Friday, July 20, 2007

Cooking Lessons

I've always had my kids help me whenever I bake cakes or muffins. But I decided to give K a go at cooking a dish all by herself. Scrambled eggs seemed easy enough. I let her do everything -- cracking the eggs, putting the seasoning, beating the eggs, turning on the gas, putting the oil, pouring in the eggs, scrambling it and dishing it out. I just stood watch and played the boss barking out orders. The pictures I took above is actually her second time cooking eggs. First time must pay more attention to teaching and making sure no one gets hurt (including the eggs) instead of taking pictures you know.
Well, now she wants to be the official egg scrambler in the house. I have no objections. What she doesn't know is that this is mommy's sinister plan of having her take over all cooking tasks in the future so mommy will have more time to blog. MUAHAHAHA. Just kidding.

I think apart from scrambled eggs, other essential beginning cooking lessons are:
1. How to cook rice
2. How to cook instant noodles
3. Cooking sausages (the Americans call them hotdogs)

With these 4 lessons, I think they are saved from starvation.

What was the first thing you learned how to cook? For me it was cooking rice. I remember my amah would make sure I didn't wash it too many times (or else all the vitamins will be gone). Then how to measure the water. I remember one time she commented on how nice the rice turned out. Wah, felt so proud about it. But I also remember she didn't trust me to cook the fish. I knew that I knew how. But she took the opportunity away from me and did it herself. I remember thinking in my head "how am I going to learn if you don't let me cook?"

Mama's tips:
1. Encourage your child to learn living skills - don't chase them out of the kitchen.
2. Trust them... even though you don't.
3. Once in a while, let go of your need to shelter them (or do everything for them). Give them room to learn and grow.
4. Eat their cooking even if it's a bit flawed (yes, a BIT flawed, not plenty flawed to the point of giving you food poisoning). My kids would eat all my less-than-perfect baking like it was the best thing they ever had. So it's only right that I return the favour.

19 comments:

  1. Good plan, mommy! It's always good to start them early. My gal also love to help me stir when I bake cakes. BTW: I've tagged u at http://jumbledthots.blogspot.com/2007/07/tag-if-i-have-1-million.html

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  2. hey, thanks for dropping my blog! and OMG! u are seriously good with pics!!! i love the way u edit ur pictures!!

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  3. i remember first 3 dishes that i learned was Maggie, rice and fried egg :)

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  4. its good to teach them from young. I started cooking at very young age. Then i started to cook for my family of 8 when i was 15 until i moved out from my house. ie when i got married. Ooooo i remember the first dish i tried out...Sweet n sour pork! yummy!

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  5. I have found link to interesting guidebooks collection similar to your blog subject. There is knowledge for kids, parenting, cooking, recipes etc. Get it and enjoy!

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  6. Rice was also my first cooking lesson - must be an Asian thing :-)

    Tee already knows how to wash rice - hehehe...talk about starting young, eh?

    I'm always paranoid about fire though so I'm not sure when I'd start Tee cooking on an actual stove. I suppose she'd actually have to be tall enough first - hahaha...

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  7. Hi L--that's a great suggestion---encourage our children to learn living skills and then give them room to grow and learn!

    Wonderful insights, thank you!

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  8. Hi... morning. i had presented to you a cool badge as ROCKIN MUM BLOGGER .. do visit my blog for more detail ..
    Congratulation :)

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  9. You really good on teaching your kids, Good idea... should learn from early ... well done to jie jie .

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  10. Thxs for the wonderful tips. So this weekend we r also going to have cooking lessons. My Abj only likes to eat but Abilash enjoys cooking & being messy.

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  11. Good learning...next time can help you in the kitchen...

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  12. Wow....start them young? Good idea? How old is K, huh? Just want to know, before I asked Jona to start helping me in kitchen..:)

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  13. wah good plan indeed.

    i learned to cook rice first too. unlike the $200 rice cooker nowadays, we had a dinasour model with no clear water indicator marks on it. it would produce inedible rice whenever i cook and my nanny would sit there to make sure i finish up every terrible grain as a lesson :(

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  14. How old is she? Didn't know your daughter is so big liao! My mom evil plan works. I started cooking for a family of 10 when i was 12y/o!

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  15. Alycia only knows how to shell her egg now and I'm proud of her. Good idea to teach our lil' ones basic cooking / survival skills from young.

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  16. Blur mommy:
    Thanks for the tag. Will get around to it soon.

    Ehon:
    Thanks. Digital scrapbooking is pretty popular these days. You should try it.

    Mummy to qiqi:
    Looks like that is the standard 3 things for Malaysians :)

    Sasha:
    Wah, looks like you very advanced - first dish is sweet n sour pork? Maybe need cooking lessons from you.

    Sara:
    Thanks

    Big Pumpkin:
    Can get one of those high stools to stand on mah. But yes, maybe Tee is a little young. Wait for another couple of years to actually go solo.

    TNP:
    Always appreciate you dropping by here. You have great posts too.

    Anggie's Journal:
    Thanks for the cool badge. Actually, mumsgather already past it on to me but I havent's made a post on it yet. Anyway, it's great to know that 2 people think I'm a rocking mom blogger!

    a&a's mom:
    Good combination - one cook and the other eat!

    chanelwong:
    That's the whole idea. Actually, not help in the kitchen, more like take over the kitchen. Hahaha.

    mamajo:
    K is 6 years old this year.

    cairo's mommy:
    I'm sure you produce beautiful rice now eh?

    Hijackqueen:
    No wonder your pix of your cooking so "keng chau". Family of 10? Salute!

    health freak mommy:
    You are also on the right track.

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  17. i try to let them cook or bake with me...but sumtimes i jump on them too...coz they can mess up everything!! hahhaha

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  18. I know why I never learn cooking... My mum used to protect me from the heat & fire & oil. She will ask me to stay away from the kitchen. She is very kind to me. Read more about her here. Your name is in there too.... LOL :)

    http://janiceng.blogspot.com/2007/07/mummys-mummy-you-are-greatest.html

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  19. mommy of 2 angels:
    Yes, sometimes I do that too. When days I want to hurry, I let them help leeeeetle bit then chase them away. Hahahah.

    j@n!ce:
    Youngest of 8 kids, I'm sure you had plenty of people cooking for you eh?

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