Soft Paws: Invisible fences

By Pat Larsen

For Capital Region Independent Media

After the great responses to the column “Guy in the Kitchen,” it became evident that sharing the next chapter, “Kids in the Kitchen,” just made sense. We are a family that both loves to cook and hence loves to share meals with our families and friends.

Our eldest son came home for the holidays in his freshman year of college and requested that in lieu of Christmas gifts that year, he wanted to learn how to make and bake bread. 

Nothing warms the heart of a mother more than to hear that kind of acknowledgement and request.

And so, that winter season, he and I set about discovering all that was involved in bread baking.

I had learned the art of bread baking from my maternal grandmother and now the thought of passing on that wisdom to my oldest child was a gift that he was actually giving me that year without even knowing it.

There’s an element of understanding how very different the generations pass along knowledge. Grandma never used a recipe. Heck, she didn’t read recipes. There was an inner knowing. As she explained it, you use all your senses. She said that in Italian, by the way. English was her second language.

I shared that with my son as we began and incorporated the written word of recipes from a favorite book I referred to alongside a tactile sense of how the bread dough would feel when it was done just right. 

The results of his efforts and my teaching skills yielded some pretty great results right out of the gate. His intention was to bring this contribution back to his dorm floor and to be the designated bread baker for parties. His aspirations could have led him to become the best barista at his college, so we were delighted that a more formidable contribution was the path he was taking. 

Moving on to our second cooking prodigy, it became evident  that at the delicate age of 5 years old, when he used the milk crate to stand on at the stove, there was a budding chef in the making. Little did we know, down the road, he would become a Culinary Institute graduate.

But before we get too far ahead in the story, this special little man became quite proficient at Sunday eggs, French toast and the like every weekend. He looked for every opportunity to step up, yes, figuratively as well as literally, to make meals for us every week.

There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t attempt to cook for us. Trial and error were his constant companion and left us no choice but to order in on those occasions when the meatloaf tasted like old boots ground up with a jalapeno pepper. His retort was often, “Hey, put some ketchup on it!” 

Laughter became our constant companion back then. Let the kid cook was our motto.

Cook he did. He grew into a very accomplished chef, opening restaurants, creating incredible menus on the East End of Long Island, working with top name chefs and traveling to ply his talents and learn about foods from everywhere.

We are always very excited when our chef joins us for the holidays. It’s incredible to just watch him and the organization of maybe 20 things in preparation all at once for our  meal while he was sharing in the conversation we were all having. This is the gift he continues to give us as well and we truly appreciate the blessing of having this kid in the kitchen.

Next up, the gifts that our third child brought to our table as a kid in the kitchen.

The art of the organic preferences of a child attending a liberal arts college and focusing on healthy meals versus loads of yummy stuff that we were known for ingesting. It was because of this caring child that we had begun eating more greens, beans and tofu.

Resistance was the emotion at the start, however in her defense, we learned to love kale.

Black bean brownies eventually grew on us and before we knew it, we actually enjoyed Kombucha.

Sometimes, kids who are surrounded by so many cooks in the kitchen while growing up might take a minute to catch up to be recognized for their gifts. That was definitely the case with this child now grown up. The holidays prepared by her now are scrumptious and very much appreciated for the healthy properties that she shares with us.

Grandkids are now taking on these roles in the kitchen as we choose to step back as the years encroach on us as the elders. 

I’ve now been approached by the younger ones with a request that brings this story full circle.

“Hey Nanny, can you teach us to make bread like you do?”  

Pat Larsen lives in Greene County. Contact Pat for a bread recipe (just kidding) at 518-275-8686 to chat.