TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Kids And Cooking Can Be A Successful Recipe For Life

ADVERTISEMENT

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2007

When I was a child, store-bought cookies never crossed the welcome mat of our home. Oreos and Fig Newtons were not in our pantry.

If my siblings and I wanted cookies, my mother required we hotfoot it into the kitchen and bake them ourselves. With minimal guidance, we somehow avoided any memorable mishaps. Those were my first cooking lessons.

After becoming a mother myself, I decided to take a more active role with my children in the kitchen.

One of the most practical and fun things I did with two of my daughters, Dana and Leslie, was to teach them to cook. They mostly learned alongside a small flock of middle school girlfriends while I was their Camp Fire leader for seven years. A hundred s'mores and foil packets later, the girls were savvy teenage chefs - at least when facing a one-gallon tin can set over a homemade Sterno.

Wherever you teach your kids or grandkids to cook or bake, the experience can be a great way for them to be creative, learn self-sufficiency and develop confidence. It's also a way for you and the kiddos to have some meaningful conversation.

After discussing safety rules with your budding kitchen stars, start with the basics such as shredding lettuce, peeling potatoes or grating cheese. You can move on later to crepes, souffles and crème brulee.

My kids found food fascinating anytime it involved scooping, dipping, filling, frosting or adding things like toppings and sprinkles.

I recently had the delightful opportunity of playing in the kitchen with my 7-year-old granddaughter, Taylor, while she was visiting from Texas. We made one of my family's easy-to-assemble favorites, hamburger cookies.

The first time I made them with my youngest daughter, Lauren, she took them to a party at her elementary school. To this day, her friends still remember and share memories of 'those hamburger cookies.'

But back to Taylor.

Getting a kick out of the novel, assembly-line production involved, she stirred and measured frosting with enthusiasm. More than eager to get her small hands sticky, she never budged off the stool she sat on. It was apparent she was enthralled with the process.

Her final assessment? 'Mmmm. These are really good, Grandma!'

If you would like to teach children how to make fun desserts, visit Disney's www.family.com or check out 'Mom's Big Book of Baking' by Lauren Chattman. It has 200 easy-to-follow recipes that promise to get you through any slumber party, bake sale or birthday party.
HAMBURGER COOKIES
48 vanilla wafers

24 chocolate-covered, thin mint cookies

1 tub of vanilla frosting

1 cup coconut

Green, red and yellow food coloring

1 tablespoon honey

Sesame seeds

Divide frosting into two small bowls. Add red food coloring to one bowl and yellow food coloring to the other to make the 'mustard and ketchup.' Place coconut in a baggie, add two or three drops of green food coloring and shake to make the 'lettuce.' For each hamburger cookie, spread a half-teaspoon of red frosting on the flat side of a vanilla wafer, spread half-teaspoon yellow frosting on the flat side of another vanilla wafer. Place a mint cookie between the two. Roll the hamburger cookie (on its edge) in coconut. With a toothpick, gently dab honey on top of the cookie and sprinkle lightly with sesame seeds. Serve with shoestring potatoes as fries.

Lynn Kessel can be reached at lkessel@mac.com or P.O. Box 286, Ruskin FL 33575-0286. Readers are encouraged to send their recipes and comments.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT