Next food network star? Not!

I found myself in the strange situation of wishing I had a camera crew in my kitchen. Strange, because anyone who knows me will tell you that I hate to be photographed let alone on video. However, I have found myself thinking that this blog is lacking in entries-for one, and photographic enhancements-for another missing element.

My sister writes a food blog and posts pictures of her culinary creations along with recipes, etc, but in my house with three hungry kids plus a hungry husband food doesn't really ever get the chance to plate itself and pose prettily for it's close-up before being ravenously consumed. I am attempting to rectify that by snapping a quick pic when I can, but let's face it. My hands are usually otherwise occupied in the kitchen.

One of the questions I get asked most often is "how do you cook with kids?". And this led me to my wish for a camera crew this evening. On the menu this evening was panfried Panko breaded shrimp with sweet and sour sauce and sushi rice. So rice is no big deal, put it in a pot and forget about it. The sauce involved some chopping and sauteing. Gabriella hung around a little during prep, mostly to snag chunks of the pineapple I was chopping. The same goes for Sierra.

But once I got the shrimp cleaned and started setting up the breading station, the hoards descended (by hoards I mean all three kids) and I caught myself thinking "I wish someone here to film this". At ages seven, five, and three my kids know how to set up a little assembly line for the breading and frying of fish and meats. No nonsense, they get right down to business. One would take a handful of cleaned shrimp from the bowl on the table and toss it in the flour to coat, then drop the freshly floured shrimp into the eggwash. Eggwash was manned by my three year old, Sierra , so she needed a little help making sure the shrimp was well covered in egg wash and ready for the panko. Into the panko went the shrimp and kid number three would toss them in the bread crumbs to cover and then drop them one by one into the hot pan on the stove.

Now, let me make the point again that my kids are three, five, and seven years old. It was messy (I laughed at myself for washing the floor earlier in the day). They are young, but they know their way around a kitchen without any hesitation. We had a blast and I caught myself thinking that a video blog would probably be the only way to share how easy and how much fun it is to cook with your kids.