Cutting Mushrooms

The following is an article that I wrote for the Pittsburgh Toy Lending Library newsletter. They only got a picture, but you get a video!

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After reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and having my husband tell me about The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan we have been convicted as a family that in order to be good stewards of our bodies and the earth we should eat local and organic food as much as possible. However, cooking from scratch and using fresh produce takes a long time. I didn’t want to spend all that time alone in the kitchen and not include my one-year-old son, Micah. So I found some ways for him to enjoy the process with me.

Micah can’t use knives or the stove, but he wants to cook. He loves having a job and he’s more likely to eat things he’s helped with. His favorite activity in the kitchen is cutting mushrooms. Whole Foods sells local organic mushrooms all year round. We use Pampered Chef’s Egg Slicer Plus to make this a group activity. I strap him in his booster seat with the egg slicer ready to go on his tray. I push him next to the table and put the fry pan right on the edge of the table next to Micah. Then I get rinsing. Each time a mushroom is ready to be cut I put it in the egg slicer for him, then go back to rinsing. Meanwhile, Micah expertly presses the top down, squeals, “AH HA!” and pries the mushroom pieces out of the slicer and puts them in the pan. When the mushrooms are done, I let him down, chop up some onion, fry it all together in butter and serve!

Another way we involve him is by allowing him to put spices in certain dishes. He plops cinnamon sticks and cloves in a pot of apple cider or dumps the measured spices for a soup into the pot. Micah also loves to put the spices in scrambled eggs. His favorite combination is basil and coriander, a strange sounding concoction of my husband’s that is quite good.

From visiting the PTLL, Micah has developed a love of painting. Whenever I make a pie, he “paints” the top crust with water or egg whites and we put the sugar on together. The irony of this particular cooking activity is that now Micah likes the crust the best. He requested an apple pie for about two weeks and I finally gave in. Luckily this happened in the winter when local apples from Dawson’s farm were available at Whole Foods. During his nap I peeled and chopped countless apples by hand, mixed the filling—except the spices which I saved for when Micah awoke. He painted the crust. When the pie was finally finished and ready to serve he ate all the “crust” and left the apples. Oh well!

While cooking from scratch with Micah is healthy and fun, sometimes I’m too tired or there’s just not time. We have sworn off all the fast food burger places and anything else that sells CAFO meat. That doesn’t leave many options. But we have found a few local places that we all enjoy without having to sacrifice our food values:

• Panera – Kids meals come with a side of Horizon organic yogurt; drinks include organic milk or organic apple juice; all chicken is antibiotic-free; Micah likes the chicken noodle or chicken and wild rice soups.
• Chipotle – Most meat is naturally-raised; Micah likes carnitas “buh-buh-buh-bitos” with black beans, rice, pico de gallo, and guacamole.
• Whole Foods – A great place for a quick hot meal.
• Oh Yeah! – They sell organic ice cream; they make waffles, can add fruit.
• Taza D’Oro – Micah loves steamers (Turner’s local hormone free milk with flavored syrup). He likes them cold, which means they’re not steamed, but who cares! He orders them like this: “code teemer, app-oh teemer!” Only one of the cashiers can understand him!