Emes and Kids in the Kitchen

[Guest guest]

That Emes thing makes me SO ANGRY. Really. I mean, silver lining, I

guess - I never bought the Tiny Trapeeze marshmallows because they

were so expensive, but... GRAH. Filthy liars. (Emes, I mean. I'm

perfectly willing to believe their customers weren't in on their

disgusting deception.)

 

Back to bugging Liz about making those vegan marshmallows, I guess.

 

Oh, speaking of Liz (the owner of the store where my husband works) -

after being pestered... er, inspired by my husband, she offered a

veggie Bratwurst at her monthly Brat Night. With no advance notice or

advertising, at a festival celebrating the consumption of large

amounts of meat, she sold over 30 veggie brats - enough that she's

going to offer them at all future Brat Nights. (Yes it's a frozen

custard place, but they sell sausages and sauerkraut one night a

month. Apparently it's a Wisconsin thing, don't ask me.)

 

Anyway, I thought that was neat, and I'll be mentioning it to my veg

friends in the area, so next month should be even more successful and

maybe she'll come around to the marshmallows. (It pays to have a

one-track mind?)

 

Re: getting kids in the kitchen - I think you can adapt just about any

recipe so it has something they can do. My two-year-old " helps " make

dinner every night, and I know by the time I was 12 it was either cook

something myself or have a frozen dinner (my mother is an amazing

baker, but never, ever cooks). Salads - even little kids can tear

lettuce and add pre-chopped ingredients. Youngish kids (definitely by

the time they're school-aged) should learn how to properly measure

different types of ingredients (dry vs. wet) and then they can do that

and add them to whatever. (Or have the middle kid measure and the

little kid pour - it's a good idea to hold the bowl so you can catch

wherever they decide to dump!) Obviously stuff like deep frying needs

to be done by a grownup, but a preteen should be able to do just about

anything else (chop veggies, boil water, add ingredients, stir-fry)

with supervision. Realize that kids " helping " will roughly double the

time needed to get anything done and triple the cleanup necessary -

the mental preparation should save you from grabbing everything and

doing it yourself.

 

Oh, and make sure they learn that cleanup is part of the food

preparation process!

 

After a bit of instruction, they'll be making spaghetti and salad

meals all on their own.

 

-kt