The Little Helping Hands

My children loves to be around me wherever I am in the house. Well, any kids for that matter love to be around grown ups. They are ever curious to find out what we are up to. Most of the time, I would be either with my computer, catching up or being chased by deadlines; or in the kitchen preparing meals for the family.

When I was a kid, I didn't really enjoy being in the kitchen. To me, being there means doing a chore. No kids in their right mind would enjoy doing chores. Well, same here. Being the assistance in the kitchen would also mean that I'd be trapped there. Kitchen would be the place to receive that inevitable 'lectures' about things I didn't enjoy listening (read: nagging).

So, for years, I go to the kitchen simply because I have to be not because I want to. Now, I would say that I have about 90% control of the kitchen. To the very least, I get to experiment my cooking or do whatever I want to do without anyone checking on me or constantly asking what I was doing, and giving unsolicited advice. I find that to be quite irritating. Mainly because back then, I never get to be in charge in the kitchen. I was always the second fiddler.

But now, I want things to be different. I get all my girls to be involved in the kitchen. I want to potray a message that being in the kitchen is not a chore. It's fun! First, I have to prove that to them.

To get them involved in the activity, I get them to do all the small things, like fetching shallots and garlic (Along, Angah & Adik can do that). Along sometime helps to get the eggs from the fridge. She even tried her hands pounding the shallots and garlic.

In the above picture, Along 'pretended' to beat the egg. At least, she knows how beating the eggs feel like. Of course, their assistance are up to a certain point. Anything near the fire, oven or any hot items are strictly for 'big hands'. (Managed to convince them that they have small hands).

On the right side is Angah peeling the onion. Of course, they are all too young to use the knife so, they may assist whatever it is that doesn't require the use of sharp objects. That will do for the time being, until they are responsible enough to use knife or go near the stove.

favourite moist-chocolate cake. Well, the cake is, ofAll of them would also enjoy it whenever I bake their course, nothing compared to Secret Recipe's Chocolate Indulgance or any other chocolate cake they have. But, whenever I bake my moist choc cake, half of it would be disappear while the cake is still warm. I know that the taste is not that good, but they enjoy because of its availability and they were involved in the somewhere in the process. Along, Angah and Adik would topple themselves to help me whenever I announced that I was going to bake the cake.

Today is Adik's birthday. So, more reason for me to bake the cake yesterday. We don't normally celebrate birthdays with candles all over the cakes, whatmore blowing candles are not part our our birthday rituals. We just enjoy eating the cakes with simple birthday wishes.

Well, Happy Birthday Adik! She's now officially three years old.