It might have something to do with all the cooking shows we watch together on Saturday afternoons, or possibly just his interest in handling sharp knives, but somehow Henry became really interested in cooking all of a sudden. Mondays have became his night to make dinner, and we aren’t complaining! He picks a recipe he loves, gives me a shopping list, and then insists on doing it start to finish himself (albeit with some helicoptering on my part). Today he’s cooking for Ashley’s family with their fancy new kitchen appliances in partnership with Maytag…

At first, Henry would make his favorite family recipes but we found many of them to be overly complicated and frustrating for him as a beginner chef. So we’ve been looking into more simple, but still delicious recipes for him to cook. Recently we got this great cookbook called The Forest Feast for Kids that I love. The recipes are really simple with fresh ingredients, and beautiful images.

Today Henry’s making a simple linguini dish with ribboned veggies from the cookbook and adding some turkey meatballs on the side. First up, he’s boiling the noodles on Ashley’s Maytag Gas Range. Ashley says “the gas range of the stove makes a real difference in our cooking. I’ve finally been able to get that sear I’m always trying to achieve. It also comes with a griddle that lays on top of the burners. I’ve been surprised with how often we use the griddle… for pancakes, bacon, chicken and even burgers when we ran out of propane in our outside grill.”

Henry grabbed some veggies from the Maytag French Door Refrigerator. Ashley says that the fingerprint resistance has made all the difference in keeping it clean, and now “Hazel is constantly opening the fridge and freezer and you’d barely even know it. Where as our old stainless steel fridge looked always dirty. She also loves the huge deli drawer at the bottom, “the perfect place for Hazel to easily grab her own snack!”

Next, Henry’s ribboning the carrots and zucchini. He loved this part. Now I know who to call when I need a lot of peeling done! He sautéed them with garlic (he loves garlic presses too) and olive oil, and then added them to the cooked linguini and some butter. Easy peasy, dinner’s almost ready!

Henry is a big fan of meatballs, so we added those to the dish as well. Once Henry made meatballs from scratch but that onion cutting almost killed him!  This time, we’re taking a shortcut and just cooking some of those frozen turkey meatballs from Trader Joes.

He served the pasta with shredded parm, fresh bread, and lemonade. Ashley made him describe his dish, just like they do in the cooking competition shows. Although Ashley and Hazel were much kinder judges!

Yum! Do your kids ever cook dinner? We’ve gotten out of our Henry cooking every Monday routine with the recent kitchen renovations, but I’m anxious to get back into it!

Thanks to Maytag for sponsoring this post. Stay tuned for next week when Henry bakes his favorite cookies!