Teaching Your Kids To Cook

Teaching your kids to cook is an investment of time and patience (lots of it!) that will pay you back ten fold.

I would suggest getting your children into the kitchen at the age of three or four. They are so cute and curious at that age. If they can hold a small wooden spoon in their tiny little hands, they’re ready.

Mixing cookie dough in a bowl (plastic or stainless steel), washing veggies, scrambling eggs with a whisk, making chocolate milk in a plastic tumbler, dipping strawberries in chocolate, making mini meatballs (with clean hands of course): all these things are great starters for the little ones.

As they get a little older, making their own breakfast is a great second step. Not only does it give you time to get ready for work, but it builds confidence in them knowing that they are helping mom and dad in the early morning rush. I believe it encourages kids to appreciate eating breakfast before going to school once they know they can cook it themselves.

A microwave oven is an absolute must for having 6 and 7 year olds cooking up that first meal of the day. By teaching them that there is more to breakfast than the occasional cereal bowl, they will be more prone to eating breakfast, that all important meal of the day. Have them make scrambled eggs in the microwave along with some precooked sausage links. They can warm up some precooked pancakes that they made themselves over the weekend and stored in the freezer.

This is also a good age for the kids to start helping out with the dinner preparations. It’s an excellent learning process. They are learning to read (recipes), do some math (quantities), and problem solve (“we don’t have that ingredient!, what can we use as a substitute?”).

When you can assist and encourage a child to help prepare a meal, by more than just setting the table, you help them realize their abilities, develop their dexterity, develop some pride in what they can accomplish and most importantly, help them become self-sufficient. This last one will give you some peace of mind knowing your child will never go hungry because you weren’t there to cook a meal for them. AND, they know they won’t have to limit their diet to ramen and pb&j sandwiches when they’re away from home during those long college semesters.

I believe the final reason to teach your children to cook starting at an early age is that it gives you the opportunity to create memories. From the broken eggs on the floor, the flour covered faces, mistaking a teaspoon for a tablespoon, to making their first cake for Father’s day or your birthday. Capture those moments in photos, in writing, in conversations around the dinner table. Despite the cost of food these days, you can replace a glass of split milk, but you will never recapture that first look of surprise (or relief) on your child’s face when you smile and offer to help in cleaning it up and encourage them to try again.

Children are a very special gift to us. Whether they are our own, or our nieces and nephews, or they belong to your best friend. Treat them with kindness and respect. Give them a positive direction in life. Love them today as if there is no tomorrow. You will sleep better at night and you’ll get help in the kitchen.


Easy Butter Cookies
1cup (2 sticks) softened unsalted butter
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 – 2 ½ cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt

Cream butter and sugar together. Add vanilla and blend in well. Slowly add flour in mix in well. Chill the dough in refrigerator for easier handling.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Roll Out a small portion of the dough between two pieces of waxed or parchment paper. Dip cookie cutters in powdered sugar and cut out desired shaped. Place cutouts on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes.

Cool on sheet over cooling rack for 6 to 8 minutes before removing cookies with a spatula to plate.

Memory and Recipe Journal

Creating a Memory and Cookbook Journal can be a rewarding and personal endeavor.

Remember the first time you started a diary? Maybe you were 10 or 13 and you had that quaint little book with the special lock and key. Oh the stories you would write; that cute boy who kept looking at you in the cafeteria. Remember what the lunch ladies were serving that day? Whatever it was, I’m sure you still get a quick flashback whenever you eat the same thing today.

You could do the same thing now - this very minute. It would be a loving way to hand down all those thoughts, memories, traditions and recipes to your children and loved ones.

I t doesn’t matter where you’re from or where you live. It doesn’t matter if you have one child or ten children or if you have any children at all. You could do this for yourself and for other family members. Keeping a diary of one’s history is a way to celebrate family, tradition and culture, from generation to generation.

Most families have their own particular way of celebrating holidays, special occasions, or just everyday life. You do things a certain way, you take pictures; you keep cards and mementos and prepare foods that everyone enjoys and relates to in certain times in your life.

