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Home > Blogs > Adventures in Motherhood > Archives > 2009 > July > 30 > Entry
Short cook takes awhile to warm to new idea
My sons really like to help me cook. Of course, part of this allure is due to the fact that they have only gotten to do it a couple of times.
It isn’t that I don’t want them to help me — not entirely, anyway. It usually just comes down to the fact that I know it will be faster if I do it myself; and I am always in the market for faster.
Regardless of our checkered tablecloth of a past, it is something I want to change. I want my kids to keep up their interest in cooking help them learn some valuable life skills at the same time.
So, to that end (and in an effort to shake up our dinner choices), I came up with a plan I just knew the guys would love — I would hand them a cookbook and let them each pick any meal they wanted and then help me cook it.
I was sure the younger one would like the plan the most. The last time he got to help with dinner he was in charge of the broccoli — he had fun and he was meticulous in taking off leaves and cutting them just right.
Since then, every time we have had broccoli, he would shake his head disapprovingly whenever he found a leaf I had missed on one of the pieces he was served.
So, I approached him first about my plan and told him he could pick any meal to cook.
“Any meal?” the 8-year-old asked, and I nodded. “Ice cream?”
“Ice cream really isn’t a meal,” I said.
He looked disappointed and even started to tear up.
“Are you crying?” I asked, somewhat incredulous.
He nodded and said he just didn’t think it would be that fun. This was followed by more tears and him saying, “I don’t even know why I’m crying!”
Fortunately, before I could give up on him and the plan, a much-needed shot of parental instinct kicked in. It is funny when you realize you know more about your kid than he knows about himself.
“I think I know why you’re crying,” I said. “I think it sounded fun at first, but then you couldn’t do it like you wanted so it made you sad.
“But, here, I will look through the cookbook with you, and we’ll see what we find. OK?”
“OK.”
The older one was much easier. When I asked him if he wanted to pick a meal, he said, “Sure!” and then hounded me for the cookbook while I was still talking his brother down from the ledge.
So I handed the 10-year-old the cookbook deemed safest: “1001 Best Short Easy Recipes.”
It didn’t take him long to zero in on the beef/pork section, and then quickly arrive at his selection: Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza.
He smiled big and licked his lips: “This is going to be good!”
Then it was the younger guy’s turn to pick. He spent most of his time in the seafood and poultry sections, and quickly ruled out anything with fewer than five ingredients.
“I want one that has more cooking in it,” he said — this from the kid who didn’t want to take part 20 minutes earlier.
And he finally made his choice: Shrimp Pasta Au Gratin.
“Is that French?” he asked.
“I think so,” I said, not knowing if that would be a pro or a con in his book.
Later, when making a list for the store, I noticed that the total produce needed to make both of their meals was one onion.
I wasn’t surprised.
We made the pizza Saturday and the pasta Sunday, and both turned out pretty well.
It made me see how much they needed these experiences to learn — “Why did they put those little tails on the shrimps?” — and it reminded me that I need to slow down a little to let them do just that.
Maybe next time, we’ll even make ice cream.
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