Cooking with Kids

Cooking with Kids – Episode 1 – Bread

I love cooking with my neighbor, Julius. He is 4 and like the average 4 year old he is full of questions, talks all the time, and loves to get in your way and know what you are up to.

It all started a few weeks ago. When Tony and I were walking back from school we had a number of “angels” heckling us and simply being jerks. Arriving home I decided I wanted to cool off and de-stress by making bread.

As usual Julius was outside bugging my neighbors.

Back story: Tony and I live in staff housing. We share a wall with my principal’s house and have two other families each less than 20 meters away from our back door. Close proximity plus 200 chickens squawking. It’s pretty nice though because there are always people around and we feel safe. Plus as neighbors we take turns occupying Julius.

So I decided I would distract Julius and have him help me out. I grabbed all the ingredients and tools and traipsed outside to our back veranda. Julius ran to my side and we started measuring and mixing.

What I didn’t expect though was bread making with Julius quickly became a neighborhood show. Within 15 minutes, 8 of my neighbors surrounded Julius and I wanting to see and learn about bread. I passed around the Peace Corps Uganda Cookbook and they paged through that.

It was great because I was having Julius do all the measuring with the flour so if it wasn’t full the neighbors were chiming in to tell him how to do it. Flour went everywhere but it was a ton of fun!

It was an awesome way to get to know my neighbors too because now they want to make other stuff out of the cookbook and we talk food all the time. My passion for cooking is connecting me with my neighbors. Hurray! Also, when they try our foods they let us sample their foods. Delicious!

Cooking with Kids – Episode 2 – Chicken

So I haven’t written about it yet but I have slaughtered a chicken, actually two. This story is about the second chicken’s delicious demise and 3 children under the age of 6.

We have 4 year old Julius, 5 year old Peter, and 1.5 year old Baby.

I was bringing a chicken home from the convent, a gift from the nuns for no particular reason. I was hoping to slaughter, clean, and butcher it quickly so that we could boil the meat and then cook it with herbs. (This sounds strange but if you don’t boil the chicken it will be very, very tough.)

However, the moment I rounded the corner of our house the three kids ran over to me.

“Auntie, what is that?”

“Auntie, you are going to eat?”

“Auntie!”

“Auntie!”

“Aughtslhe” (Baby – she was also climbing around)

All this while I was trying to unlock the door with a chicken in my arms. The chickens’ legs were tied together so I was able to set it down on the back veranda.

“Auntie, you are going to slaughter”

“Yes, but I have to go inside and get the saucepans and water”

“Auntie you go!”

“Auntie you get water!”

“Ok I will. Thank you very much.”

“You close the door!”

So I went back inside, grabbed all the supplies, and started to head to a clearing just behind the chicken coop. But before I went the kids asked about the chicken. I told them to keep it there and I will come back for it in just a second.

But I could see the look in Peter’s eyes. The chicken started to hobble. But I said wait! I walked about 10 yards before I heard the squawking of a chicken, wings flapping, and the kids running. I turned around to see the Baby, Peter, and Julius running after me; Peter trying to control the chicken who was flapping away. It was the most hilarious thing. Imagine a 1 1/2 year old, a 5 year old with a chicken a quarter of his size going nuts in his arms, and 4 year old running towards me with huge grins on their faces. I will never forget it.

So I now had 3 assistants for this event. All while I was slaughtering they were talking, laughing, and giving advice. As I poured water over the chicken they instantly started plucking the feathers. I could hear their parents’ words as they gave me advice:

“Auntie, the water will hurt you”

“Auntie, give me that”

“Auntie, do this”

Quickly the work was done and while I was cleaning the inside of the bird similar comments came out but with more “eeewwww” sounds and laughter.

They stayed with me until everything was set and again my neighbors came around to see how the “musugut” (white-person) was doing with the chicken. So many were surprised that I was even doing this. But the most surprised neighbor couldn’t believe that I threw out the gizzard!

A delicious chicken and great memories.

Cooking with Kids – Episode 3 – Banana Cake

What I love about cooking with kids is the excitement and pride they get from helping you. I remember growing up cooking with my mom and grandma around the holidays and waffles with my dad. It was my job to tell dad when the waffle light went off. That meant the waffle was done. It was a very important job.

Since I have started cooking with my neighbor Julius I see the anticipation in his eyes. Whenever I grab the sigiri (local charcoal grill) he is asking me what we are going to make. Chapatti? Cake? Food? I feel bad when I don’t have time to cook with him!

So on Thursdays I don’t have class and have decided to make that my cooking day with Julius. I asked him on Tuesday if he would like to cook with me and talked it up for the next few days.

By the time I grabbed the ingredients and went outside Julius was excited to start but he was about to bath and I told him to listen to his mother.

“Auntie, I bath and we make cake”

“Yes, Julius”

The kid probably took the quickest bath of his life because in no time he was coming outside with one shoe on and pulling the shirt over his head.

I gave him the special jobs of mashing bananas and stirring the batter. Baby and Peter soon joined us but Baby had ulterior motives once she spotted the bananas. One of my neighbors was there to learn how to make cake so she helped me keep watch over the bananas and make sure Julius didn’t stir too hard and spill the batter.

Upon dividing the batter into two cake pans Julius made a huge mess and had a hard time following my instructions but no worries. Thank goodness it’s outside. The kids then became the taste testers by sampling the batter.

About 1 hour later I checked on the cake and Julius and Peter ran over. I told them the cake was ready and before I even looked up, Julius was running away saying “I’ll get my plate!” It was precious.

I handed Julius his portion of the cake and thanked him for all his help. He had a nice smug smile on his face. I asked him if he would cook cake again and he coolly said yes while the older kids and his mom tasted the cake.