Stella and I made French Toast

Stella loves to cook. I think she loves spending time making things with me and looks forward to the days when I work. Her parents think so too. She borrowed a children’s recipe book from me last week. According to her parents, she spent days looking through it and discussed with her parents which recipe she would like to make with her mum, dad or me.

When Stella got up from a short nap this afternoon, she asked to make French toast. I wasn’t quite sure whether to allow her to or not, so we called her mum for permission first. She gave us the go ahead. This was not the first time that we had made French toast, although this time Stella did ‘most’ of the work. She washed her hands thoroughly (as told) and put on her special apron that I made her for last Christmas. She cracked the eggs like a professional and whisked them with some milk. After I cut the crusts off the bread, she helped to slice each one into triangles. The triangles didn’t look perfect but we didn’t mind a bit. She then dipped each triangle into the egg mixture before I placed it into the electric frypan. She had a go at flipping a triangle but was unsuccessful and gave up. I think she is still a little afraid of the heat. Stella had her toast with honey and I had mine just plain. She really is such a wonderful child. She even loaded the dishes and utensils into the dishwasher after the snack and wiped down the table while I was trying to clean the electric frypan. I didn’t even have to ask her to do all that.

For today’s cooking, I had the whole activity set up on Stella’s table in the kitchen. This allowed the little chef to participate more fully. (Note: I wouldn’t have set it up like so, if Stella was not mature enough for such an activity. Careful observations are required to judge the compatibility of activities for the child/children.) This in fact was the second time that we had cooked using the electric frypan on her table. Due to being constantly reminded that the stove or oven can be hot and is therefore dangerous, Stella is still a little wary of the electric frypan. I am sure she will be more comfortable in time to come. Stella’s mum received the electric frypan years ago, but since it was hardly ever used she wanted to give it away. She is very surprised at how useful we now find it.