Do you remember your mother’s favorite dish to prepare? The one you always asked her to make? Can you prepare it? Do you remember that one special time when she made your favorite dish? Was it your birthday? Your graduation? Your wedding?

In Mexican American tradition (old school), most recipes weren’t written down. As children, we observed, tasted and relished the final outcome. Years later we remember when Abuelo Paco celebrated his 90th birthday and the whole family was there, all 200 of them.

Everyone brought his or her favorite dish. Your mom prepared her delicious tequila marinated brisket and your grandmother (your Abuelita) made her melt in your mouth biscochos, except you had to roll out the dough and cut out the cookies because her arthritis was bothering her. Your uncles prepared salsa, margaritas, chile con queso and calabasitas (squash). Your tias (aunts) made macaroni salad, chile verde and chile colorado – American style, because, after all, we are living in the US of A.

Tears fill out eyes and there’s a gentle heaviness in our hearts. We remember, so we decide to celebrate again by preparing those same dishes that were made on such a special occasion with a lot of love and caring.

The years pass by quickly and sometimes we forget until for some reason or another we start rummaging through an old photo box. Suddenly your hear the sound of the mariachis playing “Las Mananitas” for Abuelo Paco. You picture Tia in that funky blue dress with all the sequins, the one that made her feel like a prom queen. Before you know it, you can actually smell the salsa, the brisket, the margaritas and the Mexican beers. You just can’t get over how you haven’t thought about that particular day in years. And of course, this bubbles up other forgotten memories.

You promise yourself you’ll never forget them again and that you’ll tell your kids or your husband or your best friend about those wonderful times. But life goes on. The stories and those special recipes are never shared. Perhaps it’s time to do something about that.

Promise yourself to make time, 15 or 30 minutes a day or every other day, whatever time you can spare, to record those memories and recipes - diary style. Do as much or as little as you want. But do it. You don’t need to find a publisher to leave a legacy for your family. You can do it yourself. As elaborate or as simple as you want. I promise you that when your kids open up that journal and start reading, the same feelings and emotions that ran through you remembering Abuelo Paco will be tugging at their heartstrings. Celebrate your family through the generations. Enjoy the moments and record the history.

Get Your Recipes Read Online

Now that you’ve created a cookbook for your friends and family, I bet you’re wondering, “Now what?”

Get your creation online. You could start up a web page or a blog to keep all the recipients of your creative work updated with new ideas or recipes you’ve been working so hard to develop. They can print out the updates or save them on their computers.

Blogger.com (the source you’re reading my blog on) is FREE!!! It is so easy and simple to use with easy instructions to get you going within minutes.

Of course you can always create a website, but be aware that services offering to have your site on their servers for free will usually bombard the site with an incredible array of ads, pop-ups, and all sorts of solicitations to those looking to surf your site. In all fairness, this makes absolute business sense. They are giving you a free service but still need to make money to be able to provide you with that service and create an income for themselves.

You could pay a web hosting service that will assure you of not having any ads. That is of course unless you want to acquire the ads yourself to show on your site. This is called affiliate marketing where you make a percentage of any sales made from direct advertisement off of your website. There’s nothing wrong with making a little money. After all, you are spending to have your website and to create your wonderful recipes. You needed a decent camera to take pictures of your creations, and all those books and magazines you’ve purchased for research, well, you see my point.

But you could do all of this on blogger.com. The site is free to join and there are so many things you can do with your blog.

* You can communicate with a whole group of people at the same time.

* You can update your recipes or stories for them and then get responses or comments back that everyone can enjoy.

* You can make announcements.

* You can add pictures.

* And yes, you can add advertisers with items you know the people looking at your blog will want to explore.

There’s a wonderful program I joined for a nominal fee ($49.00). It’s called Web Colleagues (click here!). At first glance, the program appears to be overwhelming because of all the valuable information that your membership fee has paid for. Not only does it direct you to blogger.com to get you started, but it also describes a multitude of ways to make money online. Granted, this isn’t some silly point and click scam, you actually have to do some work. But who cares? Believe me, once you get started, you just don’t want to stop.

