Teens Cooking Savory Dishes

We are using the term “savory” here very loosely. By savory we mean not sweet, but there is also an element of flavorful. In other words, finally your teen has migrated on from cakes and sweet dishes to actual food that can be served for meals. Victory!

It is probably not useful to tell your teen that he/she will have a much better life if  he or she knows how to cook real food. But it’s true! Kids truly impress adults when they whip up even a simple meal. If they have “graduated” from the restaurant play for kids stages that we discuss on other pages, they will impress their friends equally with how much fun they can introduce into a meal by making it themselves.

When my grandmother made a wonderful food from Europe, I once asked her to tell me how to make it. She said, “It’s easy. Just mix some eggs, a little flour, some milk, some sugar.” It would have been much better to have asked her to show me how to make it instead. Then I could have written it down!

Here are some things that teenagers can learn.

• Traditional dishes. If you or your parent don’t teach your children how to make traditional dishes (especially from another country), the particular way that it is made in your family will be lost forever. We guarantee that some day the kids will grow up and have a taste for it or recall how wonderful it was to smell it in the kitchen when mother (or father) made it. At least write down recipes for traditional dishes, but better yet, ask your teenager to help you prepare them the next time you decide to do it. While you are working, narrate what you are doing so they will both see and hear it. Present your teenage cook with a small recipe box filled with recipes for traditional family foods as a gift. Down the road he or she will thank you, though maybe not today.
• Family favorites.  These dishes are similar to traditional dishes except that they are modern adaptation recipes that everyone loves. Teach your teenagers how to make the things that made their eyes light up when they came into the kitchen and found them in the oven or on the stove. By definition they will be popular with the children.