Making mealtime fun

Make meals family time

If your children are eager to help prepare meals, their childhood is an ideal time to teach cooking skills and pass on family recipes. Encourage your child's interest in cooking by setting aside a kitchen shelf or drawer for his cooking supplies. Find him an apron and oven mitts that fit, a recipe box, and a cookbook that illustrates cooking techniques. Don't buy a cookbook he'll grow into. Instead, find one that's a bit below his current reading level. He'll feel more capable in the kitchen if he can easily follow the recipes and stir at the same time. What's most important is that children learn to enjoy preparing and cooking foods. Praise their efforts, even the simplest. Before you can relax while your kids whip up dinner, you will have to spend time teaching them. Establish and enforce the rule: Leave the kitchen the way you found it. And make sure they know safe kitchen habits.

Safety first

Don't assume that children know about safety in the kitchen. Before you let your kids loose among the appliances sit down together and review these basic safety rules.

1. Before any cooking adventure, ask an adult to be on hand. Always ask for help when you need it.

2. Begin by washing your hands. If you have long hair, tie it back. If you have sleeves that could drape onto a hot burner, secure them with elastic bands.

3. Make sure that oven mitts are within reach. Pots and microwave containers may not look hot even when the are,

4. Chop and peel safely. Direct the sharp edge of the knife or peeler away from your hand. Always cut downward, never up toward yourself.

5. To avoid the possibility of contracting salmonella poisoning, set aside the cutting board, plate, knife, and any other utensils you may have used to prepare meat and poultry. Don't use them to prepare other foods until they have been washed. Note to parents: to eliminate salmonella, wash in hot, soapy water, then scrub with a mixture of 15 mL (1 tbsp.) chlorine bleach to 1 L (4 cups) water, leaving the solution on for at least 45 seconds before rinsing.

6. Resist licking the spoons or the bowls. The raw eggs in cake and cookie batter could cause diarrhea (food poisoning), as could any half-cooked hamburger or chicken dishes.

7. Never lay your recipe or cookbook on the stove; don't pile up ingredients there, either.

8. Turn pot handles toward the back of the stove in order to avoid knocking over pots of scalding food.

9. If fire breaks out in the microwave, leave the door closed and unplug it. If a fire breaks out on the stove, use a fire extinguisher. Don't use water to put out an oil fire -- use baking soda. If you can't put out the fire quickly, phone 911 or your local fire department.

10. Ask for help or instructions on how to use the blender or the food processor, or other kitchen equipment. The rule for microwave use is: If you're too young to read or follow the directions, then you're too young to use a microwave without an adult.