My Top Chef

If I had to guess what Emily will be when she grows up, it would be a chef. She has a great palette for a four year old. She will try anything. She prefers blue cheese dressing to ranch, likes calamari and would rather have pea soup than macaroni and cheese.

Can taste buds be inherited? I think so. On the few nights that I don't have anything but Captain Crunch planned for dinner, David will whip up sausage and cabbage for dinner and him and Emily will eat that. While Ben and I have chicken nuggets and cottage cheese.

I made her pea soup recently which is one of her favorites. She's watched me make it before, but it had been months since I had made it. While she was eating it, she was trying to encourage Ben to try it, which he wouldn't and neither will I (don't like peas). She said, "Ben it's really good. It has celery and carrots and peas." I asked her what other ingredients were in the soup as I often see this challenge among top chefs on the cooking shows we watch. She rattled off ham, onion, salt and pepper. The only thing she needed a little help with was water, but she got that with a few hints too. It's no wonder her favorite show is Top Chef.

She not only loves different foods, but she has always wanted to help in the kitchen. She's a master at pressing the buttons for the food processor and blender. She loves to help shred the vegetables for home made egg rolls and puree the tomatoes for sauce. I don't even need to tell her what to do, she just goes to work. What a good little sous chef. She even likes to do the dishes!

We've just started letting her help more with things around the stove. This makes me nervous as one slip and we are in the ER. But, I can't keep her in a bubble for the rest of her life. Or can I? We started with simple things like stirring rice crispy treats. On the weekends, David always makes us a wonderful pancake and bacon breakfast. There is usually a little batter left over, so I suggested we make a few pancakes for the dogs since they were anxiously watching us eat breakfast hoping for somebody (Ben) to accidentally drop a crumb. We even put a few kibbles of dog food in there like they were blueberries or chocolate chips.



Two very satisfied diners.


I hope her interest will continue, as she is already promising to make me dinner when she gets bigger! Hopefully, it'll be more elaborate than Captain Crunch.