Cooking Game

Invite your kid to whip up a batch of ball soup while you whip out dinner.

Submitted by
Sonam Adiolf

There's nothing quite like frantically trying to cook something—anything—with a hungry kid clinging to your leg. Rather than repeatedly shaking him off, make a game of putting him to work "cooking" right alongside you. Looks like you'll all be having "ball soup" as a first course!

A soup pot:
Any pot or pan will work.
Small plastic bowls
Spoons
Utensils:
A wooden spoon, a ladle, a whisk and measuring cups.
Soup fixins':
A jumbo pack of multisized pom-pom balls.

Give little Emeril the pot and utensils.
Hand him the pom-poms and tell him to measure out the ingredients into his pot. Ask him what kind of food each color of pom-pom is. Are the yellow balls chicken or corn? Are the green ones spinach? (We doubt it.)
Tell him to get cooking! He'll need to know that this is one of those recipes that gets better as it simmers, so make sure he stirs, ladles, whisks and pours his soup to perfection. We're guessing the first time he asks, it'll need a lotmore mixing, particularly if the potatoes aren't done yet.
When he's done cooking, have him measure out his soup into the plastic bowls.
He'll need to set them on the table with spoons for everyone. While he's at it, give him enough forks and napkins for everyone, too—might as well get as much work out of him as possible!
When dinner's ready, make sure to pour everyone an extra big glass of water (or merlot for you!), 'cause those pom-poms aren't going to go down easy! Bon appétit!