Thinking about my recent trip to Israel, I realize that fresh and good food was so easy to find there, and at relatively inexpensive prices. The restaurant at the beach, the little falafel shop, the pastries at the grocery store at 10 PM, the street corner Shawarma place…  It was all good, fresh, and cheap.

I haven’t seen any junk food chain stores! Can you believe it? Well… besides McDonalds… McDonalds is everywhere, isn’t it? But it’s not very popular in Israel. (They say that even Starbucks did not make it there.) So, you get my point, good, fresh food—and coffee!—was all around. Oh, and fresh juice too. Freshly squeezed juice stores like this one below were on every busy street.

Inspired by that, we started drinking freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast at home. (The doctor says is has lots of fiber…)

We made fresh juice using these tools which failed to squeeze every sweet drop out of the fruit,

… and it was also somewhat messy and time consuming (Who has extra time in the morning to make orange juice?), so we went back to the boxed juice only to discover that the juice from the box, organic or not, with pulp or not, with added vitamins or not, tastes like nothing.

We are never buying/drinking that stuff again ever!

4 days later we rushed to the store and bought an electric juicer. (In case you’re curious where, click here.) What do you know? It takes only 5 minutes from start to finish, cleanup included, and the kids can do it!

Then, at 12:31 AM—Yes, 12:31 AM!!!—it hit me. None of the oranges we used had seeds!

In the morning, I had to test my revelation.

I cut all 4 different varieties we had in half. To my surprise, I found out that heirloom or not, organic or not, Navel or another… the oranges don’t have seeds besides a lonely, random speck of seed, see?

What happened to the seeds?

Who took them out of the oranges?

What does it mean?

And who’s gonna make fresh orange juice?

(Because I had a store credit at Williams-Sonoma and I really don’t need anything from the store right now.)

My son’s reaction as he unwrapped the gift and saw the book cover picking through the paper wrap was “Is this a gift for me or for my sister?” Hmm, it pretty much confirmed my concerns—I have anticipated this.

Later that day I encouraged him to look inside. He browsed through the pages but overall the book received a chilled response and was left on the floor until I picked it up and put it on the cookbooks shelf. Unlike the enthusiasm with which he greeted the 6 Lego sets and other gifts he got from his friends.

***

I think the book is beautiful. I love the choice of recipes and they are the kind that an 8 years old can make. Even younger kids can make most of the recipes.

However, browsing through many kids cookbooks I found out that many lack originality and there’s a major repetition in the choice of “kids” recipes like muffins, pancakes, chicken pot pies, pasta with meatballs, pizza—of course!, burgers/sloppy Joes, chicken nuggets, brownies, cupcakes… and this book has them too.

Many of the children cookbooks I’ve seen had a messy layout with crazy fonts and scattered photos and doodles all over the page which gave a sense of chaos and a slight headache for Mama. This book is very nicely organized. They did a great job in the layout.

I really like that the recipes are written for adults and children (Well, they do call it “Cooking together”) and have separate preparation steps for the kids and the parents which you can tell by the different font they use. This was particularly important in my decision to buy this book after hearing my son declare recently that he has “Only 4 more things left to learn about cooking and then I’ll know everything”. Yeah, dude, that’s right.

The photos are gorgeous but they are of children who look younger than 8 years and most are of girls, and in most of the photos the girls are cooking and the boys are eating… We have discussed that.

Bottom line, I like the book but—I knew it!—I should have saved it for my little girl.

There are other choices of cookbooks for boys he might have liked better like the Star Trek cookbook he brought from the school’s library last week. He made Yoda Soda…

In short, it makes me a little angry. And somewhat frustrated, as a person, as a woman, and as a mother to a boy and a girl.

I was merely looking for a cookbook for my boy, you know, so he will have one of his own, a birthday gift. Any suggestions?

Tonight I asked Junior (7 years old) to make dinner.

While I cleaned up the scattered toys in the family room–his job–he “cooked” dinner–my job. A fair enough trade?

Dad:

Junior (Looks like Dad, but no beard, yet):

Mom (It looks so much like me):

Junioress (she does look like me):

Sometimes I let the guys cook.

They play in the kitchen, taking their time, talking, discussing the recipe, but using tongs because they don’t like touching the food and getting their hands dirty, ha ha.

The little guy helps his dad by reading the recipe out loud.

…and measuring the ingredients, then whisking the batter

The big guy gets really focused in his job of frying the fish. Doing a great job.

You can notice that he does not overcrowd the pa. He learned from past mistakes. An important quality for a guy! I love that about him.

I must say, they clean up too.

I actually think that they would have loved to cook/play in the kitchen more frequently if I let them. But I don’t.

Sometimes when our son was about 2-3 years old, I turned into the cook-who-tries-to-put-it all-together-quickly-so-there’s-dinner-on-the-table-by 6:30 pm (7 pm the latest). So no playing in the kitchen.

