Silje the Chef

As I’ve mentioned before, my kids love cookbooks.  Silje received the “Princess and the Frog” cookbook  for some occasion and she’s been begging to make the recipes in there for the longest time.

I tend to be a bit of a control freak in my kitchen.  Knut tells me that for a little person, I take up a lot of space in the kitchen.  It’s true.  I don’t even like him making toast if I’m in the groove.  Mostly because standing in front of the toaster blocks the cupboards to all the spices, measuring things and bowls.  When I’m in someone else’s kitchen I feel so out of place…like I’m in their space and I’m never sure what to do. 

Silje always wants to help and I’m so bad at letting her.  I’ve worked up to letting her at least stand on a chair and watch me, and I’ll explain how to do things.  She’s been retaining  this information, but I’ve still been bad at letting her get my kitchen dirty.  Well, my kitchen is dirty the majority of the time but at least it’s my mess.

She seemed down about this the other day and I told her that she’d be able to cook, one day.  She asked me again: “When?”

I realized I had to let her step into this, and said “next Friday.”  She perked up.  “Really?”

Yup.  She knows once I set a date there is no going back.  She quickly sifted through her recipes and picked out 10 that she couldn’t choose between.  I told her if she wanted, she could pick a main dish, a side, and a dessert.  We’d make a day of it.

O, she loved that.  There was lots of squealing going on in our house that day.

So the menu that she chose from her Princess and the Frog cookbook was:

Facilier’s Fruit Salad
Buford’s Fish Fillets
and for dessert: Charlotte’s Coffee Cake

Since the whole meal from the fish to the fruit was very light, I suggested we throw a few baked potatoes in the oven as well…for the men.  Baked potatoes are her favorite.

I knew, I just knew that if I walked her through it, I would take over.  I would scold her for spilling something.  I would tell her she was doing something wrong when in fact it wasn’t wrong, but just her way.  She was so excited and I was certain I was going to ruin it, so I told her upfront that if she did this, I would be in the room to do heavy lifting or put things in and out of the oven, but she was supposed to do everything.  Everything from measuring ingredients to the dishes.  If she had a question, I would answer, but I was going to stay at the table the whole time.

She loved that idea.

We did the shopping on Thursday and picked up some wild salmon, melons, kiwis, 2 colors of grapes, fresh mint leaves.  We bought every single stinking item on that list.  She didn’t want to fudge on any of it.  Well, we picked salmon because the other kinds of fish listed weren’t at our Walmart.

I told her to start with the fruit salad because that way it could chill while she made everything else.  I sliced open the cantaloupe, but I had her scoop out seeds, use the melon baller, measure out proper amounts each fruit.  I even let her use a sharp knife to cut the grapes in half like they were in the picture, as well as mince the mint, and slice the kiwi.  She let me slice the apple thin for her.  This was her first time using a sharp knife, and I’ll admit I hovered for that part.  She was very careful and did such a great job.

(By the way, I’ve never had mint in a fruit salad before and Knut and I loved it so much that I think we’re going to put it in everything from now on.  It’s amazing in a fruit salad.)

Then I told her that since the fish took only 20 minutes to cook, she should make the cake first so that it will be ready right after we eat.

The cake took some time.  It actually took her about 1 1/2 hours just to get it in the oven.  She’s made a box cake by herself once before with me there “helping” but this was searching out the baking powder, the various sugars, reading labels, measuring it out.  She flipped out when she spilled some vanilla.  She cracked the eggs herself even.  The kitchen was a mess and I forced myself to stay at the table.  If she dropped something, I’d tell her to relax and get the washcloth.  If she was looking for something I didn’t get it for her, but told her where to look.  This was going to be all her.  I wasn’t going to rob her of that.

I’ll tell you, though, staying out of her way was a lot of work for a control freak like me.
I was exhausted afterward.

I poured the batter for her into the pan, and once it was in the oven I told her to start on the fish fillets.  She crushed the Ritz crackers and added all of the spices one by one.  She learned so much about all the spices in our cabinet.  In fact, I could go on and on with how much she learned in the kitchen yesterday.

She was nervous about touching the fish to batter it herself, but I told her that she was the one who chose the recipe, and she was the one who was going to make it.  She looked up with me in astonishment as she pressed the fish into the melted butter saying “This isn’t so bad!”  When the fish got in the oven I told her to start on the dishes.  She wasn’t super excited about that but started with little fuss.  She was about half done when the fish was ready and I told her that I’d do the rest after supper.

She really made me proud.

I took the picture before the potatoes got out of the oven.  Sorry about that.  Here’s Silje’s plate.

Never mind the food that is already on the table. 

It was super yummy.  Knut thought she should cook more often.  I told him if I had 4 hours to blow every afternoon…

I know…it won’t be long before she’ll be doing it without me in the room.  I don’t think I’ll mind one bit because I’ll tell you: she’s a darn good cook.  Her meal was better than anything I’ve made in weeks.  It was also more expensive than most meals I’ve made in the last few weeks, but it was sooo worth it.  She made me so proud that I may or may not have cried after she went to bed last night.  When did she grow up?

Here is her cake.  We had friends over so I had to get it out of the pan and it stuck just a bit.  I can’t for the life of me find my mesh sifter for the sugar on top but I did that for Silje since she was busy playing with our dessert guests.

It was a sour cream cinnamon coffee cake and it was delicious.

My daughter can cook…and bake.  This will take some getting used to.