Julio's Delicatessen

This weekend, my nine-year-old and I decided that she would cook dinner solo.  I helped with the recipe, shopping list, etc, but she did all of the chopping, measuring, sauteeing, stirring, and other cooking-related tasks.  We decided that she would cook paella (previously posted here, PDF of the recipe here) as the main course.   Continue reading ‘Cooking with the kids’

I started cooking this evening’s dinner while the kids were still at the park with the nanny.  When they walked in, I was still in the kitchen.  All three ran in yelling “can we help? can we help?” I absolutely love it when the kids want to participate in dinner preparation.  On a related note, it kills me when the kids want to participate but the only remaining tasks involve hot oil, sizzling bacon, a 600 degree grill, or something similarly unsuitable for kids.  So even though I was effectively finished with the preparation, I told the kids they could make some fruit salad.  We frequently buy whatever fruit is in season (which is generally a lot here in California)  and serve it at the end of dinner.  Tonight’s twist: I told the kids they were going to do 100% of the work.  I wasn’t going to get anything from the fridge, get a knife out of the knife block, get a cutting board out of the cabinet, nothing.

Once the kids got all of the ingredients, I directed them (without touching) to the appropriate knives.  I gave them only some basic instructions.  (When my 8-year-old got a little confused by the anatomy of a strawberry, I drew a diagram rather than showing her on an actual strawberry so I could stay true to my kids-do-all-the-work policy).   Continue reading ‘Child labor fruit salad’