my girl loves dough

Anytime I have a flour + water combo on the table kneading it into a shape, Elsa sniffs it out and wants to get her fingers doughy. She loves helping make pizza, or biscuits, or anything. Her middle name should be Helper instead of Marie. But who knew she'd be an astonishing helper? That she'd love to be in the kitchen?

Developing her kitchen skills is my main goal this year but I'm at a loss as to what direction to head. Normally I throw caution to the wind and end up letting her tackle much more than she's ready for because I overestimate her manual dexterity. 

While she's nowhere near ready for knife skills (nor AM I!), we're priming her for the day when she can learn to cut carrots and cheese and other items with a knife. 

But, one thing is for sure: I've a ready supply of dough keeping her busy. But we all know that overworked dough doesn't always equal something we want to eat. I keep a bit of "play" dough on hand for her to wiggle her digits through so we have tender bread to sink our incisors into. Otherwise, we'd be throwing our bread to the dogs, and they'd love that.

 

Comments

[Joseph Carr]

How old is your daughter? You should nurture her baking skills. Who knows, maybe she might grow up a good patissier! I hope you are teaching her how to make healthy pizza. Happy baking!

[Rebecca]

thanks Joseph, Elsa will be four next month and loves helping in the kitchen, especially with baking. right now she can't decide whether to be a doctor or firefighter, but who knows, she'll change her mind a million times between now and 30-something. Healthy pizza it is. we use gluten-free, low fat cheese and the type of flour varies depending on what's on hand. nor do we overload with toppings. tis usually a simple cheese pizza, the best in my estimation, but it's always easy to hide veggies underneath the cheese, too.