(NOTE: “Obento” is the word “bento” with the “o” honorific. Either usage is fine in casual conversation, although I noticed that women use the “o” honorific more frequently than men do. I’m still learning all this language stuff, so if anyone would care to set the record straight, please do so!)
October’s giveaway is pretty nifty, if I do say so myself. (Sorry for the delay in posting – I was looking for a punch to make cute little faces with food (nori, lunch meat, thinly sliced veggies, etc.), and found a set of punches yesterday at the Great Superstore! This giveaway just wouldn’t have been complete without them! The face-maker isn’t in the original pic, but it’s included at the bottom of the photo stack for your viewing pleasure.
One of my favorite characteristics of Japanese culture is the careful attention to how things are presented to, and therefore experienced by, the intended recipient. Appealing to as many senses as possible is key and food presentation is no exception. There is no such things as boring ‘brown bagging’ here. Instead, bento, or portable food is somewhat of an art form. Aisles are dedicated to lunchbox embellishments that appeal both to the eye and palate.
Here are some favorite links for bento eye candy, how-to sites and thoughts on aesthetics in Japanese culture:
Japanese Lunch Boxes – Kids Web Japan
(Oct. 19 Update) NY Times | Beauty and the Art of the Bento Box
Now imagine making and eating your own cute creations with these:
So…. you want to win this awesome bento set?
Recently, I took a cooking poll of my readers on how they learned to cook. Ten people answered that they were self taught, versus being taught by a parent.
When asked about the importance of teaching children to cook, seventeen answered that they “see teaching cooking as part of nurturing children.”
Continuing with this thought, in order to win, please leave a comment to this post with your tips or encouraging thoughts on teaching children how to prepare food. You don’t have to be a parent to share the best idea you’ve heard or maybe an example of you cooking with someone else’s children and how you made it fun.
Maybe you have a tip on teaching a child a cooking concept – like cracking eggs. Perhaps, you have special kid-decorated aprons for each of your children. Or, maybe you’d like to share a heart to heart conversation you had about life over making brownies. Inquiring minds want to know!
From the list of comments (and yes, you have to make a comment in order to qualify!) my children will draw the winning name.
BONUS: If you mention this giveaway in your blog (send me a “proof” link) or Tweet (via @mrsalbrecht), you will get ONE extra entry. (C’mon! I know some of you get a little carried away with this stuff and I can’t keep track of THAT many tiny pieces of paper!!) PLEASE do me a small favor and post a “proof link” or copy of Tweet so I’m sure to not to miss your extra-entry qualification. (Thanks!)
My hope is that this giveaway will inspire you to help children learn to cook, and maybe, if you’re lucky, even to eat their now-cute rice and veggies!
Please leave your comment by 9PM EST, Friday, October 30th.
The winner will need to provide their mother’s maiden name, social security number, and a valid US credit card number + three digit secret code. JUST KIDDING! I will, however, need their name and mailing address which will be kept strictly confidential.
If they’re agreeable, I’d like to interview the winner and feature them in a future post. I would consider including links in the post to the winner’s blog, favorite cause, home business, etc.
Winning contestants may not enter my subsequent monthly giveaway contests for a year following their win. In other words, if you win in October, 2009, you can’t enter again until October, 2010.
Posted on my blog! : )
My children are enjoying learning how to cook. Since they were little I’ve been selectively gathering appealing children’s cookbooks that will be fun for them to browse and actually be able to follow recipes from. Two of their favorites are Mollie Katzen’s _Honest Pretzels_ and _Pretend Soup_. (These and other children’s cookbooks can be found at local libraries too.) Examples here: http://www.molliekatzen.com/kids.php . Admittedly, my girls (9 & 10) are more interested in cooking and baking than their brothers (6 & 3) who are more interested in eating the tasty results. I also have a little collection of aprons (many picked up at thrift stores) that the children can wear when they are the chef. My daughters aren’t shy about asking people for recipes when they sample yummy at someone’s house or at a church potluck. They’ve also started recording their own recipes on recipe cards.
