More mix!

Barak is a lot of fun to bake with. Last week we made challah and this afternoon we made whole-wheat muffins. I really do let him mix--I put the (stainless steel) mixing bowl on his high chair tray, hand him the measured ingredients (we steer clear of things needing raw eggs, or I add those last), and let him have fun. He's surprisingly good at not spilling, and today, when I handed him half a cup of raisins to add to the muffin batter, even refrained from stuffing them all in his mouth.

"Eat it?" he inquired politely.

"Eat these, " I told him, giving him a few on the side of the bowl. "The ones in the cup are for the muffins. You'll eat those later."

"Eat later," he agreed, downing the ones I gave him--but leaving the ones in the bowl alone.

When we made the challah, it was what my mother would term an "experiment in better cooking"--meaning, no recipe, no advance planning, seat-of-your-skirt cooking. I started Barak off with the basics of flour, water, yeast, and salt, and then he started requesting additions.

"More mix!"

"Okay, do you want more flour?"

"No! More mix!"

"Do you want to put in something else?"

"Yeah!"

"Okay, what should we put in?"

"Sugar?"

Sure, why not, here's a spoonful. Mix mix mix. "Butter?" Well, how about olive oil? That'll do nicely. Mix mix mix. And so on, through much of the kitchen cupboards. I did draw the line at the sprinkles, although a friend of mine says that that's fun for Purim.

The challah was surprisingly good, and Barak has a raisin muffin packed with his lunch tomorrow. Oh, and on the mixer front--does anyone have a Bosch? I just discovered that there is an option for a much larger stainless steel bowl with dough hook, and you can get the regular (plastic) bowl assembly separately--so I could use the big steel one for challah and parve stuff and the smaller one for milchigs. But I've never seen a Bosch mixer and I don't know anyone who has one, so if you have one and love/hate/are indifferent to it, please let me know.