How Do I Teach My Child How to Cook When I Can Barely Boil Water?

I will start off by saying that I am not a great cook.  I can boil water and heat up something from a jar.  I don't know what half of the things are on cooking shows and I doubt I ever will.  I am a mom who taught herself enough basics to cook food so her kids wouldn't starve to death.  I can make Kraft Macaroni, hots dogs, prepackaged spaghetti, and few grown up meals.  So when my son asked me to teach him to cook, I panicked.  After much deliberation, I decided that I would use this opportunity to improve my skills and venture out into other areas of cooking.

To start off, I will admit that I am a picky eater myself, so I will not be trying extremely fancy things.  Mt my goal is give my son enough confidence and basic cooking skills that he will be able to cook a basic meal at college to impress his girlfriend, or avoid the embarrassment of only eating Ramen Noodles when he first moves out.

My mother added fuel to the fire by purchasing a kids cooking set complete with apron and chef's hat.  She is the baker in the family. I pretend that I can bake by making cakes from a box.  She had dreams of teaching my daughter how to cook, but those hopes were dashed when we found out that my daughter was allergic to eggs.  I won't venture into eggless recipes since I have decided that sour cream is not a workable substitute in cakes. With daughter out of the running to become the next great chef, the torch was handed over to my son.

My son, whom we will call Hunter, is a very loving and compassionate kid, but he tends to have focus issues.  I had to keep this in mind when deciding if I would teach him to cook.  I knew I had to set up the lesson in such a way that would keep him interested, while reducing the distractions.

On top of keeping myself one lesson ahead of him, and keeping him from walking away to play with the dogs, I had to figure out how to teach him how to cook.  Lord knows, I'm not going to break out the fancy pots and start pouring olive oil into a pan and stir frying something.  I had to start small and simple.  So I decided to start with the basic elements of food.  My theory is, if he can master each side or main component of a meal, he can expanded upon his knowledge later and get creative.

In our weekend adventures in trying not to burn the house down, we will work together to create edible and, hopefully, tasty foods that will build his confidence enough to be able to cook a meal for himself and others.  Since he too is a picky eater, I'm hoping that he will learn to try new foods and even enjoy them.