Our children are exposed to where food actually comes from too which makes learning to cook more meaningful for them. They help with our backyard garden and go along on weekly trips to the CSA farm. We talk about nutrition with them and how to make wise food choices.
http://imaginecreativenamehere.typepad.com/imaginecreativenamehere/2009/10/check-this-out.html
My wife and I have discovered the most effective way to teach our children is to be good examples ourselves and they see that and it helps reinforce the behavior that we were trying to teach.
We eat a variety of foods (fruits, vegetable, grains, etc.) and ensure that our children get exposure to variety as well.
My wife will allow our daughter to stand on a chair and assist with stirring flour when baking a bread and discuss each ingredient and what it does in the final product.
In conclusion,
I think that being a good example of eating well and getting children involved are important considerations that will help children realize the importance of cooking on their own in the future and developing good habits in the present. :)
I have four sons and then I have my daughter. The boys learned how to help prepare food as well enjoy the fruits of their labor in the kitchen before it ever appealed to my daughter. Eating is essential to one’s survival – knowing how to make it appetizing is a skill. I have always felt that it was my duty to show all of our children what I know in the way of food, especially when it’s their favorite dish. Recipes, like love, are meant to be shared.
I remember the very moment it happened to me. I’m not sure what age I was as I flopped down the back stairs to the kitchen on that groggy morning so long ago, profoundly unhappy that the sun was sleeping in while I had to wake for some Saturday family event. I remember looking up to find my father’s towering back as he faced away from my approach across the stove, working on some breakfast creation which filled the morning with promise. I can still see the radio on the window sill, my Dad’s dark blue shirt, and the brass colored measuring cups hanging on the wall as if it were just this very morning. ‘Breakfast?’, he’d have asked. ‘My special breakfast?’, I’d begged. ‘No, no time’.
I do not remember carrying on, but I’m sure I just grunted the affirmative response when he finally agreed to make my favorite special breakfast; eggs with a lid as he called them. And then it happened. My memory is very clear on this: he turned, in slow motion of course, and agreed to make them… ONE. LAST. TIME. And then never again. I’m certain my eyes flew wide, my head canted as if recasting the angle from which my ears took in sound could alter the meaning of what I’d heard. I can still see his smile when I then agreed to work together with my Dad to learn for myself how to make my delicacy, knowing then and there that from that moment on I could make them for myself whenever I chose. What incredible luck, I’d thought. And now, as I revel in every single moment I get to cook with my own kids, watching them invent new combinations never before plated, my days are filled with that same special promise I remember from so long ago.
I think the most important aspect to teaching children to cook is to do it on a regular basis and let them see you cooking as normal part of life. Home cooking is a vital skill for a frugal family! And if you only cook on special occasions or every once in a while, kids will see it as a special treat, not as an everyday activity that they will do regularly when they are older. So even if you’re not making every meal a lesson, just the act of them seeing you doing it is a lesson in itself.
I let my children help me cook to teach them, I believe that you must do to learn. I enjoy this & praise them about how good they cooked the meal. I think the give away is a great idea!
My son, Owen is only 5 years old. So, most of what he has learned about cooking and food has been through watching our example. However, I made sure that Owen knows that cooking is both for boys and girls. I got him food toys, utensils, etc. when he was younger, and a complete outfit for cooking. He was so cute. http://cjoandrews.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-little-chef.html He also LOVES to read about food. We check out the “My Pyramid” books all the time. Now Owen knows which food group things come from that land on his plate. Here is a picture of “Blueberry Cobbler” that Owen helped me make. I think they get so proud of what they can do….especially when it turns out tasting wonderful. http://cjoandrews.blogspot.com/2008/10/blueberry-cobbler.html I also think the trick is to make the project obtainable. It’s easy to put raisons on a celery stick with peanut butter. And it’s fun too, since it reminds them of “ants” on a log. National Wildlife has a few magazines for kids. One is “My Big Backyard.” Every issue has a recipe for kids to make, that relates to animals. So, that is fun too.
