Cooking with Lima Bean

Today our Lima Bean, now 2, looked at me and very seriously said “Mommy, I need that bowl. I am going to make my recipe.” Not knowing what her recipe could possibly be, I grabbed the blue plastic bowl she was gesturing toward and handed it over.

Now that she had her bowl, she informed me of what ingredients she needed. She asked me to get some ice out of the freezer, some flowers from our deck, the handle to her sippy cup, and a wooden spoon. Ok, not traditional but I’ll play along. So I gathered up her ingredients and she very happily stirred them together in her big blue bowl.

When I commented on how delicious her “recipe” looked, she said “I can’t talk now, Mommy. I need to focus on my cooking.” And she continued stirring her masterpiece. Then she went to my desk and found 2 colored paperclips, one green and one pink, to add to her mixture. She seemed very, very pleased to have found that last magical ingredient.

Maybe this sudden cooking enthusiasm was sparked by her recent reading of A Chef by Douglas Florian. This book is really interesting and fun and it’s one of the few children’s books I’ve seen that discusses the real work of a chef. The book explains how chefs and kitchen staff come in to work early to place orders, accept deliveries and prep food for that evening. Florian explains the different people who work in the kitchen and shows how a pastry chef brings a dessert to fruition. If you have a budding young chef in the house, this book is worth a look. It provides a really nice look at kitchen and restaurant life, in a way that’s appealing to the very young.