Teach Your Child(ren) To Cook . . .

. . . . Grilled Pizza Sandwiches and Cheesy Scrambled Eggs with Ham!

Adam and Hugo's Excellent Cooking Adventure Begins

Introducing Hugo (L) and Adam (R)!

One of my (many) resolutions for the new year is to teach my youngest son - my baby - to cook. I'm not sure what happened with my last child. By the time his brother and sister were his age, they could cook, at least to survive. If it's not ready-to-serve or microwaveable, I'm convinced my baby would starve. It's not his fault. It's mine. All I can say in my defense is, "it's true - you really do run out of energy with the last one and they really do have it better/easier than their siblings!"

Adam has learned some basic cooking skills watching and helping me cook. He can also read and has great comprehension abilities, so I'm thinking he could read a recipe and cook to survive - if he had to. But I'd like for him to have the knowledge and skills necessary to help him be a confident cook.

Well, there's no time like the present, so I decided this was the day to begin teaching Adam and his friend, Hugo (who was visiting), to cook. That, and I didn't feel like making supper tonight. So, we - I mean they - made grilled pizza sandwiches. I supervised. All in all, they didn't do too bad.

If you've never had a grilled pizza sandwich, give them a try. They're very tasty, easy to make, and a great alternative to regular grilled cheese sandwiches.

Grilled Pizza Sandwich

I don't have a recipe for these sandwiches - just instructions. To make them, you'll need bread (we used french bread, but any kind of bread will do), pizza sauce (you can use whatever kind you like, even a white sauce is good), cheese (we used mozzarella, but you can use any kind of cheese - shredded or not - that you prefer), any other toppings you enjoy on your regular pizzas (we used pepperoni), butter (or margarine), and a little olive oil (or other - vegetable, canola - oil).

First, get all your ingredients ready (mise en place).

Bread, pizza sauce, pepperoni, cheese, butter - all ready to go!

Next, spread pizza sauce on the bread slices. Only spread sauce on one side of each slice.

Spreading pizza sauce on the bread . . . .

Then, add your cheese.

Do you like a little or a lot of cheese?

Add your other toppings.

Pepperoni!

And a little more cheese . . .

If you're Adam, A LOT of cheese!

. . . .  top with the other slice of bread and butter the top of that slice.

Warm about a tablespoon of olive (or other) oil in your pan over medium heat.

Place your sandwich, butter side down, in the pan and cook until golden brown. Butter the other side while the sandwich cooks. Be careful, the pan is hot and you have to respect the equipment!

Don't crowd the pan or the sandwich won't brown properly.

Chef Adam.

Chef Hugo.

Enjoy!

The best part of cooking - the eating!

Cheesey Scrambled Eggs with Ham

As with the grilled pizza sandwich, I don't have a recipe and I'm not out to change how anyone makes their scrambled eggs. There's so many opinions out there:  add milk, don't add milk, use water instead of milk, cream is the only thing that should be added, don't add anything to the eggs. It's exhausting! I say, continue making them the way YOU like them. I supervised Adam and Hugo, so they were forced to learn my technique - a little water added to the eggs while scrambling them and cooking them until they're dry.

In this little lesson, we also got to talk about cross-contamination, why it's bad, and how to avoid it. You'll see how this came up in the photos below.

We used just 2 eggs for this lesson because it was just a lesson and not a meal.

Melt about a tablespoon of butter in the pan over low heat.
Crack the eggs into a bowl.

It's all in the wrist. Scramble the eggs like you mean it! The yolk
and the whites should be completely mixed and you shouldn't be
able to see any of the whites.

Into the pan. Do you see where Adam put the eggshells?
Right next to the ham and cheese. We talked about cross-
contamination while he replaced the ham and cheese.

The scrambling continues.

Add the ham and then the cheese. Lower heat and cover.

Once the cheese has melted, turn off the heat, and on to a plate.

Tasting!

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Heathly and a money-saver: water!

Did you know, water helps relieve fatigue? It's true! Water helps your body flush out toxins and waste products. When your body lacks water, your heart, for instance, needs to work harder, as do the rest of your vital organs. This leaves you (and your organs) exhausted!

Encourage your kids (and you, too!) to drink a full serving of milk at each meal, but then drink water whenever they're thirsty throughout the day instead of drinking juice or pop. Keep a pitcher of water in the fridge so it's always nice and cold!