Lately, Ratatouille has been playing on repeat in my house, although my toddler calls it “Mousie Cooking”. He is particularly fascinated by the scenes where Remy puts “leaves” in the food, such as when he makes an omelette.
The other day, my toddler was helping me water my rosemary plant, and it occurred to me that it might be fun for him to see the leaves that he waters in action in the kitchen, just like Chef Remy.
I told him to pick some leaves off the rosemary plant, which delighted him of course, and we spent some time smelling the rosemary and talking about how Mousie uses leaves in his cooking.
The idea kind of took on a mind of its own from there.
It ended with me ordering a mouse plushie online, sewing a little apron for it, and making test omelettes at 10 pm the night before the big activity.
I wanted to let my toddler participate in the cooking from start to finish, but I’m not comfortable letting him near the stove just yet. So I decided our omelette should be made in the microwave. However, I also wanted him to taste a really good omelette after all his efforts!
So, prior to the activity, I made a little stovetop omelette cooked in butter with rosemary, salt, pepper and a splash of milk in 2 whisked eggs.
I presented my toddler with his own little chef, AKA mousie, donning his apron. Mousie sat on the counter watchfully as we messily cracked eggs in a bowl together, and I let my toddler dump in as much salt, pepper, and fresh rosemary as his little heart desired.
Side note, in my skillet omelette I used finely chopped fresh rosemary, but for the toddler made mixture I let him put in whole leaves as I thought this would be more exciting for him.
To make the microwave omelette we poured our heavily seasoned egg mix in a thin layer onto a plate and microwaved it 30 seconds at a time until it was cooked through.
The magic came when I put the microwaved omelette on the counter to fold it. I had hidden the skillet omelette under a towel on the back of the stove. This is the omelette I presented my toddler with to show him the result of his labors!
Finally, we took our omelette to the living room to eat while we watched Mousie Cooking, of course!
I am proud to say my toddler took one whole bite which he did chew and swallow, before requesting waffles. I was so proud he tried the omelette that I did oblige.
Later I finished the omelette myself while he happily munched on his waffles. It was delicious. Mousie did a great job!
—Ash
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