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Each night of the week, each of our children has the opportunity to cook with Mom. This has a number of advantages.

1. You eat out less because no one is prepared to give up their night.
2. Children are creative and like to change recipes, allowing for fun variation.
3. This another opportunity for precious one on one, always sought for in a large family.

Cooking with children doesn’t have to be stressful and little fore-planning helps to eliminate a lot of that. My biggest worry is always that someone will be hurt, with a knife, hot pan, splattering etc. So I make sure that if we’re going to be browning onions, that they wear a long sleeved shirt, this also protects little wrists from contact with the rim of the pan. If your child is going to be standing on something, then make sure it is sturdy and that there is not an audience of chairs. An apron protects clothes and then most important, that the recipe be age appropriate. I wouldn’t fry chicken in a vat of oil with a three year old, but they can mold creative rolls, make wonderful jello etc. Also when you need a minute to regroup, it is also the helping child's chore to set the table.

There are wonderful books on the market about cooking with children but I would not limit yourself to them, most recipes can be adapted and there is a small job in every meal, enough little jobs to keep any child happy and besides they’re with Mom and to them, this is the most fun of all.

We decide at family council, which we have on Sundays, what we will be eating at dinner the next week and which child has which night. One week they pick the dinners and the next week I do. Cooking is not my most favorite thing to do, and so I cheer up the job by trying new recipes. Last week I picked the meals and Jacob our 7 year old was to help me cook a recipe in the February/March 1999 issue of "Taste of Home", found at www.reimanpub.com , this is a wonderful magazine filled with recipes, using in season and readily available ingredients. There was one problem with the recipe that I had picked. Jacob hates pineapple and suddenly he realized that this was not going to be fun. No problem, we decided to adapt the recipe and make up our own. I love "Sangria" a drink that you can find in your International isle in the grocery store, it is non-alcoholic.

Here is the delicious recipe we came up with, the children ate every scrap, complimented Jacob till his ears burned and he was filled with confidence for our next cooking adventure and his self-esteem soared. It was great!

Sangria Chicken

4 boneless chicken breasts, each quartered
½ teasp salt
1/8 teasp pepper
1 Tablesp. Olive oil
! bottle Sangria
1 Tablesp Corn starch
¼ cup Dijon mustard
¼ cup honey
2 garlic cloves, minced
Hot cooked rice
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper and brown in oil.
Combine cornstarch and 2 Tablespoons of Sangria until smooth and set aside.
Combine honey, mustard, garlic and remaining Sangria; mix well.
Add to pan that has the chicken in it and bring to boil.
Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until chicken juices run clear.
Remove chicken and keep warm, stir in cornstarch mixture, bring to a boil.
Boil and stir for 2 minutes, till thickened.
Add chicken and heat through.
Serve over rice.

Have fun!