Who cooks with your kids


 
Mark Foreman

Mark Foreman

TVWBB All-Star
My kids are all grownup and moved out. Cooking is my passion and cook as much as possible from scratch.
Over the last couple of years, my kids (4 of ‘em) started to call me for cooking help. More recently, I taught my oldest daughter to cook steak.
Now that I am retired, I spend most Tuesdays cooking with my younger daughter. Yesterday, she learned to make home made egg pasta, strawberry/raspberry sorbet, and English muffins. Recently, we have made jams, bread, sausage, and Chorizo.
I love it!!! I so look forward to Tuesdays.
Not sure how many here cook with their kids but I highly recommend. For me, it doesn’t get any better…..
 
While my littles don’t man the grill, they do help me peel vegetables, season whatever we’re cooking and always stir ingredients mixed together in a bowl. Admittedly they prefer when Daddy BBQ’s and are more inclined to bake with their mother.
 
I taught both my boys to cook for themselves. I wrote up a cook book / bbq book for them with recipes, steps, tips, pictures - had it printed up at FedEx Services.

They caught on quick and are totally competent from grilled chicken, steaks, to spaghetti & stir fry dishes. Cooking is a life skill and great bonding memory making fun.
 
One thing my mother was insistent about was that every single one of her kids was going to be able to survive in the kitchen. And some things she did awfully well, like teach me how to make a basic white sauce, each and every time (and in the classic French method, using only a flat blade spatula. Oh, whisks, where have you been all my life!) My sisters & I all enjoy cooking, my brother, well, he eats to survive. We have had informal cook-offs, like who makes Mom's knotted dinner rolls best. I know for a fact I have smoked food down way better (nobody else even has a smoker,) and grilling..... I may be the only one who grills over charcoal.

Personally, I'm always game for getting kids into the kitchen. Showed the young lady next door (WITH her parent's knowledge & permission!) when she was about 14 how to make cheesecake..... but a recipe & a half ("I didn't expect to get a math lesson!")
 
I agree that it's fun cooking with my kids but I think that our 2 oldest are better cooks than I am. In June our 2 oldest grandkids (30 somethings) came to visit from Colorado and brought their fiancées. All 4 worked in restaurant kitchens and my grandson in a BBQ restaurant. The entire family had gathered for my wife's 80th birthday. The rest of the family came and went but my grandkids and I just kept pumping out the food, including BBQ. I got to know their fiancées and when they returned to Colorado Nick went out and bought him a pellet grill. I actually think I learned more from the kids than they learned from me and we all had a great time.
 
JKalchik said:
One thing my mother was insistent about was that every single one of her kids was going to be able to survive in the kitchen.
Click to expand...
My mom never directly pushed the idea with me, but when I did get out on my own she pointed out that I simply couldn't afford to eat out all the time. By then I'd picked up enough from observing her and the cooks in the restaurant where I'd worked to be able to get by.

My daughters grew up pretty much the same way. We never really worked together but they'd help me out when I needed it, and now the older does well enough to feed her family. The younger really took to it and is now a professional cook despite a lack of formal training, and she and I often work side by side at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
 
I started cooking with my kids while camping 30 years ago.
Now they are cooking with their kids.
 
My granddaughter used to enjoy cooking with me but, not so much since high school and her life as more the young lady in college. Grandson is really only interested in when it will be ready!
 
We get the local butter … Clover. you need to use UNSALTED butter. The method I use is from Alton Brown.
Link is here: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/clarified-butter-recipe-2111845

Clarified butter and Ghee are basically the same thing. Ghee is cooked till it is much darker and nuttier.
You cook out the fat so getting butter with high fat (aka European butter) is a cost waste cause you cook off the fat. Unsalted is the most important as the results will have a heavy salt taste.
 
My 12 year daughter and I do some cooking together. We got her a Kitchenaid stand mixer for Christmas 2020 and she loves to mix things to bake with it. We use it to make mashed potatoes and meatloaf. I will put her oatmeal chocolate chip cookies up against anyones.
 
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