Confidence in the Kitchen: Sharing Cooking Experiences with Your Preschool Child

Prior to marriage, warming tortillas meant sticking the stack in the oven wrapped in alumninum foil. After taking my vows I learned a lot of things, one of which is a much better way to warm a tortilla. Individually warmed tortillas are more pliable and more tasty. Great Grandma Irene warms them up without a pan, right over the gas flame on her stove. Many people cook on electric ranges, and using the flame method if your preschooler will be involved in the process is ill-advised.

The dry skillet method is the ticket! Your preschooler can hand you tortillas to be warmed, you can warm them in the skillet and then place them in a flying saucer, (a.k.a. tortilla warmer). The link provided is for a good quality saucer at Target, I saw a decent quality saucer available for a dollar at our local Dollar Tree. My favorite type of skillet for this use is stainless steel. I experimented with my nonstick crêpe pan, and it also was effective. I have some Calphalon pans, and they just don’t work as well.

The process is simple. Heat up your pan over medium heat for two or three minutes. (Notice I did not say a greased, oiled, or sprayed pan. Use a dry pan.) Place your first tortilla in the pan and then begin turning it with your hand until you begin to feel the heat through the tortilla.  This will happen quickly. When you feel the heat, turn it over and then give the tortilla a couple of turns on the other side. Words just don’t describe this very well, so Click Here for Tortilla Warming Video. There really is a pan on the stove, our little camera didn’t capture all the details. Watching the video will give you an idea how quickly the tortilla heats.

This is how I prepare tortillas when we’re going to have burritos or tacos, or to heat up tortillas before rolling enchiladas. Using this method, you don’t have to dip each tortilla in oil which saves calories for dessert or that extra beer!

Age-appropriateness for kitchen activity is important.  Keeping the protogés safe is paramount.  If they’re injured you’ll not only feel bad, their positive attitude towards the kitchen will be downgraded.  There are many authorities out there who will give you their two cents (perhaps in our economy I should say twenty bucks) about what’s appropriate and what’s not. 

 Perhaps no one has told you this lately, but YOU are the authority on your child!  You know best what they can handle and what’s within your comfort zone for them to try.  My protogée will sometimes ask to do something new, then I have to make a decision whether or not to let her try it.  I want to encourage her and to build her confidence, but my ultimate goal is to keep her safe.

 For my own protogée who is four-and-a-half, I allow her to:

 Get ingredients out of the cupboard or refrigerator in non-breakable containers.

• Get spices out of my spice drawer.
  • Last week, to my surprise, she got cinnamon out without any assistance.  If she needs assistance, she can always search for the container with a spice starting with the appropriate letter.  She may not get it right away, but taking time doing other things while you’re doing other prep work can be helpful!
• Wash fruits and vegetables.
• Remove seeds and membranes from green or red peppers after I’ve cut the top off.
• Cut up cheese or soft vegetables with a serrated plastic knife or butter knife.
• Stir anything on the counter by herself.
• Measure ingredients (with my assistance as necessary).
• Add ingredients to anything we’re mixing up on the counter.
• Add ingredients to a pan on the stove with the flame off, standing firmly on a stepstool, under my supervision.
• Grate cheese or vegetables under my supervision.  (When her fingers get within two inches of the grater I take over.)
• Push buttons on the microwave.
• Run the food processor under my supervision.
• Push buttons on the blender under my supervision.
• Sprinkle cheese over things.
• Roll out dough for pizza, calzones, biscuits or cookies.
• Portion things out onto plates under my supervision.
• Set the table.

 I do not allow her to:

• Handle sharp knives.
• Touch the oven.
• Turn on the burners on the stove.
• Touch any pan on the stove, out of the oven or going into the oven. 
• Get glass containers out of the fridge, or breakable cooking containers out of the cupboard.