Baking with Ben

Back at Fourth of July, it was my job to make a dessert to bring to the bbq Omi and Meo were hosting.  I decided to do something easy and fun, and made a three ingredient ice cream cake.  One of these basic three ingredients was smashed oreos.  While I still try to do a lot of cooking while Ben is napping, I knew I wouldn't be able to get away with hammering a bunch of cookies while he was resting.  I decided to quick smash them up while Ben was playing.

Well, as one can imagine the sound of something being destroyed in the kitchen drew Ben in instantly.  He hasn't really been able to help me out with a lot of cooking or baking yet, so I thought this was the perfect task to count as his first baking.

Ben seemed happily surprised that we handed him his toy hammer and let him go to town on a bag of cookies.  He loved the whole process.  I like to think he is a natural, because he preferred using a wooden spoon like me over his toy mallet.  He knows the tools matter. :) I am looking forward to cooking with Ben, but I am going to wait until he is a little bigger.  He needs to be a tiny bit taller so he doesn't almost fall off his stool reaching for things.  And I want to get a little more confident that he will respond to directions.  But I am hoping for fun times ahead.

So far though, his first dessert was a success.  Everyone loved it and was very impressed that Ben had helped.

Sweet, tiny baker!

-Kim