Blessing #21- My Sous Chef

This summer, I read that getting a picky eater involved in cooking may help them to eat. Because Brandon is so picky, I thought I would give this a try. Because he’s four, and has a very short attention span, I didn’t expect much, but surprisingly, he loves to cook.

Now, every time I cook he is right beside me. Shad calls him my sous chef (assistant to the chef). Shad knows what a sous chef is not from a cultured upbringing, but from the Pixar movie Ratatouille. When we cook, B's first question is always “What’s my job Mom?” Which is followed by his next question, “Can I cut?” After giving him the Four Year Old’s Don’t Touch Knives lecture again, I give him a job. He usually gets to dump all the ingredients in the bowl for me. Because he asks the name of every ingredient, he’s getting really good at identifying things like flour, sugar, and brown sugar. However, one time, when his cousins asked what we put in our cupcakes he said, “Stink bugs and sluggy slugs.” I will attribute that to either not wanting to share his cupcakes, or just being a boy.

Often as we cook, he will tell me, “Mommy, you’re a good cooker!” Just when my heart starts to swell he also adds, “I’m a good cooker too…Can I cut?” I then repeat the Four Year Old’s Don’t Touch Knives lecture.

His two favorite parts of cooking are crushing the empty egg shells, and, of course, licking the mixer thingys. I’m still amazed that he enjoys it so much, and I love that cooking is our special thing we do together. Now if you will excuse me, after writing this I realized I have to go put my knives on an even higher shelve just in case my sous chef decides he’s the main chef.