Momma's Little Helper

Over the past few weeks, Libby has picked up some great cooking skills! She has been helping Mema can and freeze strawberry & cherry jelly/jam! Mema said that she goes a great job helping "stir, stir, stir" while they wait for the jelly to thicken up. Mema got Libby a very cute baking set (complete with rolling pin and whisk to "stir, stir, stir") that she couldn't wait to test out as soon as we got home.

I enlisted her help to make our salads. I gave her two bowls and asked her to fill them up with the lettues...Done. I was trying so hard to act like I was doing something else and that I was not "micro-managing" her salad prepping skills. I only intervened once when I caught her pop a piece in her mouth, spit it out and then proceed to put it in a bowl. Look how hard she is thinking (with her tongue sticking out) as she counts out even amounts of croutons for Momma & Daddy.
After the sprinkle incident of '07 during Christmas Cookie Baking at Nonna's house, I decided not to let her have the bacon bits in the jar. I opted to put them in a cup and let her spoon them onto our salads.
Next came setting the table. After all of this work, I was sure she worked up quite an appetite. Libby ate only a few bites of her chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans....instead, she was too interested in eating our salads. I guess every chef needs to sample the dish! Perhaps next time she'll have to make herself one, too.

Finally, came the clean up. She was such a great helper this evening! I can only hope for many more evenings with an extra pair of hands in the kitchen and some of this Momma-Daughter bonding.