If you have a problem with writing, Web Colleagues will teach you how to write. If you don’t know how to get advertisers on your blog, well, they’ve got tutorials for that too. They literally take you from point A to point B.

So if you’re feeling adventurous, take that first step and join. Devote some time to reading the information they provide. Digest it and read it again and then follow the instructions. How simple is that? With a small investment and some time dedicated to the program you will eventually start making some money.

If you’re thinking along the lines of eventually publishing your cookbook, developing a website might be the best way to go. But I strongly suggest starting out with a blog just to get your feet wet and get the old creative juices flowing.
If you already have a blog and are now considering the publishing route, check out my next blog posting and I’ll share my experiences in getting my cookbook out in print. Til then, my daughter (who just transferred back to UTEP from UTSA for her sophomore year) has asked me to make a Nacho dinner. So I’ll say goodbye for now, but check back in a few days and we’ll discuss the wonderful world of publishing. Hasta luego.

Cookbook Legacy

What are your reasons for wanting to publish a cookbook?

I wanted to do it for a variety of reasons.
1. Preserve the wonderful dishes that were handed down to my brothers and me by my mother and grandmother.
2. To bequeath these recipes that represented my culture and heritage to my children.
3. To record memories and moments that molded me into the person I am today.
4. To earn some money sharing “my story” like countless others have done before me.

I’m second generation Hispanic born and raised in El Paso, Texas. So, my cookbook idea was to encompass all the rich and flavorful Mexican-American dishes that were prepared in my mother and grandmother’s kitchens. Not just Mexican and not just American, but a fusion of both cultural influences on the foods that were prepared and enjoyed.

Choosing your reason(s) for wanting to put a cookbook together is an important first step. It helps you decide what process you want to use to accomplish your goal.

If you want to send your kids off to college or give them a special gift when they get married or move away from home, putting together a collection of family favorites is the simplest and most enjoyable labor of love you can do.

Take 15 or 20 minutes and think of all the dishes your kids have enjoyed over the years. Title them. If there is a memory attached to a particular dish, write a quick note of the event. List them. Make the list as long or as short as your like. I know about picky eaters!
Next, schedule time on the computer. Using your word processor, write your first recipe.

Title of Recipe
Amount of servings
Ingredients and amounts of ingredients
Temperature to preheat oven if using oven
Instructions for preparing your dish

A nice touch would be to include that memory you wrote down right after the recipe title. Nostalgia works every time…especially when the kids start getting older and realize you’re getting smarter.

Keep the same format for each recipe. Keep an alphabetical list of all titles and place it in the front or back of your collection.

You might want to number your pages. It just makes it easier and a lot more fun for your loved ones to follow once they’re away from home.

Save all these wonderful recipes and anecdotes in a special folder in your “my documents.” It will be easy to find should you have to reprint your cookbook if theirs gets lost.

You might want to think about adding some pictures, special instructions, and hints on where to find certain food products at the grocery store. You know your kids, so if you can’t be there, give them the tools and instructions they need to become self-reliant.

When all this is done and you’ve gone over each page with a magnifying glass for spell check and amounts (very important!) make the decision whether you want to print it out or make a CD for them.

I prefer the written version. My husband and I are sticklers for reading; we always have been with our kids. We believed involving our children in the cooking process encouraged reading, math, and problem solving. Having a food fight once in a while wasn’t bad either.

But this generation has its nose on the computer screen 24/7. So creating a CD for them might be the way to go. You eliminate having to print, purchase binders, or going to the printers to have your cook booklets spiral bound.

Whatever you decide will be perfect for your children. And don’t dismiss making copies for gift giving to family at holiday time. It will be a gift from the heart that is certainly easy on the wallet.

Next time we’ll talk about going a step further in your quest of publishing your cookbook. I’ll share with you some of the things I did and maybe offer a little help along the way. Until then, here’s another recipe for you.

