Kids Cuisine

I’ve got a lot to learn in the kitchen. Nobody really cooked when I was growing up. My mom was a businesswoman. She taught me how to write a killer resume but left me ignorant in the ways of the roast chicken. And honestly, I was largely uninterested until I became a mom some ten years ago (Except for the eating part. I was always interested in that). So you could say that I got a late start.

I want my kids to be interested in the eating and the cooking parts. I want them to grow up with memories of their mom preparing them food. And I want them to wonder how it’s done, if only to question why I botched things up so regularly.

Part of doing this is to officially sanction playing with their food… even as they make it.

This weekend I made almendrados, almond-lemon macaroons, from a Sephardic recipe I found in the New York Times. (I’d link here but the link is now archived so no longer free). It’s a simple but elegant-sounding dessert that I was inspired to try.  Read all about it here.

When it came time to roll the dough into little balls and swipe them through sugar on a dish, my six-year-old Jack couldn’t help but want to help.

“Wash your hands first,” I instructed. “With soap!”

He made little balls of macaroon like an expert, and set them carefully onto the parchment paper.

Then he got his six-year-old on and started making macaroon monsters. Two decorative almonds instead of one. Then three. Then he made a macaroon centipede. And a Woolly Mammoth.

Naturally, I had to bake all of these, too.

His play briefly crashed into my sense of seriousness. I’d never made these before and I needed to pay attention. Ruining simple recipes is my specialty, but I wanted these to turn out. I soon realized, however, that I needed to lighten up.

My almendrados turned out lovely. And my son, meanwhile, had a lot of fun helping me bake. He actually took great care with the baking of these macaroons, setting the timer and keeping his eye on it, helping his scatter-brained, too busy mom to not overcook something for once.

He was rewarded with all the macaroon mastodons he could eat. With milk. Chalk up another positive childhood kitchen memory.