Here’s some tips from this week’s featured mom Katie Workman on getting kids excited in the kitchen.

1. Let them pick the seasoning and taste to see how much.

It makes them much more interested in trying what they’ve helped make.

2. Ask your kids to pick a dish they would like to eat at some point during the week, and pick a night where you will cook it together

3. Let them experiment with easy things that they can really play around with.

For instance, brushing pita chips with olive oil, then creating herbs and spice combos to sprinkle on, and then baking them.  Great way to introduce new flavors, and if it doesn’t work?  Well, you’ve lost a pita chip.

4. Vinaigrettes are a fun project.

Basically oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, but if you have more than one kind of vinegar they can combine them to create different dressings, and also play around with herbs and spices, or add a bit of minced onion or garlic, maybe some mustard or mayonnaise….homemade dressings make great gifts for the holidays, especially when they are labeled as your kid’s own creation!  (Plus it encourages more salad eating).

Basic Vinaigrette

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white, cider, wine or balsamic vinegar

To taste:
Salt
Black Pepper

Optional: Spices, herbs, garlic, onions, mustard or mayo. It’s hard to go wrong if they add a little at a time and build the flavor.

Thanks Katie for these great tips! We hope that gets some kids more excited to help out in the kitchen. To read more from her, please see her interview.

To read more from Katie please see her interview.

Katie Workman was a kid who loved to cook, and a kid who loved cookbooks. Her first job after college was with Clarkson Potter Publishers, specializing, naturally, in cookbooks, and she remained there for 12 years learning every part of the cookbook publishing world while becoming a Senior Editor. After a shorter stint as Associate Publisher at Workman Publishing, Katie left to help launch Cookstr.com as the Founding Editor in Chief in 2008. This was also the beginning of her career as an active food writer. She established the popular Cookstr weekly newsletter, and wrote for many websites and publications, including The Daily Beast, AOL Food, KitchenDaily.com, AARP.com, bravo.com, Boston Globe and New York Magazine. She currently writes a bi-weekly column for The Huffington Post.

Katie lives with her husband and two children in New York City, where friends, neighbors, and families with kids are all welcome at her table. Visit Katie’s website.