First "Cook Night" Results

Here's what our first scheduled "Cook Night" was like from both mom's and 13 year-old son's perspective.

Mom's version:

It's a good thing we set a date for our first "Cook Night"- the night chosen for David to learn how to prepare a favorite meal of his choice.   Without a concrete plan, it is less likely to happen.  Life is full, and it's just easier not to teach the kids to cook. 

I started thinking/talking about the event several days in advance.  First of all, I wanted to make sure we had the necessary ingredients.  Secondly, I wanted to prep David so his expectations were in line with the plan for him to cook.  Sure enough, when the day arrived, he balked, asking why we need to do this.  "So that you know how to cook when you go off to college" was my reply.  "We have lots of years left" he murmured, complaining that he would rather be hanging out with his friends.  I told him he needed to be ready at 5 pm to begin cooking, and we would eat at 6.  It would have been easier to give in to his whims, but I persevered.

We began promptly at 5 pm to prepare David's selection of Colorado Calzone.  Each calzone serves 4-6 people.  The plan was for me to make one calzone for our neighbor friends who are in the midst of packing up for a move, and David would make one for our family.  I demonstrated the process with my calzone, and then intentionally let David independently complete every step from beginning to end with his calzone.

It's really quite an easy process thanks to the use of some prepared foods.  We rolled out the loaf of thawed bread dough, placed the toppings of choice (we used cooked Isernio's Italian chicken sausage and grated cheese) on the dough, rolled it up, pinched it closed, brushed egg white over the top, and baked for 30 minutes.

The kitchen became a little (well, a lot) chaotic with incoming phone calls (exciting news- Kristen found a wedding dress!) and a last minute idea to make our Connell signature chocolate chip cookies.  The cookies flopped, which was my fault.  In haste I mindlessly used too little flour.  We took the opportunity to transform the pancake-flat cookies into home-made ice cream cookie sandwiches.  David and Dad assembled those while I made the salad and steamed broccoli.  I would have liked David to cook the veggies, but there's always next time.

After delivering the neighbor's meal, the four of us sat down to a scrumptious meal of calzone, steamed broccoli, and tossed mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, goat cheese, with a sprinkle of olive oil & raspberry balsamic vinegar. 

We all complimented David on how delicious the calzone tasted. (Except for Jennifer- she had braces put on that afternoon and was feeling too much pain to bite into food).  When I asked David how it was making calzone all by himself, he confidently responded with a proud smile, "It was a piece of cake!".  He was especially happy that he didn't have to do his dinner clean-up chore that night.  That was my suggestion - that whoever cooks on Monday Cook Night is relieved from doing their nightly chore.  Now that's a win-win!

[Special thanks to Dad for cleaning up the kitchen!]

David's version:

I got a steal on doing my chore- I didn't have to do my chore. ha ha.  Making calzones wasn't that bad because it's not actually that hard.  It was easier than I thought it would be. 

Here's how I did it.  First you take the Italian sausage, put it in the pan, and cook it.  Then you take the pepper, dried basil, and salt and mix it into the meat.  You take a rolling pin and roll out the dough.  When the meat is done, you lay it in a line on the dough, and put the cheese on the meat.  To fold it up you take the short ends and fold those in. Then take the long ends, fold them over and pinch it together. Then really fast you pick it up and put it on the pan.  You bake it in the oven for 30 minutes, look to see if it's done, yep it's done.  You slice it up and eat it.

It tasted great. It was easy, and yummy. I felt happy that I didn't have to do my chore.  I would do it again if I had nothing going on, and I didn't have to do my chore.