Chef Meo, age 3

Yesterday, Meo cooked lunch for us pretty much all by himself!  For Christmas we got him a children's cookbook called Cook School as well as some utensils for small hands (whisk, rolling pin, spatula, rubber scraper, wooden spoon). The cook book is really cool because it is divided into sections by age, the first section being recipes for ages 3-5. All the recipes have photographs for each step so they can follow along.

Meo did every part of the recipe on his own! I showed him how to do each step, and then I restrained myself from helping and let him have a go. He surprised me by how awesome he did! I was prepared for the food not to be edible and to be a huge mess...and I was okay with that. But Meo did as well as I could have done, and we were both very proud of the results! Here is Meo making "tasty bread tarts":

1. Cut some bread into circles.

2. Grease a muffin pan with parchment paper and a little butter.

3. Put the bread into the muffin pan.

4. Crack some eggs! Meo has done this in the past using the tap on the bowl or counter method, but the book suggests using a butter knife to crack the egg. So Meo tapped the egg with the knife, then opened up the shell and let the eggs fall into the pitcher...he didn't even drop any shells!

5. He beat the eggs together with some milk.

6. Sprinkled some basil into each of the (now toasted) bread cups. I thought he would pour a whole bunch of spices in (like he does when decorating cookies with sprinkles) but he restrained himself and put the perfect amount in each!

7. Added a handful of peas to each.

8. Carefully poured the egg mixture evenly into each cup. Admittedly I may have held my breath while he did this part, anticipating lots of overflow. But, oh my word, he did a superb job! All by himself too!

9. Add a little cheese. The recipe called for parmasean, but Meo thought goat cheese crumbles was a better choice. I agreed.

10. After we put it in the oven, these lovely tarts came out! And they were delicious!! Honestly, I really loved them, and so did Meo! We agreed that we would make them again for lunch next week.

This is a VERY PROUD little boy about to eat a lunch he made all by himself.

I am excited to try more recipes in this book and continue our journey of learning how to cook together!