Food is a central theme in our home. I spend hours shopping and preparing food that is nutritious and hopefully tasty. My kids have had their hand in food preparation in the various phases of their life.
Daughter was very interested in food when she was around 8. She would make dinner, desserts and create recipes too. Her favorite was puttanesca sauce for pasta. I bought her cook books and she understood what had to happen from point A to B to get the food on the table. Her interest waned but her skill served him well as a Scout where she volunteered to do the shopping and food prep for the camp outs. She told me she likes to cook so she doesn’t have to do the clean up.
Daughter has become our primary dessert maker. When we need pie, cake, cookies, fudge, she is the go-to kid. She enjoys it, is good at it, takes a chore off of me, and gives her a sense of accomplishment. I always made fudge a certain way but she finds her own recipes and makes it how she wants to. I stay out of his way and let her create. I also stay out of his way when it comes to buying the ingredients. I want to intervene but this is an ok time to let her sink or swim by the choices she makes. When we run out of sugar due to her not reviewing how much we had in the house, she got to learn the fine art of borrowing a cup of sugar from neighbor.
Son had a different relationship with food preparation. Since Daughter was already into this activity, Son had a hard time finding his own path. This is much of how Son approaches tasks in life with Daughter already doing the same stuff. I can relate since I’m a younger sibling. Son didn’t have as much passion but he took on a creative approach to food. How can he make the hamburger look like a face? How can the plate to be arranged like a picture or arrange the veggies in a design? Taste or production wasn’t the focus, appearance was.
Son has followed in Daughter footsteps regarding Scout food stuff though: he shops and cooks so he doesn’t have to clean up. He volunteered for a whole weekend of food prep for a council-wide event rather than participating in the camping activities. Son is most helpful to me in regular food prep: peeling this, cutting that, grating, measuring. He still likes his art though. The watermelon was his latest canvas.
I’m glad both kids know their way around the kitchen. They will not starve as young adults because they don’t know HOW to cook. They may starve out of laziness, but that won’t be my problem.
