Pfunksfoolosophy

If any of you out there are parents of small children, you will understand very, very soon just how important it is to teach them to prepare their own food at some point during their development. Not only will it foster confidence, but it will give them a skill that will help them their entire lives. Believe me, there is nothing better than watching as your 5 year old prepares their first batch of brownies and then goes on to tell people that she’s ‘famous’ for her brownie recipe. Nothing can touch that.

Even if it’s just letting them pour their own cereal into a bowl or getting their own bowl of grapes, it’s a start and they will feel much more confident in the kitchen.
I remember my first attempt at baking with my maternal grandmother. She was making apple pie and gave me the scraps of dough and told me to roll it out. I did. And I kept rolling and kneading and rolling and kneading…even though she reminded me that I would toughen up the dough, I felt that it needed a good amount of elbow grease in order to ‘create’ my masterpiece. Well, she finally got me to quit rolling it and sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on it and we twisted it into a little shape. It baked and when I pulled  it out, that thing was as hard as a rock.

Gram was a trooper; she took a big bite and said, ‘Well, honey…you might coulda stopped when I asked ya to, but now you know when to leave dough alone, don’t you? It’s still got good flavor, though. Not bad for your first try.’

I was only about 4 or so. It was a lesson in understanding my materials. You’ve got to have some difficulty in the kitchen to unlock your true talent. I always tell people, “There are no mistakes in cooking, only discoveries.”

What will you discover with your kids or loved ones in the kitchen? Are you afraid of trying because you’re afraid of failure? Don’t look at it that way. If you have older kids and you’re afraid of cooking, why not take a cooking class together if you have the means?
If you’re a stellar cook,why not invite your kids’ friends over and teach them one signature dish that they can prepare for their folks?
It’s fun and will create wonderful memories for all of you. That’s what it’s about for me.

There’s joy in creating food for other people. There is something splendid about that feeling of accomplishment and that look of satisfaction on the faces of your kids after all of the work.

Just get someone else to clean up.

: )

This entry was posted on Friday, September 7th, 2007 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Cooking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.