While cooking with kids can be a lot of fun, cooking with toddlers can be a real challenge.   They want to help out with everything, but don't really have the skills or coordination to do it.  So what's a good parent to do?

First, take a deep breath and calm down.  The object isn't to make an award-winning recipe, it's to make something to eat and spend some time together.  And it'll taste just fine no matter WHAT it looks like.  Perfection isn't the goal; fun is.

Second, it will be messy.  Flour will end up on clothes, egg will drip on the counter, and dough will fall on the floor.  Accept it.  It's not a big deal unless you make it one.

Third, let them do what they can.  They can't scoop out the flour and sugar, but they CAN pour it into the mixing bowl.  They can't mix the ingredients very well, but let them do a little first, then say "Okay, now it's my turn."  They can't really roll out the dough, but they can sprinkle flour on the board and the dough.  And there are few things little ones love to do more than use a cookie cutter!

Fourth,  pick the right recipe.  It should a) have relatively few ingredients, b) be easy to do, and c) have lots of things for little ones to do.  Abernethy Biscuits are great for toddlers in all of these respects.   They only have 7 ingredients, the steps are easy to do, and my toddler got to:

• Pour in the dry ingredients, whisk them together, chop up the butter with a spatula, mix it with his hands, beat the egg, knead the dough, flour the cutting board, help roll the dough, cut out the shapes, put them on the cookie sheet, and poke holes in the cookies.

He had a blast, it wasn't that much harder than making them myself, and in the end we both got to eat our cookies.  I'd call that a successful day of cooking!