Just pretend it's a cooking show!

A lot of other mommies have told me that they're scared to cook with their kids. Sometimes I get frustrated because of the mess, and the fact that the whole process takes longer, too. However, most kids LOVE cooking, and it's a great summer activity. If you've had kitchen disasters with your sons and daughters, or have been too afraid to even try, here's some advice.

1) Pretend you're on a cooking show. Did you ever notice that the food is prechopped and premeasured? That all supplies are out of the cabinets in advance? The actual combination of ingredients takes very little time and fewer accidents occur this way.

And always read the entire recipe ahead of time...or have an older child do so aloud. (This advice applies to art projects, too, by the way. Think about the prep preschool teachers do.)

2) Lower your expectations. Choose VERY easy recipes, especially at first. Good starts:

a. Baked fish Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Take a fillet of trout, rinse it and place in a oven-safe container. Sprinkle with Lawry's season salt. If you are feeling adventuresome, add Old Bay or Cajun seasoning, too. Cover and bake for about 20 minutes (judge by thickness of fish). The fish will be tender and delicious, delicious cold or hot. Salmon can be prepared with sprinkles of salt, dill, and lemon slices at the same temp/time.

b. Roasted chicken Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Wash a whole chicken and plunk it into a roasting pan--smaller is better, so long as the bird fits. Pour 3 TBSP olive oil all over the chicken, then sprinkle heavily with Lawry's season salt and Lawry's season pepper. Rub it all in. Wash hands. Cover and bake in the oven for 1 hr. Uncover, baste, and bake for another 15-45 min or until done.

c. Salad Make a salad with prechecked lettuce, grape tomatoes, baby carrots, drained canned olives (or corn or mandarine oranges), craisins, or whatever is easy and the kids like.

d. Rice or couscous Let them measure out the water to add to the rice or couscous and pour it into the pot.

e. Cakes Most cake batter where everything is prepped and put into separate bowls to be dumped into the big mixing bowl will work great with kids. If you make egg-free cake like wacky cake or anything vegan, they even can lick the spoon without concern for salmonella!

Notice that if you made everything above, you could buy or make your challah, too, and you'd have an entire Shabbos meal!

3) Don't be afraid to serve the results to company. Kids experience great pleasure when their culinary creation is served at the Shabbos table or a family dinner. It helps them connect to the art of cookery, as well as to the Shabbos or family meal experience. It builds their self-confidence, too.

4) Later on, let the kids pick the recipe, read it, write the shopping list based on the ingredients, find the food in the store, etc. Older kids can measure and chop under supervision, even set the temperature on the oven.

Does anyone else have any other advice on the topic of kids in the kitchen or kid-friendly recipes to share?