A Frozen Yogurt Afternoon

I love to cook, and I really want my children to know how to cook as well (if they don’t love it, that’s okay by me. I just want them to have the skills to do at least basic cooking).Happily, Ella loves to help out in the kitchen, and it’s been fun for me to figure out ways to involve her. I also want her to know how to make things beyond just cookies – it’s really inconvenient, I’ve found, when you go off to college and discover that snickerdoodles are the extent of your cooking ability (although your roommates may not complain too much).

Last week, I wanted to make some frozen yogurt for a little dessert for our Father’s Day dinner (because a cooking repertoire of cookies and ice cream is much more nutritious and impressive).

I used this simple cherry coconut frozen yogurt recipe from Smitten Kitchen – the only at all tedious bit is pitting and chopping the cherries, but I’ve discovered that Ella seems to most enjoy the tedious parts of cooking. And this recipe was no exception.

At first, I thought Ella would only be able to pull the stems off the cherries, but then I realized she could pull the pits out of the cherries once I had chopped them in half, and then she quickly figured out that she could just SQUEEZE the cherries in half and then pull the pit out. She was very proud of herself.

What, you don’t taste the cherries to be sure they aren’t poisonous?

I was less proud when she decided it was necessary to stick her entire hand into the sugar.

Stirring is always a huge hit.

All real chefs keep rubber cement on the counter in case of an emergency

I won’t lie, there may be casualties, especially if someone happens to be wearing white shorts. (But then, this was exactly the scenario that bleach pens were invented for, I believe).