Thursday, July 08, 2010

The Master Chef Influence

Ive always treid to encourage the boys to be involved in the kitchen. I think that cooking is an important life skill for them to aquire. I would hope that by the time they leave home, they will have a good basic knowledge, and be able to fend for themselves in the kitchen (and the laundry!). They are pretty good at trying new foods, and can both prepare & cook basic snacks, cooked breakfasts, simple meals etc.

Nathan, in particular, has always been interested in cooking. Watching master chef most nights seems to have really sparked his desire to create in the kitchen. It helps that he is on school holidays too!

Last Friday night Caleb won a cookbook in a cupcake decorating challenge at youth group. It is filled with yummy treat recipes. Caleb used one of the recipes and made a birthday cake for Monice on Saturday, and it was delicious!


Tuesday Nathan decided he wanted to make something. He choose triple choc brownies - they were SO good.



Not that there was ever any doubt that they would be delicious, any recipe that calls for 450g chocolate is bound to tickle the taste buds!!!

Wednesday he wanted to bake again. There are many recipes he wants to try from the book, but I convinced him to try something savory this time. He decided that he would cook chicken for dinner. He went online, googled chicken recipes and came up with one for a chicken & leek casserole.

We hit the shops for ingredients,and with only a little guidance, and the help of a ski glove to stop his hand getting splattered, while browning the chicken,

he cooked a dinner that was enjoyed by everyone (except Isaac - but pretty much everything served for dinner apart from sausages and plain pasta is considered disgusting by him atm!)

Today he was really wanting to make macaroons from the book. We didn't have all the ingredients, and didn't get down the street, so by late afternoon he decided to for go them and make a batch of Anzac biscuits instead.

He has already scoured the food ideas magazines I had here, and decided on making Cordon Bleu crumbed pork for tomorrow nights tea - cant wait. Now all I need to do is work on getting him as enthused about cleaning up after as doing the cooking -although, if he wants to decide what we are having, and do the cooking, then I'm happy to be his kitchen hand and clean up!!!!

4 comments:

Jen said...

Ooh my, those brownies look yummo!!! And yay for your letting you kids loose in the kitchen!, I did it with all mine and it has been a wonderful thing.. they all love to cook and they are all great at it. I love the photo of Nathan with the ski glove, such a great idea!! one of my favorite memory moments in the history of cooking with my kids was walking into the kitchen when my son (then 13) was standing at the bench chopping... I could see something strange coming out from the top of his head so I called out and he turned around - to my hilarious surprise he was wearing his swim snorkle and goggles chopping onions! He thought it was the perfect thing to stop his eyes watering!! Aaah kids, they do it with style and in ways we would never think of!
Hope your school holidays are wonderful and the kids have a blast (and you get plenty more meals cooked for you ;)!)

Unknown said...

Gosh you have abudding chef there :). If he wants some truely scrumptious dishes send him to google the tasty kitchen (a US site so might need some help in converting) but by golly some of the bakery stuff on here is divine.

Nell said...

Oh I love that kid!!! Can't wait until mine are old enough to cook meals - they are already pretty good kitchen hands but oh the bliss of not having to worry about what is for tea!
xxx

MY SPACE said...

How wonderful!!!