Why is it so important to share cooking with your children

Ok, so this is not a recipe but a topic very dear and close to me.

Growing up, I have the very best memories in spending hours helping and learning how to cook with my Mother, my Grandmother and some of the helps they had.See? My grandparents had a farm just outside Lisbon. Actually in the exact spot of a now very well known train station (Gare do Oriente) designed by Calatrava for the Lisbon World Expo 98. Here is a link where you can view amazing photographs of the Fare as well as the whole Expo are.

So going back to my childhood. Each time we would visit my grandparents we would run around all over the farm, play with the chickens, pick up eggs, vegies, get ourselves all dirty by eating amazingly sweet blackberries. I would also venture myself into the kitchen where Maria would spend her days coming up with amazing meals along with my Grandmother. One thing about Maria was, she would NEVER throw leftovers away. She would always figure out something else to make with them. When still a toddler, she would allow me to sit in one of the stools and I would spend hours there, with my arms crossed and resting on a marble table top checking every movement she would do, every spices  she would add and looking forward to her allowing me to sample her cookings.

As I grew a little older she started to allow me to help her. But watch out, I HAD to do exactly as I was asked, or else! well... or else I was forbidden to enter the kitchen for a while! What I recall the most of my Grandmother's and Maria's cookings were the soups, ahhh those soups, with the fresh vegetables from the farm, and the holiday meals. Christmas meals were a true feast and I will soon be sharing some of those as the holidays approach.

Back at home with me Mother and sister, we would all be involved in helping in the kitchen. Due to the fact we traveled and lived in various countries, we would not only cook traditional Portuguese foods but also adapted some to the likings of each culture and learned many from each place.

Today, with two daughters, I try to involve them as much as possible in the kitchen. I started by introducing them to strong tastes from an early age, so to avoid them being picky eaters. That of course does not mean they do not go through phases and decide not to like this or that from time to time! Soon I will create a posting on baby food.

R., my oldest loves to help in the kitchen. At 11 she already makes a killer chicken curry, a bbq sauce (she will not share the recipe!) to use on pork or chicken, amazing smoothies which are often her breakfast as well as other more typical meals. C., the little one, well for now she enjoys playing on the kitchen floor with the onions, potatoes, etc, She bites them, which actually ends up facilitating peeling the onions. Throughout the process of cooking I make sure both girls keep on trying the food and R. already has a palette sensitive enough to let me know what else to add.

The best part of this is their interest of trying something new and my knowing the day they will start their own lifes, they will know hoe to cook for themselves!