When I grew up, we canned, had a garden, and lived on venison. With that came a time of learning to make homemade bread, usually 2 batches of 4 loaves at a time. There were 10 in our family. My mom was always cooking up a storm. The aromas that go with real, homecooked food, are memories that are precious to me. Now that my mom is gone, I plan on passing down the idea of cooking together and from scratch to the next generation.
http://cjoandrews.blogspot.com/2009/10/october-giveaway.html
Janet is receiving an extra entry for mentioning this giveaway on her blog :
http://cjoandrews.blogspot.com
Please stop by her blog and say hello! I enjoyed reading her posts on her recent trip to the orchard (I have apple envy.. we only have one variety here!) as well as to the Air Zoo! What great family fun!
My son is only two now, so we haven’t cooked together yet, but I introduce him to new foods every week when we go grocery shopping. He learns how to smell fruit and to recognize the colors of fruits and veggies, as well as his other favorites at the store. When I took him to Penzey’s, a spice shop, I had him smell all the different spices. He likes to make pretend food in his little kitchen set, which just makes me smile. While I make his breakfast, he makes pretend breakfast for me on his stove. This Christmas I plan to try to make cookies with him. It should be interesting and fun! (and messy!!)
Before I had my son, I worked with kids in a therapeutic setting. As part of one of our adolescent programs we cooked homemade meals with the kids, something that did not occur for them in their homelife often, unfortunatley. The kids who enjoyed cooking learned about basic food prep and how to make easy, kid-friendly, healthy meals, such as tacos with veggies, instead of just eating taco bell fast food. Making something as simple as pancakes with fruit amazed them and excited them. Showing the kids that preparing meals at home is easy helped them learn a bit of a life skill that they could practice regularly and share with their families.
Hi Sarah Joy,
Mathew loved to crack eggs when Dh or I bake a cake he gets all the stuff we need and mesure and pours in it the bowl.
A funny story when he was about 16 months he had stomach flu and so dh & I he was getting well I caught him i the cabits with pot I go what are you doing he sign eat and said I make M&C for me and you. He also had got the M&C by climbing and had unlock the pot & pan cabit that was baby proof. He then he said put water in bowl and took M&C and said put into turn hot on.
Shirley
I try to allow my son to pour ingredients and to stir things that aren’t cooking too hot. He also can peel vegetables with our safety peeler. He seems to enjoy it a lot and always asks a lot of questions. Having him empty the dishwasher also helps him learn where tools go, and what they are used for!
I am _loving_ these comments. Excellent ideas! Thanks so much!
So far, three of these commentators are receiving extra entries.
Susan mentioned this giveaway here: http://imaginecreativenamehere.typepad.com/
and Josue (@JosueDiaz) here http://josuediaz.com
(I enjoy reading both of these blogs… be sure to check them out!)
SoCalMal also gets an extra entry for tweeting about the giveaway: ” @socalmal: RT @mrsalbrecht October Giveaway: Japanese Obento Set http://bit.ly/GdtdP May I have another? – entry that is. “
Sooooo cute!
Those are *so* cute!
I haven’t read through the comments yet, so this may be a repeat, but I actually heard this tip at one of the Wal-mart TV screens where they had a chef giving cooking tips near the cooking aisle (sneaky of them, right?)
Anyway, the chef suggested getting some easy to handle kitchen helps – like a hand-held egg beater thing – would allow kids to mix simple things easily. Also, something like the non-electric pampered chef chopper – my kids can all use that to help chop.
I think my best advice (for myself) would be to allow the kids to be in the kitchen. I’m really really bad about scooting them out!
When I start to cook or bake, my nieces and nephews insist on helping. I make them read the recipe/directions, let them get the measuring cups/spoons ready. They make a mess, they make mistakes but I always let them know that kind of stuff happens and not to get upset (still happens to me too!). Seems their mothers (my sisters) would get upset with them and loose patients. I let them take their time and explain how to do things and why they need to do those things like follow the recipe, what baking powder/soda does, what yeast does etc. I am also learning from them….patients!
