With younger teenagers (13, 14) they can manage to feed themselves, but it tends to be a meal made of snacks and not any actual cooking. My older teens (16, & 17) will come up and actually make something - it makes me kinda proud of them. I'll be even MORE proud when they clean up after themselves, but perhaps that will be the lesson next summer... and the next... and the next.
When I first started learning from Food $ense, I was so intimidated by all the terms and the "skills" of being in the kitchen. I was so relieved and happy when I discovered that some were things I already knew how to do and others were so simple, I wondered why I had been afraid of them at all.
This is the webpage that Food $ense has that you can launch from to learn a whole bunch of basic skills. As always... You can contact your local extension and ask for a Food $ense Nea and find out where they are teaching, what classes are available, and some will even come to you and teach you in your home!! What?? How awesome is That - and remember it is all Free - you can't beat Free!
Skillet Cooking
Baking
Roasting
Slow Cooking
Moist Cooking
Grilling and Broiling
Pressure Cooking
Microwave Cooking
Remember practice makes perfect - Perhaps the egg you try poaching won't be cooked exactly like you like it (I am still working on this one, I always end up cooking the yolks all the way through). Perhaps you'll discover that you really enjoy fish when it is cooked on the grill. And learning how to roast your own chicken will not only impress dinner guests but you'll walk by those roasted chickens in the grocery store and say to yourself, "mine is sooo much better".
Here are some Adorable cheat sheets that I found Here at Soda Pic. They are cute enough to print out and put on the inside of your cabinet for a quick reference guide.
** Now I want to have a bit of a serious paragraph here; One of the Most Important "skills" you can have while you are in the kitchen is safety. Brush up on your knowledge of Fight Bac! Get in the habit of keeping things healthy and safe in your kitchen. Nothing will ruin your cooking experiences and give you a reputation as a "bad chef" as quickly as making everyone sick with your cooking. **
