet of fudge in. He sprayed the pan with cooking spray. And we took turns stirring and counting our strokes until we reached 50. Then he scooped the batter into the pan and smoothed it out. And on Sunday, he was very proud to tell everyone that he had made those brownies himself.

Baking is his favorite, but we do cooking together, too. A few weeks ago we made shepherd’s pie together, and once again, he did the majority of the work. I browned the ground beef and poured the boiling water for the mashed potatoes, but he did nearly everything else. He helped me scoop the beef into the pan, then he poured the frozen corn into the measuring cup up to the line that I showed him and poured it onto the beef. He poured the salt into the measuring spoon and scooped the butter into the bowl for the potatoes. He measured the milk and the potato flakes and poured them in. And he stirred everything together after I added the hot water. He dumped the potatoes on top and smoothed them out, then dropped handfuls of cheese on top of the whole glorious mess. He even helped me crimp a piece of tinfoil over the top. I popped it into the oven, and when it came out and I spooned it onto plates for him, his daddy, and myself, he again announced proudly, “I made this for you!”

Yesterday being Fat Tuesday, I thought I’d let him have something special for lunch, so we made a tortilla pizza. He laid a tortilla on his plate, scooped some pizza sauce on and spread it around, and covered it with shredded cheese. I put it in the microwave to melt, and then together we used a pizza cutter to make wedges. He was very proud of his own creation and gobbled it right up.

I look forward to a few years from now, when I plan to make it his responsibility to choose a menu and help make dinner once a week. I already have a mental list of favorites that he can do completely or at least almost completely on his own: shepherd’s pie, meatloaf, wienerschnitzel (one of the first dishes I made by myself under my mom’s watchful eye), soup, chicken and rice casserole, pork chops.

I have always appreciated that my husband knows how to cook – it’s great for his own sake and for mine. And I plan on raising a son who can feed not only himself, but his family and friends as well. And if he turns out to be a better cook than I am, that’s just fine with me.