McKinstry Moments: Little Chef

Caleb tells us that he's an engineer now, but when he grows up he wants to be a chef (and an "airplane driver"). He loves to come up with "recipes" at the lunch table, mixing oatmeal, apple sauce, and PB&J or some other crazy concoction he's dreamed up. When it comes to food, he knows what he likes and what he doesn't, but he's also quick to give anyone who turns up their nose at something they've never had before some sound advice Mommy and Daddy have given him: "You should always try something new."

How many four-year-olds do you know who love Paula Deen? Caleb has no idea about the controversy that was plastered in the news for months about this cooking icon; all he knows is that she sure can make some good looking dishes. And, how does a preschooler get hooked on looking at recipe books? His NaNa! The two of them look through one Paula Deen magazine after another at bed time when he stays the night. They even made an imaginary game where they pretend to jump into the magazines and eat all the food. When we took him to the ER for what we thought was a fractured knee last summer, that's what she brought to entertain him. At Christmas time, when we were making Gingerbread men of our family, he made me make a Paula Deen one. And, to everyone's surprise, New Year's Day when someone commented that Granny was the best cook ever, this little fella announced loud and clear: "No, Paula Deen is." You can imagine the laughter that ensued.

Enjoying a Paula Deen magazine

I know Mrs. Deen has visited the DC area in the past and told Dave I would love to take him to see her cook or enroll him in a kids' cooking class, but nothing has been available. However, when I went to the mall to make a couple returns the other night, I saw sign on one of the tables in the food court advertising a Lil' Chefs event. The mall has a kids' program called Kidgits that hosts several programs throughout the year and for a $5 membership fee, the little ones get to take part in all the activities like this one.

Dave and I have been purposely trying to take Caleb for one-on-one activities to have some quality time away from his siblings who are always pulling for our time, so this gave us an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Dave stayed home with the littles, and my big boy headed to the mall with me.

They gave him a free apron and chef's hat. He chose the orange.

They had a variety of stations set up to make different foods. We started with one that was less crowded called "Animals on Parade." It was very similar to "Ants on a Log" that we some times make at home. You start with celery, but instead of filling it with peanut butter, they used cream cheese. Rather than raisins for ants like we normally use, animal crackers sat on top of this creation. (I got kind of tickled hearing some of the other parents call the celery a "log" or say "Animals on a Log," because I could tell we'd all had the same background with celery sticks and raisins.)

They also had food related games/activities. First we tried using chopsticks to pick up food out of a wok.

"I got a mushroom!"

They gave them a chinese box full of fortune cookies and other goodies.

Next, we went to the pizza station.

Squeezing out the sauce

Mozzarella

Ready for the microwave?

As part of the package, they gave the kids a pizza cutter and plate to take home too.

Our next stop was at a laser pointer game. Can you guess how excited he was to use such a tool?

The lady at the table would tell the kids a dish, and they had to point the laser at the grocery items they would need to make it. "French fries," she said, and right to the potato Cay-Cay pointed. "How did you know that?" she asked astonished. "I learned it on Huckle!" Caleb announced giggling and wiggling with excitement. Finding all he needed for French toast was a little harder though; you could tell his Mommy buys the prepackaged frozen sticks rather than making it from scratch!

He got a chef rubber ducky as a prize.

Then, it was ice cream sundae time.

Add the sprinkles.

All good chefs taste test.

The station that followed had an unusual appeal - colored noodles. The kids got to pick which color food dye they wanted and shake shake shake.

We saved these for an after dinner snack later that evening.

More aesthetic food preparations were on the agenda next. Cake decorating was an area where he didn't need much instruction.

We tried a tea cup race, which he had a hard time with because they were supposed to balance them...

...and then came the educational part, learning about food portions. There was no food pyramid, but a pie chart spinner was available for the kids to give a whirl and collect all of the different color pieces. Afterwards, they took their triangles and constructed their own pie chart magnets with them for the fridge.

I really liked this portion because it gave me a chance to talk to Caleb about eating healthy. He could visually see how little of fatty/sugary foods we were supposed to eat compared to healthy ones, something I've tried to explain other ways before but it just hadn't clicked. When we got home, he even explained the chart to Dave so I know he got it!

They had crown making (which he made for me)...

...and a Spaghetti eating contest for the older kids that we got to be spectators of for a bit.

Caleb was a bit disappointed he wasn't old enough to participate.

I was overall very impressed, especially for only five bucks to join for a whole year!

After all the cooking was done, I got to have some Mommy fun too. I noticed in the window of the Gymboree store that was a hop, skip, and a jump away from the food stations that they were having their "Big Red Balloon" sale- all kinds of stuff on sale for $5.99. Hooray!

We had to hurry back home to feed Reid, but we were finished up with our great outing together anyway. At home the fun continued as we spent the afternoon in the sun, playing outdoors.