And, it’s my little weekdays’ getaway. My time to be, sort of, by myself while the kids and The Husband play in the family room.

But somehow fish and chips became my husband’s house specialty. And I don’t complain.

I bought fresh wild True Cod and we had baked potatoes “chips” with it, and a simple salad. Estimated cost – $4 per person.

Begin the potatoes and while they bake, prepare the fish.
 
Baked potato “Chips”:

6-8 small red potatoes, unpeeled and scrubbed clean
2 splashes olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh minced garlic, optional
Fresh minced rosemary and/or thyme leaves, optional

Preheat the oven to 400-425 F degrees.

Cut the potatoes in half, then cut each half to 3-4 chunks. Place the potatoes on a sheet pan with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and herbs. Toss together.

Spread the potatoes in a single layer and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, undisturbed, until they are lightly browned and tender inside.

For the fish:
Slightly adapted from Barefoot Contessa Family Style cookbook
Makes 4-6 servings

1 1/2 pounds fresh, thick cod fillets
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
1/2 cup water
1 extra-large egg, lightly beaten
Vegetable oil, for frying

Lay the cod fillets on a cutting board. Sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. Cut the fillets to 3-inch size pieces.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, lemon zest,  1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Whisk in 1/2 cup of water and the egg.

Pour 1/2-inch of oil into a large deep skillet and heat it to about 360 degrees F.

Dip each fillet into the batter, allowing the excess to drip back into the bowl. Place it carefully into the hot oil. Don’t crowd the pan.

Adjust the heat as needed to keep the oil hot. Cook the fish on each side for 2 to 3 minutes, until lightly browned and cooked through. Remove to a plate lined with a paper towels.

We went shopping together three days before Thanksgiving. We got all excited by the atmosphere at the store; you know… the decorations, the music, but mostly by the bounty of seasonal vegetables and fruits. Wow. I love winter vegetables! And spring, summer and fall too. For some reason, my little boy was particularly enthusiastic, maybe because of all the food I put in our cart – I did get carried away a bit, ahem hhhm, OK, a lot – and me talking about all the delicious meals we are going to have over the weekend and so he asked me to give him a “feast lesson”. Oh, this child makes my heart want to pop out of my chest sometimes. Makes me want to squeeze him.

Well, he didn’t get a “feast lesson”, but I did let him (or did I make him? I guess it depends on how you look at it) help me make one outrageously delicious cornbread stuffing.

So far I have posted about baking with kids because it’s my husband who usually does the cooking with kids. I used to think it is the proximity to fire and knives that made me choose baking over cooking with my kid. The more I thought about it I came to the conclusion that when I bake I am more relaxed, but when I cook the tyrant, control freak, bossy side of me comes out. This is why I prefer to be in the kitchen alone. I’m not a friendly cook. I need to work on that. When people pay me to cook for them I’m nicer though.

Anyway, this Thanksgiving I wasn’t stressed. We had guests coming over and everyone got a task and a dish to bring that I have delegated to them so I had time to try out the “cooking with your kids” thing.
It was nice.

This is how my son, the lucky little angel, got the short version of a “feast lesson”. I showed him how I want the celery, apples, cornbread, and leftover corn muffins chopped. Then I showed him how to whip heavy whipped cream that I used for the pumpkin pie (see tips in A cake for the weekend: Amazing strawberry shortcake post). I don’t let him handle the mixer by himself, of course.

And then we set the table together for the “feast”.

* Set a “station” where s/he can work, clean and clear from clutter.
* Secure the cutting board to the work surface by placing a plastic mat or wet towel/paper towel so it doesn’t slip.
* My son is using a regular serrated kitchen knife since he was 3 years old, not a plastic knife, but I’ll leave that to your judgment with your own kids.
* Washing hands is the first thing to do.
* Wearing an apron is encouraged but optional, depends on the expected level of mess and spill.

PS – I don’t mean to preach to you or anything like that. But I would like to encourage you to spend time in the kitchen with your kids and teach them cooking and baking skills. I wrote many times before that it wasn’t always easy and fun to cook with my son when he was younger. I constantly plan to post about all the difficulties I/we had when we began two years ago. Now, two years later we are smarter so it looks better in the pictures, but believe me, many cooking sessions have ended before they began a year and two years ago.

I would like you to share here (in the comments section below): Do you cook or bake with your kids? Would you like to do it? Do you have any advice, tip or story to share? I’m no expert and would love to hear from you.

Nurit

When my son was 3 years old, he got a Home depot tool box from Toys R Us for his birthday. That was one of the best gifts ever. He played with it a lot, by himself or when he was “helping” his dad build things. It was a wonderful imaginary toy as well as a “useful” one with context to real world activities.

Now that he is 5 and he wants real tools.

