I'm here to tell you what many same parents already know: that last part is false. 17 months old, is too young to participate in the kitchen.
After watching Daphne Oz make sweet potato brownies on The Chew I received the vegetable in my weekly box from the farmers market. "Perfect!" I thought. "Oh, what fun it would be to make these with Toddler B!" Clearly I was delusional at the time.
I got my ingredients and chased him down, plopped him standing on a chair so he could reach the counter where I'd carefully laid out the mixing bowl and a measured cup of flour. I reached to guide his little hand but he quickly took his other hand and started patting the flour aggressively, watching it fly and puff all over his shirt and the floor. Just as I started to clean it, he saw the canister of cocoa powder. Who knew he could open cocoa powder? By now the dog was intrigued at the prospect of flying ingredients and I was scrambling to do damage control. I snatched the mixing bowl, cocoa powder and removed the eggs from his reach before it was too late. In my haste to create a distraction to buy time, I gave him a smaller bowl and poured in a few spoonfuls of the next ingredient I happened to be holding. Brown sugar.
There I was, less than 5 minutes in, covered in flour and cocoa powder, scraping ingredients off the counter as my son stood next to me happily shoving handfuls of brown sugar directly into his mouth.
At least he was occupied long enough for me to finish the mix. The "sweet potato brownies" turned out to taste pretty good despite the fact that none of the measurements were precise. Not even close. And yes, I fed them to my toddler even though he'd just eaten who-know-how-much straight brown sugar.
As I said, cooking has never been my strong suit. But, at least the food critics in this house are easy to please!
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