Cooking with my boy

Picking and washing our grapes for making juice.

Joyful at being allowed to lick the flapjack pan clean!

Getting the frozen peas ready to add to the stir fry.

Fuzzy action shot of Frank slicing mushrooms and talking to me at the same time.

Since he was knee high to the proverbial grasshopper I have involved Frank in the preparation of our family's food. He is particularly fond of cutting up mushrooms, although he won't then eat them, and does extremely well making biscuits and flapjacks. He cleans out the bowls for me which cuts down on my washing up time. He also helps with weighing and measuring for the bread machine or for any bread we make by hand.

I remember cooking and baking with my Mum as I was growing up. I loved making things like peppermint creams and butterfly cakes, things that didn't help Mum at all towards to evening meal, but she patiently let me make the things I really wanted to. As Frank gets older I am sure he will want to make certain things and I hope that I will have the foresight to just encourage him and enjoy those special moments in the kitchen together. Only when he is grown up will I know of my efforts have paid off. It feels right and there is something so full of family connection in making the food together that we will then eat together. I don't believe children can ever be too young to be involved in this.

What did you cook or bake as a child?