One of the greatest gifts you can pass down to your grandkids are family recipes. It’s a safe bet that they might have already been enjoying some of these tasty treats over the years. When they come of age, it is time to bring them into the kitchen and show them how it gets down. The more time you can spend in the kitchen with the grandkids the more confidence they’ll gain with using gadgets. They can also get a greater appreciation of where food comes from. This is the beginning of those important lessons of teaching your grandkids the value of things. Of course, cooking with grandkids is also just plain fun. As you get ready to invite your little master chef into the kitchen, here are some things you need to keep in mind:
Embrace the Mess
You can’t make anything taste good without first making a mess in the kitchen. With kid cooks at your side, that mess will increase exponentially. Just roll with it. That mess can also become a teachable moment. After all, you can’t enjoy what you’re cooking until the mess is cleaned up. Maybe that can extend to their bedrooms. Good luck with that!
DIY Prep Work
Just because you’re inviting your grandkid in for a cooking session, doesn’t mean they have to be part of everything. After all, you’re not going to give them a paring knife and let them go crazy with the dicing. Instead, approach your cooking session as if it’s a cooking show. Those cooks always have the ingredients carefully measured out into little bowls. As for the major cutting, do that in advance, too. You can always start the young ones off with a butter knife for soft slicing but it’s best to leave the big cuts for you.
Talk Through the Recipes
Kids are sponges. They absorb everything. That is why it is important to talk them through the recipe. Let them know the measurements and why you’re adding certain ingredients at certain times. This might slow down the process a bit but it’s what makes the time you’re sharing in the kitchen truly fun.
Utilize All the Teaching Moments
Cooking with your grandkids is like an endless string of important lessons. One of the great things you can instill in them is food hygiene. Start with the need to wash hands all along the way. Then there are the handling instructions for things like raw meat and poultry.
Taste, Taste, Taste
When you’re cooking with your grandkid, you should be tasting along the way. This will open up their pallets and get them to have a stronger appreciation for a variety of food. Plus, they get to have a say into whether something tastes right or not. That’s empowerment.
There are plenty of kid friendly recipes out there that are heavy on the mixing and light on the finesse. Those are good places to start with your grandkid. Do you cook with your grandkids?
