One of the first recipes we attempted was Hearts of Jasmine Rice. Abigail just LOVES all things heart-shaped, and she really wanted to do this recipe from the first time she saw the photo.

One problem was, we didn't have any heart-shaped cutters. I looked in a lot of places, starting with grocery stores (where I picked up the gingerbread man cutter we ended up using), and finally finding a heart-shaped cutter about the right size in a set being sold at Crate and Barrel. The saleslady suggested that I drop by around Valentine's day to get a better set of heart-shaped cutters, but, in the end, it was a fun mission for father and daughter to share.

We started with the rice. There's lots of measuring and pouring to do. I chopped the parsley, and she happily tossed it in, one pinch at a time.

I set up Abigail on a stepstool next to the sink while I worked on the chicken and chopped the onion, garlic, and prepped the mushrooms. She works at a slow, determined pace, so it helps to balance the time, and not be in a rush. We started this recipe about 45 minutes earlier than I would usually start dinner.

I cut up the pepper into quarters and showed Abigail how to core it. Then I trimmed the pieces so they'd lay flat for Abigail to cut out hearts. We quickly discovered that it hurt to press on the cutter with her fingers, so I gave her a mug to use.

She was quite intent on making the hearts perfect. She watched me saute the hearts in with the rest of the dish, but the rice was still hot, so she wandered off and put on a jacket and hat in hopes of going out to play for a few minutes in the waning light and I kept the chicken warm in the oven. I called her in when the rice was cool enough and we molded the rice with the gingerbread man.


She was very happy with the result. She liked the rice and chicken and hearts, but hasn't warmed to mushrooms yet. I particularly liked the jasmine rice, which I hadn't had in years.