Cooking is only common sense after you have done it a few times.
For most parents who have been cooking for years a lot of things are common sense, and like most skills you have mastered we tend to do things on autopilot without thinking.
So when trying to teach your children some easy fun recipes it sometimes comes as a bit of a surprise just how much they do not know! This is best illustrated to me when my son Ben, about 16 at the time, followed a recipe to make tomato soup.
I got a call on my mobile from him, he was not happy and indignantly reported, "The stupid recipe does not work, they asked for three cups of stock.
I have used all we had, which was only about 1and a half cups.
And they have forgotten the water".
As it transpired, he had used stock powder, two jars of it - which should have been enough to make about 30 cups of liquid stock, and added enough water to make it look like soup.
The result was a disgustingly salty brew which was totally inedible.
Worse still, I had an angry child saying he 'over cooking'.
Because the instructions were too scant all the fun of cooking, his plans of doing something nice for the family and sense of mastery were gone.
For most teenagers cooking is not second nature; so unless someone shows or tells them they will not necessarily know what to do.
Most of them do not like adults hovering around while they are cooking so we need strategies that are self contained or teenage led.
This is quite a balancing act as whilst you want to answer questions that are looming in a teenagers head, you do not want to patronize.
I believe the best way to get around this is to introduce humor.
And that is where almost all nutrition and cooking education strategies fail.
There are very few fun recipes for kids around.
Humor and food or nutrition seems mutually exclusive.
Think of the simple task of boiling a potato, in my focus groups these are the sort of questions that have emerged.
Do you have to peel them? what size do you cut them? how much water to put in the pot? does it matter if it is hot or cold water? how high do I have the heat?, how long do you cook them for? and how do know when they are cooked? All these are exceedingly simple questions.
After they have seen it once or twice they will never have to ask again.
But somewhere, somehow, someone has to show them.
If it can be shown with a smile or a joke then engagement of the message is much more likely.
Other tasks, like chopping an onion, are so quick and easy once your technique is right.
I have watched many children struggle with a blunt knife and/or no technique.
If only someone would show them then the effort required would half and their perception of the task would improve.
As parents we know that daily cooking can degenerate to drudgery when you are tired, trying to juggle the demands of a busy lifestyle, family and career.
We all need to eat daily.
We all need food skills and we want great tasting results without ever wasting either food or effort.
Having the skills to cook is one of the best gifts you can give your child.
The challenge for parents is to develop an interest in cooking and to make it fun.
We need fun recipes for kids.
Most cookbooks are written by adults, for adults and your child probably will not find them very motivating.
I suggest you find a cookbook or a strategy that it teen led and utilises humor to inspire your child to have a go!