Kids in the Kitchen

My brother decided that during the winter break he was going to learn how to cook from me. And by "cook" I mean learning how to turn on the stove and use a knife.

But, really, how much more do you need to learn?

A few nights ago, we decided to cook dinner for our parents. While they went shopping, Rishab and I put together a vegan lasagna and apple pie. Let's start with the apple pie, shall we?

Rishab peeled 3 granny smith apples and tossed them with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. I also added about a tablespoon of cornstarch and some flour to help it set once out of the oven.



I didn't follow a recipe. We just dumped things in a bowl and made them look pretty.



After 30 mins in the oven, it came out looking pretty delicious.



While the pie cooled, we put together the main course-- lasagna. We Rishab layered whole wheat lasagna sheets with store bought pasta sauce, sauteed spinach and mushrooms and homemade tofu ricotta. We threw it in the oven for about 20 mins to heat it all the way through.



We warmed up some bread, set the table and waited patiently for our parents.


(Rishab is a creeper.)

The lasagna was alright. This baby had no oil except for the spray we used on the baking pan. We cooked the veggies without any oil and didn't stream in EVOO for the tofu ricotta. Well, all I'll say is that it definitely tasted fat free. Heh.



It was still good enough to go in for seconds, though.

We then served up our apple pie and it was a hit. Sweet, light and a perfect ending to our meal.



As you can see, it definitely didn't set and ended up being more like a tart than a pie. But, it was delicious so no complaints.

Anyway, this was not the first time Rishab and I have spent time in the kitchen. In fact we found some home videos last week of Rishab conducting a cooking show with me as his assistant. He was about 6 years old and stood on a stool and made a mess and got bored in the middle and left. However, this was the first time that we have cooked real food and the first time that Rishab did about 70% of the work.

He has definitely come a far way from pretending to be on a cooking show, making explosion sounds as he stirs and calling baking cookies a "mad science experiment."



Ok, maybe not that far.