TIPS FOR COOKING WITH KIDS
• Get organized in advance, but not too organized. Have the kids do the work. Set out the ingredients, along with measuring cups, cutting boards and whatever else is needed.
• Review safety guidelines and demonstrate different activities before getting started. Show the proper way to hold a knife (one hand on the handle, fingers of the hand holding the food should be well away from the blade). Demonstrate how to hold a pot by its handle, with a pot holder, at the stove.
• Talk about what steps come first when following a recipe.
• Stand back and keep close watch. Jump in only if things look dicey or dangerous.
• Be encouraging. Taste, and encourage the cooks to taste. Have them make suggestions about what might be needed. Salt? Pepper? Garlic? A few more chopped herbs?
• Show how to keep ahead of a mess by using breaks in a recipe to clean up (as the bread dough is rising, as the soup is simmering).
• When cooking with several kids, have a few things going on at once. No one wants to stand and watch someone else chop. Two kids can be prepping a salad, someone else can make the dressing, another person can be setting the table. When this happens, everyone is engaged in that choreography of the kitchen.
• Have everyone help set the table, fold napkins, pour water. Sit down together. Then toast each other and your efforts.