Corky Pollan from the online Gourmet magazine , November 2008 issue, (Photographs by Romulo Yanes) shows a few examples of really cool kitchen tools you can give to your kid/s who likes to cook. They are real but they are more colorful and fun looking then “adults” tools which are usually a boring black and white. So if you want to encourage your child/ren to play in the kitchen with you, this might be a cool gift to give for the holiday.
Most of the tools can be found at familiar stores like Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Crate and Barrel, and others.

A while ago I bragged about how my son, who is 5 years old, wrote a recipe for Chocolate-banana cookies. A recipe! From scratch! All by himself! And no one asked him too.

He made mommy, that’s me, very proud, of course.
That was in September (2008) and I have finally found the time to share with you some tips on how we do it. I’ll tell you right now, it wasn’t always fun to bake or cook together – we started when he was about 3 – but more about that later.

Today I want to share with you some secrets and photos from behind the scene. The timing is perfect because cookie season is about to start and a lot of holiday cookie baking is going to take place in many homes. People are already excited about it, for example, check out the cakespy.com blog, but don’t participate in the poll because I did and I want to win. If you participate it will lower my chances to win one of the cool prizes. I’m just kidding. You know that. Right?!
So, anyway, back to baking with your kid/s.

First, here is the recipe.

The recipe is written in Hebrew. He wrote the title – Chocolate banana cookies. The ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs, butter, salt, bananas, chocolate, etc. The quantities, well, mainly in “scoops”, a somewhat vague measuring unit, but this is how they talked about it in his former class when they were sharing and passing lunch around the table. Some quantities are in teaspoons and cups. So here comes an important point: I had to figure out how much to let him do what he wants (and maybe fail), and how much to intervene and give him advice (so he has a better chance to succeed)?

I wanted to recipe to be his, not mine.
I knew that some of the quantities just won’t work. For example, any adult can tell in advance, a baker or not – that 3 teaspoons of flour are not enough to make cookies. So we had a long discussion to figure out what is exactly a “scoop” and looked at other recipes for advice. We have also agreed to adjust the quantities as we go along and added more and more and more flour to the mixer bowl until the consistency looked OK, a total of 2 ½ cups of flour.

So as you can see, there is a fine line between how much the child leads the process and how much you are in charge. When we just started baking together, about 2 years ago, I was more in charge and he had to work on his listening skills and follow my instructions. A few times I had to end up the process because it turned into a battle. Not fun. But today when he has already learned how to work, I can give him more freedom.

In this project he had a lot of freedom to lead, but that is after 2 years of experience.

I learned a lot too. The 2 most important things are, I think:

1. Forget about perfection. It’s not going to be the same as if you did it by yourself. Yep. And not as much fun either as spending the time and doing this project together with your kid/s, and also giving them important life skills.

2. Loosen up. It’s OK to make a mess. This is how they learn. Their motor skills will get better as they grow. You can clean up later together.

Now let’s move forward.

First, we wash our hands (there is a potential for the first battle right there), and prepare the “mise en place”, or gathering and preparing all the ingredients and tools you are going to need at your work station, as well as reading the recipe.

Learning about measuring cups and spoons is a great way to teach fractions, and math in general.

Peeling fruit is great to develop motor skills. Of course for a kindergartener it’s not hard to do, but little ones can feel a great sense of accomplishment by doing it.

… as well as mashing the fruit…

more peeling to do…

Sifting the dry ingredients can make a mess when their fine motor skills are not yet fully developed. You can have flour all over the floor, so stand next to them and guide/help them.

Scooping is a bit tricky. I usually scoop the batter out from the bowl with the cookie scooper and let him drop it on the baking sheet.

Have fun.
Nurit

Don’t try to read it, it is written in another language, but he also drew pictures of the ingredients and specified the quantities (some in cups, some in teaspoons, and some in “scoops”).

That’s the photo he took after styling the cookies himself:

By the way, thank you to Danny for his post: 5 Tips To Take Your Food Photographs From Boring to Fabulous! I’m practicing.

It’s 12:02 AM! Got to go and sleep. But the recipe will be shared. Stay tuned!

Other related posts:

Baking with kids: Chocolate cookies

Putting butter in mixer bowl:

Measuring flour:

What is a “teaspoon”?

Sifting dry ingredients:

Adding eggs to batter :

Measuring ¾ cup of chocolate chips:

Scooping the batter with cookie measuring spoon and placing on baking sheet. (I did most of the scooping. He likes to play with the spoon and release the batter on the baking sheet. )

Clean up time (OK, I did tell him he will get 2 quarters for sweeping the floor):


Baby gets training on how to clean the floor. She needs to learn this job too (for the future… )

All done. That was fun.

Tip: when baking, or cooking, with kids, forget about perfectionism. Of course teach the child/ren how to do things, but bite your tongue when things don’t turn out the exact way you want them to be. For example, when the shape of the bread is not as perfect as it would have been if you did it… ha ha ha.

Have fun!