Tweet’d twitter.com/nikowa
Thanks for the Tweet, Nikowa! An extra entry for you :)
BTW, I enjoy following you on Twitter : http://twitter.com/nikowa
My boys LOVE helping in the kitchen. I find that the more I ask them to help with, the more excited they become. They just love setting the table & saying that they helped prepare the meal.
What a neat giveaway!! My kids love helping me cook. The girls have their own aprons, and wearing those immediately get them in the mood. We look through cookbooks and magazines together and pick out things we want to try. (They especially love holiday issues around Halloween and Christmas.) We put on our favorite music and take turns measuring and pouring, singing and dancing. When we bake, my kids get into our huge drawer full of cookie cutters and pick the ones they want to make & decorate. Presentation is a blast, too, and we always try to make the settings (and the food!) look great.
Thanks for the opportunity :)
My advice is to simply get the kids involved. Yeah, they might ruin the meal, but that’s how you learn. Don’t be afraid to have a burned cupcake or spoiled meatloaf! Experimentation is a good thing.
All of my kids somewhat know their way around the kitchen. My two daughters learned to bake early on by helping me and then baking on their own. By the time they left home, they were doing almost all the baking–I really missed THAT! We almost never bought any sweet baked goods so they were motivated to learn how to bake for us. My boys have learned to make the simple things they like to eat with a little guidance from me. One of them(there are six) is really interested in cooking all kinds of food. Through all of this learning I have had to remain tolerant of messes in the kitchen, but they all seem to get cleaned up somehow, and the learning process is well worth it.
I love the whole Bento concept–and this is a gorgeous set! My “kids” are 19, 17, 15, and 12 now. I’ve encouraged them to cook all along. Over the years, when they “felt like” something in particular, I’d try to set aside the time to show them how to make it. That way, each have built a little repertoire of some of their favorite dishes that they know how to make.
We’ve also incorporated cooking into Geography, as well as science in our homeschooling–and a more recent project was getting started in a little backyard chicken flock. Now the girls are discovering lots of new ways to prepare eggs!
My mom taught me to cook, we even went to a test kitchen in my town on several ocasions. that was really fun! I want to help my boys to be able to cook for their families so the are in charge of making meals that they like! I hohpe that they will have some great skills when they are grown. thanks for all that you do to encourage us. Spending time in JApan I love the Obento! the nice little papers will be fun to show the boys how to make food pretty not just tasty! very fun.
My children love being in the kitchen! In fact, I’m sure I have the Next Foodnetwork Star living in my home (my son is grooming to take over Alton Brown’s job on Good Eats). :O) Check out my blog to see a link to your website and the name of the “home economics” course we have been using for a few years.
Posted link to your blog on my blog. (Thisis the reminder comment since I don’t Tweet.)
All my kids like to help cook, especially my 7yo dd. My best tip is to let them – most of the time (there ARE those time-crunch moments) – & talk about what you’re doing as you do it. They’ll pick up a lot, and they’re so proud of their accomplishments!
Thanks!
Left handed utensils are really helpful for left handed children. They won’t have the frustration and dangers of struggling with right handed utensils.
http://www.anythinglefthanded.co.uk/acatalog/kitchen_implements.html
http://www.lefthandzone.com/site/684713/page/224199
I didn’t know how to cook when I married my husband–thankfully, his mother had taught him! (I have the BEST mom-in-love in the world!). After learning myself, a combination of Food Network and my husband’s inspiration, I vowed that none of my children’s spouses would ever have to depend on take out or frozen dinners. So…
When my children are tall enough to reach the counter and can control a spoon pretty well, they learn to make sandwiches. That’s usually around age 7. Once they can make sandwiches without the kitchen needing a good scrub down, they get to use the microwave for veggies and popcorn and tea. They graduate to cooking with heat at age 10–pancakes, grilled cheese, grilled vegggies, and baked stuff. Around 12, they get to add in grease and boiling water. (That used to come at age 10, until one child splattered boiling water all over the kitchen and any skin in the vicinity while stirring mac & cheese.) By 16, they can cook an entire meal.
As I have 10 children, I expect to tweak this system more over the next few years, but this is what is working right now.