Mexican Chocolate Shortbread Cookies
(Makes 1 ½ - 2 dozen)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup sugar
1-teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
¼ cup cocoa
1-teaspoon salt
1 round disk Mexican Chocolate (Abuelitas or Ibarra’s), finely ground

Drizzle Mix:
1 cup chocolate chips
¼ cup Mexican Chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon shortening

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

-Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla. Stir to combine.
-In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, Mexican Chocolate and salt.
-Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture. Knead well to combine.
-Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
-Roll out small portions of dough between two pieces of waxed paper or parchment paper. Dip cookie cutter in flour or (better yet) cocoa powder and cut out desired shapes.
-Place cutouts on ungreased cookie sheet.
-Refrigerate for 30 minutes to help cookies hold their shape while baking.
-Bake 10 to 12 minutes.
-Cool on pan for 5 to 10 minutes and remove to rack and cool completely before drizzling.

Drizzle:
-Combine chocolate chips, Mexican chocolate, and shortening in a small microwavable bowl.
-Microwave for 30 seconds on high. Remove and stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
-Cool for 1 to 2 minutes.
-Pour drizzle mix into a small zip lock bag and zip closed.
-Cut a tiny corner at the bottom of the bag and drizzle over cookies.

* If for some reason you cannot find Mexican chocolate at your grocery store, check online. Or if all else fails, substitute Mexican Chocolate with dark chocolate, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon of almond flavoring. Enjoy.

So You Want To Write Your Own Cookbook, huh???

Creating your own cookbook from your favorite recipes to share with family and friends is a very satisfying accomplishment.

Hola, call me Michita. That’s the name I gave to my Mexican Chocolate Dessert eCookbook. It’s what my brothers and I called our grandmother, Mi Chita. A cutesy name only a toddler can come up with when they can’t pronounce, Mi Abuelita.

The idea for an ecookbook came after our experience in having our cookbook, Aprovecho- A Mexican American Border Cookbook, published the traditional way, through a publisher out of New York.

Oh, the joy of being accepted for publication! We had worked long and hard developing a website with all the recipes my mother and grandmother had taught me along with all the recipes I had saved or developed over the years.

First came all the selecting of recipes we wanted to feature in the book, making sure we weren’t going to be taking someone’s else’s work. Second, came all the testing of these recipes. Then of course I wanted to take pictures of all these delicious dishes. All this work took us months of preparation, though we had already done some of the work through the website, which I originally created on Geocities, for free.

We were finally ready to start submitting proposals to publishers. Rejection…rejection…rejection. On and on. Then, I happened to find a publisher on- line that would accept a proposal over the Internet. After going back and forth justifying why our cookbook was one of a kind, we were offered a contract. We signed so fast; our heads were still spinning months later.

We were very happy and felt very fortunate that our cookbook was chosen for publication.

There are a couple of ways to get published. The old fashioned way of sending out book proposals and waiting by the mailbox for a response hoping not to get a rejection letter or self-publishing through the Internet. Of course you can also self-publish by creating a master copy and going to the printer and having a multitude of copies made and then going out to market them. But I believe that doing it all online might be a better way to go about it. Electronic transmission is quick and easy. I would like to explore this option with you through my blog.

From someone who has published both the traditional way through an established publisher and by creating an ecookbook I’ll share all the pros and cons as well as tips on accomplishing both.
If you are already in the midst of preparing and testing your recipes, remember to keep the cost down. Wal-Mart was an incredible saver for me. Their prices are low, they have a wide selection, and I’m sure you can find one right around the corner.

I’d like to leave you with a recipe that is popular with us. Who says you can’t celebrate 5 de Mayo except on 5 de Mayo?

Strawberry Margaritas
(Makes 1 serving)

2 cups crushed ice
1 ½ shots Tequila
½ shot triple sec
1 shot frozen limeade
½ cup frozen strawberriesPut all ingredients in the blender and process till smooth and slushy. Garnish with lime slice or fresh strawberry.

Hasta luego,
Michita (Tere)
Co-author of “Aprovecho A Mexican-American Border Cookbook” and
“MiChitas, A Mexican Chocolate Dessert eCookbook”