Well today we had a little "Home Economics" in our homeschool. I never took Home Economics in school. I took "Technology" where I learned how to weld and screen print and make things. It was "Shop" basically. I was one of two girls in that class. I remember I used to say, "If you can READ, you can cook!" I had absolutely NO DESIRE when I was 14 years old to learn anything about homemaking. It wasn't until I was pregnant with my first baby that I realized that I wanted to be a homemaker. That I wanted to stay home with my babies and not work outside the home. When I first got married I was NOT a cook. Yes. I could read. And I did. Believe it or not I had to read "Cooking for Dummies" to learn how to make mashed potatoes!! My mom cooked all the time when I was young. She would invite me into the kitchen but I was like, "Nah". It wasn't my thing. And when she died when I was only 22 years old, I regretted so much that I never spent any time with her in the kitchen. I never learned from her how to make gravy. Or mashed potatoes. Or how to fry a chicken. To this day, I still don't make gravy. I've never fried a whole chicken that I've cut up myself. So, since my kids have shown an interest in spending time with me in the kitchen I'm going to take advantage of it. BEFORE they get too busy and don't want to hang out with me ;) So, anyway...today's cooking lesson was a simple one. How to make Beef Stew. I'm sure we'll have to practice this many times but I love that they were so eager to want to help and to want to learn :)
I told them...rule #1...put on your aprons and wash your hands :) (I poured myself some Dr. Pepper and put on some of my favorite music too!)
Aren't they cute in their aprons?
Even Philip was super excited to help!
Next. We clean and chop the celery. This was their first time to cut up veggies with a sharp knife so I was a little nervous. I kept saying, "Watch your fingers!!" Fortunately, no problems.
Philip didn't get to chop. He's still too young.
Next lesson. The vegetable peeler. This step is going to take some getting used to. Madeline did pretty well. Susanna got a little frustrated.
Madeline helped chop the carrots. Susanna thought it looked a bit too hard.
Madeline peeling her potato. SuSu was busy playing with Philip by this time.
They are playing with Mammy, the pumpkins and the farmhouse :)
Philip was in charge of the salt and pepper. He poured in the beef broth too!
And everyone took a turn at stirring. I really think that is their favorite part!
We really had a lot of fun in the kitchen today! I really hope they will be more eager to eat their stew since they had such a big part of making it! Will definitely have to do more "Home Ec" classes soon!
