Grace's first class at the Young Chef's Academy

For months Brenda has been on the email distribution list for the Young Chef's Academy here in Round Rock. The YCA is a fun learning center for kiddos, helping kids get comfortable in the kitchen, and finding the joy of cooking. They have group classes for 3 years old and older. What a great way for kids to learn and develop skills and creativity that they can use in a practical way for their entire life. We have been anxiously waiting for Grace to turn 3 so that we could see if Grace was truly interested in cooking. Grace has been "helping" me in the kitchen since long before she walk or talk, but we weren't entirely convinced that she was interested in cooking or just interested in playing with Daddy. It is probably a good mix of both.

In a recent email from the Young Chef's Academy, they announced that they were going to offer a Big Chef/Little Chef class designed for kids from 2-5 years old and a parent. I hope that this class is successful, because Grace had a great time. We were fortunate though today, because Grace was the only kiddo. Evidently they have responses from several families, but we were the only ones who could make it today. What a fun time we had. Grace got to make English muffins with honey orange butter. Since Grace was the only kiddo, we got lots of dedicated attention, which was helpful in letting Grace warm up to the new place. By the time we were done she was ready to come back again.

Grace helped scoop and stir the dry ingredients. She was pretty shy and wasn't sure she wanted to help. But by the time we got to mixing the wet ingredients and beating the egg, she was starting to open up a bit.

Then she helped roll out the dough, which required us to use all our muscles! Then it was time for her favorite part, which was cutting out the muffins with the cookie cutters. We used the circle, since the theme for the day was "Cooking with Circles". We also got to use a heart shaped cutter.

While Miss Leslie Ann was cooking our muffins on the griddle, Grace helped clean up the counter tops. And when we were all done, it was time to try our muffins. While Daddy loved the orange honey butter and the strawberry butter that we made, Gracie enjoyed her English muffin plain. We can hardly wait for 2 more weeks when we get to go back again! I also added a link to YCA here on our blog. They have franchises all over the country and I am a big fan!