We began Jennifer's cook
night with good intentions. Early in the
afternoon, Jen and her helper friends did a beautiful job cutting the rack of
ribs and "painting" on the BBQ sauce.
However, when our out-of-town family arrived near the dinner hour, I became
caught up in the conversation and merriment. I didn't provide quite as much instruction and
foster as much cooking independence in Jennifer as I would have liked. Take two: This week on Jennifer's cook night, we invited her friend, Liz, to stay for taco dinner. Since Liz has Celiac disease and needs to avoid all trace of gluten, we made an adjustment from packaged Taco seasoning to a blend of our own spices. Experimenting with spices isn't my forte (yet!), so we used an on-line "recipe" for taco seasoning. I was surprised at how quick & easy it was.
We moved quickly through the
dinner prep since the girls were quite ravenous after an afternoon of playing and swimming. Nothing like hunger to motivate the cooks!
Dinner prep was pretty
simple. The girls cooked the meat, measured out and added spices. They also grated the cheese, cut up some
lettuce, heated the taco shells, and sliced the cantaloupe. It was ready in 30 minutes flat. Delicious!
I'm discovering how easy it
can be to completely blow-off the idea of teaching the kids how to cook. For me, it's sort of like wanting to keep a
clutter-free house. I love the idea but
struggle to achieve it.
With a concrete plan on the
calendar to have each child cook dinner on Monday nights throughout the summer,
I'm much more likely to follow through on the idea rather than toss it out the
window to flitter away in the summer breeze. I know it
will be worth it in the long run.
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