Monday, October 15, 2012

The benefits of a secondary school education

Ever since both my kids started attending secondary school, I had been patiently waiting for the day when both are able to cook a simple meal on their own. They're not quite there yet but at least they're able to cook one or two items. I had been looking forward to my kids attending cooking lessons in their schools and tried my best to hide my glee.

My son who's older learnt to cook first. I can't say he's inclined towards cooking. He did manage to cook whatever's required of him. But he simply has no interest in cooking for the family which is my secret wish. However I did persuade him to learn to cook eggs since he is so particular about how he wants his eggs cooked. He was quite game and now whenever I cook, I'll let him take care of the eggs including prawn omelettes.

My girl seems a little more interested in baking. This is her first year learning cooking in school. Her school did not always allocate enough time for her cooking class and once, she brought home an uncooked shepherd's pie. What a shame!

On Saturday my girl was in a baking mood and she baked Queen Cakes which she had learnt in school.


I think she made a mistake in the creaming but the cake still turned out edible.


Me and son gobbled them up. My girl found out that she doesn't like to eat her own cakes!

One of the rules I told my kids they must always follow when they cook is that the cook does the washing up. I'm happy to report so far they have always followed the rule.

This is the recipe we used from her text book. It only serves 2. We halved the sugar and skipped the raisins.

Queen Cakes

100g flour
75g cold butter
50g raisins
75g castor sugar
1 large egg
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
a little milk

Bake at 190 deg C

4 comments:

Linda said...

Hurray for your son and daughter! Everyone needs to learn to cook. I had my sons cooking before they could reach the counter top. They stood on a chair with me beside them. They are grown now and are all fantastic cooks! One son does all the cooking in his family and is wife does the baking. I loved to cook with my students when I taught school - whether it was 5 year olds, or 2nd graders. We learned measurement and fractions through cooking and always cooked something from the country we were studying in Social Studies. Those are wonderful memories! I also cook with my grandchildren. I think some of my fondest memories as a child were of cooking with my mother. That may be why I am so "into" that.

Katja said...

Thanks for the recipe. Here in Germany we have another rule...the cook is the one that only prepares the food. Everyone else has to take care of the dishwasher ;-) But thats just our family...We share the work.

My kids also help me a lot around the kitchen. The little one (2 years) loves our dishwasher...and his older brother takes is taking care of the 'messy work' ;-)

Chris H said...

Brylee and Griffin have been cooking at school since they went to school aged 5.
Neither of them is competent enough to cook at home yet!
And I NEVER eat any of the stuff they bring home from school.. I'm too scared someone didn't wash their hands!
In this house if you cook dinner, you don't do the dishes..

IF you are baking a cake or similar, then you have to do the dishes.
I don't know how we came about that rule!

Laurie-Jane said...

At my kids schools they have a kitchen garden program. All the students are involved in the gardening, harvesting and cooking. They also have 4 chickens for eggs. It's brilliant they make a 3 course meal each week and all sit down together to eat it. It's taught them so much, my 7 year old has amazing knife skills. Our prime minister came to the school for a visit and my 12 year old daughter made her a cup of tea. At home though I seem to be the only one who washes up.

I like how that recipe only serves 2 ha ha.

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