:o)
My son is only 18 months, but I try to let him watch me cook and “help” as much as he can. Cooking is such an important skill to have, no matter what sex you are, so I’m hoping that by starting him early he’ll like to cook.
At this time, we have a special apron for him along with pint-sized stainless steel cooking pans. I let him “cook” with my vegetable peelings and scraps, and I like that he sometimes tastes them. I believe that he thinks he’s really cooking with the peelings.
I let my kids watch and help, and I’m hoping that they will enjoy helping and want to cook with me as they get older, they’re still pretty little. My son likes to pour things into the bowl and watch as it mixes.
My kids favorite recipe when they were very small were always Peanut Butter Balls (my apology to those dealing with peanut allergies)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cut peanut butter
1 cup dry milk
1 cup oats
They love the “play dough” consistency and rolling into balls.
You can add almost as many extra ingredients as you like: raisins, sunflower or sesame seeds, vanilla, etc. You can also roll them in sprinkles, peanuts, etc.
My 24 year old still occasionally requests these when she is home.
each day I let the kids make there own after school snacks I find that is the least stressfel time of the day so we can take the time so spend some special time together
I would like to say there is some unique thing, but really, I just let them do things a little at a time, starting from the time they were little, and increasing to more complicated things as they got older. I let them cut things up, choose meals to help me make, help me shop, etc. All of those things helped me raise children who are capable in the kitchen and can put together meals by the time they were 11.
I made sure to let them use the stove when they were ready to, with supervision, even though my Mommy Heart wanted to keep them far from it for fear of them getting burned. They are ready for it way before Mom is. LOL
One more thing, I encourage(d) them to make birthday meals for others in the family and to try new recipes with me.
All 4 kids, ages 18 down to 11, can rummage through the refrigerator and come up with a meal from the ingredients in there.
Great idea!
I learned to cook mainly from my dad’s mom – my “Grammy”!
She was patient and didn’t mind taking her time allowing me to find my way around the kitchen from the time I was 2 years old.
She was Pennsylvania Dutch heritage, so I learned early how to make AP Cakes, shoofly pies, chicken pot pie (bot boi), custards, and many kinds of soups.
Her biggest advice to me was to be a “Tidy Cook”. To constantly clean up AS YOU GO verses waiting until the end and cleaning up a huge mess.
I practice that today and teach my children to clean their work area as they go. It really does help keep you more organized and shortens clean-up by not letting small messes turn into huge ones!
blessings,
Gail in PA
Homeschool Lounge
RT proof: http://twitter.com/nipponella
Just because I know my friends will enjoy your blog too, I’m passing your site around on my private liverjournal, but again, that’s just because. =D
One of my fondness memoirs from childhood is Sunday morning cooking with my grandma. Whether it was stirring something or pouring the ingredients in the bowl or my favorites; using cookie cutters to make homemade biscuits, I felt like I had a part in making the meal. I also eagerly gobbled up whatever I made. As I got older I would ask questions about what she was making. To this day, I have certain recipes I make that I learned as a very young child cooking with grandma
MilaXX @Pikko @mrsalbrecht Win a bento set! http://bit.ly/yEnhc
My daughter is four and part of my teaching her to prepare food is focusing on proper nutrition and portion sizes. We pay attention to inclusion of the “colors of the rainbow” when preparing meals and try to have at least four “colors” of food when picking out our foods for a particular meal. We also try to make larger portions of “bright colors”. An example might be half a plate of salad greens with orange and red peppers, a quarter of a plate of a carbohydrate like brown rice, whole grain pasta, or whole grain bread, and a quarter of a plate of protein. She really likes picking out the colors for dinner. We frequently have fruit for dessert to add to our color palate.
I always enjoyed making cookies or cakes with my mom. I was willing to help because of the reward of cookies at the end, and she was able to teach me without me knowing I was being taught. I suppose that is true with any food that a kid wants to eat. If you encourage them to help, they will absorb the knowledge.
