Top Chef in Training

I am by no means an expert chef. I really like to cook, I have a few things I can bake with relative success, and people generally don't hate my food. My mom is a terrific cook and baker. We grew up in the kitchen with her. Since we're so lucky to have her as our main source of child care, she's started including the little guy in meal preparation, which he really seems to love.

With the awesome fall weather we've been having, I figured it's about time to get our kitchen messy. So, today I decided to take some time to put the over ripe bananas and the huge bundle of basil I bought at the Farmer's Market to use. Banana bread and pesto day at the Hannemaniac household...

First up was the banana bread. I thought that mashing bananas would be the perfect job for the little guy, but he really seemed to enjoy tasting the banana more than anything, which could explain the end result of slightly dry banana bread.



An apparent fear of the loud mixer left most of the rest of the banana bread up to me, but I found a two year-old to be most helpful for pouring the batter into the bread pan. However, after the bread cooked he informed me that it was yucky and not good for him.



While the banana bread baked we started the pesto. (So maybe tearing the basil apart was a somewhat "made up" job.)



But, it kept him really occupied and MAN that kid totally loved the smell of basil. He may have even stolen a few licks of it. It was pretty awesome to see him play with fresh food with such enthusiasm. Lots of yelling "Pesto! Pesto!"



All in all today I was a happy mom. I've been excited about having him help me cook and bake. This is only the beginning of a lot of time in the kitchen for the two of us. I figure I'll take advantage of it while I can.