The Grace and Mel Cooking Show

Over Thanksgiving, my 4-year-old niece Grace and I did some serious “cooking” together. The truth is that she called it cooking, but it was mostly baking goodies and creating side dishes. She loved stirring everything together for me, and I enjoyed every minute with my little helper. She's just adorable.

When we finished up in the kitchen, Grace wanted to keep on “cooking.” So, she borrowed her Mom's mixing bowls from the kitchen and raided her toys for all the food related items and brought them to the dining room table, where we promptly began The Grace and Mel Cooking Show. I went with it. I've never lacked an imagination (I confess the cooking show with an audience was my idea...I may have been watching to much of the Food Network lately). I acted as Grace's assistant, and I called her “Chef” and kept our imagined “live” audience informed of all of the ingredients as she added them. It was a blast!

We made pumpkin blueberry soup, but I'm not sure if I would recommend it since the ingredients were a bit sketchy and included what my little chef called “lion food” (hmmmm...what that was exactly I was afraid to ask) and a bit too much salt and marshmallows for my taste.

To further complicate our busy filming schedule, another chef joined our show already in progress. Twenty-two-month-old Harrison opted to join in the fun. We had to stop “filming” and get him his own big bowl and plastic spoon, and then he kept stealing all of our ingredients like the plastic fruit and the measuring cups, which really upset my little chef. She was not amused by her brother's antics, and kept threatening to kick him off of our show. I thought it all was a hoot and struggled to keep from laughing.

Well, skip ahead a few weeks to earlier this evening when I decided to start doing some holiday baking on my own...I confess that I really missed my little chef. I was such a klutz working on my own tonight. I dropped baking soda on the kitchen floor and had to sweep my kitchen midway through my adventure. And then I accidentally hit the power button on the mixer instead of the eject button for the beaters, which created a nice spray of chocolatety goo all over my counter top and yours truly.

Hmmmm...maybe I should leave my “cooking” adventures for my time with Grace only? I had better luck working with a 4-year-old than on my own. HA!

I do like working in the kitchen. I just don't do it much. Cooking for one isn't all that fun really, but I do like preparing food for other people. OK, I'm so not Rachel Ray or Paula Deen here, but I can manage salads, appetizers and side dishes well on my own, and desserts are definitely my strong point in the kitchen. Yes, I do still panic just a wee bit on main dishes. I mean, you just don't want to screw up the main course. I guess I just need to experiment some more and build up my confidence. Maybe my little chef can come join me and give me some pointers. Hee hee!