“@jbdoodles Enter to win some nice Bento gear here: http://tinyurl.com/ygmf2c4 via @mrsalbrecht #bentobox”
i totally agree of the importance of being included in something as vital to family as cooking. my littles stir for me, crack all the eggs we use and add ingredients to our salads. yes, out kitchen is messy and our kids are happy :)
There is nothing more wonderful than creating something new and tasty for the first time. From wonderful colorful aprons and child friendly cooking items, my three year old and I make everything together. We make up fun stories about our “magic” ingredients that will form in to the shapes of cupcakes to save the land from the evil trolls. We laugh and create new tales and stories, while I teach my son why bread rises, and how and why we eat healthy. i have been told it’s rare for a Father and son to cook and bake together, much less create fun stories why we do so. However, as he gets old he will take with him memories, fun, and education of food, health, and happiness, which takes all forms including our favorite Bento tools
While I’m personally afraid of some aspects of cooking, I’ve always enjoyed baking things. My favorite parts were always getting to lick the spoon, and of course, the result of the baking in the end, being cookies, cake, or something savory.
My advice for kids cooking in the kitchen would be, let them help. They don’t need a complicated or over-simplified task, but kids learn from experience. They’re also so much more likely to eat something they had a part in making. I don’t like vegetables much to be honest, but I do appreciate their colors, and getting children to eat them might not be so difficult if you let them experience using them to cook with. :)
Also: Try pureeing some vegetables your child wouldn’t normally eat and sneak them into something like a tomato sauce for pasta. It gets in a little extra nutrition, and the kids won’t know. (Unless they help of course!)
Here’s my proof of Tweet: SammiGene @mrsalbrecht Win a cute bento set! http://tinyurl.com/ygmf2c4
I think the greatest lesson that I teach my girl is that it’s ok to have fun with your food & enjoy them. I let her make her own pizza (with flatbread) and she makes a happy face with the pepperoni or makes a flower. That really makes her enjoy her food a lot more. :)
When I am going to make a half (or double) recipe, I get my son involved… He really enjoys combining math and cooking. We’ll sit down at the table and calculate what all the amounts should be and then cook together. My husband also cooks & cooks with my son. I think it is a GREAT example for a boy to see his father cooking too. Everyone eats, it’s a great life skill for everyone to know how to cook.
(SJA’s NOTE:) http://thefragranthand.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-i-learned-to-cook-part-1.html
For our family, it always starts with reading labels. Our youngest has multiple severe food allergies and knowing what’s in the food is just as important as the food itself. My girls, now 10 and 8 are now experts at reading labels and finding the key words that stand out for us. milk dairy, egg, wheat, soy, etc. This way when they ask what what of the big words is, I can try to explain it to them. They love reading labels in the stores while grocery shopping to. :)
This set is adorable! Thanks for the chance to win. My kiddos love to help me or there dad cook. Everyone pitches in when they can. My children learn by observing and then doing. It’s fun family time!
My daughter is 6, one of the first things I’ve done to get her involved is to get her to make dough. She been doing that for roughly a year now. She can make a tasty pizza dough!!
My boys (3 & 5) love to check cookbooks out from the library. They find one that they want to make from the picture. Have me add the items to my shopping list and when we have it all, help make it. That way they eat it better then if I made it without them. Of course they also help wash the dishes after we are done cooking (they end up wet from head to toe!) but see the whole thing come together. We have cooked some “interesting” things that I would have never thought they would eat but… they do since they did it themselves. Make sure you add plenty of extra time when doing they whole meal with them or you will be starving and it will end up being bedtime before you eat!! :)
One of the things that I look forward to when my children are grown, is for them to call me and request their favorite meal. The equivalent to that right now, as they are small, might be the little happy-dance they do when I have made something that they love…I love it when they do that! ;)
My second son ate very well as a baby/toddler, then sometime around 5 years old, became a picky eater. My solution was to have him help me prepare and cook our dinner, and it works! If he has washed/peeled and helped prep (and a little “cooking” i.e. stirring), he wants to eat what he has made.
:)
Tweeted! ;)
http://twitter.com/livingandloving