My husband and I joke all the time that in our marriage he’s the cook, I’m the baker and as such the stove is his domain and the oven is mine. Occasionally we can overlap or switch when we need to. He has also taken upon himself to teach our daughters how to be in the kitchen. He has infinite patience with them and he make it such an adventure for them. I’ve had them make cookies with me a couple times but they much prefer cooking with Daddy than me – and that suits me just fine.
One of our favorite things to make is naan bread. Andrew found this amazing recipe that he doctored up a little bit and they’re so easy to make. It can be a bit time consuming but overall it’s some of the easiest things to make. Andrew also makes his own pizza sauce. I have an allergy to most tomato-based sauces so when he was able to make his own and I didn’t get sick it’s become a staple in our house for pizza nights! (Both recipes below for sauce and bread)
Our girls aren’t quite up to cutting with a knife yet even though we’re planning to have them start soon. So for the time being what we do for cooking with them in the kitchen is this:
1. Prep everything you can ahead of time. Cut everything for them, as in anything requiring a knife have it done before they even come in.
2. Let them each have their own space and tools. They each have a cutting board or tray to work on and each have bowls with what they need in them. It’s almost like how I imagine prepping for a Food Network show.
3. Let them have creative reign. Let them make patterns or shapes in the food. They can stretch their minds a bit and decide how they want their food to come out. With pizza specifically we let them top the pizza with anything we have that’s edible and have them try to make a pattern or to count how many of everything.
4. Have fun with them! We usually dance or sing while we cook, plus Daddy is hilarious in the kitchen and shows them all kinds of silly tricks.
Pizza is pretty much the perfect summer dish because you can grill it, bake it, or broil it! This naan bread is also amazing to stuff and it freezes wonderfully! We make a huge batch each time and freeze at least a third of it or more for later. So bring those kiddos into the kitchen! Teach them those life skills they’ll need in the real world plus when dad is involved, you can’t go wrong!
