Skip to main content

Bon Appetit

I may have mentioned somewhere that I'm a little overtired.  Naturally, that led me to try something new.  I recruited our boys to pick dinner recipes and cook with me once a week.  Because cooking with a three and five-year-old takes no patience whatsoever.

The truth is, so long as I can handle a little extra mess and the fact that it may take a bit longer, the boys are pretty capable.  They look through their cookbook (I highly recommend the Sesame Street books - simple, healthy and actually pretty tasty recipes) and pick out the recipe they want to cook with me.  Then I set them up with tasks that are appropriate.

Our first round Fischer picked salad with hard boiled eggs and Sawyer picked a simple chicken Parmesan recipe.  It turns out that Fischer doesn't like salad and Sawyer doesn't like chicken Parmesan.  Go figure.  Round two was a little more successful.  Fischer picked banana pancakes and Sawyer picked sloppy joes and cream of "any old thing" soup (we chose broccoli).

The boys were able to wash produce, tear lettuce, peel veggies, and cut some of the "softer" veggies - I have a special tool for that.  They add ingredients that I have measured out and stir them.  They set the table.  These are all things I didn't take time to do with them when I was cooking before the babies.  Somehow, having fewer expectations of myself has led to us slowing down a bit and giving the boys more opportunities to shine.

I only cook with one of the boys at a time.  It is their opportunity for one-on-one time with me and their chance to get some positive reinforcement in this chaotic stage of life.  They enjoy it, I enjoy it...mostly.  Plus it's two fewer dinners I have to think of each week!  It's an activity I highly recommend.

Not to mention they are learning to cook....and their future wives can thank me later!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Little Bit Dicey

 This might be a little controversial.  I try to steer clear of such topics in this space, but it needs to be said.  Take it as you will, but know that it comes from a place of love, concern, and respect.  Here it is: there is a right  way to cut an onion. Now, I'm not saying this to try and get anyone's dander up.  I'm just saying it's a subject that needs to be addressed in kitchens across America.  There may be more than one right way to skin a cat (I can't say I've tested that), but the same does not hold true for onions.  Please, you can teach an old dog new tricks - learn how to properly cut an onion.  It will save you time, frustration, onion tears, and possibly a finger.     Now, since I'm still sitting here on blogspot like it's 2003, I'm not going to post any how-to videos, but I'll do the next best thing.  I'll paste a link right here .    Check it out.  Practice it.  Make it a habit.  T...
Post a Comment
Read more

Advanced Placement

 Not to brag or anything, but I think we are raising some very advanced children.  At two-years-of-age, our girls have already worked out the art of manipulation and deflection.  It's the antithesis of endearing.   They went missing the other day - the girls did.  That's never a good situation.  They were in the house, and I knew they were in the house, but I couldn't see or hear them.  Silence is the loudest alarm system.  Fischer took action and found them both in my bathroom.   "MOM!" I met them in the hall.  Carter was covered in clumps and blobs of hand cream. "Emi did it," was her unsolicited response.   "No," I told her.  "I think you  did it." That night I got ready for bed and pulled out my one "self-care" splurge - my face cream .  It was in my drawer where I always keep it.  The lid was screwed on.  And it was empty, wiped clean.  "EmmmeerrrrrSON!" Guilty.  They were both ...
2 comments
Read more

How to Tame a Toddler (and other myths in parenting)

I used to think I had started to hone my parenting skills.  Fischer was a much more mellow toddler than Sawyer, and I credited Ross and myself having the experience of one child under our belts.  It turns out, I was wrong.  Fischer was just a more mellow toddler .  That, or we have substantially regressed in our skills since having the twins.  It could be that. They are terrorists.   Nobody and nothing is off limits.   Our walls are covered in crayon and pencil.  Our new kitchen table has been branded with marker.  There is crayon on the windows.  My cupboards and drawers are empty.  My counter tops are full. They have figured out how to climb up on the table, and how to climb onto the windowsill and over the back of the couch, how to climb out of their cribs, and how to climb out of their clothes!       Our boys did not do these things.   I wasn't prepared.   I thought we had a plan...
Post a Comment
Read more