Cooking with Izzy: Learn to Count While Making Pizza

Hello my fellow foodies. I've had an epiphany with regards to the benefits of cooking in the kitchen.Yes, I have a blast cooking in the kitchen. I love it. I enjoy learning about new foods. My sense of smell and taste is enhanced every time I'm in the kitchen helping my mom. With that said, a truly invaluable benefit of cooking in the kitchen is that I learn about spatial awareness and I enhance my counting skills. As a two year old, it's really important to learn how to count. My mom lets me flour the island counter while we roll and stretch out the pizza dough. She lets me spoon the sauce all over the dough. I get to sprinkle the cheese, mushrooms and olives all over the dough too. This helps me to learn about portion regulation and spatial awareness. Ya see, I cut the ingredient portions in half with my hand and then in half again before I sprinkle them onto the pizza dough. I visualize the pizza in four sections.

Then I take each of the four piles that I've divided out and sprinkle them evenly onto each section. Since I'm only two and I'm still a new cook, this helps ensure that I have enough cheese, olives and mushrooms to cover the entire pizza. I also really enjoy counting! I get to count out the pepperoni slices while I'm placing them on the pizza. I'm getting really good at counting one through twenty. Occasionally I'll eat a slice of pepperoni while I'm working, so then I have to start counting all over again. I'm a beginner ya know. I realize that if I were in a professional kitchen, I couldn't eat the ingredients as I prepared the meals, but this is a luxury of being a home cook. One more piece of advice: start with really good quality ingredients. This way, the likelihood that the end product will taste great, is pretty much a sure thing. As I always say, remember to have fun in the kitchen. Laugh a lot. Smile with the adult who is helping you in the kitchen. Always, always, always prepare your food with the ingredient of "love" in your heart. Love is the most important ingredient we can offer one another. If you can, invite a neighbor or a friend to share the meal with you. In Italian, Salute means health or well being. I hope you have good health and great wellness this week. Salute, Izzy

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About the Chef

Hi, Izzy here. I'm 2 years old. I love to help my mom in the kitchen. Cooking and Baking are passions of mine. I like to dance, draw, kick the soccer ball, play with friends, read and build with blocks too, but being in the kitchen is the ultimate highlight of my day. Hopefully I can get more toddlers and young kids excited about helping their parents out in the kitchen too. I love to help my mom shop for local, organic, fresh ingredients. My mom and I share awesome quality time together in the kitchen. As a toddler, I learn to follow her instructions. I also learn about the importance of abiding by certain rules, like not touching hot or sharp things in the kitchen. It's really important to listen to mom and dad. But, because I am such a good listener, I get to do the really fun stuff in the kitchen, like: knead dough with my hands, roll out homemade tortilla balls and flatten them in the tortilla press, whisk eggs, sugar and butter together, and on and on. Well, you're catching me in the early stages of my culinary journey. If you are interested in getting my posts, submit your email address in the upper right column of my blog. I also welcome "comments" if you like any particular posts that I write. Thanks for supporting my effort to get my peers and friends cooking in the kitchen with their parents! Cheers for now. Izzy

1 comment:

UnknownApril 9, 2014 at 7:24 PM
Hi Izzy! Kudos on the counting! I never before thought about dividing my pizza ingredients into fourths so they would evenly spread out on my pizza. Great idea! I'm going to try your pesto sauce idea on my next pizza. Can't wait to try that taste treat mixed with my pepperoni & fresh tomato slices. Yum! You're brilliant!