Teaching from the kitchen

My mom was, well, not extremely skilled in the kitchen. As a result, I started doing the bulk of the cooking for my parents and sister when I was about 12. My daughters are now 12 and 14, and they don't know their way around a kitchen too well. We had some fun working to change that tonight, though.

The problem is two-fold: I get a lot of joy cooking for them (and they generally enjoy what I cook), and the kitchen is MINE. I have a hard time relinquishing control of that space, but if they're going to learn I'm going to have to! I have no problem with them hanging out at the breakfast bar while I'm cooking (we get a lot of good conversation time that way), but having other people in my space when I'm working is hard for me sometimes (but I'm getting better!).

This morning, I tasked them with thinking about what they wanted to make for dinner tonight. They asked if they could make the ever-popular 'cheesy pasta bake', which goes a little something like this:

• Cook pasta
• Warm jar sauce (for this time - homemade red sauce is later!)
• Grate parm & mozz
• Layer all
• Bake

Not rocket science by any means, but it's surprising how much you take for granted when you cook all the time (leave the lid on the pot when boiling water, be careful putting pasta in the boiling water, how to open a jar when the lid is being stubborn, etc.). I should have started helping them in the kitchen a long time ago, but I'm glad we're working on it now!

At any rate, we had fun in the kitchen, they learned something about cooking, I learned more about my daughters, and we had a good meal. Now if someone would just come over and clean the kitchen...