The day Luke made Deviled Eggs

I’m a foodie. I love pretty much everything aside from the odd thing (ie. Scallops, Skittles and Pepperoni). I will pretty much eat anything and everything and I LOVE to cook.

My kids are the same. And they too love to get their hands dirty in the kitchen.  I have always encouraged them to cook with me.

I very recently started cooking with Luke one on one in the LMP Studio every Tuesday when his brother is at Hebrew School. I have been posting our cooking sessions live on Snapchat and the feedback has been really wonderful. People have been writing to me asking me questions about how I cook with my child, telling me that they are watching the snaps with their children and that I have inspired them to cook with their kids more. Can’t express to you how happy this makes me.

Though most of the recipes Luke and I have tackled thus far have been sweet, there was one day that I wanted to try a savory dish.

Last Tuesday morning Luke was looking through one of our cookbooks and came to a muffin section and asked if we could make muffins. I was in the thick of our morning routine and was only half listening to him as I was trying to get us all out the door…so I may or may not have agreed to this. Either way, when it came time to gather the groceries for our cooking session that afternoon, I realized I don’t have the ingredients needed for muffins so I came up with something else. Deviled Eggs.

I know what you’re thinking. What are you nuts???? What kinda kid would want to make eggs instead of muffins????

Ok Ok – give me a break. I’m juggling two kids while running a business, being a wife, friend and have a life too, sometimes….I’m a human and make mistakes!

Well this was a biggie. Luke put on his apron that afternoon and went right up to the table and started chopping.   I had a cucumber set out there for him because I wanted to try a recipe that involved his favorite vegetable. When I asked if he knew what we were making he said “muffins”. I said, uh uh we are making cucumber cheese filled deviled eggs. That's when the you know what hit the fan.

Let me show you exactly how he reacted…

[embed width="475" height="456"]https://youtu.be/9F9UISShM6I[/embed]

This video was picked up by my friend Ilana immediately after she saw it on my Snapchat. She posted this to her Average Parent Problems Instagram account and Luke is nearing in on 90k views.

Ok. So I messed up! But you know what? Luke got over it in about 3 minutes. He got right back up to the table and FINISHED the egg recipe. What a guy.

And for all those who were so worried…we were working with a kid safe, nylon knife by The Curious Chef. So no. He wasn’t going to cut his finger off! I highly recommend this knife that we got at Mazzy’s 6th birthday party which I later signed Luke up for cooking classes at.

Two days later, I asked my friend Chef Sue Park if she could come in and have a special cooking lesson with Luke – to make chocolate muffins. Chef Sue has worked with us on several events in the past most recently being our Hershey's Valentine's Day Brunch for Mommy Shorts. She caters parties and also works as an in-home chef and is awesome at teaching kids how to cook.

This was special. Luke loved every second of it! And the muffins were delicious.

Luke has since been featured by my Aunt Debi of Simply Beautiful Eating on Yahoo Style where she talks about cooking with kids. You can also see all of Luke’s cooking sessions on the LMP YouTube channel.

And since I have a few weeks of cooking with Luke under my belt now, here are a few pointers for those of you who plan to try out cooking with your kids…

Cooking with Kid Tips:

Prepare for a mess: Someone asked, how I avoid making a huge mess. The simple answer is, I don’t! Cooking is messy. And it’s messier with kids. You kinda just gotta roll with it. If you go in knowing that there’s going to be a mess, it’s not so bad. I do however keep a bowl that I can use for garbage on the table, this way Luke can easily throw out his eggshells and any other cooking trash. I also keep paper towels handy so he can wipe up and his hands as we go.

Kids cooking tools: As I mentioned above, the Curious Chef knife is incredible. I also found kids size spatula, whisk and cutting boards at Sur La Table.

Prep the ingredients before you start: Luke likes to take charge when we cook. So unless Chef Sue is around I like to have everything pre-measured so we can work quickly. He doesn’t have a lot of patience……oh right, he’s 3.

Wash and wash: Wash your little one’s hands before you start AND after. We are usually cooking with raw ingredients and I like to avoid Luke licking raw eggies off his fingers.

(Luke's smug look on his face here with Chef Sue was brought on by the fact that he had to wait 20 minutes for the chocolate muffins to bake......)

Recipes that we have tried lately: smore’s cookies chocolate muffins with Chef Sue – recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson

For our future recipes, we asked our Instagram followers for recipe suggestions.  One of our followers mentioned Baby Boy Bakery. I have been a follower of this Mom since I heard about the tragic loss of her son Ryan. This was a story I will never forget and could not believe could happen to someone as sweet as this lady looks to be. She now not only blogs about her life but has launched a new subscription service where you can sign up to receive a box each month with a unique recipe to cook with your children. I just signed up for a 6 month subscription for both Luke and Alexandra (Michelle’s daughter who I think I may owe a few years of birthday presents to) and I cannot wait to get started. We will surely document what we are sent and make each month!

Happy Cooking friends! Keep the questions and suggestions coming, please!